I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 271: No More Hiding

Silence falls between Alicia and Theo.

Theo finds himself surprisingly comfortable with the silence. He did not expect that. He sits there with a faint smile on his face, watching Alicia closely.

Alicia is not speaking either.

She simply stares at him.

Challenging him.

Theo exhales slowly.

"Okay, so you saw me. Big deal."

He shrugs.

Alicia’s jaw drops.

This is not the reaction she expected.

She thought he would deny it.

Or stammer.

Or panic.

Or simply stand up and leave the room.

Not... this.

"What do you mean ’big deal?’" Alicia blurts out. "Didn’t you hear what I said? I said I saw you!"

She stares at him, unable to believe how dismissive he sounds.

Theo laughs.

"I heard you. Loud and clear. And my response is still the same. So what?"

He tilts his head slightly.

"I don’t think you even know what you saw."

His eyes narrow.

"Do you?"

Alicia is completely flabbergasted.

"I... I..." She struggles to form a proper sentence. "I know what I saw."

Theo leans forward slightly.

"What did you see?" he asks, challenging her now.

"You... I..." Alicia frowns as she tries to put it into words. "I saw you do something that no human is supposed to be able to do."

Her breathing slows as the memory returns.

"You did the impossible."

Her eyes widen as the realization finally settles into place.

"You did... magic."

The words leave her lips in a whisper.

Theo laughs out loud.

"Come on, Alicia. You are a Sentinel. And the chief of Solarys DEU. Did you really just say magic?"

Theo deliberately mocks her.

Alicia reddens.

"I know what I saw!" she insists.

She knows it does not make sense, but her Sentinel instincts tell her she is on to something.

"And what you saw was me, doing magic?" Theo asks again.

"Yes!" Alicia answers firmly.

Theo chuckles again.

"Stop mocking me! If it wasn’t magic, then what was it? You tell me, Thea."

Alicia refuses to let go. Her gut tells her this is important.

"I’m sorry, but I need you to tell me exactly what you saw. Describe it to me. I know you said you saw it before you fell unconscious. But what exactly did you see before you passed out?" Theo asks, his tone suddenly serious.

No mockery.

No sarcasm.

That change Alicia can immediately detect.

She is slightly taken aback by Theo’s quick shift in tone. But she wants the answer, so she concentrates.

Recalling.

"There was water everywhere," she begins slowly. "It felt like I was in the middle of a storm, out there in the sea. I was trying hard to stay afloat. I was disoriented. Because before that, I had been unconscious too, after seeing you get stabbed repeatedly."

She takes a deep breath.

"Then, just as I thought I was going to drown, my body suddenly flew upward. I thought I had finally managed to get my head above the water, but to my surprise I kept flying upward. Higher and higher, above the water. My whole body was hovering above it."

"I thought I was hallucinating because I was too exhausted. But then I entered some sort of... water bubble. A sphere. That’s where I saw you."

She pauses.

"You were dry. Completely dry. Then I noticed that my clothes were dry too. Even my hair. Like I had never touched the water at all."

"And after that... I lost consciousness."

She finishes and goes back to staring at Theo.

Theo smiles.

"Just that?" he asks.

"What do you mean just that? Yes, just that! Isn’t that enough?" Alicia snaps, slightly annoyed.

She is not used to being on the receiving end of disbelief.

People tend to believe her.

Especially when she was the chief of Solarys DEU.

Theo’s smile widens.

Part of him feels relieved.

Magic exists in Altheon.

If his instincts are correct, then mana is returning to this world.

And if mana is returning, people with high magical resonance will begin to appear.

Eventually.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

In the long term, this changes everything.

It means the world will not remain the same.

And he wants the people around him to be ready.

His circle needs to be prepared before everyone else realizes what is happening.

Because when that race begins, it will not be a gentle one.

They need to stand at the very front of it.

For their own safety.

"I mean, it’s quite a leap, don’t you think? From what you described to ’magic?’"

Alicia is about to protest when Theo continues.

"It would be logical if you saw something like this."

Suddenly, fire bursts to life around his right hand like a burning glove.

Alicia yelps in complete shock.

"Fire!" she shouts.

But the next second, her jaw drops.

The fire wrapped around Theo’s hand begins to change shape.

First into a horse.

Then a hawk.

Then a wolf.

Each shape lasts only a few seconds before shifting again.

The flames keep transforming.

Alicia is completely stunned.

She thinks she might have lost her mind.

Her mouth falls open.

She closes it.

Then it opens again.

It repeats several times.

And Theo laughs, watching her stare at the ever-changing fire in speechless disbelief.

He puts out the fire.

Silence.

Then—

"What the hell?!" Alicia jumps from the bed and lands on the floor.

Theo does not say anything.

He just stares at Alicia.

Waiting.

He is testing her. Giving her time to process.

He is gambling.

Can Alicia’s mind wrap around what she just saw?

How is she going to take it?

Theo knows he is taking a huge gamble.

A gamble with a huge risk.

But he has to know.

He is tired of playing cat and mouse.

He has already felt how freeing it is when other people know his secret.

Rhaenas has been functioning well.

They have accepted the fact that he is a powerful magus.

They trust him now.

Even Arthur has asked for his help to clear dungeons solo.

Theo’s mind races.

He repeats the words in his head.

Solo.

Clearing dungeons.

If it had been before, let alone clearing dungeons solo, he would not even have been allowed to go to the mall alone.

He had to fight for that freedom.

And it was exhausting.

He misses being the most powerful person in the room.

And the validation he gets from the rest of Rhaenas...

It is very satisfying.