Chapter 36 – Awakening of the Slumbering Circuits

After a calm night, Asterios went out to have a small breakfast. He sensed that both of the girls were still asleep so he didn’t want to wake them up. They stayed quite late together, going all around Selene’s hometown and then chatting about various things, including the summoning aspects, until Miria finally lost it to her exhaustion and fell asleep in the middle of it. No wonder, she was practically dashing left and right when they were having a stroll around the city.

He stopped by one of the food stalls and picked up a few meat skewers which had some vegetables like peppers and cucumbers mixed in them too. The surroundings were truly busy, and it was impossible to find a place to sit down, so he ventured outside the camp and sat under one of the trees not that far from it.

While he was consuming his meal, a crimson portal rose from the ground and Selene walked out, making a little bow.

“Good morning, my Lord.”

Asterios nodded while mid-bite. “Morning. Slept well?” he asked and gestured for her to sit down.

Selene rested under a tree opposite to him and sighed. But it was a sigh of relief rather than misery. She showed a faint smile.

“Yes, I did. Thanks to you, my Lord. I honestly can’t remember the last time I didn’t go to bed having my mind filled with worries and thoughts about the curse.”

“Glad to hear that. How’s Miria?”

She chuckled a little. “I expected her to be lively but not to this extent. She’s like a ball of pure curiosity and energy, rolling and bouncing from place to place until the very moment it wears off. It will take a moment longer before that ball recovers.”

Asterios smiled. “That’s true. She’s really adventurous. Her main request was to let her explore my world alongside me. Something that was given anyway.”

“If the main benefit is already more than satisfactory, I don’t think it’s necessary to look for more, don’t you think, my Lord? For her, there’s nothing greater than the joy of learning about your world, as for me, it’s the promise of help that I so needed in my whole life,” she explained.

“You are quite good with your words. As you said, it’s a promise. Not much more,” Ast replied.

“Hope is everything that holds a person together, preventing them from falling apart. Where there is hope, there is a possibility. And that is enough. At least for someone who spent decades completely powerless against their situation.”

Asterios didn’t reply. He had no way of contradicting that statement. No. Even if he had, he had no right to. His situation was exactly the same up until recently. No matter the odds, he kept pushing forwards in hopes of something finally changing in his life. It was not that different from Selene’s predicament. She suffered for way longer than him though. And much heavier. He was in no regular, physical pain for over a hundred years.

“You truly are strong…” he whispered to himself, which obviously didn’t go unnoticed by Selene’s keen hearing.

They sat in silence while Asterios was finishing his meal. For the whole time, Selene kept her cool and lady-like demeanour. Consuming the last piece, Ast spoke up.

“Ask away.”

“Pardon?”

“I thought Miria had mentioned to you that I can basically read your mood now, didn’t she? So no, it’s not impudent for you to talk about the promise the day after we got contracted.”

She was a little surprised. Selene didn’t think he would be this comprehensive with just her surface thoughts and emotions. She nodded her head.

“Then, would it be possible to do something about my situation already?”

“Well, for starters, it shouldn’t be that much of an issue making you sense your external spiritual lines and finally connecting them to the circuit inside. As I said, if you start using them, the pain should at least decrease,” he answered.

She nodded. “And how can I do that?”

Asterios waved at her and Selene moved closer, making them sit in front of each other, both in a cross-legged position now.

“First, it will be easier to visualize while having something to actually see. Take off the sleeves and tights please.”

Selene followed his instructions immediately and placed the pieces of clothing on the side. She glanced over the artistic marks around her limbs, which up to now were only disgusting in her eyes, but she couldn’t let her past lack of knowledge cloud her judgement anymore and she began noticing how enchanting the flowing lines actually seemed.

Asterios brought her out of her thoughts with a cough. “Okay. Fill your inner spiritual circuits with mana and start circulating it evenly.”

She rested her elbows on her thighs and made a circle with her fingers joined in the middle. Asterios could feel the flow of energy inside Selene’s body. He judged that she had great control over it as he was barely able to spot minimal leaks here and there.

“This position is good. Now, try to make the mana flow through your arms.”

As he requested, Selene began sending some of the energy outside of her circuits and doing her best to let it pass through her arms. It was naturally much harder than the previous action so more leaked out, but it still was a small amount.

“Amazing control,” he praised her. “Can you feel something when the mana courses through there? I don’t know… like… brushing against something that slightly sucks it?”

She focused more. “Yes… I think so… but it’s unimaginably faint.”

“Send as much mana there as you can.”

Selene began increasing the energy flow and focusing her mind to her utmost abilities on reaching with her mana to that light sensation. She closed her eyes. Beads of sweat started appearing on her forehead and her expression tensed. Asterios noticed a few small, glowing dots appearing over the mystical patterns, illuminating it in a blue glow.

“Nnnnngh… Mhhhhhhmmm… HNNNGGGHHHHH!” 

She forced herself almost to her limits, releasing grunts of struggle along the way, but the dots barely increased before Selene couldn’t hold up the created flow anymore and broke it.

“Haaaah… Haaaaah… Impossible… Even with me knowing… that it’s there… haaah… it’s so far… It's like there's a huge cliff to overcome...” She shook her head while panting.

Asterios rubbed his chin. “Looks like your mind has issues to acknowledge them after so many years of being biased and ignoring the lines. I could help with that, but…”

“But?”

“It might be a little uncomfortable.”

She smiled. “How exactly?”

“I would have to get quite close and touch your body.”

Selene chuckled, what quickly evolved into a small, stifled laugh. Asterios raised his eyebrow at her.

“My Lord, I don’t think you are aware of how socially, morally, logically and whatever-else-ally unacceptable things I’ve tried to get rid of my curse were. This can’t even hold a candle to those attempts,” she said while calming down her laughter.

“I see. My bad.”

“Oh, don’t apologize, please. I appreciate the concern. It’s reassuring. Now then, what do we have to do?” she asked.

Asterios then instructed her to sit in the same pose as before while he positioned himself behind Selene and sat on his knees spread to the sides, pretty much leaning his chest against her back. He moved one of his hands toward her solar plexus and pressed his index and middle fingers against it.

“I’ll be inserting a little bit of my own mana into your body through my fingertips. Focus on following that little beacon with your energy as I lead it over the marks very slowly. Then, keep circling it while I repeat the motions. Okay?” He summarized the plan.

Selene nodded, but also glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Wouldn’t it be better if you trailed directly over my skin?”

He smiled. “True, that would be a bit more efficient, but I can’t very well have such a fine lady strip a stone’s throw from a bustling encampment, can I?”

She also smiled and turned her face back to the front, closing her eyes. After Selene secured a stable mana flow, Asterios infused his fingers with his own energy and waited for a moment. Making sure that she sensed it properly, he began moving his fingertips. He trailed a bit down and under her left breast before going up and towards the shoulder.

Selene trembled faintly when he reached the beginning of the marks after passing her elbow and Ast slowed down. He moved over the whole path on top of her arm, ending at the back of her hand, watching as the glow increased and then faded. He repeated that cycle five times before the lines stopped completely losing the light after he finished a path.

When he started taking care of the other side, he noticed Selene’s breathing grow a little heavy and ragged. She must have been focusing a lot and it was showing. After doing the same exercise to her right arm, he was sure that her body temperature had risen noticeably. He took that as a sign of the external circuits beginning to work as even with his knowledge, he didn’t know what effects besides glowing accompanied these mysterious things.

Seeing the faint light coming from the lines, he decided to move onto the last part.

“I’ll now use both hands to stimulate them at the same time. It will be harder to follow two paths, but I’ve seen your control, you can do it,” he informed her.

Selene nodded and he pressed his chest more into her back, throwing his arms further around her over her shoulders. He filled both pairs of his fingers with mana and pressed them on her solar plexus again.

“Nhnnnnn…” A quiet moan escaped Selene's lips, making Ast wait before moving.

“You okay?”

“Yes… Please, ignore that… I still can only barely feel them, so let’s continue…” she answered slowly, taking deep breaths in between sentences.

Asterios resumed taking care of his part of the task and trailed with both hands over the lines at the same time. A moan or two made it out of Selene’s mouth occasionally. But, even with this much, he was sure that the external circuits were still far from the satisfactory grasp Selene should have over them, judging by the intensity of the glow. Both of them also noticed that every next cycle didn’t influence it by a clearly perceptible margin.

“Is this all we can do, my Lord?” she asked before he began another one.

Asterios pondered for a moment. “Hmmm… I could try using my other energy. It’s much more potent than this one.”

“Let’s have a try. I’ll muster all the focus I have left too.”

He agreed and reached towards the source near his heart, filling his spiritual circuits with the fiery mana, naturally, changing his appearance in the process.

“Ahnnnn~!”

The moment that energy reached his fingertips and flowed into Selene’s body in two spots over her solar plexus, her chest was filled with an amazingly pleasant warmth, and there was no way she could hold back the moan. It was hot, but not uncomfortable, and much, much clearer than before. If she previously saw Ast’s fingers as two high-quality torches, the two points she was sensing on her skin were now comparable to like five-meter-high bonfires of stacked logs, flaming fiercely.

She gripped them with all her senses and sent a surge of her own mana, following the afterglow those two beacons left as they moved over her skin. She knew that it would feel even stronger when they would reach the marks, so she tried to prepare herself, but it still was much more than she expected.

“Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnn~! Haaaaaah… Haaaaaaaaah…”

Two waves of pleasant, almost scorching hot energy, filled her body the moment Asterios touched her external circuits. From his perspective, they started glowing the strongest and the radiance left after his fingers almost didn’t lose in intensity as he moved further. It was working.

He started repeating the movements while Selene was doing her best to not lose her focus completely from the comfortable hotness. The power that was flowing into her was so clear that the lines were flashing in almost blinding light in her mind. She was left with her mouth wide open since the moment he started the upgraded treatment, panting really roughly as her whole body was burning hot like never before.

They did three rounds of the strengthened movements before Asterios stopped completely and Selene spent a few more minutes just circling her own mana. Albeit not perfect, she did manage to link the external patterns to her inner spiritual circuits and uphold that connection. She already felt stronger.

“Great work. Looks like we did it.” She heard Ast’s voice close behind her.

Selene opened her eyes and glanced down. The patterns over her arms were glowing in blue light noticeably. Not as strong as to serve as a reliable lighting source, but they showed their real beauty nevertheless. She was amazed and even more enchanted than before. She never imagined that her curse could actually have been this dazzling.

She took many deep breaths to calm her breathing and her whole body. The marks died down when she stopped thinking about them, but she was able to reignite them with some effort, just not to the level they achieved together. She was sure it was impossible without the help of Ast’s fiery mana.

Asterios stood up first and extended a hand to Selene to help her up too. She accepted it and was met with a proud smile from him.

“Congratulations. The rest is in your hands. I’ll help as much as I can along the way, of course. You shouldn’t have any issues with reaching for the circuits on your legs now, with some practice,” he spoke in a praising tone.

Only now she realized that they took care of her arms and the paths on her legs were still untouched. Selene reciprocated the smile and bowed her head a little.

“Thank you a lot, my Lord. I’m immensely grateful for this. I’ll do my best to take control of the lower circuits too. Although… I’m sure that with your distinct mana, I could do it much faster and more efficiently, so I hope that we can—”

*RUSTLE* *SWISH*

“—ah!”

Suddenly, something appeared by the sides of their faces and they took a quick step back, just to be met with the head of Miria, hanging upside-down from above, at their own eye level. Up until now, she was sitting on a thick branch above them and rolled over it to the back, making herself hang down with it lodged under her knees, holding onto it with her hands.

Even with her being vertically opposite to them, they could recognize the slightly mischievous smile on Miria’s lips.

“Moouuuuuu~,” she pouted, “I really can’t believe you didn’t hold back for even a day before going after my mate, Selene. Sneakily leaving me asleep so that you two get a chance to be alone for you to make your mov—”

She didn’t get to finish that sentence as Asterios stepped closer and planted an affectionate kiss on her reversed lips, taking her completely off-guard. Miria’s body tensed and she somehow slid off the branch, falling down onto the ground and landing on all fours with her tail and fur standing at attention from the shock.

The fluffy strand soon lost it’s straightened form and she slowly raised herself while still being turned with her back to them. She took a shy glance over the shoulder at the other two, specifically at Asterios, and they could see the clear blush on her face.

“Where did that… come from...” she spoke quietly.

“If you are going to bully someone, you should be prepared to be bullied yourself.” He smiled.

Selene chuckled by his side, covering her mouth with a hand. Ast and Miria looked at each other and also laughed a little. Everyone knew this was just friendly bickering and teasing. Asterios was a bit surprised to see Miria’s mischievous side, but he was happy that she was able to be comfortable around Selene, to some extent. Her easygoing nature definitely helped a little. She was, fortunately, less shy than he expected. And Selene herself seemed like a refined lady who didn’t mind their fun.

“So, what do we do today, Master?” Miria asked after taming her blush.

“Did you two eat already?”

“Yep!”

“Yes.”

“I guess we could try the second or third floor of the dungeon now. It would be a great way to learn more about Selene’s fighting style and abilities,” Ast suggested.

“I agree!” Miria replied instantly.

“I’ll gladly show what I can do, my Lord. But first… I need a quick bath after our exercise. May I take a leave for now?” Selene asked.

“Of course. Take your time. We’ll wait for you near the entrance,” Ast replied.

Selene bowed a little and stepped through the portal to her realm while Ast and Miria went back to the camp. She found herself where she last left her world, which was her room. Releasing a huge sigh while glancing around, she dropped her shoulders, finally letting all the accumulated fatigue show. It was really hard to keep her composure after that pleasant, fiery sensation she experienced over all of her body. She hadn’t uttered such shameful sounds in front of a man since… ever.

Starting to walk towards the bathroom, she saw that Miria made up the bed after their sleepover. She was such a hard worker. Moving further, she began to notice something weird about her clothes. Selene moved her hand down towards her underwear and realized that the material was quite damp, which fortunately wasn’t visible due to it being black.

She brought her fingers back up, stared at them and chuckled while shaking her head. 

「It was to be expected with the intensity of skinship we went through. The fact that I haven’t even noticed the effects of his massage due to the amazing energy until now speaks for itself. I feel like a young vixen again,」 she thought to herself and stretched, finally entering the bathing chamber.

Meanwhile, Ast and Miria were making their way through the streets of the tent town when they heard a familiar voice call to them.

“Yooooooooooo! Asterios!”

They both turned around and noticed the figure of a woman they both recognized, with a greatsword behind her back, waving their way. They smiled at each other and changed their direction towards her.