One of the guards stepped forward, pulling a bag he had been carrying on his back down.

Selina’s face hardened.

“In cash.”

The unthinkable happened.

Stacks of cash in the hundreds of millions were piled on the counter. Even Selina was speechless at the sight of this overwhelming amount of money, which she had never seen before.

Both she and the staff were frozen.

In the meanwhile, Kalcion and the guards were still clueless about what the problem was.

“Is there a problem?”

There was no problem.

…It was just surreal.

After a while, the stunned Selina retraced her thoughts and burst into laughter alone.

“No, oh my god. I bought a dress with cash!”

This was Kalcion’s first time wandering around in this world, and it was the first time she saw how he spent money.

“Have you been spending money like this all this time? Didn’t anyone say anything?”

“I’ve never paid attention to others’ reactions.”

His spending habits were bold, befitting someone who robbed the whole convenience store or uprooted a tree because she wanted to eat fruit. Every time she saw the dresses stacked in the hotel room, she would remember the cash party for a long time.

Selina thought about the special outfit she had sneakily added to the pile of dresses for tonight.

“Just enjoy the night view for a bit.”

“Sure.”

Kalcion stayed by the window as she instructed, without any suspicion.

The living room of the hotel had a full-length window. Even though Renbird was a well-developed city with bright nights, it wasn’t filled with high-rise buildings and dazzling lights like this place. He wasn’t surprised anymore after seeing it a few times, but it was still a fascinating sight no matter how many times he saw it.

It was beautiful and splendid, yet strangely distant and lonely… Did Selina always gaze at this view?

As he thought so, Kalcion felt someone approaching from behind.

“Turn around.”

At Selina’s command, he turned around without hesitation.

“….!”

Now it was his turn to freeze.

“What, what kind of outfit is that?”

Selina posed confidently, like facing a multitude of cameras at a photo wall during an event.

“A seductive outfit?”

The clothes she had worn until now mostly covered her body except for her face and hands. She had never worn a dress in front of him that revealed her shoulders, arms, legs, and back so boldly. The tight-fitting black dress with see-through lace parts was even more enchanting.

Kalcion’s eyes widened, and then he looked away, confused.

“How is it?”

Her daring words caught him even though she wanted to avoid her gaze.

“Hoo…”

Kalcion struggled to catch his breath, which became rough just by looking at her.

His gaze, still not cooled from the heat, touched Selina’s body. His fingers brushed against her skin, and his gaze followed suit. It was as if the heat from his gaze was transferring to her.

Selina, who had initially tried to seduce, blushed first.

“It’s beautiful… but also quite provocative.”

He curled his lips and took a heavy step forward.

Thud.

Even the soft carpeted floor of the hotel couldn’t bear the weight of his steps. Selina leaned back against the sofa, lifting her chin haughtily.

“It’s not like you haven’t seen my naked body before.”

Kalcion moved a bit closer.

He didn’t use perfume, and his body odor wasn’t strong, but every time he approached, there was a distinct masculine scent.

“More provocative than being completely undressed. Why is that?”

His fingertips reached her chin and gently lifted it up. His hand was firm.

Again, a man… a masculine feel.

Her breath was hot.

Selina exhaled sharply through her slightly parted lips and curled them up.

“Because it’s tantalizing?”

To Kalcion, she seemed like a fully prepared feast, yet untouched as long as she remained dressed. Still, with one determined move, he could tear the dress with just a grasp.

One hand. That was all it would take.

This thrill of being able to strip her naked with one hand tantalized his mind.

A warning alarm sounded.

He might lose control.

The two had been diligent about contraception until Kalcion could figure out a way for him to get pregnant. Nevertheless, no contraception had been arranged in this world, an oversight they hadn’t anticipated. It was a sudden incident that was deliberately provoked by Selina.

The instigator, Selina, had no intention of properly fixing the situation. She wanted to escalate it.

As she pressed her body close to him, clothed yet almost as if not, their bodies merged. The moment her body, fitting perfectly as if it was originally part of his, entered his embrace, Kalcion’s restraint shattered hopelessly.

“Huhp…!”

It was a fierce and violent kiss that was enough to startle Selina. But instead of fleeing like a frightened bird, she gripped Kalcion’s thick arms tighter, urging him on.

It was frantic.

Kalcion’s hand grasped the dress.

In his strong grip, the dress quickly turned into mere rags. And beneath it, the naked body with nothing on.

“….”

Kalcion, who had charged in like a madman, was mesmerized by the white body reflecting the bright lights of the night view.

Selina smiled contentedly.

She was always satisfied with his gaze as he was lost in her.

Embarrassing yet thrilling.

“Are you just going to look all night?”

She tempted him, like the sweetest fruit in the world. Even if it contained a deadly poison that could take away his life in the next, Kalcion wouldn’t have been able to resist biting into it.

Burying his face in her pale chest, he was immersed in a sweet sense of defeat.

It was strange.

He could climb the Beast Mountains without running out of breath, yet his breathing went wild whenever he touched Selina.

Every time he kissed her body, it was like it was carved from dewdrops in the moonlight; every time he delved into her flesh, it was like it was melted spring sun. Even the slightest movement that was trivial compared to his usual activities made him gasp for breath.

“Haa, ha…!”

Maybe it was because of breathing through the mouth.

Each moment he touched her body, each moment he embraced her warmly, made his head spin. With Kalcion, who had lost his mind and starved, Selina was relentlessly gasping for air, feeling that she was being filled to the brim with him.

“Ha-uht, ah! Kalcion!”

Eventually, they both reached a blissful, dreamlike climax.

“….!”

Moments later, they collapsed and their body lost all strength.

Selina lay down next to Kalcion, resting on his chest to catch her breath. He held her damp body and pressed kisses on her forehead and crown.

“…What to do?”

The deed was done.

Not once, but many times. They should have regained their senses midway, but they didn’t. It was a complete defeat of rationality.

Selina giggled with cheeks filled with satisfaction, having achieved what she wanted.

“Leave it to fate, what else?”

Maybe something unusual would happen to her body now, but she seemed utterly unconcerned. The worry seemed to consume only Kalcion, who was burning inside.

Selina played with her fingers on his chest, then gazed at the night view across from them.

“I used to stay in hotels a lot because of work.”

She was suddenly reminded of the past.

“The night view is beautiful, but seeing it every day, it feels the same. It feels like I am all alone, far away.”

It was lonely.

Despite being in the spotlight and loved by many, the coldness of being alone was unbearable. The presence of a manager who would come running at her call, or people with intentions, couldn’t fill that void. She had shot numerous scenes of couples whispering against the night view but never really experienced it.

That was why she suddenly wanted to do it with Kalcion.

“It feels good to try it out.”

So, she did it because it felt good.

She learned yet another thing she desperately wanted to know in life, this time with Kalcion.

* * *

The next thing she wanted to try was walking side by side with her child and holding hands as a family.

Now, she had the opportunity to do it again.

Gration tightly held Selina’s hand and walked half a step ahead, not knowing what lay ahead. The child that was once tiny as a bean had grown so much and stood in front to protect her. Selina smiled silently, the tender emotion filling her heart warmly.

As Kalcion stepped forward across a broken bridge, as if showing the way, Gration’s hand twitched at the sight of his father disappearing ahead.

It was startling.

As Selina wondered how to comfort him, Gration excitedly pushed his hand forward, then pulled it back repeatedly.

“…Incredible.”

“It’s not scary. Once we cross here, it directly connects to the other side.”

“So, a dimension is not a visibly connected layer, but a space completely separated and independent!”

“…Huh?”

Gration was really excited. He was excited in a different way than Selina had anticipated.

In the realm of academics, he was as brave as Magna.

“Is this a man-made phenomenon or a natural occurrence? If there’s not just this one but multiple gates that allow travel back and forth, connecting to many other worlds, then the world we live in could have been a pathway.”

His excitement never subsides.

His excitement reached its peak when they crossed over to the other world. The answers to the artifacts Selina occasionally brought back, which seemed impossible to link together through mere imagination, were found here.

Gration was completely engrossed.

He was already bubbling with ideas to integrate these new, completely different artifacts into Selinia.

“There’s this delicious fish-shaped bun over there…”

“I’ll try anything!”

Selina had only thought of sharing a simple pleasure, but it turned out to be an unexpected great joy. She exchanged a look with Kalcion and smiled softly at their young son’s excitement.

As planned, Magna succeeded the throne of Selinia.

There were factions trying to push Gration to the forefront, but he didn’t stay in Selinia.

As promised earlier, he became Magna’s loyal subject. Gration contributed to the development of Selinia by gathering cultural artifacts from not just one dimension but many, traveling across different worlds.

Selinia, initially thought to end with the first ruler, flourished even more spectacularly under the second ruler.

With each change of generation, it continued to grow and prosper. Although it took a long time for Selinia to become the empire that was the greatest on the continent, later generations never forgot the love story of Selinia’s first ruler, Selina, and her spouse, Kalcion.

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