"No, even if you dress up as Melogas, you are completely different from her. You are you, your elegance, your keen, that mix of melancholy and determination, caution and courage, that innocence, yet without hindrance to your wealth of healthy and correct knowledge, that's the one and only you."

Lanci lectured her.

"Really?"

Hyperion was a bit embarrassed by Lanci's direct praise and looked up to ask him.

"Really, no matter who asks me, I will answer the same."

Lanci nodded affirmatively.

"Are you really talking about me..."

Hyperion clenched her hands, feeling bashful.

"Miss, I lost a half-demon fiancée in the Demon World thousands of years ago. She had black hair, a scorpion tail, and slender horns. Do you have any clues?"

Lanci added.

"Ugh! What are you saying!"

Hyperion's face immediately turned red, as if steam was about to pour from her head.

"A wife is a feeling. Only when you have that feeling do you have the thought of marrying her."

Lanci, like he discovered Hyperion's interesting expression, leaned closer to her and explained.

"Stop it, stop it..."

Hyperion covered her blushing cheeks and started to jog forward.

She felt Lanci had changed, actually saying such things!

"Hyperion, guess what my favorite half-demon's hair color, tail, and horns are?"

"Annoying!"

"Just answer me quickly."

"I don't know!"

"Just guess."

"I won't guess!"

The two of them, one fleeing and one speaking from behind, finally stopped playing in the corridor after a while.

After all, this was the office headquarters of the Magic Engineering College; they couldn't be too noisy.

Hyperion returned to Lanci's side.

"Lanci, you're really bad, you bullied me on purpose."

Hyperion raised her fists, lowered her voice, and lightly tapped Lanci's shoulder.

"Don't worry, your black hair will definitely look good, because I've seen someone... Hyperion, do you know a woman close to your mother? Maybe someone from Huadu?"

Lanci, remembering Hyperion's black-haired appearance, thought of the unresolved issue in Huadu.

He always felt something was overly familiar.

To describe it, the black-haired Hyperion, just by appearance, would resemble more that black-haired woman from Huadu than Melogas.

"Can you describe her in detail?"

Hyperion knew a lot about Huadu, having visited since childhood, and occasionally heard interesting stories from big sister Rosalinda and big sister Aitio.

But Lanci surely knew Rosalinda and Aitio, so the woman Lanci asked about, close to Isatia, couldn't be those two.

"Wait for me a moment."

Lanci stopped, ran back to Professor Bolao's office, and shortly borrowed a pen and paper from Professor Bolao, coming back while sketching.

He believed that kind of isolated beauty was hard to convey with words alone, so only through a drawing could he let Hyperion perceive more clearly.

Gradually, under Lanci's pen, the image of the mysterious black-haired woman seated gracefully from his memory took shape.

"This looks like my aunt Minel?"

Hyperion, looping her arm around Lanci's to guide him, watched as Lanci gradually drew the portrait.

"Minel?"

Lanci hadn't heard this name before.

"Yes, my father's sister often travels across countries, and I only see her occasionally, like when she would take me out to play as a child. To me, she was almost like a human mom."

Hyperion thought that although a human aunt might be less than a Demon aunt, it had already satisfied much of her fantasy about having a mom.

No.

Hyperion's heart suddenly grew wary.

Why was Lanci so interested in Aunt Minel? Even seeing her once and remembering her appearance, and being able to sketch Aunt Minel?

Hyperion was a bit worried that Lanci was infatuated with Aunt Minel.

Because she knew how glamorous, rational, and charming a perfect woman Minel was, and Lanci had a thing for older women, Hyperion was quite afraid!

"No, Hyperion..."

Lanci's brow gradually furrowed, but he couldn't explain to Hyperion in time, as he began to piece together a series of incredible incongruities.

Why, on the day of the Holy Silver Vine Arena, was Duke Migaya coincidentally absent, while Isatia urgently took Miss Minel away?

Why did the amnesiac Enon once say something inexplicable like "Isn't the Night Bishop female," when Bishop of Destruction Ivanos should have met the Night Bishop in the Rebirth Church?

Why, many years ago, was there a black-haired noblewoman of unknown identity around Loren, yet no one knew she was the Duke's sister?

Then the answer—

"Has Duke Migaya ever appeared at the same time as Miss Minel?"

Lanci asked Hyperion seriously.

"It seems not."

Hyperion pondered carefully, and it indeed seemed like her dad and her aunt never appeared together. Either her dad was busy, letting her aunt look after her, or her aunt went abroad and wouldn't return for a long time.

"!"

Lanci's eyes instantly cleared, but he quickly regained his composure, coughing slightly.

This was something he absolutely couldn't let anyone know, not even letting the Duke discover he knew, or else he'd fear being imprisoned by the poison and pharmaceutical-savvy Duke to the point of memory loss.

Now the bigger question was, was Duke Migaya's true identity Migaya or Minel?

Lanci dared not presumptuously judge Migaya's true gender anymore because Migaya's specialty was Concealment, and all spells like [Transformation Magic: Human], [Transformation Magic: Demon], and [Transformation Magic: Cat] belonged to the Concealment attribute. For the Duke, transformation was too easy, and the Duke's Alchemy research and Taboo Black Magic couldn't be understood with common sense.

Lanci decided to take this secret to his grave, treating Miss Minel as Miss Minel and Duke Migaya as Duke Migaya. Even knowing the truth, he would treat them as two different people.