Chapter 408: Reciprocity
Ariel instantly sprang to her feet.
The excitement on her face was immediate.
"Really far," she replied. "But we’d get there quickly."
I shook my head. The last time I listened to directions like that, I ended up traveling an absurd distance for the Inferno Wolves. I wasn’t making that mistake again.
"You can make your way there," I said. "I’ll warp to you once you arrive."
The seal I had placed on Ariel allowed me to track her location. With a thought, I could use it as an anchor point and appear wherever she was.
But Ariel shook her head.
"There’s no need for that."
Before I could ask what she meant, she vanished.
One moment, she was standing in front of me. Next, she was gone.
My eyes widened.
What?
I immediately scanned the room. Then, just as suddenly as she had disappeared, Ariel reappeared several feet away.
I stared.
"What are you doing?" she asked impatiently. "Follow me."
"Wait."
She vanished again. My eye twitched.
Without hesitation, I focused on the seal I’d placed on her and activated [Leap].
The world blurred. A moment later, I appeared beside her.
"What the hell just happened?" I asked.
Ariel glanced at me.
"Which part?"
"Did you just teleport?"
The fox turned toward me, and a grin slowly spread across her face. The expression immediately made me suspicious. Then she revealed:
"I can use some of your skills now."
I froze. For a moment, I genuinely thought I’d misheard her.
"You what?"
Ariel’s grin widened.
"I said I can use some of your skills."
I stared at her.
Then I stared some more. My brain was struggling to process what she’d just said.
"You can use my skills? How?"
Before Ariel could answer, I immediately activated [Analyze].
Name: Ariel
Title: Four-Tailed Ember Fox
Race: Ember Fox
Level: 37
Status: Bonded
Loyalty: 032 / 100
Skills: [Azure Mirage], [SoulFlare Quills], [Azure Tornado], [SoulFire Recovery], [Fox Fire Domain], [Soul Burn], [Astral Step]
The information wasn’t all that different from the last time I had checked.
Her level had increased. Her evolution had already been accounted for. Most of her abilities were the same. But one thing immediately caught my attention.
Loyalty: 032 / 100
I blinked. Then blinked again.
Thirty-two?
The number had increased massively compared to before.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected it to jump that much in only a few days.
That alone was surprising.
But it wasn’t what confused me.
I looked back at Ariel.
"I thought your loyalty had to reach fifty before we could use each other’s skills."
My brow furrowed.
"How are you able to use my skills already?"
Ariel looked entirely too pleased with herself.
"Because that condition only applies to you."
I stared.
"What the hell does that mean?"
The fox lazily swished her tails.
"It means exactly what I said."
She paused before elaborating.
"For me to use your skills, your loyalty toward me has to be at least thirty."
I frowned.
"My loyalty toward you?"
"Yes."
The answer came so casually that it took a second for it to sink in.
Then my eyes widened.
"Wait."
I pointed at myself.
"You’re telling me that I have a loyalty stat toward you?"
Ariel nodded.
"Of course."
"What do you mean ’of course’?"
She looked at me as though I were being unreasonable.
"You can see my loyalty level."
"Yeah."
"And I can see yours."
I froze.
For a few seconds, I genuinely didn’t know what to say.
This was the first time I was hearing any of this.
All this time, I had assumed the loyalty system only worked one way.
That I was the one monitoring the bond.
Meanwhile, Ariel had apparently been able to observe how I felt toward her this entire time.
Which raised several uncomfortable questions.
Questions I wasn’t sure I wanted answers to.
"You never mentioned this."
"You never asked."
I clicked my tongue.
That was infuriatingly difficult to argue against.
"So you’ve been watching my loyalty increase this whole time?"
Ariel nodded.
"More or less."
I rubbed my forehead. This explained so much.
The confidence, the way she occasionally reacted to things I never said aloud, the strange comments she’d make whenever I tried pretending I didn’t care about something. Apparently, she’d been seeing evidence to the contrary the entire time.
No wonder she never took me seriously.
I felt oddly aggrieved.
"Why didn’t you tell me any of this?"
Ariel shrugged.
"We’ve never had that kind of conversation."
Then she glanced at me from the corner of her eye.
"Why? Does it annoy you that I have some of the same advantages you do? That I can see how you feel about me, just like you can?"
I opened my mouth. Then closed it again. The annoying part was that I wasn’t entirely sure what I was feeling. Maybe a little annoyed. Maybe a little embarrassed.
For the entire duration of our bond, I had always been the observer. I was the one checking her status. I was the one seeing her loyalty rise and fall. I had assumed I possessed information she didn’t. Apparently, that had never been true.
"No..." I said eventually. "It’s just..." I shook my head. "Forget it."
Trying to untangle whatever I was feeling seemed like a waste of time. Instead, I focused on something more important.
"How long have you been able to use my skills?"
"A while now."
I stared at her. That was not a useful answer. Still, a few things were starting to make sense.
If she could see my loyalty toward her, then she would’ve seen it gradually rise over time. She would’ve known when I started trusting her more. Known when I began relying on her. Known when she stopped being simply a powerful fox I happened to be bonded with.
That kind of knowledge would inevitably affect how she viewed me.
The more I thought about it, the less surprising her loyalty increase became. Then another thought suddenly occurred to me. Something she’d said earlier.
My eyes narrowed.
"Wait. Before we attacked the Inferno Wolves...Were you already able to use my abilities back then?"
She nodded with no hesitation and no attempt to hide it.
I stood there for several seconds. Then several things clicked into place all at once.
No wonder. No wonder she’d been able to travel such ridiculous distances. No wonder she always seemed to disappear and reappear wherever she pleased.
I’d assumed it was simply because she was fast, but it was because she could already use my skills.