CHAPTER 101: FOUR OBVIOUS REALIZATIONS

Coffee... or rather, caffeine, was a poison.

A defensive mechanism adopted by some plants to neutralize the bugs and stop them from harming the plant.

But what could work on an insect only had a mildly euphoric effect on a human.

And I saw all too well just what this innocent poison did to the whole human civilization.

’I remember there being a theory that it’s coffee that brought about the modern world,’ I smiled to my own thoughts.

I knew all about this theory. And the worst part about it?

It made perfect damn sense!

Still, with the whole ordeal now over, I clapped my hands together before hurrying everyone up to finish their drinks.

Then, after taking just a second to clean the whole station away, I bowed my head to the chief.

"Thank you for letting me use your kitchen," I said in a truly respectful tone. And right after that, "I wanted the saintess to see the fruits of her labor. That’s the least she deserved after getting those seeds out of the jungle of death."

The whole kitchen froze seven times over.

Even here, those three simple words carried a heavy meaning.

It was a frontier town full of adventurers and mercenaries, built to oversee this uncharted land.

Within the whole community of this town, however, there were only a few groups either strong or crazy enough to venture into the jungle’s depths.

And Saintess was one of them. Which only helped to tell everyone how high of a bar it was to enter the jungle.

Still, those few?

It wouldn’t be long before they would hear the news. And if I fanned things just the right way, they might become interested in harvesting some of the coffee as they expedited into the woods.

’Then, the coffee would become a drink for the rich, only making it an extremely popular novelty throughout the lower classes right when our future farms will start to yield their first harvests!’

I already had a whole plan mapped out in my head.

But just like everything else, it all started with just a single step. And the secret part to life I personally tried to believe in?

No matter how hard the objective, there was always a clear line of steps one had to make to reach their goal. Whether successful or not, those steps would always define a result.

And all that was left to me was to walk this preordained path.

"What are you all smirking about?" Selia asked as soon as we slipped out from the kitchen, the air of shock growing too heavy for us.

And by all means, even though I doubted caffeine had any effect on Selia, she already drank two cups!

’She’s really excited, isn’t she?’ I thought as she dragged me through the busy hall, with customers divided into those who peered into the kitchen and those who did not.

Selia, however, ignored all the stares as she happily dragged me up the stairs, her behavior reaching the levels of a perfectly happy drunk.

Which, as I could imagine, could be easily explained through just one mistake I made.

I assumed that whatever it was that made Selia as powerful as she was would make the effects of the caffeine weaker, lesser in comparison.

But how could I expect this not to be the case?

In every single piece of fiction I’ve read, the overpowered protagonist would go through a plight of losing their ability to get intoxicated.

So how could coffee affect Selia so much?

I didn’t really have time to think about it all, though, not with Selia dragging me up the stairs. Before I could blink my eyes, I already found the two of us to be back in the room, with Selia leaning back against the door to close them behind her.

"We did it."

She uttered a short whisper, her face calming down, relaxing, as if someone removed a whole load from her mind. Then she looked up, all startled.

"We did it!"

Her lips split asunder, her eyes brightened.

"Mhmmmm!"

Selia squeezed her hands down into fists before shutting her eyes and mouth closed and squirming down, holding a happy squeal built up in her lungs.

She then started to stomp up and down, desperately trying to keep her happy outburst contained.

If she were to be too loud, other residents of the inn would be sure to hear her. And that wouldn’t fit the public persona she was doing her best to maintain.

’If only...’

Looking down at her, all overjoyed yet struggling to contain her happiness out of those irrational reasons?

I took a step forward. Then another.

Not to kiss. Not to embrace.

Guided by a strange, sudden feeling, I reached out... And laid my hand gently down on Selia’s shoulder.

I didn’t try to hold her down nor did I squeeze her. I just... rested my hand on her shoulder.

The world... shimmered.

As if the signal to the TV of my reality was suddenly broken.

All of the reality around me started to warp, some parts of it stretching extremely thin while others grew impossibly narrow.

I couldn’t move.

In this reality, nothing made any damn sense.

I was awake... but I was also asleep.

The left suddenly pointed to the right while right pointed backwards. Two straight lines crossed many times before shooting off into different directions. There could be triangles with five or more angles.

The sense of reality itself broke apart all around me, torn between the two contrasting states of its existence.

And through this dichotomy, I realized what was happening.

Somehow, something was going on with my mana. Or, to be more precise, with how it now flowed through my body, as if dragged along by the magnetic pull of Selia’s manaflow.

Then, I opened up my eyes as wide as my face allowed when a massive realization struck me.

A realization so powerful, it even made Selia suddenly reel back, stunned by the wave of intense self-loathing.

’That’s such an obvious thing to try right off the bat!’

I was now in a fantasy world. Somehow, I scored a horny saintess for a fated waifu. And only now did I realize that maybe magic... or, in this case, cultivation...

Maybe those could still be possible for me in this world?

What if those two could be adapted to whatever force existed in this world?

I gulped down my spit as another realization struck me.

Truly, an apple-falling-down-on-a-Newton’s-head kind of a moment.

Because I noticed an extremely erroneous assumption I’d made quite some time ago.

I believed this world was steered by fate.

But I’d never asked what, in turn, powered the fate.

What kind of force?

Wouldn’t mana be the most obvious one?

And with that kind of thinking, I realized the third obvious thing.

I never really gained any magical powers beyond what my system charitably shared with me. Not because it was impossible but because I assumed it was and thus never explored the possibility!

Still, there was a fourth obvious thing stuck in my head.

One that triumphed over them all.

The fact that I could easily feel the tension in Selia’s back.

I merely kept hold of her shoulders, but the soreness of her muscles, the excitement-born excitement from the coffee, a whole mix of emotions from our recent unpleasant trip...

’That’s right.’

I shook off all the oppressive thoughts, focusing on the only thing that mattered right now.

At this precise moment, I couldn’t care any less about realizing that I could train to get stronger.

There was something far more important than gaining the ability to flex my muscles and to stop relying on Selia for protection. And that was to make her able to freely express her joy.

Because with how stiff her back was, she couldn’t handle stifling her joy for much longer. And somehow, not even the aftershocks of my consecutive realization of the four obvious things were enough to make Selia stop her desperate attempts to stay silent.

And so, with the fumes of both of our auras mixing together, I raised my hand while keeping it still, somehow adapting to the dueling of the nonsense-world warping right before my eyes.

Nothing mattered. Nothing made any sense.

Other than allowing Selia to freely relax.

My hand moved through the air, despite staying perfectly still by my arm.

A flash lit up my eyes from behind, as if born from within my skull.

The aura of our manas shook.

Then...

"Huh?" Selia looked up, all curious yet still gnashing her teeth not to erupt with a long-suppressed laughter.

I reached out over to her forehead before using my hand to push away the silky strands of her silvery hair. With my thumb sliding over Selia’s skin, I gently pressed her head back before leaning over.

The world, the rules, and any sense of logic be damned, but I was going to pull my weight!

And with a perfectly affectionate kiss landing upon Selia’s forehead, I finished the requirements of the quest that I’d just written into my dreamworld.

That was the truth I discovered about this senseless world.

It was a buggy mix of stuff... and anti-stuff. The reality of matter and the reality where the very concept of matter was absurd. And when they merged for me, under the influence of Selia’s mana and my own mana starting to circulate...

I somehow managed to design a new quest.

And now, it was time to cash in on the reward.

I raised my head up a tiny little bit, burying my nose into Selia’s hair before inhaling until my lungs were full.

Then, I brought my head down before pressing my forehead against Selia’s and then leaning in with my chin, as if going for an actual kiss.

But I didn’t.

Instead, my lips moved, still too far to even crease against Selia’s, but perfectly close enough for her to hear everything I whispered next.

’Let me grant you silence.’