Published at 4th of August 2026 7:50 am

Chapter 962: Car Talk 1

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

Asher continued driving as he sat in the car with Arianna. He couldn’t help but feel nostalgic for a moment as his mind involuntarily replayed images of him with Jennifer back on Earth. The moment those memories surfaced, he smiled faintly before shaking his head as he pushed the matter aside almost immediately.

Just because he had gotten over Jennifer didn’t mean he had suddenly lost his memories of her or anything of the sort. Feelings could fade with time, but memories rarely disappeared.

Arianna, who was sitting in the passenger seat, obviously caught both the smile and the slight shake of his head with her ridiculous perception. Because of that, she couldn’t help but ask.

"Why are you smiling and shaking your head?" her tone was soft as her amber-gold eyes shifted from the road to Asher.

Asher remained calm as he turned the steering wheel while cutting around a corner. "Just remembered something funny from the past."

He stated, obviously not going into details. After all, no man would have a girl in his car and tell her that he had been thinking about another woman. To women, that was disrespectful... unless the woman you were thinking about was your wife.

Arianna simply nodded, not thinking too much of the matter. Her eyes returned to the windshield as she watched the outside world blur into indistinct streaks of color, silence settling between them once more, though it wasn’t an awkward silence.

"So, what prompted you to text me?" Asher asked, his voice cutting through the silence that had descended between the two of them. "I won’t lie, I never expected you to text or call," he stated, his eyes still fixed on the road.

Arianna stayed silent for a moment, as though contemplating whether to tell the truth or simply come up with something else on the spot. However, the moment that thought crossed her mind, another immediately followed. Why should she lie? There really wasn’t any reason to fabricate a story over something so insignificant.

"Actually, I never did," she stated calmly, her tone remaining composed.

The moment those words left her lips, she immediately felt Asher’s gaze on her. She couldn’t help but turn toward him, her eyes immediately picking up the confusion that had appeared within his expression.

Arianna smiled as she proceeded to explain in depth. "You remember those three girls you saw, the ones I told you were my friends? Well, they were actually the ones who pinned me down on the bed and used my phone to type and send the first message," she explained. "As for the rest, I typed and sent those myself," she added, not hiding anything.

Asher remained silent for a moment before replying, "So you didn’t want to be here, huh? I could turn around and drop you back at the hotel if you want me to," he suggested.

The last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable. Since she hadn’t been the one who had sent the first text, she was, in a sense, being "forced" to be here.

On top of that, Asher’s brain couldn’t help but remind him of women who accused men of rape if they wanted to punish them. His overthinking mind was already imagining a scene of Arianna accusing him of rape, followed by Azazel Haellight barging into the Wargrave Estate to take his head in order to avenge his daughter.

Of course, Asher knew he was just overthinking, and Arianna couldn’t possibly do something that horrible.

"No need to worry, it’s fine," Arianna stated with a small, beautiful smile on her face as she shook her head before continuing, "although my friends sent the initial text, if I didn’t want to be here, I could have simply followed that message with another one saying it was meant for my father or someone else," she added, her amber-gold eyes shifting toward the steering wheel.

Asher remained silent for a moment before nodding. "I guess you could indeed have done that," he replied.

After a brief moment of silence, Asher couldn’t help but ask as curiosity pricked at his mind.

"Can I ask the reason why your friends forced you to text me or do something like that?" His purple eyes shifted toward Arianna’s charming face for a brief moment before returning to the road as he continued, "It’s fine if you don’t want to say, or if it’s something private," he added, as he didn’t want it to seem like he was prying too much.

Arianna smiled once again as she found herself liking the fact that Asher always seemed to end his questions by giving the other person the option not to answer if they didn’t want to. Although it didn’t seem like much, little details like those mattered a lot.

With a cute smile on her face, she explained, "We’ve kind of known each other for over a decade and a half," she began, "and now, all three of them want me to find a man or fall in love since the three of them already have the people they love. They keep saying things like I can’t remain single forever and stuff," she mused aloud. "Although I suspect they just want me to go out with any man so they can cross a quadruple date off their bucket list," she said, shaking her head at her friends’ shenanigans. "That’s basically the gist of it."

Asher remained silent for a moment before giving a smile unlike any he had given anyone since his transmigration as he spoke, "Well, I guess it’s an honor to be chosen as the first candidate on the list of men being considered to date ’The One Blessed By The World,’ no?" His tone was slightly playful.

Arianna stared at Asher for a moment as though she were admiring his smile before she shook her head and replied.

"Well, there is no actual proof that I’m blessed by the world or that I was blessed by the world at birth," her tone remained calm as she paused for a brief moment before adding, "and personally, I don’t really like the title."

As for why she didn’t like the title, to her, it felt as though the title undermined all the hard work she had put in to bring herself this far, training skills and elements she didn’t naturally have an affinity for while also mastering numerous abilities through relentless effort. It made it seem as though the World had simply handed her everything while she sat down and did nothing.

Although she felt this way, she knew no one else thought of her in that light, as she was practically the only person who interpreted the title that way. To everyone else, it was simply a title acknowledging her extraordinary existence rather than diminishing her efforts. But, well, just because she didn’t particularly like the title didn’t mean she hated it to the core or anything of the sort.

Asher remained silent for a moment before asking, "If you don’t like the title, why name your martial technique and sword technique a World Series?"

The moment the question reached Arianna’s ears, she immediately sat there in stunned silence for a brief moment. After a few seconds of thought, she sighed before replying,

"I... haven’t really considered that, or even noticed it," she stated as she shook her head.

Asher decided not to speak on the matter anymore and simply continued driving. Everyone had things they liked and things they disliked. Like him, for example, he hated dumb and stupid people almost to his core.

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