Investing in My Crippled Wife: Every Return Makes Me Stronger

”Is this... a dream?”

Ethea looked back at Soren, her expression caught between wonder and disbelief.

”What do you think?” He smiled and spread his arms wide. ”Or... do you want to check for yourself?”

”...” Ethea paused for a split second, then, throwing all hesitation aside, she sprinted across the grass and leaped straight into his arms. The grass brushed against her bare feet, each step sending a thrill through her legs that she had almost forgotten.

Thump.

Soren caught her easily, his arms wrapping around her as he spun her once before settling her against his chest. ”It really feels like a dream...”

”Yeah...”

They hugged for a while, neither wanting to let go. Eventually, Ethea pulled back just enough to look at him, and standing this close, she had to tilt her head up to meet his eyes.

”...You’re really taller than me,” she murmured, as if noticing it for the first time.

Soren chuckled. ”You don’t like it?”

”No.” She shook her head, a small smile playing on her lips. ”I like it.”

She paused, then added, ”It makes me feel safe.”

”...That’s good to know.” Soren smiled and pulled her back into his arms, resting his chin on top of her head. ”Then I’ll stay tall for you.”

”Hehe, you promised.” Ethea giggled. ”But... Where exactly are we?”

”Ah, right.” Soren pulled back and gestured around them. ”This is a shared mental space. It’s a realm created from our combined consciousness, a place that exists only for us. No one else can enter, and no one else can find it. We can meet here whenever we want, no matter how far apart we are in the real world.”

Ethea looked around again, taking it in with fresh eyes. ”It’s beautiful.”

”Mm. And it’s useful too.” He paused and explained its benefits. ”As for how it was created, you know about that shared ability called Soul-Binding Symbiosis, right?”

Ethea nodded, pieces clicking into place.

”That ability evolved, and this is its new effect.” Soren continued and explained the rest of the evolution. ”...The reason why you didn’t feel any pain is also related to it.”

”I see...” Ethea whispered. ”Eternal Bond... It’s really a fitting name.”

”I thought the same thing.” Soren chuckled. ”And... I awakened another ability.”

He went on to explain Curse Resistance and its two active effects. He also mentioned that he had discovered he was cursed with a bad luck curse, and that he planned to test the new ability first before deciding whether to use Curse Reflection to send it back at whoever cast it and so on.

”...You think they might be the same person who put that curse on me?” Ethea muttered as they sat together in the grass.

Soren nodded and shared his other guesses.

”...I think you shouldn’t use the curse reflection, not until we find out who the caster is,” Ethea said with a solemn expression. ”If they’re who we think they are, then they might end up casting a powerful curse on you that even your ability won’t be able to defend against.”

”...But why do you think they put this curse on me, then? Why not something powerful from the get-go?” Soren asked with a frown. ”This makes me more uncertain about their identity and purpose.”

”...I think I know the reason why,” Ethea muttered, turning to Soren. ”It must be because of distance and time. From what I know, casting powerful curses requires extensive preparation, complex rituals, and a massive amount of time. On top of that, the target often needs to be nearby for the curse to take hold properly. Because of those limitations, they probably had to settle for this mid-level curse instead. It might seem low-ranking to you, but executing it over a long distance is actually hard to pull off and pretty powerful in its own right.”

”...If it’s really that difficult, then my guess might be more accurate than I thought.” Soren narrowed his eyes. ”They could cast an 8th circle curse on you after all. And... you’re right, I should keep the curse on myself, and I also think... we shouldn’t try this ability on you.”

Ethea smiled, knowing well why he paused there. ”Don’t worry, dear. I know you’re just worried about me... You think they might do something if I show some abnormalities again, right? Especially if I have something like that.”

Soren nodded helplessly, wondering why he even bothered to hide his thoughts when she could read him this easily. ”...Since we can’t do anything about it now, let’s focus on something else. I had something else I wanted to talk with you about anyway.”

”Oh, what else did you want to talk about?” Ethea tilted her head curiously.

”It’s actually about you.” Soren smiled. ”Your hidden talents and traits, I mean.”

”Huh? Can you see them now?”

”Mm. But only their names.” Soren answered and listed each of them. ”Did you know about all of them?”

Ethea shook her head. ”I knew I had something like a photographic memory since I could recall anything I saw or read with ease. I guess Perfect Recall is that, and Stellar Soul must have appeared after I inherited and cultivated the Stellar Soul Weaver Sutra. Sovereign’s Bloodline can also be explained by the furtive encounter I told you about before, about managing to get a glimpse of an Authority.”

Soren nodded as he had similar guesses. Her Authority was called Frost Sovereign after all.

”However, I didn’t know about Heart of Winter, Unyielding Will, and Fated One.” Ethea continued. ”Though I have a good idea of why for the first two. I haven’t noticed Unyielding Will, probably because I had the Unshackled Soul ability, and I must have confused its effects with this. The same goes for Heart of Winter. Although I don’t know exactly what it is, I probably haven’t noticed it because of my high affinity with ice.”

”Hmm, that explains it... Wait, speaking of your ice affinity, I finally managed to see its grade!”

”Huh? You did?” Ethea blinked in surprise. After all, even the academy and bureau’s testing couldn’t measure it properly and graded it as grade 9. ”How did it show to you? Was it grade 9 after all?”

Soren shook his head. ”It’s actually called EX grade.”