Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 173 - Changes Within the Orb

By the time Vahn had arrived at the Babel Plaza, he was stuck on whether or not he should return home or go visit some of the other girls. It had been nearly a week since he had seen Tiona and Ais, but Vahn also wanted to make sure he was in a secure place for when he needed to return to the orb. Even just a few seconds would translate to several extra days for Eva, so Vahn didn’t want to be late. Since it was already approaching 4 PM, Vahn decided it would be best to head home and then visit the other girls later.

After walking for another forty or so minutes, Vahn arrived back at his house and entered through the courtyard. When he opened the door, he came across Anubis and Tina, who had been waiting for him. Vahn had been curious, so as he approached he spread his domain out to see how quickly they could respond to his scent. He didn’t know how they were able to detect him so easily since his scent shouldn’t carry through walls when he isn’t nearby.

By the time he had reached the side-path, Vahn had noticed the two separate from the other auras before rapidly making their way through the corridors to arrive in the foyer shortly before his arrival. As Vahn was genuinely curious, the moment he saw the two girls, he asked, "How are you able to react to my arrival so easily? Is it my scent?"

Anubis smiled at his question while Tina flushed a bit and hung her head down like she was embarrassed to answer the question. Vahn was even more curious by their reaction, but before he asked Anubis said, "It’s pheromones. Master may not be aware of it himself, but you’ve been marked by several people. For chienthropes, our sense of smell is around fifty times stronger, while cat people are around thirty times stronger than humans. Unless you mask your scent, the moment you enter within a few hundred meters, we’ll always be able to pick up your scent."

Vahn was curious, so he transformed into his Báihǔ form and began smelling his own body. He immediately recognized a lemony fragrance that also smelled subtly like grass. Though he wasn’t sure how he knew, he recognized the fragrance to belong to Chloe. However, other than his normal musk, Vahn couldn’t smell anything else. Anubis laughed at his actions as she explained, "Males are naturally more receptive to female scents, while females are actually receptive to both male and female pheromones." As she spoke, she leaned forward and sniffed slightly before saying, "I can smell Chloe’s scent on you, as well as a few subtle fragrances from other people."

Tina nodded her head and continued, "Yes, you have a very strong scent of Chloe. You must have done something bad~nya..." As she spoke, Tina gave Vahn a ’stern’ look with her cute little face. Vahn felt like he was about to be lectured, so he quickly explained the situation to the two girls. Hearing that Vahn had approached her and that they were both in private, Tina ended up letting him off with just a mild reprimand. She told him that, even if he was in ’private’, it was still in a public venue where anything could have happened.

After their short discussion, Vahn excused himself to his bedroom to ’change’ into something more comfortable for the rest of the evening. He asked the girls to make sure everyone had a bath and that they should have an earlier dinner compared to the last week. Anubis nodded her head in response, but Tina followed him to the room. Fortunately, instead of entering with him, she stood outside and waited for him to change his clothing. He still had around two minutes before he had to enter the orb, so Vahn quickly changed his clothing before laying down on the bed and pulling out the orb. The moment the timer approached zero, Vahn immediately inserted his consciousness into the orb.

Eva had been waiting on the bed next to where she knew he would appear. The moment his body materialized, she immediately took her favorite spot on his stomach and kissed him on the lips without saying anything. Vahn was mildly surprised, but her actions weren’t outside of his expectations so he just reciprocated her affectionate display. Though it might have seemed ’sudden’, it was, in fact, her reuniting with him after nearly being apart for four years. Every time he returned, she had an increasing amount of passion when she embraced his body to alleviate the feelings of loneliness that had acc.u.mulated since his last visit.

After nearly an hour, Eva had explored the majority of his neck, face, and torso with her lips as she periodically drained his blood and traced the lines of his body with her fingers. Vahn wasn’t idle either, though he showed a bit of restraint and just caressed her body with the use of [Hands of Nirvana]. He didn’t touch any of her intimates and instead focused his attention on her back and the side of her body and waist.

When she was finally satisfied, Eva gave Vahn a final kiss before separating from his body with a flush covering her face. Vahn also moved from his position and prepared to get out of the bed before he noticed the difference in the environment around him. Since he had been distracted previously, Vahn hadn’t paid much attention to the surroundings and noticed he was currently located within the interior of a building.

Eva noticed his questioning look and explained that she had used part of the time while he was away to complete the house. With the use of her magic, she had only taken three days to construct the entire house which ended up having a single large bedroom with a kitchen and bathroom. Though there wasn’t a toilet, since neither of them had the need to produce waste with spiritual bodies, there was a small and relatively deep tub. When she had been showing him around, the moment Vahn saw the tub, Eva said, "We’ll take a bath later before you rest. Just wiping yourself down with a towel is uncultured."

Vahn nodded his head and followed her around for the tour before finally moving to his workshop. After Vahn exited the house, he noticed a second large build in the location where his workshop was located previously. When he went inside, Vahn noticed that all of the materials and tools had been neatly arranged to be easily accessible whenever he needed them. When he had initially set up his workshop, he had just bundled the materials in their own piles. Eva had organized everything, and the entire workshop looked clean and professional. Vahn also noticed a small, somewhat elevated, area with Eva’s desk and several bookshelves full of texts that he had left her previously.

Seeing how much effort she had put into constructing and organizing the two buildings, Vahn had a bit of understanding how bored Eva got whenever she was alone in the space. If she had truly finished the first house in three days, it shouldn’t have taken much longer to construct his workshop. The fact that she laid out everything and organized the materials made Vahn feel a bit concerned about her mental state.

Vahn decided to purchase for her several types of materials and items to develop a hobby or two later. The biggest decision he made, and the one Eva was most thankful for, was the purchase of large amounts of soil. A cubic meter of soil could be purchased for a single OP, so Vahn purchased enough to lay out a huge plot of land after asking Eva to erect walls around the circ.u.mference. Though the entire process took around twenty hours, Vahn and Eva had managed to construct a fertile area within the empty black and white space. Amazingly enough, Eva was actually able to use her telekinesis to move the entire house with their bed in it onto the plot of land. She then tried to do the same with the workshop, but Vahn managed to convince her to leave it on the outside so it wouldn’t detract from the garden they planned to plant.

After purchasing several seeds and performing a bit of landscaping, Vahn and Eva both retired to the house where they decided to take a bath before recuperating. Since she had always worn the black negligee recently, it was Vahn’s first time seeing Eva n.a.k.e.d when she dematerialized her clothing within the small changing room. Though he was already well aware of her physical age, Vahn didn’t realize how small Eva was until he saw her completely n.a.k.e.d. She was only around 130cm tall, nearly 32cm shorter than he was. Her chest wasn’t flat, but it was only around 67cm while her waist was 48cm and her h.i.p.s 63cm. Overall, she was an incredibly petite young girl and it made Vahn hate the existence known as the ’Mage of the Beginning’ for doing something so cruel to Eva in the past.

Eva noticed the sadness and anger in his eyes as she moved closer toward him and hugged around his waist. She whispered in a calming voice, "I’m happy that you’re angry for me, but don’t be sad for me anymore. I’m happier now than I’ve been in a long time, so you should be happy with me." Her words didn’t do much to stifle his anger, but Vahn focused his mind and calmed himself using [Will of the Emperor]. He reached his hands around her back and gently stroked her waist-length golden-blond hair.

After that, the two took a long bath with Eva sitting in his lap with her back pressed against his chest. There was a small incident when Vahn first became n.a.k.e.d and she stared at him with abject terror on her face as well as a hint of relief. Though Vahn didn’t want to believe it to be true, he felt like Eva was suddenly relieved that they couldn’t have s.e.x while she was just a memory fragment. It didn’t stop her from trying to tease him a bit when they entered the tub though, and she was amazed at his self-control for not getting ’excited’ by her teasing. Vahn had noticed this about himself previously, but unless he specifically had the intent or desire to have s.e.x, his body would never react against his expectations.

For the remainder of the three day period, Vahn spent his time between forging items and acting intimately with Eva whenever he took a break. She acted significantly different than the first time they had met, and Vahn felt like she was a young maiden that wanted to be spoiled. He also had the opportunity to learn a lot about the world where she came from and ended up learning the identity of her record after a bit of investigation and analysis on the part of Sis.

Since the people in the record typically didn’t know the name of the record, Vahn had to intuit a bit based on contextual evidence. After learning about Mundus Magicus, Vahn managed to find a basic history textbook regarding it in the system shop. After reading through it and identifying key historical figures, Vahn then looked for items related to them and eventually discovered the existence of a man named Negi Springfield that also used the technique Magia Erebea. It doc.u.mented that he was a disciple of the ’Queen of Darkness, Evangeline AK McDowell’, and Vahn immediately understood he had found the correct world. After a bit of analysis, Vahn was able to look through his ’Records’ function where he found a world called [Negima 1-5].

Though he couldn’t tell her about the existence of the ’record’, Vahn couldn’t help but embrace Eva due to his excitement at discovering her origin. He may not be able to visit it any time soon, but there would one day come a time where he could trace back the lonely path she had walked and free her from that tragedy. Vahn also knew the limits of power in the world, and he would be able to prepare himself to deal with the ’Mage of the Beginning’ when the time came.

Eva didn’t understand why Vahn was suddenly so excited, but she could tell that it was out of concern and affection for her. To reward his efforts and affection, she pinned him down to the bed while wearing a fully transparent white negligee as she embraced his body and rained kisses on him for the remaining two hours of his time in the orb. Vahn hadn’t been passive during her attack either, as he proactively fondled her body and teased her weak spots while continuing to develop his [Hands of Nirvana] to higher levels.

At the moment right before he had turned into dust, Vahn focused his energy to a point in his index finger and performed the same act that he performed on Tsubaki in the past. Starting from the area a few inches below her navel, Vahn swiped his finger up to her diaphragm as a shudder ran through her body. Eva couldn’t help but release a muted cry as she started toward the area where Vahn had disappeared with a slight grievance in her eyes.

(A/N: Alternate Titles: ’Everyday Life of A Young Couple’,’Godhand Strikes Back’,’Scent Police’)

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