"If I said it was a soul, would you believe me, Choukai?"
Gwen, who had flipped straight to the final page for the conclusion, answered without even looking up.
"Huh?"
Hearing Gwen's answer, Choukai paused mid-motion while combing her hair, letting out an incomprehensible sound.
After taking a moment to process it and confirming that she had not misheard, the half-combed hair on Choukai's head fell loose again. She sprang up from the sofa as though she had springs beneath her, practically throwing herself onto Gwen.
"What did you say?"
"Cough...
Watch your image..."
Having never expected Choukai's reaction to be so intense, Gwen felt his chest tighten under the heavy pressure against it. He braced her shoulders, trying to calm her down.
"So what exactly is it?"
Although she did not share a certain bishop's obsession with resurrecting someone, Choukai possessed an equally unmatched curiosity toward all unknown things. She found it difficult to calm down and continued questioning him.
However, from the subtle change in Choukai's tone, Gwen concluded that she had passed the initial stage of emotional excitement and explained according to his own understanding.
"I call it a soul because my intuition tells me that if I use this thing, my mental strength will improve considerably.
However, it probably does not contain the memories, will, and other things we normally associate with a soul...
Simply put..."
"It is a special substance—or perhaps energy—that can strengthen the mind."
Choukai, who had been listening intently to every word Gwen said, finished his sentence. Her probing gaze met his eyes.
"That's right. Exactly."
Gwen nodded in confirmation.
"So it came from there again?"
As the person specifically assigned to Gwen, Choukai knew most of his secrets. As for the things he had not explicitly told her, after all this