Chapter 1627 - 228 - On The Frontline (3)
The basic idea behind it was that certain actions I took could unintentionally lead to favorable events happening later.
In other words, I could do something completely unrelated, and then somewhere down the line, that action could somehow create an opportunity that benefited me.
It sounded incredibly convenient when explained like that, and honestly, it was.
However, the original version of the ability that Titania possessed wasn’t completely one-sided. Unfavorable events could also happen because of the same effect, meaning the ability wasn’t simply some magical machine that existed to hand me whatever I wanted.
Mine was different because it was a much more upgraded version.
Because of that, the Butterfly Effect seemed to favor positive outcomes much more heavily in my case, which was obviously useful.
Still, I couldn’t exactly call it completely favorable all the time.
An ability that constantly manipulated circumstances without asking me first could become troublesome pretty quickly, especially when I didn’t know what kind of chain reaction my actions might cause.
The biggest problem was that I didn’t seem to have any way of turning the ability off.
That meant I really needed to learn how to use it properly and understand its limits before it eventually created some ridiculous situation that I would have absolutely no idea how to handle.
Considering the kinds of situations I had already ended up in, I wasn’t exactly eager to find out what the worst-case scenario looked like.
After saying goodbye to Alice and Sister Lily, I finally left the orphanage and flew back toward the capital.
The trip itself was relatively uneventful, and I was honestly just thinking about getting back and figuring out what had happened while I was away.
The moment I arrived at the castle, however, I was greeted by none other than Veronica.
"I thought I felt your presence," she said while looking toward me. "Turns out I was right after all, so follow me."
She sounded like she was in quite a hurry.
I could tell from the way she immediately started moving that whatever she wanted to talk about probably wasn’t something she intended to discuss while standing around at the entrance.
Since she seemed to know what she was doing, I decided not to waste time asking questions and simply followed her.
As we made our way through the castle, I happened to meet Hasegawa-sensei along the way.
The moment she noticed me, her expression brightened slightly, and she gave me a somewhat bashful smile while waving her hand. She seemed a little bit awkward to me still, though.
What she did was a small gesture, almost like she was quietly saying hello without wanting to draw too much attention to herself.
I naturally waved back.
The interaction itself was completely normal, at least from my perspective.
Apparently, Veronica had been paying attention to the entire thing.
"That person..." Veronica began while glancing in Hasegawa-sensei’s direction. "You know her, don’t you?"
"Why do you think that?" I asked.
"Well, you were looking at her as though she were some kind of pet," Veronica replied with a curious expression. "That’s why I figured you must know her somehow, or perhaps you wanted her as another woman?"
Was I really looking at Hasegawa-sensei like that?
I thought about it for a moment.
Well, there was actually some truth to what Veronica was saying, even if I hadn’t consciously been thinking about it that way.
I did somewhat see Hasegawa-sensei as being similar to a small pet.
She was pretty short and petite for a teacher, and that had always made her stand out compared to the other teachers I had known back on Earth.
Quite a few of my classmates had thought the same thing about her back then, so it wasn’t exactly a new observation.
She had even been called Hasegawa-chan rather than Hasegawa-sensei by some people, which probably explained why she was so determined to make her students see her as an actual adult.
I could understand why she felt that way.
She was the type of person who probably had to deal with people underestimating her because of her appearance, especially when many of her peers didn’t seem to treat her like an adult in the first place.
Still, that wasn’t what I had been thinking about when I looked at her.
"Nothing like that," I told Veronica. "I was just looking at her, that’s all. She’s one of the summoned heroes."
"Really? I see, then that’s fine."
Veronica accepted my explanation surprisingly quickly.
I had expected her to question me a little more, but she seemed perfectly satisfied with the answer and moved on to another subject almost immediately.
"On that note, it seems you’ve gained another woman," she said casually. "Good for you."
I became completely silent after hearing that.
I didn’t really know what I was supposed to say to that.
She must have noticed something about me, either because she could sense the presence of another woman or because she had picked up on the smell that was still clinging to me.
Considering what had happened the previous night, I couldn’t exactly blame her.
I hadn’t taken a shower after having sex with Alice, after all.
That wasn’t because I had intentionally decided to walk around the castle carrying another woman’s scent with me, because that would have been a rather strange decision even for me.
I simply hadn’t gotten the chance.
The moment I returned, Veronica had immediately come looking for me, and she seemed far too rushed for me to stop and take a shower before following her.
So, unfortunately, she had to deal with the smell of Alice still lingering on me.
I probably should have expected her to notice it.
Veronica was far too perceptive for me to think something like that would go unnoticed.
At this point, I was starting to wonder if there was anything I could actually hide from her when she was determined to find something out.
Considering how quickly she had figured out what had happened, apparently the answer was probably very little.