Zerena tilted her head. "What happened? Are you having trouble engraving them?" she asked, stretching her lips into what was very clearly a custor-service version of a smile.
Max shook his head on instinct. "No—"
A beat passed. His brain caught up with his mouth.
"...Yes. I an. Yes, actually. It’s about that."
Zerena’s eyes sharpened imdiately. The polite smile didn’t disappear, but it did upgrade from decorative to interested.
"Well?" she prompted.
Max inhaled like soone about to jump into very cold water.
"I... may not have been completely honest about my awakening."
That got her attention.
Not dramatically—no thunder, no ominous music—but just enough for one eyebrow to rise in quiet suspicion. To be fair, she’d already been wondering how a freshly awakened kid was engraving runes like he was scribbling notes during a boring lecture.
Her working theory had been simple: prodigy.
Clean. Easy. No headache.
But now?
Yeah... clearly not that simple.
"What do you an?" she asked.
Max shifted a little, tugging at the hem of his shirt like it had personally betrayed him in a past life. A classic move—buy ti, look slightly awkward, sell the story.
"It’s just... I do understand runes really fast. That part’s not a lie," he said, scratching his cheek. "But actually controlling mana and engraving them like that? Yeah... that’s not sothing I should be able to do."
A small pause.
Dramatic? Not really. Suspicious? Definitely.
"That part," Max continued, lowering his voice just a bit, "cos from... sothing else."
And just like that, the plot thickened—because of course it did. This was his story, after all.
He managed to say all of that in the most confusing way possible, like he was hoping the explanation might trip and fall before reaching her ears.
Unfortunately for him, Zerena was both sharp and extrely attentive whenever the topic slled even remotely like profit.
"And what would that be?" she asked.
He hesitated, then blurted, "Have you ever heard of systems? Like the ones in webnovels and comics?"
"I have the general idea..." Zerena said slowly, curiosity rising as his confidence kept sinking.
Max swallowed. "I... have one of those."
"Huh? You have what?" she said, bending down to his height like the words might get clearer if she t them halfway.
Max leaned into the nerves, voice climbing a notch. "I have one of those systems..."
"What do you an you have one of those systems?" Zerena asked, now properly confused.
That repeated question, earned a flicker of annoyance, though he stubbornly kept the shaky act going. "I an I have one. It helps engrave runes by supplying mana to infuse into them... or by helping control the mana-infused ink."
She just stared at him, shock slowly spreading across her face. "How?"
"It gives quests," he said quickly, words starting to spill out now that he’d already crossed the point of no return. "I complete them, and it gives points—system points. I can use those to... make engraving easier, learn new runes faster... stuff like that."
Not exactly the cleanest explanation.
But hey—when you’re confessing you’ve got a literal cheat system, clarity tends to take a backseat.
As he spoke, he traced a rune in the air with his fingers. A small gust of wind burst outward.
Zerena blinked. "You already learned how to manifest wind?"
"Yeah. Fire, too. And a couple of other elents..." Max added, a faint, very pleased smile tugging at his lips before he rembered he was supposed to be nervous.
Zerena just stared at him.
Until now, she’d assud he was flipping through those rune books out of boredom—or maybe to look studious. It hadn’t crossed her mind that he’d actually morized the material. Much less that he could perform it.
If she’d had doubts about this so-called "system" before, they were dissolving rapidly.
Which, naturally, made him far more valuable.
Her excitent dimd slightly as practical concerns kicked in. "Then what’s the problem?"
Max let the smile fade and replaced it with a troubled look. "I’ve... almost used up all the points I got from my completed quests."
He hesitated, then added, "And the new quest I received recently is... giving so trouble."
Zerena was still reeling. A system. His system. The thought alone made a small, ugly spark of jealousy flicker in her chest. Why did he get one and not her?
For a brief mont, the look she gave Max was a little sharper than intended, but the polite mask returned quickly enough.
"Tell ," she said, her voice smooth again. "If it’s sothing I can help with, I will."
Max didn’t hesitate this ti. Well... not much, anyway. His brain had already started manufacturing a perfectly reasonable lie.
"The quests are usually related to other people," he said. "Stuff like observing soone for a while. Depending on the duration, I get points." He paused, as if ntally organizing things. "I already filled the points by finishing all the easier ones. But they can only be repeated after a month... so all the points I got from them is already used up."
Zerena nodded slowly, following along.
"And the new quest is also like that," Max continued. "But it’s... it’s..."
He trailed off, suddenly struggling with the words again.
"That’s annoying," Zerena said, her patience thinning. "For god’s sake, just say it."
Her voice rose just enough to make Max panic.
"It’s about touching boobs!" he blurted out.
The words exploded out of him before his brain could stop them. He instantly shut his eyes and turned red, bracing himself like soone waiting for a slap, a lecture, or possibly divine judgnt.
For a mont, nothing happened.
Max cracked one eye open.
Zerena was staring at him, looking strangely spaced out.
That sohow made things worse.
Max’s heart started beating faster. Now he was actually nervous. He had no idea what she was thinking, or if she believed him at all.
Zerena kept that sa distant expression for a few seconds before finally speaking.
"And what were the quests you completed before?" she asked calmly.
"Huh?" Max blinked, clearly caught off guard. His face turned even redder as he hurried to explain.
"They were... uh... things like looking at soone’s butt without getting caught," he said awkwardly. "Or... staring at breasts for a certain amount of ti..."
He trailed off, looking like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. Zerena’s expression slowly twisted into disgust.
"And... so were about looking at armpits too," Max added weakly.
"Don’t tell all of them involved won as well?" Zerena asked, her voice thick with disbelief.
Max nodded quickly, too nervous to risk saying the wrong thing. He wanted to make it clear he wasn’t lying.
"What kind of perverted system did you awaken?" she said, her tone rising. "Can’t it give you a single normal quest?"
The sharpness in her voice made Max flinch. He shrank a little where he stood, instinctively tensing the way he always did when she raised her voice. The old Max had learned long ago that tone usually ant punishnt wasn’t far behind.
"I—I don’t know, Aunt..." he said, his voice wobbling like he might cry at any second.
Zerena looked down at him with visible disgust and let out a slow sigh.
’He isn’t lying...’
Of course he wasn’t—he was just putting it a different way.
She had suspected it for a mont, but watching Max tremble like that erased most of her doubts. Even if he really had so absurdly perverted system, he would sooner announce it to the entire city than lie about it to her.
"So now it wants you to touch soone’s breasts?" she asked.
Max nodded imdiately—far too quickly, actually—like a man whose survival instincts had just kicked in at full throttle.
Zerena let out a slow sigh, the kind that carried equal parts doubt and exhaustion.
She didn’t fully believe him.
But then again... this was Max.
A boy she had personally raised on a carefully balanced diet of fear, discipline, and the occasional well-placed threat.
As far as she could rember, the last ti he had ever dared to lie to her was years ago—back when he was still small enough to think excuses actually worked.
Sothing about "it was an accident" and "I didn’t an to"—a desperate attempt to avoid punishnt after wetting himself.
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