Lucielle didn't know how to respond to the question that was thrown at her.

The simple answer was that she didn't actually forget the kiss, though she pretended to be under the effects of [Tempora], just like everyone else.

'I wanted to keep my current state a secret from Rey, so I had to play along.'

Plus... she was equally embarrassed about the kiss.

In the end, everything worked out well. No one mentioned anything, so it all worked out-at least, that was what she expected to happen.

However, it seemed like the kiss was where the first seeds of her interest in Rey were planted.

From that point on, there was no turning back.

"Y-you always knew? That's messed up, Lucielle! Why didn't you say anything?" Rey lashed out, his cheeks turning brighter red.

"Look who's talking! You should have said something too."

Lucky for Rey, his emotions were instantly stabilized, so all the influx of emotions were eroded off almost as soon as they entered his system.

"I-I'm sorry..." He muttered the moment he regained his rationality. "I should have mentioned it, but... it was just a little awkward for me."

Lucielle was like his co-worker... someone akin to an annoying senior that he looked up to in some way, but also couldn't respect due to their problematic attitude.

Something like an older sister, perhaps?

That wasn't to say there was no interest in her whatsoever, but all of those things were overshadowed by his feelings for other girls, as well as Lucielle's unique way of getting on his nerves that made him unable to see her in such a way.

As such, kissing her-and even engaging in their current conversation-felt blasphemous.

It felt wrong.

And yet...

"H-how was the kiss?" Rey muttered, rubbing his head slightly as he looked at Lucielle. She wasn't looking at him initially, but her distracted gaze slowly returned to him as she hid the lower part of her face with the sheets.

"It was... weird."

That was all she had to say about the whole thing.

"I see..."

The ambiance in the room became a million times more awkward as she said this, causing the two to remain fixed in their respective positions without saying anything for nearly a minute.

No one seemed willing to budge.

Until-

"So... do you like Cyn'dy?"

"No." Rey responded almost instantly, a bit of annoyance seeping through. "Not her."

"...."

"But you know the one I like already."

"Alicia, right? But you said she's leaving for your homeworld, didn't you?"

Rey made a slightly sad smile as he nodded. He felt a little bad trying to justify some of the way he was feeling at the moment, but when he thought about things objectively... was all of this so wrong?

'Alicia is leaving, and Esme and I wouldn't work anyway. Should I actually... no, what am I thinking?' Rey nearly felt disgusted with himself as he engaged in such perverted thoughts about the Grand Mage.

'She's feeling all of this because of her Spell, and yet I want to take advantage of her vulnerable state. What kind of creep would I be if I did that?'

If Lucielle was telling the truth about her experience with men, then it would be downright exploitative for him to capitalize on the roaring hormones inside her to satisfy his own ego and emotions.

"We need to find a way to fix you." Rey said, interlocking his fingers as he looked at her with a serious expression.

"Y-yeah... yeah, you're right."

There seemed to be a tinge of disappointment in her tone, but Rey figured he was just imagining it based on his own slight disappointment in himself.

Still... this was the right thing to do, wasn't it?

"If there was some Magic I knew that would make me stop having feelings for someone, I would have used it on myself to get rid of my feelings for Alicia." Rey admitted. "But, I don't have anything like that at my disposal."

If he did, he would just free Lucielle from her feelings for him and this would all be over.

Unfortunately, things weren't that simple.

"It seems falling in love is more challenging to Magic than destroying hundreds of enemies or shattering mountains. It's funny..." Lucielle responded with a slight chuckle, causing both of them to laugh a little.

The mood became a little lighter, and so it was much more bearable for the two to look at each other without too much tension.

Once the laughter ended, and after a few more seconds of silence, Rey finally spoke.

"Maybe it's time to undo your Magic and return to being an adult? If you do that, it should solve everything, right?"

"Yeah... I suppose you're right."

The solution for getting rid of the emotions that Lucielle developed due to being stuck in a younger body was to simply get rid of the younger body.

'What a brilliant plan, if I do say so myself.' He smirked a little, nodding slowly.

"Don't you think I would have thought of that, though?" Lucielle's voice suddenly interrupted his haughty thought. "How low are your expectations of me?"

"Ah..."

Now that he thought about it, his idea wasn't particularly ingenious.

It was Lucielle who figured out the cause of her feelings, so of course she would have considered getting rid of the body as a solution.

"So why haven't you-?"

"I can't." She flatly responded, causing Rey's eyes to widen with shock. "I can't return to

being an adult."

"N-no way..."

"Yeah. The Magic process was going to be unstable and constantly absorb energy from me if I didn't make it permanent. I had to stabilize it too, which is why I kept my body in a state

unaffected by time."

"W-wait... so you're stuck as a teenager forever?"

"Not forever. I can get rid of the Time Stasis Effect on my body, but I can't return to being the Lucielle you used to know. Even if I use Time Magic on myself, or you use that [Tempora] of

yours to accelerate my time so I became an adult, it would only make my feelings for you worse, since it would have been accelerated along with my body."

"Ohh..."

"What happens when someone loves another for a very long time?" Lucielle asked, and Rey

knew the answer.

"It becomes very difficult to stop."

*

*

Thanks for reading!

What solutions do you have to the current dilemma? Let's hear it.