System vs Rebirth

"Once this journey is over, I want to tell you about important information. I'm sure that with your brain, you can take advantage of this information better than me."

Noel raised his eyebrows, not expecting Anna to do all this. He asked, "Why did you choose to do this? I mean, you looked like you were planning to keep it a secret previously."

Anna smiled, raising her finger. "To be honest, I would like to keep it a secret for a bit longer. However, the more I try to change the situation, the more information that becomes irrelevant. That's why I don't know what I should do with this. In fact, I believe that you should be the one who has all this information, not me."

"Is that so?" Noel thought for a moment. "To be honest, learning all this means a lot to me. However, I'm not sure how this is beneficial to you. It feels like I'm going to owe you a lot because of this."

Anna chuckled. "Hahaha, owe me a lot, huh? After seeing that alternate world, I actually felt like I was the one owing you. This time, I want to help you."

"At the end of the day, the one who did it was me in that alternate world, not the one lying down next to you right now."

"That's true." Anna glanced at Noel and asked, "Why do you think he spared me?"

"Hmm? I'm not sure. After all, I don't know what he has experienced in that place." Noel obviously didn't know what the other him experienced. However, it was clear that there was a reason why Noel chose to save Anna.

"How about making a guess?" Anna playfully requested. Since it was the Noel from the previous life, the current Noel should have some guesses that might lead to the mystery.

Noel chuckled and replied with a smirk. "Maybe I have fallen in love with you?"

"You are teasing me again." Anna hurriedly rebuked him because of what happened earlier.

"Hahaha!" Noel laughed for a moment while raising his hand as if trying to grasp the sky. "If I have to make a guess, it will probably be like what you said earlier. What if we actually joined hands? Could we reach a greater height?"

"Do you mean you wanted to change me and marry me to reach that?"

"No." Noel shook his head. "It's far beyond that. What do you think is the most expensive thing in this world?"

Anna thought for a moment and asked, "A Spirit Transcendence Expert? No, someone above that, the Spirit King stage?"

"Nah, you're off the mark." Noel paused as if recounting everything he had encountered so far. He had one answer. "The most expensive thing in this world is freedom."

"Freedom?" Anna was confused. "I thought you were going to say time or something because you couldn't rewind time no matter how much you paid for it."

"Rewind time, huh?"

Anna suddenly fell silent, realizing that she had just rewound her time. She didn't know what happened, but rewinding time seemed to be possible. Though, it might just be a miracle that she couldn't describe.

"Not really. Maybe there is a way to rewind time? I mean, there are a lot of unique spirits… There might be a Time Spirit among them. I don't know about their abilities, but just thinking about it, doesn't it look like rewinding time is possible?"

"That's… true." Anna couldn't help but wonder if Noel actually had a Time Spirit or something. Maybe, he encountered someone with that very spirit. However, it raised another question as to why he used it on her instead of himself.

If Noel actually regressed, wouldn't he be able to solve everything by himself?

While she was thinking about it, Noel continued, "You can probably hire that person to rewind time. It might be expensive, but it's possible. However, you can't buy freedom. You may think a slave is able to buy their own freedom… You may think that someone can be bailed from prison…"

"Or you can probably think that you are able to create a nation where you can do anything you want with enough money. However, that's not freedom."

"A slave might be able to free themselves, but what if someone plots against them again, causing them to be enslaved once again? It will create an endless cycle of money."

"You can escape from the prison by bail. However, that record will continue to haunt you. If you are a noble, you might be able to restore your reputation, but what if someone as strong or even stronger than you chooses to dig it out and use it to defeat you? That's also not freedom."

"The same applies to that of a king. You can have all the money in the world to buy everything you want, but there will be a lot of responsibilities that follow. If you don't fulfill your responsibility, you will end up getting enslaved by the chain of disaster."

"That's why for me… Freedom is the most expensive thing in the world. What does it mean to be completely free? It means that you can do anything you want without restraints… whether it's from your responsibility or the chain of fate. That's what I believe to be freedom!"

"…" Anna fell silent for a moment. This was the first time Noel talked this deeply with her. So, she couldn't help but ask, "But by changing me and even helping me, doesn't that make me one of your responsibilities? Or can you say that my fate is now intertwined with yours?"

Noel smiled. "That's because it's impossible to gain that level of freedom. The me you saw probably understood it."

"No matter how I struggled, it would be impossible to succeed. Instead of bearing this burden alone, I chose you to help me. It didn't need to be perfect. If having you next to me allowed me to gain a higher level of freedom than anyone else… I don't think it's a bad idea."

Anna shut her eyes, wondering if that was what the previous life Noel actually thought.