Chapter 465: The Kiss That Didn’t Happen

Luke had a plan. During the four months he’d spent apart from Charlie, he’d thought carefully about how to handle things when they met again. He knew she had feelings for him. His intention was to sit down with her and have a long, honest conversation, to explain that what she felt might be a kind of intense admiration, mixed with gratitude for having been saved.

But in the very first seconds after their reunion, she managed to shatter every argument he’d prepared. Fresh from hibernation, she looked at him with unwavering resolve.

“Master Luke, I want to marry you!”

“Marry?” The word slipped out before he could stop it.

“It seems all those long hours you spent practicing conversations with me were wasted,” Angie remarked calmly in his mind.

The very first thing she says… is that she wants to marry me. I have no idea how to proceed.

“Charlie, this is something very serious. We need to talk first,” Luke said.

“That’s it, Charlie!” Artemis chimed in excitedly. “I fully support the marriage! That way Luke and I can have a bachelor party in Vegas, just like in The Hangover.”

“Quiet,” Luke snapped. “This is serious.”

“I’m sorry, Master Luke,” Charlie said softly. “I don’t know how much time has passed since the last time we spoke, but I promised myself I would say this.”

She stood up and walked toward him without hesitation. Charlie placed both hands against the wall, effectively trapping Luke between her arms.

“Kiss her, kiss her, kiss her, now’s the moment!” Artemis whispered enthusiastically in his head.

“I want to marry you, Master Luke,” Charlie said firmly. “But…”

She stepped back slightly, giving him space. “I understand that everything is still very recent, and your situation is complicated right now. So please know this: I’ll stay by your side and support you in everything.”

“I appreciate that, Charlie,” Luke replied. “And I’ll support you in whatever you choose to do with your life as well. But about these feelings… I’ve never really thought about feeling that way for anyone.”

“I know, Master Luke. You still have many things to do,” she said, her voice steady. “When you uncover the truth you’re searching for, will you promise that when we talk about this again, you’ll be truly honest with me about your feelings? Even if it hurts?”

“I promise,” he said.

Charlie relaxed her shoulders and sat down on the bed.

Was that it? Resolved? Just like that?

“No. You just pushed this problem into a future arc of your story,” Artemis commented dryly.

“I don’t know where we are, Master Luke. And I don’t know why you took me out of your soul here… in this room,” Charlie said, glancing around.

“In the end, Charlie’s basically in The Hangover, waking up in a room with zero memory of what went down.”

“Oh, right. I need to explain that,” Luke replied. “We’re in the New World.”

And then he began explaining everything to her. His plans. His next objectives. What lay ahead.

Maybe by then Charlie will have time to really understand that what she feels for me is admiration. Or… to reinforce what she feels. Either way, she’s not a skeleton anymore. That’s new for both of us.

“I have until then to make you fall in love with me, Master Luke,” she said with quiet determination. “And I promise I’ll give it my all.”

She wasn’t confused. Not even a little.

Luke could tell.

***

The street was crowded, people moving back and forth in every direction. Some carried swords openly. Luke even spotted a man hauling a wooden cart down the road. It was night in Camlann, yet the city felt lively and awake. Despite its classic medieval style, the place wasn’t poorly lit at all. Magical torches lined the streets, bathing everything in warm light.

Everywhere Luke looked, people were laughing. Taverns were everywhere, several of them clustered side by side. This was the starting city of the New World, so full of life that no one seemed to mind opening identical businesses right next to each other.

“Master Luke… this is all so amazing,” Charlie said, wide-eyed as she took everything in.

They were walking through a market, an enormous one that stretched across an entire street. A bard sang atop a wooden crate while passersby tossed coins into a hat at his feet. Luke had given Charlie a book the night before, when they stayed at an inn. Somehow, she already knew how to read. Luke suspected that fragments of knowledge from her previous life had remained, even if the memories themselves were gone. She could read his language naturally, and thanks to the system acting as a universal translator, she could read any language just as easily as she spoke with him.

She had read several books to learn how to adapt to life in the New World. It wasn’t that hard to believe. Even the embassy handed out beginner books for free to newcomers.

They kept walking while Charlie enjoyed the sights. She already knew everything that had happened, and why Luke was there.

Charlie stopped at a stall and pointed.

“H-how much is it, sir?”

She had been given her own wallet, which in this world meant a small leather pouch filled with coins.

“One apple costs one crown,” the vendor replied. “But I’ll sell three apples for two crowns, or five for three. A small discount if you buy more.”

Luke watched Charlie’s expression twist as her mind went into overdrive, trying to calculate.

“Is this enough?” she asked, holding out a single copper coin.

“For one apple, yes,” the vendor said.

Charlie rummaged through her pouch and handed over three copper coins in exchange for five apples. She looked genuinely proud, delighted at having bought something on her own for the first time.

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“H-here, one for you, Master Luke,” she said, offering him an apple.

“Thank you, Charlie. I was curious to try one myself,” he replied as they continued walking.

The apple was juicy, but he still preferred the ones he’d taken from the tutorial, the apples of the Midnight Universe. He had plenty stored in his pocket dimension, seeds he planned to plant someday.

“Three for Artemis,” Charlie added, passing them to Luke.

“Oh, thank you, Charlie. At least I know you care about your lovely and dear friend Artemis,” Artemis said sweetly. “Unlike a certain someone we know who sometimes forgets I exist.”

Luke sent the apples into his pocket dimension. As they walked, he glanced at Charlie’s system interface.

[Blood Core: 7/100]

In his other hand, Luke held a copy of the Camlann newspaper, which he’d bought for one crown. The currency of this society was called Crowns. However, Crowns came in different metals: Copper, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

It had taken Luke some time to understand pricing, but things became much clearer once he learned to convert crowns into dollars in his head.

Copper had three denominations: copper cent ($0.01), copper tenth ($0.10), and copper ($1).

Silver also had three: silver cent ($10), silver tenth ($100), and silver ($1,000).