Chapter 32: Isabella. Of Course.
Five hours was how long it took for Neve to finish everything he was doing.
Cooking for dinner, roasting the leftover meat and reorganising.
The kitchen had a system now... he had arranged it over the past few hours into something that made sense. Vegetables by type in the containers. Dried meat on the high shelf away from the moisture that came through the crack. Fresh things were near the front, where he would reach them first.
He made a thick stew. Unlike the soup, this one had less water and more substance, the potatoes broke down into the broth as it cooked, thickening it naturally. He added the carrot-things late because they softened fast. Salt at the end.
He stirred and waited and thought about Ryker arriving tomorrow.
Ryker, who had proposed to him just a few minutes after meeting him for the first time. Ryker, who was at thirty-eight per cent on the favourability meter and had been climbing it from a standing start faster than anyone except Cael, except the unknown dragon lord whose mark was sitting warm on Neve’s neck.
He stirred the pot.
’I’ll deal with it when it happens,’ he thought. ’One thing at a time. I don’t need to dwell on those things too much.’
The system dinged.
{Stockpile Mission: 100/100% — COMPLETE}
Neve looked up from the pot.
He turned the fire down, low enough to keep the stew warm without overcooking it and stepped back into the main room.
{Reward Loading!}
A reward? He didn’t even know there was a reward. He wasn’t concerned about it this time since he was almost disappointed this time.
The reward loaded slowly. He watched the progress bar move and tried not to have expectations for anything good because the system’s track record with rewards was inconsistent at best.
{Mission Reward: Bedroom Furnishings Set}
Neve blinked.
He clicked on it before the surprise had fully processed, and the inventory opened to a list that made him stand up straighter with each item he read.
Bed frame. Mattress. Centre table. Drawer set. Wardrobe... small but real. Carpet. Centre rug.
And at the top of the list, first item, practical and thoughtful in a way the system rarely was:
{Lamp: Eternal flame. Will not extinguish}
Neve looked at the empty room Cael had dug out for him.
It was dark and bare and waiting for it to get filled up.
He should do this tomorrow. He was tired, and the stew needed watching, and Cael would be back soon.
He clicked the lamp anyway.
It appeared in the room, and the light that came out of it was warm and even and filled the entire space immediately. It wasn’t that harsh in the eye, and there was no flickering. It was just steady.
Neve stood in the entrance of the lit room and looked at it for a moment.
Then he cracked his fingers.
"Let’s get this started."
.
.
It took less time than he expected because the inventory placement system did what he needed it to. All he had to do was stand in front of the location, click the item, and it appeared. There was no need for carrying, dragging, or trying to move a bed frame through a cave entrance by himself.
He started with the carpet first. It covered the floor completely, soft underfoot, and the room changed immediately from bare rock to somewhere that felt like a place.
Then, the bed frame and mattress are in the centre. The mattress was real... actual cushioning, actual give, and Neve pressed his hand into it once and had to actively stop himself from just lying down on it immediately. He could accidentally doze off.
Centre table beside the bed. Drawer set along the wall. Wardrobe in the corner, small but enough for what he had. Center rug between the bed and the table.
He stood in the middle of it.
A room.
An actual room with actual furniture in a cave in a beast world.
He was going to sleep in a bed tonight.
He pressed his hand to his face and breathed for a moment.
{Level Increased}
{Level: 2→3}
{Special Reward Loading!}
Then the bright light appeared.
It wasn’t coming from the lamp. It was from something different. Above his head, descending slowly, a glow that made him squint and step back. He held his hands out instinctively, and it settled into them.
He opened his eyes.
A purse.
A small, handled purse. The kind of thing that belonged on someone’s arm at a shopping centre or hanging off a chair at a café. It was completely out of place in every possible way.
He looked at the system.
"What is this?" he said.
{It’s a purse, Host.}
"I can see it’s a purse. Why am I receiving a purse?"
{It was prepared for the initial host.}
"Change it," Neve said. "I’m the host now. I’m a man. Change it to something that makes sense for a man."
{Are you though?}
Neve stared at the screen.
"Excuse me?"
{The item remains. However, its function may interest you.}
He looked at the purse in his hands and looked at the system. It’s function may interest him? He looked back at the purse.
"What function?"
{Dimensional storage. Portable. Capacity: unlimited. Accessible only to the Host after binding.}
Neve looked at the purse with different eyes.
It was like a portable inventory?
He could carry his inventory. Not just access it in the cave, but also carry it with him. Everywhere.
He sat down on the floor of his new bedroom.
"How do I bind it?"
The system walked him through it. He took a needle from the sewing kit, the smallest one and pierced his thumb. A single drop of blood pressed across the purse’s surface. He did it without flinching. The purse absorbed it and glowed once.
{Name your purse, Host.}
Neve thought about it. What kind of name would he give to a purse?
{Suggested names: Lisa, Gabrielle, Sophie, Rose—}
"Purse," Neve said.
{...}
"Its name is Purse."
{That’s not a name.}
"It is now."
{Host.}
"Purse," Neve said firmly. "That’s my final answer."
A pause that felt very much like a sigh without being one.
{Binding complete. Welcome, Purse.}
Neve took a potato from the kitchen and shoved it in.
The purse swallowed it without changing shape or size.
He grinned and pulled the potato back out. Put it back in. Pulled it out.
"Can I fit a person in here?" he asked.
{What are you planning, Host?}
"Just asking."
{Do not put people in the purse.}
"I wasn’t going to."
{You were thinking about it.}
"I was asking hypothetically."
{Host.}
"Fine," Neve said. "No people in the purse."
He stood up and was heading back to check the stew when he noticed the system was still there, still visible, responding in full sentences in a way it never had before.
"Why are you suddenly talking back to me?" he said. "You’ve never done this."
{Host has levelled up. Higher levels grant increased system interaction. Continue levelling, and I will be able to assist you more directly.}
"You’re like a friend now," Neve said.
{I am a system.}
"A chatty system."
{I am appropriately communicative for the host’s current level.}
Neve smiled and turned toward the kitchen.
He heard footsteps outside.
It definitely didn’t sound like Cael’s since it was lighter. More than one person.
He turned.
The straw curtain moved, and Isabella’s two friends walked in first. The taller one, the shorter one, both of them with expressions that were doing something complicated. It was not like the hostile energy from before. It was something more arranged than that.
Behind them came someone Neve hadn’t seen before.
Tall. Genuinely beautiful in the specific way that announced itself without effort. Hair dark and long, ears neat against it, tail moving with a controlled grace. She looked around the cave once with eyes that missed nothing and then looked directly at Neve.
She crossed the space fast.
"Hi," she said, smiling with all of it reaching her eyes. "You must be Neve. Cael’s mate. Or... mate to be?" She tilted her head slightly.
Neve took one step back but kept his face neutral. "Yes."
She turned to the two girls behind her and said something sharp and low.
They stepped forward. Both of them. And they apologised, which was a surprise to Neve. They apologised with their eyes down, words directed at Neve with what sounded like genuine remorse.
Neve stood very still.
Isabella turned back to him with the smile still in place.
"Please forgive them. Everything they did was on my behalf. I take responsibility." She spread her hands slightly. "Now that I’m back, I’d like for us to be close. We’ll be around each other this winter. It would be better if we were friends."
Neve looked at her.
The smile. The perfect delivery. The apology she had packaged and presented with both hands.
’This fake attitude,’ he thought. ’I know this. I have seen this exact thing before.’
The senior in his first year of college had smiled exactly like that.
That warm and reasonable smile. Offering something with both hands while the other thing was already in motion behind him.
’She’s definitely up to something.’
Neve smiled back.
Just as warmly. Just as completely fake as theirs.
"Of course," he said. "I’d love that."