Chapter 37: A Good Actress, Perhaps? (1/2)?A single blood-tear welled at the corner of her eye but didn't fall, catching the light like a ruby.?"Yes, revenge," Lucien replied casually, his voice carrying an unnatural resonance in the underground chamber. ?He gestured toward the remaining knight.?The half-ogre woman turned her attention to the figure Lucien indicated—a man crumpled against the far wall, his once-polished blessed steel armor now dented and dulled, dark streaks of crimson seeping through the joints and crevices. ?The knight y motionless, jaw grotesquely askew beneath his dented helmet, each shallow breath producing a wet, bubbling sound that barely disturbed the heavy silence. ?Around him, a pool of blood had spread and congealed, dark and sticky at the edges while the center still gleamed wetly, reflecting the pulsing lights above like a macabre, fractured mirror.?"Father? Mother?" she murmured, her voice suddenly childlike, gaze unfocused as she stared beyond the bloody scene before her to something only she could see. The muscles in her neck corded visibly beneath her translucent skin as she swallowed hard. ?Suddenly, memories of her long-missing parents flooded her mind, making her body go rigid, her yellowed eyes widening until the reptilian slits nearly disappeared.?"Father! Mother! Where are you?!" The half-ogre woman's voice shattered the boratory's eerie quiet, echoing off the stone walls in waves of raw anguish. ?Crimson tears—actual blood—began to stream down her face, leaving vivid scarlet tracks along her pearlescent skin. ?Her cheeks flushed a mottled purple beneath her pallid complexion, her chest heaving with each ragged breath as she wept.?Lucien, observing all this, watched with widening eyes, the red glow intensifying as his pupils dited in shock. ?His tall frame stiffened, the leather of his coat creaking as he took an involuntary half-step backward, clearly stunned by the sudden outburst. ?After all he did and said to her, she acts like this… unpredictable.?Sigh… it looks like her mental state is deteriorating further. It probably won't heal anytime soon—maybe it's even permanent, he thought, his eyebrows furrowing into sharp lines over his glowing eyes, his wide mouth turning down as he took in the pitiful sight. ?His long hair shifted like oil across his shoulders as he tilted his head, studying her with clinical detachment that couldn't quite mask a flicker of pity. ?She's probably the same age as my original body. A pity, a pity, he mused, shaking his head. ?Her cries were loud—loud enough that they had likely already attracted the knights above. ?If he tried to carry her or bring her along, he had no confidence that he could escape, even on his own with his supernatural speed.?Letting her live to become an experiment again was an equally poor choice. ?With no goal, no objective, and no desire in her eyes—just that vacant stare interrupted now by this storm of grief—what could Lucien offer her besides death??Yet then...?SNAP!?At that moment, a faint sound—barely noticeable, like the breaking of a single hair, but clear to Lucien's enchanted hearing—caught his attention. ?He froze, his pupils narrowing to needle-thin slits as he spotted a bluish light that could only be mana emerging from the head of the crying half-ogre woman.?It coiled around her single horn like morning mist, delicate tendrils of azure light pulsing with each of her heartbeats, casting her tear-stained face in an ethereal glow.?She, who had moments before been sobbing like a child, abruptly stopped. The transition was jarring—like a music box suddenly silenced mid-note.?The blood-tears on her cheeks hadn't even dried, still glistening wetly in the strange blue light that now surrounded her. ?She raised her head with mechanical precision, her spine straightening one vertebra at a time, and looked at the tall, towering man standing before her. Her gaze was no longer vacant but focused and attentive, as if waiting for him to speak, to command.?Who is he? That thought flickered across her face as clearly as if she'd spoken it. ?Her yellowish pupils narrowed into vertical slits as worry crept in, the muscles in her jaw tensing visibly beneath her translucent skin. ?But then, memories seemed to flood back—memories of how this towering man had sughtered her captors and freed her. ?The blood-covered floor around them suddenly made sense in her mind, and Lucien could see the moment of recognition in the subtle rexation of her shoulders, the softening around her eyes. ?Her wariness melted away like ice in sunlight, and with a sigh that stirred the dust motes dancing in the blue light, she closed her eyes and bowed her head, her horn gleaming as it caught the light of the pulsing cylinders.?"Thank you, my lord, for saving and rescuing me." ?Under Lucien's squinting gaze, the half-ogre woman knelt before him, her movements now possessed of an unsettling grace that contradicted her battered appearance. ?Had she finally snapped out of it? ?That was the only conclusion he could draw after witnessing her sudden change in demeanor.?He didn't believe anyone could truly change their personality in an instant, yet the transformation was undeniable.?Where before this half-ogre had seemed like a frightened, childish girl—eyes wide and unfocused, body trembling—now she waited for his answer with calm composure. ?Even her yellowish, reptilian eyes met his steadily, no longer clouded with confusion or fear.?Her demeanor had shifted entirely; she appeared adult and self-possessed, her broad shoulders squared despite the burden of her chains.?"May I have these... sinners?" she asked—words Lucien had not expected. Her fangs caught the light as she spoke, fshing briefly from beneath her lower lip. ?The intonation, the deliberate wording—gone was the stammering of a frightened captive. It was as if he was speaking to somebody entirely new. ?There were rare cases: fugue states, dissociation, even “split personalities”. But those were messy, never this clean.?Could I be fooled? Is she a brilliant actor? He gnced over her again. No—her body nguage was different, her gaze sharper, her entire aura transformed.?It was then he remembered the faint surge shimmering from her head just before the change—blue frost that scattered and melted from her temple.?Hmm...?Trauma? Possible, but no sign of confusion post-change.?Psychological masking? Too thorough, too seamless.?Magic-induced compulsion? …He couldn't ignore the evidence: the light, the timing, the impossibility of the alternative.?Then…?"Your personality was sealed, wasn't it?" Lucien asked. ?This time, his red-glinting pupils narrowed to barely visible slits, and his lips curled into a faint smile that revealed the slight indentations where his retracted fangs rested against his gums.?"As expected of my lord, yes," the half-ogre replied, her voice rich with a cultivated accent that had been entirely absent before. "My name is Aviara Thalys—"?Once again, the half-ogre—Aviara—began her tale. ?She recounted how she and her father had resisted and fought against the church knights, her voice hardening when she described their ambush. ?Her single horn seemed to catch and hold the light as she described how she was eventually pinned down by a Tier 4 being, the memory making her muscles tense visibly beneath her ragged clothing.?Thanks to her regeneration, which was stronger than her father's, she managed to break free—here, she flexed her wrists unconsciously, making the raw wounds beneath her shackles weep fresh blood—but as a result, they sealed her personality. ?"Turning your mind, your way of thinking, back to that of a child," Lucien murmured, his brows furrowing and his expression darkening like a thundercloud. ?This world is really full of surprises, but the idea of sealing and changing someone's personality… ?That's terrifying, Lucien thought, a chill creeping along his spine. His red eyes narrowed, pupils contracting to thin sshes as he considered the implications—the viotion of mind and self, the erasure of identity. ?He gnced at Aviara, who was still waiting for his answer.?"Of course, they're yours," Lucien replied, his voice carrying an unnatural resonance in the underground chamber. ?Aviara bowed once more. She moved directly to the first target—the knight in white armor whose jaw Lucien had crushed, the man's pristine uniform now soaked crimson, spreading outward like a blooming flower of death across the stone floor. ?Lucien watched, fascinated, as her slit yellowish pupils fred like a snake's spotting prey, expanding until almost no iris remained. ?Two sharp fangs protruded from her lower lip as her gaze turned feral, extending visibly beneath the boratory's pulsing light. Her pearlescent skin seemed to tighten across her features, highlighting the inhuman angles of her face.?"Hssss..." A low, serpentine hiss escaped her lips, vibrating with a predator's promise.