"An Enlightenment, huh?" Nolan nodded in understanding.
At Ei's level, further power mostly comes from mastering and comprehending authority, since they couldn't just raise their level by farming experience like him.
Because she'd been practicing alongside him for a long time, Ei had reached Level 121 just a few days ago.
If only Nolan's level had been higher than hers, she could have advanced even faster.
Given the current situation, she must be having some personal revelation regarding her authority—looks like he'd have to wait a while longer before asking her advice about what materials to use for forging the armor.
"Mm. The enlightenment is related to her studies of temporal power that you assisted with at that time—I can sense a time-related ambiance around her," Raiden Makoto said, tucking a long strand of deep violet hair behind her ear, her pale earlobe revealed.
Looking at Raiden Makoto, now fully restored and able to materialize her body, Nolan smiled:
"I see. Since Ei is immersed in enlightenment and can't train with me, then let's train together—you strengthening your soul body would benefit from it as well!"
With that, he stepped forward and gently took the soft, snow-white hand that poked out from beneath Raiden Makoto's lavender kimono sleeve.
There was no difference from touching a normal body; a faint warmth passed between their skins.
Just like with the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, since they'd been living together day and night, Raiden Makoto's affection for him had steadily increased, even though they didn't always do anything special.
Her affection now stood at Level 9, almost maxed:
[Raiden Makoto's Affection Level: Lv.9 (620/900)]
Havria and Guizhong were in about the same position—only Kitsune Saiguu, who had only recently awakened, had affection around Level 6.
To reach near-max affection would take more time spent together.
All of her best friends and juniors were now his wives, and now Raiden Makoto, another of her closest friends, was about to become his as well—so surely conquering Kitsune Saiguu wouldn't take much longer.
"Wha-what are you saying! I don't want to do that kind of thing with you!"
She also felt the warmth from their joined palms, and Raiden Makoto's pale cheeks flushed scarlet in an instant.
She was different from Ei—even though her personality was livelier, she could be even more easily flustered by these things.
She tried to pull her hand away, but Nolan didn't let go.
Raiden Makoto's near-max affection meant she didn't actually dislike him—the words of refusal were just a girl's natural modesty.
When faced with this kind of situation, being a little proactive was best. Based on his experience, when girls realized they couldn't break free, they'd give themselves a mental excuse—"It's all Nolan, that bad guy's fault for forcing me."
Then, by hesitantly following along that justification, they'd yield to their true feelings.
Nolan was more than familiar with this scenario. With a gentle pull, he drew Raiden Makoto into his embrace, opening his arms and holding her close, gazing at her up close.
"Ah!"
With her arms caught tight, Raiden Makoto let out a soft gasp. Her parted, cherry-pink lips exhaled warm breath in his face, carrying a faint fragrance.
Lowering her head, she stared at her own snow-white chest, too shy to meet Nolan's eyes.
She was dressed in a pale purple kimono much like Ei's, with long trails sweeping the floor, though the front was short, more like a skirt.
Her flawless white legs showed under the front flap. Unlike Ei, she wore a pair of white ankle-high socks instead of thigh-highs.
On her feet, platform wedge heels with crisscross laces elevated her easily by a good five or six centimeters.
Nolan ran his right hand gently over Raiden Makoto's back through the soft fabric, transmitting energy into her. Leaning close to her ear, he whispered with a smile:
"See, you can already feel your power growing more stable and your soul body becoming firmer, right? Training together multiplies the effects."
Raiden Makoto had never been a combat goddess. Now, as a soul body, her level sat at 103.
Nolan's own level was much higher, so channeling his energy had a markedly greater effect on her than on, say, Raiden Shogun.
"I'm not in a hurry to get stronger. Whether it's sooner or later doesn't matter—clearly, you just want to do those embarrassing things with me!"
Of course, after being together day in and day out, Raiden Makoto could read his thoughts easily.
"Let go, someone's coming!" Shamed and indignant, Raiden Makoto tried to further expose Nolan's impure intentions—then she suddenly caught sight of someone emerging from the library.
Nolan glanced sideways—it was Kitsune Saiguu, dressed in miko red-and-white.
If she saw him entwined so closely with Makoto, she'd probably scold him alongside Makoto.
That would likely ruin his plans for "intimate practice" with Makoto.
Thinking quickly, Nolan pulled her closer—and vanished, teleporting them both into the second floor's hot spring bathhouse.
Kitsune Saiguu, who'd just been discussing the "Akasha" system's effect on society with the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and the others, glanced curiously toward the meditation room's door.
Had she just sensed someone there?
Still in her recovery period, her perception wasn't too sharp. Maybe it was just her imagination. Kitsune Saiguu shook her head.
Wonderland, hot spring bathhouse.
Nolan and Raiden Makoto abruptly appeared inside the changing room—no one else was there at this hour, so the place was empty.
"Soaking in the hot spring will amplify the effects of our training," Nolan said, his hand on Makoto's back slipping lower as he nimbly unfastened her obi.
A belt identical to Ei's, and after practicing many times with Ei, he was now so fast that Makoto didn't react until it slithered down to her feet.
With the belt undone, the pale purple kimono spread apart at the front—and, just like Ei and the General, there was nothing worn inside.
Bare, snowy skin gleamed naked under the lights.
Makoto instinctively hugged her arms to her chest to hide herself, embarrassed, her cry caught in her throat—but Nolan pressed her up against the wall and silenced her with a kiss.
"Mmph!" Makoto's muffled protest slipped out past his lips.
Her eyes flashed with shame and annoyance as she glared at him from up close, forced to experience the unfamiliar sensation known as "kissing."
She had no way to resist—she could only let this man have his way with her.
At first, she felt a little uncomfortable and wanted to catch her breath, but gradually, she found that her body was instinctively cooperating with his movements.
This made her even more ashamed and annoyed—did her heart secretly want to do that sort of thing with this guy?
After a while, Makoto even forgot her embarrassment altogether, closing her eyes, seeming a little lost in the kiss.
After all, she didn't actually dislike Nolan in her heart, so once she got used to it, a sense of curiosity about kissing naturally crept in. When she started to focus on the sensation, she unwittingly became totally immersed in it.
Her arms, previously crossed to hide her snowy chest, had somehow slipped down at some point, naturally wrapping themselves around Nolan.
During a kiss, it seemed only natural to put your arms around the other person.
Nolan hadn't expected Makoto, once she let go of her pride, to become so enthralled; he gently parted her kimono and quietly slipped his right hand inside, softly caressing her waist.
The warmth and silky softness of her skin spread into his palm, and Makoto showed no special reaction.
So Nolan slowly slid lower, his hand gliding down to the soft, springy curve of her bottom, covered only by a pair of white triangle panties. He gave a gentle squeeze.
Yet Makoto really seemed lost in her own world, not even opening her eyes in response.
Nolan continued to caress for a while, slowly sliding his hand down her smooth, snowy thighs, continuing to stroke her softly.
After a few minutes, feeling they'd reached the right moment, Nolan pulled aside Makoto's pure-white triangle briefs just a little.
With both hands, he gently slid from the back of her thighs down to the bend of her knees, then gently hooked her legs up.
Makoto suddenly felt her center of gravity shift onto her back, pressing tightly against the wall of the changing room. Just as she started to feel confused—
She suddenly opened her eyes.
Dozens of minutes later, Nolan carried Makoto out of the changing room and sat down with her in the hot springs pool, both of their bodies soaking in the water.
Makoto was straddling on Nolan's lap, gazing at him with hazy, exhausted eyes, then draped her arms languidly over his shoulders. Propping her cheek against her forearm, she said in a slightly vexed voice,
"...You awful guy, taking advantage of me while I wasn't paying attention... hmph!"
[Raiden Makoto Has Developed Good Feelings Towards You. Obtained 360 Affection Points. Current Affection Level: Lv. 10 (MAX).]
Seeing the pop-up in his character panel, Nolan protested:
"You were the one who got so carried away—you didn't even react, so I just took it as silent agreement!"
At this moment, as Raiden Makoto's affection hit max level, the panel popped up a new notification about a gained affection-skill:
[Through heartfelt sincerity and relentless effort, you and the girl's once-unrelated fates are now deeply intertwined. From now on, the maiden's destiny star will shine alongside yours: Ability unlocked – "Dream Manifest."]
Dream Manifest? Nolan remembered this as the new secret art that Ei comprehended after realizing the meaning of "dreams" in the game's story, stronger even than "Musou no Hitotachi."
Could it be that this affection-skill from Raiden Makoto was the same secret art Ei had mastered?
Curious, Nolan opened the detailed description for "Dream Manifest":
[Dream Manifest] : The user gains "Dream Power." The maximum Dream Power equals the sum of both users' levels. Dream Power can be spent to grant oneself or others any imaginable effect. Cost and duration depend on the chosen effect. Dream Power regenerates at a rate of one point per minute while near Raiden Makoto.
So, it was only the name that was the same? It didn't seem to be the same ultimate move Ei achieved in the game... Nolan carefully studied this affection-skill's description.
Simply put, it was similar to how the Wonderland Space could collect "wishes" using the Musou Isshin to access the "General Wishes" feature.
The Wonderland Space allows you to gather the occasional wishes made by people inside, and use them to make wishes. But since there aren't many people there, the wishes added up so slowly over time that there still wasn't enough for a single gold-quality weapon.
It was a bit of a lackluster feature.
After all, only girls with high affection for him were willing to live in the Wonderland Space, so to expand the population, he'd have to keep raising more girls' affection.
There was simply no way around it.
This "Dream Manifest" affection-skill, however, didn't seem able to grant outright wishes; it simply granted any positive or negative effect to someone.
He wondered just what could be accomplished with the combined 219 points (his and Raiden Makoto's levels) of Dream Power.
Nolan thought it over, and decided to spend all the Dream Power on boosting his cultivation speed, curious to see how much higher it could go.
After all, Dream Power wasn't hard to recover: as long as he stayed with Makoto, he'd get one point per minute—pretty quick, all things considered.
With the thought, he burned through all of his Dream Power, applying the blessing to himself. A message surfaced in his mind:
[Cultivation speed boosted by 219%, duration 219 minutes.]
Feeling the effects, Nolan realized: each point of Dream Power increases the effect by 1% and lasts 1 minute. Simple formula.
It wasn't outrageously overpowered, but it was versatile: you could produce literally any effect you could imagine. All in all, like the other girls' affection-skills, it was completely bonkers!
Nolan enjoyed the heightened cultivation effect, then lowered his head to look at Raiden Makoto. With more than two hundred minutes left, he couldn't let it go to waste.
"Hey, you!" Makoto had just rested for a moment when she found herself tightly hugged again, complaining in embarrassment, "You... you jerk, tonight when Ei and Miko arrive, you can forget about getting out of bed tomorrow!"
"We'll see about that."
Nolan laughed to himself, thinking: does she really expect to win just by bringing in Ei and Miko? If only she'd seen how those girls begged for mercy!
But before night fell, Makoto was already feeling a bit worn out; just then, Fischl and Sucrose showed up for a bath.
Seeing Nolan and Makoto there training, they pulled Sucrose over to join as well.
With others to help divert the "pressure," Makoto heaved a sigh of relief. She sat down next to Nolan, making room for Fischl and the others, and then as if remembering something, turned to say to Nolan:
"My soul is completely stable now. Even if I use the power of time to go back, I won't dissipate from exhaustion anymore. Come plant the Sacred Sakura with Ei and me at the shrine tomorrow."
"It is about time. Sure, no problem."
Back when he was in Inazuma, Nolan hadn't let Raiden Makoto plant the Sacred Sakura, so her soul would have a chance to recover.
Now, she was back to normal—planting the Sacred Sakura was overdue anyway.
Besides, the Sword God avatar was still voyaging through deep space; it'd be days before they reached. Might as well take care of the Sacred Sakura in the meantime.
Otherwise, if the Sacred Sakura seed were ever lost or accidentally destroyed, it would be quite troublesome.
And if the logic of time and space in Teyvat ever glitched, who knows what would happen...
(End of Chapter)
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