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"Is it really that weird to dedicate your everything to follow the woman you love?" she asked, her voice a mix of apprehension and slight anger.

\'How did she...?\' I shook my head before hurrying it up to clarify the meaning of my doubts.

"That\'s not the part I was talking about. When it comes to your father\'s dedication, I believe it\'s perfectly commendable and worth admiration," I added, honestly expressing my stance on those things in order to soothe Claire\'s slighted feelings. "In fact, I wish this kind of approach would be the norm, but I believe the society is too far gone for it to be a standard anymore."

Claire\'s body relaxed a little bit, sinking just a slightly bit deeper down on my lap before her head rested against my shoulder as she looked up to my face.

"What confuses you, then?" she asked, her voice weirdly small and restrained.

\'She\'s hiding something?\' I thought, only to then roll my eyes. \'She\'s a woman, obviously she does. All I can do is hope one day she will deem me worthy to share her thoughts and feelings. Just... not yet.\'

"You said that your father was cultivating diligently for years, so..." I hesitated for a second. "Why change now? Is not like he can gain a whole lot from those two devices I made and there\'s no guarantee I will be able to reach the level of crafting that will be of use to him anytime soon. What\'s more, aren\'t I just a massive risk factor for someone of the traditionalist faction?"

Claire shifted her weight on my lap a little as her expression returned to the casual one I was more or less already familiar with. What\'s more, there was even a lingering hint of a smile on her lips!

"You are quite observant, aren\'t you?" she mentioned only to sigh and shake her head before bringing her hands back to the armrest of the chair and then leaning back. "It is true that for pretty much my entire life, my father did nothing but diligently cultivate. But after all those years..." the slight smile on her face grew dimmer while her eyes dropped down.

"Right now, he has one... maybe two years left before the gates to the spiritual world will forever close to him."

\'Huh?\' I twitched a little when yet another detail of cultivation culture made itself known to be something I had no idea about.

"It\'s been three years since he broke through to the ninth rank. And from what I can tell, he doesn\'t have much hope of breaking to the tenth stage and then beyond the mortal realm within the short time that he has left."

For a moment, Claire turned silent... Only to then jump out of my lap and swirl on her heel only to then lean forward as she brought her face pretty damn close to mine.

"And that\'s where you come in!" she said with a playful smile that only grew when my eyes inevitably gravitated towards the impressive cleavage of her loose loungewear.

Still, I wasn\'t really convinced yet.

"I know just how little I know about cultivation, but even I won\'t believe that a newbie like me could make a difference for a powerhouse like your father," I pointed out, refusing to be played like an idiot.

\'What is this? Even after everything, she still can\'t give me the proper reason?\'

The glint in Claire\'s eyes indicated she could guess what was going on in my mind. And yet... she simply leaned back before stuffing her hands into the pockets of her halfway-zipped hoodie.

"I assume you are somewhat aware that you are special, aren\'t you?" Claire spoke as she leaned her head over her right shoulder.

"Yeah," I nodded my head, too curious about Claire\'s and Chihiro\'s real reasons for hiring me to play stupid now. "It\'s hard to tell how much of my worth comes from a fresh view on things and how much of it is an actual talent of mine, but yeah, I know that I\'m..." For a second I hesitated, before putting a stupid grin on my face and leaning back in the chair, "I know that I\'m built different."

Using those words, even if only as a joke, still made me nearly roll my eyes over my own silliness.

On the other hand, instead of appreciating the joke, Claire just... shook her head, as if I just proved her point.

"Now, I hope it won\'t get to your head too much, but you\'ve just confirmed that you have no idea just how special you are," Claire stated only to turn around and walk a few steps away... And then turn right back with now a much more serious look on her face.

"That first device of yours, the one that I actually bought before all of this," she spread her arms out as if to point at the whole mansion we were in, "at what stage of cultivation do you think people would no longer be able to benefit from it in any real, meaningful way?"

\'Is this a trick question?\' I squinted my eyes. After a short moment, however, I decided to take a different approach.

"I thought you would be aware by now, but beyond some absolute basics, I know pretty much nothing about cultivation. Save for the first two stages of Qi gathering and Qi condensation, I don\'t even know the names of the rest, not to bring up the actual meaning of those stages."

Hearing my words, Claire only nodded her head while keeping a serious look on her face.

"Yeah, I\'m aware of your lack of knowledge. And while it\'s the very next thing that we will work on, for now, just give me a true guess rather than an educated one."

Facing such a direct request, I no longer had any wiggle room to try to improve my answer. And so, just like Claire requested, I thought for a moment before raising my cheeks a bit while lowering my upper eyelids in a look of uncertainty before firing my shoot.

"Second... no, third stage?" I guessed, even going as far as to up my prediction a bit to make it more in line with the vibe Claire\'s questioning was giving me, even if it went against her request not to make it an educated guess.

"Close enough," Claire stated while nodding her head, only to then raise it right back and look right in my face again, "then, how about the improved version? You know, the one that actually looked nice, worked far better and caught the attention of my father?"

\'Oh, that one?\' I thought, recalling the sight of the device I completed while fully relying on my old, uncontrollable meditation.

"Let\'s say... fourth stage?"

Once again, I went against Claire\'s wish and instead of making a random guess, I put forth an educated one.

After all, the difference between the prototype and the perfected version... was not that big. Sure, it operated smoother and had four times the throughput of the prototype... But most of its improved qualities came from pretty much stacking four prototypes into a single device, not an added skill necessary to make it look as nice and complete as I did.

Then, while I was extremely ignorant about cultivation, even I knew that as one climbed through the ranks, their power didn\'t grow linearly. And while it wasn\'t exactly a geometrical increase either... I was much more inclined to believe the exponential growth to be closer to the actual baseline!

And with all of that in mind, while I obviously increased the top rank that device would be of use to... I struggled to believe going beyond just one rank increase would be reasonable.

Amidst all of this, however, just one question continued to ring silently yet persistently in my head. A question that if answered, would allow me to skip the whole process and arrive all the way at the end-goal of this exchange.

\'Just where is she going with all of this?\'