78 Chapter 78

Raizel and Isabella are currently in what seems to be a Dining Room.

They just finished their meal and are now doing nothing but talking to each other, also drinking wine while at it.

Now the air between them, while they are having their conversation, is pretty... serious, one might say. Though it's not that serious, cause there are still maids nearby, cleaning their leftovers. But it's also not that light that anyone could just intervene.

*Clattering*

"So you're saying that for you, it's only been weeks since you last saw me?" Isabella who was sitting in front of Raizel asked in a cool manner. Though the incredulousness in her tone is pretty obvious.

Clearly having a hard time believing what Raizel just said.

"Yes, that's what I said..."

Raizel on the other hand seems calm. Unlike their first encounter, this time he's not being overtaken by panic and is now able to think more clearly. Throughout their conversation, he did not even ask Alexa for help.

So far, the lies— no, the ANSWERS he's been saying are all self-made. That's how confident and relaxed he is right now. 

"... That's why when you asked me 'what took me so long?' yesterday, I did not manage to give an immediate answer cause, I was greatly confused."

Listening to what he just said, Isabella squinted her eyes, clearly checking if there was any stench of lies on Raizel's statement just now.

"... Weird. You're not lying." Isabella muttered, though she was still very suspicious.

"How can that be weird? Of course, I'm not lying." Raizel naturally lied as he breathed.

But even though that was the case, the reason why Isabella detected otherwise is because of the fact that... Raizel is not 100 percent lying. Although in the current scenario, what Raizel just said is a lie, in his perspective, it's completely not a lie.

It's the kind of lie that is all true or false depending on whose perspective it is.

Yes, it's true, it's only been weeks since Raizel last saw Isabella... in YGGDRASIL that is. Cause he checked up on her a couple of weeks before the server ended. But what he said is also not true cause Isabella's question clearly meant a different thing.

However, what Raizel's doing is not that wrong. Well, it's not like he's obligated to explain the transmigration part to her, cause that'll be a headache on his part and completely unnecessary.

Besides, his lies are pretty much harmless for both parties. And that, he's actually, truthfully, confused... about everything that's happening by now.

So, since that's the case, everything that he's been saying so far is actually nothing but a build-up for him to gain information about what really is going on.

"So, you keep saying that I'm gone for too long... How long was I gone anyway?" Raizel cooly threw the question as he drank a glass of wine, given to him by a maid.

Trying to hide the fact that he's deeply interested in this matter...

'... Damn, why does this taste so good?'

Hearing his question, Isabella looks into Raizel's eyes for a moment with a 'Are you serious?' expression... before shaking her head and then giving a reply.

"If you're not at fault then it doesn't matter. You don't need to know."

Now, hearing her say that, it's Raizel's turn to have a 'Are you serious?' expression.

He's quite frustrated since Isabella keeps on talking about his 'disappearance' like it's a very big deal, yet she's suddenly saying not to mind about it.

'For some reason, even though I made her, I really don't understand women.'

"Oh~kay. If you don't want to tell me then I won't push. No worri-" Raizel said with a bit of a playful tone. He was about to say something more in the same manner, but when he saw Isabella's expression, he immediately realized that he might be sounding a bit uncaring right now.

'... Fuuuhck~'

So, with a heavy imaginary sigh, he immediately decided to make a follow-up.

"... Look, if I was gone for too long, then I'm very sorry. If only I'm aware of it, but I'm not. If I was, then I would have done something to prevent it. Trust me honey I would. But as I said, I'm not. I... I swear I never wanted any of this to happen."

After saying his piece, Isabella then looked straight into his eyes. Looking at him with a soul-piercing gaze.

A few seconds later... a warm smile formed on her face.

"... Weird. You're not lying."

Hearing this, Raizel can't help himself but laugh lightly.

"... How can that be weird? Of course, I'm not lying."

Similar statements as before, but this time, it's quite different.

Cause Raizel indeed, did not lie.

...

After that, silence covered the two. Though it's not an awkward silence... it's more like, lowkey romantic.

This could have been a very sweet moment. But Raizel knows that this is not the time for some romantic scene. He still has a lot to do, romance can wait later when he's finally done with everything.

So, after a few moments, right before it escalated into something else, again... Raizel decided to finally break the bubble.

"... Anyways. You said you have another question for me?" Raizel said with a light cough as he picked up his newly poured glass of wine.

"Oh yeah, I do. Sorry, I almost forgot." Isabella paused for a moment as she also picked up her glass of wine...

"Anyways. About my other question..." She then again looks straight at Raizel with a bit of seriousness in her expression. "... please be honest with me on this one. I know you have a lot of secrets and how you hate exposing them to anyone, but I really need to know how I did not detect you the moment you came back?"

Hearing what she just said, Raizel was visibly confused.

"Umm, can you elaborate on that?"

Seeing Raizel's confused expression, Isabella sighed heavily as she too became confused.

Very confused...

She lightly pinched her forehead as many things started processing in her head immediately upon hearing her husband's response...

She can tell that Raizel's confusion is real. That means he didn't know about the things she was talking about. Even though clearly, he should've...

Her husband, before he disappeared, clearly knows about this, but for some reason, he seems to have forgotten now. Which is supposedly impossible to happen... because she's aware of his capabilities, she knows that he has something that prevents that from happening.

"... Unless something happened while he's out there." Isabella thought to herself as she observed Raizel carefully with her gleaming eyes.

"Now that I think about it, some of his skills that are normally activated are not present. Not only that, but the majority of magic on his body is running quite wild. It's controlled, but it's pretty... barbaric. It's like he's doing this for the first time."

The longer Isabella speculated about the situation, the more she became stressed about it.

"At first I thought he was trying something different, but now I'm quite sure that it wasn't the case because all the signs I got, lead to the fact that he is trying to understand how to control his own body... Which is weird."

She wants to know what could've happened to her husband while he's gone, but he already asked him earlier, and received nothing but a flat "Nothing that would interest you."

So she gave up since she could tell that he was telling the truth.

"*Sigh* I'm going nowhere with this if both of us know nothing in the first place."

Now, she's left to believe that his husband, lost a major part of his memory for some reason and she can do nothing about it because that's out of her control.

All she can do now is explain to him what he doesn't know so their conversation can proceed smoothly... that's the last thing she could do to help him who despite his great effort in hiding it, is clearly having a hard time coping with everything.

"... Honestly, it's quite cute to see him like this. Pretending like nothing's wrong and believing that he's fooling anyone with that acting. Heh~"

Obviously, all these speculations had only lasted in Isabella's mind for only a mere second. So after that much thought, she got back into the conversation at hand.

"Alright, let me explain what I'm talking about..."

Isabella then started explaining to Raizel everything...

First, she started explaining the certain barrier that covers the entirety of Niflheim.

In this Realm or World, depends on how anyone likes to address it cause both are fine, a certain barrier exists. This barrier was controlled and laid out by Isabella herself a long time ago. It exists for... many reasons that she said she would explain later.

Now, this very barrier serves three purposes.

The first purpose is a borderline that severs Niflheim's connection to the World Tree Yggdrasil. Yes, right now Niflheim is not within the branches of the World tree. When the barrier was first released, the Niflheim was severed from its branch and launched off into the void.

Though bad as it may sound, it's not the case. Cause, if a situation where they need to reconnect to the World Tree again arises, a certain method can be done to turn everything back to normal.

The second is... a barrier. It could do anything that any normal barrier could do. Such as protecting the world from any harmful effects that came from the outside world. Being in the void is a good example of this cause normally, being in the void isn't a good thing. There's a good reason why no realm exists inside the void.

The barrier also prevents anyone from going in without Isabella's permission. Teleportation and similar techniques are not an exception to this.

And since this is Isabella's thing, it's basically an extension of her so she can detect anyone that goes in, goes near, goes out, and those that go a bit aggressive. Meaning, those who attacked.

Even Raizel cannot bypass the barrier easily just in case he decides to force himself in. But he still can, it will just take a lot of time. And Isabella will surely know what he's up to when that happens.

Now for the Third and probably the main purpose of this barrier... A concealer.

In short, it basically hides Niflheim from any outsiders. Actually, it hides Niflheim well enough that finding it is practically impossible... not to mention that currently, it's swimming somewhere in the ever-expanding void.

So... Niflheim is basically a fortress. One that has maximum foolproof surveillance. Now imagine Isabella's reaction when she suddenly found Raizel here without detecting anyone passing through the barrier.

Hence her question to him a while ago.

It's enough to worry her since if that's the case then it can only mean two things.

One is that Raizel found a tearing gap in the barrier and entered there, or second... he made a tearing gap himself.

Which for her, doesn't make a lot of sense since right now, she detects none of that stuff. The Barrier is perfectly fine.

But since that's the only possible scenario, and if it turns out that such a thing actually exists, and it's still there as they speak, then she needs to know where it is now and immediately fix the problem.

Of course, this is just a what-if. Nothing is proven yet, right now it's all a speculation. But she will gladly take the chance and find out the truth because these speculations are quite extreme.

She didn't know when that tearing gap first appeared, but if it actually exists, then it's leaking Niflheim's smell as they speak. That would be dangerous if that were to happen that's why she needs to get rid of it fast.

Before a certain problem... comes.

( To be continued...)

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