Chapter 381: A Turbulent World (4)
Sleeping Tolle had no idea that, before he even had the chance to brainwash Lacus or anything of the sort, she had already gone through a full self-driven mental campaign on her own.
Recalling the way Tolle had cried earlier, Lacus unconsciously felt her maternal instincts overflow and gently began stroking his hair.
However, after only a few strokes, Tolle sensed someone touching his hair and immediately woke up.
"Ah… um…" Looking at Lacus, whose expression was as gentle as water, Tolle stared at her in disbelief, stammering.
After his brain froze for a moment, he finally reacted and said, "Thank you, Lacus."
Lacus smiled with a dazed, innocent look and replied, "What are you thanking me for?"
Tolle's brain went into overdrive, and after 0.5 seconds, he answered with a slightly vacant expression, "Thank you for forgiving me."
Seeing Tolle's blank look, Lacus deliberately puffed out her cheeks and said, "Hmph, I never said I forgave you. You have to use your entire life to make up for my loss."
Tolle immediately reacted, excitedly grabbing Lacus's hands and saying, "I'm willing to use my entire life to make up for your loss and stay by your side forever. If I have to put a time limit on this compensation, then I hope it's five thousand years."
Lacus blushed shyly and lightly flicked Tolle on the forehead with her other hand. "Why isn't it ten thousand years? Do you always cut things in half like this?"
"Ah—no, that's not it, I didn't mean that. Please listen to my explanation."
Tolle hurriedly cupped both of Lacus's hands against his face and said earnestly, in an extremely mushy tone, "I would never cut my love for you—ah, I mean my compensation—in half. It's just that my current longevity modification technique can only last up to five thousand years. So my lifetime is at most five thousand years. But I'm willing to dedicate my entire life of companionship to you, never leaving you for my whole life."
"You're dreaming too much. Who wants the love of a womanizing big radish like you? I just want your lifetime of compensation." Lacus pouted, first gently pinching Tolle's cheeks with both hands, then gradually rubbing them harder.
Then, with an arrogant look, she continued, "Is five thousand years really true? I don't believe it. I want to test it and see whether you can really keep compensating me until that five-thousand-year deadline."
"That guarantee is no problem. I'll help you with the modification right now. It'll feel like a massive static-electric shock at first, but it'll be over quickly."
"Mm, okay. Go ahead."
Tolle then carried out the longevity modification on Lacus, extending her lifespan to five thousand years as well.
After it was finished, Lacus looked over her body. She felt that her strength and reflexes had improved somewhat, but otherwise there were no obvious changes.
"That's it?" Lacus tilted her head, looking at Tolle with a dazed expression.
"Yes, it's already complete. Until five thousand years from now, you'll be able to maintain your current appearance and figure. Your constitution and wound-healing speed have also been greatly enhanced."
Lacus immediately looked into Tolle's eyes and said with a soft, innocent expression, "Thank you, Tolle."
"You're welcome." Just as Tolle held Lacus's hand and was about to lean in for a kiss—
Liza, who had been standing guard outside the door, suddenly rushed in, blushing as she said, "Um… I want to undergo the longevity modification too. I want to stay young forever."
The two of them, who had been extremely close, immediately separated, both red-faced as they looked at Liza.
"Ahahaha, sorry. I think I came in at a bad time." Realizing she had interrupted them, Liza scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Um, and Nicol wants to be modified too."
Hearing this, Tolle's mouth twitched. So she had her eye on Nicol—she hadn't forgotten to pull him in even for something this good.
Although he felt a bit unwilling—his charm was apparently so low that even someone he had brainwashed didn't fall for him—thinking about it again, he had already gotten Lacus. As for Liza, it didn't really matter whether he had her or not; leaving her to Nicol was fine.
"Alright, no problem. One sheep is herding, two sheep are herding anyway. I'll modify both of you together. Liza, go call Nicol over."
"Okay, okay, I'll go right now."
After Liza left, Tolle and Lacus looked at each other, both smiling awkwardly.
Then, at lightning speed, Lacus lightly brushed a dragonfly-like kiss against Tolle's cheek.
With an innocent smile, she said, "This is your reward. Thank you for being willing to use your whole life to make up for me."
Tolle snapped out of it as if waking from a dream. Lacus really knew how to tailor her approach.
With Kira, she was the silent type who stayed by his side, completely airheaded and gentle.
With him, she had become a mixed type—cute and dazed, sometimes naturally innocent, sometimes clever and sharp, and even carrying an air of arrogance.
Truly ever-changing.
And he liked it.
In the days after helping Liza and Nicol complete their longevity modifications, Lacus continued to keep Tolle hanging, neither too close nor too distant.
Occasionally she would kiss him lightly, but there was no further substantive progress. Even so, Tolle felt a strong sense of conqueror's satisfaction.
However, since Lacus's father had only recently passed away, Tolle didn't push things. He treated it as giving his own body a short vacation.
A few days after Creuset returned to P.L.A.N.T from the Carpentaria Base, DaCosta once again arrived at the safe house.
Seeing him after finishing her broadcast, Lacus asked helplessly, "Are we moving again?"
"Yes, Miss Lacus. I'm very sorry, but we need to relocate as soon as possible."
"It's fine. I'm okay." Lacus then stood up, stretching lazily as she tidied her long hair, and asked, "Any new topics or news lately?"
DaCosta immediately reported, "After Orb's mass driver was destroyed, the Earth Alliance attacked ZAFT's Victoria Spaceport Base. The mass driver there has now been occupied by them."
"Didn't ZAFT deploy a lot of forces at the Victoria Spaceport Base? Was the mass driver really taken that easily?"
"The Earth Alliance deployed a large number of new-type mobile suits, and their movement responses were extremely fast. ZAFT's MS units on the battlefield were completely reduced to passive beatings."
Standing silently to the side, Tolle knew very well that this was definitely the fault of the PX system and the intelligent support system. Otherwise, ZAFT wouldn't have been beaten so badly.
"Is that so? Then we need to hurry as well." Putting on her cloak, Lacus took Tolle's hand and slowly followed DaCosta toward the waiting transfer vehicle.