Chapter 91: The Truth About Qiu Tailang

What kind of emotion does reddish purple represent!?

Honestly, Qiu Nuoya would have preferred it if Viktor’s heart had simply been the same deep crimson as Mochi’s.

At least that would have made sense.

This is way too confusing. It’s scary!

"Nuoya, if you’re tired, shall we return to the inn for a while?"

Qiu Nuoya nodded at Viktor’s concerned suggestion.

However, he was still too flustered to realize one important detail.

Warren and Igor had not arrived in the city yet.

Which meant that if Qiu Nuoya returned to the inn now, he would be completely alone with Viktor.

After returning to the inn, Qiu Nuoya and Viktor were now alone in their room. He immediately felt a little bit awkward about being alone with him, but Viktor simply had him sit in a chair and quietly combed through Qiu Nuoya’s hair.

It had been a little over two months since Qiu Nuoya had come to this world, and he had not cut his hair even once during that time. It had now grown to just below his shoulders.

Qiu Nuoya had never grown his hair long before, so he naturally had no idea how to take care of it properly. Whenever he tied it himself, he simply gathered it together however he could. Having Viktor carefully maintain it for him every day was honestly a great help.

He probably would never have taken such careful care of his hair on his own. More likely, he would have found it annoying and simply cut it short.

Viktor’s own hair was extremely long. Taking care of his own hair must already have been quite a task, so Qiu Nuoya could not help feeling a little guilty about making him care for his hair too.

"Viktor, your hair is really beautiful. How long have you been growing it?"

Viktor’s hair was a beautiful silvery white. Despite reaching below his waist, it was neither tangled nor damaged. If he simply stood silently beside a window, Qiu Nuoya could easily mistake him for a life sized doll.

Well, elves being exceptionally beautiful was practically a given, so perhaps it was not all that surprising.

"When did I start? I suppose I do not remember. I had already started growing it by the time I was old enough to remember things."

"I see. How many years has it been since you last cut it?"

Viktor explained that he trimmed the ends from time to time, so it was not as though he had never used scissors on it at all.

"Is it true that magical power resides in hair?" ℴ

"People used to believe that. But who knows? Watching you has actually made me start wondering if it was nothing more than an old superstition."

Indeed, Qiu Nuoya had had short hair when he first arrived in this world, yet he already possessed a considerable amount of magical power. It was not as though growing his hair longer would somehow release the magical power that had been hidden behind those parentheses, either.

"Even in the elven village, it was customary for children who aspired to become mages to grow their hair long. So I simply grew mine from a young age without ever questioning it. There was someone who used to comb my hair like this every day when I was little. Unlike you, I was quite a mischievous child, so my hair was constantly getting hopelessly tangled."

"Really? That’s surprising! So even Viktor had a time like that?"

"Elves may live for a very long time, but I had a childhood too. It was so long ago that my memories of it have become rather hazy, though."

Qiu Nuoya tilted his head, wondering once again just how old Viktor actually was.

At first, Qiu Nuoya had wondered whether the number displayed in the status window he had accidentally viewed using Appraisal was supposed to represent Viktor’s age. However, when he had considered that possibility, Igor’s number, 86, had never quite made sense to him.

He was curious about what those numbers actually represented, so he had checked his own status and eventually realized that they seemed to correspond to the combined total of all his various skill levels.

If that was the case, then Qiu Nuoya’s current total skill level was already slightly higher than Igor’s.

Thinking about it that way only made Qiu Nuoya realize once again how incredible Viktor was.

Qiu Nuoya’s own status had been altered by the gods, and even with all those modifications, his abilities were already ridiculously overpowered. Yet Viktor’s abilities surpassed even his.

That was seriously impressive.

Qiu Nuoya could acquire skills relatively easily, but raising their levels was another matter entirely. Even after two months, his existing skills had barely changed.

His total skill level had increased only because he had acquired more skills. Beyond that, Qiu Nuoya still had no idea what conditions caused skill levels to increase in the first place.

"Nuoya..." Viktor began to say something, then hesitated.

"Hm? What is it?"

"I apologize if this offends you, but are you truly not connected to Qiu Tailang in any way? Perhaps you are related by blood?"

"Huh? Why would you ask that? I had already denied that several times, hadn’t I? There is absolutely no way."

Come to think of it, Viktor had asked before whether Qiu Tailang might have been one of Qiu Nuoya’s ancestors. That was absolutely impossible, so why did Viktor keep trying to connect him with Qiu Tailang?

"I see."

"Hm? You’re not seriously thinking that I’m the reincarnation of the Saint, are you, Viktor?"

"No, no... It’s just..." Once again, Viktor hesitated.

Was there really something so difficult for him to say?

Qiu Nuoya was neither a reincarnation nor someone who had ever met Qiu Tailang. He could not understand why Viktor was so fixated on the connection.

"Your appearance, Nuoya... You look very much like Qiu Tailang."

"Huh?"

Qiu Nuoya was stunned by Viktor’s unexpected words.

What exactly did that mean?