Chapter 480
She raised her voice, not in a sudden or abrupt manner as she usually did when throwing out strange questions born from a mind that never stopped moving.
Instead, she spoke in a calmer, more measured, more deliberate way, as if she were holding something fragile in her palm and did not want it to fall and shatter into pieces she could never put back together.
The voice that left her lips through the uninterrupted telepathy, despite the distance separating their bodies, carried a different kind of vibration than usual.
Not one that bore strange questions about why Theo did not sleep with her, or what kind of woman aroused him in desire and lust.
But one that carried a question so simple in its wording, yet so profound in its implications.
A question that was indeed the logical continuation of all the explanations she had just received with a patience she had never shown to anyone other than Theo.
She asked about Theo's proposal.
What proposal he truly intended to take among the three he himself had formulated but then rejected with perfectly reasonable arguments.
What proposal he had never written in his small yellow notebook, perhaps because it was too heavy to admit even to himself.
What proposal was the true reason he still stood in the same place, his body unmoving and his eyes fixed on a door that never opened, even as the clock's hands had moved far beyond the moment that should have marked the beginning of everything.
"I will test him."
Those words left Theo's lips in a way he had never done before.
A small confession slipped between the explanations he was about to continue.
A light stroke deliberately added onto the canvas of seriousness that had dominated the telepathic flow connecting two consciousnesses separated by immeasurable distance.
He conveyed that Aldraya had been too serious in handling this case.
Too immersed in calculations of risk and probability constantly spinning within her super-advanced mind.
Too burdened by the weight of a decision that might not actually be as heavy as imagined by a being who had only just begun synchronizing with the four aspects of his extended creativity.
And within that statement, within his admission that he himself felt at ease communicating with Aldraya through the RWIA network beneath their consciousness, there was something deeper trying to surface.
Something about the desire to ease the tension that may have unknowingly crept into the thin threads connecting their Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition.
Something about the need to remind that behind all scenarios that must run with millimeter precision, and all calculations that must be carried out with tireless accuracy, there existed enough space not to take everything too seriously.
Enough room to let one's breath flow unhurriedly, even as the clock in the corner of the room continued to move forward, leaving behind moments that would never return.
Aldraya, receiving that message from afar, hearing every word from Theo in the same way she had listened to his long explanations about the flaws of the three rejected proposals, felt something move within her in a way she could not control, even though she had possessed full control over every aspect of her existence since the moment she was created.
There was a sense of relief flowing through the RWIA network at immeasurable speed.
A warmth spreading from one end of her consciousness to the other in a way she had never experienced before.
Something that made her face—always as flat and unchanging as uncracked porcelain—seem as if it wanted to form a faint curve at the corner of her lips, even though she had never learned how to smile without awkwardness.
She realized that she had indeed been too serious.
That she had allowed herself to sink too deeply into an endless whirlpool of risk calculations.
That she had forgotten that behind all the scenarios that must unfold perfectly and all instructions that must be executed with flawless precision, there was Theo, always standing at the center of all chaos with an unchanging face and a faint smile that sometimes appeared at the corner of his lips without him realizing it.
And within that realization, within the understanding that she did not always need to be a being whose super-advanced mind endlessly spun through every possibility, Aldraya allowed herself to loosen her grip slightly on all the calculations she had been making.
She let herself follow the flow of telepathy coming from Theo without trying to steer it toward something more logical or efficient.
She allowed herself to simply become a listener in that distant place, with a body that perhaps had also grown slightly more relaxed than before.
Then, amid a silence that no longer felt like a crushing weight from all directions, amid an atmosphere that began to grow lighter even as darkness continued creeping into the room where Theo stood through unmoving curtains, Theo continued what he had intended to say.
He spoke without haste.
With the same rhythm he used when recording small details in the yellow notebook that always accompanied him.
He said that he had one final proposal.
A proposal he had never included among the three options he previously formulated.
A proposal born not from precise risk calculations and millimeter-level accuracy he usually applied in every scenario he designed, but from something simpler.
Something more human.
Something that perhaps could only emerge from a being who had spent too much time observing how emotions moved within others without ever truly feeling them himself.
This proposal was not as heavy as the previous three.
It did not carry consequences that could destroy the entire structure he had built for future episodes if he made a wrong step.
It did not require a decision that demanded the kind of courage only possessed by those who feared losing nothing, because they had nothing truly valuable to protect.
This proposal was about testing Ilux with a series of questions.
About letting those questions seep into the consciousness of the young man still rolling on the bed, his eyes opening and closing in turns.
About observing how he would respond when something unexpected suddenly appeared within the most private space he had always inhabited alone.
And what made this proposal different from all the ones he had ever formulated before, what made it something that had never crossed his mind when he stood before the three paths suspended in the air, growing heavier with every passing second, was this—
Each question he would deliver would be disguised as an inner murmur within Ilux.
It would arrive in a way that could never be traced by the young man as a voice coming from outside himself.
It would become something that seemed to arise from the depths of his own consciousness, without him ever realizing that another hand was moving those questions from behind a layer of reality he had never seen.
To be continued…