DING!

Cecilia, who had been slumped in a folding chair in the temporary command center with a cup of terrible coffee in her hands, straightened immediately.

The transparent screen flickered into view before her eyes.

[You have succeeded in the Rank 5 task: Get viral on the internet!]

[Reward Rank 5]

- [One Five-Stars Requested Skill Orb for each Love Interest!]

DING!

[Unlock Rank 5 of all Love Interests’ Scenario to gain this reward!]

[Would you like to roll?]

Eh? Suddenly completed by itself?

Cecilia’s brow furrowed.

She had been standing on that dam, holding back a hundred billion cubic meters of water while news helicopters circled overhead like vultures. Millions of people had watched her. Billions, maybe. If going viral was the requirement, she should have completed the task the moment that footage hit the airwaves. But this delay...?

Wait. The System had said something before...

[No, Cecilia, you need to be the one who got viral, not your Love Interests.]

She needed to be the one who went viral...

Which meant people needed to know who she specifically was? They needed her identity, her name and her face, not just "mystery woman holds back reservoir"?

The news coverage alone wouldn’t have been enough, then.

Someone, somewhere, must have recognized her, posted about her and connected the dots in a way that spread through the internet like wildfire, attaching her name to the footage until the algorithm finally acknowledged that she was the one who was viral.

Well. The system wouldn’t let the task be completed even if she used her own account and her own name if it was because of other people, after all. So it was fair.

But let’s think of that later. Right now, there was another urgent thing she needed to settle.

"The problem is, everyone in the world just saw what you just did."

Damon Iondora sat across from her at the folding table in the command center, his suit rumpled and his tie loosened, his violet eyes sharp despite the exhaustion that shadowed his face.

"If they didn’t, I could have helped you hide your identity and avoid explaining your power to the world."

It made sense. Having power was one thing. Being a human and having that power? That was something else entirely.

Not to mention that she did not have a beast bond yet.

In this world, getting married or getting pregnant to a beast didn’t necessarily mean you were bonded with them. This was not her world, where unbonded beast marriage was seen as taboo and hated by the temple’s tradition.

Society here had accepted that women’s rights were probably able to be made flexible if bond marriage was made non-mandatory.

Of course, people could choose to bond if they truly loved each other. Some did it while getting married, long after they married, or even before. And the truth of whether two people bonded or not was completely their own privacy.

Marriage, too, was made non-mandatory. You could simply live with your loved one with boyfriend-girlfriend status.

Unbonded beast partners’ scent, although easily interwoven with her own, could be washed off more easily. If anyone found out she could use magic without a beast bond...

Lilyca had found out, but that was perhaps because she was a Saintess. But what about others?

Even with a beast bond, a human displaying such power was unprecedented...

"At first, we thought you were a dragon in her human form. But people started recognizing you as Mrs. Vasiliev, the wife of Billionaire Arzhen Vasiliev," Damo said calmly.

"We have not confirmed anything yet. But people are completely convinced that you are her."

"So," Cecilia began flatly, then straight to the point, "what are you trying to tell me? That the world government wants to put me on a watchlist?"

Damon raised his eyebrows. Then he smiled, a bit surprised. "A watchlist is actually better than what they are trying to do, to be honest."

Ah.

"Saintess Lilyca has declared you a Divine Deity. Although it sounds like it will grab more attention, it actually gives you more protection in this case," Damon said.

So that was why Lilyca had said they were going to be together from now on?

—that girl!

Was it her instinct? Or could it be, did she already possess such political insight as an eight-year-old?

No, no, no.

To think it over... if in the real world, Saintess Candidate Lilyca was discovered and sponsored by the Cassian Twins... then in this world too, could it be that they were also the people behind Saintess Lilyca Celeste?

Ah. A huge headache was surely on its way.

"Mr. Iondora, I want to speak with my hus—um... boyfriends first," Cecilia said, catching herself.

"Do you not want me to specify what to expect?" Damon asked.

Cecilia smiled. "I can mostly guess already. But I believe you are not the type who would lead people astray."

Damon blinked. Then—"Haha! How did you know?"

In all of his life, Damon had never heard someone say that line to him even once, not even as a joke. People were either scared of him, wary of him, or hated him. He could count on two hands the people who actually liked him as a person.

"But believing someone you only just met is dangerous, Mrs. Vasiliev. Please be more cautious, no matter how strong... or how protected you are."

Well... he must have found out about her relationship with Arkai, Eastiel, and Oathran. Somehow.

"You don’t need to call me by that name anymore. You are already unsure about my relationship status since you have seen me with my boyfriends already. Let me clarify to you that my divorce has been processed by the court, awaiting the judge to sign the final decree." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Hmm," Damon muttered, "Should I pull some strings to get that decree signed faster?"

Cecilia’s eyes flew wide. "Eh? You—pff—AHAHAHAH!"

Damon laughed with her. "Ahahahah... I was signing that exclusivity contract with Vasiliev because I knew you would get divorced sooner or later anyway, and that company will fall into your hands."

Cecilia narrowed her eyes, still chuckling. "How much did you know?"

"My sister is a bit special. She told me these kinds of things. Including Anton Vasiliev’s secret will."

Of course. If anyone would know, it would be this guy and Angela. Some things never changed across universes.

"Now," Damon’s voice shifted more seriously. "Even though it is against your will, you need to follow me to our specially prepared facility and stay there for some time. Don’t worry. You will mostly be treated the same as the Saintess, since you will technically be in the same facility as her. Your boyfriends can visit you anytime."

He paused, his violet eyes meeting hers. Damon Iondora was asking for cooperation rather than demanding it, which was quite rare for him.

"If you want to talk to them, please tell them not to resist this decision. It is the best for everyone. And it helps prevent war."

Cecilia nodded. Other than the obvious, bigger political reasons, she also still needed to talk with Lilyca about everything.

If push comes to shove, they couldn’t keep her forever either. Oathran, Arkai, and Eastiel would not like that. At this moment, there was no downside to doing it all as Damon said.

But her hus—boyfriends... could be a bit stubborn.