Free Web NovelChapter 22: Answer The Question
Follow me.
That was the only thing written on the paper Valeria had given him. Having no reason not to, Luke followed her into the living room. She motioned for him to sit down on the couch, which he did.
Why is your Frost Spike identical to mine?
Luke looked like a deer in headlights. The softness that Valeria had developed around him, had completely disappeared. In its place was a cold analyzing gaze, reading his every movement.
A beeping noise appeared in his head, followed by words on a translucent screen.
[Emergency Task: Do Not Reveal The System]
[Your wife is suspicious of the system’s rewards. You need to create an answer that will explain current and future system rewards and abilities. If the system is revealed, all permissions will be taken away from host.]
[Reward: Shared Growth Unlocked, ???]
[Penalty: Irreparable Damage to Trust]
If Valeria’s question didn’t make him panic, the system sure did.
How was he meant to come up with a lie that created a justification for an exact copy of her spell. Or explain why the system had been increasing his mana. Or even that he had learned multiple spells without a spellbook.
All these things went against the laws of the world and yet they happened to him, because the system was helping her indirectly and he couldn’t admit it.
Luke wasn’t a bad liar, he had told his fair share of fibs and gotten away with them, but something about lying to the woman he had grown fond of seemed to gnaw away at him.
He thought about every bad scenario. The ones where he failed to convince Valeria and had to tell her about the system. The scenarios where she convinced herself before he was even able to speak.
Every thought seemed to make him panic more. Ideas swelled through his mindscape.
He thought about explaining that he came from another world where he had abilities that didn’t represent his current world. Some truth mixed with some lies, yet he feared this lie would do more than just damage their trust.
Luke needed a completely foolproof lie, something that even Valeria wouldn’t be able to deny.
An idea slipped into his mind. A small little lie that she wouldn’t be able to disprove, because she couldn’t ask for proof.
Your family gave it to me as a wedding gift two days before we got married. I had messed around with it in training and ended up comprehending it.
Her tightly controlled facial expressions slipped, and followed the motions of her thoughts. Confusion, intrigue, and anger were just a few of the emotions she went through.
You expect me to believe that the family that has disowned me in every way but verbally after becoming crippled, would care enough to give a gift to my soon-to-be husband. Even if that wasn’t surprising, how did you end up comprehending the spell identically to mine?
Luke locked down his expression, his heart wanted him to tell the truth, but he needed the system if he was to help her.
He couldn’t even tell what Valeria was feeling anymore, her face was a mess of emotions all blended together, probing for any answer that made sense.
When I got the spellbook, there was a letter attached saying that us sharing a spell would symbolize that we had become joined by marriage. Because of the anxiety before the wedding, I spent time researching the way you used the spell and practiced anytime I had the mana. Then during the morning after we moved into our house, I was practicing in the training room and ended up having a breakthrough with the spell. Of course, I had no clue that we had comprehended the same thing, but maybe it’s some kind of fate.
Technically it was fate, just an artificial fate made by the system.
It took Luke multiple minutes to write the note, but only took Valeria a few seconds to read it.
Part of her boiled with rage, another curiosity, but at some point relief washed over her, as if she had finally found an answer that made sense.
She stared into Luke’s eyes. He did his best not to give a single reason in his body language that made it look like he was lying. They just stared at each other.
You aren’t lying?
Would I have a reason to?
He did, but Valeria didn’t know that.
Eventually, their eyes parted and Valeria sighed.
I’m sorry. It just didn’t make sense that you had a D-Rank Spell which coincidentally had the exact same comprehension as me. I am not sure what the answer I was searching for was, but I guess you gave it to me.
Just like that, her expression reverted to the soft face that she wore around him. He could have even sworn it had become softer.
The tension between them slowly dissolved and they went about their routines. Luke took a shower, something that he desperately needed after the confrontation, but it couldn’t wash off the guilty feeling in his heart.
[Emergency Task: Do Not Reveal The System]
[Host has completed the task with incredible success, although the lie was not perfect, you managed not to mention even a single word pertaining to the system. Through this, your wife has come to trust you even more. There will be a day when the system can be revealed, but that day is long to come.]
[Reward: Shared Growth Unlocked, Inventory Unlocked, Spouse Mana Unlocked, +10 Spouse Mana]
Even though the rewards should have made him excited. He felt nothing.
"What is Spouse Mana?"
[Spouse Mana is used during Shared Growth. Spouse Mana can be obtained through rifts or converting host’s mana core into Spouse Mana. For more details, Host should activate Shared Growth.]
The water continued to drip down his body as he stared at the system messages. He was able to give mana to Valeria, but what help would it be if her mana core was broken.
[The System understands the confusion. Once the Host’s wife accumulates enough mana from Shared Growth, the system will be able to fix her mana core, but she will lose all her spells.]
Luke just stared at the screen. He knew its purpose was to help Valeria, but it had simply stated that with a little mana it could fix an injury that even the greatest healers have not been able to repair.
"I can help her."
