Mera’s Mental Abacus Clattered Away

Beckett.

Wake up.

I’m Shafrin.

His disordered thoughts had created a chaotic dream.

Beckett, who should have been dreaming of the final battle in Asgard, had somehow dreamed of Shafrin, whom he had once defeated on U40 Planet.

On the soft mattress, Beckett opened his eyes from sleep. The haphazardly scattered books at the head and foot of the bed fully demonstrated just how diligently he had studied the night before.

"Woz."

"According to this world’s time, it is exactly two o’clock in the afternoon, His Highness Beckett."

A blue holographic screen appeared before Beckett without warning, and his heart settled slightly.

"This is how to use the shower equipment, His Highness Beckett." As the being who understood Beckett best in this world, Woz thoughtfully provided instructions for using the showerhead.

While Beckett had been studying diligently in bed the previous night, it had not been idle either. It had thoroughly studied all kinds of rules and methods for using various tools gathered through the library’s server.

Hot on the left, cold on the right. The showerhead was above, and the bathtub was below.

After taking off the clothes he had been too sleepy to remove the previous night, Beckett began his first bath on Earth.

Oh, right, there were also things like shampoo and body wash.

He had never used such things in the Dark Order before. After washing, he was simply clean. Unlike this so-called Earth, which had a whole pile of gaudy nonsense.

"Woz, why am I still so slippery after washing?"

After rinsing several times, the skin where he had applied body wash still felt slick. Suspecting that he had not cleaned himself properly, Beckett scrubbed harder, but nothing changed.

"This is normal, His Highness Beckett."

"It is the moisturizing effect of this product called body wash…"

After summarizing the properties of body wash, Woz explained them to Beckett.

The toothbrush and toothpaste that came afterward, these methods of washing up that had long since been eliminated by the Dark Order, also made Beckett, who was encountering them for the first time, seem somewhat clumsy.

"Have you really never used any of these things before?"

Mera leaned against the bathroom doorframe, watching the awkward Beckett as though she had discovered a whole new world.

Beckett, who had followed the instruction panel projected by Woz from start to finish, did not even glance at her. He simply pushed her into the bathroom and shut the door.

Out of sight, out of mind.

"Beckett, you—" Mera pushed the door open, about to say something, when she ran straight into the sight of the man facing away from her, taking off the bathrobe around his waist and unhurriedly changing into a new loose black Battle Suit.

"What do you want with me?"

After storing all the books on Norse Mythology in his bracelet space, Beckett finally turned his gaze toward Mera.

"Nothing. I just wanted to see if you were awake."

Mera shrugged and turned to leave.

"Oh, right. I don’t know whether you had a habit of eating in your original world. But if not, would you like to have afternoon tea together?"

"On the beach, though I don’t know whether you understand the concept of a beach."

A few seconds later, Mera backed up to the doorway again and asked.

"Afternoon tea?"

"Afternoon tea originated in a country in this world called Britain…"

Woz’s instruction panel promptly resolved Beckett’s confusion.

"If you’re going, you’ll need to change clothes."

Mera waved the sunglasses that had somehow appeared in her hand and smiled.

Thirty minutes later, after Mera had finished transforming him, Beckett sat on the hotel’s scenic balcony in an open floral short-sleeved shirt and matching beach shorts.

He also wore sunglasses.

Sitting directly across from him was Mera, dressed in a purple bikini.

"Can you tell me now? What exactly do you want?" Beckett set down his glass, looked toward the beach in the distance, and asked.

Mera had found this hotel the previous night after getting tired. The reason Beckett had stayed here was because Mera had told him, "You need a quiet environment to learn about the Norse Mythology you want to know."

"How did you know I had something to say?" Mera ate pastries she had long wanted to try and basked in the sun from her chair. For someone who had spent all year beneath the ocean, this was a pleasure.

It was also a very novel experience.

This was one reason why King Orm, Atlantis’s new king, had always wanted to strike back at the surface.

"My father once said to beware of any stranger who showered you with unprompted kindness."

Beckett gazed out at the distant ocean. Beneath his sunglasses, his eyes seemed to see his adoptive father, still far away in another world, standing with his hands behind his back and scolding him.

He had once said he would become the Strongest Warrior in the Universe and help his adoptive father fulfill his ideal, yet now he was trapped in another universe, unable to find his way home.

The Reality Stone that had fallen from his body was still lying quietly in his bracelet space, yet Beckett had never been able to awaken its power.

Woz’s answer the previous night had been that, after leaving its original universe, it had lost its endless supply of energy and was now in a state of self-sealing and self-adjustment.

Because the Infinity Stones were far too mysterious, even Woz could not determine when it would awaken.

"Then did your father ever say that sometimes, when someone treats you to a meal, they simply want to be friends with you?"

"I don’t need friends." Beckett showed no appreciation.

Mera nodded and said nothing more.

Her father had also taught her that making friends did not require aggressively forcing others to recognize your goodwill. After all, an overbearing approach could very likely produce the opposite result.

Leaving a good impression in the other person’s heart was enough.

Beckett was very strong, absolutely worth befriending.

King Orm of Atlantis had already begun gradually winning over the rulers of the other six of the Seven Undersea Kingdoms.

The fact that her father, Nereus, had been willing to let her enter into an engagement with King Orm already explained everything.

Atlantis needed a new king, one who could better lead the Seven Undersea Kingdoms into peaceful coexistence with humanity.

After considering every factor, Mera believed that the candidate for that new king should be Arthur Curry, the eldest son of Atlanna, the former Queen of Atlantis.

But Mera had not actually had much contact with Arthur Curry.

Especially after witnessing Arthur Curry get effortlessly beaten down by Beckett the previous night, Mera felt even more strongly that this theoretical first heir to Atlantis might not be particularly reliable in terms of strength.

She needed to leave herself a backup plan.

And Beckett, whom she had just met, was very likely that backup plan.

A rootless drifter who had gotten lost from another universe, with a clean background and formidable strength. How could Mera, who had received a royal education, possibly let such a quality asset slip away?

If she did not choose to befriend Beckett, Mera would be letting down all the royal education she had received since childhood.

The little abacus in Mera’s heart clattered away furiously.