Chapter 1104: In the Tower house
[OP: ]
A young girl opened her eyes in an unfamiliar place.
"...?"
There was a white teddy bear with diamond like eyes standing right before her with a worried expression when she did, and, though she was confused at first, the situation did not matter to her at the moment.
"Ah…"
There was a strange pain in her heart, her entire body felt painful.
She felt like there were tens of needles poking on her skin, a pain that stung, but at the same time, this pain that did not go away.
"Ughhh!"
She struggled to endure it for a while.
Her red, jeweled eyes shined with a crimson light as she wrapped her small arms around her body.
"...!"
The white teddy bear, seeing her in this state, was alerted, and took out a potion bottle from his front pouch, a storage area that had countless things inside of them.
"Muuu!"
The artificial being tried to give the potion to the young girl, but, she was feeling so much pain that she could not even look up, much less hold the potion bottle.
"..."
The teddy did not have any other choice then.
"Hmm? Mr. Rice-."
A few needles came out of its soft paws, and as if a syringe had sucked in the potion, the potion inside of the small bottle vanished into his paws.
Then, the teddy took out a few more potion bottles and sucked in the potions through the needles.
And then, right as the young girl watched with astonishment, the teddy took out the needles attached to the tube that came out of its paw and pressed them on the girl’s arm.
"..."
The girl, the teddy’s best friend, Anna, was confused at first and thought it would hurt when the needles were inserted inside of her, but that did not happen.
"Mr. Rice? How did you…"
Neither did it hurt when he inserted the needles, nor did it hurt anymore after he had inserted needles.
The potions, along with the various medicines that it had prepared for her, accurately harmonised her body and then, the teddy placed its paw on her head.
"What are you doing now?"
Anna was thankful for what it had done for her, but she got confused when she saw him placing its soft paw on her head.
-Oooooooooong!
Though, the moment he started doing something to her, she started feeling even better than before.
"Wow…"
She started feeling lighter.
Her eyes could now see particles of lights around her, something that she knew was Mana, something she could not see previously.
Her body felt lighter but she was feeling stronger.
There was something inside of her, something that was not present there before and she could feel it directly… a mass of energy, a nucleus that she had read so much about.
"Did I… awaken?"
Anna did not know what was happening right now, where she was, and how Mr. Rice was doing all of this. She didn’t even know her best friend toy could do something like this.
"What’s… going on?"
While she knew Mr. Rice was special, it could move, it understood what she said, and was a nice friend, she did not know it could also help her like this.
But, knowing how it was a gift from her big brother, she was pretty sure he must have created him in a way that would make all of this possible.
"Haaa…"
She did not know what was going on, but she knew something had happened when she was awakening.
Just a moment ago she was in her house, talking with her friend Nessy, and now here she was, alone with her toy friend, in a place that… did not look familiar at all.
"What is this place?"
Mr. Rice did something to her that calmed the reactions of energy inside of her. Thanks to him, she was now feeling all better and the energy that was inside of her, something that was golden and different from the Blue Mana in the environment, was also stabilised.
"Mr. Rice, do you know what this place is?"
Even though Mr. Rice was simply a teddy bear, right now, it looked extremely exhausted. It almost looked like it had done something very energy consuming and was now tired.
"Oh… did you have to suffer… because of me?"
Anna did not want her friend, the only person that she had with her in this empty and unknown place, to be in trouble because of her.
And even the teddy did not want her to think that she had done something to it in any manner.
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"...!"
So, to express its feelings, it took out a transparent slate and channeled some of its own Mana onto it.
[You did not do anything! I am fine!]
Words had appeared on that blank slate along with a worried expression on the teddy. It looked fine right now, but it was still not in its perfect condition anymore.
[Please do not worry about me. I will get better in no time.]
The words on the slate changed and it reassured her that it was fine.
And, though she was still worried, and though she knew this friend of hers was not a real person, she could still Feel the genuine emotions that it had.
"..."
It was strange since this was happening for the first time.
Before this, she could not feel any emotions from Mr. Rice even though she somehow knew it had something similar to what she felt from the others.
The ability to Feel emotions was something that she had innately, and if the emotions, as she understood it, were abstract ’feelings’ that one possessed, they should theoretically be present in everything, even the non-living.
She had tried to understand this power of hers, but now that she looked around her, she could actually ’feel’ a lot more things even with no one present around her.
"Hmmm…"
The place that she was in, the ring-like thing that resembled the warp gates that she had seen, this huge hall with all these pretty looking things… there were a lot of things in this place that caught her eye, many things that somehow had something similar to Emotions.
In fact, there was something that now bothered her…
"Why is it everywhere?"
She could feel Emotions. She knew that already.
But if it was true that she had misunderstood the meaning of Emotions this whole time, then… why was it that she was feeling these ’emotions’ from everywhere around her?
[Master, this is a safe place.]
Mr. Rice seemed to know this place. It seemed like it also knew a lot about this place. However, that was not important to Anna right now.
"Do you think… this place is Alive, Mr. Rice?"
She could not help but wonder what this strange feeling was… she could feel emotions from not just every Thing around her, but even from the ground, the ceilings, the walls, and ultimately this very place.
And the emotions that she felt from this Place was in fact much different from the Things that were present inside of it.
[Hmm? What do you mean, Anna?]
Mr. Rice was her best friend but until now, it had never really called out to her or said her name in any manner.
This was the first time it called her out, by her name no less.
"Mr. Rice…"
She had thought that this friend that she had countless tea parties with, the one that she loved dressing up, the friend that ate and drank with her, was more formal around her than a Friend needed to be.
Many times, she had thought it was more like the servants or helpers that were around their house.
Even now, it helped her get better even though it was difficult for him. So… she had thought ’it’ would call her master or something.
But that was not the case.
"You’re my friend."
He was not a servant or anything. He was her friend, Mr. Rice.
[Of course I am your friend~. To be precise, I am your Buddy.]
His creator did not make him to serve her or to protect her. Eon made this specific one along with his master in this very place so that it could be with her.
It was supposed to be a buddy, a close friend that would always be with her, help her in any way she might need, protect her when needed, look after her even when she was not aware, but most importantly, it was supposed to be her friend.
A friend that she could rely on, someone that would understand and help her, someone that would fulfill a role that was very important for a sheltered child like her.
At least unless she found companions that could also be in her life as Buddies, Mr. Rice would be there to watch after her.
Or Eon was there to watch over her anyway…
[Oh! But that aside…]
Anna was happy that she was not alone in this unknown place. However, she did not have to treat this place like some strange, shady place.
[Anna, do you remember the place Brother Eon told you about? The place where he lived with his master and Sister Zoe’s home?]
"Hmm? Yes, I remember. But why do you-... wait! Don’t tell me, this place is…!"
[Yes~. This is their home~! The Tower house that they talked about~.]
Anna was currently in a place where she had always wanted to go.
Eon, on the other side of the world, was preparing to come back to this home that had not only saved his life but was also the place that corrected his fate.
On the other side of the world, a force was preparing an invasion from across the darkest part of the sea.
In the celestial realm, evil were plotting their next descent to claim the fragile, newborn divinities as their own.
Far away, across the universe, there were entities that watched over the further branching timelines, looking far ahead at the inevitable doom that awaited this world.
And somewhere around this world…
[{( … )}]
Two prisoners awaited the arrival of the Keys that would correct the branching fates of this world.