Codex Null: Simulation Through Madness

At Noel's words, Selena seemed to have returned instantly to that meek girl who had fallen head over heels for Noel's dangerous side and was always being swept along by his intensity in the past.

But while she didn't have any words to say, that wasn't the same case for Noel.

He had plenty of thoughts suppressed inside him for years, and he was intent on saying everything that had been building up.

"I mean, can you even imagine the absurdity?"

"I'm twenty-one, but still a virgin!"

"Twenty-one!"

He emphasized with his loud voice, and some women walking on the streets heard him and seemed to want to gather their courage and try their luck with him. But Noel, naturally not giving the curious bystanders any attention, still had his eyes fixed on Selena as he shook his head and added, "When I regained my memories, that was the thing I was most frustrated about."

"So let's solve that problem before anything else."

'I'm twenty-two, but still a virgin,' Selena thought desperately, but couldn't find it in herself to voice it aloud.

Instead, with a curious tilt of her head, she tried to hide her burning embarrassment as she asked, "Okay, but then, what does any of this have to do with my mother?"

Noel grinned widely and seemed to send an approving gaze to Selena, as if telling her it was good that she asked, before he finally delivered his answer.

"I mean, I should probably inform her that I'm fucking her daughter regularly from now on... and she should expect a grandchild soon enough, right?"

"You have just avoided death... but you insist on running straight toward it?" Selena asked in a low voice, seemingly exasperated by his reckless actions.

But Noel didn't share the same assessment as he countered smoothly, "Do you really think your mother would actually do something to harm me?"

Would she?

Selena wondered, finding herself genuinely uncertain about the answer.

After all, while she was sure that her mother was firmly against her having any relationship with Noel, especially after his condition had deteriorated so dramatically… beyond that general disapproval, she honestly didn't know.

"Anyway, you said it yourself that there's no problem with me seeing her. And if she's in your main dimension, then let's go there." Noel said with finality, and Selena, unable to refute his warped up logic anymore, finally resumed walking with him.

They continued in contemplative silence when suddenly Selena, who had finally gathered herself after the shock of hearing that she was apparently losing her virginity today, spoke up thoughtfully.

"You know? I just thought about it. But this sex… I mean, making love thing — it's not related to your dissatisfaction with me specifically, right?"

Selena's calm eyes seemed to gleam with hidden intensity as she waited for an answer from Noel.

No matter what he answered, she wouldn't be surprised.

That's what she thought until he replied with brutal honesty, "Of course it's related."

"I mean, instead of using the savage way of beating you into submission, I thought of fucking your brains out instead, where at least you'll feel pleasure during the process."

"Why? Did you want me to go back to beating you? Like that first time we met?"

Selena was left speechless once again, her face flushed deep red as he continued discussing how he would fuck her with casual intensity.

Unable to endure the combination of public setting and explicit language anymore, she finally protested, "Even if we're going to do it, why are you being so crude with your words like this?"

"It's simple." Noel said as he pulled her closer to him, demanding her full attention as he explained, "I felt like I've been far too elegant for the past twelve years, so to compensate for all that wasted time, I'm speaking exactly like this now."

"Why? You don't like hearing me talk this way?"

Noel asked with challenge in his voice, and Selena, after staying silent for a long moment, spoke in a voice so low it was barely above a whisper, "No... I… I like it."

Noel's grin widened with satisfaction as he cupped his ear in mock confusion and said, "What? I didn't hear you properly."

But Selena simply glared at him with a mixture of embarrassment and defiance, refusing to say anything more.

She was already feeling ashamed by her own honest reply, after all.

Was this the real reason why she'd played hard to get all this time?

She seemed to question her previous motives and her supposed goals during these long twelve years of calculated distance.

And like that, lost in their own thoughts, they arrived at her family's estate before long.

From there, he finally entered a gate connecting to her Everen house's main dimension.

"Young miss." Someone soon greeted Selena as she entered, and she replied back before telling her something in a low voice.

Noel, on the other hand, simply looked at the scenery around him. It was the first time he'd come to the Everen's main dimension, after all.

He couldn't be sure about the dimension's exact size, but Noel estimated that it was bigger than their Cross house's dimension.

The nature-filled fields stretching far away aside, his current surroundings were basically a city on their own.

A city with all kinds of buildings and streets that were simply more grand and imposing than those found in the outside world.

How much more grand exactly?

Instead of asphalt, the streets were paved with crystalline stone —the expensive kind, something along the lines of diamond but larger than slabs, polished to a mirror sheen and arranged with precision.

It was used primarily for its appearance and beauty rather than hardness, though it could endure more shocks when battles occurred occasionally... naturally not to the extent of his Cross family, but the battles between the Awakened were ever-present, after all.

"Have you finished looking around?" Selena suddenly interrupted him and asked.

And Noel smiled as he shook his head.

He had not come here for sightseeing, after all.

To him, it was partly to get back at Selena slightly, to trouble her with these small things, but at the same time, it was to test the waters with Clarissa.