Hakune was completely unprepared for Macbeth's punch to the face.
Her slender body went flying, and the snowfall overhead immediately intensified as she landed and quickly regained her footing.
A red mark had appeared across her cheek along with a thin trace of blood, and genuine irritation entered her eyes.
This stone-faced bastard was unbelievably difficult to deal with.
The next instant, Hakune's kimono burst apart.
A thin suit of ice formed directly over her skin, clinging tightly to her figure while exposing far more than her previous outfit had.
Even the blue flower pinned in her hair crystallized into frozen petals.
Macbeth remained utterly unmoved.
He raised his fist and drove it straight toward her chest without the slightest intention of going easy on her.
Hakune froze the spatial distortions he created while continuing to weave her ice illusions around his mind, subtly tempting him toward whatever desires lay deepest within him.
It accomplished absolutely nothing.
Macbeth seemed to possess no vulnerable longing at all. His mind was as immovable as granite, and every attack he launched looked like it was genuinely intended to kill her.
Hakune's power was almost completely ineffective against someone like him.
Macbeth had already spent years drowning in fantasies of a better life.
In countless dreams, he had seen every peaceful future he could possibly wish for.
What he genuinely desired now was something far simpler.
Strength.
The strength to fight so that the peaceful life he finally possessed could continue for years to come.
'Something's wrong… Did my power stop working?'
Hakune retreated beneath Macbeth's relentless assault, growing increasingly suspicious.
Then she glanced toward the other side of the battlefield.
Her doubts immediately disappeared.
The illusion hadn't failed.
This man was simply emotionally made of stone.
Following Hakune's gaze revealed Ultear kneeling in the snow, eyes unfocused and cheeks flushed bright red as she murmured something under her breath.
"Ultear!"
Macbeth remained absurdly calm even in the middle of battle.
"Wake up! There's something wrong with this ice magic!"
Ultear gave no response.
Instead, she cupped her burning cheeks with both hands and whispered to herself in a voice barely louder than the snowfall.
"That hurt so much…"
Her expression grew even more dazed.
"Ankh…"
Hakune: "...?!"
Macbeth: "..."
Ankh, watching remotely: "...WHAT?!"
Even Selene slowly turned and gave the man beside her an extremely strange look.
Then, with absolutely no restraint, she asked,
"What exactly did you train that woman into?"
For once, Ankh's face actually turned red.
And he had no defense.
Back when Ultear's allegiance had still been uncertain, Ankh's methods of psychologically breaking down her hostility had admittedly been rather severe.
He had been far more reckless back then too, with little sense of moderation.
Apparently, he had left behind certain… hidden side effects.
Which was especially ridiculous considering that Ultear normally presented herself as a perfectly composed, mature, and alluring woman.
"Desire is one of the most important branches of emotion."
Selene's smile became increasingly meaningful.
"Looking at this, for a god supposedly pursuing emotions, you seem to have invested a suspicious amount of your experience into the desire category."
Ankh still couldn't come up with a counterargument.
Selene continued teasing him.
"I've seen plenty of this among dragons. As long as you're strong enough to handle everyone involved and keep your household under control, things like shame, rules, and social expectations are meaningless restraints."
"...I'll keep that wisdom in mind."
After thinking for several seconds, that was the only response Ankh could manage.
His expression became even stranger when he realized the dragon lecturing him about abandoning shame was practically nestled against his chest.
Selene noticed where he was looking.
Her enchanting pink eyes gleamed, and a dangerously beautiful smile curved across her lips.
"That's simply how dragons are."
"When it comes to building a family, strength decides everything."
She rested comfortably against the edge of the pool.
"Four hundred years ago, my husband was a powerful Dragon King."
Ankh blinked.
This was the first time Selene had ever spoken about her life four centuries earlier.
A strangely complicated feeling surfaced inside him.
So she had actually been married.
That made their current posture considerably more questionable.
'Sorry, Dragon King bro. Whoever you were.'
Curiosity quickly won out.
"What happened after that?"
Selene leaned against him and gazed toward the brilliant moon hanging above the hot spring.
"Then Acnologia began slaughtering dragons."
Her voice remained calm.
"I had only just received my divine inheritance at the time and was finally preparing to stop being the obedient one in the household."
A faintly mocking smile appeared on her lips.
"Then that idiot decided he was strong enough to challenge the Black Dragon."
"He died so thoroughly there wasn't even anything left to bury."
Ankh remained silent.
Selene continued,
"I was never much of a battle fanatic, so I followed the dragons fleeing Ishgar and eventually reached Guiltina."
"At first, I hated humans deeply and caused plenty of disasters because of it."
She gave a soft, almost sensual hum as she stretched lazily in the hot spring, the movement sending ripples across the water.
"But now?"
Selene smiled with complete satisfaction.
"I'm absolutely certain the age of dragons is over."
"From now on, I'd much rather live as a wealthy, spoiled woman, surrounded by good wine, hot springs, beautiful things, and every luxury humans have invented."
"I want to live as one of them."
Ankh nodded slowly.
Thinking about the centuries of bloodshed between dragons and humanity, he sighed.
"That kind of history doesn't really have a clean right or wrong anymore."
"If you genuinely want to live among humans, it probably won't be easy."
Selene laughed with her usual carefree arrogance.
"Humans hate me for the same reason I once hated them."
"I'm not asking them to suddenly forgive everything."
"All I can do is make sure that from now on, I behave myself and enjoy my own peaceful little life."
Then she suddenly remembered something.
Selene elbowed Ankh lightly in the chest.
"And speaking of that, if you're not too busy, hurry up and fulfill your promise."
"Turn me into a human."
Ankh nodded.
"Fine. Once I've studied the process properly, I'll try altering your fundamental life structure."
Selene finally looked satisfied.
Then, as though discussing something completely ordinary, she added,
"And save me a place in your house."
Ankh stared at her.
Selene continued without missing a beat.
"Once I give up my power and become human, plenty of old enemies will probably come looking for revenge."
"To maintain my current standard of living, I'll just move into your house and sell myself for protection."
Ankh's expression went blank.
"...What kind of logic is that?!"
Selene didn't even open her eyes.
She shifted comfortably beneath the water, relaxed her entire body, and leaned even more heavily against him.
"What? Are you bothered because I've been with someone before?"
She sounded genuinely amused.
"There's nothing I can do about that. He's been dead for four hundred years."
"I'm basically a widowed dragon remarrying."
Her smile turned wicked.
"Besides, don't you think that makes it more exciting?"
"STOP TALKING!"
"Relax. I'm not nearly as promiscuous as humans imagine dragons are."
Selene continued shamelessly.
"And one more woman won't make much difference to you. Besides, compared with those young girls, I definitely know more. You just need to give me a little—"
"PLEASE STOP EXPLAINING!"
The conversation had completely derailed.
Seeing it rapidly accelerating toward territory that absolutely did not need to be discussed in detail, Ankh hurriedly cut off the increasingly shameless dragoness.
Selene's view of romance was frighteningly practical.
She had lived for centuries, knew exactly what she wanted, and once she decided on something, pursued it with terrifying directness.
For someone soft-hearted enough to indulge her, that made her extremely difficult to handle.
Ankh and Selene continued bickering, with the increasingly filthy-minded dragon dragging the conversation lower and lower, when the door suddenly slid open.
One of Selene's attendants hurried inside.
"Selene-sama!"
Her expression was anxious.
"Those Dragon Slayers are causing trouble at the foot of the mountain again!"