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Now. When I said bully, I didn’t mean anything naughty by that… absolutely not! After all, we now had a couple of unwelcome guests: Reyage and Paliseth.

“Your holiness, are you alright?”

Paliseth barely stepped into the room before she immediately leapt in my direction. Ignoring the visibly at a loss Jezsere near me, she reached out and pulled me towards her, right into a rubbing embrace.

I say, how about you stop showing off those mountains of yours for once… I’ll admit, they are big, but they are also suffocating me right now. Also, I’m still a bonafide man here! Why are you acting so brazenly in front of me? I might just… just… fine. At least my soul is that of a man’s!

If it wasn’t for your kids and Solar-sama, I would have already… muffled sounds I… I swear! Just because my pee pee isn’t here doesn’t mean you can just bully me…

“Master… master’s body is convulsing…”

“Mother… cease and desist…” I could vaguely make out Reyage’s panicked pleading from within the depths of bouncy hell. “You’re hugging his holiness too tightly, he can’t breath…”

After a fair bit of flailing later, I was finally allowed to breath once more. The first thing I did then was to distance myself from Paliseth, scampering all the way to the safety of Jezsere’s back.

“Back off, don’t come a step closer!” I even threw her a ‘scram’ look to make my point even clearer. “That’s right, just like that, stay the right heck away from me. Also, I forbid you from pointing those deadly weapons in my face again… I still want to live for a long time…”

“Alright.” Paliseth cheekily smiled as she said that. Clearly my warning had no effect on her.

However, there was nothing I could do about this nonchalance of hers. This centuries old hag definitely knew that I didn’t truly dislike her chest rubbing, that’s why she always opened up with that move. Speaking of moves… that bounciness only gets better the more she does it, like an acquired taste… but I definitely do not want to suffer death by bouncy suffocation! At least give me some warning before you do that.

Putting aside the slightly smug Paliseth for now, I turned my attention towards Reyage. “How’s your injuries, Reyage?”

“They are fine now, Reyage is grateful for your holiness’s concern.” Reyage lowered his head as he said that. His face looked a little tense, just like his unusually polite words, as if he didn’t dare look me in the eyes.

I guess this is what an emperor felt like in the past when his subjects addressed him… for him to change so much overnight… Without a doubt, my status in Dark Elven society had reached the level of an emperor of old.

“As long as you’re fine.” I nodded lightly in his direction but made no mention of why he was even injured to begin with. Reyage smartly chose not to bring up his failure in Arachne Caverns as well.

Just like that, the both of us fell into an awkward silence. Realising this, Paliseth rushed in to break the ice on our behalf. “Your holiness, you don’t seem too well yourself.”

“It’s fine, just some minor side effects, that’s all.” Having said that, I raised my left hand to show them my new accessory. “This is my… +11 Epic Purple Mithril Triple-threat Fire Elemental Guarding a Inferno Lion Summoning Tool…”

Don’t ask me why the name is so long, because I am shocked as well. Why the heck did I think of that name the moment I saw that bracelet?! I know why, it must be Ferti’nier’s fault! That she-devil, why did she have to come with such a weird name!? And I thought that’s just a name you only see in games?

Has she been flipping through my memories? Or did I leak out some information from my previous life? Either way, she seems to have found out some stuff about my previous life…I just hope this won’t come back to bite me in the butt.

“Master… the name is a bit much for Jezsere…” She groggily shook her head, clearly shocked by the majesty that was my bracelet.

“Your holiness sure has a unique sense of… naming…” She tried to think of a more polite way to describe my majestic bracelet but finally settled on a dry laugh instead. “Really unique…”

Reyage: …

Hey, don’t give me that ‘I’m looking at a moron’ look… it’s really not my naming, it’s Ferti’nier! Also… also… you know what, there’s no point in denying it at all. To the uninitiated, I was the one who created this majestically-named bracelet. In that case, the one who came up with the name had to be me as well…

“Alright, alright… it’s real name is Inferno Lion’s Splendor. As for that really long and convoluted name…” I cleared a throat a couple of times and smiled. “That was just a joke. The atmosphere was getting a bit bleak so I thought I should liven up the mood. How was it? Funny, right?”

Reyage: …

“Ah, so that’s what it was.” Paliseth smiled obligingly, but I could tell that it was a very forced one. “Your holiness is such a kidder.”

“Master?” Jezsere looked at me quizzically. “So that name wasn’t real?”

“Mhm.” I nodded. “It’s real.”

“Ehhh?!”

Her mind exploded at that point… hey, hey ,hey, don’t go collapsing now…

My current state could only be described as frail. Even walking was difficult for me now, so when Jezsere started to faint because of my teasing, I was unceremoniously pushed down onto the bed by her…

Oops… seems I went a little overboard with the joke…

Inferno Lion’s Splendor was an Epic level piece of equipment, one that had already reached Epic-grade without any further enhancement.

One of the traits of such equipment were that they had their own will and could choose their own master. Furthermore, at their full strength, an Epic-grade equipment could allow an Eight-star to go up against a Nine-star.

However, being an equipment with its own will, not everyone would be able to tame it. Normally, there were two ways of gaining the equipment’s approval: suppressing it by force, or just be liked by it. Naturally, there was an even better third option of being liked by it and suppressing it by force.

Of course, that wasn’t to say that a person automatically had the power of a Nine-star just by owning such an equipment. After all, the tool was a dead thing. The wielder had to be the one to bring out its full potential.

Just like how a Gundamn piloted by a Newtypeh was stronger than one piloted by a normal person, a weapon was only as strong as its wielder.

Going back to the Inferno Lion’s Splendor, a name which was infinitely easier to remember than what it originally was, this tool had the ability to automatically absorb the fire elements in the environment in order to replenish itself. At the end of the day, a whole Nine-star’s core and three Eight-star cores were used up just to make this tool. From Six-star onwards, such magical beast cores had the ability to absorb the elements from the air, just like a self-charging solar battery. In fact, I could use them as a battery right now, although it would be quite an extravagant battery.

Ferti’nier had already carved a summoning array onto this bracelet. As long as I infused some of my own mana into it, I could instantly summon three Fire Elementals or an Inferno Lion. Either could be summoned separately or together at the same time. As for the actual strength of the summons… well, let’s just say that it was directly linked to how much mana I put in.

For the time being, I was only able to summon a Fire Elemental. I tried summoning an Inferno Lion, but the proud creature that it was wouldn’t submit to me, even in its weakened state. In all likelihood, I had to wait a while longer before I was strong enough to summon it.

Other than summoning, the bracelet also had the ability to control fire to some degree. It was entirely possible to treat it as a mage’s staff.

That meant that I could still use some fire spells without having to expose my identity. However, rather than calling these spells, they were more like an ability at this point. Also, this fire was only limited to ordinary fire. Nether Flames were flames originating from Hell. If I dared to use that in a human kingdom, that would pretty much expose my identity.

Speaking of Nether Flames, the Inferno Lion’s Splendor had two different modes to it. The first was where it enhanced ordinary flames while the second was where it enhanced Nether Flames.

That’s right, Nether Flames. This bracelet could enhance Nether Flames. The same flames that even Devils did not dare touch. Even though Ferti’nier’s personality left a lot to be desired, I had to admit, she did me a solid favour this time. Had it not been for her awakening my transformation ability and giving this bracelet, my journey for Nicole might just be my last.

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

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If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.