NOVEL WEB Chapter 152: Problem
Shocked and flabbergasted, the knights were leaving to do their job, while shaken by the weight of being entrusted with so much money.
Standing in the dirt-smelling, enclosed, caged walls where the beggars were treated like livestock, Leon and Seraphine lingered as the cold, stale air pressed against their skin and the faint coppery tang of dried blood clung to every breath.
Their eyes locked in a silence so thick it muffled even the distant clang of climbing the wall, the only sounds their own breathing and the slow echo of footsteps fading away.
The reason—
Seraphine had noticed how he looked quite troubled when ordering the knights, and it even felt as if he was in quite a hurry.
Also seeing him earlier, tightening in his jaw, the way his hands lingered near his waist, fingers flexing as if seeking reassurance.
She had already detected that something was wrong, but it seemed more urgent than she had thought.
Her Leon did have a cautious and calculative personality—even then, she had never seen him that worried.
She was the first one to break the silence. The date she was so excited about didn't even come to her mind now, as there was something more important that needed her attention.
"Leon, let's postpone the date for some other time. I can see there is something that is worrying you since the time you came back from the dimensional space about an hour ago."
Hearing her words, Leon let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, his shoulders loosening as the knot in his chest slowly unraveled.
He knew Seraphine was very excited for the date, especially since she had been separated from him for quite a while.
He might have spent only a little more than a day to rob the nobles, but for her—who definitely trained inside the dimensional space—even if she could only spend one-third of the time inside, it was still more than a year of separation for her.
The date might have meant a lot to her.
He reached out and ran his fingers gently through her hair, letting the strands slip between his fingertips as he smiled, warmth flickering in his chest.
"Let me tell my lovely wife why I need to quickly enter the dimensional space physically—to find a solution for the unexpected problem I have found myself in."
Seraphine's expression tensed up even more. A problem? She didn't know her Leon—a monstrous genius—could even find himself in a problem.
"Tell me. What happened?"
Leon started his explanation from the time he first discovered the faith of people in him, which caused his Holy Affinity to awaken in some sort of way. He called it awakening, as that was the only explanation he had.
"So the golden energy wrapping your body from before, which looked as if I was looking at something divine, was the Holy Energy?"
She had thought he had discovered a new power—and she was correct. But this was a good thing. However, what made her worry was that it felt too strange and out of this world to her when she had first seen it, so she wanted to check up on it.
"Yes, that was Holy Energy. It was a good thing that happened to me—a powerful element that increases my strength to even another level, even when I have no control over it."
He paused, and now his voice turned serious.
"But the problem is, it is being generated at a very fast pace. Since the time inside the dimensional space is 1000 times faster, I have no way to store it. When I tried to store it in my mana core, both of them tried to devour each other."
It sounded too serious to her—as he said both were trying to devour each other.
"Will you be alright... Leon?"
He said with a firm smile on his face.
"Don't worry about me. I've learned to store the Holy Energy in different parts of my body—it buys me at least ten hours before it becomes a real problem."
"And even if I don't find any solution, I just have to spend the excess Holy Energy every twelve hours, so there's no chance of me getting hurt at all."
Hearing his reassuring words—
Ten hours outside meant he had more than a year to find a solution to his problem, and she believed he could easily find the solution. He had all the resources in the world to pull it off, besides his monstrous talent.
Even if he didn't find a solution, it's not like he was going to get hurt.
So Seraphine was much more relaxed now.
Leon searched through his inventory in his mind, and with a faint whoosh and a shimmer of ethereal light, a single-edged sword materialized in the air, floating. The blade caught the meager light, gleaming with deep violet hues, while its handle's white square designs seemed to pulse softly.
This was a Rare-ranked sword he had found, which looked similar to the katana he had seen in his previous world. The kingdom might have gotten it as a reward from the dungeons.
He wondered where these rewards even came from and how the dungeons even created them.
Seraphine's eyes were glued to the sword floating in front of her. Without wasting any time, she held it in her hand. Just from holding it, she could feel how good this sword was compared to her previous one—at least five times or even more. She would only know it once she used it.
But the moment she held its handle, the hilt felt cool and perfectly balanced in her palm, its subtle weight a promise of power. When she gripped it, a faint vibration thrummed through her hand and up her arm, sending a thrill across her skin.
But it looked too slim. She didn't hate it, but it was the first time she had seen a sword such as this.
She drew the blade free with a soft metallic shing, the edge catching the light, glinting sharp and deadly.
She now understood why it was so thin—this blade had only a sharp edge on one side, not both, and its weight was also much less than her previous sword.
It would take a bit of time for her to get used to a sword that only had sharpness on one side, but she could feel her strength increasing to a new degree with this new weapon.
For a moment, Leon watched her fingers run along the blade, the faint sound of her breath sharp in the quiet.
"Do you like the surprise I told you about?"
Seraphine, who was too engrossed in the new weapon, came out of her thoughts, hearing his voice.
She answered with a soft smile on her face while sheathing the sword.
"Yes, I liked it a lot. I will be much stronger with this new weapon."
Seeing her, Leon felt great. But then he opened up the Cosmic Shop panel of his system and paused for a time.
And pausing at a time with a thought, he bought it directly—as 27,000 Causality was detected from his total of 656,000.
Space around him glitched in existence—a crackling, almost electric feel slicing the air—as reality warped with a shiver that ran beneath Seraphine's skin. Instinctively, she tensed, fingers tightening around her sword's hilt, every sense straining as the world seemed to hold its breath.