Chapter 101
'Whatever your choice is, whether it is silence, speaking, or lying, I will accept it.
I understand how heavy it is to live by principles built from faith, piety, and betrayal, which now must confront someone who chooses freedom to determine its meaning on their own.
I can see that struggle in your eyes, even though your expression has remained unchanged like stone since earlier.'
Theo only nodded softly, that small and permeating motion slipping into the space between them as if marking that he accepted any decision born from Aldraya's silence.
In the quiet that stretched once more between them, that nod carried far more than mere agreement.
He accepted if Aldraya chose not to answer.
He accepted if Aldraya chose to delay.
He even accepted if one day Aldraya decided to lie in order to protect the remaining boundaries she upheld as the foundation of herself.
For Theo, that decision was not simply a choice, but a subtle form of resistance from someone holding tightly to the meaning of their life while standing on the very edge of a precipice that could change everything.
In that awareness, he understood that no answer should ever be forced, for every word tied to freedom is always born from the deepest and most fragile place within a person.
The space between them grew heavy again, yet without pressure.
Theo's gaze reflected on Aldraya's face that remained as still as the surface of frozen water, showing no hint of emotion.
But that calm was no longer an empty calm.
Behind the silence that seemed lifeless, Theo could sense the unspoken panic, something that revealed how difficult it was to be a being whose meaning of life rested upon faith, piety, and betrayal.
Those three pillars had long been the supports of Aldraya's existence.
They were direction, burden, and an invisible cage all at once.
And now those three pillars were colliding with an idea far wilder, an idea of freedom that bowed neither to divine decree nor to self-imposed order.
That idea was Theo himself.
The impact made no sound, yet Theo saw it clearly in Aldraya's eyes even though her expression remained unmoving like stone untouched by wind or time.
He realized that Aldraya's calm was only a surface.
Beneath it flowed something far more complex, something she tried desperately to maintain so that the world she understood would not crumble so easily.
Theo did not wish to topple any of those pillars.
He did not want to change them by force.
He merely understood that anyone living with meanings as rigid as those would inevitably stagger when freedom was presented as something capable of surpassing all three.
And that was why he allowed Aldraya to remain in her calm, letting her decide for herself when the world within her would be ready to receive the question he had released earlier.
Within him, Theo once again understood that not everyone could immediately touch the essence of freedom without shaking the very foundation of their lives.
In the end, he simply stood there, looking at the girl who remained silent yet not empty.
'Such deep unrest, yet now I feel calmer.
I never expected that a small spoiler about the future—regarding what happens in the first arc, episode nine—could change your attitude so significantly.'
Fhhhh!
'That wavering expression of confusion, along with the defensive questions you threw at me to trap me, became proof that something within you has begun to shift.
A change this large, triggered only by a subtle hint?
Fortunately, I did not fall into the trap you set.'
Deep within himself, Theo felt the long-creeping unease, cold as water, finally dissolve.
He drew a long breath, as though he had just escaped an unseen snare that had tightened around his chest since the beginning of their conversation.
A quiet sense of relief touched the corner of his awareness when he realized that the small hint he'd slipped about Aldraya's future in the first arc—especially about what would happen in episode nine—had a far greater impact than he had expected.
Theo had never imagined that a single delicate touch on the girl's timeline could provoke such a meaningful change in her current behavior.
He recalled the moment when Aldraya's nearly stone-like expression revealed something resembling confusion, a small crack he had never seen before.
Even the defensive questions she posed, a deliberate attempt to ensnare Theo in her own trap, became markers that something inside her had begun to move.
The attempt might have been crafted neatly, but Theo sensed the hidden motive trying to maintain control of the situation.
Even so, he managed to evade it, like someone who had crossed the thin line between traps and freedom countless times.
'I did not lie, Aldraya.
When I asked your thoughts about freedom or when I showed you the article "Understanding the Meaning of Freedom", my mind had already calculated every possibility among the decillions of choices.
I chose my words carefully, searching for the ones most fitting—not ones that would plunge you deeper into despair, but ones you could accept without stirring new turmoil within you.'
Fhhhh!
'I could not bear to see you become as miserable as in the original storyline, when faith, piety, and betrayal consumed you—until you transformed into a being far too vast for the universe.
I still remember vividly how your transformation into a mid-boss in the early to mid parts of episode nine shattered everything—even the roses that upheld a cosmic order more complex than Berkeley cardinals withered and disintegrated just like that.
And ironically, all of that was only a fraction—not even one-thousandth of a percent—of the true transition of Aldraya Kansh Que.'
The space around them continued to tremble softly, filled with the subtle waves of concentration and attention building within Theo.
Each time he looked at Aldraya, each time his mind drifted to the question he wished to pose regarding the essence of freedom, decillions of possibilities began to intertwine within his thoughts.
He considered every word he might use with almost painful precision, weighing each possible reaction Aldraya might display.
There was no room for error, for he knew that every small step, every chosen word, could shift the trajectory of the girl's future in drastically different directions.
Even the slightest misstep held the potential to trigger changes he could never undo.
He understood that his focus was not merely about asking a question, but about preserving the balance between the freedom he wished to show and the stability that had shaped Aldraya for so long.
When the article titled Understanding the Meaning of Freedom was presented before Aldraya, Theo's body trembled faintly with the tension he held within himself.
He saw clearly the branching scenarios extending from one moment to the next, weighing how Aldraya's interpretation could spark drastic change.
In his mind, he envisioned a Flo Viva Mythology world where Aldraya became a mid-boss in the early and middle parts of episode nine, a shift that unleashed a soft yet suffocating ruin, destroying the fragile structures of the world, tearing apart its preserved beauty, even causing the few remaining roses to wilt and fall.
In his mind, he envisioned a Flo Viva Mythology world where Aldraya Kansh Que's shift into a mid-boss in the early to mid stages of episode nine brought devastation so sorrowful and heartbreaking.
To be continued…