Workings of a world's soul

"Why…why would it want me to die?"

Bell asked a couple minutes later.

'She believed all that I said?'

Ryder thought with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

'It's weird;'

"Well what do you think an being with almost limitless power with lots of free time would do when bored?"

"They would play around with the toys that they have;"

Ryder said, pointing at Bell.

"You see, every soul of the worlds in the multiverse have a hobby of creating a story of its own while using the toys at its disposal as the characters in that story;"

"And you, as a character in this story were not meant to be saved from the minotaur…we'll not by me atleast;"

"Hmm…who knows maybe you were meant to be saved by a handsome guy, fall deeply in love with him and become the strongest with the power of love!"

Ryder laughed out loud at his own joke but stopped immediately after a while. 

'Surely not right?'

Ryder thought, feeling that what he said as a joke might actually be the truth.

"Well anyways, long story short, you being alive might become a problem in this story, so it decided to get rid of you;"

He stated and looked at Bell as she nodded her head after hearing what Ryder said; he wanted to say something more but seemed to be hesitating.

"What is it?"

Bell asked, seeing Ryder's hesitation.

"Nothing, I'm just surprised you actually believed all things that I said and did not dismiss it as nonsense;"

Ryder answered; no matter how he thought about it, the things that he said sounded so ridiculous even to Ryder himself that he was genuinely surprised that Bell believed him this easily.

"I believe you."

Bell said with a resolute gaze.

A guilty expression appeared on Ryder's face for a moment.

There was something that he did not tell her; it was that considering the extreme reaction that the soul of this world showed by stopping the time for a while was not ordinary.

If his thoughts were right then Bell was most likely the main character of the story in this world.

And since The Great God of Hunting, the current identity he was in was the villain of this story; it became a story where the villain saved the main character and maybe the 'soul of this world ' did not like it and thus decided to get rid of Bell.

'Well technically she is no longer the main character;'

'The world must've chosen someone else to be the main character after it decided to get rid of her.'

'So to sum it all, this whole thing happened because I saved her from the minotaur;'

Ryder sighed with exasperation.

*******

"Can you come closer for a moment?"

Ryder beckoned with a smile on his face after he finished eating the whole bowl of porridge.

"What is it?"

Bell asked, taking a few steps forward towards Ryder and leaning her head towards him.

"..."

Ryder did not say anything for a while and then brought his own face closer to Bell's.

"....?!"

A flabbergasted look appeared on Bell's face, her mind told her to pull her head away but a sudden thought caused her heartbeat to race while her cheeks flushed red and she decided to not pull away her face.

She closed her eyes, a hint of anticipation forming in her heart as she felt Ryder's hot breath land on her face.

Eventually she felt the sensation of Ryder's skin touching her own skin…it was just that what she had in mind and what happened, were both too different.

What she originally expected was for both of their lips to touch and a passionate kiss to unfold but alas what she got was just her forehead touching Ryder's.

Her eyes shot open with surprise, she saw that Ryder's face had a really serious expression and from that it was easy to guess that Ryder did not have any weird thoughts. It was all just her having delusions of her own.

Bell cursed herself, deeply embarrassed by her own indecent thoughts.

Just when self-loathing started filling her mind; she felt something different, some sort of knowledge of unknown origins suddenly started appearing in her mind.

[ Communion(B) has been used on Bell Cranel ]

As the knowledge kept on gathering, a look of realisation dawned on her face.

Some of Ryder's eccentric behaviours from earlier started making sense; she understood how Ryder saved her when she nearly died, she understood why whenever Ryder talked about this world his words seemed to suggest that this was not the world that he belonged to.

She got the knowledge that Ryder was not a resident of this world and of what he was doing here.

And a knowledge far more valuable than any of the above combined, something that changed the way she looked at the world.

After a long while Ryder separated his head away from Bell and looked straight in her eyes.

"Congratulations, Bell Cranel, you can now freely use the system and all its function;"

"Also make sure to always remember to not tell anyone about the system and everything related to it;"

It was an important thing because talking about the system was a sure-fire way to get the attention of the soul of the world. 

It was alright right now because Bell was with Ryder who possessed a titled system that provided him protection from the eyes of the soul of worlds.

Ryder looked around the room he was in, his eyes darting here and there as if searching for something.

"By the way, where is your Goddess Hestia?"

"We've been talking for so long but I didn't see her even once;"

Ryder asked after not being able to find Hestia.

Since Bell was a member of Hestia famiglia, he would need Hestia's permission if he wanted to bring Bell along with him to level her up and search for that 'thing' that almost killed Bell.

And along with that he will also need to teach her how to activate her skills since her system was only of (B) rank.

"She's in her room, I'll bring you there if you want to meet her;"

Bell answered.