Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough

Cecilia's stubborn attempt to salvage her last shred of dignity was clearly futile.

"Besides, even if I were to sign this contract, it would only restrict my physical body. The contract Professor Merrick offered wasn't a mental bond at all..."

"It doesn't matter, as long as the one next to me behaves himself," Rhodes said with a contemptuous laugh.

"Sign or not?"

"I won't sign..."

But no matter how much she resisted, it was no use; Rhodes' figure firmly blocked all her opportunities—

"sign."

Oops……

But there's no way to leave.

She bent down and picked up the contract.

The twisted emotions in her heart made her start to breathe erratically.

To put it bluntly, if she signs the contract, it means that her body will be accepted by Rhodes.

Although there are some issues with their identities, it's not bad to exchange one body for the chance to stay together for a long time, is it?

It just means that all the bad things my body does in the future will come back to haunt me...

Oh no, oh no, darling...

She raised her head and looked at Rhodes—

Rhodes' face was cold, but it couldn't hide his handsome features. His purple eyes were like an abyss, making it impossible for her to look away.

That's it.

There's nothing wrong with playing along with him.

She extended her fair finger and offered it to Rhodes, attempting to have him cut a bloody mark to establish the contract.

But then something strange happened.

Rod ignored her outstretched finger and calmly, with a smile, placed his hand below her abdomen.

"Press here, and the mark will appear here."

Cecilia was completely stunned.

This is...lower abdomen? No, this can't be happening, can it?

……

...

After locking Cecilia in the stone house, Rhodes returned to the ruins of the Duke's mansion.

We've had our fill of fun, but we still have serious business to attend to.

The battle was too rushed, and I was unable to fully express the emotions I wanted to convey or make things clear.

Even right after the battle, Ivina only told him the general outline of things.

There are still many things that need to be discussed and clarified together.

After all... he hadn't yet given her the reward for successfully entering adulthood.

Whether it's a promise or a protection, the goal is to help the girl truly let go of these worries and successfully escape this cage.

He walked straight to the room that Ivina had arranged.

At the same time, after his eyes swept over the area where people were cleaning up the mutilated bodies and tidying up, he felt as if his clothes were stained with blood.

It was clearly a brand new outfit that I had just changed into.

“It’s nothing more than that.” Rhodes remained silent. “If the witches don’t actively seek trouble, they won’t die, and neither will the humans.”

"But it's unrealistic for them not to actively cause trouble for humans."

Although he survived this battle safely and demonstrated the formidable abilities he displayed in his fourth promotion battle, he was still somewhat lacking.

He is still far from being as powerful as Merrick, and his current strength is even inferior to Lilith's.

What happens in bed doesn't matter, but combat prowess is crucial.

He wouldn't let Felicity suffer the same pain he did in his past life for failing to save the Linlank Empire.

At the same time, Rhodes casually opened his own panel—

[Rhodes]

[Upgrade Level: Three times]

【property】:

Physical Fitness: 254→410

[Agility]: 221 → 375

[Physical Constitution]: 237→399

[Spirit]: 260 → 420

[Faith Deity: Outer God (Unique) (Abnormal)]

[Talent: You can fuse the characteristics of all other divine species to create entirely new talent skills.]

[Currently possessing divine seeds: God of Soul Evolution, God of Sky-Soaring Dragons, God of Life's Radiance, and Spirit God]

[Current Skills - [Listen to the Dragon's Song of Life], [Dragon's Heart of Life], [Body of Creation], [Elf Dragon Sword], [Power of Life], [Heavenly Eye], [Creation Pendulum], [Dream Realm Chaos]]

When the brand-new panel was revealed to Rhodes, he was slightly taken aback.

"The attribute values ​​have increased this much?"

He was so engrossed in the battle that he hadn't noticed anything before, but now that he's come to his senses, he realizes how ridiculously strong he's become.

That makes sense. Killing so many witches who had been promoted three times and other scoundrels, plus sparring with a powerhouse who had been promoted four times, activated the potential of the attribute points he had accumulated, so it's only natural that he would grow so much.

If they had killed Sheila directly, they might have been able to break through to the fourth level of ascension and fuse with the next god seed.

But whatever.

Whether the next god-seed will truly attempt to fuse with the fallen demon god, or choose to follow the normal twelve gods, remains to be seen.

Therefore, once he finishes Merrick's next mission and the priests who came from the capital to pick him up arrive, it will be about time for him to break through and advance four more times.

As he was thinking this, he walked on without realizing it, unaware that Merrick had suddenly appeared in front of him—

“Hey.” Merrick patted him on the shoulder.

Merrick's voice brought Rhodes back to his senses, his eyes widening slightly: "Professor."

Merrick casually leaned against the windowsill, legs crossed.

"You have completed this mission brilliantly."

"Thank you for the compliment, Professor."

"Don't interrupt me." Merrick glanced at him coldly and continued,

"We have successfully wiped out a large witch team: one Saint, one who has been upgraded five times, and two who have been upgraded four times."

If you hadn't revealed the witch's purpose, perhaps most of the nobles would indeed have been killed or wounded. Therefore, I will report your achievements in this battle to the military.

In a couple of days, you can go to the military headquarters to collect some rewards. This is the reward I promised.

Here it is, the advancement item provided upon completion of the RPG quest—

Rhodes has long suffered from his low skill level, and now he can finally improve it.

In an instant, Merrick took out three [Linked Scrolls] from his pocket and handed them to Rhodes, saying, "Take these."

As Rhodes received the three parchment scrolls engraved with special inscriptions, his eyelids relaxed slightly.

The secret scroll is much more valuable than gold coins. Not to mention you can't buy it, even if you could, this one secret scroll that has only been upgraded twice is worth three months of Sheila's salary.

"Thank you, Professor Merrick."

"This matter is considered settled for now. We'll prepare to return to the academy tomorrow," Merrick replied coldly. "After all, the witch's matter is temporarily resolved, but new things have emerged."

"The situation at the academy suddenly deteriorated rapidly yesterday, and we don't have time to stay here idly."

"I thought it was just a small matter, but it seems that it is not."

Rod stroked his chin: "A marine species, what's wrong?"

"Didn't I mention it a couple of days ago? There were a few students in the academy who had been parasitized, but the number has increased tenfold in the last two days."

For this reason, panic has led to an increase in the number of students who have fallen into demonic possession.

The most troublesome thing is that powerful marine creatures have been appearing on the city's eastern coastline, attempting to land. You know what that means, right?

Rodben's calm expression froze again, and he frowned slightly.

He certainly understood what this meant, but the problem was—

This doesn't fit the plot...

They hadn't encountered a large-scale attack by marine species during their first playthrough.

After all, the fall of the Star God is still not a settled matter, so the marine species would never be so arrogant as to start a war directly.

Theoretically, it should be three months, no, it's two and a half months now, before other nations start trampling on the empire.

The only change brought about by the second playthrough is that everyone is reborn.

As Merrick had previously stated, the most likely reason why the marine species moved to the academy was because someone deliberately left their precious belongings inside.

In other words, among the reborn people, someone deliberately instigated the marine species' attack?

Who did this?

In an instant, Rhodes thought of Cecilia, after all, only she would be so idle as to do such a terrible thing, and she herself admitted that she had indeed been at the academy some time ago.

However, the clues are uncertain, and even if they go back to interrogate Cecilia now, it won't be of much use, since they will have to stay here for the night anyway.

So, I'll torture her again tomorrow.

Rhode certainly hoped it was Cecilia who did it; if it wasn't her, that would be the truly terrifying thing...