Good thing there were not any other people around to see us in this compromising position.

Her chest was still completely bare, her large breasts uncovered and unrestrained.

And she only sometimes got self-conscious about her nudity, remembering that she was supposed to be embarrassed about such things.

Then quickly forgetting again, as her attention shifted to something else.

But really, she was a divine beauty in every sense; the kind of face and figure that sculptors and painters dream about capturing but never quite manage to replicate in their art.

Her pale skin was smooth and luminous, almost glowing under the moonlight.

Her body was slender and elegantly proportioned, too.

She had huge breasts with light pink nipples that I tried very hard not to stare at for too long.

With her dark sclera and striking violet pupils that seemed to pulse with their own inner light

Her long flowing black hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall of silk.

Though her skin was white as fresh snow, she had this strong African appeal to her features.

Something in the shape of her face and the curve of her lips, or the way she carried herself... it reminded me of that unique beauty.

I feel like that aspect of her appearance might’ve been influenced by Irina, since Renard is more of a French man.

"Wh-why are you staring at me like that, with such intensity...?" She began to look away from me, her gaze shifting to the ground or the sky, anywhere but my face.

"Why? Because your human form is way too beautiful to ignore, way too stunning to treat as ordinary," I squeezed her into a warm and affectionate cuddle, pulling her body closer against mine, feeling the softness of her skin and the warmth of her presence. "This must be your humanoid equivalent of your monster form, right? The physical shape that corresponds most closely to your true nature and your original appearance, yes?"

"Hm? I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, yes," she said, her cheeks still deeply red with embarrassment, a smile tugging at the corners of her lips despite her attempts to maintain her composure. "I looked exactly like this on earth, in my previous life as Maria. But I had a much more darker skin tone back then. Haha, the sun in Brazil is very strong, you know? And my ancestors came from Africa originally, so I was brown, not pale."

"Eh?! No way! Are you being serious right now?!" I turned her around in my arms so that I could watch her face more directly, studying her features up close.

I was trying to reconcile this ethereal pale beauty with the image my mind was creating of a brown-skinned Brazilian girl singing in dirty alleys and dreaming of stardom.

Someone this extraordinarily beautiful was living in Acre, Brazil as an ordinary human woman?

Someone out there in my old world looked like this and just walked around among normal people without anyone realizing how rare and precious they were?

Terrifying!

I must send a message to the residents of Earth, somehow: "go and find Brazilian girls! They are apparently goddesses walking among mortals! Don’t let this knowledge go to waste!"

Wait just a second, though.

A crucial thought just emerged in my mind, something important that I had been overlooking in all the excitement of our conversation.

"Uh, Violette," I said, my tone shifting to something more serious.

"...What~? I already said yes, I’ll marry you, so there is no need to keep asking me over and over!" She shut her eyes tight as she spoke, as if bracing herself for a difficult question.

"No, not that," I clarified quickly. "You were born here in Elyndor approximately five thousand years ago, emerging from your egg as a newly hatched serpent, right?"

"Uh... yes, that is correct, but..." Her eyes went a little sad, a flicker of insecurity crossing her face. "Y-Your question is making me nervous. You don’t dislike older women, do you? Are you going to reject me because I’m too old for you?"

"No, that’s not a problem for me at all. In fact, I don’t have any lovers around my age," I explained to her, trying to reassure her. "All of the women in my life are much older than me by human standards. So your age does not bother me in the slightest.

"But my point is something else entirely... How come you were born here five thousand years ago, yet your memories of Earth include a time when idols, singers, and the modern music industry were already established things? Acre and even Brazil as political entities with defined borders shouldn’t have existed back then, not in that form, or with the specific culture, at least."

"Ah, you’re right, I’ve never thought about that inconsistency before!" She soon joined me in my puzzlement, her brow furrowing as she considered the implications of the timeline mismatch. "Oh, by the way, Benjamin, I’m glad to hear that you like older women and don’t mind dating someone thousands of years your senior. But yeah, it is strange; the Earth I remember was modern and contemporary. I mean, smart phones were a thing, and electric cars were even coming onto the market as the next big innovation in transportation. It was not ancient times... More like, the early twenty-first century, I think."

Hmmm.

This is a fascinating puzzle, indeed.

It seems that time, the flow and relative positioning of events across dimensions, is something we can’t comprehend.

I would very much like to understand how this works, what rules govern the relationship between timelines in different worlds.

Because, you know, when I was on earth in my own previous life... electric cars were something that was still in the process of being developed.

I saw one once, in a factory. A prototype model of sort that was not yet ready for public release.

But it was not something that ordinary people used in their daily lives, not something you would see in every driveway or parking lot.

My Earth was even behind Violette’s Earth, technologically and perhaps chronologically.

By Violette’s logic and her memories, based on the time period she came from, I am actually older than her earth version of herself.

Despite being physically younger than her in this world, being born later in the timeline of my own original life.

What the hell is even going on with this novel?!

How did we get to this point where the timelines are all scrambled up and nothing makes chronological sense anymore?!

I need a diagram, or a chart. Or someone to explain this to me in small and simple words that my tired brain can process!!

[So... I have to wait the entire night before we meet again in person? Despite me beating and exhausting myself to retrieve you, bringing you back safely... I am very disappointed in you right now, Benjamin... Bzzt!]

Ahhhhh!

That voice! That telepathic message!

Lotus just sent me a mental communication, her voice bouncing inside my skull... and she sounded utterly depressed and hurt by my delay, too!

"Uhm... Violette, I’m so very sorry to cut our conversation short, but I have to go now," I slowly pushed her away from me so that I could stand up on the stone platform, rising to my feet. "I have some business to attend to, an urgent matter that require my immediate attention!."

She nodded her head in understanding, her expression soft and accepting. "Okay, Benjamin. I understand. I’ll be here waiting for your return, whenever that may be."

With those words of farewell, I started running through the barren and scorched land that our initial battle had carved into the savannah, my feet pounding against the cracked and burned earth as I moved across the ruined landscape at high speed.

It was a little habit of mine to run instead of just teleporting everywhere.

Something about the physical act of movement kept me grounded and connected to my body, in a way that instant teleportation did not.

But as I was about to actually disappear, I stopped suddenly.

I turned around and looked back at Violette, still standing alone on the stone platform.

She was still watching me leave, still smiling at me with that soft and hopeful expression on her beautiful face.

Alone, in the middle of a wasteland that stretched for miles in every direction.

"Violette...!" I called out to her across the distance, my voice carrying through the night air. "Wanna come with me?!"

Her eyes widened dramatically, sparkling with joy and surprise, as she nodded her head profusely, her black hair swaying with the motion.

"Yes, Benjamin! Yes, I will like to marry you!" She yelled back at me.

She completely misunderstood my invitation, or maybe she deliberately twisted it into something else.

What is wrong with this girl?

She seriously wants to destroy her "single" marital status as soon as possible.