Ch.9494. The Choice of Support

“I thought we’d be going to a café or something since she said it was a place where we could talk, but the location Celia took me to was quite unexpected.

Unexpected… or maybe I just hadn’t paid attention to it since it’s not a place I’d normally visit.

“What is this place?”

“It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

“Well, yes, but…”

The place I arrived at following Celia was the faculty residential area.

A collection of houses serving as accommodations for faculty members. Not exactly a place students would typically visit.

But as she said, it had been a while rather than being completely new to me.

I’d been here before for community service when Celia had caused an accident that blew up the ceiling of the student cafeteria.

But… what reason could we have to come here now?

Before I could ask, she stopped in front of a building just a few steps after entering the faculty grounds.

This building in this location. I remember it exactly. This is Professor Reina’s assigned building.

“What’s this about?”

“Looks like you know where we are.”

I only asked one simple question, but Celia responded like that while pulling a key out of her bag.

“Professor Reina said she usually sleeps in her research lab or the chancellor’s office, so we’re free to use this place if we need to.”

I see. They must have gotten quite close.

I had been thinking that Celia and Professor Reina had become much closer, much faster than in the original story.

The fact that she mentioned the chancellor’s office when she could have just said the research lab says it all.

It’s practically the same as revealing that she’s quite close with the chancellor.

Well, I guess Reina wouldn’t have told her if she knew Celia would spread it around like this.

“Oh, I only mentioned it because I figured Ludion already knew. I wouldn’t go around telling just anyone about this.”

Celia quickly made an excuse, as if she had read my thoughts.

By now, I’m getting used to having my thoughts read like this.

Anyway, no matter how close they’ve become, I didn’t expect her to lend out her residential building like this… That person really gives generously when she considers someone on her side.

‘Come to think of it… she sleeps in the chancellor’s office.’

When she says she sleeps in the chancellor’s office, she probably means she sleeps with the chancellor, right?

-“Her? We’re just close because we’ve known each other for a long time.”

That’s how she answered when I asked once.

Despite her seemingly indifferent exterior, her actions tell a different story.

I already knew they had that kind of relationship, but seeing her usual behavior makes it feel surprising nonetheless.

At that moment, Celia added a comment.

“Well, they’re both adults after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already done everything…”

“Stop right there, Celia. Any further comments would exceed the age rating.”

“Oh, come on. We might not be adults yet, but we can at least talk about it.”

I was quite surprised to hear Celia say such things.

‘Adults, huh…’

Academy admission actually doesn’t have a specific age requirement.

Technically speaking, even an elderly person could enroll if they met the requirements.

But conventionally, people enroll as soon as they reach the minimum requirements at the appropriate age… so everyone tends to be around the same age.

Even those who enroll at unconventional times are usually only 1-2 years late at most.

Anyway, what’s important is that if you enroll at the conventional time, you typically reach the adult age standard around graduation.

That’s why the Emperor said “not until graduation” when we visited the Imperial Palace recently.

‘That’s still far away, though.’

We’re only in the first semester of freshman year. We’ve barely taken midterms, so it’s not something to worry about yet.

Yes, it shouldn’t be.

If only Celia’s favorability hadn’t skyrocketed in such a short time.

“What’s wrong? I’m at an age where I’m naturally curious about these things.”

Even when I try not to think about it, it’s impossible not to in this situation.

It’s natural that her interest in romance would increase with her high favorability, but I didn’t expect her to suddenly leap past age restrictions.

Well, this isn’t a game, so there wouldn’t be content restrictions or anything like that.

Still, it’s hard to adjust to her talking like this when there weren’t even any romantic cutscenes before.

“Aren’t you curious, Ludion?”

Maybe she found my reactions amusing, so she’s teasing me more.

I know she’s joking, but I’m not sure how to respond, so I keep quiet. She chuckles and unlocks the door.

“Let’s go in.”

She acted as if she hadn’t said anything just now.

Well, Celia is a sensible person, so she probably won’t make any advances before becoming an adult.

Thinking that, I followed her into the building.

And a moment later.

“…Ludion. Can you hug me for a moment?”

Celia suddenly requested a hug out of nowhere.

While it’s far from serious in that sense… it’s definitely flirting that could be considered making an advance, isn’t it?

Life never goes as expected.

I don’t even know anymore. I guess I’ll just have to accept things as they come.

///

The first thing I felt after entering Professor Reina’s residential building with Ludion was emptiness.

It was certainly clean, but there was no sense of someone living here, making it obvious that it hadn’t been used.

Perhaps no one had entered for quite some time. There was enough dust accumulated that I had to use magic for a quick cleaning.

“Let’s sit.”

Inside the building, there was a living room area set up for receiving guests.

I sat down next to him after watching him take a seat. It had been quite a while since I stopped calculating the distance between us, so I naturally ended up nestling close to him.

Even though it might seem too close, honestly, by now my feelings of affection outweigh any embarrassment, so I don’t think much of it.

Has he also gotten used to this distance? He didn’t say anything particular about it.

Happy about that, I snuggled a bit closer.

After that, I brought up the topic of favorability first.

When he first heard the word “favorability,” he seemed a bit uncomfortable for a moment, but soon his expression changed to one of interest as the conversation shifted to favorability rewards.

“…So the traits you have were received as rewards for that?”

It seems he had been wondering about his own growth.

Traits, huh. That’s probably right.

For a more detailed conversation, I asked him to take out the bracelet that reads his information.

Soon, he read his own information.

[Strength: 5]

[Endurance: 3]

[Agility: 6]

[Mana: 102]

[Traits: Mana Genius (Split Calculation, Mana Analysis, Mana Acceleration, Automatic Reverse Calculation, Mana Amplification), Concept Materialization (Ether Manipulation, Energy Component Fusion), Kairos [Partially Unlocked]]

[They are happy that you are reading about yourself.]

[Favorability: 66/100]

Ludion read the information from the bracelet to me exactly as it appeared.

‘You didn’t need to read my thoughts too.’

I felt a bit embarrassed and was about to say something, but seeing his expression, it seemed he had read it without thinking much about it, so I didn’t know what to say.

Anyway, seeing his level quantified like this gives me quite a new feeling.

According to him, his mana value had increased by one in the meantime… I’m not sure what that means, but hearing it makes me feel like I’ve grown.

This is nice. I should ask him to check periodically. Thinking that, we discussed his traits.

These were things he had gained as favorability rewards.

Mana Acceleration. Concept Materialization. And… Kairos, which emerged from the time attribute that wasn’t even readable by the bracelet.

The first two were essentially things I had already demonstrated, so we decided to skip over them.

“What’s Kairos?”

“Hmm… it’s a long explanation.”

It’s an ability I gained the day after being forced to understand the time attribute, but I couldn’t use it because it didn’t respond at all when I tried to apply that understanding.

Now it seems to be responding a bit, so I might be able to use it somewhat…

[Warning. Interfering with causality may cause strain.]

This warning message scared me, so I’ve put it off for now.

When the opportunity arises, I’ll try it out, and if it seems okay, I’ll use it more actively.

Whatever the case, I thought explaining it to Ludion was the priority now, so I decided to tell him what I knew one by one.

“Time is ultimately a concept, right? It’s divided into seconds, minutes, hours, following a flow of…”

“Hmm.”

“Dawn, morning, noon, evening, night. They’re all just concepts created by humans, but ultimately if you link these concepts as a single causality and convert them into formulas related to mana flow…”

“Hmm.”

“…Ludion?”

“Hmm-hmm.”

I was trying to explain it adequately so Ludion could understand without going into too much detail, but at some point, he stopped focusing on what I was saying and started spacing out.

“Ludion.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m listening. I’m listening.”

“Repeat what I just told you.”

“I wasn’t listening.”

“Hey!”

His shameless attitude annoyed me, so I swung my fist at him.

“Argh!”

He screamed dramatically, contorting his face exaggeratedly when hit by my fist.

How can he still look handsome while making such faces? Or is this cute?

…That’s not what’s important right now.

“Stop making a fuss when it doesn’t even hurt.”

The strength he told me he had was only 5.

And he himself told me that was much lower than an average person. There’s no way he could be hurt by something like this.

Yet he’s pretending to be in pain. I found it funny and couldn’t help but smile.

This is like a disease. Why do I keep smiling for no reason…

I should continue with my explanation.

‘Right, Ludion probably isn’t interested in the theory or principles behind my abilities. I should just keep it brief.’

So… to summarize what I can currently do in one sentence…

“I can interfere with time, transcending momentary time to act. That’s about the extent of it for now.”

That should be adequate.

With this simple explanation, Ludion finally regained his focus and asked:

“Transcend time?”

“Yes. For example… when you perceive 1 second, I can perceive that same second longer and utilize it.”

“Is that okay? You won’t accidentally cause the world or your mind to collapse or something?”

“It says interfering with causality might cause strain, so I haven’t been using it for now.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? That’s scary.”

He says it’s scary with an expression that doesn’t look scared at all, but the concern hidden within feels warm.

The moment I felt that, letters appeared before my eyes again.

Could my favorability have increased again? With that thought, I glanced at it without thinking much… and found content completely different from what I expected.

[The Favorability System cheers for you!]

[Encouragement choices!]

-[Embrace him and observe another timeline.]

-[Do nothing.]

Encouragement choices? I thought it had its own will, but I didn’t expect it to do something so blatant.

Well… putting that aside.

‘I have no choice but to hug him, right?’

Between the two choices, there was no need to even consider which one to pick.

I just swallowed once and carefully opened my mouth.

“…Ludion. Can you hug me for a moment?”

Controlling my rising smile was… something I had given up on long ago.”