"Ethea, there’s something I want to give you..."

"..."

Ethea paused, turning her head toward him. Her expression remained neutral, but Soren had learned to read her well enough to know it was her way of listening.

He reached into his inventory and pulled out the manual, holding it out for her to see.

Noticing the confusion in her eyes, Soren explained, "I found this inside the Golden Gate. However, it can only be learned by females." 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Ethea’s interest was clearly piqued, but she looked from the book back up to his face, her tone changing slightly. "...Why are you giving it to me? Do you... want me to check what it is?"

"Huh?" Soren was caught off guard by her question, but he quickly found his footing. "No, no," he replied, shaking his head. "I was going to give it to you regardless. Because..."

"..?"

"Well, anyway, let’s just open it, and you’ll understand everything soon."

Although a flicker of suspicion crossed her features, Ethea silently acquiesced.

Soren leaned forward and carefully placed the manual onto her lap. He then gently covered her hands with his own, carefully guiding them toward the sealed cover to help her lift it. Ethea was visibly startled by the sudden physical contact, her shoulders stiffening slightly, but she didn’t pull back. She remained silent, allowing him to move her hands into place.

The moment their joined fingers brushed the surface, the manual reacted.

The heavy cover began to move, slowly lifting open on its own as if answering an invisible command. But just as it unsealed halfway, the texture of the solid parchment seemed to fracture, bleeding into a liquid brilliance that slipped right through their fingers. The solid book simply ceased to exist, melting away into a swirl of dazzling, mysterious lights that left no heat behind. Before Soren could even process what was happening, the light shot directly toward Ethea’s forehead.

"Ethea!"

Soren’s eyes widened in sheer panic.

He instinctively reached out, but it was already too late.

The light sank completely into her brow, and her eyes were already closed, her head slumping back as if she had suddenly fallen into a deep sleep.

He immediately pressed his fingers against her neck, breathing a small sigh of relief when he felt the steady, calm rhythm of her pulse.

Hoping to get a clearer picture of what was happening to her, he fixed his gaze on her and silently activated Investor’s Insight, then focused on the two most important lines.

[Status: Unconscious]

[Mental State: Mindscape Enlightening (Trance)]

"Hmm."

Soren squinted at the blue interface, a familiar memory flashing through his mind. Was she experiencing the same thing he had? It looked exactly like the process of receiving an inheritance, just like the one he had gone through back then.

Still, the uncertainty kept his muscles tense.

He couldn’t just sit around and do nothing.

Reaching back into his storage ring, he pulled out a few high-grade recovery potions and lined them up on the table within arm’s reach. He kept his eyes locked on her face, watching for any sign of discomfort or sudden change, ready to act the second anything went wrong.

’Please be safe,’ He thought, his fist clenching as he stared at her peaceful expression. ’Please... just wake up okay.’

───────

"..."

Ethea opened her eyes.

’Where am I?’

She looked around, the words remaining an unspoken thought in the vast emptiness. The familiar walls of the apartment and the dull hum of the television had vanished. Instead, she was surrounded by a boundless, silent void of deep indigo, stretching infinitely in every direction.

But the true shock came from below.

She... She was standing.

"..."

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she could feel the solid pressure of a floor beneath her soles, even though there wasn’t any.

Curving her fingers, she watched them move exactly as she intended.

’...Gulp.’

She tilted her head, shifted her weight, shook her arms and waist, and took a tentative step forward.

’I...’

The crushing weight that usually anchored her physical body to the wheelchair was entirely gone.

’I can move?’

A sudden rush of warmth flooded her chest, a mixture of disbelief and a raw, long-forgotten thrill.

She raised her hands to her face, staring at her palms as she squeezed them into tight fists, then released them. She could feel every joint, every muscle responding instantly to her thoughts. It felt so incredibly light.

Before she could lose herself in the sheer joy of movement, the deep indigo void around her began to ripple.

A single droplet of silver light welled up from the void beneath her feet, floating upward past her chest. Then another followed, and another, until thousands of glowing silver particles began to rise around her like upside-down rain.

The lights coalesced, flattening and sharpening into elegant, complex characters that formed a massive, circular wall of ancient script.

She had never seen these symbols before, yet the moment her eyes brushed against them, their meaning echoed directly within her consciousness.

’...Stellar Soul Weaver Sutra.’

As the name resonated in her mind, the wall of text began to constrict, slowly rotating around her in a tightening spiral.

One by one, the glowing characters began to drift toward her, sinking directly into her mind without a sound.

With every word that dissolved into her, a vast flood of instinctual knowledge unlocked. She could feel the technique anchoring itself directly to her consciousness, rewriting her understanding of how to exert power.

As the realization settled, the entire void responded to the shift within her.

The revolving sea of script accelerated into a bright vortex, obscuring everything else and immersing her entirely in the technique.

Time lost all meaning inside the vast emptiness as the remnants of the vortex were completely absorbed into her being.

Gradually, the boundless void receded, drawing her awareness back.

’...’

Ethea opened her eyes, a brilliant silver light flashing through her pupils. For a brief moment, her eyes filled with a dense cluster of tiny, rotating stars before returning to their usual color.

An underlying aura of quiet power now wrapped around her, reshaping her entire demeanor with a newfound, profound stillness. The immediate space surrounding her held a faint, shimmering haze where tiny specks of starlight drifted like dust motes, visible to anyone looking closely.

With her consciousness fully returned, she felt the heavy anchor of her physical body once more. Along with that physical awareness came a pure, warm presence sitting right beside her, holding her hands firmly and gently within their own.

’...’

Feeling the slight tremble of his worried touch, the corners of her lips curved upward into a soft, beautiful smile.

’Soren... I’m so glad you’re by my side.’