Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 329 Whose Memories
Carrying a still-glowing paint bucket and a paintbrush that was as big as a small pillar but not heavy at all, the Bathing Goddess ran swiftly through the Elson mansion.

Only when they got closer did the Bathing Goddesses realize once again just how enormous their opponent was.

The darkness emanating from the giant bird had already completely covered the entire Elson mansion, turning it into a silent place like a dead zone.

Until a white light shone brightly in the rather murky darkness, displaying dazzling color.

"Eh--?"

The goddess of bathing was stunned.

She didn't even recognize the glowing figure at first. It was only through the afterimages left behind by the figure as it attacked the giant bird, resembling a series of disintegrating movements, that she finally realized it must be Millie.

The feeling of being teammates with Millie is, in some ways, quite similar to the feeling of being teammates with Ritas.

Both of them will suddenly unleash power far beyond what the Goddess of Bath had ever known.

The difference is that Ritas is more like a bottomless pocket. That pocket always contains many things, but Ritas makes others mistakenly believe it's empty.

As for Millie, it's that if you just shift your gaze away from her for a moment, she will unknowingly step into a whole new realm.

On the battlefield where thunder roared, the Bathing Goddess could only linger on the periphery, unsure whether she should venture in.

Not only that, the giant bird soon flew into the air, almost as if it were fleeing.

Looking up at the enormous shadow in the sky that seemed to obscure everything, the Goddess of Bathing felt utterly powerless.

Should I draw some wings on myself first?

As strange ideas surfaced in the mind of the goddess of bathing.

On the other side, the lightning on Millie's body suddenly intensified to its extreme.

A thunderclap boomed in the sky diagonally above the giant bird.

Even though it was a thunderbolt that tore through the sky, it still looked like a thin needle against the backdrop of the giant bird's enormous body.

But the next moment, from the point where that tiny bolt of lightning struck, a dazzling flash of light, seemingly capable of annihilating everything, instantly spread out and filled the entire sky.

The sky, which had been shrouded by the giant bird, was now completely illuminated.

"."

Staring blankly upwards, the goddess of the bath couldn't help but open her mouth into an "oh" shape.

Immediately, with a loud thud, the object falling from the sky emitted black smoke and a pungent smell of burning charcoal, kicking up a cloud of dust. It landed right in front of the Bathing Goddess.

"Ok?"

Overwhelmed by surprise, the bath goddess, who felt like she was about to become demented, moved haltingly and picked up her large paintbrush a few steps late.

It's already been delivered to my lips, so what's there to say?

"M! V! P——!!!"

The tip of the paintbrush was covered with fluorescent white paint, and the goddess of the bath applied its rightful color to the body of the "carrier pigeon".

Oops.

This was the thought that came to Millie's mind as she fell from the sky after unleashing her desperate sword strike.

She had thought that the unfinished version of the desperate sword strike, which was only triggered through special means, would not cause a severe backlash to her body like the completed version.

But thinking about it in reality, it's possible that the backlash might be even greater precisely because it's not perfect yet!
If Millie hadn't been able to clearly sense the location of her soul, she would have suspected that her soul had been completely drained by the previous attack.

Only able to barely muster some of the Holy Sword's power, Millie landed rather awkwardly, her forehead beaded with sweat as she had previously relied on instinct.

She knew that her previous attack was not enough to completely defeat her opponent.

Therefore, all we can see now is which side is recovering faster.

No wonder, even the Sword Saint Roland always mocked Elson-style swordsmanship.

This is truly an extreme swordsmanship technique that, whether it crushes the opponent in one blow or fails to achieve its goal, will have endless consequences.

No. We can't wait. We can't entrust such a life-or-death matter to factors we can't even be sure of.

Therefore, another blow must be delivered.

It's certainly possible if we pay a higher price, allowing the soul to drive the nearly immobile body.
Millie, supporting herself on the ground in a half-squatting position, struggled to lift her face and stare at the spot where the giant bird had fallen.

then
She saw something that looked like it was dancing, wildly swinging a large paintbrush it had gotten from somewhere, shouting strange words she couldn't understand, and continuously painting the giant bird into a white bathing goddess.

"Hahahaha"

Suddenly, as if the last bit of strength had been drained from her body, Millie simply lay down on the ground, then rolled over and looked up at the brilliant starry sky, bursting into laughter.

The Goddess of Bath felt that Millie always managed to do things beyond her imagination. But wasn't the Goddess of Bath also capable of bringing Millie surprises or shocks?
"What a masterpiece, Sister Yu!"

Such was the sentiment expressed.

Millie, sensing that there would be no more turmoil that night, slowly closed her eyes.

As the goddess's paintbrush continued to dance, the giant bird, dyed fluorescent white, kept changing color and shrinking.

Finally, it returned to a shape similar to a normal Gugu bird, and the black mist around it completely dissipated.

After confirming several times that there would be no more problems, and even turning the paint bucket upside down and placing it directly on the "carrier pigeon," the Bath Goddess breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from her forehead, looked around for a while, and then ran to meet up with Millie and Little Ritas.

Originally, the goddess of bathing was planning to be quite proud and take credit for herself.

Millie, who was lying on the ground in a spread-eagle position, was actually alright because of the severe internal injuries.

But when she saw Little Ritas, whose body was now only half-formed and whose cross-section was completely crystallized, all the excitement and joy in the goddess of bathing's heart vanished.

"Little Li, what's this?"

"Don't worry. I've done the calculations. So, it won't trigger a cycle of reincarnation and cause you any trouble."

With his head tilted to the side, leaning against a piece of broken wall from some unknown building, Little Ritas, seemingly too weak even to lift his head, spoke weakly.

"That's not what I'm worried about. You, you, you, you..."

The goddess pressed her chest, trying to calm herself down, even though she couldn't speak properly.

Ritas was still the Ritas she knew.

They have extremely low self-priority and regard everything related to themselves as a convenient bargaining chip to solve problems.

"Isn't there a better way? Is this the only option?"

She reached out her hand, but felt that Little Ritas might shatter at the slightest touch, so she tremblingly placed her hand between the two of them. The goddess asked with a heavy heart.

"No."

Even as a child, the usually meticulous Ritas unusually denied all possibilities.

"So, don't be clever and do anything pointless. Even if you trigger a loop now, it will probably only take you back to a few minutes ago, to the point where you successfully defeated the area boss's node."

"Isn't it just 'probably'?"

Not far away, Millie slowly sat up.
"Ah~ Ah, it seems like it won't be able to recover to its original state in less than ten days to half a month. I don't want to lie in a hospital bed for so long. So, let's start over, Sister Yu. Isn't the golden apple meant for times like this?"

"Mmm!" The goddess of bathing nodded repeatedly, then looked at little Ritas with hopeful eyes.

"This time, I promise we can do even better! And I've really memorized all those words you wrote. So, trust us this once, okay?"

"you."

Little Ritas remained silent for a moment.
"Do you realize that what you're asking right now is, 'We want to kill you, do you agree?'"

Although that's what he said, Little Ritas, clearly touched by the sincerity of the two, simply sighed softly.
"Anyway, the decision is in your hands."

"Don't worry! I... uh, Millie definitely won't hurt you!"

"Eh—? Why me! I don't want to do this kind of thing. Come to think of it, wouldn't it have the same effect if you just jumped into any lake, Yu-jie? Yu-jie, you go!"

"Millie, what are you saying! I don't remember raising you into a child like this!"

For a moment, a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere filled the room.

If you didn't listen to what they were saying, you would never imagine that they were talking about who among them they wanted to get back at.
And just as the discussion reached its final point, for some reason, it turned into a situation where Little Ritas, who was the most opposed to initiating the cycle, needed to find a way to break himself apart.

A figure, as if sleepwalking, staggered to the edge of the battlefield.

"What exactly is this place?"

Staring blankly at the mess around her, Xia Luoluo's face showed a look of dazedness and helplessness.

Because she was on the edge of the battlefield, the first thing Charlotte saw was the "carrier pigeon" that was about to drown in the white paint.

She rushed forward and reached out to the pet she had personally hatched, which she didn't know why it was there or why it had been made into this state.

And at the very moment her fingertips touched the carrier pigeon.

A great white light shone.

Of the other three who wanted to speak up to stop it but it was too late, only Millie, whose understanding of the soul was becoming clearer, witnessed this scene.

A pure white soul emerged from the carrier pigeon.

Furthermore, this pure white soul directly entered Xia Luoluo's body without the slightest rejection, and merged with her as one.

In an instant, the white light began to spread widely, encompassing Millie and the Goddess of Bath as well.

Opening her eyes, the goddess of bathing saw a world with a somewhat illusory quality, filled with a sense of haziness and fading.

Perhaps it was because she was used to it, or perhaps it was because the scene before her was filled with an inexplicable sense of gentleness. Therefore, even when faced with a situation beyond common sense, the Goddess of Bath wasn't too panicked. She simply looked around immediately, searching for her teammates!
"Millie!"

Soon, the goddess of the bath found Millie and hugged her without saying a word.

"Calm down, calm down, Sister Yu."

Realizing they'd been dragged into a new situation, a flustered Millie tried to calm the other woman down. Then, she began to explain.

"What we're experiencing now is most likely harmless to us. Because this is neither the real world nor the story world of a bedtime story. Rather, it's a world of memories existing within someone's heart."

Millie spoke as she showed the goddess of the bath.

They were now in a garden-like place, but neither of them could actually touch any of the scenery in the garden.

Even though this world is the true illusion, the actual feeling it evokes is that the two of them are like an illusion themselves, unable to touch anything in this world.

"And that's precisely why what binds our behavior is merely our common sense. In reality, we can be like this."

"Ooooooh!"

The goddess of the bath was startled by Millie's sudden action.

Because Millie carried her and flew to a height of several stories above the ground.

Without wings or a foothold, Millie simply floated freely in the air.

"Besides, we can probably leave whenever we want, whenever we don't want to continue watching this memory."

Millie pointed into the distance.

The goddess of bathing saw that this world actually had distinct "edges".

After Millie's explanations, the goddess of the bath was reassured and understood her situation.

"Wow, it's amazing you know all this!"

“Because I had encountered something similar before. Also, at the level of the ‘soul,’ the essence of this world of memories is actually quite easy to explore. Or rather, when my body, which had previously been almost immobile, suddenly became light and free, I became aware of many things.”

Millie continued, as she landed back on the ground with the goddess of the bath.

"Tsk, I feel like you're becoming more and more like a charlatan."

Millie scratched her head in response to the goddess's assessment.

This is perhaps something that is unavoidable for those who touch the realm of the soul.

On a spiritual level, she can see and feel more things. But almost everything is beyond words, and cannot be understood by others in the same way.

So, in the end, it leads to this: even though she's nearby, she feels as if she's in a different world, a different dimension, from the people around her.

After having these feelings, Millie's perception of the mysterious teacher Seren was completely different from before.

Rather than saying she looked strange, it's more accurate to say she looked fairly normal.

"Huh? Where's Xiao Li? He was right next to me before, how come he disappeared after he went into the memory world?"

The goddess of the bath, now completely calm, began searching for Little Ritas.

"He shouldn't be able to get in. Because Sister Yu should have already sensed that he's different from us."

"Oh! Oh, I see."

The goddess stopped looking around, a strange, unpleasant feeling welling up inside her that she had been deliberately ignoring.

Little Ritas cannot see the black mist, does not need the golden apple to reincarnate, and will not retain memories from the previous timeline.
No, or rather, there's no need for this evidence at all; something was obvious from the start.

Unlike the Bathing Goddess and Millie from the "real" world, Little Ritas is merely Little Ritas from the "fairy tale" world.

"So, these scenes, like those from an old movie, are fragments of memories from other people who were arrested with us?"

"Hmm, shall we continue watching? After all, it's that person's memory, and I don't really feel like there's anything worth watching."

Millie said with little interest.

"Since we're already here, and she's been tortured so badly before, we definitely have to pry into her privacy! And, even if there's nothing worth seeing, you might actually gasp in surprise."

"The goddess of the bath said with a smile. Then she and Millie turned their gaze toward the direction from which a child's innocent voice was coming."

"Ritas! You stay right down here! Once I climb up, I'll pick some fruit from the tree and throw it at you! Don't run, and don't stray too far, stay right under the tree, preferably directly under this branch. I said no running!!!"

On a fruit tree, a voice that had long since abandoned intellect resounded.

Without a doubt, this is Charlotte Elson's world of memories.

(End of this chapter)