[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties":3,"chapter-dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-chapter-147":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Dungeon of Lust: Managing Otherworldly Beauties",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1445853,1897,"Chapter 147: Hoist by One’s Own Petard","dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-chapter-147",147,"\u003Cp>\"I call bullshit.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias’s smirk died down as a puzzled look danced on his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Huh?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale stared into the bottomless abyss that was Mias’s eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You know, I almost forgave you...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale sighed deeply, then continued:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Did you think I’m that dumb, Mias? Did you think I’d just accept your elaborate scheme and not look any deeper? Hell, I don’t even have to look deeper. Do you think so low of me that I’d fail to comprehend what’s on the surface?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias’s perplexed expression grew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m afraid you’ve gone and baffled me. Pray tell, what has confused you about my explanation? I’ll clarify, just ask away.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale laughed sharply:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Confused? I think I understood well. Too well. Better than you’d hoped for me to.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias’s confusion only grew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m sorry... but I think you’re confused. Here, let me explain again. When—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale cut the Demon off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No way... no way.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale stared at the fraud who called himself a scholar with a vacant expression. He was too surprised to even show surprise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Are you serious? Do you seriously not know, or are you pretending not to know?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Vale, it really seems you misunderstood something. Please, let me—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale cut Mias off again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No. No, I understood perfectly. I see now I understood better than you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias leaned back in his chair, then summoned an ottoman and rested his feet on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Go on, then. Enlighten me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale laughed as he patted the dry blood on his arm:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You know... I kind of wish you were still trying to hide it. I didn’t think you were this conceited.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias chuckled to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"One grows the right to be conceited when one’s intellect has never been meaningfully challenged. I won’t claim to always be correct, but I can claim to never being outwitted.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale sneered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’So... he really thinks highly of himself.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Alright then. What if I told you that you just didn’t realize you lost?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias chortled at Vale’s remark:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I think I’d know if I lost.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Oh... I can’t wait to see the look on his face.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Though no matter how much pleasure that look brings me, I’m too pissed to forgive him right now.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh, really? Well, tell me, Reaper of Knowledge... what would you have done if I lost my fight with Ophelia, and she was about to lop my head off?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Simple, I would have killed her. But, the oracle had most definitely erased that future, so I knew it wouldn’t happen.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Seriously?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Does he not see the flawed logic there?’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Come on, Mias. Use your brain. You even said it yourself. This oracle, their goal wasn’t to protect the village... it was to protect Ophelia.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale noticed the moment the harsh realization slapped Mias in his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His haughty demeanor began to drown out, flushed away by a terrible surprise. The hint of truth danced in his bottomless onyx eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his intelligence, once he’d finally been privy to an alternate angle of events void of his pride, the reality of everything quickly became clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All Mias could say was:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale sighed, then continued pacidly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mias, be honest. If I commanded you to kill Ophelia right now, with your other half, would you do it?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias’s face paled, even paler than it usually was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh my... no. No, I wouldn’t. She has what I want. She had presented me with an answer to a question I didn’t even know I had. It was at that moment that I decided her life had tremendous value.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’Finally...’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale gave the scholar a pained smile.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’re beginning to see?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias let the ottoman dissipate, his feet falling to the floor and forcing his body to lean forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"All too well...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Salome, on the ground, asked:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m sorry, what? Vale, can you elaborate?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale cast a glance at his Champion, covered in ash, blood, and soot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Our resident scholar just got his ass handed to him in a battle of wits, and he knows it. Salome, think about Mias’s power. It’s almost impossible for someone, other than a person with your ability to absorb Aether or one who could attack the soul, to combat him without Items — Items that neither the villagers nor Ophelia had.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Salome’s eyes narrowed in confusion until Vale added the next part.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Meaning, Ophelia had zero chance in battle against Mias if Mias decided to kill her. Even he himself stated he could kill her at any moment.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias began to chuckle, his expression vacant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale continued:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And the oracle did exactly as Mias expected. They erased the future where Mias kills by making her life an indispensable value to Mias’s pursuit of knowledge.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias sighed:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"T-that’s insane. Insanity!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale laughed, half pissed, half relieved:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Glad you see it now... the oracle wasn’t trying to help Ophelia kill me at all. They were protecting her from you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All of the evidence pointed toward Vale being correct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"After all, the oracle manipulated me into giving a reason to call off the assassination and make it a spy job. Then, they had Ophelia pique your curiosity to the point where it was much too wasteful for you to kill her. Then, they even manipulated events in a way that you would whisk her away after we defeated her, while making you think you’d completely outwitted them.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale laughed painfully, then added:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Admit it, Mias. The oracle actually won by way of saving Ophelia. You lost. You played into their hand perfectly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias, stunned, eventually managed to squawk out:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I... I lost.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vale sighed, then shouted:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Not only that, you let them mark you! Well... half of you!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias looked dejected as he stated:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That I did...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias, the scholar, the Reaper of Knowledge, had been tricked into betraying Vale straight up by this seer’s design.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>***\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mias, the marked half of him, was hiding in the mouth of a cave his other half had scouted for and found in advance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ophelia was lying down by his side, covered under a blanket of smoke, while a small fire blazed next to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ophelia could heal herself, but she’d yet to wake up, and even then, she’d have to recover her Aether before being able to do anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Mias stoked the fire, he let a part of him separate and form, so that he was looking at himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, he stared himself down and said:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Well played, oracle... well played.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1079,"2026-06-06T01:43:37.938Z",1,"novelbin.me","948fd4a3fe97167b52224363320b9732e7b19f59f97401ef3ad87da5708bf0c1","dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-chapter-148","dungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-chapter-146",306,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fdungeon-of-lust-managing-otherworldly-beauties-cover.jpg"]