FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife-Chapter 33: On the matter of timing...

"What I need, is a shovel and some wood."

Speaking those words out loud, I couldn’t help but smile a little.

Now that I’d turned those thoughts into actual speech, I couldn’t help but laugh a little over how ridiculous they sounded.

Here I go to change the world, with nothing but a few blocks of wood and ye mighty shovel!

’This makes me feel like a protagonist of some second-rate kingdom-building story,’ I thought, shaking my head. ’But hey, wouldn’t that make everything work? From how locals don’t know about charcoal yet, to how I can strike it rich with something that even a simple university student like me would know...’

The more I thought about it, the more sense this theorem made.

’Heck! That would also explain how I’ve ended up with a divine, blonde saintess by my side, cutely brushing her half-open mouth against the outer palm of my hand after a night we spent in the same bed. It’s not some weird occurrence forced by my unorthodox circumstances. It’s just the author trying to bait the readers with a promise of a smut that would logically never fucking happen!’

"Are you okay?" Selia asked, getting a step ahead of me and then leaning her upper body forward while turning her head back towards me, all the while giving me a concerned look with those two, unfairly blue eyes of hers.

"Ah..."

Only now did I realize that in the process of ranting in my head, I’d somehow managed to go from amusement to outrage over my current situation.

And while I was lost in my thoughts, Selia diligently continued to observe my changing expression, all the while I soon turned it from a source of amusement to a source of actual worry.

"Yeah, sorry," I shook my head before lowering it in a fleeting apology. "Just a little bit out of my mind," I admitted. "Now that I’m somewhat well-rested, I just can’t help but think about several topics I’d put off for later."

"You shouldn’t worry about it," Selia pulled her chest back as she straightened her posture and turned her eyes forward, towards the city’s gate. "If anything, I’m surprised you took so long to think back to all that happened. It’s both amazing and weird how easy you make it for me to forget it’s only your... what, third? Fourth day in this world?"

Rather than bringing her voice down to keep random passersby from hearing some unsettlingly big details about my situation, Saintess simply erected some sort of barrier that kept all that we talked about within the privacy of just our ears.

How did it work? What principle did it operate on? Was it counteracting the soundwaves, or merely blocking them from escaping?

Just her mentioning said barrier a while back was enough to feed me with countless new questions, questions I saw no hope of finding any answers to anytime soon.

"We’ve camped out in the jungle once, now slept at the inn once," I counted on my fingers, trying to act as casual as I could while we approached the gates. "That would make today the third day, I guess?" I muttered, nodding my head to the guard in passing before turning my attention right back to the ongoing conversation. "Well, that’s assuming no time has passed during my teleportation. Your best bet to figure it out would be to find out just when a Johel-worshipping country summoned a whole group of people from another world."

Saintess threw me a small smirk in response.

"So that you could figure out where all of your friends are, once I’ve shared the news?" she suggested, her smile devoid of any warmth while her eyes outright filled me up with a cold breeze.

"No, not at all," I shook my head. "It’s already a stretch to call them my friends. I hardly ever interacted with any of them to begin with," I quickly dismissed the topic. "Just telling you the best way to figure out the timing of it all. Whether I know it myself or not doesn’t change a thing."

I shrugged my shoulders as if to make it even more clear just how little I cared.

And honestly, I really didn’t.

Sure, I would love to go back if there was even an option to go back and forth between the worlds.

Doing so would allow me to bring so much useful stuff into this world, along with giving me the ability to meet up with my parents, so that they wouldn’t worry about me too much...

But if I had to decide which world to stay in, this one or Earth?

Falling deep into thought, I lowered my eyes and tried to figure out what my answer would be. Yet, even after a few moments, the only conclusion I could arrive at was: that depends.

If I could make that charcoal business work, then I would be willing to give this world a shot. After all, living my life in an isekai was a dream I held dear for all those years I’d spent binging every isekai manga and novel I could get my hands on.

If it didn’t though?

Not only would it prove that what little precise knowledge I had that I could make actual use of had no real weight in this world, I would be left without personal power, any prospects for the future, or even money to free Selia from the burden of caring about me and exchange her protection for a bunch of hired swords. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

All in all, my answer could only be ’it depends.’

"Speaking of which," Selia spoke out, once again drawing me out from my inner world, only to then reach up with her hand and cover her eyes with it, shielding them from the morning sun that appeared with its intense rays of light as soon as we emerged from the darkness of the gate’s tunnel. "Are you really sure you don’t want to get those things back in the city?"

Selia even went as far as to look over her shoulder, back into the city we were just about to leave.

"Right now, we just need to make a small test," I shook my head. "If it fails, doing so outside saves us the shame of failing publicly. And if it works...?"

Rather than continuing, I turned my head and looked at the Saintess with an expectant look.

"Then it saves us the effort of hiding it all the more." She replied after a moment of thought. "You want to keep that method of yours under wraps, I get it. But now that we are out, what next?" she asked while dropping the aforementioned shovel on her shoulder and giving me a curious look.

"For now, we search for a proper spot," I answered with a shake of my shoulder.

"No, I meant..."

I smiled and nodded my head.

"Yes, I know, I’m merely jesting," I laughed out a bit. "If it works? Then we hurry it up and make a deal with Greg to sell him the method before anyone catches a single whiff about it."