He stepped into the room and immediately realized how quiet it was.
Was she really awake? More importantly, was she even alive?
He was a bit hesitant to look behind the curtain, but nevertheless, he mustered up some courage and pushed it aside.
The woman was awake.
She was sitting with her back against the frame of her hospital bed, casually snacking on some peeled apples.
Everything seemed fine until he glanced at her eyes.
They were blank, as though she had suffered some kind of serious neurological damage.
Is she...?
"Who’s there?"
She suddenly turned toward him.
Sure, she wasn’t actually looking at him, but the haziness in her eyes assured him of something.
"Are you blind?" he asked.
She paused.
"...Who are you?"
"So you are... I’m sorry."
He sat down beside her bed.
"You won’t know me, but I’m the person who rescued you and brought you back here."
Seeing how comfortable he was acting, the woman grew even more wary.
"Listen here. Either you introduce yourself now, or I’m going to scream and have you taken away."
"I’m Arthur Vegas," he said with a chuckle. "This might not make much sense, but we’re in another world now. We have systems, magic, classes, and plenty of other cool stuff that Earth didn’t have. I know you won’t believe me, so just think of the word ’Status’ in your mind."
He wasn’t sure if that would work since she was blind, but when her jaw suddenly dropped, he figured she was seeing it, too.
"Okay, so at the bottom, there should be this little thing called Eclipse Blessing. It gives us some really insane buffs to our stats, among other things. So I’m thinking we cooperate and make the most out of this."
While she was still busily reading through her status screen, he added, "I told everyone you’re my wife. I got us a massive-ass house, and all we need to do is keep up appearances. Obviously, we don’t need to act like a couple in private, but in public, we can hold hands or something. Just enough so people don’t question us. What do you think?"
Honestly, he was a little surprised that she hadn’t interrupted him even once while he was explaining everything.
She was on the calmer side.
Calculative, too, maybe?
At least his prayers had been answered. He hadn’t gotten a brat.
After a few minutes, she turned toward him.
"It’s hard to believe, but I don’t think you’re lying to me. Then, since you’ve been here a bit longer, have you figured out how to go back? Back home to Earth, I mean."
"Uh, no. I haven’t even searched for a way back yet. Do you really want to go back?"
Arthur leaned back a little.
"I mean, look at this place. There’s magic, flying cars, and plenty of opportunities for us to make money."
"For one, I’m blind, so I can’t see any of that. You don’t understand."
The woman’s voice crackled slightly. She paused and took a deep breath.
"I’m the successor to a powerful conglomerate. I had everything, and with time, I would only have had more. I was taking the train to meet my arranged husband for the first time. He was supposed to run the conglomerate alongside me."
Sheesh. So she’s a rich girl? Not exactly a nepo baby, but I won’t cross that out of my book just yet. Still, that is some bad timing. She got caught up in all of this just like me, but her circumstances are so different. She wants to go back, while I have no intention of doing that.
"Nice sob story and all, but now you’re just an unemployed woman in another world. How you want to deal with that is up to you, but I need to know right now if I have your cooperation or not. Because if not, I’ll just go do my own thing."
It might have been rude, but he had no choice but to ask.
He knew that if she remained in denial, life would only become a pain for both of them.
But it also seemed unavoidable.
"You’re an asshole. I don’t like you."
She clutched her head.
"I’ll need you to tell me more about all of this later. The amount of drugs they put me under makes it hard to think. I’ll get dressed, and then I want you to kidnap me from this hospital and lead me to that home you mentioned earlier. Also, my name is Victoria."
He was a bit shocked by her request.
Kidnap her?
Escort her to his home?
Did all those hospital drugs make her crazy?
"Not to be that guy, but you had surgery yesterday. Are you sure you can walk?"
Instead of replying, she simply stood up in her hospital gown.
It was almost like she didn’t have a single injury on her body aside from her blindness.
He would ask her about that later.
For now, he decided to just go through with it.
"Welp. I’ll wait outside. Knock on the door when you’re fully dressed and ready to leave. The door is here."
He knocked on the door so she would know where to generally go.
"Also, there’s a slight step on the ground right before the door, so don’t walk too fast or you’ll fall and reopen your stitches."
She remained silent as he opened the door, stepped outside, and closed it behind him.
He waited patiently.
Should I have told her where the clothes were? Ugh... Well, it’s too late to go back inside now since she might be naked.
Wait, now that I think about it, I heard a ding when she said her name earlier. I wonder what that was about.
Arthur quickly scoured his system interface and eventually found the culprit.
[Your fate has once again intertwined with another.]
[The Eclipse Blessing has unlocked a portion of the full Blessing!]
[1. When within 1km of each other, stat growth is increased by x100.]
[2. You can sense the location and condition of your Fated Bond regardless of distance.]
[3. You can communicate telepathically with your Fated Bond.]
[4. ??? (Locked)]
[5. ??? (Locked)]
[6. ??? (Locked)]
[Bond Status: Semi-Complete]
[Bond Status will increase as mutual trust, understanding, and emotional connection deepen.]