When the plot-skips players into the game world

Chapter 77: Chapter 48: Wanting to Meet in Advance

Isabel suddenly let out a sigh of relief and opened her eyes.

She held her forehead and slowly came to from the soft feather hammock.

"Awake?"

With her back to her, Yanis was painting in Isabel's bedroom and cheerfully said, "How was the ritual experience this time?"

Isabel turned her head and saw a brilliant sunrise.

Above the glittering lake, the newborn red sun seemed to set the entire expanse of water ablaze.

Below were red and gold, above light blue and deep blue...

This strange and beautiful scene reminded Isabel of 'Fox' Mr. Aiwass's eyes when resonating with the Path of Devotion.

"Hmm, why aren't you speaking?"

When Isabel's reply hadn't come for a while, Yanis turned curious, jokingly said, "You didn't fail to advance, did you?"

"...No, I succeeded," Isabel said softly.

"You actually succeeded?" Yanis said in a tone of surprise.

"Mrs. Yanis, why are you so surprised?"

"Because I really did consider the possibility of you failing to advance."

Yanis casually twirled the paintbrush in her hand, tilting her head, "So, you don't blame me for not telling you the various precautions in the ritual beforehand?"

"...It's okay. Failure is a kind of experience too," Isabel murmured.

"Heh."

The elf artist laughed, walked over, and gently tapped Isabel, "You're obviously cursing me in your heart. You silly little thing."

Seeing this, Isabel didn't pretend anymore.

She approached with an aggrieved expression, "Teacher, I think you still need to teach me some common sense things. Meaningless setbacks without any preparation... I've failed many times already."

This was almost exactly what Sherlock had previously told her. Now she had directly borrowed his words.

"Someone else taught you to say this, didn't they?"

But Yanis easily saw through the truth.

"...Ah? How did you—"

"With your personality, when you say 'words of your own,' they won't come out so smoothly, so precisely. You'll hesitate about your own judgment. As you've just said— you've failed too many times. So much so that your confidence has been undermined," Yanis said.

Mrs. Yanis raised her eyebrows: "I knew it, you sang in the dream, didn't you? I thought you wouldn't even find teammates."

"It wasn't that bad—"

Isabel insisted stubbornly: "I managed to find teammates right from the start!"

"Alright, alright..."

Mrs. Yanis smiled, cocking her head to size up Isabel: "How about I paint you a picture? To commemorate your first ritual victory.

"The way you look right now, your posture—just awaken laziness, surprise, shyness, with a hint of confidence rising quietly like the dawn, and your cute timidity..."

"...Mrs. Yanis!"

Suddenly, Isabel interrupted Mrs. Yanis: "There's another thing!"

A hint of astonishment flickered in Mrs. Yanis' eyes.

She couldn't resist smiling: "What is it, my little sweetheart?"

Although she was delighted to see her student's confidence... she had never thought that Isabel would progress to a level of courage where she would interrupt her after just one ritual.

Her curiosity about what Isabel had experienced grew even stronger.

But she respected Isabel. If Isabel didn't bring it up herself, she wouldn't ask—because she knew that if she were to ask, her obedient student would surely tell.

That wouldn't be good. It would be like using her authority as a teacher to pry out secrets, destroying the natural rapport and the beauty of tacit understanding.

"I remember, you mentioned before... that you wished to invite Mr. Aiwass to the Hall of Silver and Tin," Isabel said eagerly, in a low voice.

"Can we invite him sooner? I want to see what he looks like now... and have a chat with him."

She had just embraced the young Aiwass for a full four hours, and now she felt completely unafraid of an encounter with the real Aiwass. If before she was "somewhat anticipatory," now she was "impatient."

The fear and estrangement that come with meeting a stranger for the first time had completely dissipated in those four hours.

With this in mind, she actually wanted to meet Aiwass as soon as possible. It was a fascinating feeling, like seeing a character from a story come to life.

The strange position of knowing someone well when they don't recognize you gave Isabel a rare sense of security, which is something she constantly lacked in her day-to-day life.

At that time, Isabel wanted to whisper secretly in her heart after meeting Mr. Aiwass:

—Sister once acted as your mother, and even sang you lullabies!

She could only say it in her heart because saying it out loud would seem impolite. But even just thinking it would surely make her chuckle inwardly.

It would be so fun!

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Yanis, intrigued, arched an eyebrow noncommittally.