novelraw Chapter 114 – When The Morning is Just Us
Chapter 114 – When The Morning is Just Us
“So… what exactly happened in the last two years?”
Selena’s voice was soft and sleepy as she lay beside me, her arm still curled possessively around my waist under the shared blanket. We hadn’t moved from the bed since waking up, not that either of us was eager to break the comfort.
Her golden eyes peered up at me curiously. I took a deep breath.
“Well… quite a lot, actually,” I said. “But we’ve got time, so I’ll explain.”
I shared everything, bit by bit, until there was nothing left unsaid.
Selena listened in silence, her fingers absentmindedly tracing patterns along my chest as I spoke. Every so often, she’d glance up with soft wonder, or let out a quiet hum.
“Our stock of magic stones for lamps and the last of our seasonings are running low,” I added. “I didn’t even know where to get more. Good thing you woke up before we had to start flavoring food with desperation.”
She giggled and rested her chin lightly against my shoulder. “I usually go into town every two or three years to restock. Last time was… right before I found you.”
“That explains the dwindling supply…”
There was a pause as she lightly brushed her fingers across my cheek. “Oh, right, did anyone come while I was asleep?”
“Huh?” I blinked. “No? It’s just been me here.”
That was a weird question. This place was remote, basically off the map. Who would even know it existed?
“…That’s strange,” she frowned slightly.
“Why?”
She nodded slowly. “Normally, the Dragon King or Queen visits once every ten years. They should’ve come last year.”
“...Huh?”
【Huh?】
Both Aza and I reacted the same way.
“D-Did you just say Dragon King and Queen?” My voice cracked slightly.
“Mhm.” She said it so casually I thought I’d misheard her. “They usually check in on me. My master and I once saved one of their hatchlings. As thanks, they agreed to look after me after she passed. So they visit every decade.”
I stared at her in horror.
“Y-You’re saying literal dragons drop by like house guests?! If even one of them showed up near a town, it’d trigger a nation-wide emergency!”
And what she mentioned were not just any dragons but the King and the Queen themselves!
Selena just shrugged, completely unfazed. “They’re prideful, sure, but intelligent. Not the wild beasts people think. If you treat them with respect, they’ll do the same. If you ever meet one, you can just use my name~”
“…You’re more famous than I thought,” I muttered.
She gave a proud little smirk, but her expression turned wistful. “Still… it worries me that they haven’t come.”
I could see the genuine concern behind her eyes, and I reached over to hold her hand gently.
“Do you… want to go see them?”
“I do,” she whispered, squeezing my fingers, “but they live on a northern island. I’m too weak to cross the ocean now.”
“I see…”
She sighed, then smiled again. “Anyway. Enough about dragons. I still have to name the two souls living inside me, don’t I?”
Pom!
Pii!
The eager responses chimed immediately from within her. Selena giggled, the sound soft and melodic.
“Hmm… Werewolf and black cat, right?”
While she pondered, I turned inward, activating my appraisal.
Back when she was still asleep, her trust level had been marked as Unknown. I never got to check again last night... We were, uh, busy.
⟦ STATUS WINDOW ⟧
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Selena Calytrix
Age: 400
Race: Half-Elf
Title:Otherworlder, Engineer Master, Magic Artisan
State:Hungry
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Essence ⟭
Mana: 0/2024
Aura: 2012/2012
Vitality: 1775
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Attributes ⟭
Strength: 1555
Magic Power:2067
Mental Power:2035
Agility: 1912
Dexterity: 1826
Magic Resistance: 2334
Mental Resistance: 2003
Status Points: 23236
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Element Affinity ⟭
Light, Fire, Heavenfire, Dark, Hellfire
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Skills ⟭
— Active —
Attack:
Elemental Ball, Elemental Blade, Blazeburst Nova, Cinderstorm Fury, Divine Emberstorm
Defend:
Elemental Barrier, Eclipsis Gloweave, Serenilum Halo
Buff:
Vulcanshroud Emberwalk, Scorchbrand Pyromancy, Astral Pyreweaving
Recovery:
Great Heal (9), Area Great Heal (3), Great Purification (8), Area Great Purification (2), Sacrosanct Pyrelume
Mix:
Daybreak Emanation, Celestial Emberflare, Heavenfire Luminaegis
Others:
Appraisal (9), Element Manipulation, Aurora Radiance, Clean
— Passive —
Footwork:
Breeze Footwork (10), Flamelight Footwork (10), Luminiferno Steps (10), Ignistride (10), Solar Emberdance (10)
Swordsmanship:
Pyrolume Swordcraft (10), Solarflare Swordmastery (10), Solar Blazeblade (10)
Others:
Language Comprehension, Parallel Thinking (10), Mana Detection (10), Eternal Youth Illusion
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟬ Other Information ⟭
Trust: Exceeds the maximum
Note: You need the target’s consent to manipulate the target's status.
Note: Target meets requirement for Immortal Bonds.
Note: You need the target’s consent to use Immortal Bonds.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
I never stopped being amazed every time I appraised Selena.
Her skill list was a labyrinth of advanced techniques, ranging from refined footwork to high-tier magic and swordsmanship. Most of them were so unique that even Aza couldn’t give a proper explanation. Even the appraisal couldn’t break them down. Technically, I could look them up in the book she left behind… but I was too stubborn for that.
Anyway, my Appraisal skill had come a long way, too.
Level 4: Reveals the target’s titles and current state.
Level 5: Reveals mana and aura.
Level 6: Reveals mental power and resistance.
Level 7: Reveals magic power and resistance.
Level 8: Reveals passive skills.
Level 9: Reveals active skills (which nearly gave me a headache the first time, but Aza helped me categorize everything).
Now that I’d reached level 10, it unlocked one more thing.
“Huh…?” I muttered, blinking at the result.
“Hmm? What’s up, darling?” Selena looked at me with sleepy curiosity, still clinging to my side.
“Ah, nothing serious. I just appraised you. I wanted to check your trust level since appraisal level 10 is supposed to show it as a percentage. But yours didn’t show a number. It just said… ‘exceeds the maximum’.”
Aza then explained.
【It means her trust in you can’t be measured, Master. It surpasses quantification, like the unwavering faith of a believer in their goddess, or the absolute loyalty of a knight to their king.】
“Of course!” Selena chimed in proudly, without a hint of hesitation. “If my trust in you could be measured, it would be infinite!”
I covered my face, already overwhelmed. “Please… stop saying things like that so casually…”
Selena, naturally unfazed, continued, “So appraisal level 10 can reveal trust, huh? That’s a useful feature. Might be good for telling friend from foe.”
【Not always.】
Aza interjected.
【Some people trust their enemies, like a rival they respect.】
“Ah, that makes sense…”
【Others might trust in your ability, but secretly envy you. Trust doesn’t always mean good intentions.】
“Right…” I nodded slowly, her logic sound.
Selena looked thoughtful. “So, even if someone trusts you, they might still want to harm you…”
【Exactly. So you should also be careful of my Master. He might envy your ridiculous skill list.】
““Huh?”” Selena and I replied in unison.
She turned to me with mock suspicion. “Darling, are you envious of my skills?”
I let out another sigh. “Haa… I mean, maybe a little. You’ve got an insane amount of skills.”
Original magic? That was practically legendary. Of course I was envious, but that didn’t mean I had ill intentions.
She leaned closer.
“Then… Do you want to kill me out of envy?”
“What kind of question is that!?”
She laughed, resting her head on my chest. “Even if you wanted to… I wouldn’t mind.”
I sighed and muttered, “You say the scariest things with a smile…”
She just giggled again, far too happy, clearly enjoying my flustered reaction.
Still, her level of trust in me was terrifying in its intensity. If I asked her to jump off a cliff, she might actually do it with a smile.
Then her eyes lit with a sudden thought. “Wait… did you ever read that book I left behind?”
“Nope.” I smirked. “Why read a book when the real deal’s right here with me?”
“Are you sure?”
She gave me a mischievous smile, the kind that made my spine tingle like I’d just triggered a hidden trap.
“...Uh, please go easy on me, Master.”
“Hehe~ You calling me Master feels so nostalgic. But from now on, I want you to call me sweetheart instead.”
“S-Sweetheart…?” I blinked.
“Un. In my previous life, you always called me sweetheart, and I called you darling. So let’s bring that back, okay?”
“Haa… That’s… embarrassing. I’ll consider it. How about I just call you Len instead of Selena for now?”
“Oh? Did you know you used to call me that too? Len was your little nickname for me. See? You and him really are the same person.”
“Aigoo…”
I sighed again, rubbing my forehead.
Now that I thought about it, if her name was Helen in her past life, then… yeah, Len would’ve been the natural nickname I picked.
I was basically playing right into her hands without even realizing it.
“Since we're on the topic of names,” I began, “Sel—Len… I’d like to ask for your permission.”
“Yes, permission granted,” she replied instantly, her tone soft and sure.
“Hey—! I haven’t even said what it is yet!”
“You don’t need to,” she murmured, her eyes steady and warm. “Whatever it is… if it’s for you, I’ll gladly give it.”
Her voice was so gentle, so full of affection, that it made my chest tighten. She wasn’t joking. She meant every word. If I’d asked for the stars, she’d probably try to pluck them down one by one.
“Haa… I just wanted to adopt Calytrix as my last name,” I admitted, turning my face slightly to hide the heat creeping up my neck as I scratched my cheek awkwardly. “That’s all.”
“Really?” she blinked, then smiled. “You’re free to use it however you like. In our past life, your last name became Calytrix too after we got married.”
Her eyes softened with nostalgia before she tilted her head slightly. “But may I ask why?”
“Because… I think it sounds cool.” I mumbled the last part, still avoiding her gaze.
She stared at me for a moment, then laughed.
“Pffahahaha!”
“Ugh… Don’t laugh… it’s embarrassing.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she said between chuckles, holding her stomach as her silver hair slipped over her shoulder. “It’s just… in our past life, the Calytrix name sent soldiers into panic on the battlefield. People turned pale just hearing it. And now here you are, thinking it’s cool. That’s… really cute.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“I-I see…”
So she wasn’t laughing at me, but just at the contrast between the name’s legacy and my reasoning.
She reached out and took my hand in both of hers, her smile gentler now.
“Well then,” she said softly, “from this day forward, you are Freed Calytrix.”
She leaned in and placed a light kiss on my forehead, her voice no more than a breath.
“So,” I asked, shifting slightly to face her as the morning sun filtered gently across our bed, “have you decided on names for those two?”
Selena sat up just a little, silver hair tumbling down her back like moonlight draped in silk. Her golden eyes sparkled with excitement.
“Yes!” she said, her voice light with anticipation.
Pom!
Pii!
Even though we couldn’t see them, the responses from the two spirits inside her rang clear, through the subtle echoes in our souls.
The werewolf spirit pulsed with eager energy, bold and warm like a rising flame. The black cat, meanwhile, pressed in shyly, her aura soft and hesitant but full of curiosity.
“Oh, you two are so excited.” Selena chuckled warmly, placing a hand lightly over her chest, as if cradling them within her. “Alright then…”
She closed her eyes for a moment, as if searching for the perfect words.
“For my little sister werewolf…” she said gently, “your name will be…”
Pom?
The impression came with a head tilt and perked ears, like a young pup hearing its name for the first time.
“Luna!” Selena said with a smile. “Your name is Luna. Do you like it?”
Pom!
The spirit radiated joy, and Selena laughed, her voice tinged with maternal affection.
“I’m glad you like it, Luna.”
Pom!
The pulse of warmth grew stronger, like a tail wagging inside her soul.
“And as for my shy little black cat…” Selena turned her attention inward again. “Your name will be…”
Pii…
The hesitant meow brushed against her.
“Noir!” Selena said softly. “Your name is Noir. Do you like it?”
Pii!!
That burst of emotion felt like a spin in midair, her joy blooming across our shared connection.
Selena’s eyes crinkled with delight. “Yay~”
Pom!
Pii!
Luna and Noir bounced together inside her like kids who’d just been gifted their first toys, echoing in pulses that made our hearts flutter.
Selena turned to me with a proud smile, still glowing from the moment. “How about you, darling? Do you like the names I gave them?”
“U-Uh… yeah…” I scratched my cheek awkwardly, glancing to the side.
She narrowed her eyes. “You’re hiding something.”
Haa… she's sharp.
I sighed.
“It’s not a big deal. It’s just that… in my past life, Luna meant ‘moon’ and Noir meant ‘black’. They’re kind of… straightforward.”
In anime, those names were extremely common.
【Selena, I thought you had a good naming sense. Your skill names are unique and poetic. But it seems… I was mistaken.】
Even Aza shared the same opinion as me. But still… isn’t that quite harsh?
Len’s face dropped a little, her ears almost visibly drooping. “So… the names I picked are bad?”
Oh no.
“No, no, don’t get the wrong idea!” I sat up and waved my hands. “I think they’re fine. Really! And more importantly…”
I placed my hand gently over her heart, just above the edge of her shirt… if she wears one.
“They like them, don’t they?”
Pom!
Pii!
The spirits bounced again, clearly showing their approval.
“See?” I smiled. “They’re happy with them. That’s what matters.”
“…Really?” she murmured, still unsure.
“Un. Totally.”
Pom!
Pii!
The invisible energy within her pulsed again, gently brushing against us both, affirming her choices.
Eventually, her smile returned, gentle and full of relief.
“Okay then… Nice to meet you, Luna, Noir.”
“Nice to meet you, Luna, Noir,” I followed.
【Let’s get along, Luna, Noir!】
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Pom!
Pii!
I felt Fia and Nyx inside me echo the sentiment, giddy and welcoming. Fia’s soul shimmered with a musical chime, while Nyx’s energy brushed against mine with a quiet hum of happiness.
The spiritual chorus was adorable, their voices like musical notes chiming in harmony.
Selena’s eyes softened. “Oh, right. I haven’t greeted you two properly either.”
She placed her hand gently over my chest. “Nice to meet you, Fia. Nyx.”
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Their responses glowed warmly in return, carried across our shared soul link. “Nice to meet you too, Big Sis Selena!”
Selena blinked, then laughed, her whole body relaxing. “Fufu… Big Sis, huh? I’ll happily accept that title.”
She leaned against my shoulder, warm and content, the spirits inside us quietly chattering like a family coming together for the first time.
Not long after the naming ceremony, a very real reminder broke the lingering serenity.
*Grrrgle…*
Selena’s stomach let out a soft but unmistakable growl.
I blinked, then chuckled. “Guess it’s time for breakfast.”
She blinked too, then brought a hand to her belly with a sheepish smile. “Looks like… the you inside me has completely digested.”
I stared. “…What?”
She just giggled and turned away innocently, as if she hadn’t just said something that would give Aza a nosebleed if she had one.
Trying to ignore the heat creeping up my neck, I started gathering my clothes. But before I could slip into my tunic, Selena reached out and tugged on it.
“I’ll help,” she said.
“You sure?” I raised an eyebrow.
She gave a firm nod, already pulling my clothes into place with practiced hands. It felt… oddly natural. Her fingers moved with a kind of familiarity, brushing against my skin with soft, absent-minded care.
Once I was dressed, she sat on the edge of the bed, lifted her arms and gave me a look.
“…Your turn.”
“Eh?”
“I helped you, so it’s your turn to help me.”
Her golden eyes sparkled with mischief.
I nodded without a second thought. I helped her into her clothes, from top to bottom.
She watched my face intently the whole time, clearly expecting me to blush or stammer.
But I didn’t.
“Hmph.” Her pout deepened. “Why aren’t you getting embarrassed?”
“I’ve done this too many times to feel embarrassed,” I replied calmly.
After all, I had cared for her body every day for two years, cleaning, dressing, and checking her condition. It had become second nature. Intimate, but never improper… Well, except the hydration process.
Her expression softened, just for a moment, then returned with a playful glare. “Still, a little flustered reaction would be nice. Just a bit.”
“…Maybe next time.”
She stuck out her tongue. “Liar.”
We both laughed quietly.
Then naturally, I took charge of the kitchen.
Selena insisted on staying at the table, claiming she wanted to try my cooking at least once. I wasn’t confident, but I tried my best anyway. I prepared the same thing I’d been eating for months: the stew. It was simple, but it kept me alive.
At least it’s not bland anymore because I did trial and error over the seasonings for each meal.
When I placed the plate in front of her, I could feel my heart thudding. I sat across from her, watching every move like she was defusing a bomb.
She took a bite.
Chewed slowly.
And tilted her head.
“Well?” I asked, more nervous than I should’ve been.
She looked at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Do you want the honest truth… or a comforting lie?”
“Ugh… Is it that bad?” I groaned.
She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Hmm… I’d give it an eight.”
I brightened. “Eight? So it’s good!?”
“Out of a hundred.”
“….”
So it was that bad?!
“So this is what you’ve been eating all this time, darling?” she asked, still chewing with a neutral expression.
“Well… yeah. These ingredients grow nearby, so it’s convenient.” I scratched the back of my head. “Though, it still takes a few hours to get to the cliff on foot…”
She sighed. “Darling… it’s fine to use other ingredients, you know.”
“No way. Do you realize how expensive those are if we sell them in town? They’re worth a lot.”
Selena leaned forward, resting her chin on her palm. “Have I mentioned I don’t care about money?”
I blinked. “…You did.”
She smiled sweetly. “If we ever need money, I can just make a magic bag and sell it at auction. They go for a fortune.”
I stared. “You can just… make one easily like that?”
She gave me a look, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I can sell thousands of them and make the market price drop if I want,” she said, like it was the easiest thing to do.
She took another bite, then her expression shifted to playful menace, “Anyway, from now on, I’m in charge of meals. You are officially banned from the kitchen.”
“Wait, what!? That’s harsh!”
She pointed a spoon at me like a sword. “No more sad soup bowls. You’ve suffered long enough.”
As I sank into my chair, pouting dramatically, the others chimed in,
【I'm looking forward to your cooking, Len!】
Tinkle!
Hmn!
Selena beamed at the praise. “Fufu~ I’ll make sure it’s delicious, Aza.”
Since Selena couldn’t hear Fia and Nyx unless we were touching, I passed their message along.
“Fia and Nyx are excited too. They’ve never had your cooking before.”
Her eyes lit up. “Then I’ll make something extra special for lunch!”
“And Luna and Noir?” I asked, glancing toward her.
Similarly, I couldn’t hear Luna and Noir unless Selena and I were touching.
She closed her eyes briefly. “They’re… buzzing. Especially Luna. I think she’s already drooling.”
We both laughed. It was strange, feeling this warmth. This family that didn’t exist until recently, now nestled within us. We couldn’t see them, but we could feel them.
The silence that followed was gentle, comforting.
For the first time in a long while…
The morning didn’t feel lonely.