[176] Learning About The Other World

Chapter 176: Learning About The Other World

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I parted my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. This time I was in my room instead of the royal chambers. I was awake.

My entire body ached. It was painful.

I turned my head around the room to look for someone, but there was none. If not for the lingering Aura in my body reminiscent of my Empress, I'd have thought all that was just a dream.

But it was all true.

My Empress was in this world, and from the looks of it, right in this house. This narrowed it down a lot because while I had a lot of girls living here, it was less than a dozen; I could find her identity if I tried.

But… I wouldn't. She begged me not to, and I guess her reasoning made sense a bit.

No, actually, I already had solid guesses, but I didn't wish to think about it. I don't want to confirm it, like she asked. 

I have others who require my attention at the moment, anyhow. I can focus on her in the future. For that, I needed to go down and meet my Goddess first.

Moving was painful, so I used to use my willpower to lift myself. Using Qi was also painful, but my willpower moved fine.

…I slowly levitated up from my bed and controlled myself to stand in the air. Then I flew myself through the door. I guess it must look quite creepy for someone peeking at me, but they had to deal with it.

Although my Empress saved my life, it'll take a while to recover my full strength. I am rather lucky that I can recover my full strength at all and that I wasn't pushed a few cultivation ranks backward. If it were Ai instead of the real Empress, she would not have been able to pull this off so easily, and I'd have probably ended up as a [Jade].

Everything considered, this incident was truly lucky.

Still, although it's nothing permanent, I could only muster a [Gold]'s worth of Qi for now without hurting myself. I'll need some time for my Qi channels to recover from the damage until I can use my full power.

Oh and, getting my Eternal Sorcery using the same cheat wouldn't work again. The spell was a Smart Spell; it adapted. So just letting my body heal wouldn't do, I'll need to cultivate some other powers to face off against the two pantheons on my tail.

Vedas and Norse, I had pissed off both of the pantheons in just a short few months.

"Haah," With a short sigh, I flew down the stairs and made my way toward the living room. I sensed a lot of presence there, although the center of it all was my Goddess and Quetzalcoatl.

"...And after that, the Outer God used his weird phoenix powers to override my void abilities, and I had no choice but to flee. While in the dimensional jump, I felt an odd 'call' pulling at me. It didn't feel malicious, so I decided to follow it. And that's when I appeared in this world."

I stopped at the door, while my ears picked on her words. Everyone in the room turned to me, especially Ai, whose dazed face lit up as she snapped her head at me. 

Ruby was there too, and her cheeks had signs of dried tears, as she rested on Ai's arms. I also noticed Asia, who looked ashamed — did she find herself useless as she was not able to heal me, even though she was the house's healer?

"Aqua, you're awake!" Ai leaped out of the couch, but Ruby ran faster. She was just about to jump and hug me tight, but I had to stop her with a hand.

"Er, my body hurts, no touching please," I said, and Ruby stopped.

"A-are you not healthy yet after five days of resting?!" She asked, worried.

"Five days?" Fuck.

Since it was nighttime right now, and the house was filled with the same people as before, such as Quetzalcoatl and Serafall, I thought it had not been that long.

But it's been five fucking days.

"Yes, it's been quite a while since you've passed out," Serafall said and laid down on the couch, relaxing. "It's… great to see you finally awake."

Serafall must have been really worried since she stayed back for five days, despite her busy schedule, especially after the incident at Vedas. She was one of the causes of all of it, so the Devils must be demanding her presence, yet here she was. I smiled at her, "I can't die in my sleep when I have a cute Satan waiting for me outside."

Ai relaxed seeing me in a state where I could joke around, while Ruby gently hugged me even though I told her not to, "It looks like you really are doing well. How long until you make a complete recovery?"

"Weeks or months, I don't know," I said.

"Ah…" she blinked, while Ruby canceled the hug and looked up at me in the eyes. I ruffled her hair, mouthing an apology at her cute glare of worry.

"It's alright," I waved it off and decided to take a look around the room.

The house looked a little messy. Serafall, Quetzalcoatl, Asia, and Ai sat on a bunch of couches, surrounding one where my Goddess, Galaxara sat.

I didn't notice Yohtli or Tsubasa here, the former must have returned to Aztec, while the latter was in her house, sleeping with dark circles under her eyes. It might be the first night she's getting sleep, and it turned out to be the night I woke up.

Pity. I decided to focus on the other important individual here, my Goddess. Our eyes met hers, and I smiled; she was already smiling at me. "Sorry, I didn't get to show you hospitality myself, my Goddess. I hope you enjoyed your stay."

"I have," my Goddess relaxed. "It's not as if your family is any less than royalties in this world, from what I've been seeing in that 'internet' thing, it's a cherry on top that they're good people too. Your mother is a lovely woman."

"Speaking of, you never told me Senpai is your mother," Serafall snapped her head at me and said with a playful glare.

"S-she is not, she is just in the papers!" Asia tried to save the day, but she was such a bad liar that even a toddler wouldn't believe her.

"Ah, oops, now you know. And it's alright Asia, let them be." I rubbed the back of my head, slowly trying to move my limbs to loosen them up. Ruby still clung to my side, although her arms were careful and gentle around me.

"Not the only thing we learned, boy," said Quetzalcoatl in a serious tone, her arms crossed and face oddly dark. "So you're an otherworlder?"

"...." So that came out too.

Ai looked at me apologetically, but this was not her fault. It's not as if Quetzalcoatl and Serafall were dumb. When I kneeled before a Goddess from another world, kissed her hand, and called her my Goddess, I had already expected this.

"Yes," I waved it off, "Don't worry about it, it ain't that big of a deal."

"Of course it is," Quetzalcoatl frowned at me, and I frowned back in worry. Did she have something against me being from another world? I would like to keep a good relationship with her if possible. She can be really helpful, even if a bit annoying and playful at times. 

"How so?"

She puffed out a breath, causing her hair bangs to be swept to the side, "Since this is your second life it means you actually are not 15, you lying little boy. Yet you kept trying to guilt trip me with it."

I chuckled and the others laughed too. Asia gasped in dirty realization, covering her mouth in shock. I almost thought this woman was being serious, but she was just messing with me. Heh, she's not a bad party to hang out with.

Her words also suggested that she and my Satan girl thought this was my 2nd life. It's not a bad thing, it's beneficial to me. Ai at least managed to hide that I'm not some small-time reincarnator, but a serial one.

We joked around for a bit after that, while I decided to take a seat on a couch. In my current state, I couldn't keep floating in the sky for too long. Ruby sat beside me, her arms still around me. 

Galaxara looked at my sister with a kind smile, "She's a kind girl, she resembles your Hero days. And even the Priestess…" She looked at Asia, before quickly shaking her head, "Never mind, it'd be an insult to poor Asia to compare her to the foul-mouthed Saintess." Although she said that, she was best friends with the Saintess, although not in the same sense as friends, but in the sense that a grandma and granddaughter often had best friend type relationships.

She looked back at me, "Then again, you have… changed quite a lot yourself," she showed me a sad smile, "I feel incredibly sorrowful at the dark cloud that surrounds your soul, my child. I can't imagine the adversaries you must have gone through to have such a dark aura."

"...I apologize if you're disappointed seeing your hero like this, my Goddess," I said and she shook her head.

"No, I'm not disappointed. You are still my Hero, you proved it when you wielded a Holy Sword and protected me against those Gods. But… I wonder sometimes that if I had chased your slippery soul a bit faster if I had been a second early, perhaps your soul wouldn't have escaped Pangeal, perhaps you wouldn't have received pain." she said, and I laughed it off.

"It's not your fault, it's… hers." I paused at that and took a look around me, at all the eyes that were observing our conversation with sharp eyes. I can't talk too much in front of them. "Sorry, can you guys give us some space?"

Serafall blinked, "Ah, yes, of course," she stood up, hesitating. "On that, I need to go now, Aqua. The devils have been pestering me to return every hour for the last five days. I know you just woke up, but…"

"It's alright, Sera," I flew toward her, pulling her into a gentle hug, my hand ruffling her hair as her face rested on my chest. "I'm sorry for pulling you into this, but I truly appreciate your help. If you face any trouble… just give me a call."

She returned my hug with a nod, and then smiled up at me, "Alright then, Tiger, I'll be going now. I'll miss you." 

"Me too," I left a kiss on her nose before allowing her to teleport away. Ai looked at the exchange in silence but didn't say anything. 

Quetzalcoatl yawned as she too got up, stretching her limbs, "I'm going to Shinto for a bit. They required mine and your audience for a while now, Amaterasu even dropped in to pay a visit to Galaxara here," she said. "You're recovering, so you don't have to go, I'll handle it if they complain. I'll see you later then, Pangeal's Last Sword."

Her last words made me blink, I scratched my chin in embarrassment while Galaxara and Quetzalcoatl exchanged goodbyes. I guess they got pretty close and my Goddess ended up sharing a few of my stories. 

"Thank you for taking care of it on my behalf," I said, nodding at her respectfully.

My high school English teacher waved me a kiss in the air and took off with a flap of her dragon wings. We saw her off at the doorstep before heading back inside.

As the five of us walked, about to step into the living room again, Ai stopped Ruby and Asia. "Let's give them some space," she said. Ruby looked ready to complain, but meeting Ai's eyes, she grumbled and nodded. Asia nodded calmly.

The two of us walked into the living room, while I sensed Ruby's magic cast a spell around the house to stop any eavesdropping. To be more accurate, such a spell was in the works already, she just strengthened it.

The three girls headed to another room, while my Goddess and I took couches that faced each other. She was smiling at me as always, but my smile was a little sad now.

"...How is she doing?" I asked, even as our song played in my head in her memory, "Lilithra Shadowveil, my first wife."

I love it when you call me señorita, I wish I could pretend I didn't need ya… Why's the song playing in my head?

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