Chapter 88: Husband vs. Wife

The next morning, Reinhard was already waiting outside when the system notification appeared before his eyes.

[Investment Opportunity Available.]

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Rank: D-Rank.]

[Current Value: E.]

[Objective: Push Emily to her Limit in the Spar.]

[Difficulty Grade: C.]

[Success Probability: 50%.]

Reinhard looked at the notification for a few seconds before smiling. "So that’s today’s investment."

He glanced toward the house and remembered that Emily had asked to fight him the previous evening. Judging by the way she had been smiling afterward, she had clearly been serious.

Reinhard stretched his shoulders before nodding to himself. "Fine."

A moment later, the others came outside. Maki stood near the edge of the yard with her arms folded, while Yuna looked far more interested in the upcoming fight than she was willing to admit, and Lily was practically bouncing on her feet.

Emily walked out last.

She wore simple training clothes, but the look in her eyes was completely different from the woman who had spent years confined to a wheelchair. She looked excited, and Reinhard couldn’t help smiling when he saw her.

"So, you’re really doing this," he said.

Emily nodded. "I asked for it."

"Good."

Reinhard stepped into the center of the yard while Emily walked toward him. "Then don’t hold back."

"I wasn’t planning to," Emily replied.

The family moved farther away to give them space. Reinhard looked at Emily for a moment before taking a breath, and his Mana suddenly surged through his body before rapidly falling.

The overwhelming presence of a B-Rank Awakener disappeared until only the level of a D-Rank remained.

Emily’s eyes widened slightly as she looked at him. "You suppressed yourself."

Reinhard nodded. "I thought about it last night."

He raised one hand and smiled. "Let me make one thing clear. I am not going easy on you. I am just restricting myself to finally enjoy a challenge."

His smile became wider as he looked toward her. "So don’t disappoint me, my dear wife. You don’t want to be looking disgraceful in front of your sisters."

Emily giggled before her expression changed into a confident smirk. "Then let me make one thing clear too. You are the challenger, my dear husband."

Reinhard blinked before bursting out laughing.

Maki smiled, Yuna covered her mouth, and Lily immediately raised both fists as she cheered, "Go, Emily!"

The next moment, Emily disappeared.

Reinhard’s eyes sharpened as she appeared directly beside him, her fist already moving toward his ribs.

He twisted his body just enough to avoid the strike, but Emily didn’t stop.

Her second attack came immediately from another angle, followed by a compressed Mana blade aimed toward his shoulder.

Reinhard raised his arm, and the attack collided with his Mana Sovereignty before exploding across the yard.

Emily used the explosion as cover, allowing space to distort around her before she stepped through it and appeared behind him.

Reinhard turned at the last moment, and their fists collided with enough force to crack the ground beneath them. Neither moved for a moment before Reinhard grinned. "Not bad."

Emily pushed harder as she replied, "Don’t compliment me yet."

She released a concentrated Mana Blast, and Reinhard tilted his head as the attack passed beside him before answering with his own Mana projection. Emily twisted through it, but Reinhard suddenly stepped into her path rather than retreating.

Emily immediately recognized the change and shifted her weight.

Reinhard had expected that.

He changed his angle at the same moment and swept his leg toward hers.

Emily jumped over it, but Reinhard had already anticipated the movement. His hand moved toward her shoulder, forcing her to twist in midair and use a burst of Mana to push herself away.

She landed several meters away and smiled. "You were waiting for me to dodge."

Reinhard shrugged. "I simply analyze you."

Emily laughed. "So that’s how you’re doing it."

She released another Mana Blast, but this time Reinhard didn’t dodge.

He moved toward it.

Emily’s eyes widened as he used the edge of his Mana Sovereignty to split the attack around himself before closing the distance.

She immediately changed tactics.

Her Mana condensed around her arm, and she swung.

Reinhard leaned backward, narrowly avoiding the strike, but Emily had already predicted that movement from the way his shoulders had shifted.

Her knee came up.

Reinhard blocked it with his forearm, but the impact still forced him backward.

Emily smiled. "I got you."

Reinhard looked at her before laughing. "Not quite."

Instead of retreating, he stepped directly into her range and caught her wrist.

Emily’s eyes widened.

Reinhard twisted.

She immediately rotated with the movement rather than resisting it, using his grip to pull herself closer before striking toward his chest. Reinhard released her wrist and moved his body just enough to avoid the attack.

Emily landed smoothly.

The exchange had lasted only a few seconds, but both of them had already adapted to each other. Emily’s advantage wasn’t that she knew how Reinhard fought. She had never actually seen his full power.

What she knew was Reinhard himself.

She had watched him every day.

She knew how he shifted his weight when he was about to move, how his shoulders changed when he was preparing an action, how his expression changed when he became interested in something, and how he sometimes made deliberately obvious movements when he wanted someone to react.

Her experience as an Awakener allowed her to turn those tiny observations into predictions.

Reinhard, meanwhile, had something completely different. His Combat Analysis rapidly processed the patterns appearing before him, while Danger Intuition warned him when Emily’s attacks were about to come. Predator Awareness allowed him to sense her position even when she distorted space around herself.

He didn’t need years of fighting to keep up with her. He needed to understand what she was doing quickly enough to respond.

Emily suddenly changed her rhythm.

Reinhard stepped forward.

She was already moving backward when he attacked, ducking beneath his first strike before twisting around the second. Reinhard suddenly disappeared through a Space Tear, but Emily’s eyes moved toward the distortion before it even opened.

Reinhard emerged exactly where she expected, only for her elbow to strike his chest and send him sliding backward several meters.

The family went silent.

Lily’s mouth opened as she stared at Emily. "Did Emily just predict him?"

Yuna’s eyes narrowed as she watched the exchange. "She didn’t know where he would appear. She guessed from his movement."

Maki smiled. "She knows him that well."

Reinhard looked down at his chest before laughing, while Emily stood several meters away and raised her hand with a confident smile. "Got you."

Reinhard looked at her before his grin widened. "You’re getting dangerous."

Emily smiled back. "I was always dangerous."

Reinhard laughed again. "Fair enough."

He suddenly disappeared.

Emily’s eyes tracked the movement, but Reinhard didn’t emerge where she expected.

Her expression changed.

He changed the timing.

Danger Intuition had allowed Reinhard to notice that she was predicting his usual rhythm, so he deliberately broke it.

He appeared to her left.

Emily turned and raised her arm, but Reinhard stopped his strike just short of her face. "Too predictable."

Emily stared at him for a moment before laughing. "Then I’ll change too."

The next exchange became even faster.

Emily began changing her timing between attacks, sometimes holding a Mana technique for half a second longer than expected and sometimes releasing it before Reinhard’s Combat Analysis could fully predict the pattern.

Reinhard adjusted each time.

When Emily tried to attack from behind, Predator Awareness warned him of her presence before she appeared. When she attempted to overwhelm him with several Mana constructs at once, Combat Analysis identified the weakest point in her formation.

When she tried to freeze the space around him, Danger Intuition warned him before the temporal ability fully activated.

But Emily adapted to those responses as well. Her fist stopped just short of his chest as she redirected her Mana into a compressed blast.

Reinhard barely crossed his arms in time.

The explosion sent him sliding backward.

He laughed as he steadied himself. "Now that’s more like it."

Emily smiled. "I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself."

Reinhard charged again and opened another Space Tear.

Emily reached toward it.

The two forces collided.

Instead of tearing through space, Emily’s power wrapped around the distortion, causing the Space Tear to begin shrinking. Reinhard’s expression changed as he watched the opening disappear.

"What?"

The distortion vanished completely.

Emily stared at her own hand in confusion while Reinhard immediately opened another tear. Again, Emily’s power spread toward it, and this time space and time intertwined around the opening until the tear became completely sealed.

Reinhard raised an eyebrow. "So you can seal spatial abilities now?"

"I didn’t know I could," Emily replied, sounding just as surprised.

She looked at her Gnosis, and something inside it had clearly changed.

Reinhard’s eyes narrowed as he flooded his vision with Mana. The sight before him became clearer, revealing that the Gnosis inside Emily’s body was no longer exactly the same as before.

Purple and black energy flowed through it in two distinct patterns, twisting around each other like separate currents before merging again.

Reinhard stared for several seconds before saying, "Your Gnosis has changed."

Everyone immediately looked toward him.

Lily tilted her head. "Changed how?"

Reinhard kept watching Emily’s Gnosis. "There are two distinct flows inside it."

Yuna’s expression became serious. "Two?"

Reinhard nodded. "I can’t tell if that means she has two Gnosis abilities or if they’re two parts of the same thing."

Emily looked at her own hands as the purple light around her fingers continued to move. "I don’t understand it either."

Reinhard smiled before looking directly at her. "But we can confirm one thing. Your Gnosis didn’t simply come back."

Emily’s eyes widened slightly.

"It evolved."

The words settled over the yard.

Emily looked down at herself again. For years, she had wanted her old Gnosis back, and she had imagined returning to the person she used to be. But this wasn’t her old Gnosis. Something new had been born from everything that had happened to her.

Emily slowly smiled. "Then I suppose I’ll have to learn what I became."

Reinhard nodded. "Exactly."

Her smile turned into a grin as she raised her hands again. "Then stop talking and keep fighting."

Reinhard laughed. "That’s my wife."

They charged at each other again.

Neither was fighting at their full strength, but neither was holding back within the limits they had set. Emily wasn’t trying to survive, and Reinhard wasn’t trying to overpower her; they were simply testing how far the other could push them.

The fight continued until both of them were exhausted.

Emily’s breathing became heavy, while Reinhard’s clothes were covered in dust and several cuts had appeared across his arms. Finally, Emily charged one last time, and Reinhard met her in the center of the yard.

Their attacks collided, and the impact sent both of them backward before they landed on opposite sides of the yard.

For several seconds, neither moved.

Then Reinhard started laughing.

Emily heard him and began laughing too as she sat down on the ground. "That was fun."

[Target Value Increased.]

[Emily Ashcroft: E → E+]

Oh? It seems the target value reflects Emily’s strength and not her fame. Good to know.

Reinhard dropped onto his back and looked toward the sky. "It really was."

Yuna quickly brought them both water while shaking her head. "You two are ridiculous."

Reinhard took the bottle and drank almost half of it immediately, while Emily did the same. Lily stared at the battlefield and pointed toward the destroyed ground.

"You destroyed half the yard."

Reinhard looked around before quietly saying, "Oh."

Emily glanced at him with a smile. "You’re paying for the repairs."

"Why me?"

"Because you’re the husband."

"That sounds suspiciously like something Lily would say."

From behind them, Lily proudly raised her hand. "I agree with Emily!"

Maki laughed while Yuna shook her head. "You’re both impossible."

Emily smiled as she looked around at everyone. She had fought her husband, pushed herself, discovered something new, and enjoyed every second of it.

Lily suddenly stepped forward and pointed toward Emily. "Alright, I’m next!"

Yuna immediately laughed. "Me too."

Emily looked between them before standing up with a grin. "Bring it."

...

Reinhard watched the three women move toward the training area, and a smile appeared on his face.

A familiar notification appeared.

[C-Grade Investment Complete.]

[Legendary Reward Granted.]

[Calculating Rewards...]

Reinhard glanced at the notification as six rewards appeared before his eyes.