Against this simple question from Christian, the mysterious girl kept her eyes on him. She stayed silent at first, seemingly pondering something, before finally making her decision and saying,
One might wonder — but Christian’s eyes, which suddenly began to widen, told everything.
His weary gaze, fixed on the girl, felt it in real time — something like a thin layer, a veil that had been covering his vision whenever he looked at her, suddenly shattered.
And in the next instant, her true appearance was revealed.
A beauty that defied the word perfection — that was the only way Christian could describe what he saw.
Her stature was short, no more than 140 centimeters.
Her features... doll-like. Pale white skin. Perfectly sculpted facial lines.
Then there was her long, silver hair, swaying softly in the wind.
But what stood out the most was the aura she carried — a quiet, mysterious atmosphere that seemed to intensify the moment his eyes met hers.
One of her eyes was covered by a black eyepatch, while the other, fully exposed, glowed with a deep, jewel-like violet.
Everything about her felt extraordinary.
But if he had to name the most jarring thing — the one thing that completely broke expectation — it was her breasts.
With a petite, childlike frame like hers, anyone would assume she was completely flat. But her chest was full, heavy, impossibly pronounced.
It was as if her body were saying to him,
I may be short. I may look young. But you’d be terribly wrong to treat me like a child.
Christian was momentarily entranced — and perhaps liking that reaction, the girl suddenly turned her body on the spot, making the hem of her one-piece dress flutter playfully.
"Anastasia La Rhunel. That’s my name," she said with a grin, her voice smooth.
"Christian White," he replied, trying hard to control himself.
"Should I make my appearance invisible to you again, if it’s too much?" Anastasia asked playfully.
But Christian’s answer came firm and fast.
His reaction earned a light chuckle from her.
The atmosphere soon fell into silence.
Christian, whose cheeks had turned slightly red — embarrassed and ashamed of his behavior — finally cleared his throat and said, "You know I didn’t mean your name when I asked who you are, right?"
He met her amused gaze, then gathered his courage and continued, "What I want to know the most is simple... Are you really someone who has surpassed the mortal rank? And — are there many like you here on Earth?"
Anastasia laughed at the boldness of his question before replying, "Naturally, I’ve already surpassed the mortal rank."
"And as for whether others like me are on Earth... yes. There are."
She paused for a moment, her tone sharpening slightly.
"Oh, and just a little advice — I’m only being this nice because I’m easygoing. That’s why I’m even giving you something in exchange for your puppet, and answering your questions at all."
"Normally, someone of my stature wouldn’t bother indulging you ."
"So... be thankful for that until the day you die."
Christian was unbothered by her last haughty words, but, he still felt like a bucket of cold water had just been dumped on his head.
The moment she confirmed that people of her strength were already on Earth, something deep in his gut tightened.
Still, he tried to take her words with a grain of salt.
He couldn’t fully believe her.
After all, based on the information he’d gathered, those who were too strong supposedly couldn’t even enter Earth in the first place.
The exact reason remained unclear to him.
And maybe that was exactly why...
With the thought that this chance might not come again, he pressed further, "I heard that people too strong can’t enter Earth... so how can you? And even others like you — how can they come here too?"
"That’s simple," Anastasia began, her tone relaxed.
"It’s not that coming here is impossible. It’s the teleportation itself that’s the problem."
"When someone too strong tries to teleport here, the space around the planet can’t handle it. It’s too fragile — and their existence is too heavy. During the process, something could go wrong... they might end up in the wrong place, or just get lost in the void."
"Well, that’s for those who are slightly strong — I’m talking about seventh stage and up."
"But even that has a limit. Because, once someone becomes too strong, they can just hold the fabric of space itself in place... and come here anyway."
"And there’s another method — if a very strong mage helps with the teleportation, then they can bring someone in too."
"Anyway, special cases are too many. So don’t bet on the idea that strong people won’t come."
She shrugged lightly.
"In my case, for example... I didn’t teleport. I was just leisurely traveling through the outer space when I noticed this planet."
"It looked like some fun things were happening, so I thought, why not come and play for a while?"
Christian clenched his hands, his mind spinning.
What the fuck is this? What the hell should I do?
He had always assumed that even if there were people far stronger than him, it would still be within some logical boundary.
Yes, a few of them felt somewhat beyond reach — but even then, Christian believed he could find a way to maneuver through the situation.
But if things were really like she said...
Wouldn’t that change everything?
"Did I scare you too much?" Anastasia asked suddenly, tilting her head, a mischievous smile playing at her lips.
Maybe taking pity on him, she continued, "You’re really overthinking things. Do you think strong people actually care about you?"
"As long as you don’t provoke them or stand in the way of their goals, no one’s going to bother doing anything to you."
"Most importantly, there’s only one person on this planet who’s barely surpassed the mortal rank — and he’s from the Eternal Light Order."
"The rest? They’re just around the sixth rank. And even then, they can’t use their full power here. So don’t worry."
Is she telling the truth?
That single question echoed over and over in Christian’s mind.
And that’s when he made up his mind —
No matter what, he would develop a lie-detecting technique later. It didn’t matter how hard it was or how long it took.
After this encounter...
That had become his first priority.