Artoria glanced between the card in her hand and Adam. She had a lot to say, but wasn’t good enough with words to convey it all. So, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shirt that still had her scent. His arms held her waist gently, and she felt like she could just melt into his warmth.
Still, with great effort, she looked up at him, her face already red before the words came.
“When the payment is over… let’s hold a real wedding ceremony.”
Adam’s eyes widened for a moment. The flustered look only lasted for a moment as Artoria looked away, her ears burning red.
“You don’t want to?” Artoria muttered barely.
Although her heart started to beat like a wild horse, she dared not look at him in fear that he might actually refuse. However, her resistance was little when his finger lifted her chin, making her face him head-on. It would be my pleasure.” Adam gave her a reassuring smile as always.
Artoria smiled, her heart beating so fast it could burst. She wouldn’t even blame herself if it did burst.
After enjoying each other’s embrace for a while longer, they went back to the room and, after dinner, slept on the bed, still holding each other.
They didn’t do anything more, just held each other in their arms and fell asleep while talking about the future.
The next morning Artoria shot up on her bed. The bedding beside her was still warm to touch, but Adam wasn’t there. Instead, she found a note written in impressive cursive and a platinum bracelet near it.
The bracelet has about 30 days’ worth of food. It has all your favourites; stop by the shop if you run out. And don’t miss me too much.
—Adam.
Artoria looked at the note and the bracelet; she moved her golden locks over her ear, and a gentle smile spread across her face.
“That won’t be easy, you know?” She already missed having him beside her in the morning; gods knew how she would get through the meetings in the afternoon and the supper at night.
Just like that, Adam’s actions changed the former King of Knights and her history. Leading her to a new, happier world.
A world where she could complete her ideals and wishes.
***
Around that time, Adam stood in the void. In the space between timelines, he had laid down his defence mechanisms to keep Artoria safe.
Safe from what? From the seven hunting dogs that the Counter Force had called upon, the Grand Servants. However, he shooed them away like some rabid dogs before. And they retreated; they had to.
If Adam had seriously waved his hand, they’d vanish, without a trace. They already understood the power difference between them when they couldn’t even get past his barrier. They never stood a chance in a direct confrontation.
After handling his work, Adam teleported to the space he first arrived at when he entered this universe, The Root.
“You’ve certainly caused a ruckus.” The embodiment of the Root said, her poker face still at max.
“That’s why I am here to pay up.” Adam smiled.
“…This is much better than I expected.” The Root muttered; that was the most shocked she had appeared till now.
A universe, an ever-expanding construct, had a predetermined fate. This fate encompassed all creatures, materials, and energy inside it. Everything followed that fate, and if something didn’t, the universe would have to put it back into line; otherwise, the universe could fall into disarray, eventually breaking apart. Especially if the creature, materials, or energy in question had a large impact on the universe’s fundamentals.
That was why the Counter Force tried to stop Adam from changing Artoria’s fate; she wasn’t supposed to get her wish. But Adam changed that completely. Not only did he destroy her predetermined path, but he also created her an entirely new one that clashed with the one she was supposed to walk.
This wouldn’t have caused an issue if Artoria had reached this path on her own, but she didn’t. She wasn’t supposed to.
However, there was a way to fix this still. To turn the impossible odds into reality, one must pay the price. People called it by many names, but Adam liked to call it Probability. Because a novel he liked had a similar concept and he was too lazy to come up with another.
This concept measured how likely an event was to happen, and the less likely something was to happen, the more 'probability' it needed to happen. Like, should this even be happening at this particular point in time? If not, you need to 'pay' the ‘probability’ needed for it to happen at that moment, or everything falls apart.
Artoria’s wish wasn’t supposed to come true. She was to fight in another holy grail war, and at the end, give up on her wish. But Adam’s intervention broke that future; now she had gone back in time and was on course to bring her ideals to reality.
Not only that, he fulfilled her wish to the most ideal version Artoria wanted.
The event most unlikely to happen had happened.
“So, how much do I owe you?” Adam asked, ready to break the bank.
He had become more familiar with Probability over the years as a god. He had used this method a few times, first to reach godhood in several fields, then to meet the Goddess of Wishes, and even on a small scale during his contracts from Wish shop. However, he went a step beyond with Artoria’s case.
“&^*&%^$%#$%#%&.” The Root’s mouth seemed to stretch and bend reality.
“That’s… interesting.” Adam didn’t expect that numbers couldn’t express the amount; it was that big.
However, Adam didn’t bother with bargaining. He had created enough problems for the Root and her world. The least he could do was smooth things over since he had another contract in this Universe.
“Pleasure doing business with you.” The Root said, a face still devoid of any expressions.
“S…Same.” Adam wiped the sweat that trickled down his forehead. “Then, see you.”
He teleported away. Not out of the universe, but to his maid, Grayfia.
He arrived in an opulently furnished office, taking in the scent of fresh tea and old books tickling his nose.
“Master, welcome back.” Noticing his arrival, Grayfia shot up from her seat. She gave him a bow and held out a towel, noticing the slight sweat on his skin. “Please use this; I will prepare a bath for you right away.”
“Ok.” Adam, a bit tired, couldn’t refuse Grayfia’s eager red eyes, and he didn’t mind a bath either.
She walked out of the room and carefully closed the door without a sound, then she rushed to the bathroom like an Olympic sprinter, still carrying the dignity of a refined lady somehow.
“She doesn’t have to be so serious.” He muttered. “But it is kinda cute.”
By the time he wiped his face with the towel, Grayfia came back to the room, not a single hair out of place.
“The bath is ready, Master.” She bowed with grace.
“Thank you.”
He followed Grayfia out of the room, going down the eastern stairway and through the northern garden they arrived at the northwestern wing of the residence.
Adam saw his face in the shiny, smooth white marble while taking his clothes off in the changing room attached to the bathroom.
“That damned Root squeezed everything out of me.” He haphazardly placed his clothes and underwear in the scented basket and pushed the opaque glass door with a sigh. He may have been conned, but he didn’t care much.
With a steaming hot bath before him, though calling it a small pond might be more accurate, Adam nodded his head in appreciation. The woody scent delighted him, and he sat on the stool nearby to wash his body first.
‘It’s been so long since I took a proper bath. This is the one downside of magic, but it is also useful so I can’t stop using it.’ However, before he could take out the body soap, his eyes caught the figure behind the glass door.
The figure showed off her devilish curves; her clothes came off one piece at a time. Adam already knew who it was before the door slid open.
Grayfia stood before him, a white towel barely covering her glistening breasts, reaching the middle of snow-white thighs.
“Allow me to assist you, Master.”