CHAPTER 102: WHO CARES ABOUT THE SYSTEM, I HAVE A PROMISE TO UPHOLD!

To say I had no clue what was going on would be an overestimation.

A slight one, but still.

I did have some clues. I did feel the familiarity of the two mixing extremes, as if I was perfectly well acquainted with both of them while only the product of the two ended up confusing.

I could guess they had something to do with the only part of my life that made me special. Not in some poetic, philosophical way, but the most direct aspect that made me different from others - my ability to enter the world of my dreams.

But now?

None of it mattered.

How I managed to be stuck in the chaotic mess of the two extreme perspectives of the world and reality at once and yet, despite that, interact with the versions of the reality, by walking in the real world...

Or by inscribing a quest in my dream-world.

A quest that I have now, with the affectionate kiss on Selia’s forehead, completed, allowing me to use the ability I designed on the spot to be the quest’s reward.

"Let me grant you silence."

My words gently fanned over Selia’s face, the breath coming from my mouth with sparks of my mana, mana I didn’t even invoke.

’Could it be...?’

For a moment, I connected the doors.

My mana moving, under the influence of the flow of Selia’s own mana, my lack of ability or even knowledge to handle it, the new and new ways in which I came to experience this world...

Magic was just one of those things. But now, everything that I came to experience in this world came crashing down, boiling into this single exercise where my mana infused into my words.

I never controlled them.

I didn’t even think to reach out and grab the words coming out of my mouth the same way I saw Selia did. It was only when they escaped from my mouth that I even came to think about it.

And the results were all there to see... which, in our current case, only meant the two of us.

Energy surged from within me, boiling up through my skin for a second before exploding outwards.

Contrary to an explosion, however, the expansion of my mana only brought with it peace, calm, and silence.

Stunned, we both could only stare and watch in wonder how the tendrils of my skill reached further and further away, all the way to the point when they covered the entire room, tightly sealing it away from the rest of the world.

"What’s that?" Selia asked, her laughter finally easing in favor of curiosity sparking in her eyes.

With the world still divided between reality and unreality, I had a much easier time following the flow of the mana than I had tracking what was the reality and what was a creation of it merging with unreality. And yet, I could tell - Selia’s eyes didn’t follow random movement stirred up by the spread of the mana shockwave.

No, her eyes followed directly after the mana, tracking it like a hunter would track prey.

And yet?

While she could watch it spread, the look on her face made it clear - she couldn’t make sense out of what this mana was supposed to be.

Or so she couldn’t, until the first moment when the expansion of my mana concluded and we stood silent for long enough for us both to notice the slight uncanniness of this place.

It was too silent, too peaceful.

Even without the two of us speaking, we should be hearing the noises coming from the floor below, where over a hundred people gathered to eat, to drink and to make merry. Even if somehow the show we gave in the kitchen made everyone leave the inn for some unspecified reason...

There were still people on the outside! Even some night birds singing their cries or rodents squeaking as they ran from one gutter to the other pile of trash.

Even in the city, there should be a thousand sounds and noises constantly assaulting us from every direction.

And yet, there were none.

"What’s going on?" The curiosity in Selia’s eyes turned into worry and then concern, only to dissipate when I raised my head and gently lowered it down over her head, acting more daring than I ever did before.

"I believe it’s thanks to my spell," I revealed, even though I couldn’t be sure of my words, not until I accessed the dreamworld in the usual way to confirm it. "It’s just..." I looked away while raising my hand to scratch the back of my head. "When I saw you try so hard to stifle your joy and when I remembered how much you’ve changed once we had company..."

I shook my head with a helpless look on my face.

"I just had to do something," I explained while spreading my arms open and giving them a shake. "And since I suddenly found myself able to access the power to change my system without falling asleep..."

Another shrug of my shoulders served as an explanation for the rest of the story.

I was desperate to help Selia in something I privately decided to be a big deal.

Then, I did something that I could never do before, jumping head-first into forces that could as easily alter the fabric of reality as easily as they could tear me into bloody strips.

Next, without the slightest care in the world, I used the power obtained through such means... All so that Selia could express her joy free of restraints, free of worry that someone would hear her and... And then whatever she expected to happen once she would slip out of the role, to happen.

Pretty simple, easy, and straightforward, isn’t it?

"Why do I feel like..." Selia started only to then lower her eyes, bring her mouth together and then shake her head with a sigh. "Well, it’s best if I don’t even think about it," she admitted with a huge degree of mental exhaustion.

Thankfully, for how stupid and overzealous to do something as I was, my actions did end up with great results - now that she was done being mad at me, Selia actually turned her interest back to my spell.

And judging by every possible metric I could access, she was loving it.

"Woah..." A soft whisper would escape from her mouth as she leaned it over a seemingly random point and looked closer upon the way mana coiled upon itself in that place. Then, her whole body would freeze as her head rapidly shifted in the other direction, direction she would be then sure to follow and investigate.

This process lasted for quite a lot longer than I expected, pushing me to just watch as Selia made rounds, checking one interesting point after the other. And within her investigation, I could see the same sparks of joy as before finally reappear in her eyes.

"Okay, this spell really is something..." Selia admitted as she returned to her seat on the edge of the bed with a defeated look on her face. "Some parts of it make obvious sense, others are solvable but then there are some that-" Selia abruptly paused her sentence just to shake her head with a flash of sour look on her face.

"Just so that we are in the clear, I’m not sure how exactly I cast it, so I don’t think I will be of much help when it comes to solving how it works," I added, just to save Selia the disappointment if she came to think to ask me for some help.

"Oh, that I could tell already," Selia threw me a grin while leaning over to point her face straight at me. "It bore all the marks of a casual release, so I would be more surprised if you were actually able to control it somehow," she explained, even though she ended up using words I could only try to understand from context rather than knowing their meaning by heart.

Then, however, she leaned back on the bed against her outstretched hands before throwing me a playful glance.

"I did notice how this room is now perfectly separated from the outside," she added, her playful smirk transforming into a slightly less obvious expression. "But while I understand why you made this room soundproof..."

Selia allowed her words to linger in the air as she kept her eyes right on mine, refusing me the right to look away to take some time to think things through.

’Since this room is now soundproof...’

I squinted my eyes before gulping my saliva and then taking a step forward.

Yet, the very moment I reached out to grab her hand, the reality coiled all around me.

And the next thing I knew, there was now a huge ice-cream cone in my left hand while with my extended right, rather than asking Selia for her hand, I ended up handing her over a huge, fruit and whipped-cream crepe?!

I froze.

Then, my eyes widened.

Because right this very moment, Saintess’ body changed.

A bunch of shimmering light descended upon her, basking her in an intense and thick aura of gold. An aura that then both vanished and stayed in place at the same time.

Vanished, for the source of the light that created it was now gone. But it remained, because it has now turned into one hell of a modern, sexy yet elegant dress that appeared to be woven directly from the strands of light!

’A dress most beautiful in this entire world. And an ice-cream and a crepe...’ I gulped my saliva down as I happily passed the sweet treats to the equally-as-stunned Saintess.

Selia, however, didn’t care all that much. Not when she accepted the treat into her hands, gave it a judging look... and then took a first bite, only for it to melt all of her worries and concerns away.

I, however, couldn’t move from my spot.

Because I could recognize the quests that were supposed to reward me with those things.

Rewards designed both to make Selia happy and to tell me a bit more about how far I could push my system in terms of ridiculous demands.

And now it was confirmed.

My system could produce stuff that never existed in this world before. Or, what was all the more likely, it could somehow access the goods and knowledge from Earth!

But then, for all the discoveries, information and opportunities I just glanced upon, I couldn’t care less about all of that system shit. Not right now.

I didn’t even care how I fulfilled this quest, where both of those rewards required me to take Selia out for a thematic date - which I still was on a planning stage of!

No, right now, there was only one thing that held any weight and importance.

The promise I made regarding our date and how it would end. A promise that would reconnect my reluctance with Selia’s eagerness.

And judging from how we were now in effectively a soundproof room while Selia was all-smiles as she happily devoured the otherworldly sweet treats...

When would I have a better shot to make our first night one to remember, a truly special experience that we would forever hold in our memory?