After Victor left, Freya returned to her room and casually summoned Life Freya and Mind Freya. Euphy, who had also returned to the room, looked up but didn't show any strange expression. After all, Freya had already demonstrated this trick in front of her many times.
Freya couldn't help but think that since she was spending so much time glued to Euphy every single day, if Euphy didn't know the truth, she would have to avoid her like a thief every time she used her abilities. That would have been far too troublesome.
The only alternative was for Freya to separate from Euphemia and act alone from then on. But... that would be a bit too lonely. If possible, Freya definitely wanted someone to accompany her, play games with her, chat, and have meals together.
Not to mention, with Euphemia around, Freya could slack off on many things and let her help. For instance, in investigating information about the extraordinary world, Euphy was currently looking up info on the “Three Temporal Pathways.” If Freya had to do it herself, heaven knew where she would even go to get such intelligence.
Her thoughts flashed by. Life Freya used her Heart Perception ability to observe the digestion of Mind Freya's potion. Her original intention was to test whether Mind Freya's potion digested faster through frequent use of her abilities, or by simply slacking off and sleeping without doing anything.
To her surprise, Life Freya discovered that Mind Freya's potion was already nearly half digested. She had clearly just advanced to Rank Three not too long ago, and she hadn't slacked off during this time, nor had she used this Mind Freya clone much. Why was this?
Recalling what she had done during this period, Freya quickly realized where the answer lay. Since Luna had two desires—cross-dressing and peeking at other people's secrets—it was perfectly normal for her to have two deep desires as well, right?
Aside from being lazy, Freya's other desire... was probably to help others, do what was within her power, and save the lives of innocent people.
Just like when she first learned of Jerome's crisis, she had thought about fleeing the city to escape the death crisis, but in the end, she chose to stay. It was the same this time. Even though she had already obtained the Mind potion and could have easily packed up and left, Freya chose to investigate Luna's case instead.
Freya muttered quietly to herself, “As expected, good deeds do bring good rewards!”
However, now that Luna's matter was resolved, there were no more good deeds to be done. Thus, the only ways left for Mind Freya to digest the potion were still those two: frequent use of her abilities, or slacking off.
And so, Mind Freya simply lay down on the bed, closed her eyes, and began to rest. Meanwhile... Life Freya maintained her Heart Perception nearby, observing and recording the situation.
She just didn't know... if this really counted as slacking off. Since Mind Freya and Life Freya were essentially both Freya and the same person, did this count as her working while slacking off at the same time?
Speaking of which, since she was already observing, Life Freya also glanced at Euphemia. She discovered that Euphemia's Scholar Pathway potion was also mostly digested and would soon be completely finished. Seeing this, Freya couldn't help but blink in surprise before saying, “Euphy, you'll soon be able to ask your grandfather for the Rank Four potion.”
Euphemia, who was reading, looked at Freya with a surprised expression. “So fast? Well, I suppose that makes sense. After all, I've uncovered quite a lot of 'truths' during this time.”
After a pause, Euphy couldn't help but say, “Fufu, you are simply my lucky star! I spent a whole year without even advancing to Rank Three on my own, but after living with you for just over two months, I'm already about to rise to Rank Four.”
Freya said, “Well, we've experienced so many dangerous things and investigated so many cases, so it's only natural.”
But Euphy shook her head. “No, from my perspective, I haven't actually experienced anything dangerous at all. Everything was easily resolved by you on a whim. The only one constantly facing danger is you.”
As she spoke, Euphy set down her book, walked over to Freya, and suddenly reached out to hug her while Freya looked on with a completely blank expression.
Euphy gently patted Freya's back and whispered, “Thank you for your hard work. Traveling back and forth between the future and reality again and again, doing so much for everyone... You're really amazing! Here's a big praise for you~”
Hearing this, Freya felt her eyes grow slightly moist. Although the enemies were successfully dealt with and the cases were solved in record time every single time, absolutely no one knew what kind of effort Freya had put into those countless futures. Many of the people she saved had no idea they had even been saved, so naturally, no one would ever come to thank her.
Freya was just an ordinary person, and she naturally felt pressure too. It was just that she had underestimated it before—or rather, she had thought she didn't care.
But right now, when someone said “Thank you for your hard work” to her, Freya suddenly realized that she actually did care. Having someone comfort her... was truly nice.
Freya hugged Euphy back and whispered, “Thank you.”
After hugging for a moment, the two parted and returned to their respective tasks. Euphy continued reading, while Freya controlled Mind Freya to get out of bed and start using her abilities.
After comparative testing, Life Freya discovered that the speed at which the potion digested when Mind Freya was slacking off and sleeping was actually faster than when she frequently used her abilities. Furthermore, while the other Freyas were busy doing other things, Mind Freya slacking off in bed didn't affect the digestion of the Mind potion at all.
Consequently, Freya stopped recalling this clone. Instead, she left her idling on the hotel bed year-round. As for herself, she and Euphemia properly enjoyed the things tourists were supposed to do, eating, drinking, playing, and wandering around the city.
In the blink of an eye, half a month passed. Having thoroughly explored the city, Freya and Euphemia discussed it and decided to return to their home country.
Before that, however, Euphemia's Rank Three potion had been completely digested, and she had already asked her grandfather for the Rank Four 【Doctor】 potion.
Inside the hotel room, Euphemia looked at the Rank Four potion in her hand, took a deep breath, uncorked it, and drank it in one gulp.
Freya still summoned Life Freya to observe nearby just in case of any accidents. In reality, however, as long as one took the next rank's potion after ensuring the previous one was completely digested, accidents rarely occurred.
This time was no different, though because it was a transition from Rank Three to Rank Four, it took a bit longer. It was about three hours later when Euphemia slowly woke up. There were no obvious changes to her body; her hair remained its original color, and her height and build were exactly the same as before.
If there was anything different, it was Euphy's pupils. They had turned sky-blue, and there seemed to be a gear-like pattern slowly rotating within them.
For the Scholar Pathway, Rank Four Doctor, she only obtained a single extraordinary ability, which was the ability to 【Learn Extraordinary Abilities】.
It was no exaggeration to say that reaching Rank Four on the Scholar Pathway was a complete qualitative leap. Whether it was the Artisan being able to craft extraordinary items or the Doctor being able to learn abilities, both were exceptionally powerful. As long as one put in the time, their strength would steadily grow.
But on second thought, it seemed like the transition from Rank Three to Rank Four on any pathway was a massive qualitative leap.
Euphemia felt her current state and sensed her new extraordinary ability, then said, “If I want to learn a certain ability, I must first understand it inside out. Not only do I need to understand the principle of how the ability works and study how spirituality is released, but I even need to know the potion recipe of the corresponding pathway and fully comprehend how this superpower is 【born】.”
Hearing this, Freya couldn't help but glance at Life Freya. Wasn't releasing an ability just a matter of a single thought? She had absolutely no idea about any principles of operation or methods of releasing spirituality, and it sounded incredibly troublesome.
Freya thought to herself that since she already had Euphy as her super-brain, even if she got new save slots in the future, she would definitely prioritize other pathways instead of choosing the Scholar Pathway. In any case, whenever a problem arose, she could just leave all the thinking to Euphy.
Freya asked, “What extraordinary ability do you plan to learn first?”
Euphemia thought about it and said, “Let me think about it. After all, the cost of learning an extraordinary ability is quite high and takes a long time. If I make the wrong choice, I won't be of much help to you before I learn a second one.”
On the very day Euphy finished her advancement, the two began their journey home. However, because Euphy suffered from seasickness, they could only travel by carriage this time. It took a very long time, and by the time they successfully returned to Auxerre in the Kingdom of Tarapaca, a whole month had already passed.
It was honestly a bit ridiculous. Their actual vacation had only lasted half a month, yet this return trip alone took an entire month.
Of course, on the way back, they also passed through many cities, walked around, and visited various places, so it wasn't too boring.
Furthermore, Freya hadn't wasted this month. Since the return trip required frequently changing carriages and lodgings, making it difficult to slack off, she simply left her Mind Freya clone back in the Fanipaca Empire. It was just paying for an extra month of meals and lodging, which wasn't a big deal.
Then, after returning home, Freya recalled Mind Freya into the system warehouse and summoned her again, instantly resetting her position.
Inside Euphemia's rented apartment in Auxerre, under Life Freya's perception, Mind Freya's Rank Three potion had also been completely digested. Thus, she took out the Rank Four Mind Reader potion and drank it down.
After a long wait of about three to four hours, during which Freya could clearly see the hair of her other self, Mind Freya, slowly turning completely light gold—the process was like a visible progress bar—Mind Freya slowly woke up just as her hair color finished changing entirely.
Opening her eyes, Freya could see that Mind Freya's eyes had also turned gold, with patterns resembling tiny stars visible within her pupils, looking exceptionally beautiful.
Mind Freya stood up and took a few steps on the floor. Comparing her to before, one could clearly sense that she... seemed to have shrunk slightly, or more precisely, she had gotten shorter.
Wait, was this right? What was with this potion? Freya herself wasn't particularly tall, standing at just over 1.6 meters. With this shrinkage, Mind Freya's height was probably only around 1.5 meters, making her a veritable little blonde loli.
But from Freya's perspective, as she circled around Mind Freya, she had to admit she was indeed quite cute. She wore slightly loose clothing, her silky-soft long golden hair fell casually behind her back, and she wore a lazy expression on her face.
Freya couldn't help but think that she could buy some cute-styled clothes for Mind Freya, and maybe have her wear white thigh-highs or something. It would probably suit her perfectly and look very nice.
Of course, she would buy the clothes later. Right now, the new Rank Four ability was more important. The Mind Reader also had only one ability, which had been mentioned before, called 【Heartscape】.
It allowed one to completely enter another person's inner world. Using Mind Reading, Hypnosis, or Psychological Scalpel in this place would have extremely powerful effects, and one could even modify the Heartscape itself to alter the target's subconscious mind.
Mind Freya sat on the bed with her legs together and patted her thighs. Perhaps because she had shrunk, her tiny feet couldn't even touch the ground when she did this. Freya herself climbed onto the bed, lay on her side with her head on Mind Freya's lap, and closed her eyes.
Mind Freya began to use her ability. From her perspective, the entire world instantly collapsed, and she began to plunge downward in a freefall. A circular, bubble-like little island appeared before her.
Although she was falling, Mind Freya didn't feel any sensation of weightlessness. She knew that even if she crashed into the ground at terminal velocity right now, she wouldn't suffer the slightest harm because she was currently in a conscious form, and this was not the real world.
Looking at the bubble island before her, Mind Freya murmured, “Is this 【my】 Heartscape?”
This 【bubble】 was the barrier of the Heartscape. The strength of the barrier depended on a person's willpower. In other words, if Mind Freya encountered a high-ranking extraordinary with extremely strong willpower, she might not even be able to enter their Heartscape.
However, since this was Freya entering her own Heartscape, her inner mind was naturally completely undefended against herself. Thus, the barrier was practically non-existent. Mind Freya slightly adjusted her angle of descent, and as if passing through an invisible film of air, she entered this world with great ease.
Immediately afterward, the first thing that came into view was an old orphanage—the very place where the body's original owner had lived during her childhood.
Rate on N.U.
