CH 91

"That ring... Do you know the man who owned it?" The young woman's memories of the past came back to her. Even when he's supposed to be gone, he's always made her smile like an idiot. He's clearly the same man, but she wasn't his anymore. Telling him what their purpose is would probably make him help her, maybe he'll even come back.

But from the way things are turning out, it is not yet the appropriate time. Or rather, it was already too late. Maybe the elder was right, the past will always be replaced by the present. In fact, he'd already met his own Estophelia. It might be time for her to join her lover and rest as well.

Dark thoughts came to Estophelia as she went to the altar in the center of the room. All this time, she's been a terrible host. Although she was quite lonely from being here for such a long time, but for now he was here.

She could revel in that indisputable fact, she could stay with him for a little while longer. She should at least show him some due courtesy, he has rights to the things here after all. He was like the owner who doesn't know he was inside his own home.

"No, I don't. Who are you?" Zel was in awe at the spectacle before him. As a man who had used storage rings before, he knew that the woman wasn't wearing one.

But even without one, she had conjured a luxurious living room, complete with a short glass table and a pair of fluffy, white fur couches that faced each other. A pair of ceramic cups and a golden teapot appeared when she sat down, proceeded to pour herself a cup of tea and leaned back. She pointed at the couch in front of her, as if inviting him to sit down. He was certain this remarkable woman was responsible for all of it.

"I see... Well let me introduce myself. I'm Estophelia. Welcome to the Fortress, umm...?" The young woman was picky with her words, as if she wasn't quite certain about it herself. But when she saw that he sat down without a complaint, she returned to her ecstatic self. She even became more intimate to him and extended her hand joyfully. 

"I'm Zel, Zel Huertazuela. It's nice to meet you, Es- What?!" Zel, who had seized her lovely hand, was about to offer it a gentle shake to demonstrate his evident lack of hostility. But when he heard her name, he ended up gripping her hand tightly while his eyes looked as if they would pop out of their sockets.

"That's right! It's me, Estophelia. I'm sure you've heard of me, before. Let's see... Oh my, you're kidding me?" Estophelia conjured her artifact, a book that she had been given by her husband all those years ago. Although there were pages in this book, they were all blank from the perspective of those other than Estophelia. That's because this book was an extension of her own mind, an mind palace bound to an object. Bound to her.

"Thousands of people have talents!? A system used to filter out the talented from the masses!? Arriving in the Central Foundation in twenty-two years!?" Looking at Zel's memories that she took from when she held his face earlier, she finally got to read more details about Zel's circumstances.

"I'm sure you're more used to talking verbally, but do you mind if we continued this telepathically?" Estophelia wasn't quite used to talking using such a primitive means like talking with a mouth. The last person she spent time with was her husband, and they talked using telepathy for all five hundred years they stayed together. It was a little daunting and strange to speak using her voice now, not to mention inefficient.

"Err... Although I've heard about you from someone I could trust, do you mind introducing yourself first? Sorry if I seem too pushy, I'm just curious." Zel's eyes lit up when asked the question.

A new way of communication is being introduced to him, something new to him is rare after all his lifetimes. But after the excitement rush, he immediately took a safer approach instead of rushing in blindly. He was skeptical about the identity of the person in front of him, even if she seemed to be a good person. She didn't do anything to him even though he was unconscious after all. If she had evil intentions, she'd have done it before he was awake to do anything about it.

If she was reasonable then that would be great, because he dearly needed all the valuable help he could get right now. He really had no idea what was going on. Might as well ask the person who seems to know more than him.

"Oh, that's easy. Here!" Before Zel could even tell her that he wanted to decline using telepathy, the book in Estophelia's lap released a bubble that expanded to cover everything in a fifty meter radius. Though nothing changed visually, a strange sensation came over Zel at that moment.

"As you already know, I am Estophelia Brovnan. One of Brovnan's 4 Great Generals and proud Governess of the state of Pantheon!" A previously disguised fervor appeared in Estophelia's eyes as she sat on the saddle of a six meter high beast. It had the body of a horse but the fur of a bear, with a single horn on its head. It was a damn unicorn.

"What the hell? Where did that come from? Wait, where the hell are we?" Zel looked at the surroundings and was surprised to see that he was still in the room. But when he looked at Estophelia once again, she was still sitting on top of the unicorn while her attire changed into one similar to a knight.

Her chest plate was showing the crest of a golden bird, reminiscent of the one he saw on the man with the golden eyes, but it was somewhat different. The bird from beforehand had nothing else around it, but this one had flames around it. It was similar to the flames that he usually create, as if it had taken its likeness.

"Right now, we are talking with our minds! Whatever I want to show you, I could show here. Memories of our time together, before you turned into your present self. I'll show them to you." Estophelia then closed her eyes to scan through the memories she wanted Zel to see. But when she was about to start, Zel's ring lit up and released the book and the mana crystal that was attached to it.

"That's... me?" Estophelia immediately took hold of the mana crystal, making it turn to dust as soon as she touched it. As Zel was currently connected to her mind, he was able to see the memories of the Estophelia that was years ahead of the one in front of him.

The first scene showed a young woman looking over a collection of small spheres, twinkling lights appeared in the distance from time to time. For multiple generations, she watched over the people who lived on those spheres in the distance. Spreading her intent to watch for any signs of her husband's soul reincarnating.

After some time, Estophelia found a few people who had taken his soul as their own. These people would live lives that made significant ripples in history, but the man's soul never woke up from his slumber. At first, Estophelia let those men live without any involvement from her, hoping that the same rules that made her kind applied similarly to these people. But alas, she was disappointed time and time again. It wasn't that they lacked the heroism and the sheer talent of the man she knew, it was just their environment that made it hard for them to even awaken a part of his soul.

It was then that a decade ago, Estophelia opened up a small portal to a higher dimension. If the lacking environment was the cause of their lack of progress, then mana should do the trick. She was right, as people had developed a tolerance with mana. Some had even awoke their souls, though it only gave them meager abilities that would do little to change the world. However, the soul she did this for had seemingly disappeared after she did so, not reincarnating for a decade.

At first, Estophelia didn't think much of it due to the nature of reincarnation. Usually, it took around a year or two before a soul reincarnates, but when it still hadn't occurred after three, Estophelia knew something was wrong. It was then that she spent the next five years preparing something, something that she would use to speed up his reincarnation, or even find him if she does it properly.

It was getting tiring to just watch out for him and wait, so she'll instead make him show himself to her. Because as time passed, the first iteration's goal seemed to take much more time than they initially thought it would. Though she did think that her little interference was a mistake, she would fix it with another one.

Turns out, this was her introducing the system.