SILK BOXERS

Leonel pushed himself up and off from the bed, his gaze having become especially bright. The shadow that should have been over his features wasn't there, replaced with a bone-deep determination.

"You're not going to ask me any questions?" Nilrem asked.

"What would I ask?" Leonel spoke, getting used to his body.

Right now, he felt as though he truly had been reborn. The issue was that it wasn't an advancement.

Still, getting used to his sudden weakness was a necessity as well. If he tried to do something based on his previous understanding of his body, and ended up injuring himself or worse, then he would have no one to cry to.

"Who I am? How I disappeared? Why I only appeared now?"

"Don't care." Leonel replied.

"Damn," Nilrem clicked his tongue. "Somehow, you skipped through centuries of maturity and jumped right to being that annoying prick I remember. Is this progress or regression?"

"It's whatever you want to call it."

Leonel punched out at a wall with his full force.

There was a sharp wind as his form was perfect, but upon feeling the collision, his eyes couldn't help but narrow.

He actually felt pain.

He was a Crafter. He could see through these materials with a single glance, slower mind or not. It was a strong material, especially for the mere wall of a bedroom. But it wasn't strong to the point that he would feel pain from hitting it, even if he considered the God Runes in this place.

He didn't even leave a dent on the wall.

Still, he just nodded casually. It seemed that he would have to re-practice his metal body… basically his entire Constitution had been reset. Têxt belongs to .

"Fine, fine. I'll tell you." Nilrem spread his arms as though he was being magnanimous. "Have you ever tried to spell my name backward? Hm? Hm?"

"Yes."

The smile on Nilrem's expression froze. Then, he suddenly recovered.

"Fuck off, you don't even know my real name yet, I haven't told you. You're an ungrateful bastard who's been calling me Wise Star Order this whole time. What the hell would spelling that backward get you?"

Leonel didn't reply, stretching out his limbs and trying to circulate his Forces. Circulating normal Forces was fine. Circulating his Scarlet Star Force was painful, but not nearly as bad as it was when he was still a kid.

This was clearly because his body was nowhere near as weak as that, and his Force Manipulation was obviously playing a large role.

Both of his Innate Nodes had two Sovereignties attached to them, so it was impossible that he would be completely unable to control them like he had in the past.

"Well, my name is Nilrem," Nilrem said proudly. "How about you try and spell that backward now?"

Leonel still didn't react, checking how [Final Destruction] was doing.

It seemed that after the reconstruction, he had lost his Incomplete Worlds?

'No, that can't be the case…'

Leonel's brow furrowed, and he felt a hint of annoyance. He would have already figured this out by now usually.

A flash sparked in Leonel's eyes and his calm returned. If he got annoyed every time he couldn't do something as well as he could in the past, then his words would be nothing more than meaningless drivel.

His calm returned, and suddenly he was as tranquil as a lake.

He thought about it calmly, tuning out much of Nilrem's next few words. It took a few seconds, but eventually, he understood.

It was a protective mechanism.

His current body had lost much of the foundation he had built for the sake of using [Final Destruction]. The only reason he could circulate Force at all was because he had Innate Nodes.

But just the same, it was also a simple fix. Considering where he had woken up, he bet that his grandfather had already established a Kingdom in the God Realm.

Since he had prepared for so long, there was no doubt that everything was already prepared. He bet that they were even an already established power of the God Realm at that.

In that case, he would just ask his grandfather to give him what he needed. It was about time the old man did what grandfathers should, instead of him always being the one bailing out Earth.

After making this choice, Leonel donned a robe by the bedside, didn't even bother to do it up, and strolled out in his silky white boxers and fluffy slippers.

"… I was unfortunately obstructed like everyone else. You've really got a bitch of a grandmother, you know that? If you want, I can give you some tips for how to deal with her. Have I told you the story about how I pissed on an Empire's banner? That's definitely a good one. And there's also the time I pissed on—hey, where are you going?"

Nilrem rushed after Leonel, feeling exasperated.

This was the only timeline where Leonel actually just outright ignored him like this? Where was the shock and awe?

And what was this kid doing? Didn't he know that he was in the heart of the Fawkes Clan Empire right now? Did he know how many important officials there were around here? What was he doing just strutting around like that?

"Hey kid, you keep walking around like that and one of these old cougars is gonna eat you up in your sleep."

"I never expected that the Merlin I had heard about growing up would swing that way. Do you mean the cougars, or you?"

Leonel's sudden response after so long of nothing took Nilrem off guard. He didn't even know how to respond to the accusation.

"… Fuck you, kid! My name is Mer—I mean Nilrem!"

"Do you even care that much? I'm pretty sure you forgot your real name at some point."

"How do you even know that?!"

As they walked through the empire, they came across several people, most of whom gave Leonel weird glances.

'Hm… I don't recognize any of these people. What was that old man up to?'

"Halt!"

Leonel ignored the words. He was about to kick up the Throne Room doors, but then he remembered how weak he was and settled for pressing his palms against them, pressing hard until they finally slowly creaked open.

The silence was so palpable that a pin drop could have been heard.

Leonel strolled in under thousands of gazes.