Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Hearing the news, I hardly reacted. My body didn't shift, my eyes didn't widen. Because as much as I wanted to avoid falling into the trap of considering myself to be at the center of it all… I had this damned feeling that I indeed was in the very middle of this strange conspiracy.

Yet, hearing Fay's revelation, I didn't physically react to it. That didn't mean I wasn't shocked or surprised.

I simply needed some time to process this information and all the things that it now connected.

"Are you okay?" Fay asked in a low voice, pulling back once again to take a look at my face. And as she did, her own expression mellowed down. She then brought her hand up and lowered it over my cheek, caressing it while she awaited my response.

Feeling her fingers gently rub against my cheek, I moved my own hand and covered Fay's fingers with it, pressing her palm tightly to my cheek while closing my eyes. I allowed the heat of her skin to warm my face and ward off any and all doubts or anxieties that the revelation brought.

Because as simple of news as it was, it was like a line that connected all the scattered dots that we've noticed so far.

'I might be trying to forcefully connect unrelated things, but…' I took in a deep breath, only to release it in a long sigh. 'Ockham's razor would state otherwise, though.' ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

Ockham's razor was as simple of a concept as it was. This theory boiled down to cutting anything excessive, stating that most of the time, the simplest explanation of the topic was usually right on the money.

'As worrying as this all sounds, it's actually not a bad thing,' I sighed again before letting go of Fay's hand. 'But it finally gives us a clue. And forces me to accept the fact that I'm likely to be involved in something big.'

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Finally done with internalizing the information, I opened my eyes and smiled at Fay, hoping to dispel the worry written all over her face.

"Yeah," I spoke softly, moving my hand forth and taking my turn to caress Fay's delicate cheek. "I'm okay," I affirmed before lowering my hand to Fay's shoulder and bringing her closer into my embrace.

I was okay, that I didn't lie about. But I still couldn't help but shake my thoughts off the topic.

"So, to sum it up," I spoke out only once I felt Fay had somewhat calmed down. "We have a varied number of people, ranging from myself, through people that are in one way or another, related to me. And all of us were influenced by a varying degree of this aura…" I muttered to myself, gathering all that we knew on the topic into a single statement.

Then, I moved my focus from my own thoughts to the girl I've wrapped with my arms and held close to my heart.

"Do you have any idea what kind of effect this aura would have on us?"

And just like all the times when I asked Fay about aura, I could sense her hesitation.

"I'm not an expert, my mom would give you a much better answer, but…"

"It's okay," I reached out to the back of Fay's head and gently brushed my fingers through her soft hair. "Even if it will be a mere hint of the actual truth, I want to know your thoughts on it."

Right now, we were scrambling in the darkness, looking for a light switch. Deprived of the proper vision to guide us through all those clues, we could only flail our libs in the total darkness, hoping we would stumble upon something.

And as faint of light as Fay's feeling might be, it was still something that could guide us toward our goal.

Fay, though, turned silent. And even though she had her face pressed tightly against my chest, I could somehow feel the changes happening to her expression.

At first, she simply closed her eyes, trying her best to figure out the proper words to describe her feelings. But then, her eyes suddenly went wide, quickly followed by her face freezing in a look of terror.

I shifted slightly, tightening my embrace over her suddenly feeble body.

'I wonder if my ability to sense the changes to her mood is one of the potential uses of aura.'

There was no point trying to pressure Fay into revealing what thought or an idea made her grow so anxious on the spot. So, rather than pushing her to speak, I allowed my thoughts to wander instead.

Who knew, maybe a stray thought would somehow prove to be an enlightening discovery? It wasn't the apple falling down on Newton's head but a random thought that followed that set that ancient scientist on the path of becoming the father of modern science, after all!

"I…" Fay attempted to speak out, only for her voice to cut after uttering just the very first sound. Her body tensed up even further, to the point I could feel some of her muscles start to shake.

Sadly, the only thing I could do was to keep her in a tight hug, hoping my loving embrace would be enough to cast whatever shadows she was battling in her pretty head.

And after a few more moments, Fay proved to be a formidable mental warrior, overcoming whatever troubled her as she opened her mouth again.

"Honey…" her voice, although steady, was filled with the same anxiety I could feel emanating from her body. "Did you notice your life change, take a turn for the better from the moment you stepped into my world?"

Hearing the question, I couldn't help but squint my eyes in confusion.

'How is that question making her so troubled?' I asked myself, baffled by how I couldn't make any reasonable connection between her words and her anxiety.

Yet, as I bid my time and slowly thought things through, my eyes twitched.

Bit by bit, by putting myself in Fay's shoes and applying a healthy dose of insecurity and self-depreciation that I was so used to, a harrowing image of how this poor girl could feel right now finally emerged in my mind.

Still, she asked a question. And given what could be at stake in this entire aura-related plot, I couldn't hide my answer.

"I did," I admitted to the obvious truth that Fay was more than aware of. She heard more than once just how happy I was whenever I held her tightly in my arms, after all. "My life changed more than I ever considered possible."

By now, Fay's worry turned obvious.

'What if it's not her that brings me happiness, but the freedom from that vile aura? What if I'm just back to living a normal life, capable of finding happiness of my own, rather than sourcing it from her?'

"I…" Fay hesitated again. But just like me a mere second before, she opted to speak out the potentially ugly truth. "I believe it's because when you moved to my world, you lost contact with the source of that awful aura. And with that, the happiness you feel right now…"

Knowing what her next words were likely to be, I shut my mouth and simply pulled her even closer into my embrace, cuddling her as close to my chest as I could.

"This happiness of yours is not because of me. It's not me bringing you happiness. This happiness is what you were supposed to feel without the interference of that vile aura."