Chapter 138: Encounter on the Island (2)
Ange swayed unsteadily, glancing at her own body, then at Tolle beside her. Her face was flushed as she tried to sit up.
Tolle, who was busy making breakfast, put on a helpless expression and said,
"Let me make it clear first—when faced with a girl who can't move, I absolutely didn't do anything indecent.
If treatment had been delayed any longer, it would've been dangerous. Learned your lesson, right? Don't just throw on some clothes and run into the forest when it's raining."
Ange gave him a look that screamed, I don't hear you, I don't hear you, I'm not listening, and snapped, "Mind your own business."
Tolle carried over a bowl of snake meat porridge, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and held it to her mouth.
"Here, have a little."
"What is this?"
"This is food. You haven't eaten yet, right? You must be hungry. Come on, just one bite."
"I won't eat it. Who knows what this stuff is?"
But her stomach betrayed her with a loud growl. Tolle reassured her,
"There's nothing strange in it. Just try a bite—ahhh."
With a resigned sigh, Ange closed her eyes and opened her mouth, taking a spoonful. "It tastes awful."
Still, she kept her eyes shut and opened her mouth again, waiting for Tolle to feed her. Tolle couldn't help but sigh—she really was the type who said one thing but did another. Complaining it tasted bad, yet opening her mouth wide for the next spoonful.
Helplessly, Tolle kept feeding her, then decided to tease her a little.
"As long as you like it. It's snake meat porridge—yep, from the one that bit you. I avenged you."
Tolle muttered inwardly, Well, truth is, it was just an innocent little snake. Couldn't eat the nanotech one, so I had to make this poor guy the scapegoat.
Though the mention of snake meat startled Ange, she still swallowed it down.
"So… can you trust me at least a little now? If you don't mind, could you stop punching me, shooting me, and tying me up?"
"I'll think about it," Ange replied loftily, continuing to eat spoonfuls of snake meat porridge. But after a few more bites, her face suddenly turned bright red.
"What's wrong? Does the wound still hurt? Let me check…"
"Just now… you said you sucked out the poison?"
"Mm."
"With your mouth?"
"Mm."
Ange glanced at where her wound was, her face burning as she looked at Tolle. "Ah… from there."
Tolle met her gaze and instinctively stammered,
"Uh… well… that was…"
Ange suddenly lunged forward and bit hard into Tolle's shoulder.
"Ow ow ow—"
"You never said I couldn't bite you!"
"You're being unfair! I told you it was an accident, I didn't mean it!"
Exhausted, Ange collapsed back onto the bed, covering her eyes with one hand.
"I'm going to rest. You go sleep outside."
"Hey, this is my house, you know. It just rained, and even if it's stopped now, you can't seriously want me to sleep in the mud."
"I don't care, I'm going to sleep. You're not allowed in here. Do whatever you want otherwise."
"…Fine, I'll sleep outside. Get some rest."
Tolle shook his head helplessly and walked out of the cave-like shelter. He found a relatively clean spot outside and sat down. Before long, Ange had already fallen asleep inside.
Staring at the sky, Tolle felt miserable. What's wrong with me? I have brainwashing, but I don't use it. Instead, I resort to tricks to win a girl's trust. Pathetic.
With that, he got up quietly and returned to his undersea base, where he wrestled with Zola for a while.
Before dawn the next morning, he returned to Ange's place, prepared breakfast, and left a note. Then he went alone to work on Villkiss.
After all, he had already copied it before. Replicating it part by part was no problem.
When Ange woke up, she looked around, but Tolle was nowhere to be seen. What she did find was his note saying he'd gone to repair Villkiss, and the breakfast left on the pot.
After finishing the meal, she wandered slowly over to where Villkiss was. Seeing her, Tolle asked,
"Already able to move around?"
Ange sat down on the mat piled with tools and spare parts, and they started chatting casually.
"What are you doing?"
"Repairs, more or less."
"Can it be fixed?"
"Sometimes bits and pieces of phantom mechs drift ashore. I research them, and naturally, I learn."
Then, deliberately, Tolle said to her, "Hand me that hex wrench, will you?"
Ange frowned in puzzlement.
"Why not just use magic? Why bother with this? And how do you even recognize phantom mechs? Who… who are you really?"
Here we go. Finally, the moment to introduce myself. Should I drop a few hints and try to reel her in right now? Maybe there's potential here. Haha, time for my level-ten persuasion skill—maybe I can win the heroine over right away.
Tolle turned back with a smile.
"My name is Tolle Keni, just an ordinary time–space traveler."
"Ha, a time–space traveler? You can't be serious."
Tolle shook his head, answering with absolute seriousness.
"I'm not lying. I have the ability to travel between parallel worlds.
But each time I use this power, I have to stay in that world for a period of time. Sometimes months, sometimes years—the duration is always random.
When the time is up, I return to my original world and need about a month before I can travel again."
Ange hugged her knees together, resting her chin on them, and asked curiously,
"That's a really strange magic. So, which worlds have you been to?"
"I'm not sure if it counts as magic. It's probably different from yours.
Up till now, I've traveled through four parallel worlds. Unfortunately, every one of them was at war.
One time, I even ran into giant aliens in space—tens of meters tall…"
As Tolle crouched down, repairing Villkiss, he told her stories of his experiences. Ange listened attentively, intrigued.
As he spoke, Tolle finally pinpointed the problem with Villkiss.
"Ah, just as I thought—the power system's wiring is ruined. But if I fix this first, we can restore the radio, and then you'll be able to contact your companions."
Ange lowered her head sadly.
"Even if it's fixed, it won't matter. No one will come. And even if I go back… there's no one waiting for me."
"I see… Well, if you don't mind, you can stay here for now. And, um… I promise I won't do anything inappropriate.
Of course, if you'd like, we could even travel to other worlds together, keep moving on.
I've been in this one for over half a year already, so it should be about time to leave soon."
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