“Hup.”

Maria snapped to her senses.

No, that’s not right. The protagonists were making a fuss about liking each other. What fortune and glory would she gain by eavesdropping?

Maria carefully set down the apple pie next to the research room door. Then she moved her steps past the research room.

‘What is this smell?’

But from earlier, a strange smell had started wafting from somewhere.

It was an odd smell. A smell that made her nose tingle.

The scent strangely stimulated her appetite, like passing by a bakery.

Maria stood before the door without realizing it, drawn by the smell like magic.

Unlike before, the scent had grown stronger. It intensified more than earlier, and as time passed, her head grew increasingly dizzy.

Maria opened the door without realizing it.

“Hup.”

Was this magic? Had she really been enchanted?

Her hands and feet wouldn’t move as she wished. Maria kept following the strangely intensifying scent.

Growing increasingly strange, Maria looked around. But the room called Luca’s research lab was an absolute mess.

“This…… all of this……?”

Notes scattered everywhere, broken glass bottles, disheveled books and strange tools.

Something was wrong. Though she thought she should leave for the original plot to proceed, Maria couldn’t move at all.

“Ugh…… ungh……”

Then a pained groan flowed from somewhere. Maria’s brain froze at the voice she heard in that moment.

“Hah…… haah…… med…… medicine……”

It was an ominous sound. Someone suffering. While she continued debating whether to go further, she heard broken breathing once more.

‘Maria, you’re crazy!!! You can’t go any further!!’

Her reason clearly warned her. But at the groan that sounded like someone dying, Maria’s feet moved on their own.

Maria hurried deeper into the research lab.

The research lab wasn’t a normal size. Perhaps the interior had been artificially altered with magic—it was extremely spacious. Not a room but like a massive library. In such a wide space, sound surely wouldn’t reach outside. Her puzzlement was brief. Maria discovered Luca collapsed and suffering.

“……Haa ……haa……”

His breathing was rough. Luca looked ready to lose consciousness at any moment.

“H-hey!! Get a hold of yourself, Luca!!”

Maria definitely tried to approach. But she hesitated because of the strange current of light surrounding his body.

‘If…… if I touch this, won’t my life really be over?’

Until just now, she’d definitely thought this was the highlight scene between Luca and Claude. But where had Claude gone, leaving Luca alone suffering and clutching his chest?

In the original, Claude had saved Luca by sharing his energy when Luca lost consciousness from rampaging mana. Claude the Sword Master revealed his desires as they were while giving his aura to Luca.

The content that came with their love scene flashed through her mind. It was a very important part where Luca became dependent on Claude.

But that wasn’t what mattered to Maria right now.

‘So where the h*ll did that Claude go?!’

The light surrounding Luca took on a strange violet hue as it circled his body. The light seemed to be healing him, but as it flowed out taking on an increasingly dark color, Luca suffered more.

A strangely sweet and stimulating fragrance came from around him. This smell she’d been catching since earlier seemed to be a scent Luca was emitting.

“……Cough……”

While Maria hesitated, Luca suddenly coughed up dark red blood.

‘Oh, what do I do?’

Blood of an ominous color flowed down Luca’s jawline.

Watching the gradually soaking cravat, Maria’s hands grew clammy with cold sweat. The moment she stepped back thinking she should call someone to quickly resolve this situation, her body stopped like magic.

Her urgent heart gradually calmed, and all her nerves focused on the stimulating scent he emitted. She seemed to lose her senses to the mysterious mana beckoning her to come here.

But Maria came to her senses at the increasingly reddening cravat and finally ran to Luca and lifted him up.

“Luca!! Luca!!”

Cancel what she said about the obsessive male lead. An obsessive male lead wouldn’t have left Luca alone in the first place.

Luca, not in his right mind, was soaked from head to his entire body. His pupils were dilated, and heat radiated from his face. When she placed her hand on his sweat-drenched forehead, it was hot.

When Maria lifted Luca, the current of light gradually expanded. That current of light spread out stealthily and scattered in the air.

‘Isn’t this going to cause big trouble?’

Distracted by his serious condition, Maria didn’t notice where the current of light surrounding him moved.

The scattered current of light gradually gathered again, seemingly searching for someone.

The original definitely wasn’t like this.

With Claude the supplier sharing his aura, Luca should have regained his strength, and the two’s 19+ scene should have followed.

“Med…… medicine……”

Luca gripped Maria’s collar strongly. His face, twisted in pain, showed his condition.

“Medicine? What medicine? Where’s the medicine, Luca!!!”

Breathing raggedly, Luca didn’t seem to hear Maria’s words.

Maria carefully laid Luca down, then hurriedly searched for medicine.

Around Luca’s chaotic surroundings, she couldn’t find anything resembling medicine.

“Th-this can’t be……”

Claude, who should have saved him according to the original, showed no sign even though Luca was in such a critical situation. He was absolutely needed. Claude had to appear and share his aura with Luca.

Maria approached Luca again.

If Claude didn’t appear now, she’d rather take him to people.

Maria tried to carry Luca on her back. But her body swayed at his heavier-than-expected weight.

After swaying several times, Maria squeezed out all her strength and dragged Luca just a little.

Though there was still a long way to go before leaving the research lab, she slowly dragged Luca. But in that moment, unable to bear Luca’s weight as he convulsed, Maria tumbled down.

“……Ugh.”

Luca’s weight added to Maria as she collapsed on the floor.

“……Ha.”

For stepping forward to help unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, the current of light wandering between Luca and Maria gradually approached them both.

Only then did Maria realize.

‘I’m screwed.’

The strange current of light expanded its range and surrounded him and her. Maria tried to push him away, but Luca with his limp body wouldn’t budge. Luca’s arm pressed down heavily on Maria.

The current of light gradually picked up speed and grew rapidly. Then it began gathering around Maria.

“Lu, Luca. Move aside.”

“……Ungh……”

“I said move aside, Luca!!!”

She couldn’t hear Luca’s voice speaking in fragments. The current of light gradually gathering around Maria now aggressively flowed into her body.

“Hup!!!”

Though Luca’s mana was clearly being absorbed into her body, strangely her stamina was gradually being drained.

Strength slowly left her. Instead, the mana beginning to fill her body gradually made her body hot.

“……Ah.”

Maria clenched her fist without realizing it. The sensation felt when the mana entered was excessively chilling. She was simultaneously enveloped in a hazy feeling.

She knew this sensation, what this feeling was.

“……Aah.”

She felt a suggestive sensation. Goosebumps rose all over her body and all her senses became sensitive.

‘I’m screwed.’

This feeling definitely wasn’t something she should be experiencing.

She seemed to understand why Claude in the original embraced Luca while sharing his aura.

“Lucaa……”

D*mn it, d*mn it all. The mana from Luca entering Maria’s body seemed to whisper. To take him, that he would soon become hers.

Her heart pounded ready to burst and even her breathing quickened. At Luca’s enchanting fragrance continuously flowing in, Maria clenched her fist on the hand reaching for Luca without realizing it.

The feeling tickling her whole body.

To no longer be bewitched by it, Maria half-raised her body.

Then their gazes met.

Luca’s ruined face was soaked with sweat, and his eyes were even redder. Her gaze was stolen by his lips parted moistly and exhaling rough breaths.

‘This isn’t right, it’s not.’

Maria exerted all her patience to suppress her desire.

Get a grip, Maria Certi.

The other person was none other than Luca. The person whose life she’d ruined by poisoning him. She shouldn’t look at him with such eyes.

‘Oh God, Buddha, Allah……’

She really needed to draw on any god’s patience right now.

This wasn’t a desire permitted to her. Right now, this should be Claude’s place, not hers. So she absolutely, absolutely couldn’t fall for that temptation.

Contrary to her desperate wish, this time Luca moved first.

He sat up.

Unable to endure any longer, he gripped Maria’s collar. Though it looked like a violent action, his hand trembled as if trying to control his strength.

Maria’s pink eyes watched his actions one by one.

His hand, pale white enough to show veins, gripped Maria’s clothes as if tearing them. Finally Luca raised his head and pleaded desperately.

“……Sa…… save…… me……”

His blue eyes looked blurred with tears. At the sight of him ready to shed tears at any moment, Maria placed her hand on his cheek.

“……Ugh.”

A warm teardrop flowed down his cheek to Maria’s fingers. She felt his cheek’s temperature at her fingertips. A temperature hot like a fireball.

Why?

He looked so pitiful suffering to death. Maria wiped away his tears as he suffered. Then she briefly kissed his tear-shedding eyes. It was truly an unconscious action.

“……Ha.”

Luca was the one who let out a short moan. At his low voice, goosebumps rose enough to chill the back of her neck.

Slightly flustered, Maria removed her hand that had been holding his face. As Maria’s hand fell, it slightly brushed Luca’s ear. Oh no—startled, Maria widened her eyes and looked at Luca.

In that moment, Luca’s eyes changed. The eyes that had been pleading in agony until just now regained their original light.

He spat out profanity with his pretty mouth and licked his lips like someone thirsty.

“Ah!”

Before Maria could say anything, Luca placed her on his lap.

“Luca! Wh-what are you doing?”

‘D*mn it.’

Luca gritted his teeth. His hazy mind gradually returned. But strangely, as his mind returned, an uncontrollable impulse kept trying to burst out.

<Hurry, hurry! Kiss Maria.>

The mana was going berserk.

With rampaging mana, there should be pain of limbs being torn throughout his body, but more than pain, only Maria’s scent filled him.

“……Unless I’ve gone mad.”

This wasn’t what Luca had expected at all. Luca’s face twisted as much as it could twist.

“Right now……it’s because of the mana. That’s why you’re so confused.”

What was this woman saying? Wasn’t she babbling as if she knew all about the currently rampaging mana?

Maria shouldn’t have been here in the first place.

Rather, if someone other than Maria Certi had been here at this moment, it would have tormented him less.

His shirt was already soaked with sweat, clinging to his lower back.

“I-I’m sorry, Luca.”

The woman before him rolled her eyes here and there with a gaze soaked in fear, not knowing what she was saying.

If it was going to be like this, she shouldn’t have provoked him in the first place.

“Please put me down……”

Maria looked anxious like someone who knew what would happen next. She seemed to know it was already difficult to turn back.

Yet she didn’t seem to have completely abandoned hope that he might let her go. If he just pushed away someone like Maria Certi right now as she wished, it would be over, but his body wouldn’t move easily.