Back at the bookstore, Iryz finally finished drawing her piece of artwork.

"It is a masterpiece!!!" she shouted out aloud as she looked at her sketch pad. Happiness was brimming in her eyes as she looked down at the opened page, looking as if she was staring at something so precious. Hearts were literally pouring out of her eyes.

"Look!!! I just made your handsomeness doubled!" Iryz turned the pad to show Zeres the drawing she had just completed and was so extremely proud of.

Zeres just stared at it for a while, seriously observing the lines and angles that she had done. He nodded slightly in approval and commented, "You’re good." Then he stood up and moved from the spot that he had been required to freeze himself in for quite some time. "Now it’s time for you to give me an answer in exchange."

His face was serious as he said that. It was clear that he was all business now and was in no state of joking around. Iryz’s initially big and wide smile was now slowly fading as she realized that the handsome man could no longer wait nor have himself being delayed in having his questions answered. And she knew not to continue pushing his buttons. As he had warned her earlier, he was not the kind of nice witch that she had imagined him to be. There was no way she was willing to cross his bottom line and find out if that was true. She was not that foolish.

"Alright... sir, you can now start questioning me. I will try my best to answer it." She was still enthusiastic as she said that. Her good and open attitude gave a good impression to Zeres that she was not trying to play him for a fool and squirm her way out of their bargain.

After nodding his approval of her cooperative behaviour, Zeres slowly moved past her and stood next to her computer. His long fingers tapped on the table as he stared into her eyes intently.

"This story of yours, tell me the continuation." Zeres said and Iryz did not move nor speak but only blinked a few times. She looked as though her nervous system had suffered a lag for a moment.

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She obviously did not expect to hear those words that he had said at all.

"That... that’s your question?" she had to ask again just to make sure that she got it right.

"What is the continuation of this story?" Zeres turned his words into a question.

"Err... why are you asking about my story?" she could no longer stop herself from asking. Even though she could tell that this man was asking this question very seriously, Iryz could not help but be baffled by it. Why on earth was he asking for the continuation of her story? Wait... he had seen and read her story and...

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Sir... you have seen my storyboard..."

"Yes." He replied curtly.

"And now you want to know what will happen next?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, she gasped. Her eyes wide as saucers now, as she held her face in both her hands. She had not thought that he was into this as well!!

"Oh my god! Y-you’re a... you’re a BL fan too?!" she squealed as those words came to her mouth. She felt as though she would faint from too much stimulation.

Zeres creased his brows. "Just give me an answer now, little girl. Don’t waste my time anymore." He growled out, ignoring what Iryz had just said as he did not quite understand what she was even trying to say. As long as she can tell him the continuation, he would not care what she thought about him. After all, she was of no significance to him. So her opinions on him was inconsequential.

"Uhm... wait a moment, sir... I can’t believe you’re asking about this but, you’re not actually trying to steal my idea or something right?" Iryz had to ask this even though the possibility of it was almost zero. This was going to be her big break and she would not allow him to take advantage of it no matter what.

What she said made Zeres looked up to the ceiling and let out a quiet sigh. "If you’re not going to answer me now, I will burn that sketch pad." He was getting impatient at how she was saying everything except the one thing that he wanted to hear. Thus, threatening her with the thing that she placed utmost importance in was the best step forward.

She widened her eyes and immediately hugged the sketchpad tight to her chest, protecting it as though it was her life.

"Okay, okay! Well, the male lead will perform the spell on the MC." She quickly blurted out the continuation of the plot.

"And?"

"And... then, the spell will bring the MC back to life." She said a matter-of-factly.

"How?" Zeres scrunched up his brows. He needed more information. More details.

"Well, the MC’s spirit will return to its body." Was that not obvious? Duh... Iryz wanted to roll her eyes, but she held back the impulse to do so.

Zeres moved closer to her. His expression becoming more and more intense now. "Didn’t the MC say that he was already dead?"

Iryz subconsciously took a step back as she answered. "He... he’s dead. But his body was still preserved somewhere. So, in the story, with the help of the spell, his spirit still can return to his original body." She explained further and Zeres halted.

"Tell me... what spell are you referring to? The one that can return his spirit to the body..."

"Err... it is a special spell that can bring a dead person’s spirit back to his body and fuse the two components back together again for him to live again? Uhm... I don’t have a name for this particular spell yet, but I will definitely think about this soon." She grinned awkwardly as she said that.

"How can one perform that spell? Do you have the chants for it?" he asked again, causing Iryz to feel like this whole conversation was getting weirder and spinning out of control. If he was not being so damned serious that he felt really intimidating right now, Iryz would have long since burst out into loud laughter. Why is he asking all these details about the story plot so seriously?! If this continues, she might really freak out soon.

"I have an idea on how to perform it, but I still don’t know if I can create a chant too. I was only planning to just put some jumbled up letters and not write the chants out in detail." She could only answer truthfully, shrugging as she confessed.

"You’re saying that you’re not copying this spell from somewhere or some specific book and are only making up all of these literally out of your head?" His beautiful silvery eyes narrowed and Iryz gulped nervously as she nodded.

"Yes... sir..."

He laughed out a little as if in disbelief.

"Tell me, where did you get this idea from?"

___

Dear hellbounders. I joined winwin contest this month so we could open the hellbound badge again. If we get 20k priv unlocks this month, we will be eligible for the badge. So i am hoping you guys can support and buy privilege even just the first tier.

Thank u ♡♡