Chapter 1477: Moving On
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I think Alma’s appearance is just genetics, right?
Yes, she has stored fat here and there, but I am nobody to really judge her, and I think her appearance is lovely.
But she’s definitely just "big", it’s not that she’s obese... She has actually no health problems at all, no heart problems, no breathing problems, nothing.
Hm, but I guess it’s hard to tell her these things directly, it’s a sensitive topic.
I’ll have to slowly make her feel loved and help her accept her body as it is.
Because she’s just really beautiful, and I’ll work hard to make her realize that.
As we started buying and paying for everything, Emily and I started chatting a bit.
She told me a bit about her past with Alma, they’ve been friends before they met "me" and Sofia.
"Alma’s been trying to lose weight for years now..." Emily sighed. "She always gets these mood changes where she starts exercising a lot and eating weird "healthy" food, but she never loses weight anyway... I try to help her as much as I can but... well, that’s how it is. I don’t think she’s unhealthy though, she’s just like that."
"So it’s like I thought, it’s just how her body is, right?" I wondered.
"Yeah... but she sometimes starts crying or blames her grandma for feeding her sweets..." Emily sighed. "It’s complicated... I try my best until she gets better, but... there’s not much else I can do. But now that she has you as her girlfriend, I hope you can let her see that she’s not weird or ugly or something, she’s a pretty cute and lovely girl."
"Emily..." I looked at her surprised. "Yeah, you’re right... Wait, do you...?"
"No I don’t!" She sighed. "Just because I say that it doesn’t mean I like her..."
"I-I didn’t say anything!" I cried, feeling her overwhelming pressure.
"You implied it..." She squinted at me. "Listen, Alma is like my little sister, ok? That’s why I’m like that... I might be a little overprotective though, but that’s about it. Hmph!"
"Uh, sure..." I nodded as I looked at Emily with a smile. "So what’s your type? What boy do you like, huh?"
"B-Boy?" Emily blushed. "That’s... I don’t really... look at boys most of the time."
"Huh?" I wondered. "I thought you liked boys..."
As I asked that, Emily looked at me for a while.
"Hah! Whatever, I don’t really care about dumb things like love..." She sighed. "I have more important matters, like saving the world, then securing money for my family... those are my priorities. Not dumb stuff like romance."
"Aaah, makes sense..." I said. "You’re more focused on athletics too, right? Ah right you also like singing and you play the guitar rally well!"
"Y-You remember that?!" Emily blushed. "I-I didn’t think... uh, I did play it huh? In that nightmare..."
"Yeah! It was really cute!" I giggled. "You’re not bad at all with it either... It was a gift from your auntie, right?"
"Y-Yeah... but... but my dad broke it." She said. "Well, been so long since then, it doesn’t really matter right now."
"Right... Sorry about that, Emily," I said, patting her shoulders.
"It’s fine~ I’m more focused on getting out of the academy alive, then I’ll become a Dream Warrior and make mad money, like that I’ll be able to help my family," she smiled. "That’s all I want."
"..."
I guess she’s been working hard her entire life, huh?
Based in what we saw in the nightmare realm, and about her past, her younger self, and her love for her guitar.
I wonder if I could do something for her...
That guitar of hers, it might be gone right now but, it was real in that dream.
It even had special powers; it made us stronger when we heard her playing it.
It had much more power after all, right? It wasn’t something we could easily ignore...
That guitar wasn’t just a dream, just like the snowman of my father I made... or the snow dragon that Nyx built after her dragon mom.
They were definitely not fake, these dream beings, maybe they were manifestations of our dreams...
They’re still within us, I know they are...
Maybe with the powers of my Dream Weapon Forge, I can bring them out, what’s latent within our Dream Hearts...
"Emily..."
"Hm?"
"I think I could perhaps give you a second Dream Weapon... What do you think?"
"Eh?! That’s possible? It would be great! But are you sure? That’s a bit... expensive on materials, right?"
"Don’t worry about the details! I can afford it easily... And it’s more like an experiment I want to do... I hope you don’t mind?"
"Experiment? I am not your guinea pig..."
"I guarantee nothing bad will happen to you! So please?"
"Hmm..."
She looked at me for a while but then sighed.
"Fine, but... Whatever you’re planning, that better work though!"
"I’ll do my best!"
As we chatted, Alma, Sofia, and Martina walked back to us, bringing the groceries and snacks we purchased.
"Oof, there’s a lot of bags...!" Alma cried. "Mar... Maria..."
"A-Ah! Right away dear," I quickly grabbed the bags with my many shadow tentacles, freeing her from carrying such weight, poor baby girl.
"I’ll store them inside my Inventory," I said. "So put them in here."
I grabbed everything and quickly placed it inside of my Inventory, part of my System’s Abilities.
Once everything was nicely placed in there and arranged, I nodded.
"Alright, we’re done now, shall we go to our destination? Everyone’s taking a break after we hunted a lot of Nightmare Beasts." I said. "The place might be a bit different than what we’re used to, but it is still nice."
"Huh, alright then," Sofia nodded. "Let’s go."
"You said it was like a red forest?" Emily asked.
"I-I hope it’s safe..." Alma muttered, holding my arm tightly.
"I’m looking forward to it!" Martina nodded.
"{Shadow Teleportation}!"
FLUOSH!
In that split second, we were all teleported from where we were headed entirely towards another place.
Within the depths of the Hollow Center of this planet, the Blue Star.
"Woooaaah! No way!" Emily said, looking around. "I-Is this really underground?!"
"I-I can’t believe my eyes...!" Sofia muttered. "This is... beyond impressive..."
"Incredible..." Alma said. "So amazing!"
"Eeeeh?! This place’s crazy!" Martina cried. "Hahah! Let me take some pics while we are at it~!"
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