TN: And we're back! sorry for the week long hiatus, it was not intentional since I had to get my right leg in a cast after tripping 3 floors down a stairwell (like an idiot ://) and be unable to use my PC setup upstairs BUT I should be OK now.
Anyways, Thanks for Arcanic Madness, WeissAkumu and WolfWTF for becoming as Supporters!,
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"This… please go ahead."
To be honest, Aventurine's mind was already filled with the consequences of failure, leaving him almost no mood to listen to anything else.
But at the same time, he did not dare to go against Sylvester's wishes, afraid that doing so might truly sever his only remaining hope.
"Hoo. I just had a, cough, a friendly negotiation with HooH. THEY have already sincerely abandoned the lazy and crude method of directly cutting things off, and instead switched to the hard work of supervising your actions throughout the entire process and smoothing out any possible ripples in history as they arise."
After pausing to catch his breath, Sylvester summed it up.
"In other words, HooH isn't going to cause you trouble. THEY're going to be your babysitter."
Clatter.
The antique pistol Aventurine had been using to communicate slipped from his hand and fell onto the hardened ground.
His mind nearly drifted out of his body as he muttered in disbelief, "An Aeon… being my babysitter?"
Mother… did I not actually time travel just now? Am I dreaming?
Is this pistol actually a hypnosis gun?
This was far too unreal.
Who in the universe had ever heard of an Aeon serving a human? It had always been humans offering tributes to Aeons, not the other way around!
For a moment, Aventurine was completely stunned. From the pistol lying on the ground came a puzzled voice.
"Hello? Mr. Aventurine, are you alright? Did HooH go back on THEIR word and attack you? If so, I'll have to settle accounts with THEM properly."
"Attacking my customer during after-sales service—this is simply outrageous!"
Aventurine suddenly turned his head, staring blankly at the pistol-shaped communicator on the ground like a stunned goose.
What did this mean? Judging by the tone, it seemed HooH had been forced by Shopkeeper Sylvester to cooperate with him?
An Aeon… being coerced by someone?
My heavens!
The Sylvester who had been chatting and laughing with him earlier that morning was actually powerful to such an extent?
Then… was he still human?
No—no, this was not the time to think about that.
Aventurine immediately bent down, picked up the antique pistol, and spoke urgently to Sylvester.
"N-no, nothing like that, Shopkeeper Sylvester. Everything here is normal. I was just… too shocked."
On the other side of the river of time, Sylvester nodded.
"Oh, that's good then. That's what I thought—HooH is an Aeon after all. THEY should still have some pride. Going back on THEIR word would hurt THEIR sense of scale."
In a place Aventurine could not see, space suddenly twisted ever so slightly, then quickly returned to calm.
HooH, secretly protecting him, let out a sigh of relief.
That was close. Almost caused a completely unnecessary disaster.
Aventurine swallowed dryly, the excitement in his heart still difficult to quell.
"Shopkeeper Sylvester, are you serious? This isn't some kind of kind lie you made up just to encourage me, right?"
Sylvester could understand his caution.
If it weren't for the credibility guaranteed by his Curio Trash Can business, anyone else claiming that an Aeon would personally serve someone would simply be dismissed as bragging nonsense.
As for how to reassure Aventurine, wasn't that easy?
Taking out the black-and-white yin-yang fish, Sylvester injected Path power into it and commanded HooH.
"Come on, Aeon. Give him a little Equilibrium shock."
"Mm." HooH's concise reply echoed back.
Aventurine, who had been completely focused on his conversation with Sylvester, suddenly felt a powerful sense of weightlessness, as if a bottomless abyss had opened beneath his feet.
In the very next instant, the surrounding space turned into absolute pitch-black darkness, leaving his eyes with nothing to perceive.
"What's going on?!"
Before he could react, the flustered Aventurine was blinded by an intense burst of light that appeared out of nowhere.
He immediately raised his arm to shield his eyes. After slowly adjusting to the brightness and lowering his arm—
What appeared before him was a great being beyond the limits of language.
Brilliant radiance surrounded THEM, making THEIR presence both majestic and awe-inspiring. Black-and-white interwoven chaos formed a mysterious barrier around THEM, expanding and contracting, shifting between the real and the illusory.
Only then did Aventurine fully confirm it.
This was, without a doubt, an Aeon.
In the next instant, his senses returned to normal, and the familiar golden wasteland once again came into view, as if everything just now had been nothing more than a hallucination.
But how could he possibly dismiss all of that as mere fantasy?
There was no mistake—Shopkeeper Sylvester had truly brought him the help of an Aeon.
People often said they were blessed by the gods when things went well.
But he—he truly had a god helping him.
The overwhelming joy filled his mind so completely that Aventurine's face lost its usual smile.
With sincere gratitude, he spoke hoarsely into the antique pistol.
"Thank you, Shopkeeper Sylvester. I've always repaid kindness in full. Though it may not be very likely, if there's ever anything you need, just say the word. I'll go through fire and water without hesitation."
There were no unnecessary embellishments—only the clearest possible words to promise his repayment.
Compared to the favor he had received, this pledge was still far too light. But unfortunately, he had nothing more to offer.
After a second of silence, Sylvester replied half-jokingly.
"Then… let's talk about that 'entire fortune' you mentioned earlier."
"Hah—" Aventurine's tension instantly eased, and he laughed helplessly.
He could naturally tell that Sylvester was only speaking casually, but he still intended to take it seriously.
"Alright. Allow me to sort out my assets when I return. Within three days, everything will be transferred under Shopkeeper Sylvester's name."
"I won't disturb Shopkeeper Sylvester's rest any longer. I'll handle the rest on my own."
Seeing that he was taking it seriously, Sylvester instead felt a bit reluctant to accept it.
"Uh, about the money—I was just joking. I'm not good at refusing, so I'll only say this once."
"My phone's out of juice. I need to go recharge. I'm hanging up now. Good night."
Ending the communication, Sylvester happened to step into his residence in the Exalting Sanctum.
Mm… hopefully Aventurine isn't too earnest about this.
Just as he was about to go to sleep, the yin-yang fish suddenly floated up before his eyes.
HooH's intent echoed from within it.
"That just now does not count as using one of the conditions."
"What? Oh, that." Sylvester didn't react immediately.
After a brief pause, he realized HooH was trying to count that cooperation as one of the three favors.
You've got to be kidding. Something that simple—how could he possibly agree?
Sylvester stared at the yin-yang fish speechlessly.
"What do you think?"
"I think it's acceptable," HooH replied without hesitation.
"I think it's not!" Sylvester responded even more decisively.
Had this Aeon never seen humans speak in reverse? How could that possibly have been a genuine question?
"…"
Staring at the silent yin-yang fish, Sylvester could almost feel HooH's disappointment—thick and heavy, like liquid.
Before long, the light faded from the yin-yang fish, and it dropped onto the bed.
"Hmm." Sylvester let out a sigh. Thinking about an Aeon being bullied by him to the point of barely daring to breathe was… honestly a bit pitiable.
Well, everyone eats dumplings during the New Year. He'd treat it as feeding a small animal.
He spoke to the air.
"Fine. If history can be safely rewritten, then we'll count that as one."
Then he added,
"If you didn't hear that, then it doesn't count."
"Heard it."
The yin-yang fish flashed briefly, transmitted those three words, then immediately dimmed again.
Sylvester turned his head and stared fixedly at the yin-yang fish.
Is this thing asking to be bullied?
He had originally thought most Aeons were clueless about social matters. Turns out THEY were quite shrewd.
…
"Mother, look, I made wheat porridge. I begged the traveling merchant who passed by this morning, and he gave it to me."
A girl dressed in coarse cloth carried a bowl of porridge made from boiled wheat grains and placed it beside her mother's bed.
This was the nourishment she had prepared for her pregnant mother.
In Avgin, this was a delicacy that common folk could only dream of—something they wished they could eat every day.
In the past, she didn't need to do this. She had a father.
But one day, he had said he would bring home a better life with meat every day. After that, he never returned.
In Avgin, this was something that happened to many families.
After grieving for a while, she stopped thinking about it. The suffering before her left no room to dwell on the past.
"Good child."
The woman on the bed gently stroked her daughter's hair. Looking at the girl's thin, hungry face, she smiled with relief.
She split the wheat porridge in half and gave part back to her daughter, planning to fill herself with wild vegetable soup instead. The porridge was too little— even if one person ate it all, it wouldn't be enough to be full. It was better treated as a side dish.
Mother and daughter did not know that outside the tent, someone had been standing there for a long time, one hand resting on the curtain, trembling, too afraid to lift it.
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