"Even though Alfred did not choose me, I was happy to spend the majority of my life at that time with the empire by having a close rtionship with the Imperial family. Due to my achievements, Alfred appointed me as the first Imperial Court Mage of the empire. For the rest of my life, I served the empire with my magic.


    Since I was nning to live and die like a human, I offered apprenticeships to the one with potential in magic to pass down my legacy."


    "Uh, huh."


    In bed, Raphael was invested in the stories Iris had been narrating to him, although they were mostly about the hero. But inwardly, he was a bit envious that Alfred was Iris''s first love, not him. Nevertheless, he was already gone from the picture long ago, so Raphael did not have to worry about it.


    "My two best students got married, and one of them became the next Imperial Court Mage. Decades after I faked my death, the empire at that time granted them peerage, and they became a noble family. Several centuries and generationster, the family continued to gain ranks until they reached earldom. Wanna guess what family it is?"


    "Court mages, huh... Your family? The Arcenciel?"


    "You hit the mark, Raphael. Our family has been consistent in producing court mages. Since the Arcenciel family has sentimental value to me, I have been reincarnating myself in the family."


    "I see. Regarding the hero, if I remember correctly, history did not state or barely have a record of what happened to him after his reign. So did you know what happened to him? Though it was said that he passed away from a natural cause."


    "Well, Alfred spent the rest of his life in the dungeon, and he sadly died of old age since he did not reach a thousand levels, so he did not evolve and achieve immortality. Even if he did, he still would not live forever as he wanted to rest peacefully with his wife."


    "You must be sad."


    "Yeah, I used to love him after all. But that was what he desired, and I respected his decisions." Iris briefly closed her eyes, reminiscing about the past. "It was the first time I felt love, and his loss truly hurt me. He always told me not to worry about him. It took time, but I was able to let him rest in peace."


    "I am sorry for making you remember that, Iris."


    "Don''t worry about it, Raphael. It''s been about a thousand years, and I have recovered myself from the pain and grief."


    "If you say so, then that''s good to hear."


    Expressing his empathy for her, Raphael tightened his embrace around her. Iris was delighted by it and hugged him as well to appreciate his efforts to cheer her up.


    "Thank you for your understanding, Raphael."


    "You''re wee."


    "Um, do you really don''t mind when I talk about other men? I wanted to know your thoughts about it."


    "? Not really. No offense, he already passed away a long time ago, so I don''t really mind. Moreover, you have me now. If you are still thinking about him, perhaps it is because you see him on me? Is it possible that I am his reincarnation?"


    "I don''t think that is the case, Raphael. As someone who has reached the higher realm, identifying a person by their soul is not an issue. Out of all the beings I have encountered so far, the souls of the otherworlders are very unique from one another or from anybody in this world."


    "Really?"


    "Yes. When the physical vessel had died, the soul remained the same even after repeating the cycle of reincarnation. I have encountered many people in this world that have the same soul with someone from the past because they reincarnated. But the souls of the otherworlders werepletely new. Your soul is totally different from Alfred''s and also from any other otherworlders."


    "Hmm. It''s probably because the souls can reincarnate locally; it means the souls cannot stay outside of their world or universe. I was basically dragged here from my previous world, so that exins my uniqueness."


    "Probably."


    As Raphael just said, souls could not escape their own verse unless there was an outside interference, such as the intervention of godly beings. He experienced it himself, so he considered himself an anomaly in this world.


    Although souls could be reincarnated repeatedly, it was not infinite. Once a soul was reincarnated a certain number of times, it wouldpletely vanish and disappear from existence forever with absolutely no means of return.


    "By the way, going back to our previous topic, after the hero, did you meet the next otherworlder?"


    "Ah, yes, at that time, it was a woman. Right now, she is known as the Mother of Arts."


    "Queen Adeline Astley... She really was an otherworlder, huh?" Raphael sighed as he was able to confirm that im. "So what kind of person was the Mother of Art?"


    "If you ask me, unlike the previous ones, she did not possess powerful abilities, and her prowess was very average. Even though she had been married to the crown prince of Astley at that time, I was able to meet her personally because I was also a noblewoman in that life."


    "Right, you just said that you had set the Arcenciel family as your spawn point."


    "?" Iris confusedly stared at him as she did not understand the terminologies he just said, but she bugged it off and continued exining. "When I managed to talk to her privately, I immediately revealed my intentions, and then I told her that I knew her secret."


    "So, like ckmailing her?"


    "If you put it that way, kind of, but I did not intend to. Nevertheless, she bought into and got scared of me before she disclosed the details of her previous life. Apparently, what she wished from the Goddess was that she wanted to be a noblewoman in her next life with the knowledge and information of the next five hundred years."


    "I see. So that''s how she came up with the technologies that only existed after the time of her hypothetical transmigration, like the piano. But if she had 500 years of knowledge, why didn''t she recreate electronics?"


    "Electronics? I think I heard something like that from her, but she exined she could not make it due to some reasons like the avability of the materials. Also, she said that she did not understand the very concept of it, like how it works. She said that her brain cannot process all the information she has in her head."


    Raphael seemed to understand the problems of the art queen. He just thought that a person from the Middle Ages would be bewildered if you showed them a telephone or a car.


    Even though the queen had all the information, she did not have enough intelligence to properly digest all the information. Inyman''s terms, she had a skill issue. There was also the risk of her being used of heresy if she went overboard.


    "There was also the problem of her lifespan that limited her time to implement them all," Iris resumed. "That was why she decided to forget about it. Moreover, she found magic more convenient, so she just focused more on her passion for art and music."


    "So that''s why she became the Mother of Arts instead."


    (But it still doesn''t exin how brassieres existed centuries before she was born or how they even predated the ones in my previous world...) He baffled inwardly.


    "Thank you for providing me answers, Iris."


    "Anything for you, Raphael."


    The two of them stayed in bed for a while.