Free Web NovelChapter 39: Chapter 39: Why do you keep eating my snacks?
Soren looked at her for one breath too long.
"Those ones are enough."
That meant there were more.
Swanly knew it immediately.
She did not know what it was, but she knew he had hidden it. His face was too still, his voice too flat, and his eyes had avoided hers for half a breath.
That was enough.
"You are hiding something."
Soren said nothing.
Kael’s hand closed around Swanly’s wrist and pulled her a little behind him.
"Then she does not go."
Months ago, when the infection first reached Riverbone, Soren had used his mind power too much. He had forced his way into infected beastmen, held their broken minds down, and stopped them from tearing through the tribe.
He had saved many people.
He had also damaged his own beast core.
Now his mind power hurt him.
Every time he read too deeply, the crack inside him grew worse.
Every time he entered a mind and pushed too far, something inside him tore a little more.
The Cleanbirth Seed could slow that damage.
It might even heal the broken thing inside him.
That was the truth he did not tell Swanly.
The legend said a broken serpent needed a living female with strong life-scent beside him to enter the Rot Nest and wake the seed.
No female had worked.
Then Swanly arrived.
She smelled like the dead world, but she was alive.
Her blood called to his broken core.
Her mind blocked him.
Her strange little flying beast had hurt him.
(Swanly’s system: Author, i am not a flying beast!)
She knew infection.
She had magic that pulled food, medicine, and weapons from empty air.
Soren did not believe in accidents.
Swanly was the right one.
Swanly looked at his cold face and decided she did not care.
"I am still not going."
Soren’s eyes darkened.
Kael’s body relaxed by the smallest amount, but only because Swanly had refused again.
Soren’s tail shifted slowly behind him.
"You will."
Swanly picked up the smallest cub and turned away from him.
"Try saying that to the wall, because I am done talking to you."
She did not talk to him for the rest of the day.
When Soren spoke, she ignored him.
When he moved near the fire, she moved away.
When she cooked that night, she served Kael first. Then she served the cubs, then herself, and then she put the lid back on the pot.
Soren watched her.
Swanly did not look at him.
The cubs noticed immediately.
The eldest held his bowl close and gave Soren a suspicious look.
The second ate quietly, but his eyes kept moving between Swanly and the snake.
The smallest looked into his bowl, looked at Soren, then hugged his food tighter.
"Mama no give snake."
Swanly took a calm bite.
"I heard nothing."
Kael looked into his bowl, and his mouth twitched.
Soren’s face stayed cold.
Inside, irritation moved like a slow coil.
She was punishing him with soup.
That should have been beneath him.
It was not.
The smell filled the cave again, hot and rich, and she did not give him even one spoon. He was not hungry but the fact, that she had not given him irritated him.
Soren looked at her bent head, at her white ears, at Kael sitting close enough for their shoulders to touch, and his tail scraped once against the stone floor.
Fine.
She would go with him whether she liked it or not.
He did not need to drag her tonight.
He already knew what was coming.
The outer refugee line would break before dawn if the guards failed to catch the hidden bite.
He had smelled the rot earlier.
He had also let it remain outside the inner root wall.
If Swanly wanted to pretend Riverbone’s fall had nothing to do with her, then she would watch what happened when he did nothing.
Swanly knew none of that.
She only reached into her space for more salt and froze.
The system was inside again.
The tiny fairy body floated near one of her snack boxes, legs crossed in the air, cheeks full, hands holding a half-eaten packet like it had paid rent.
Swanly stared.
The system looked back at her.
For one second, both of them stayed still.
Then Swanly reached forward.
The system shot upward.
{What?}
Swanly’s smile became terrifying. "Why do you keep eating my snacks?"
{Host has many snacks.}
"That is not the answer."
{Host has unlimited snacks.}
"That is worse."
The system hugged the packet to its chest. {Can host not share with loyal system?}
"You do not get to steal from me forever just because you are tiny and glowing."
The system drifted back.
Swanly narrowed her eyes.
"Also, where did you even get that body?"
The system froze.
Swanly’s eyes sharpened.
"I never knew systems could have bodies."
The system slowly chewed the snack still in its mouth.
{It was an emergency purchase.}
Swanly’s smile faded.
"What emergency?"
The system looked away.
{After host died, there was soul preservation, world scanning, revival path correction, and a very limited body purchase discount.}
Swanly stared.
The words entered her ears one by one.
Then they started forming something ugly. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"You were buying a body when my transfer got messed up?"
The system’s tiny wings stopped moving for half a second.
The snack slipped from its hand.
Swanly’s smile returned.
This time it was worse.
The system immediately flew backward.
{Host should calm down.}
"So I am stuck in this beast world because you got distracted buying a cute body?"
{The body is very useful.}
Swanly stepped forward inside the space.
The system flew higher.
{Host can finally touch system now.}
"Yes," Swanly said gently. "I can also hit you."
The system hugged itself.
{This is abuse of customer support.} freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
Swanly’s eye twitched.
"What did you just say?"
{Nothing important.}
"You tiny fried criminal."
{System apologizes deeply. System did not mean for host to be trapped here. System was under pressure. System also had no hands before this. Hands were exciting.}
Swanly lifted one hand.
The system squeaked and shot behind a box.
{Deal. System offers deal.}
Swanly stopped.
