Gray's head snapped up, feeling startled.
Matriarch Zareena stood before him as if she had been there all along, her arms crossed, a playful smile gracing her lips under her veil.
He quickly masked his frustration, schooling his features into a neutral calm.
He already knew his condition from the System's status page so he wasn't really surprised.
"Thank you for letting me know," Gray said, his voice blunt and devoid of self-pity. He looked her straight in the eye. "Does the Matriarch have a solution?"
Matriarch Zareena let out a light, musical laugh. "So direct. I like that."
She shook her head. "Unfortunately for you, there are no treasures in this mortal world that can restore broken Spirit Roots."
Gray seized on the word instantly, his mind racing.
He put on a look of wide-eyed, dawning comprehension. "Mortal world?" he asked, his voice filled with feigned shock.
"You mean... this world? You guys... you're not from here? Could you be... Immortals?"
He delivered the lines with the perfect amount of awe, like a country boy seeing a city for the first time.
Matriarch Zareena's smile faltered for a fraction of a second, and she tilted her head, observing him with a strange, searching gaze. "You're quite... perceptive."
"Matriarch," Gray said, his voice now filled with a desperate hope he didn't have to fake.
"If you are truly an immortal, then surely you must have a way! A treasure, a technique... anything!"
Zareena giggled playfully, a sound that was both beautiful and soul-crushingly dismissive.
"Oh, no, we don't have any way to help you. Even back where we come from, treasures that could restore Spirit Roots are as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns. I do have one sitting in my treasury back home, but it's not with me, and it would probably take a few centuries to go back and get it."
She leaned in, her golden eyes twinkling with mischief. "Not to mention, I don't even know you. Why would I use such a priceless, world-shaking treasure on a strange little boy I just met?"
"..." Gray was rendered speechless. He couldn't find a single fault in her logic. It was flawless. They didn't know each other. In fact, he owed her for saving him from punishment at the hearing.
A heavy silence filled the room.
Gray's hopes, which had briefly soared, came crashing back down to earth.
He let out a quiet sigh. "Then... why is the Matriarch here? In my room? Just to tell me I'm screwed?"
"Of course not," she said, her cheerful tone returning. "I'm here because I think you're interesting."
Gray blinked. 'Interesting?'
The word echoed in his mind. She, an immortal beauty of unimaginable power and status, thought him interesting.
His delinquent mind, conditioned by the social dynamics of his past life, could only interpret this in one way.
His cheeks flushed with an uncharacteristic blush.
'Wait a minute,' his imagination suddenly kicked into overdrive. 'She's powerful, she's beautiful, she keeps showing up in my room at night, and she says I'm 'interesting'... Holy crap. She's into me!'
His mind spiraled into a full-blown fantasy. He pictured himself, the handsome young consort of an ancient, all-powerful immortal.
Aside from the fact that he'd get that treasure to restore his Spirit Roots, he'd also have unlimited resources, incredible power, and a sugar-mommy who could level continents.
They'd get married, have super-powered immortal kids, then grandkids.
He'd be the patriarch of a new divine lineage, the Immortal Matriarch's boy toy who secured his family's future for ten thousand generations.
It was the ultimate rags-to-riches story!
'But she's probably ancient,' a small part of his brain reasoned. 'Older than my great-great-great-grandmother.'
'Details, details,' the rest of his brain immediately shot back. 'She looks twenty. That's all that matters. I can work with this.'
"Something on your mind?" Matriarch Zareena asked, noticing the strange, blissful, and slightly idiotic expression on his face.
"Just thinking about our future... grandkids," Gray muttered under his breath without thinking.
BONK!
A sharp rap on his head from Matriarch Zareena's knuckle snapped him back to reality.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"For having thoughts that could curdle milk," she said, an unmistakable note of annoyance in her voice.
"Get your mind out of the gutter. When I say 'interesting,' I mean you are an amusing anomaly, like a clever monkey that has learned how to pick locks. Not... whatever perverted fantasy you were just constructing."
Gray rubbed his head, his face burning with embarrassment.
"Right. Monkey. Got it."
Matriarch Zareena sighed, shaking her head. "Anyway, Ziye and I are just passing through this realm. We'll be leaving in a day or two. I came here to ask if you want to come with us for a little while. A small adventure."
Gray froze, his mind rebooting from the sudden crash of his romantic fantasy.
"Go with you? An adventure?"
"We'll be heading for the 'Forest of Whispering Shadows' a few tens of thousands of kilometers from here," she explained. "We can bring you along. Consider it a short trip before we drop you off at a major city where a cripple might have a better chance of surviving."
He was skeptical. "Will I not be a burden to you?"
Matriarch Zareena let out a melodious, almost condescending laugh. "A burden? Little boy, there is nothing in this entire low-level world that could possibly threaten me or Ziye. Whether you come with us or not makes absolutely zero difference to our safety."
Gray narrowed his eyes slightly.
She had no reason to lie, and considering her power, he believed her. If anything, he would be the one gaining all the benefits.
A chance to leave the clan safely, to learn about the wider world, and to travel under the protection of two... well, two monsters.
A slow, delinquent grin spread across his face as he realized the true potential of this offer.
"Alright," he finally said, his voice filled with a newfound excitement.
"I'll come with you. Please take care of me!"
'Take care of me is right,' he thought, his mind already buzzing with possibilities.
'Being with two immortals... there's no safer place to be! I can finally put this Delinquent System to good use! I can go out and cause all the trouble I want, and if I piss off someone too powerful, I'll have these two walking calamities to run to for help! This isn't just an adventure... it's a free pass to do whatever the hell I want!'
He was getting excited just thinking about it.
Matriarch Zareena's gaze flickered with satisfaction. "Good. Pack whatever you need. We leave before dawn."
She then went to their living room to wait for him.