Chapter 294
With a motion that now felt more natural, he turned his head to the right.
His gaze fell upon Aldraya, seated beside him, silent and upright like a statue amid the shaking of the world.
A small, spontaneous, almost imperceptible smile flickered at the corner of Theo's lips as he processed what he saw.
Amid the panicked screams and tense expressions that likely adorned the faces of other passengers, Aldraya instead radiated absolute calm.
There were no signs of panic, no tight grip on the safety belt, nor any expression of fear or even excitement.
Her face remained a cold, empty canvas.
All that existed was her straight, unblinking gaze, piercing the spinning horizon before them, as if the extreme swings and surrounding screams were nothing more than illusions unworthy of notice.
She was not involved, not swept along by collective emotion, remaining within her own isolated bubble of consciousness.
That inability—or choice—not to display any emotion at all, in this context, became the most striking display of composure.
'Let this be her first truly real experience.'
Driven by a sudden impulse, so pure and free of further analysis, Theo's right hand moved sideways.
He did not pat or point, but gently yet decisively slid it beside Aldraya's left hand, which lay still upon her thigh.
The first touch was cool and smooth, like touching marble bathed in moonlight.
Then, without hesitation, Theo's warmer fingers slipped between Aldraya's pale ones, intertwining in a grip that was firm yet not confining.
A simple handhold, formed in the midst of swinging chaos and screaming voices.
"Why are you holding my hand? That is not relevant to the observation we are conducting."
Within her usually undisturbed inner silence, Aldraya felt a subtle yet distinct shock.
The sensation did not come from the increasingly violent motion of the ride, but from the point of contact at her left hand.
The unfamiliar warmth, the pressure of fingers interlaced with her own, all of it was new data, unregistered in her catalog of experience or anticipation.
She felt wonder, a pure and profound confusion.
Amid the dizzying height and shrieking speed, her focus shifted entirely to a fundamental question.
What was the purpose of Theo's sudden physical action?
"Everyone needs something to hold onto, Aldraya. Even a former Supreme Angel who is part of RWIA."
Theo's return transmission arrived almost simultaneously, flowing warm and steady through the same telepathic channel Aldraya was using.
There was no pause for prolonged thought or complex argumentation.
The answer was simple, direct, and deeply convincing in its unadorned honesty.
He conveyed what he considered a universal truth, that anyone, in any situation, inevitably needs a handhold.
His words did not stop there.
He referred to Aldraya specifically, not as an observer or a partner, but as a former Supreme Angel.
A title that carried the weight of immeasurable solitude and responsibility.
And then, with an unexpected gentleness amid his usually cold analysis, he added that even such an exalted being—one regarded as inseparable from the very concept of RWIA—still required the same thing.
Within that statement lay a deep acknowledgment.
Theo did not see this handhold as something weak or merely worldly, but as an essential need that transcended status and power, a need for connection and shared presence amid uncertainty, even if that uncertainty was nothing more than the swing of an amusement ride.
"DAMN IT—!!"
The calm that had briefly formed shattered in an instant.
The flying saucer ride, which had already been moving fast, suddenly underwent a wild and unexpected acceleration.
It was no longer a mere orderly increase in speed, but a sudden burst of velocity, as if the massive machine had decided to discard all of its limits.
The sensation of floating that had already been present now turned into a brief, jarring free fall, followed by rotations so rapid that the world around them dissolved into blurred streaks of color.
Theo's reaction changed completely.
The composure and self-control that defined him were swept away by a wave of pure adrenaline.
Unconsciously, his grip on Aldraya's hand shifted from a calm hold into a tight, nearly cramping clutch, as if that hand were the only fixed point in a universe spinning out of control.
His body tensed, relying entirely on the safety belt.
From his mouth erupted a raw, unfiltered scream of fear, mixed with a string of spontaneous curses.
His voice, usually measured, was now torn apart by the hissing wind and sheer shock.
He blamed, in a tone half-joking yet half-serious, the designer of the ride's speed system, whom he deemed utterly insane.
Within his fragmented shouting lay the assumption that whoever engineered this monstrosity must harbor malicious intent, deliberately seeking to turn healthy, patiently queuing people into potential heart patients, as if every wild spin and swing were a cruel test of physical endurance.
'Extremely comfortable.'
Amid the storm of sensations that would have shattered anyone's composure, Aldraya remained a monument of immovability.
Her slender, upright body did not waver, and her porcelain face showed no crease of anxiety or twitch of fear.
Her long, silk-like white hair merely fluttered, gleaming as it followed the savage flow of the wind, without any effort on her part to restrain it.
She continued to sit perfectly in her seat, a calm, untouched silhouette amid a sea of motion and screams.
Yet within that seemingly perfect fortress of calm, a small and strange phenomenon occurred.
Each time a scream of fear burst from Theo, followed by his personal curses that sounded oddly humorous in their desperation, Aldraya's ice-like eyes moved.
Just a subtle glance, almost imperceptible, through her sharp, unblinking pupils.
That gaze clearly captured Theo's tensed posture, his face—usually so controlled—now completely transformed by the most human of fears.
And within her heart, in the deepest and quietest place where ordinary human emotions had no access, something akin to a feeling began to stir.
There was unfamiliarity in that sensation, but no discomfort.
A subtle satisfaction, a strange relief.
Aldraya felt, for reasons she could not fully explain, pleased.
Not pleased because Theo was suffering, but pleased because she was trusted, because her presence was regarded as a pillar to hold onto in a critical moment.
She consciously allowed her left palm to be held even more tightly, feeling the pressure of Theo's fear transmitted through the fingers now gripping her own.
There was one more thing she noticed, a detail that reinforced that strange feeling.
Although Theo's actions could be considered "cowardly" in the context of human fear, he still observed an extremely subtle decorum.
The position of his grip, though strong, remained controlled.
He held Aldraya's left hand with his own right hand in a way that did not hurt, did not scratch, did not cause her smooth, supple skin to redden or be injured.
It was a grip that pleaded for protection, yet was simultaneously filled with respect.
And for Aldraya, who was learning to understand human language from its most fundamental level, this elegant contradiction became yet another reason to let that warm silence continue between their intertwined hands.
To be continued…