Mind peeking

The scenery slowly changed around him as Kai got closer and closer to the centre of The Dome. The moonlight got brighter, there was less shadows and the overall mood of the area felt cheerier.

There was still people who had yet to go to sleep in preparation for tomorrow. They drank, ate and laughed. Kai had been like that earlier, but now he just wanted to rest.

The woman he saved fell asleep in his arms a few minutes ago, her head was resting peacefully against his chest. Her breathing was peaceful when in comparison to how it was earlier. The stress of everything must have had her absolutely exhausted.

One thing Kai had learned was that the woman was incredibly weak. She seemed to have no offensive skills, no items to use and even no innate ability. Kai began to wonder if the man picked her as his target because of those factors or she just got extremely unlucky.

Kai's arms had yet to grow tired, which was a pleasant surprise. It was probably due to the effects of massively increasing his strength with statshifting. If he hadn't, he probably would have had to drop her much earlier.

Another thing that had surprised Kai when he left the shadows of the small forest was a notification that appeared on his status.

The Ever-changing has granted a generous amount of XP for that splendid show of power.

Level 19 reached

It was a shame that he couldn't reach level twenty with that bonus XP, but it's not like he expected to get a level from rescuing that woman anyway. Still, he won't be able to get a new skill until after the was tomorrow.

But while he may have been complaining slightly, he was inwardly happy. When his master said that they wouldn't be able to speak for a while, he assumed that they meant no communication at all.

So he was happy to see that notification. It was like they were telling him what he did tonight was the right thing to do. Then again, it's not like he needed to get XP to know that what that man was wrong.

The small forest was slowly growing smaller and smaller in the distance. At one point when they were leaving, Kai thought he heard a laugh echo from in the darkness between the trees, but unless the man woke up and actually had gone crazy, there should have been no one laughing.

A melancholic feeling washed over Kai as he walked. Tomorrow could be the last day of his life, yet he couldn't really describe how he felt. It was impossible to put into words, but something inside him felt... off.

That strange feeling kept persisting, but Kai ignored it. It felt as if it was coming from his soul, but he was nowhere near proficient enough to understand what it was trying to say.

Soon, Kai arrived to the target of this journey.

Failure's cabin.

Pushing open the wooden door, Kai was shocked to see that the interior was already different to how it was just a few hours ago.

The once spacious grand hall that was filled with beasts, humans and food was back in its original form. A cozy living room with two armchairs beside a crackling fire, the flames dancing in place.

Sighing, Kai once again wondered how this whole house worked. There had to be magic involved, unless it was a rotating room with different rooms behind every wall, there had to be magic.

Surprisingly, Failure was nowhere to be seen. The charismatic brown-haired man wasn't in the living room nor anywhere outside. Unless he's behind one of the various doors that Kai mentally decided to never peek inside, Failure was missing.

Sighing, Kai sat down the sleeping woman on one of the armchairs. The flames danced across the pale reflection of her skin, but she didn't stir from her slumber.

A platter of food sat on the table where the tea usually was when Kai had his conversations with Failure. The food was fresh and looked like it was prepared in advance, as if Failure knew Kai would be coming.

He wasn't sure how Failure managed to know absolutely everything at all times, but if it meant having some food prepared he would be prepared to let it slide.

Sitting down in the other armchair, Kai took one of the sandwiches and began to eat it. There was nothing in it that was remotely like anything on Earth, but they were still tasty nonetheless.

It was only after Kai finished the preprepared sandwich that the door of the cabin opened and in walked a brown-haired man. His stylish tuxedo was gone, replaced by the causal cotton shirt and pants he seemed to always wear.

"Ah, my dear Kai, what a surprise to see you here. What is it that's troubling you that you had to forsake your sleep to pay me a visit?"

Kai snorted. It definitely was not a surprise for Failure, he had to have known Kai was here. It was his cabin after all.

"Yeah, I ran into an unsavoury figure earlier and had to deal with them. But they injured someone before that. So I want you to heal them."

Failure let out a single chuckle before he realised Kai was being serious.

"Oh... Uh, why? Why should I heal her? Also, I wouldn't be able to heal her anyway."

Kai blinked.

"I'm sure that if you have mana potions that you also have health potions, that's how these kind of things work. As for why... Because I asked nicely?"

Failure remained silent, then let out a stifled sigh.

"My dear Kai, why do you want to heal her in the first place? I don't see all the fuss over this woman. If it was that red-haired or that angry woman you socialised with I would understand, but have you even met this lady before?"

Kai paused. Failure was right. Why did he care? He had never met her before. He had done more than enough by just saving her, so why?

The answer was simple.

If Nonchalance made him feel less human in stressful situations, he would make up for that in situations where there was no need for stress.

"Because I probably wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't at least ask you to heal her. I would feel guilty, and I dont like feeling guilty."

Failure stared at Kai blankly for a few moments before sighing and waving his hand. On the table where the now empty sandwich tray sat, a glass bottle with a deep red liquid appeared.

Yep, I knew they would be red.

Swiftly picking up the bottle, Kai made his way over to the sleeping woman and brought the open end to her lips.

Kai didn't understand the physics of it, but while the health potion flowed down, he could tell that she wasn't drowning. The potion just seemed to enter her mouth and dissapear, as if being absorbed by her. Inwardly sighing, Kai once again accepted how strange life was now.

The signs of the potion were visible almost instantly. The swelling under the leg of the bodysuit started to slowly reduce, so Kai took out the stick he was using as a splint incase it somehow messed up the healing process.

He still had no idea if the splint was actually useful or not. He just heard somewhere that's what your meant to do when someone has a broken leg, but who knows if that's what the woman needed in the first place.

The woman's expression changed as she slept, but she did not wake up. Tenderly, Kai brought the bottle away from her lips and placed it back down on the table.

"Thank you."

Kai was polite enough to know when to say thank you, even if he was not sure if he liked or didn't like the person he was thanking.

Failure smiled softly.

"Your welcome, my dear Kai."

Kai promptly snorted and shook his head. It seemed that Failure was still set on calling him 'my dear' even after all this time. It would have been nice for him to change it to 'Sir' or something, but Kai gave up on that pipedream long ago.

Still, he was curious about one other thing that happened during the night.

"Where the hell did you get that suit from?"

Failure smiled proudly as he extended his hands, wiggling his fingers as well.

"I made it, obviously. I might not look it, but I'm very good at sewing. As for why I made it in the first place? I heard some humans making small talk about some 'award show' about a man named 'Oscar', so I peeked in their mind and saw that all the men there wore these extravagant looking suits. They caught my eye, so I set the stage as a grand hall like this 'Oscar' show so the humans would feel more comfortable.

Of course, just because the men wore those incredible suits does not mean the women were any less beautiful. Honestly, the standard of beauty was quite up there on your home planet."

Failure opened his mouth to say something else, but he stopped himself and held back a laugh instead.

Kai could already guess what he was going to have said.

If the standard is so high, what happened to you?

Sighing, Kai waved his hand and said:

"Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of working on that aspect of myself."

Failure smiled softly.

"I'm sure you are."

Then, Kai froze. He had completetly missed something Failure had just said, something that could possibly be the most horrifying thing that Kai had experienced in this accursed forest.

"Did you say... peeked in their mind?"

Failure's eyes narrowed slightly as a teasing grin began to etch its way onto his attractive face.

"I did indeed say that. And I can already predict what you will ask next, so I'll go ahead and answer it now. Yes, I have indeed done this on you-"

Kai's face dropped.

No...

"Male and female leads? How tenuous. I had no idea you thought so highly of yourself, and to bring Lady Noelle into that charade..."

Failure smiled teasingly.

"And I saw that you are in a bit of a predicament in which you are unsure if you should apologise to her or not.

I would recommend you just do it. What's the worst that can happen? There's two outcomes as I see it. One, you make up and you regain a powerful ally that could help you out in the future. Two, you thank her anyway and end up in the same situation as you are currently in.

There's no losses to apologising, only gains. It's a win win scenario."

Kai blinked.

Failure was right. The worst that could happen was just they continue to not talk, which then again wasn't that bad of an option in itself. But Kai at least wanted to try and apologise for Sofia's sake, she had got him all that drink after all.

But why the hell did Failure have to be so smug about it?

Sighing, Kai gave up. Defeated, he started making his way to the cabin door.

"Just let her sleep there for a while, please. I'm also off to get some sleep before tomorrow... today?"

Failure turned his head, his eyes following Kai as he walked.

"Well, if there's anything you want to ask of me before you sleep, go ahead, now is your chance."

Kai tiredly turned his head, a small smile tugged at his lips as he said:

"Sure, got any sleeping pills? I just want to be able to pass out as I reach my incredibly comfortable tree root pillow."