The Witch Hunter System

579 Vaan's Spatial Affinity Doubt

"So why did you want to come and see me, Lord Vaan?" Henrietta asked again after recovering her calmness and adapting to Vaan's presence.

"That's a strange question to ask, Your Majesty, Henrietta," Vaan casually replied with a sly smile before mentioning, "Didn't you want to marry me and become my dual-practice partner?"

"What?"

Henrietta's mind went blank for a moment before her face turned bright red from surprise and embarrassment, causing her to stagger several steps backward.

"Y-You...! How do you know about that?" Henrietta pointed her trembling finger at him as she asked in shock.

But at the same time, she couldn't look him straight in the eye. Thus, she averted her gaze elsewhere.

"Once again, you ask something strange, Your Majesty," Vaan replied with a calm smile, suddenly taking bold steps forward.

He grabbed the wrist of her extended hand and pulled her into his chest, wrapping his other hand around her waist to prevent her from backing away. Then, he lifted her chin and forced her to look him straight in the eyes.

His sudden actions took Henrietta by surprise and made her unable to think.

But once she processed the situation that she was in, her blood pressure immediately shot through the roof. The steep rise made her face incredibly hot.

At the same time, the rising heat and manly scent of Vaan's body made her mind fuzzy.

"I-I'm not ready..." Henrietta replied timidly with a small voice, like she didn't want to be seen or noticed. Even then, she was still being evasive, with her gaze focusing elsewhere.

"But not being ready means you don't refuse, huh?" Vaan grinned before mentioning, "Although Gehenna's Gateway has stabilized, we don't know how the seven Great Devils act due to this incident."

"We should make use of the time we have to strengthen ourselves as much as possible to prepare for the inevitable war in the future. Why don't we start by becoming familiar with our dual practice?" Vaan suggested shortly after.

However, without waiting for Henrietta's reply, he forcefully stole a kiss from her.

After all, Henrietta appeared evasive, but she had not put any strength in trying to resist or break free from his hold. And given her present mental condition, he would have to wait a long time before she was finally mentally prepared.

As such, Vaan decided to take a more proactive and forceful approach to speed up the process.

When Vaan sealed Henrietta's soft, black-stained lips with his, Henrietta's entire body stiffened with tenseness.

In an instant, Vaan could see through her inexperience.

Although he had already learned and determined Henrietta never had an intimate relationship with any man, he wasn't completely sure until they kissed-or rather, he forced a kiss on her.

Nevertheless, the intimate contact of their lips didn't just tell Vaan about Henrietta's inexperience and innocence; the connection also allowed him to vaguely see through her heart and understand the life she had lived until now.

Unexpectedly, behind the greatness of the Black Rose Transcendent Witch, which instilled fear and respect in countless people across the seven witch kingdoms and beyond, hid a small girl who had only lived according to other people's expectations.

She didn't get the choice to live her life the way she wanted.

Burdened with heaven-blessed innate talent, Henrietta was chosen by Empyrean Scarletsea and became her disciple. Her swift rise to power made her an object of hope and expectations during a time of turmoil.

Without hearing what she wanted for herself, she was forced to lead a nation of people who selfishly pinned all their hopes and responsibilities on her.

Vaan's original impression of Henrietta prior to their actual meeting was, in fact, terrible.

After all, the supremacist witch faction exerted great influence over the kingdom and was practically given free reign. The supremacist witch faction enslaved men with terrible treatment and committed all kinds of atrocities as they pleased under the protection of their ruler's name.

As such, Henrietta, as the ruler who had allowed the supremacist witch faction to act so rampantly in the kingdom, was naturally assumed to be of the same character as the members of the supremacist witch faction.

However, Vaan only understood Henrietta was completely different from what he had previously imagined after they actually met and interacted.

At the same time, he could only imagine what she had to put up with.

Henrietta would have suffered less if she had been more selfish and decisive. Even so, the blame couldn't be put on her for the kingdom developing into such a state.

In fact, he should be blaming Empyrean Scarletsea, the one who turned a blind eye to everything,

Even Vaan couldn't be sure what Empyrean Scarletsea was thinking for allowing the supremacist witch faction to run rampant in the kingdom and treat men like animals. After all, given her age and wisdom, Empyrean Scarletsea should have been aware the supremacist witch faction was a tumor detrimental to the kingdom's growth and development.

Did she allow the supremacist witch faction to suppress men and destroy their self-esteem so the kingdom couldn't produce any excellent, daring men who could sway her disciple's heart?

Was it all done to keep Henrietta out of love?

Although Vaan didn't know what exactly Empyrean Scarletsea had experienced in her life to be against love, he guessed she would have stood between him and Henrietta if not for their body's high compatibility for dual practice.

It might have seemed like Vaan pondered for a while, but it all happened in a short instant.

Nevertheless, shortly after Vaan forced his kiss on Henrietta and stole her breath away, her body suddenly went limp in his arms.

She had overheated and fainted.

The stimulation of her first kiss with the person she couldn't be calm around was too much for her poor maiden heart to bear.

Vaan held Henrietta in his arms and shifted a few strands of hair out of the way with one hand for a better view of her sleeping face. While looking at Henrietta's vulnerable yet flawless, cute face, he fell into a trance as his mind wandered off.

He didn't know what kind of heaven-blessed innate talent Henrietta had, but he speculated it was an extremely rare and powerful soul constitution if she could share her body with a mighty existence like Empyrean Scarletsea.

'Between her soul constitution and mine, which is more powerful?' Vaan briefly wondered before shaking his head wryly.

He didn't even know what kind of soul constitution Henrietta possessed, so there was no point in comparing their innate talents.

Even so, he was still confident his soul constitution was one of a kind.

After all, despite possessing the Heaven-Swallowing Physique, besides granting a Heaven-Swallowing Space, the rest of the benefits were related to the soul.

As such, Vaan wouldn't be surprised if he possessed a peerless spatial-attribute soul constitution that couldn't be graded and determined by the system. It was also possible that such a spatial-attribute soul constitution was responsible for giving his body the Heaven-Swallowing Physique.

It would make more sense if he thought like that.

After all, Vaan had already experienced the flaws and imperfections of the Witch Hunter System on multiple occasions.

It wasn't omnipotent and all-knowing.

For a long time, he had doubted why the system didn't display his elemental affinity to space even though he had a spatial bloodline and comprehended the Spatial Law.

There was only one reason why the system failed to display his spatial affinity - it couldn't be calculated.

But why couldn't it be calculated?

There were a number of possible reasons that Vaan could think of for it.

It could be that his spatial affinity was unstable and constantly fluctuating. In that case, his spatial affinity wouldn't have a fixed value and thus resulted in failing to display.

Another possibility would be that his spatial affinity was so high that it was beyond the system's ability to calculate. However, this possibility was hard to believe, even for him. Even so, it was still a possibility nonetheless. He couldn't rule it out just because he found it improbable.

After all, he was still limited by his understanding of the system and himself. There were secrets in his body and soul that he wasn't privy to.

Vaan could think of several more possible explanations for the absent display of his spatial affinity, but they were even more improbable and hard to believe.

...

Suddenly, Henrietta's eyes snapped open while Vaan was holding her in his arms. As their eyes met in close proximity, he noticed a sharpness in her gaze that she normally wouldn't possess.

"Empyrean Scarletsea?" Vaan asked.

"Impressive. You noticed right away," Empyrean Scarletsea praised with a nod of acknowledgment.

She separated herself from Vaan's arms and then dusted her black dress. Once she finished, she returned her attention to Vaan.

"If you agree to marry my disciple through a contract magic, I can take my disciple's place to dual practice with you, Sir Vaan," Empyrean Scarletsea stated.

"I can agree, but... this doesn't seem appropriate, does it?" Vaan furrowed his brows.

"What's the matter? Didn't you come to find my disciple because you wanted to dual practice with her and reap the benefits you can acquire from it? Or do you have a problem because I am taking over for her?" Empyrean Scarletsea asked.

"Did Henrietta agree to this arrangement?" Vaan coolly asked.

"Oh my... So that's what you're concerned about," Empyrean Scarletsea chuckled before assuring Vaan, "You don't have to worry about that. She had already agreed to let me dual practice with you in her stead."

"After that bold stunt you just pulled, she is too shy and embarrassed to see you right now. She will only watch us and study how we dual practice."

"Is that so?" Vaan uttered as an inexplicable sense of amusement welled up inside him.

Henrietta was too shy to face him directly, but she was okay with him dual practice with her body while she watched?

How fascinating...