Chapter 65 Meeting With Aquarina Again And…

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"Sylphy!"

"Aquarina!"

At the very moment we arrived at the Amazon village, I was greeted by a cute four-year-old girl with chocolate-colored skin, adorable and big aquamarine eyes, with long and silvery-white hair, wearing a cute white dress.

Naturally, that girl was Aquarina. After three years, she had grown into an even cuter girl than before. She's the little sister in my life. She always reminds me of my little sister in my previous life, who I gave up my life to save.

Aquarina rushed towards me faster than her own parents could walk. Of course, her parents tried to tell her to slow down, but the girl missed me greatly, jumping towards me before hugging me tightly with her little arms.

"How have you been, Aquarina?" I asked.

"Sad… I missed you, Sylphy…" she said with a sigh, prompting me to caress her head. Man, she's definitely the cutest.

"Don't worry, Aquarina. I'm here now. The storm is finally gone so we can play around and do whatever we want now," I told her.

"I-I'm so happy…! L-Let's head to my room. I have some new books to show you that mama got me…!" said Aquarina in response to my words. After that, she tightly held my hand and carried me away from my parents, ignoring everyone else.

I guess she really missed me.

When we got there, she showed me all sorts of new fairytale books. Most of them were cute stories for kids, though I also found some that were more mature, with stories involving deaths and deep messages.

Has she been reading all of them? Well, she did learn how to read at the age of 3, so she has been reading like crazy ever since then. I do like reading as well, but I think Aquarina likes reading more than me. Then again, she is a bookworm.

"T-These are very interesting books. Want me to read you one?" I asked.

"Yeah, this one! I like it when you read me books!" she replied.

These past few years I've always read her books, especially when the two of us were alone in her room. To pass the time, I read her books as she slowly ends up napping on my lap. She's seriously like my little sister at this point.

I spent an hour reading a pretty thick fairytale that was original to this world. The fairytale told the tale of a corrupted man that was punished by the gods, turning into a skeleton. Surprisingly, the fairytale was about his journey as a skeleton and how he slowly gained his flesh, muscles, skin, organs, heart, and so on by going through trials.

It mostly taught about self-improvement and to always keep your humanity, to always have common sense and to also be… righteous… now that I think about it, that kinds of contradicts the point. In any case, the sense of being humane is still there, so I guess it's fine. I guess this teaches kids to not bully others or act against humans.

"Sylphy-chan, have you ever seen a skeleton?" Aquarina asked while resting her head over my lap as I sat down on the bed. She was scrolling through the pages of the book, looking at the illustrations.

"A skeleton… well…"

As she asked me that question, I could not help but remember the last time I saw one. Oh no, I'm think I'm gonna have a horrendous nightmare later… I better not recall that day again if possible. I kind of hate skeletons now, actually. They've become my trauma, in some sort of way… ugh.

"How about we go eat something instead? Are you hungry?" I asked.

"A bit, but I want to cuddle with you a bit more… I missed sleeping by your side…" she cried as she cuddled with me in bed and hugged my torso, rubbing her face over my chest while smelling the scent of my clothes.

"Hehe. You really missed me, huh? Don't worry, I'm back now. I'll stay the entire week before going out again. We can still spend lots of time together," I told her.

"I am sho happy…" she muttered, closing her eyes as she seemingly began to nap while hugging me in bed.

Aww… she's way too precious.

While looking at her, I caressed her silvery white hair. It was silky and glossy. Then again, her warm little head was also nice to caress. Even her hair had a nice floral scent to it, just like mine. From the looks of it, her nap was becoming deeper. In fact, I think she went into a deep slumber.

I can't wait to have lots of fun with her… well, I should also nap for a bit before lunch. After that, we could go around the village and hunt some rabbits. Well, I don't know. There's a lot of fun to have when you're with your friends…

With that, I slowly closed my eyes as I was rather tired from the ride. Surprisingly, I ended falling asleep quite quickly. The deep dreams soon embraced my mind as I felt rather dizzy all of a sudden… ugh, did I eat something bad? My stomach kind of hurts…

…

Suddenly, I found myself in complete darkness. I glanced around my surroundings… have I landed inside my Soul Scape?

System? Naturia? Are you here?

I looked around for the two friends that lived inside my soul, but I couldn't find anything. Right now, it was as if I was in a completely dark place.

This dark space… it was strange. There was a certain empty feeling to it, a certain malice that I couldn't properly grasp.

Soon, fragments of the memories I had from that day when I saw that nightmare attacked me.

I felt like my heart was beating fast, as if I was having a panic attack. My breathing had become strained… I felt like this body… wait… I have a body?

Huh? Isn't this… isn't this my physical body?

What…?!

My physical body was transported here? This isn't a dream?

As I thought this, I looked around my surroundings. Suddenly, I felt a tremendous presence behind me. A pure malicious intent was emanating from it. The all-encompassing bloodthirst it exuded made my entire body shiver in horror.

I looked at this darkness, this phantom before me. Although it looks humanoid, I couldn't discern its true nature or its true appearance, but one thing's for sure. It looked utterly abyssal.

It noticed something though… it had the head of a skull.

"Hmm… such a good child."

"Sylphy…?"

As I heard that, I saw Aquarina a few meters away from me.

For some reason, she was here as well.

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