System vs Rebirth

"…" Noel shook his head helplessly while Anna tried her best to explain it. "I truly wanted to talk about something, not sleeping together. How in the world did you interpret it that way?"

Damian chuckled and said to Dimitri, ignoring Anna's response. "As expected of a butler, you truly support your master."

"Of course," Dimitri proudly said. "My Master is the only son of the former Count Ardagan. I should do my best to help my Master prepare an heir for the next generation of Ardagan!"

"Wha—!" Anna dropped her jaw to the ground, not knowing how to respond.

Nicole looked down and muttered, "Ardagan and Stargaze, huh? If I'm not wrong, Master told me that Count Ardagan is his best friend. They are close like brothers. In fact, if they were opposite genders, they would have married each other."

"You too, Nicole?!" Anna's eyebrows twitched as she was eager to berate all of them.

"Why did you even bother correcting them? Did you not notice they were just teasing you?" Noel shook his head helplessly.

"That's…" Anna bit her lips and asked, "Are you not embarrassed as well? They misunderstood our relationship, you know."

"Hmm… I don't really mind. In fact, I wonder what would happen if my wife were the most talented and strongest person in the Muivell Kingdom. Won't she be able to accompany me all the time? I'm planning to go to the top after all." Noel looked at the ceiling as if he was imagining it.

"You…" Anna gasped. Noel actually admitted it. She couldn't help but blush, thinking, 'Wait, what? Is Noel always thinking about this? He actually likes me and wants me to become his wife. Wait a minute. Is that going to happen?'

'Well, if I think about it, in my previous life, only Noel challenged me. In fact, we'd been fighting for so long that I thought he had been with me for the longest… Don't tell me.' Anna looked at Noel in shock. On the one hand, she couldn't imagine her being his wife. On the other hand, she couldn't think of anyone better than Noel.

But it seemed that her delusion was being distracted when Noel failed to maintain his poker face.

"Pfft." Noel tried his best to hold back his laughter, only to end up with a cough.

"Gah! You… You teased me!" Anna's face became red like a boiled shrimp. She was so embarrassed that she even thought about it. She couldn't help but strangle Noel's head, trying to get back at him. "You…"

"Haha." Noel chuckled. Without them realizing it, Noel had changed the mood. They were exhausted and the tension was rising due to the demons around them. But with this simple exchange, the mood became relaxing.

While taking on Anna, Noel glanced at Dimitri.

Dimitri understood his role and asked Nicole and Damian to leave the room quietly. The demons also had passed them, so they could leave the building and enter another one.

After they left, Noel finally grabbed her hands and asked, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Huh?" Anna looked around and realized the others had left. She was too embarrassed to the point where she didn't even notice their movements.

"…" Anna wanted to dig a hole and hid herself inside. But in the end, she just dropped to the bed and covered her face with the pillow. "It's not fair."

"Alright, alright. Take it as the teasing was too excessive, sorry." Noel smiled while sitting next to Anna. "You looked like you were about to say something important, so I thought about making you relax a bit."

"…" Anna fell silent for two minutes before she turned around, lying on her back. "Actually, I wanted to thank you for your trust. Never in my wildest dream would I think that you could trust me unconditionally like earlier. Even though the execution was proven to be fake, you should still hold some grudges against me."

"Hmm…" Noel contemplated for a moment. He didn't deny there were still grudges between them. But he didn't openly admit it either as though it was something unsolvable. He asked, "I should be the one asking, why were you trying to sacrifice your life for me? With that True Spirit Body…"

"I…" Anna shut her eyes while scratching her head, not knowing how to express it. "You should know that I could see my alternate life, right?"

"Yeah." Noel nodded.

"Back then, I was completely an insane woman. I killed all people without mercy to the point where I could be called a psychopath. Yet, you were always there for me. You appeared to be trying to kill me to settle our grudges, but when I thought about it, you had multiple chances to kill me.

"You wasted all those chances away as though you didn't want to kill me. When I saw that scene, I couldn't help but wonder why you never wanted to kill me. From one thought to another, it ended up leading to the idea that you were trying to help me."

"Yeah. You tried to change me. That was the reason why I suddenly came to you during the Demon Banner Army's training. I was still broken back then, trying to change myself. And after knowing you, I continued to change, which I hope for the better. I learned how wrong I was and wanted to fix my personality."

"That was why…" Anna paused and looked at Noel. She made the most genuine smile that she ever had. "Thank you, Noel."

Noel was stupefied. This smile felt like it penetrated deep into his heart. The smile carried what seemed like decades of memories. And all of it led to him.

There was no way Noel wasn't moved after all that. He had a hard time fighting against the need to look away from her.

"Hmph!" Noel slammed his body down to the bed to distract himself. "I did all that?"

"Yeah." Anna chuckled. "I might not experience everything, but I still have kept track of everything that happened in that alternate world. The information there was similar to ours. That was the reason I could find out about a lot of things.

"Noel… I don't know if it's possible, but do you want to join hands with me? Once this journey is over, I want to tell you about important information. I'm sure that with your brain, you can take advantage of this information better than me."