Chapter 180: Crazy Right?
Once again a melodic giggle slipped out of the empress’s lips, light and musical, the kind of sound that felt completely out of place for someone who carried the presence of a god. The sound seemed to amuse even her, because she quickly covered her mouth with the back of her hand and coughed softly, trying to regain her composure.
It took her a second to settle down.
When she did, she leaned slightly back in her hammock chair, her posture relaxed as if nothing in the world could possibly bother her.
"Hmm, professional from now on, huh? Yes. So you didn’t answer me before, tell me everything about your world. The original world." She said calmly.
Her voice sounded calm and collected, almost scholarly in tone.
But Aaron wasn’t fooled.
He could clearly see the faint smile lingering on her lips, the kind that carried amusement and curiosity in equal measure.
She was entertained.
And that was good.
That was all Aaron needed right now.
The ice between them had already been broken earlier. All he had to do now was keep chipping away at it slowly until the distance between them disappeared entirely.
For someone like her, forcing things would only backfire.
"Right, so it’s called Earth, honestly the people on Earth couldn’t use this mana and magic stuff, so we used to develop on technologies and fight amongst ourselves for the larger pieces of land." he shared with a chuckle.
The empress tilted her head slightly.
"No mana and magic... ah, should be either outside the energy zone or your people didn’t have the resources to actually utilize the mana." the empress reasoned with a thoughtful expression, her slender hand stroking her perfect chin.
Aaron shrugged lightly.
"Could be." Aaron nodded, "There are 8 big planets in our solar system and a star that we call the Sun. The planets orbits around the Sun. As for our galaxy, we call it the Milky way galaxy and the nearest galaxy is Andromeda galaxy." He dumped all the basic knowledge he had about space.
The empress listened quietly.
For a moment she simply stared at him, her head slightly tilted, as if searching through some massive library inside her mind.
Then she slowly shook her head.
"Doesn’t ring a bell." Empress shook her head, "Disappointing, I could’ve allowed you a trip back on Earth if it was somewhere I knew or if it was close by... alas."
Aaron’s eyes widened instantly.
His face split open in pure shock as he stared at her.
It wasn’t like he didn’t miss his old life.
Of course he did.
He missed his parents. His family. The familiar streets, the stupid little routines that once felt boring but now seemed strangely comforting.
But the truth was that he had never seriously thought about returning.
Partly because he had already accepted that it wasn’t possible.
And partly because... well...
Solaris was fun.
Dangerous, insane, magical—and incredibly fun.
Still, somewhere in the back of his mind he always knew that Earth was gone forever.
Or at least unreachable.
And yet here she was.
This woman he had met barely half an hour ago was casually saying she could send him back.
Not just that.
She made it sound like a vacation.
A trip.
Like she could drop him there, let him do whatever he wanted, and then bring him back to Solaris afterward.
It was absurd.
Impossible.
And yet... coming from someone like her, it didn’t feel like a joke.
Aaron felt his chest tighten slightly.
If that was really possible...
He could meet his parents again.
Call them.
Explain what happened.
Tell them he wasn’t dead.
Tell them he was safe.
He could watch their faces when they realized he was alive.
And then... he could come back here.
Back to the world of magic.
The world of monsters.
The world that had become strangely addictive.
His enthusiasm rose immediately.
Aaron began explaining everything he knew with far more energy than before.
Planets.
Moons.
Asteroids.
Dwarf planets.
Solar systems.
He listed everything he could remember from school, documentaries, and random internet articles.
The planets, the dwarf planets, the distant discovered planets from hubble telescopes and other satellites... he named them all.
Maybe.
Just maybe.
She would recognize something.
Maybe one of those names would click.
Maybe she had traveled there before.
Maybe—
"I know none of them." she shook her head, "The naming sense of things purely incidental for the most part, you know. The galaxy you described as the Milky way could be called Creamy way here and I wouldn’t know." She chuckled softly.
Aaron slowly nodded.
It made sense.
Names meant nothing in a universe this large.
Even if she had visited his galaxy before, it could have an entirely different name in her records.
Still...
The tiny spark of hope inside him quietly dimmed.
It had been a long shot anyway.
Deep down he already knew the chances of her recognizing his planet were almost nonexistent.
But hope had a strange way of clinging to people.
And now that hope had been crushed.
The empress seemed to notice his expression immediately.
She sighed lightly.
"Your whole galaxy could very well be outside of the energy zone and do you know what that means? It means neither could I take you there and neither would you survive there. Your blood is fused with mana now, without mana, you will die."
Aaron swallowed.
The words felt heavy.
He hesitated before speaking again.
"But that can’t be possible... right? How could my soul travel from outside the energy zone and transmigrate into somewhere so far away?"
The empress raised a finger slightly, as if about to lecture a student.
"The spiritual realm is outside of my power, obviously, but I will still tell you, don’t use your common sense in matters related to souls. Only those with those powers could fully understand the matters that relate to souls.
But then again, you can’t understand them either so it’s a dead end." she snickered, half in amusement and half in depression.
It sounded like she was making fun of him.
But there was something else hidden in her tone.
Frustration.
Even someone like her couldn’t fully understand those things.
Aaron recognized the boundary immediately.
Pushing further into topics like souls and spiritual realms probably wasn’t a good idea.
So he simply nodded.
But it seemed like the empress wasn’t finished venting.
"Your soul could have been travelling for centuries if not millennials and you won’t feel a thing because you were in a state of hibernation. Your original planet could very well be destroyed already, because that’s how the spiritual realm works." She took a deep breath.
"It’s like the quantum realm, I can interact with it only on the surface level, but when I try to go deeper..." she sighed, "Can’t understand it either."
Aaron felt his mind spin slightly.
Centuries?
Millennia?
His world...
Destroyed?
That thought alone made his chest tighten painfully.
Hah.
Forget centuries.
He would be lucky if his parents could live another decade.
Their health had already been fragile the last time he saw them.
Which meant...
Even if Earth still existed...
They were probably gone.
The dream he had just built moments ago—returning home, surprising them, letting them worry and fuss over him again...
That dream quietly shattered.
The empress noticed his silence.
She hummed quietly and rested her cheek against her palm, watching him with a thoughtful expression.
Minutes passed like that.
Neither of them spoke.
The only sounds inside the room were the soft creaking of their hammock chairs and the occasional sip of tea.
Then suddenly—
Splash.
Aaron’s attention snapped toward the bucket nearby.
Another splash.
"Alyssa?" Aaron’s somber expression was replaced by both confusion and hope as he leaned towards the bucket.
Inside the tea bucket something was moving.
The surface of the liquid churned as if someone was fighting beneath it.
A small hand occasionally burst above the surface before getting pulled down again.
Without hesitation Aaron plunged his hand into the bucket.
Fortunately the tea wasn’t hot anymore.
Just lukewarm.
The moment his hand entered the liquid, something grabbed him.
Alyssa clung to his hand like a koala hugging a tree.
Her soft mushroom-like body pressed tightly against his fingers as if she refused to let go.
She felt... bigger.
But Aaron didn’t stop to think about it.
He immediately pulled her out.
Tea splashed everywhere.
Drops scattered across the floor.
Across the table.
Across the empress’s furniture.
The empress slowly pressed her lips into a thin line.
She watched the two chaotic mortals silently.
Then she sighed.
With a snap of her fingers, every drop of spilled tea vanished instantly.
If she hadn’t been wearing a bandana over her eyes, one could easily imagine her rolling them in annoyance.
Aaron didn’t even notice.
His attention was completely fixed on Alyssa.
His eyes widened.
She was no longer the size she used to be.
Before, she could sit comfortably in his palm.
Now...
She was the size of a small puppy.
Her arms wrapped around his forearm tightly as if she was afraid he might disappear.
Her mushroom skin looked smoother than before.
Whiter.
Almost glowing.
Her blue dress looked brighter too, as if it had been freshly dyed.
Even her mushroom cap had changed.
It was slightly smaller now, decorated with tiny golden patches that shimmered faintly under the light.
Somehow she looked...
Prettier.
More alive.
"...Sir Aaron, hello. I seemed to have died and came back to life... crazy right?" She blinked several times, staring at Aaron with her wide beautiful eyes.