Ben didn't always believe that. But time, and watching others stumble through their relationships, had burned the sentimentality out of him. He saw it for what it was now.
"People fall in love, they live together, and eventually they get used to each other.
That spark fades. That fire gets dull. But that's not a failure, it's just nature. What matters in the end isn't the feeling. It's the commitment."
He exhaled slowly. "You stick together. Even when it's hard. Even when the feelings shift. That's what counts."
She listened quietly, but he could tell she wanted to say something. Before she could, he turned to her and asked, "So… if you regressed again, would our bond still exist?"
Elvira's steps slowed. Her voice came softer, more thoughtful. "No one knows for sure. But if I had to guess… no. It wouldn't."
Ben stopped walking. "I see."
"But," she added gently, "as I told you I cannot regress anymore."
He looked at her for a long moment. "How? Just how can you regress like that? Is it a relic?"
Ben changed the topic, but he noted the information in his mind. The bond between them doesn't seem to be a link between soul.
If it does even if she regress they will still be bonded. Now the question is just what's their bond? It certainly wasn't a simple mark, as Ben already check all hisi body for it. And he know Elvira is not lying from the connection he feel between them.
He had asked the system once. But the little knight had only shrugged. "Not my department," the system had said. "Figure out your own love problems."
Ben frowned at the memory. 'So what is it, then? What ties us together?'
Elvira's expression didn't shift. "Something like that," she replied vaguely. "But it's not something I can hand over or explain in full. Even I don't know all the details."
"What do you mean?" Ben asked, his brow tightening.
"It was an accident," Elvira admitted, her voice lower now. "One of my early experiments. I didn't even realize the regression was a side effect at first. If I had… things would've gone a lot smoother."
She looked off into the distance as they walked, her tone laced with quiet frustration.
"Even after living through multiple timelines, the first one still felt like the peak.
I wasn't the strongest back then, but I had access to so many relics I never managed to recover in the later cycles."
Ben glanced sideways. "You couldn't find them again?"
"I tried," she said with a sigh. "But some things… they just vanish. Or worse, they don't exist in the same way. Some were gifts. Some were bartered. Others, I can't even trace anymore."
She paused, eyes narrowing. "If only I could find that peddler again."
Ben blinked. "Peddler?"
Elvira's gaze lingered on the glowing moss above as if it might help her remember more clearly.
"Well… not exactly a peddler," she said at last. "More like a group. A small, wandering band of travelers, though that word doesn't really capture what they were."
Ben tilted his head. "Go on."
"They sold relics," she continued slowly, "but not like merchants in the market. It wasn't about coin.
They have tents that didn't cast shadows. With tables made of stone you'd never seen before."
She paused. "And the items they had… weren't normal. Half of them looked broken. The other half radiated power I couldn't even identify.
One of them, that's the one I bought, was a cracked silver disk that twisted time around it. Only slightly.
You could hold it, and for a moment… everything around you slowed. Just a flicker."
"And that's how you got the regression ability?" Ben asked, eyes narrowing.
Elvira nodded. "I studied it. Disassembled it. Tried to recreate the effect. Till one day it explode.
I didn't expect it to affect my soul. I didn't even realize what had happened until I die for the first time."
"And the group?" Ben asked. "You found them again?"
Her lips thinned. "No. That's the thing. I tried. I returned to the exact same location, same time of year, same conditions. But they're not there."
Ben frowned. "So another mystery… You say it's not about the coin, so they don't ask money for payment?"
"No, they ask me to enhance a necklace with my unique skill."
"Unique skill? You meant the one that allow you to move between body?"
Elvira nodded slowly. "Under normal circumstances, it should've been impossible. But they made it work. I just followed the process. Unfortunately…"
Her voice tightened. "I failed to replicate it afterward."
Ben watched her closely.
"If it was regular magic, even unique spellcraft, I could've reverse-engineered it," she went on, frustration simmering beneath her tone.
"But this, this wasn't mana. It felt more refined. Like aether, or something beyond it. Their tools, their methods... I've never seen anything like them."
She glanced at him, her expression edged with both curiosity and regret. "They used something that blocked all my attempts to observe or probe. I couldn't read the energy flow at all. If I ever find them again…"
"Interesting. Did they have any other unique traits?" Ben asked, his tone sharpening with curiosity.
Elvira tilted her head, thinking. "Yes… one thing stood out. They seemed to rely heavily on insects.
Not just for combat, but for everything. Their mounts were massive beetle-like creatures, and some of them even used insects to carry gear or repair tools."
Ben raised an eyebrow. "That's not too unusual here. We've seen how big some of the isnect get."
"That's true," she admitted. "But these weren't native. I've studied most known insect types in this layer, they didn't match anything.
Their physiology was… different. And one of them, I swear, was cultivating insects inside their own body."
Ben's expression darkened. "Sounds like a walking hive."
Elvira gave a slow nod. "Creepy, but efficient. And dangerous."
Ben exhaled through his nose, frowning. "A weird group, definitely. The more I hear, the more they sound like a trouble."
Elvira tilted her head, lips quirking. "They were… weird, I'll give you that. Oh, and they all wore the same uniform. Dark robes with a single character stitched on the back 'Gu.'"
Ben clicked his tongue. "Yeah, sounds like a cult. If we ever cross paths, we walk the other way. We've got enough problems."
Elvira smirked. "Maybe. But their relics? Worth every risk."