酷视

-chapter

"We cannot discount this possibility," I admitted while squinting my eyes, taken aback by the possibility that simply hadn\'t occurred to me before.

\'And that\'s exactly the reason why I\'m happy to have her opinion as an outsider of sorts. She can see things I cannot.\'

I took a deep breath and spared Fay\'s suggestion some thought. Yet, as tempting as it was to accept everything that happened as some trap of sorts, orchestrated by my father, or whoever that vision actually was, to invite evil from Fay\'s world to earth…

The timing of everything didn\'t make much sense.

"Actually, I don\'t think that\'s correct. If we assume that this aura has anything to do with what I went through in my life, then my aunt had to get infused with it years before I received those gifts."

Fay, this time, didn\'t even look at my face. Instead, she raised her thumb to her mouth and lowered her eyes to some unspecified bubble floating on the surface of the water.

"Yeah," she slightly nodded her head, too deep in her thoughts to make any big movements. "Your aunt\'s aura… It was too easy for me to break for how potent it was."

Fay raised her eyes and looked at my face. "Once again, I\'m not an expert, and it\'s better to ask my mom, but…"

I patiently waited for the girl to gather her thoughts.

"I don\'t think it would be that easy if the source of the aura was as powerful. And that makes me believe the source of that aura small, but given enough time and fuel to grow to the power we experienced."

\'Oh how lovely it is to have someone who actually has some clues on the topic,\' I thought, my soul filling with gratitude.

Because of how smart I wanted to believe I was, there was no way I would be able to notice this detail myself. Not when my expertise on the aura was limited to how it would grow a point for every level I\'ve gained!

"There is also the possibility…" Fay muttered, sucking on her thumb with an even greater dedication than before. "I mean, it\'s just a guess, but…"

Given how she struggled to even get the sentence out, she didn\'t even need to mention she wasn\'t sure about its validity.

"What if that powerful, dark aura I felt around you was some sort of the price you had to pay to gain all those gifts? What if those were not gifts, but someone… or something balancing the scales?"

Fay started with one idea, of my system and ability to open portals coming at a cost of infusing me with that dark aura she saw, only to morph it into another idea, where the intense saturation of that dark aura in my soul was what allowed those gifts to manifest.

And if her second idea were to be correct…

"I…" I opened up my mouth, only to close them down. "This, I believe, we should consult with your mom," I suggested. "Personally, I think it would be too much of a coincidence if someone was infusing that dark aura on others, only for this dark aura to be the prize of gaining new abilities…"

\'Unless, someone was trying to push the cost of gaining some strange powers on others, and I just ended up as an unfortunate victim of other victims. Just like kindness births kindness, maybe the vile acts of those infused with this aura led to the very same aura setting root in my misery and then leading to what Fay suggested?\'

Despite how easily I usually could dissect and process all sorts of information, right now, my head was already starting to hurt.

It felt as if just trying to tackle this topic somehow placed a greater burden on my brain than discussing any other topic, just like studying deep, fundamental paradigms of math would turn my mind into mush while studying the mechanics of some random online game wouldn\'t tire me in the slightest.

"You finally agreed with me on it," Fay spoke, forcing my attention out of my own thoughts, only for the girl to beam a small grin at me.

"Fay, I\'m sorry if I\'m annoying, with how I\'m doubting everything you say. But that\'s the very purpose of this talk, to clash our ideas and hopefully figure out what kind of mess we are in the middle of."

"Don\'t mention it," Fay dismissed my worries as she snuggled up to my chest with a wide smile. "And I don\'t find it annoying at all. Rather than that," she raised her chin and looked up to my face while keeping her lovely smile. "I\'m happy you decided to confide with me on all of this."

This time, I didn\'t clutch at my heart. My hand was too busy groping Fay\'s breast in place for an anti-stress ball, after all. It was the greatest proof of my growth, of how I managed to handle her adorableness… No, her lovingness by just taking a deep breath and holding it in.

"Allow me to confine with you a little more, then," I said as I smiled in response. "Still, given how much more I have to bring up tonight, how about you ask me instead?" I suggested while raising my eyes up to the ceiling as I leaned even further on the edge of the bath.

Keeping my eyes on Fay\'s naked, wet skin covered by nothing but the see-through bubbles for too long was dangerous. We still had quite a few topics to talk through, and if I allowed my gaze to linger on her skin for much further, my mind would be soon filled with nothing but the desire to take her right here and now.

And to top it all off, I had absolutely no desire to clean the bath from our internal juices. For how fun it appeared to screw while at bath, the aftermath of doing so…

"I do have some questions if you don\'t mind me asking," Fay smiled in response, encouraged by my words. She then shifted her position on my thigh as she sat a bit higher only to then drop back down and lay on my chest.

"That call with Makary…" Fay\'s voice grew fainter, more distant while her eyes stubbornly locked on the Venetian mirror making up an entire side of the bath, refusing to move even an inch. "I didn\'t mean to listen in on this, but you weren\'t exactly careful to keep it to yourself…" she quickly added, as if to excuse herself for hearing the words not aimed at her.

"I thought you would ask why I suddenly came and smashed that pillar and the toilet," I laughed a little, quick to pick up on the hints of anxiety in Fay\'s disposition.

If she saw nothing wrong with the question she asked, she wouldn\'t keep her eyes so still, after all.

"That I can… to a point, guess." This time, Fay didn\'t need even a second to reply.

\'So she doesn\'t know the details but figured out the general idea,\' I thought, amazed by how someone from the absolute bottom of civilization could so quickly see through ways and dangers on a modern, extremely technical one.

"The call with Makary it is, then," I spoke and followed my words with a small sigh. "And as it so happens," I lowered my gaze and braved the beauty of Fay\'s exposed skin to look at her face. "It was one of the topics I wanted to bring up anyway."

Fay\'s eyebrows, for some reason, shot up. She even broke the stubbornness of her eyes, raising her chin to look at my face with a stunned… and strangely agitated expression.

"I didn\'t feel it, though…" she spoke, only to cut her words short as her mouth closed and revealed a small, delighted grin.

What this grin was all about, Fay didn\'t seem ready to reveal yet. So, as the true gentleman I wanted to be for her, I decided not to pursue it.

There were enough topics for us to talk about, after all. And what would be the point of adding yet another one, as short as it might be, to that list?