Chapter 478
The question came with a speed he had never anticipated.
It shot through the RWIA network with an intensity that made its vibrations reach even the deepest edges of consciousness.
Aldraya, who for the past ten minutes had remained silent while her super-advanced mind continuously spun through every possible outcome, suddenly released everything she had been holding back in a way only a being who had never learned to conceal her thoughts could.
Why Theo refused to follow the three proposals he himself had proposed—that was the core of her question.
A question so simple in its wording, yet so profound in its implications.
And more than that, before Theo could even open his mouth to respond, before he could arrange the words that would become the answer to a question he perhaps should have asked himself from the very beginning, Aldraya added something that made the burden in his chest feel no longer his alone.
She questioned him, not with a tone of accusation or blame, but with one born from genuine confusion.
From a lack of understanding she could not hide, even if she tried.
From the conviction that what she was saying was logical and reasonable.
What was the true reason Theo chose not to follow his own proposals?
When, from Aldraya's perspective—from a being who had only just begun synchronizing with the four aspects that extended Theo's creativity, from a being with a super-advanced mind that had yet to fully grasp how the mind of a Great Author worked—Theo could simply combine all three proposals and carry them out simultaneously, achieving results far superior to choosing only one, let alone rejecting all three.
"From the standpoint of simple calculation, that approach does seem the most efficient."
The smile appeared so subtly it was almost imperceptible.
A faint curve at the corner of lips unaccustomed to forming unnecessary expressions.
A movement so brief that anyone observing from afar might mistake it for a trick of light caught in their vision after staring too long into emptiness.
But for Aldraya, who was connected through the RWIA network beneath their consciousness, for a being who had spent enough time studying every detail of a face that had barely changed since the first time she knew it, that small smile felt like something more than mere expression.
It felt like a message that did not need to be spoken aloud, because sound would never be enough to carry all the meaning contained within it.
And within that smile, within that nearly invisible curve, there was something rare from Theo.
Something about relief that needed no explanation.
Something about acceptance that no longer required debate.
Something about the realization that even though he did not have answers to all the questions suspended in the air, even though he still did not know which path he would choose among the three proposals he himself had devised, there was one thing that made the weight in his chest feel slightly lighter than before—
That he was not alone in this confusion.
That there was another being, with a super-advanced mind and a logic both naive and sharp, who innocently questioned why he did not attempt to combine the three proposals, who innocently believed that combination was the answer to every problem.
The telepathy flowing through the RWIA network did not require sound to carry messages.
It did not need spoken words or the vibration of vocal cords.
Yet the message Theo sent at that moment, accompanied by the faint smile still lingering on his lips, carried something beyond mere information.
It carried a warmth he had never realized he was capable of emitting.
It carried an acknowledgment he had never voiced aloud, yet felt unmistakably real in the vibrations traveling from one side to the other.
That he had indeed considered it.
That amidst all the calculations of risk, impact, and benefit he had conducted during those ten minutes of silence, among the lines of questions he formulated regarding the three proposals before him, there had been moments when his thoughts drifted in the same direction as Aldraya's.
Moments when he imagined what would happen if he did not choose one, if he did not reject them all, if he did something that had never been included in his own proposals.
He imagined combining them.
Taking fragments from each proposal and assembling them into something he had never considered before.
Creating a fourth path—one not better than the three, yet not worse either.
A path born not from meticulous calculation, but from the courage to attempt something he had never tried throughout his entire journey as the Great Author.
"The problem… lies in the flaws already inherent within each of those proposals."
The silence that had long existed between the two consciousnesses connected by the thin threads of Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition finally began to be filled with a voice that never required the vibration of vocal cords to reach its destination.
Theo allowed himself to sink into the flow of explanation emerging from the deepest space where all calculations and doubts were usually buried neatly.
He let the words flow in a rhythm that was never hurried, even as the clock in the corner of the room continued to move forward, leaving behind moments that would never return.
He was not explaining to justify himself.
Not constructing reasons to mask his inability to decide.
Rather, he was doing something rare throughout his entire journey as the Great Author.
Something that made the weight in his chest feel slightly lighter with each word released from the grasp of his consciousness—
He was allowing another being to see how his mind worked, with all its complexity and chaos he had never shown to anyone before.
And Aldraya, in a place far away, with a body that perhaps also did not move and eyes that might have been fixed on something she would never reveal, remained silent just as she had during the ten minutes that felt as though time itself had stopped.
She let every word traveling through the RWIA network seep into her super-advanced mind.
Without interrupting.
Without interjecting.
Without doing anything other than becoming a vast, empty space capable of holding everything Theo chose to pour out.
The first proposal, which had once hung in the air with a weight he had never felt before—the proposal that spoke of direct action despite the risks lurking in every corner of that decision—turned out to carry flaws he could not ignore, no matter how many perspectives he used to examine it.
To be continued…