The vast dining room once again fell into an awkward silence.
The bubbling of the hot pot's soup base seemed incredibly loud in such a large room.
Franka and Liskarm's eyes widened in unison, as if they had just witnessed the most absurd thing in their lives.
"Huh?!!"
"Huh?!!"
The two exclaimed at the same time.
This nearly absurd turn of events left them both speechless, unable to react for a long time.
"This... this is how my wish was granted?"
Lucas Reeve scratched his face, a bit embarrassed.
He could have used the Midas touch ability provided by the system to grant Franka's wish, but... it really wasn't worth it.
He was currently in a spiritual state.
Money was useless to him, and the Midas touch ability wasn't very useful either, making it a poor trade-off.
When choosing abilities from the system, Lucas Reeve's main priority was their practical use to him. He couldn't just clutter his skillset for the sake of fulfilling certain wishes.
"I'm different from the kind of wish-granting machine you're imagining."
Lucas Reeve said with a straight face, suppressing his own awkwardness.
"My ability to grant wishes is very limited. And even when I do grant them, it's a roundabout fulfillment based on my own understanding. Got it?"
Liskarm and Franka glanced at each other, more or less understanding.
This Genie...
Wasn't the real deal.
Completely different from the ones in fairy tales.
"So... what wish did Jessica make?"
Liskarm asked Lucas Reeve.
"Can I tell them?"
Lucas Reeve didn't answer immediately, instead seeking his 'client's' opinion. Seeing Jessica nod, he finally spoke.
"The first wish was to pass her assessment, so I possessed Jessica's body to complete it for her. The other was to become braver and overcome her timid nature. While I can't directly make Jessica brave, at least... Miss Fox, you must have noticed that after her trip to Lungmen, Jessica's personality has changed significantly, right?"
Huh~
Franka nodded.
It was true.
She had noticed it too.
Ever since Jessica returned from Lungmen, her personality had indeed changed a lot. At the very least, she would never have said so much to her in one go before. She was even learning to refuse her, which was a welcome development. The old Jessica would never refuse; basically, any request from anyone in the company, no matter how unwilling she was, she would meekly agree. Over time, she naturally became the go-to test dummy for the weapons development department.
Thinking about it that way...
This 'Genie' did have some real skill. He could grant wishes, but the process was a bit different from the 'fairy tales' one might imagine. This Mr. Reeve's methods were a bit... too realistic.
"Um... Senior Franka, this check... please take it... Although the amount of money I can access is very, very small, a few billion is still easy to manage."
Jessica pushed the check over.
A single, simple sentence that immediately silenced all three of them.
Is she even speaking human language?
That was the thought that surfaced in all three of their minds simultaneously.
What they thought would be an 'interrogation' ended up being resolved so easily.
Franka and Liskarm accepted Lucas Reeve's existence quite naturally, though they did add a 'threat' at the end, warning him not to have any ill intentions towards Jessica, or she would definitely report him. As for the one hundred million 'wish' check, Franka couldn't possibly accept it and returned it to Jessica.
And now, Lucas Reeve no longer needed to hide in the necklace to avoid being discovered. He simply floated out and chatted idly with them.
Although Lucas Reeve seemed a bit cold, always maintaining a calm and unruffled expression which gave the impression of a 'cold-faced top student' personality similar to Liskarm's, when it came to conversation, Lucas Reeve revealed a more talkative side, which greatly increased Franka and Liskarm's favorable impression of him.
Franka and Liskarm accepted Lucas Reeve in a very friendly manner, which finally brought a happy smile to Jessica, the long-suffering party caught in the middle. Just a moment ago, she had felt like a child caught between her parents' argument, anxious but helpless. Now, the misunderstanding was resolved!
"Then from now on, our Team Franka can grow from three members to four!"
"Cheers!"
"Cheers!"
As the hot pot meal came to an end, Franka, feeling a bit stuffed, asked the question she had been wanting to ask all along.
"Mr. Reeve."
"Hm?"
Lucas Reeve looked at Franka in confusion.
"Let me ask you a question. When you're inside Jessica's body, can you share her vision?"
"Yes."
Lucas Reeve answered without thinking. However, as soon as he said it, he suddenly remembered something.
"Oho~"
A 'friendly' smile appeared on Franka's slightly smiling face.
"Then when I was bathing with little Jessica, does that mean you..."
"No.. I absolutely didn't see anything..."
"You totally saw it!!"
"I didn't!"
"You did!!"
"Didn't..."
Liskarm leaned against Jessica, shrugging her shoulders as she looked at the two who were still arguing about the bathing incident.
"Good thing I wrapped myself in a towel before going in. So, Jessica, what about when you bathe? Doesn't that mean?"
Jessica's face turned red, and then she shook her head.
"Mr. Reeve shares my vision, so as long as I don't look at my own body when I bathe, it's fine..."
However, as she said this, Jessica muttered silently to herself.
It's easy to say, but how could she possibly not look at her own body at all? In fact, he's probably seen it countless times already. At first, Jessica was very shy about it.
Now... she was used to it.