The two of them headed back to the scenic area's main tourist zone, found a patch of grass, spread out a waterproof picnic mat, and sat down.

  With Lenora pressing him for details, Kairon slowly told her about everything he'd been through in his past life, and the bond he'd shared with her back then. He mentioned Liora in the game too, but carefully skirted around the intimate relationship the two of them had built there.

  As she listened, Lenora's tears fell again. By the end, Kairon could only stick to the lighter, funnier stories, leaving out the dark, brutal parts of being hunted down and betrayed.

  When he finished, he smiled and asked her if she believed him this time, too.

  Just like before, Lenora gave him an unwavering yes.

  As their conversation wound down, Kairon mentioned that he'd been planning to rent a bigger apartment soon.

  Lenora went quiet for a few seconds, then suddenly pulled him to his feet. She packed up their things in a flurry of quick, neat movements, then dragged him straight down the mountain at a run.

  Kairon let her drag him the whole way, completely confused, until they arrived at Willow Creek Manor. This upscale residential community was home to three high-rise scenic view apartments and nothing but two-story standalone villas for the rest. Each one came with its own private yard and garage, making it the undisputed wealthy neighborhood in the area.

  Once they were through the gates, Kairon stared at her. "Don't tell me you own a place here?"

  "Hehe, look at you, smart guy." Lenora blinked, pulled him up to the front door of one of the villas, and scanned her iris against the access panel. The lock clicked open with a sharp snick.

  She nudged Kairon inside, grinning at him. "Well? Big enough for you?"

  She wandered around the living room with her hands behind her back, spinning in a slow circle like a kid showing off their most prized possession.

  "Why the hell were you living in that tiny apartment when you've got a place this nice?" Kairon asked, still stunned.

  "None of your business." Lenora rolled her eyes at him.

  "Hehe, I get it, I get it." Kairon wore a look that said he knew exactly what was going on.

  "Hmph." Lenora huffed, her cheeks flushing pink, then turned and ran up the stairs.

  She pushed open the door to a bedroom, and the space was brimming with soft, feminine charm. The whole room was done up in pale pink and creamy white; even the gaming pod tucked in the corner was a custom cherry blossom pink finish.

  When Kairon caught sight of the gaming pod's model number, he couldn't help but curse out loud. "Holy shit, the SUP-R-006? Just how rich are you?"

  The SUP line was the top-tier gaming pod model for World of Eldrath, with input responsiveness nearing 100%, and a price tag that regularly hit tens of millions of Credit. The custom R variant wasn't even something the average person could dream of affording.

  He glanced around the villa as a whole. This standalone property sat on nearly a thousand square meters of land, with over seven hundred square meters of indoor living space. Paired with the custom top-tier gaming pod, the whole thing couldn't have cost less than fifty million credits.

  Kairon stared at Lenora in shock. He'd remembered her family had been wealthy, that they'd lived in a villa back then, too, but he'd never imagined they were this rich. No one bought a custom gaming pod like this unless money was truly no object.

  Lenora fidgeted a little under his stare, her voice soft. "My dad had all this ready for me. I wasn't planning on moving in here anyway, but since you're looking for a new place, why don't we move in here together?"

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  When he heard that, a flicker of hesitation crossed Kairon's face, prodded by that small spark of pride. What would this make him? A freeloader?

  Lenora must have seen right through him. She took his hand and pulled him to the room across the hall, shoving the door open in one quick motion. This room was just as beautifully decorated, the only difference being the lack of a gaming pod inside.

  "This was also prepared for you by my dad." Her voice was soft as she spoke. "We didn't know when you'd show up, or if you'd even be interested in World of Eldrath, so we didn't install a gaming pod ahead of time."

  "Prepared for me?" Kairon froze, the rest of her words going in one ear and out the other.

  "Mhm. Go on in, take a look." Lenora gave him a gentle nudge forward.

  Kairon stepped into the room, and his gaze was immediately caught by the photos lining the walls.

  There he was, wrapped head to toe in bandages in the hospital. There he was, playing in the yard with a tiny Lenora after they'd been released. And there he was, in that restaurant, shoveling a hamburger into his mouth.

  Tears spilled down his cheeks before he could stop them.

  "Kai."

  A warm, gentle voice came from the holographic projector in the room. Kairon spun around sharply, and a familiar figure appeared in the projection, his face lined with far more age and wear than the man Kairon remembered.

  "I knew Lenora would bring you to this room one day. Lenora has given up so much for you. Please, take good care of her. When you have the time, come home to Redvale for a family dinner. We've all missed you terribly."

  The projection held only a single, short message, but it touched the softest, most vulnerable part of Kairon's heart.

  "What are you, a little kid? Crying like that, how embarrassing." Lenora stepped up to him, slipping her arm through his and pulling a silly face at him. She let go a second later, turned, and headed for the door, tossing one last line over her shoulder. "Whether you move in or not is up to you."

  Kairon wiped the tears from his face, grinned, and called out after her. "Alright, we'll move in together. But it's kind of far from your school, isn't it?"

  The second the words left his mouth, Lenora spun around and tossed a set of car keys at him.

  "From now on, you're my personal driver. And no other girls in the car, got it?"

  Kairon stared at the car keys in his hand and let out a helpless laugh. Of course, this clever little troublemaker had already planned everything out down to the last detail. What else could he say?

  That same afternoon, Kairon contacted the Eldrath official store, arranging for the gaming pod he'd bought to be delivered and installed in the bedroom that had been prepared for him.

  Lenora stared at his newly delivered gaming pod and couldn't help but tease him. "Damn, look at you, big spender. Dropped five hundred and sixty thousand credits on a gaming pod, and the bulletproof safety model at that? You really that scared of someone coming after you?"

  At that, Kairon rolled his eyes and shot back. "This five hundred and sixty thousand Credit? It's probably not even a drop in the bucket compared to that custom model of yours."

  "It's not like I paid for it anyway," Lenora said, reaching out and giving his side a sharp pinch, twisting it a full 180 degrees for good measure.

  Kairon suddenly realized that after reuniting with Lenora in this life, her personality was nothing like the one he'd known.

  In his past life, Lenora had always kept a faint, unspoken distance between them, right up until he'd fled the city, and the two of them had lost all contact in the real world.

  It wasn't until a later conversation with her that he'd learned the thing that had made Lenora finally let her guard down and reach out to him was the day he'd knocked on her door and called her by name before they'd even properly met.

  That single name had made her think he remembered their childhood together, and it had piqued her curiosity completely. That was why Lenora had given him the gaming headset. Then later, when he'd called her out of the blue and asked her that one question: Do you trust me? It had all crumbled her walls completely, and made her decide to stop hiding who she really was.

  By the time the two of them had finished moving in and unpacked everything, it was already five in the afternoon. They finished dinner with just a few minutes left until World of Eldrath went live again.

  Over the course of the afternoon, Kairon had walked Lenora through several hidden quests in the novice village and the tricks to using terrain glitches to level up fast. He told her to mess around with them once she logged in, and to hit level 15 as fast as she could, so she could leave the novice village and meet him in the main city of Avermont.

  He settled into the gaming pod, the body-conforming padding and temperature control wrapping around him in perfect comfort. Kairon couldn't stop grinning to himself. This was heaven, pure heaven. That five hundred and sixty thousand Credit was worth every single penny.

  Ding! The game will go live in 30 seconds. Please wait patiently...

  The familiar System announcement rang in his ears, and paired with everything that had happened that day, it left Kairon more hopeful for this life than he'd ever been.

  With that hopeful warmth in his chest, he logged into the game. The moment his consciousness finished loading, he flexed his character's limbs. The 92% input responsiveness made the feel of the game night and day compared to the 68% responsiveness of his old headset.

  "Kairon, right on time, I see."

  Just as he was getting used to the feel of the new hardware, Dreamshore logged on too.