Chapter 100 | Hope!
Selene opened her eyes.
"Dinner is ready," Dexter told her softly. He then looked toward Mira. "Dinner is ready, Mira."
Selene nodded and stood up. She glanced between Dexter and Mira’s wheelchair, but Dexter simply shrugged. "I’ll take her. You go ahead."
Selene nodded and left the room. Mira kept her eyes closed as Dexter stepped behind her wheelchair.
"I’m cultivating," Mira stated flatly, her voice carrying a hint of annoyance at being interrupted.
Dexter chuckled, unlocking the wheels. "Okay, do something about it then."
Mira cracked one eye open to glare at him, but seeing his amused smile, she simply closed her eyes again and conceded.
Instead of heading straight to the kitchen, Dexter wheeled her into the bathroom. For the first time since they had moved in, she was wearing trousers instead of a dress, which made the process slightly different. With practiced efficiency, Dexter removed her trousers and panties, lifting her carefully and placing her on the toilet.
Both of them remained silent. Even after doing this countless times, a faint flush still crept up Mira’s pale cheeks.
Dexter’s neck was also slightly red, but his face remained perfectly indifferent.
"Call me when you’re done," he said, stepping outside the bathroom to wait.
He listened for the rush of water, waiting thirty seconds after the sound faded before stepping back inside. He dressed Mira, flushed the toilet, and lifted her back into her wheelchair.
Pushing her out to the dining table, he found Lyra and Selene already waiting.
Dexter hadn’t dished out the food yet. Lyra was staring at the covered pots with ravenous intensity, while Selene sat with her eyes closed.
She no longer needed to keep her eyes open to see; her Echolocation talent painted a perfect three-dimensional map of her surroundings through sound and vibration.
Dexter served the meals. He placed a portion in front of Selene, and her hand immediately snapped out, accurately finding the fork without needing any guidance.
"Nice!"
Dexter smiled at her progress.
Next, he placed three extra portions in front of Lyra, who instantly dove into her food.
The moment the first forkful of pasta entered her mouth, she sighed exaggeratedly, her eyes fluttering shut as the heavenly taste burst across her taste buds.
She swallowed and immediately shoved another bite in, sighing in contentment again.
Finally, Dexter placed the plate in front of Mira. He picked up the fork, about to feed her as usual, but Mira shook her head.
"Let me try feeding myself," she said quietly.
Dexter raised an eyebrow, frowning slightly. "You aren’t really proficient with the arms yet."
"If I don’t try, how will I become proficient?" Mira countered, meeting his gaze stubbornly.
Dexter shrugged. "As long as the food doesn’t spill."
Mira rolled her eyes. Two glowing orange spectral arms materialized behind her shoulders.
Selene watched curiously, while Lyra couldn’t care less, her mind was entirely devoted to devouring her pasta.
Mira controlled one of the spectral arms. It reached down, clumsily wrapping translucent fingers around the iron fork.
It lifted the pasta, trembling slightly from the uneven mana distribution. Mira opened her mouth, leaning forward to receive the bite.
"Snap."
The iron fork instantly shattered into tiny pieces, crushed to dust by her inability to regulate the spectral arm’s strength. The pasta tumbled down, staining her clean clothes.
Mira froze, her eyes unblinking but she was stubbornly refusing to be humiliated.
Dexter didn’t say a word.
He simply stood up, walked to the drawer, brought out ten more forks, and set them on the table beside her plate.
Then, he sat back down, picked up his own fork, and continued eating as if destroying cutlery was a perfectly normal dinner event.
Mira glanced at him, her heart skipping a beat.
A warm, unfamiliar feeling trickled into her chest as she knew Dexter was actually considering her feelings and didn’t want to embarrass her.
Swallowing her pride, she grabbed another fork with her spectral arm and tried again.
It took her seven attempts. Six crushed forks and stained napkins later, she finally managed to regulate the pressure, guiding a neat bite of pasta into her mouth.
Dexter looked up, gave her a thumbs-up, and smiled. "Nice."
Mira rolled her eyes, though a tiny, reluctant smile tugged at her lips.
She continued to feed herself. It was incredibly slow.
But thanks to the properties of his Grade-Two cooking, the meal never lost its heat or its taste, remaining perfectly warm as if freshly cooked even after hours on the plate.
It took an hour and half for Mira to finish her dinner, but by the end of it, her proficiency with the spectral arms had increased drastically.
Dexter was genuinely happy; she could finally feed herself.
After dinner, the girls went to freshen up. When Dexter offered to help Mira bathe, she shook her head.
"I don’t need to bathe twice a day," she muttered. "Once is enough. I’ll bathe tomorrow."
Dexter shrugged. "Alright."
He wished the girls goodnight and retreated to his room to cultivate.
He suddenly remembered he was in pain as the Eternal Buddha Endurance Scripture tempered his organs.
The chronic pain absorbed from the girls was a constant, agonizing companion, but the scripture was slowly converting that suffering into raw strength.
To bear it, he forced himself into a deep meditative trance. He mediated for five solid hours before exhaustion finally pulled him into a dreamless sleep.
***
Later that night, inside the girls’ bedroom, the room was silent.
Mira was lying at the edge of the bed. Her eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling as she silently cultivated the Grand Cosmos Scripture.
Suddenly, she felt it.
A phantom sensation. She had felt them countless times over the past three years the cruel, psychological torture of thinking she could move her limbs, only to realize it was just a phantom sensation from her severed nerves.
But this time, it felt... different. More real.
Out of curiosity, Mira shifted her gaze to the corner of her eye, looking down at her right hand resting on the mattress.
Suddenly, her expression changed as her breathing froze.
She could see something moving and that something was actually her index finger!
It wasn’t a phantom sensation but was real instead! And she was actually moving her finger!
Without knowing, tears fell down her eyes and rolled down the side of her head, soaking into the pillow.
She didn’t sniffle or make a sound, as if terrified that if she acknowledged it too loudly, the miracle would vanish. She just lay there, crying silently as a wave of desperate, long-abandoned hope crashed over her like a tide!