Only I Am A Reader-Chapter 603: A Mystery, First Step Towards A Proper Finale

"Master!"

Seeing Leo's shadow-cloaked figure in the distance, Kara's starry curtain enveloped her body. In an instant, she emerged right in front of him.

"I missed you!"

Finally seeing Leo's face after being deprived for an entire week, Kara's response was a hug… An indirect one.

'It still feels strange looking at this.'

He would have rejected it anyway, but it wouldn't have been out of character for Kara to ask for small 'rewards' from him.

However, against Leo's guess, Kara didn't even bother him in that department. Better yet, she efficiently found her own outlet for her uncontrollable desires.

"Is it too much?"

Much like she did back in her days as a silent stalker, Kara found respite in replacing the target of those desires.

Visiting homes that Leo occupied, sensing the everlasting presence that he left behind, interacting with the items he interacted with… All of that worked.

Even now, rather than latching onto Leo himself, she was actually hugging a body double created by her very own version of Shadow Manipulation.

"Nope, do your own thing."

Although it made Leo a little bit uncomfortable seeing his shadow be hugged like a body pillow, it was far better than the alternative.

Kara's obsession with him was simply the result of her Ability's compulsions, and entertaining any of those compulsions felt awfully wrong.

Besides…

'I have no plans of becoming emotionally attached again. Not for a long while.'

Despite merging with his third self, Cassian, Leo's heart was still tethered to Yeon's.

Unfortunately, he had no idea if he could ever meet her again, but either way, his heart was already set on someone.

And since his heart couldn't accept anyone else for the time being, Leo wasn't going to get physically involved with anyone, even if it was just the basic act of simple skinship.

"Thanks, Master! You are the best!" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Having her obviously abnormal actions accepted by Leo, Kara delightfully squeezed the starry figure even more.

This much was already more than enough for her. No matter how well she did on her task, she still didn't think that she earned the great honor of hugging her Master.

Besides, she still felt somewhat awkward in his presence. Even enjoying the indirect hug while looking at him took great effort.

She barely resisted the urge to run away in embarrassment.

"Anyway. How did things go inside?"

Although he had already watched the preliminary news reports regarding the lightning-fast Gate Clear, Leo was still unclear about the hidden events that took place inside the Gate.

After all, while he was the mastermind who orchestrated Kara's intervention, he had given her several routes that she could follow depending on the circumstances.

Using the dramatic results shown on TV as a basis, Leo was able to eliminate several unfavorable routes, but the exact sequence was still a mystery.

In fact, he was somewhat anxious regarding the scene at the end.

He wasn't deceived just like the people on the scene, but it was still a very unlikely result.

Unless things had been incredibly in his favor, there was a solid chance that things had gone completely in the opposite direction of what he desired!

"It went really well!"

Anyone else could just be happy as long as they were told that things went well, but for Leo, everything down to the smallest detail was important.

Without receiving the full output, the plan he would input for Kara's next assignment would be severely flawed, and this was something that Leo couldn't afford.

'Things are already tight as is.'

While Kara and Aurora were busy with their project, he hadn't been staying idle.

Other than occasionally hunting villains, he was busy training to enhance his power as much as possible, but progress had been almost negligible.

He had hoped that a minute of enlightenment could substitute for months of effort, but the sixth round of Enigma refinement had proven unattainable.

If he himself couldn't grow stronger, then at the very least, Aurora had to be preserved to the best of his ability!

"Tell me everything."

"Roger!"

Naturally, Kara was more than happy to spend more time with Leo.

Not daring to delay any longer, she switched to storytelling mode!

'As invested as usual.'

Recounting everything to the last detail, Kara didn't pull back any effort, even opting to use shadow figurines to act out the scenes that happened, making it feel like a surreal puppet show.

'So far, it's going as expected.'

The obvious accidents produced by the Thorn Trio's nonsensical schemes were already within the novel's script. Though Kara's indirect solutions were the very start of the deviation.

'Oh?'

Hearing that Yvonne desperately snapped and attempted to use cannon fodder to push Aurora to her limits, Leo was greatly surprised.

'How futile.'

Unlike what she likes to think, the Thorn Queen really wasn't the brightest apple on the tree.

The desperate act she had attempted was exactly the same method that Aurora chose to use in the original novel.

Most importantly, using that method, this was actually the only Gate that New Team Aurora had cleared with Aurora coming unharmed!

"Wait, what?"

Still, as the story continued, Leo couldn't help but take another pause.

"She actually did that?"

Aurora's reaction to the Thorn Queen's stubbornness was completely out of the script! This wasn't the Hero of Light that Leo knew!

"Yup. She was a lot cooler than you said she would be. She even shortened my Hero Name into a nickname!"

'If that's the case…'

"Then, did you really end up taking route D?"

He had somehow expected it upon seeing the ending scene, but according to Leo's personal calculations, the possibility of things lining up for this route was lower than 1%...

"Of course. I waited for the cues before acting on the plan as you instructed. She really felt like a completely different person at the end."

'Was that why it was a Rare event?'

The meager amount of Reading Points finally started to make sense. It wasn't that Kara's intervention was meaningless. Rather, Aurora was already on guard.

She no longer blindly trusted her teammates like a Dodo!

'Was my first intervention that effective?'

Still, Leo wasn't completely sure how that change had come to be.

He tried his best to positively affect Aurora during the first Encroachment Gate, but she only seemed focused on him rather than the uselessness of her old teammates.

Had something else happened in the middle? Or did having enough time to think about that day fundamentally change the way she looked at the world?

'Either way, this is definitely better.'

Not only did Aurora's unexpected awakening make Kara's integration into the team as smooth as possible, but additionally, babysitting her was no longer necessary.

If Kara could also contribute to clearing the Gates rather than just watching Aurora's back, reaching the final core event leading to the finale would happen much faster.

In conclusion, this change was definitely a welcome one. That being said…

'I need to dig deeper into its cause just in case.'

In order to prepare for every possible scenario, leaving such a big mystery unsolved was a big no.

At the very least, Leo planned on investigating to the best of his ability.