First Blood

"Are you taking Lily with you?"

Iver asked, "She's reliable and suited for searching dangerous places. Selene is still somewhat unstable."

"Not at all!"

Selene protested, "I'm very well-behaved!"

Lily reached out and hugged Selene, whispering "Don't make a fuss" in a voice only she could hear.

Miss Aleister ignored Selene. After thinking for a while, she shook her head. "I'll take Selene with me."

As their consciousnesses gradually separated, they could no longer hear the thoughts in each other's minds.

At that moment, Miss Aleister proposed an opinion completely different from Iver's for the first time.

Iver was surprised as well. "Wouldn't Lily be better?"

"Precisely because Lily is better, you should take her with you. Selene really is unstable, so she should come with me—you may be unable to contact the outside world once you enter Eternal Dream. As a pure creature of 'love,' Selene may lose control if she stays lonely for too long. And if you can't interfere with her, anything she does will become troublesome."

Aleister analyzed calmly, "Conversely, as the creative power of the Moon Witch, Selene may be more useful to me... Besides, Lily only has feelings for 'Iver.' She probably doesn't want to come with me."

"...But wouldn't that be unfair to you?"

Iver lowered his eyes and released the hand supporting Aleister's chin.

He half-knelt and gently stroked the hair of his split self, asking worriedly, "Why don't you take both of them? You'll be doing something even more dangerous, yet you'll have to bring along the more unstable companion... And Yin-Yang Harmonization hasn't worn off yet. Most of your mana pool should still be locked, right?"

Before either Iver or Aleister advanced, Yin-Yang Harmonization had instead become a chain restraining Aleister.

After Iver and Aleister split apart, the abundant mana