Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race

Aisha woke up before the sun had fully risen.

For a few moments, she remained motionless, staring at the bedroom ceiling while trying to find an answer for her own actions.

Her body was still a little sore, her hair was spread across the pillow, and there was a strange warmth on her face that she refused to associate with anything other than room temperature.

That thought did not last long.

Unfortunately, there was far too much evidence of what had happened for her to convincingly pretend ignorance.

Some clothes were still thrown in rather undignified places, the blanket was folded carelessly over her waist, and Rygar slept peacefully beside her.

Aisha took a deep breath. This really had happened.

She asked, and he accepted.

And, at some point after that, everything advanced with an incomprehensible naturalness.

The most humiliating part was exactly that. None of her plans had worked in the slightest. She had imagined how she would eventually like their relationship to progress in a rather cute and romantic way.

She, Aisha Greyrat, who always had a plan for everything, had basically tripped over her own desire and been dragged along by the current.

Even so, when she tried to find regret within herself, she found none.

The circumstances were complex, of course, but Aisha had already considered this possibility for more than a year. Verdia, Ghislaine, and Eris knew.

Aisha slowly turned her face toward Rygar.

His eyes were still closed.

"How much longer are you going to pretend you're asleep?"

Rygar opened one eye.

"I wanted to see if you were going to try to run away."

"How ridiculous! I was not going to run."

"So I was wrong? I thought I noticed you looking at the door rather temptingly, but hey, I could be wrong."

Aisha narrowed her eyes.

"That is called prudence."

Rygar opened the other eye and smiled faintly.

"It seems your prudence was on vacation yesterday."

Aisha felt her ears heat up immediately and pulled the blanket a little higher, although that did not improve the situation at all.

"Yesterday was... a sequence of accelerated decisions."

Rygar raised an eyebrow.

"So you regret it?"

Aisha remained silent for a moment.

She could say it was a natural consequence of accumulated tension, a failure of self-control, an impulsive decision, or any other lie.

Instead, she sighed.

"I do not regret it... but you need to take responsibility!"

Rygar merely watched her with a smile, seeming amused by seeing her embarrassed.

When he stared at her like that, Aisha felt irritatingly exposed. Not because of her body, but because he could feel what she felt.

Her heart could be read like an open book, her breathing changed before she could organize a response, and her red ears remained a biological curse impossible to hide.

"Of course, I will take responsibility... Lady Aisha Adoldia," Rygar said.

Aisha became even redder and looked away for half a second, then forced herself to look at him again.

"I already knew... that makes it even worse."

"What? Knowing?"

"Knowing that you know. Knowing that I know that you know. Knowing that you probably knew even before I asked. It is an unbearable chain of mutual awareness."

Rygar seemed to consider that seriously.

"I see... you want mystery and uncertainty? I can do something about that."

Aisha grabbed a pillow and hit him in the face with it.

Rygar accepted the blow without resisting, and that irritated her even more. When he moved the pillow away, he was already smiling.

For a few minutes, they simply remained there, in a silence Aisha did not know whether to classify as comfortable or embarrassing. Perhaps it was both at the same time.

Eventually, she sat up in bed and began collecting the clothes from the floor, trying to recover some dignity along with them.

"We need to work."

"...but now?"

"Yes, now. If I stay here, my mind will start producing inappropriate and unproductive thoughts."

"I think it already did that yesterday."

Aisha threw another piece of clothing at him.

"Shut up."

Rygar got up, still amused, and began getting dressed. His naturalness about all of this was somewhat irritating, but it also eased the tension a little.

If he had been strange, regretful, or excessively solemn, she probably would have panicked.

Since Rygar acted as if all of this were a normal continuation of what already existed between them, Aisha found herself forced to believe that perhaps it really was.

A short while later, the two left the house without much fanfare, heading toward the research Magic Tower, but this time, they went together.

----

The capital of the Kingdom of Gaia functioned with the stability of a city that had grown used to living around absurd people.

But when the two most powerful people on the Continent passed through the street, people naturally greeted them respectfully.

Aisha walked beside Rygar with impeccable posture, as if her mind were focused and concentrated.

Naturally, that was a lie.

"You are walking a little stiffly," Rygar commented.

"What? No, I am walking normally."

"It looks more like a failed attempt to appear normal."

Aisha took a deep breath without looking at him.

"I am certain there is some better use for those supernatural senses of yours."

"Probably."

"Try practicing it."

Rygar smiled, but did not insist.

When they arrived at the Magic Tower near the Combat Temple, the research room was still exactly as it had been left.

The blackboard remained filled with runes, formulas, and fragments of the ancient language of the Dragons. Rufus's musical device was turned off.

Aisha tied up her hair, rolled up her sleeves, and almost instantly returned to being the Divine Sorceress the world knew.

Almost.

Rygar clearly noticed the difference, but did not comment.

She picked up the pen and pointed to one of the structures drawn on the board.

"Yesterday, before the interruption you caused by entering the room..."

"Wait, what? When did I cause an interruption?"

"Yes. Your presence was the external factor that destabilized the research environment."

Rygar watched her in shock, clearly remembering that she had been the one to invite him on a date. But she was pretending not to see his gaze.

"As I was saying, before that, I was trying to insert a magical variation through direct enchantment, but that would drain the false Divine Core far too quickly. The problem is that we are treating destroyed worlds as destination points, but they are no longer stable worlds and no longer produce mana of their own."

Rygar wanted to protest, but became more interested the more she spoke. He crossed his arms, observing the board, and finally truly returned to trying to solve the problem.

"So the mistake is trying to fix a coordinate as if the destination still had a stable surface?"

"Exactly."

Aisha tapped the tip of the pen against the board.

"The Dragon Race's teleportation was made to cross between complete worlds. There was a relationship of edge, barrier, and arrival point. Now, five sides of the cube are destroyed. They still exist structurally, but we do not know whether they have continuous internal space, gravity, air, surface, or even time flowing in the same way."

Rygar placed a hand on his chin, pondering seriously.

"That does not sound like something we should test by entering personally."

Aisha smiled smugly.

"It really does not, but that is probably what we are going to do."

She drew three new smaller circles beside the main formula.

"The mana saturation you mentioned may work, but not as the main source. If we saturate the exit point, we can create a temporary stable layer, something like a bubble around the body before the transition. In other words, we are not trying to correct the final destination, but the pilot. This basically prevents the distortion from tearing the traveler apart on first contact."

Rygar followed the explanation perfectly, but he could not understand how she had reached that result... even so, he had one more question.

"I see... and what about the return trip?"

Aisha fell quiet for an instant.

"So... that is the bad part. We can create a link with the starting point, but I do not know if it would survive the full crossing. If the destroyed world is still connected to the cube, there should be enough of a line for return. If it is not, the most we can do is open a path there and get trapped."

Rygar observed the notes.

"Then we need to send something first."

Aisha confirmed.

"Yes. We can start with an object, then a small creature, then perhaps a projection with partial consciousness or a magical construct. I think I will try to develop a temporary doll with simple sensory feedback."

Rygar looked at her suspiciously.

"You had already thought of that?"

Aisha smiled mysteriously.

"Let us say I had a magical enlightenment last night!"

Rygar smiled back, but his smile was more suggestive, and even a little inviting. Aisha kept her eyes on the board, but her ears showed clear signs of betrayal.

"Do not talk to me while I am working!"

"Why?"

"Because now it has inconvenient cognitive consequences."

Rygar spoke.

"Did you not have a 'magical enlightenment' last night?"

Aisha's head turned into an oven, with smoke coming out of her ears. She immediately regretted what she had said seconds earlier.

She opened her mouth to answer, but could not say anything. She turned around and continued writing.

"Let us continue."

Rygar did not hide his happiness and love in the slightest.

Despite that, the research advanced.

Over the following hours, the two discussed hypotheses, corrected formulas, compared records from the Dragon God's Hole with fragments of the Future Guide, and tested small alterations using smaller circles on the floor.

Aisha conducted most of the technical analysis, while Rygar offered intuitions related to space, gravity, and the way his own body reacted to dimensional distortion.

In other times, perhaps Aisha would have been bothered by someone interfering with her reasoning.

With Rygar, it was different.

He did not need her to simplify everything.

Although he did not follow every detail the way she did, he understood quickly enough that the conversation did not lose rhythm. When he asked a question, it usually touched the right point.

When he disagreed, it was because his experience with space and distortion offered a perspective she did not possess.

By late afternoon, the blackboard had already been almost completely rewritten. The main structure of the spell remained incomplete, but now there was a much clearer line of research.

Aisha took a few steps back, analyzing the result.

"This might work."

Rygar looked at her.

"How close are we to success?"

"I think we can conduct a preliminary test in a few days, if Rufus manages to adjust the stabilizers and if the false Divine Core does not reject the new matrix."

Rygar became serious.

"Then the next step is testing the passage to one of the destroyed worlds."

Aisha nodded.

After so many wars, deaths, resurrections, alliances, and enemies, there was finally a concrete direction to eliminate that constant thorn in their lives.

Aisha leaned on the table.

"That means we will have a lot of work."

She glanced at Rygar from the corner of her eye.

"And we still have a pending date."

Rygar smiled.

"What? Yesterday does not count?"

Aisha raised her chin, recovering a fraction of her dignity.

"As I said, yesterday was a sequence of accelerated decisions. The real date still needs to happen."

"So you want me to take you on a real date?"

Aisha held his gaze for a few seconds, her eyes somewhat bright.

"I do."

This time, it did not slip out by accident.

Rygar stepped closer and pulled her by the waist.

"Well, then I have no choice, do I?"

Aisha took a deep breath, turned back to the board, and picked up the pen.

"Good. Now stop distracting me."

Rygar approached her from behind.

"Yes, Madam Headmistress."

Aisha tried to ignore his tone. And then, Rygar finally left the Magic Tower to take care of other matters.

----

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