FFF-Tier System, SSS-Rank Wife-Chapter 50: Face to face

"I thought you would do... more?"

Even though she was still tightly pressed against my back, Selia now appeared slightly more... distant?

Not in the physical sense, obviously, not even in an interpersonal sense either.

In a sense that I couldn’t quite make sense of myself.

All of which resulted in me giving her a long sigh.

"I merely did my best to take things slow," I shook my head a little. "I knew you told me not to worry, but what if my initial attempt left you unscathed only because it was never going to work to begin with?"

I raised my head and looked up to the sky, taking note of how the long hours we spent working, talking and then experimenting have now pushed the sun way past the highest point of its daily path. Now, with every passing minute, its light continued to grow dimmer and dimmer, currently putting us in a time where it was not yet dark, but dim enough to expect the night to come relatively soon.

"That first attempt taught us nothing, beyond the need for caution. And with how I’ve planned to first learn as much as I could about what works and what doesn’t," I shook my head, this time with a somber feeling to it, "ultimately, my goal was to find means that would allow me to actually rewrite my fate. A challenge I’ve, as you saw yourself, managed to overcome. But what if?"

This time, rather than shaking my head, I merely brought my chin down and pinned my head to the ground.

"What if?" I repeated while closing my eyes. "What if finding the right method to change my fate would put a much greater burden on you than you yourself expected? What would I do if, by recklessly following your bravado, I ended up hurting you?"

For a moment, I pressed my lips into a thin line. I then took a deep breath before raising my head...

And actually turning it over to the side, to look Selia directly in the eye.

And given the position she was in, I’ve only realized just how close to her face that would put my own once I already locked myself in this quite awkward position.

’Oh damn...’

For a moment, I froze, enchanted by all the tiny details of Selia’s adorableness that I could now adore from much, much closer.

It was as if her face was a fractal of beauty, so that the closer one would look, the cuter she would become, allowing the admirer to appreciate her beauty even more than one did before. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Yet, I didn’t do it just to fangirl over just how damn lovable Selia was.

I had to get my point across, or all the courage it took me to form those words would be for naught.

"This whole thing working was exactly what terrified me the most. Or rather, the burden you would have to endure if I’ve found a way to make things work. Which is exactly why I decided to take things as slow as I could, starting with simple quests and at relatively weak rewards ending."

The two of us continued to stare at each other. I looked at Selia with conviction and determination in my eyes.

After the terror of realizing I might’ve unintentionally hurt her from before, there was no way I was letting myself go through that fear again.

Selia, on the other hand, stared at me with her eyes opened wide, her face stunned and locked in place, her pale-blue eyes filling up with something I didn’t see in them before.

And since it was my first time seeing that new emotion, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it could be.

"Dummy..." Selia muttered as she finally broke free from her stupor and looked away. She then brought her arms up and locked them up at my armpits only to reach with her hands up and, even after turning her head away, cover her face with her palms, completely hiding it away.

’Damn,’ I gritted my teeth, trying not to let my inner struggle show on my face, ’just how...!’

I clenched my left hand into a fist while reaching with my right one for my heart and squeezing down on my chest.

’Hngh!’

The contrast between her usual confidence and aloofness, mixed with the ephemeral beauty only reinforced by all the light-blue accents scattered all over her outfit and now reinforced by her unusual behavior was a combination my heart simply couldn’t take.

"You are so much more fun when all you can do is just awkwardly squirm around while I’m teasing you..." Selia complained from behind the face-shield of her palms, her voice unusually soft and high-pitched.

Yet, as she brought her hands down and gave me a side-eye...

"But that bold side of yours..." her voice grew even fainter, her cheeks blushed while her eyes merely glanced in the direction of my face before escaping to the other side, "I can’t say I dislike it," she added in a whisper so faint I wasn’t quite sure I didn’t just imagine her saying that.

’Okay.’

I sighed out, letting my right hand fall off from my chest as I just... gave up.

’I guess that’s how I’m going to go, murdered by overwhelming cuteness and hugability...’ I thought while raising my eyes up to the sky in a silent prayer.

Shenanigans and all the fun aside, though, there was one more thing that I had to bring up, as potentially unpleasant as it could be to think or talk about.

"That’s good and all," I’ve muttered, "but I don’t think we should be getting up close and personal like that so—" I’ve paused for a second, "—lightly."

The shift in my voice had to be big enough for Selia to suddenly shake her feelings off and turn her eyes back to my face with a mix of curiosity and concern in them.

"What do you mean?"

I sighed again before grabbing at Selia’s hands and then gently prying them off my chest. Then, freed from her grasp, I turned around, brought her arms back down to her sides before retreating a step... And then two more.

Yet, rather than answering directly, I raised my eyes up to her face and looked directly into those two pale-blue Celestine crystals she had for her eyes.

"Would you mind if I picked your brain for a bit?" I asked, seemingly changing the topic altogether. "There’s a lot I’ve learned in the last dream, so I would like to run it all through you. Who knows what I’ve missed that could be quite obvious to you."