Ultimate Gamer System: Factory Must Grow!-Chapter 119: Callane’s Understanding

Just a little bit deeper into the tunnel, the mercenaries finally noticed that something was amiss.

"I knew it. This guy was never going to leave!" one of them said.

"I suspected it, but…"

"If he wasn't going to, why play along for so long?"

The chatter instantly erupted within the group, each of the words crashing into Callane's ears, turning into a strike that wounded her already vulnerable soul.

"Listen, I'm not saying I'm not going. It's just that…" Theo's voice grew meeker, his fingers tightening on Callane's hand. "Right now, I can't. Not because I don't want to, but…"

'Why is he hesitating so much?' Callane asked herself, biting down on her lower lip while trying to crack the issue on the spot.

Thankfully, now that they were in the tunnel, the mercenaries appeared to have relaxed to a degree, with most of the threats of the forbidden zone no longer able to reach them within the safety of the passage.

Sadly, while Callane could easily understand the latter, the answer to her earlier question continued to elude her.

'I knew he was only slightly on my side of the fence before, but…'

Callane held her breath, only to then close her eyes and slowly exhale as she pushed her emotions aside.

After reuniting with old Theo, after making up her mind to fully accept the new Theo as just the fresh continuation of the very same person she fell in love with after knowing him since forever, and especially after sleeping with him, she grew exceptionally emotionally sensitive to anything related to him.

All the more when it was such a sudden and so immensely massive change.

But after she pushed her emotions aside and properly went back to the few words he uttered? After analyzing Theo's very own shocked expression when he suddenly stood rooted on the spot, his eyes staring off into the distance as if there was no ancient wall to obstruct his view, while his pupils remained dilated as usual, proving what he was looking at wasn't anywhere further than Callane herself…

There was something wrong in all of that.

'Or rather,' Callane took a breath as she finally understood that… she was missing an element to properly piece this puzzle together. 'Just like he said, something changed.'

Callane looked up to Theo's face again, this time with her new, calmer mindset. And while she simply couldn't mistake that determined look in his eyes for anything else, at the same time, there wasn't a single hint of dishonesty in those very same eyes.

"Do you really mean it?" Callane asked, her voice growing softer as her own hold over Theo's hand relaxed a little, matching the change in her perspective.

Even with all that she noticed, though, her eyes remained firmly locked in on Theo's face, looking out for even the tiniest hint of doubt or hesitation or anything else that could clue her in on Theo's hidden intentions.

Yet, no matter how much she looked, she could find none.

"I can't give you an exact time, for I don't have all the details myself," Theo openly admitted with a slight shake of his head, only for his hand—contrary to the clear intention behind his words—to tighten even further on Callane's fingers, as if to compensate for her own relaxing grip. "I believe it shouldn't take me longer than two, maybe three days. And once I'm done, I will be sure to follow after you to the other side of this wall."

Callane gulped down her saliva.

No matter how hard she looked, the look on Theo's face was perfectly honest, at most mixed with immense determination.

'He's made his choice,' she thought, holding her breath in again, only to exhale it as she came to realize something that would be obvious to anyone who knew Theo in the past. And since he, at the very bottom of his heart, was still the same person, merely deprived of his old memories?

Then there was no way for him to change his mind once he made a decision and revealed such a degree of determination to stand by his choice.

"I understand," Callane muttered weakly, only for her grasp on Theo's hand to completely relax, allowing her to slip her fingers out of his grasp, breaking the link between the man and the rest of the group.

On the surface, nothing happened.

They still stood just a few feet apart, well within arm's reach of each other. At the same time, however, a strange, invisible yet almost tangible film appeared between them, as if the world itself decided to create a rift between the two of them.

Or, knowing the legends and some bits and pieces of the nature of this place, the very same magic that kept the monsters of the forbidden lands from ever entering this tunnel and crossing over to where civilization bloomed had now separated the two.

The few steps that separated them, with the appearance of this film, could very well turn into a continent-wide gap, save for how with such a gap, there would actually be some way to properly cross it.

"Wait, is she seriously letting him go? Just like that?"

"Why do you even care? We've are not here to judge but to do our job."

"Can we please stop with the drama and just move on?"

The mercenaries readily commented on the events, too dull to notice neither Theo nor Callane gave a single crap about what they were talking about, their attention locked away in the intimacy of the moment they had between themselves.

"Two, three days," Callane spoke out loud, forcing her voice to be louder than what she could naturally, in her fragile emotional state, produce. Even if she couldn't know if her voice could reach beyond this invisible film, who was there to stop her from hoping? "I will be waiting."

"Two, three days tops," Theo stated, as if he could hear the girl's words. And even though the magic of the ancients had now separated them, the look of determination in his eyes didn't fade in the slightest. "I promise."