Chapter 78

Return

After accomplishing everything he had come out here to do, Aiden began making his way back toward the Imperial Capital Administration Building.

Before they departed, a simple training session was taking place at the campsite. Katya, who was participating alongside him, looked distinctly dissatisfied with how things were going.

She took a slow, deep breath before continuing her explanation. “…Right. If you change the order of the sequence slightly like that, the formula becomes much stronger. It’s a little difficult, but if you practice it a few times, you should start getting a feel for…”

“Like this?”

“…”

Katya fell completely silent when she saw the glowing barrier floating in front of Aiden. Two distinct colors of divine power had been seamlessly blended together inside it.

Internally, she was barely suppressing a scream. Anyone would have reacted the exact same way after watching Aiden reproduce a complex technique immediately after hearing its explanation a single time.

‘You said this was your first time…!’

She looked at him with an expression that looked ready to burst into tears.

At the beginning of the lesson, Katya had been brimming with confidence. She had thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prove how useful she could be to him. When it came to manipulating divine power, she stood directly beneath the Pontiff herself, even if one considered the entire Holy Kingdom. There were very few people across the continent who could even be compared with her as a teacher in this field.

‘This was supposed to be difficult…!’

That was why she had snorted in disbelief when Aiden claimed he would raise his control over divine power to one-third of her own level within a single month.

At first, her expectations had seemed entirely correct. Aiden could not properly memorize even the basic prayers, and he struggled to reproduce even the most elementary blessings. Katya had secretly celebrated at the discovery.

‘So even this guy isn’t perfect!’

At last, she had found something her friend was genuinely bad at. If she helped him compensate for that weakness, he would realize just how important she was. Then maybe he would stop running around with other women so often, and whenever something happened in the future, he would learn to rely on her first.

Katya had happily entertained all sorts of sweet fantasies like that.

By today, every single one of those hopes had thoroughly shattered.

His learning speed was absurdly fast—far beyond anything Katya could have ever anticipated. When it came to the absolute basics of handling divine power, he unquestionably remained a novice. But once Katya opened the path for him and explained the underlying principle, he absorbed every piece of knowledge like a dry sponge.

She could no longer tell how much he had learned between lunch and evening today, despite the fact that not even half a day had passed. It had taken Katya at least a week to master the Cross Prayer she had just taught him.

‘So that’s why he made such an absurd promise…’

The realization suddenly struck her as she recalled the target Aiden had set at the beginning of his training. When Aiden established that goal, he had genuinely believed he could reach it.

‘So this is what it feels like to teach a monster.’

Katya was staring at him as though she had uncovered an unnatural beast, but Aiden himself was casually circulating divine power without much concern. Several divine shields whirled into existence around him in a tight orbit. A shield crafted from pure flame looked somewhat unusual, but he experienced no difficulty in controlling it.

System Message

▶ You have successfully manipulated divine power!

▶ Proficiency in ‘Combat Form: Sacred Flame Arts’ has increased.

▶ Your proficiency is improving rapidly!

A glowing window appeared in front of Aiden as he moved the shields aside one by one.

‘Not bad.’

Taking lessons from Katya had clearly been the right choice. The gains from his training were being reflected back to him immediately and visibly. Everything he had accomplished here was possible because of her guidance.

The results were substantial enough that such appreciative thoughts came naturally. Any increase in proficiency with a combat form would inevitably help when manipulating abilities related to it.

The increase Aiden had achieved so far was not large enough to produce an overwhelming, game-changing effect by itself. However, Aiden possessed the unique trait First Vow—originally belonging to Erger—which allowed him to feel efficiency improvements many times more strongly than an ordinary user.

More importantly, after twisting the direction of the Main Scenario itself despite not knowing who might become the next victim, Aiden genuinely had no idea what would happen anymore. There was no reason to reject any method of becoming stronger.

That meant it was time to check the quest status again.

Quest Info

♠ Main Quest

[ The scenario is changing in response to your actions. ]

[ Changes have occurred in Act Three: ‘Imperial Capital Rift.’ ]

[ The altered details will soon be reflected in the Main Scenario! ]

“…”

Aiden rubbed his chin while staring at the floating text.

What he had just done was effectively remove one of the most dangerous moves the Imperial Prince and the Minister of Administration could have made during the original event. But those people had already proven several times that their ability to prepare was at least equal to Aiden’s, if not better.

For now, they had been forced into hiding after taking a heavy blow during the Lord Protector incident. Only the gods knew what kind of dark plan they might still be preparing beneath the surface.

“…Katya?”

While Aiden turned those thoughts over in his head, Katya’s condition caught his eye. She did not look well at all.

Aiden called her name in confusion after noticing that her face had gone slightly pale.

Katya lowered the paper in her hands, her shoulders trembling softly. “Just do it yourself!”

“…What?”

“You’re already good at it even without me teaching you! I prepared all these beginner tips for nothing…! You idiot, you… you…!”

“…”

She had gone far beyond anger and was now sounding almost tearful with sheer frustration.

Aiden kept his mouth shut as someone quietly approached from outside the campsite. It was Noel, rubbing her sleepy eyes as she walked toward them.

“…Mr. Aiden, have you been bullying Her Highness again?”

“…”

No, he could swear to the heavens that he had done nothing of the sort. But judging from Katya’s tearful state, the conclusion that this was somehow Aiden’s fault had already become impossible to escape.

“…I can explain all of this.”

Aiden opened his mouth, but Noel waved one hand dismissively, as if saying it didn’t matter. In truth, her expression made it obvious she did not particularly care about that issue.

“…”

Right. He had forgotten for a moment that Noel and Katya did not get along. Lately, they had spent so much time acting together because Aiden was their shared point of contact that it was easy to forget their rivalry. Still, he would be wise to remember that, according to the original scenario, these two were supposed to remain at odds with each other all the way to the end.

“More importantly, could you come outside for a moment?”

“What?”

“There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Aiden tilted his head at Noel’s unusually serious expression.

✦ ✦ ✦

“…Are you doing all right?”

Aiden had followed her out because she said she wanted to talk, and that was the very first thing Noel asked him.

Doing all right with what, exactly? Aiden blinked at her with that question written clearly across his face.

Noel scratched her head awkwardly before continuing. “…No, I mean, you’ve been much busier than usual lately.”

“Busier?”

“You’re throwing yourself into everything far more actively than before. Studying knowledge, training, increasing your strength… It seems like you’re pushing yourself much harder.”

“…”

That was undeniably true. The Lord Protector incident had forced him to realize a terrifying reality: the Main Scenario was a ruthless force with a habit of throwing events into his world on a scale far larger than anything he understood or expected.

The Night of the Hunt had not fully revealed its claws yet, but even setting that aside, Chapter 3 of Act One, Rebellion, would erupt soon after. If Aiden wanted to survive those consecutive disasters, he had no choice but to push himself even harder.

“Are you eating properly? When you’re this busy, meals are usually the first thing you stop paying attention to. Even when I’m consciously working myself that hard, I always make time to eat and rest properly somehow.”

“…You actually have time to eat?” Aiden found that almost amazing. Whenever he became so busy that he barely had time to open his eyes, meals were always the first thing he skipped.

“…Mr. Aiden, what exactly has been tormenting you lately?”

Aiden genuinely wished he could tell her, and a bitter, helpless laugh formed inside him.

“…That expression says you absolutely can’t tell me, doesn’t it?”

“There are… circumstances.”

“…”

Noel looked slightly hurt. Her face carried the quiet disappointment of someone thinking that, if they were going to become closer, surely he could share at least that much with her.

That disappointed look soon faded as Noel cleared her throat and held something out toward Aiden. “Still, the timing worked out. I was worried you were skipping every meal exactly as I expected, so I prepared something.”

“…What?”

Aiden’s eyes widened at the completely unexpected gesture. He looked down at what Noel was offering him.

It was a lunch box carefully wrapped in cloth. The size was exactly the same as the lunch box Aiden had once handed her during their date. Apparently, the memory had remained strongly enough in Noel’s mind that she had replicated even its shape, height, and portion size.

“…Eat it. You always treat your meals so carelessly, don’t you?”

“…”

“I heard that even before recently, you were always running around so much that you skipped meals more often than you ate them. I made this for you, so please make sure to eat it.”

“…”

“You’re good enough at cooking that you once gave me something like this yourself. What am I supposed to think if someone like that keeps starving himself? It makes me uncomfortable just watching you, so please eat.”

Aiden accepted the lunch box in a daze. His nose stung unexpectedly. It was true that he often skipped meals while running around taking care of one crisis after another, but he had not realized Noel was watching him closely enough to notice—let alone that she remembered the lunch box he had once made for her and cared enough to return the gesture.

“…Thank you.”

When Aiden blinked and managed to squeeze out those words, Noel smiled brightly. Then she hummed softly under her breath and unfolded her own lunch box beside him. Simply giving Aiden food seemed to have improved her mood enormously.

“…”

Aiden sat beside her without saying a word and opened his lunch box. The contents looked much better than he had anticipated; meat, noodles, and fresh vegetables were arranged neatly in separate compartments.

He picked up a few pieces with his utensils and tasted them. They were genuinely delicious—enough to make it obvious that Noel possessed serious culinary skill.

“This is really delicious. Lady Noel, were you always this good at cooking?”

“…”

Noel’s face lit up, a brilliant smile blooming across her features like a flower opening in spring. “R-really?”

“…”

Watching her grin and fidget happily was admittedly a little unsettling compared to her usual stern demeanor. After wriggling around by herself for quite some time, Noel finally cleared her throat to compose herself.

“…There is actually one more thing I wanted to ask.”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

After everything she had done for him, Aiden would gladly listen to almost any request. Noel hesitated for a long time, shifting nervously before finally managing to speak.

“What is it? You’re taking so long to say it.”

“…If you’re really so busy that you don’t even have time to eat these days, I could… take care of your meals for you from now on.”

“…”

Aiden could feel it now, clearer than ever before. Noel was genuinely trying her best to close the distance between them. The system had not listed her affection at an extreme level for no reason.

‘…In that case.’

Maybe he should do something nice for her in return, too.

Aiden looked down at the Soul Connector wrapped around his arm.

‘Should I try it?’

An equipment modification specifically for her might just be possible.