酷视

"In theory, it is. But…" I pressed my lips together, not sure how exactly to bring this point across. "What if something goes wrong?"

This time, I took a slightly longer pause, trying to organize my thoughts before actually speaking out.

"I\'m not exactly sure how my portals work. Do they allow me to open a portal to the place where I last did so? Is a new portal going to establish a connection to yet another world? And if it\'s the first case…"

I shook my head and bit down on my bottom lip.

"No, let me put it this way. Assuming we are in your world and set the stable portal there. Then, we use the normal portal to go back to where we set the stable one. What would we do if my normal portal would lead us back to where we came from? If it did, how would we ever go back to this world?"

This question was actually centered on my greatest worry. The worry of losing the only thing that gave me an edge over all the other humans that existed in Fay\'s world.

Even if I would bring over all sorts of guns, ammunition, technology, and supplies… they were bound to run out sometime in the future. Run out, decay, get lost… And once that was to happen, how would I be any different from just slightly more powerful people of that world?

I shook my head, my soul filling with worry.

"Don\'t get me wrong. We would still be able to live happily even while stuck in either of the worlds. But being able to move between them gives us the advantage that I\'m not willing to so readily discard. Not yet, at least."

After revealing at least a portion of how I truly felt, I expect Fay to, as usual, comfort me…

But this time, her reaction was nowhere like what I expected.

"If you are all that worried about getting a stable portal, why won\'t you just pick the shorter recharge time?" she asked, too busy being baffled by what she clearly considered to be a small issue. "What\'s the point of worrying that much, if you can just go with the other option that is not as risky?"

\'Oh, right… I guess I didn\'t stress out my idea from before hard enough,\' I thought, realizing what was the missing element that made Fay\'s perspective so much different from mine.

"Fay, dearest, I will repeat what I said before. I know what I saw when I brought up the topic of leaving the forest. And getting a new portal…"

I took a deep breath, taking a moment to get myself ready to reveal my grand plan.

"If it works in the way I wish it would, I might be able to bring you, your mom, and even Leinei away from that forest without putting any of you at risk of testing my theory about the starlight plains."

As sure as I could be I was right about the starlight plain serving as a barrier for celestials and the misty valley stopping the divines from leaving… I wasn\'t ready to put Fay\'s or even Madam\'s health and sanity at risk just to prove it.

But what if I had a portal that I could freely use to go back to a predetermined spot in the celestial forest?

"If using that stable portal won\'t mess up the usage of the normal portals I can open, I would be able to traverse through the starlight plain without a care in the world about its spatial shenanigans.

Or, in fact, I would actually be able to just create a stable portal in the forest, move through the kingdom of those mercenaries that you guys hate on my own, and then bring you through once I leave it through its other side."

When it came to the starlight plain and how it messed up with space, there was one thing that I was pretty sure about.

It could stretch out the distance one had to travel to cross it by a lot… but it couldn\'t block one\'s path completely. After all, if it could actually lock someone in, how could I just waltz out of it as many times as I did?

"So you are still stuck on this topic…" Fay bit down on her lips. And even with all the clutter of the notification windows blocking my vision, I could tell her expression right now turned too complex for me to read.

Fay then shook her head, sending the long streaks of her wet hair into a frenzy.

"Just do it, then," she encouraged, without even a hint of hesitation in her voice. "The reasons for why you covet the ability to open that stable portal be damned, I can tell that\'s the pick you want to make."

Fay\'s voice calmed down, returning to its usual, sweet tone. She even leaned herself forth, resting down on my chest as she wrapped her hands around my neck and gave me a tight hug.

"Even if it will work in a different way than you expect, we will somehow work it out. And if it\'s about me, even if I will end up stuck in this world forever…"

Rather than finishing up her sentence, Fay simply tightened her hold over my neck, almost pulling my back off the bath\'s edge to bring me into a tighter embrace.

"If you say so…" as hesitant as I was to make this decision… I actually agreed with Fay on one point.

The stable portal is the choice I\'ve long made, just one my rational side continued to denounce as one that was too risky. But the potential benefits of having a stable anchor in either of the worlds to return to…

They were far greater than just an ability to move between the worlds more frequently!

"Here goes nothing, then," I muttered, allowing the immature, gamer-side of my soul to take the reins of my consciousness.

The side of me that believed that if I could get one stable portal just by reaching the fifth level, then there should be a way to somehow get this or a similar reward again. So, even if I ended up stranded in Fay\'s world, all it would take would be a small genocide to return home!

And with that in mind, I gave my system the mental command.