Also, the annoying notification came back to haunt me once again.
[The Ordeal of the Dusk will be approaching in 24 hours_]
[However, due to the absence of the Storytellers in this world, the Random Events will be regulated to spawning a regular amount of Calamity Objects]
[This message will appear invisible to every instances of entities in this world, if you received this sequence of notification, please notify any of the Arbiters to prevent further complications in your immersive playing experience]
After that, I picked the cryopreserved head of Lupina.
With this, the three of us technically passed this harrowing ordeal, the one where it should be almost impossible to survive.
Yet somehow, we managed to survive.
And that was the only thing that mattered for today.
"I'm sorry…" Verina managed to muster. "If only I managed to remain firm…"
"You protected me for half a minute while I was dazed." I lightly chuckled, trying to improve the mood. "Because of that, we managed to survive this."
"... For someone I met for a day, you never let me take the blame."
"For someone I met only for a day, you did more flirting than your friend who was in a rut."
"You're not the first one I flirted with, though. I'm quite the flirt when I meet someone I'm highly interested in."
"But I'm the cutest and most beautiful one you've ever met, right?"
"Heh… I can't refute that."
"Makes you glad that you don't stay with those you flirted with, no?"
"... Now you're just being cheeky. This is not the Narcy I know. I'm actually, genuinely scared right now."
"Ahaha." That gave me quite the chuckle. "Well, I kinda realized that I need to soften a little bit."
"I see…"
"Hmm? You see what?"
"I see that I can get my rightful kisses now."
"That is still non-negotiable."
Before we proceeded to return back to our bastion, Verina wanted Tahlia to be returned to the land.
So I used the broadsword to dig a grave for him, as I threw the messed pieces of his dead body for Carcosa to claim, before finally burying the cat person in peace.
The info dump that I got doesn't really mention any gods or pantheon aside from the existence of Calamity Object, Qliphoth Object, Theothech, and several other things that I haven't stumbled upon.
But still, I gave my respect and prayer.
After all, humanity managed to persist through the test of time because we hope upon the invisible and the improbable.
Without believing in the impossible, how else could it become?
"I can't believe that you need to repurpose the clothing of the dead to make a harness to carry me on your back," Verina said, as I used the available material to strap her onto my back like an oversized toddler.
The same went for Lupina's head that was wrapped with whatever was available at the moment.
I used 'whatever available' because I literally used whatever available at the moment to ease up my hands from holding both of them.
That same concept was also used to treat our wounds.
Though, I mostly relied on Verina's spell to disinfect and cauterize some big wounds that I got.
"Recycling is good for nature," I playfully retorted.
"Right… I forgot that you're a fairy."
"You don't need to be a fairy to realize the efficiency of recycling, you know?"
Our journey back to our former bastion was quite lackadaisical, with Verina eventually falling asleep on my back while tightly hugging her musket like a pillow.
I wonder what kind of expression that she was having right now in her sleep. After all, both of us were barely able to rest soundly before and after the start of the whole Ordeal.
"Hmm."
It was very uncharacteristic of me to finally accept an imperfect face this non-hostile.
Then again, I could just reimagine the face that I was having right now, and I was immediately rejuvenated off my obsession, as I stopped to think about the facial horror that I faced in my former daily life.
Though, that was not really the reason why I acted like this.
"That vision I got back then left a lingering impression on me, huh."
For some reason, I felt like I wanted to enjoy every bit of my life before I succumb to my death in this world.
It might have been a mood swing for all I care, especially since I had just accomplished something far more consequential than the project I did in my last life as Lothair.
With that, I decided to do a little bit of foraging along the way.
Within this journey, I also stumbled upon a small natural pond that was reflecting the light of the young dawn.
There, I could see the reflection of this ethereal and ideal face.
"As beautiful and cute as always."
For some reason, I started to accept these two factors that my face possessed after I painstakingly went through that harrowing night of darkness.
All of those disgusting and hair-shuddering sceneries made me grateful that this face was the utter contrast of it.
Speaking of beauty and adorableness, it reminded me of Verina's words about how dangerous my face was in terms of inviting unwelcomed and restless people.
"I might need to make a mask." I said, while pulling the side of my mouth to peek at my oral inside. I also just noticed that I possessed quite the sharp fangs. "Then again, my charm was said to be psionic in nature, so there might be some kind of passive influence that my body produced"
At this point, I don't even mind staying as a woman as long as my face is this perfect.
"... I shouldn't be gazing at my own face for too long."
I had been maintaining my record of not being in any unnecessary relationships.
I don't want my record to be broken by falling in love with my own reflection.
The last time a person with the name of Narcissus decided to do a pool gazing at his own reflection that he fell in love with, he has no concern about anything around him nor does he eat or sleep, leading to the end of his life.
I had no intention of following that footstep.
Nah ah, no thank you.