Through the mansion halls,
Rays of moonlight fell through the windows, but overpowering these rays were the lights of the chandeliers hanging on the ceiling.
It was quiet, and only the shuffling of servants could be heard as they checked on everything before preparing to call it a night.
In a rather secluded part of the mansion, there was a smiling boy with dark blue eyes and a girl with golden eyes, lost in thought.
"How tasty! I wonder if the chef will teach me how to make it…"
"Yeah."
Aria and Ren were talking about the dinner they had earlier.
As expected of a noble house, they were served with a full-course meal that would make anyone jolly afterwards.
The food was similar to what you could find on Earth, whether it be the steaks or the chicken soup that was served.
It especially hit harder for Ren, whose hobbies were partly spent on cooking and trying new foods.
'In Abyss, you had to eat whatever you could get your hands on.'
Since there was no light in the Abyss, farm animals didn't survive long,
Be it the fact that there was no more grass to eat or that monsters of the [Ash Sky] ate them, finding good food was nigh impossible.
Those who still had farm animals obviously kept hidden in secret areas.
During Ren's time as a mining slave, he would eat the unknown slop provided to a majority of slaves or bugs that he happened to come across.
That all changed when he met his master, who, contrary to his temperamental behavior, fed him surprisingly well.
As his mind returned to the present, he looked to the side in concern.
"What's wrong, Aria?"
Despite Ren talking a lot, Aria didn't answer much,
She seemed to be deep in thought, only responding with a single word or a "Mhm." while nodding without much expression.
Reacting to his words, she turned with a light smile.
"I was thinking about what Relia said."
They met after the delicious dinner and had just left a meeting with her.
Although they couldn't talk for long due to how busy Relia was with her coming-of-age ceremony, they managed to outline a simple sequence of events as well as things to look out for in the coming days.
This was in preparation for the Chaos Cult, which wanted to revive their god.
Most of the planning was based on information from the novel that Relia read, as well as the knowledge she had gained growing up in the world.
In the novel, she would be assassinated at the beginning of the story on her way to the capital, Baeleon, which would start the biggest conflict of the novel.
That was the war between the Rael Empire and the Lelfon kingdom,
This was because the assassin had clues linking them with the kingdom,
The whole thing was a plot by the Chaos Cult to stir up conflict between the nations and to generate [Chaos], which was what Relia believed they needed to resurrect the Chaos God.
But this future was averted, with Relia surviving and making it to the capital.
So now there wouldn't be a war, but even so, it didn't mean everything was okay now.
"Even though the future changed, the Chaos Cult will still emerge, and some aspects of her novel are wrong."
The war between the Empire and the Kingdom wasn't the only conflict the Chaos Cult started; there were many others all across the continent.
In addition, the Chaos God is called a rank 8 in Relia's novel, when they were probably a rank 10 in reality.
This meant that her novel could be inaccurate.
But it was more likely the case that it was a mix of both accuracy and accuracy.
In the novel, it was written that Relia Aureus was attacked by an assassin, and in reality, that really did happen.
There was also the fact that the setting of the novel was the same as the setting in this world, be it the name of the Empire or Kingdom.
Yet, they concluded that whether or not the novel was completely accurate didn't matter much, as long as it had some accuracy, they could still plan for events.
"If something unknown happens, we will need to be flexible enough to account for it."
But that flexibility came in the form of power.
Power that the two were currently lacking very much.
Unfortunately, the current Ren and Aria weren't strong enough to travel around and stop them; all they could do was focus on where they were currently, which was Baeleon.
But even if they had a clear focus on Baeleon, there wasn't much they could do.
They were only Rank 1s after all!
Relia mentioned that the Chaos Cult had deployed over a dozen assassins at rank 3, and there were even rank 4s.
Thankfully, they were stopped by Hale, leaving Relia to deal with a single rank 3.
But that Rank 3 showed the power of a Rank 4.
Relia said that this power wasn't shown in the novel.
Even if Aria and Ren became rank 2 or even 3, if the enemy could increase their rank mid-battle and could deploy multiple rank 3s and 4s, they were finished, no matter how skilled they were.
A bad workman always blames his tools.
Yet that didn't apply to ranks.
Even if you were the most skilled with the sword or could cast the strongest spells without the proper rank or body, you would never be able to display that power properly.
Even if an ant was the best at biting, it was still an ant!
Against an elephant, it was useless.
That was the situation they were in and why Aria was in such deep thought.
"How can we bridge the gap between ranks?"
They had already done it before, whether it be Aria using a spell a rank higher than her or Ren moving at a speed faster than his rank should have allowed him.
"But the Chaos Cult can do the same…"
In her muttering, they entered their room.
Seeing her still in thought, Ren shook his head with a sigh.
'This girl…'
With a smile, he moved behind her and started massaging her shoulder, much to her surprise.
"W-what are you doing!?"
"You just seemed so stressed, Aria. I thought you needed this."
"I'm fine, so let go!"
She stared at Ren with a scowl before sighing, her expression softening,
"Why wouldn't I be worried? Doesn't it seem hopeless?"
It really did when you thought about it.
The cult had rank 3s and rank 4s, and this number was probably in the hundreds or thousands.
Relia had also mentioned that there were rank 6s and rank 7s in the cult, but thankfully, they were either sealed or focusing on other things.
They needed to ask for help from people such as Hale or Claire, but for that, they required evidence of the Cult's existence.
Although they captured assassins, finding evidence was still difficult.
Ren understood her worry, walking back to her side while looking out the window.
"Aria, even if it's hopeless, we can't give up, right?"
"Of course, we can't; if something seems impossible, we just haven't tried hard enough."
"That's right, I've defeated the Ash God, and you defeated the Witch of Calamity. They were both gods, right? And we both started at rank 0. What makes this any different?"
"They weren't rank 10 Ren."
"That's… true, but! Aren't there two of us now?"
When fighting the respective gods of their worlds, other than their comrades, they were alone; now they were together on this shared journey,
Even if the Chaos God was rank 10, they couldn't give up.
Although the journey was still going to be difficult, having another person by their side sharing their burdens made it a bit better.
'I'm glad… only a bit, no maybe a little more than that...'
Aria smiled in her thoughts and in reality.
"Right"
Ren smiled along as they both opened their systems.
A window appeared for an item they received but never got to open.
***
Raymond's Guide to the World of Atlas
[Description: An ambitious traveler sought to be the freest of them all. In the pursuit of his goal, he climbed the highest heights and went to the deepest depths.
But despite that, he desired more freedom, reaching for the stars only to realize he had reached for his end.
The book will be your guide to this world.]
[Do you wish to open this book?]