Chapter 998: Nothing Lewd
“You’re not thinking something lewd, are you?” Rael asked, resting his hands on the edges of the bath. “Because if you are, I’d like to tell you it’s way harder to seduce me now than it was before.”
Gaia shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m just admiring your body at the moment… Has anyone ever told you that you look nice?”
Rael raised a brow. “Yes? A lot of people. Why?”
“It’s nothing. I was just wondering where all of this stemmed from. I used to know a lot of people who had this shine to them, but you seem to have even more… Now that I think about it, when you first transmigrated here, you did get a special skill that increased your charm, to an extent.”
Gaia paused for a moment, then added:
“Do you feel like any of the relationships you have now were influenced by that charm stat? I mean… You might be handsome, but it’s nowhere near enough to curry the favor of the queen, and some other people. Even Linlin. Calling her out and embarrassing her in the middle of the street would get just about any man killed, but apparently not you.”
Hm…
Rael knew what she was talking about.
Heavenly Attraction: 500% increased affinity with NPCs.
This was the title he had gotten way back when. Naturally, it wasn’t as interesting as some other titles he had gotten, but in comparison, this was the first actually overpowered title he had gotten. It might be the main reason why he had escaped some situations.
And when he thought more about what she had said… She did have a point. If he went ahead and flirted with the queen like he did, he most likely would’ve been killed on the spot. So was it this title that saved him?
He wasn’t sure whether to thank it or despise it. Frankly, Rael felt like it might be the reason why some people liked him while others didn’t as well. Honestly… Such a troublesome title was definitely no good, but it was already too late to remove it, since it would no longer serve any purpose.
Before he could get into more overthinking, Gaia let out a chuckle and said:
“Sorry, I just wanted to wrack your brain a little. The true purpose of that title is simple, and no, it’s not as it seems.”
She pushed aside some of the bubbles in the water, revealing more of her body as she added:
“The title gives every single person you meet a favorable impression of you. That’s all it does, nothing more. If someone doesn’t like you before they see you, they won’t like you. Now if they’ve never met you before, they’ll think of you as some random friendly passerby. The queen and Linlin must’ve thought the same.”
Linlin did?
Heh.
She smacked him pretty hard for someone who supposedly thought the same. Either way, Rael was glad that the origins of this title didn’t actually affect how someone thought of him long term. After all, he had half expected this title to straight up mess with how people processed his appearance and everything he said.
If that had been the case, he might’ve thought that he had seduced Zafira without her actually liking him. That kind of affection would’ve been really bad for his own mental state.
But since that wasn’t the case, Rael just relaxed in the bath once more, relieved by Gaia’s reassurance. Though it did have him thinking — just why did she ask something like that in the first place?
Reading his mind, Gaia quickly answered.
“I wanted you to know, since I felt like sooner or later you would start overthinking it, so I might as well help you out now. I will continue to do so in the future too, if you don’t mind.”
Hearing that, Rael was a bit confused. Was this her way of courting him? It wasn’t half bad in the sense that she felt helpful, but was her love language acts of service? He definitely liked it.
As for Gaia, his thought process was spot on. Since she had been doing whatever she wanted all her life, finding someone she cared about and then doing whatever she wanted and what they wanted was comforting.
And she felt like, to someone like Rael — who overthought the smallest details despite giving the appearance of someone who didn’t think at all — that would be helpful.
It was. It really was.
Anyhow, the tension they had going quickly vanished, and now there was a comforting atmosphere that Rael and Gaia enjoyed.
And so, without doing anything lewd, the two of them eventually stepped out of the bath and began helping each other dry off. She was thorough, and so was Rael, to the point where anyone who saw them would think they had been married for decades.
But that wasn’t the case at all. Her marriage proposal Rael had completely denied. He didn’t want to marry someone as a fling. He just hoped Gaia understood that.
Nonetheless, their bath wrapped up, and with both of them dressed, they walked to the kitchen and decided to eat some food. Even from down there, the snores of Nyx upstairs could be heard loudly.
Why did she choose the room right above the kitchen? More importantly, why did snacks keep disappearing at night?
Rael felt like he knew the answer to that question, but even then, when he leaned back in his chair, he really felt like his life was just too good to be true. Didn’t he literally have everything he ever wanted?
It was surreal now that he thought about it.
But right as he thought that his happiness and easy days would last forever, his senses suddenly triggered. Looking deeper into it, he spotted that in the next five seconds, a powerful blast would wipe out Zafira, Lilith, and Melina.
This was the most random and confusing event in the universe, but knowing that it was going to happen, Rael vanished without a word, intent on stopping it.