Ethereal Life, Chapter 43: Wife, What a Strange Place.

Some said love would come in an unexpected way. That you would know it when both eyes met. He is the one. She is the one.

Unfortunately, in Nai's eyes, There was no love, only indifference. He had long since graduated from that event.

All the love points he had back then had long since expired or been given away.

The only feelings he would feel being in a relationship might be excitement and lust.

As an old man who deemed everything useless unless he could enjoy it forever. The word beautiful can only be used to describe nature and art.

If it were to describe a woman, That means that women are unattainable, even if one does obtain their favor through luck and fate.

Time would pass, and such love for her or his beauty would disappear. Everyone are fated to dust.

"Everything has It's time to shine. At the same time, there is a limit to how long it can continue to be bright. There's no such thing as permanence in this world."

Nai sighed as he always lamented how deeply he immersed himself in the dark reality of life.

Alone, he took a nap beside the pond, where he built a temporary house made from wood. It can be said that sleeping can help one temporarily find peace within.

Letting oneself wander in the void, forgetting everything for even just a few moments.

Such joy in life is fleeting but can be experienced as many times as he wants.

Nai was woken up by the aroma of roasted meat. He walked out of the house and saw an outdoor kitchen built using stones and mud a few steps away.

There he saw Acacia busy cooking rice in a pot, roasting meat, and making soup.

Nai nodded inwardly, knowing that this wife of his is really sensible and knows how to prepare a meal for her husband.

Though who knows what she was thinking inside. She might be grumbling inwardly. Time will tell.

"Nice." Nai walked beside her as he enjoyed her company quietly. Being alone isn't always freedom.

Acacia let out a small hum in response to Nai as she only turned her head a little before returning her attention to the sizzling meat.

Nai didn't mind. It's more like he likes that kind of attitude. He was more and more satisfied with her.

Looking at her pretty face up close, there seems to be a charm that is attracting him to look at her.

It's not love. It's just pure happiness and enjoyment being accompanied by youth.

They did not talk much. But the mood around them as they ate their meal was surprisingly warm and a little romantic.

Ah, pure bliss. This is the girl I've been waiting for! The one who can calmly communicate with me without any unnecessary words.

After some time of quiet bonding and staring contests, Nai left to continue his work.

At the top of the castle's foundation, he sat down and looked at the small glass he was holding. It was a mirror he modified from the broken glass of his suit helmet.

Looking at himself, he pulled out the necklace inside his coat and immediately noticed the difference.

For a whole month and a few days. He had been waiting. Waiting for the day the moon's blessing's change to be finally over.

And finally, the much-anticipated change is finally going to be over today.

Based on the dim glow that seems to be twinkling like a star would. Nai estimated that it wouldn't be long, at most a few hours.

There will be results.

So while waiting, he started piling bricks after bricks under the afternoon sun. "My castle would need years to be completed. "I've been saying this to myself all along."

"I'll take it easy." Nai let out a breath of air as he calmly enjoyed the cool breeze of the vast grassland.

Sitting high above the ground, he wonders when he will see any mountains or hills in this world.

Remembering the face of Acacia, Nai turned to the other side and saw Acacia washing up his clothes. "Good kid." 

Returning to the creek, he saw some people returning from hunting. The people were carrying a deer, he thought.

"It's too far, but I can somehow know what animal it was based on its traits, colors, and shape."

Now that he thought about his eyesight. "Is my inner sight an ability? Since my spiritual mind awakened, I seem to have experienced three types of vision."

"I remember the very first time when I just awoke my spiritual mind. I did see colors overflowing like smoke and various faces on the walls."

At that time, he saw the face on the wall look at him, which caused him to have a headache so severe that he fainted from pain.

He shuddered, remembering that: "I think I can do that again, but for safety, I better not try it again. I'll be doomed if there is much worse that will happen."

Not to mention the pain; he didn't want to have that kind of headache anymore.

"The second was me entering that brown fog place. I wonder if that's some kind of inner space? Sea of consciousness?"

That was just a guess of his, taken from the books he had read in the past.

"And the last one is the inner sight. Alright, I'll call it an ability then. Three abilities: the first one is dangerous, the second one is unknown how to activate, and the third is common."

Nai breathed out some hot air, letting his long hair loose. "Should I cut my hair now?"

For three years and a half, he hadn't cut his hair, not even once.

"I'll just let it be. Though people in this world seem to like cutting their hair short, I want to try a long hair style too."

Three abilities are derived from the awakening of the spiritual mind. But he can only use the third one.

Inner sight helped him create the breathing exercise and the flow of circulation. So it isn't useless; it's just that he felt disgusted looking inside him.

It's some kind of phobia to see internal organs.

"I wonder if there's an ability for offense and defense?" Maybe for speed and agility?"

For the time being, only Garut's ability to see the future via dream was known.

It seems his ability also comes from his brain. The same as Nai's.

"Doesn't that mean that the brain must be developed further to acquire another amazing ability?"

"Am I a mage kind of thing now?"

The mystery of the human brain has always been unsolved, even now. He wonders if the people on earth have already solved it by now.

With his subpar knowledge of constellations and stars, he was surely not in the Milky Way at all.

That can only mean he was too far away, and time might be different between the two places he came from and where he is now.

Hmm? He suddenly noticed the ongoing vibration atop his chest vanish. "It's here." 

Strangely, he wasn't as excited as he should have been. Instead, there was some nervousness of the unknown variety.

As someone who was all alone, treading the path of the extraordinary in this world. He has no one to get references from.

As for Garut, there's no new information about him that he can dig out.

Nai decided to find a stable place for now in case some undesirable things happened.

"Miracle water checked, vines checked, mentality checked." Finding himself standing on a small flat surface on top of the incomplete pillar.

Nai leaned his back on the side where the bricks had been installed, acting more as a small wall for him to shade from the sun and rest.

"It's here." Such thoughts amazingly appeared in his heart without him finding where such confidence came from. A mysterious hunch, maybe an intuition?

At the same time, he muttered those two words. He found his vision blurred as he thought he was traversing inside a bizarre wormhole where things and reality seemed to mix and expand.

Then he was sucked inside a deep tunnel that looked like he was speeding under the sea.

By the time he came back to himself, he was already standing on top of a hill. A pale land that looked like it had been stranded lonely amidst the dark place for a long time.

"What is this place?" He muttered under his breath. "I can still breathe, so that means there is oxygen here. It's not hot, but a little cold."

The land isn't flat, but a rockery one with countless rock formations, as though a spike were rising up or sideways. Craters all around and small pointy mountains and hills like cliffs everywhere.

The most notable thing about the place was its pale fog, which covered the whole place like a moving sea.

There was no light above, no stars, or anything to be seen but pure darkness. Strangely, it was still bright in this land.

"Where did the light around came from? What a strange place."