Cold Water Bath

After a long silence, only one sentence remained in Freya’s mind:
“Damn it, someone got there first!”

Laton, having learned the truth, was equally stunned. Although he had heard from Aurelia’s memories the rumor that “Conde” had fallen in the Elven Forest, the red ribbon allowed Him to be absolutely certain:
the Descender named Conde had never truly died.

But where was he now? In what state?

Laton had no idea.

That was precisely why He wanted to borrow the power of the Goddess of Love to thoroughly investigate this Descender

He had never met.

After all, it was about finding a worthy husband for His own saintess.

Laton’s current attitude was rather like an old grandfather sizing up a prospective grandson-in-law.

“If even the Book of Names can’t find this person, what’s going on?”

At this moment, Laton’s ever-present grin finally turned serious.

“If the man named Conde in this memory fragment used his real name and did not disguise his appearance, then as long as his soul still remains on the Seraphis Continent, the **Book of Names** will definitely be able to locate him!”

Freya declared with absolute certainty. This was Her domain of expertise—how could She be wrong?

“As for the search returning completely blank, there are only two possibilities.
First: your saintess was deceived from the very beginning. He never used his real name or true appearance with her. A fabricated person naturally leaves no trace.                                                                                                                                                                                                            Second: this man did indeed die once, but it was not true death. His original body lost all vital signs, yet his soul reincarnated into a new vessel. That new vessel has a new name and a new appearance, so the original name and face naturally no longer match the current him.”

“Actually, based on My observation, the second possibility is by far the most likely.”

Freya had carefully examined Aurelia’s memory fragment. The man in the images had been sincere in expression and was a natural amputee. People like that rarely bother to disguise their true appearance or use false names.
Moreover, She was the Goddess of Love, supremely sensitive to emotion. How could She fail to sense genuine feeling in those scenes?

The man named Conde had not deceived the dragon saintess.
But he had died once.
As for what form he had taken now, what name he bore—without any clues, it was impossible to know.

Yet one thing was certain: the ability to directly intervene in reincarnation like this must belong to a god who governs life and the cycle of souls. Only gods of that domain possess the authority to control the rebirth of a Descender.

At this point, things became awkward.
To interfere with a fated pair, both parties’ identities must be confirmed.

Now one party’s identity was completely untraceable.
The two gods exchanged strange looks.

“So… can this still be done?”
Laton asked cautiously.

“It can be done. I can use the soul aura from the memory fragment to roughly lock onto a range. The interference will be far weaker than normal, and it will essentially create a temporary link, so… I’ll be very tired.”

As She spoke, Freya narrowed Her eyes at Laton and repeatedly rubbed Her thumb against Her forefinger.

“Add money!”

Laton accepted his fate and nodded.

“By the way, I’m curious. I’m doing this for the Descender’s faith power. What about you?”

“Ahem… I just… purely want to see what kind of creature would be born from the union of a Descender-turned-white-dragon and another Descender.”

Laton coughed twice, eyes darting everywhere, unable to hide the guilty excitement in his voice.

—

Today, Selina felt something was very wrong with her.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly was wrong.

The outdoor temperature was a comfortable 21 °C, the kind most pleasing to both humans and elves, yet the silver-haired girl walking across campus couldn’t help feeling her brain burning.

This wasn’t like being sick. Sickness affected the whole body.
This was more of a mental abnormality.

Besides, elves almost never fell ill. As darlings of nature, they were immune to most diseases from birth.

Her swaying steps looked worrying, yet today, by sheer coincidence, Ceris was stuck in elective classes and couldn’t accompany her, and Hestia had entered a critical recovery phase and fallen into deep slumber.

With no one to rely on, Selina’s remaining clarity told her the best thing to do was hurry back to the dorm and lie down.

She had a strong premonition: if she stayed outside any longer, something bad would definitely happen.

Her pale, delicate hand gently patted her flushed cheeks. The scorching heat on her palm kept reminding her to get back quickly. From her cherry-pink lips came hot, moist breaths, as if she had just finished intense exercise.

Her heart pounded wildly, as though something invisible and intangible was slowly rising within her.

“Nngh… I-I need to get back fast…”

The cool breeze felt like fire against her skin. Her vision blurred.

With a foggy mind, she relied on hazy memory to stumble toward the dorms. Sure enough, impaired vision led to a mistake. She mistook Building 13 for her own Building 10.

The girl staggered into the unfamiliar Building 13, fumbled along the wall to the third floor, left side, fourth room.

She tried to fish out her key from her skirt pocket, but by sheer coincidence, the left-side fourth room in Building 13 was vacant.

The door was unlocked.

In her muddled state, Selina didn’t think twice.

She wobbled inside, shut the door, and began stripping without restraint. Under the light, her originally snow-white skin flushed an unnatural red. The blood in her veins boiled as though some substance had been mixed in. From the depths of her heart, something called desire was rising…

Can’t stand it… body’s too hot… brain’s going to melt… hurry… hurry to the bathroom… cold shower…

That should help…

Selina fought desperately to stay conscious, but in her daze she completely failed to notice the closed bathroom door, the sound of running water, and the unfamiliar silhouette inside.

By sheer coincidence, inside the bathroom at that very moment, the little dragon girl soaking naked in ice-cold water was suffering the exact same symptoms.

Everything had been fine in the morning, but by afternoon her body had begun to overheat abnormally. Her whole face was flushed crimson, and even her lower body was experiencing phenomena that made a girl want to die of embarrassment.

The moment Aurelia realized something was wrong, she stripped and jumped into the tub, trying to stay clear-headed with cold water. Yet the chill did nothing to quench the abnormal boiling of her dragon blood. An inexplicable desire threatened to swallow her consciousness.

And just when her awareness was at its blurriest, the unlocked bathroom door was suddenly pushed open.

A unfamiliar figure leapt straight into the tub full of cold water, colliding skin-to-skin with the completely unprepared dragon girl.