Transmigrated Into a Cannon Fodder Phoenix, Stuck With the Ice Dragon-Chapter 111: Place With No Magic

Seraphina turned to face Lucian.

"No, I’m okay, really." She forced a small smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. "It’s just... curiosity, I guess."

Lucian studied her quietly, the way he always did when he didn’t believe her but chose not to argue.

"Curiosity doesn’t hurt like this," he said softly.

Her gaze flickered away from him, toward the flowers she had just been tending, as if suddenly they were far more interesting than his eyes.

"It’s nothing," she insisted again, too quickly. "I just... keep thinking. About things that will never make sense."

Lucian didn’t let it go.

"What is it?" he asked gently. "If it’s bothering you, tell me. Maybe I can answer your curiosity... or at least help make sense of the things that don’t."

Seraphina shook her head slowly.

"You know... ever since I arrived here," she said quietly, "nothing has really made sense. Not even once."

Lucian’s brows drew together at her words.

"Arrived?" he repeated carefully. "When you say that... where do you mean you came from?"

She hesitated.

Not because she didn’t know the answer, but because she wasn’t sure he would believe her if she told him the truth.

"Do you believe," Seraphina began quietly, "that there are other realms?"

Lucian’s gaze softened, but he didn’t laugh. He didn’t dismiss it.

"In a world like this?" he replied gently. "I’d be a fool not to."

Her fingers tightened around his.

"Then..." she swallowed. "What if I told you I didn’t grow up here? Not really. That I came from a place with no magic. No phoenixes. No dragons."

She forced a small, nervous smile.

"Just... people. Normal ones. Roads that never change. Skies that don’t glow. A world where fire is just fire, and not something that lives inside you."

Lucian didn’t interrupt.

So she went on, "I wasn’t special there," she whispered. "I wasn’t chosen. I wasn’t feared by someone else. I wasn’t... anything. I was just another girl trying to live through each day without breaking."

She let out a breath that felt like it had been trapped inside her chest for a lifetime.

"And then one day, I was here. In this body. In this world. In a life that doesn’t belong to me but somehow... does." Her gaze finally lifted to him. "You don’t have to believe me," she said quietly. "I just... didn’t want to lie to you anymore."

Her voice trembled, not from fear, but from the weight of finally being honest.

"Of course I believe you," Lucian said softly. He lifted his hands, cupping her cheeks, his thumb brushing against her skin in slow, gentle circles. "Then... how did you end up here?"

Seraphina pressed her lips together, thinking.

"My best friend gave me a small bottle of phoenix tears," she said quietly. "I made a wish on it and then... poof." She let out a small breath that almost sounded like a laugh. "I woke up in your office."

Lucian lowered his head just slightly, his jaw tightening.

So Darian had been right after all.

The phoenix tears were her anchor. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

And that truth settled in his chest painfully, not with relief, but with the quiet anxiety of knowing that even miracles came with limits.

Lucian’s gaze sharpened just a little, though his voice stayed gentle.

"So the bottle of tears..." he asked quietly. "Is it still with you?"

Seraphina blinked, then shook her head.

"I... don’t think so," she admitted. "It was nowhere to be found when I arrived the first time. But after that day... I never saw it again. I thought maybe it was just part of the whole ’wish’ thing. Like it disappeared once it worked."

Lucian’s chest tightened before he managed a nod.

"Why?" Seraphina asked, tilting her head slightly. "Do you want to travel to other realms too?" Her smile widened, playful, almost teasing.

For a second, he didn’t answer.

His thumb brushed lightly over the back of her hand, a small, grounding motion, as though he were reminding himself that she was here. Alive. Real.

"No," he said at last, his voice quiet but certain. "I don’t need other worlds."

She blinked in surprise.

Lucian met her eyes, the faintest smile touching his lips, not lighthearted, but deep and steady.

"I already found the one I’d follow anywhere."

Seraphina’s breath caught, just for a moment.

He added gently, as if afraid a heavier truth might show through if he spoke too plainly, "Besides... this world feels big enough when you’re in it."

The warmth in his gaze made her chest ache in a way she didn’t quite have words for.

And without realizing it, she leaned closer and whispered, "That’s a waste, you know... in my world, we have a lot of pretty women."

Lucian paused, as if actually considering it.

Then he lifted a brow slightly, his lips curving with quiet amusement. "Is that a warning," he asked, "or a threat?"

She let out a small breath that was halfway between a laugh and a sigh.

"I’m just saying," she murmured, trying to sound casual, "you could’ve had countless admirers. Models. Celebrities. People who don’t set things on fire by accident."

He studied her face for a second longer than necessary, eyes soft in a way that made her words lose their edge.

"And miss this?" he said lightly, gesturing at her. "I would rather spend a lifetime learning the shape of your silence than chase a thousand voices that don’t matter."

Her breath caught, just for a heartbeat.

Lucian’s thumb brushed gently against her knuckle, grounding, steady.

"My world didn’t become brighter because you arrived," he added quietly. "It became meaningful."

She looked away first, not because she wanted to, but because her chest felt too full all at once.

"Do dragons eat honey every morning?" she blurted suddenly.

"Honey?" Lucian echoed, momentarily thrown off by the question. His brows knit together in confusion.

"Hm... Honey..." she repeated, clearly not explaining herself at all.

A small laugh escaped him before he could stop it. He shook his head. "No, we eat the same things you do. Bread. Meat. Fruit. Soup. Why?"

She finally looked back at him, a tiny smile tugging at her lips.

"Because your way of speaking is dripping with sweetness and—"

"My lord," Sebastian cut in urgently.

Both of them turned at once.

Sebastian stood a few steps away, his expression tight with something between relief and tension. He took a breath before speaking again, as if steadying himself.

"Lord Auren..." he said carefully. "He found the marble sphere!"