Chapter 386: Returning to the Shop [1] Noah waited those two hours painstakingly, each minute feeling stretched and distorted by his mounting anxiety about what he would find upon his return. He tried to distract himself by reviewing his updated status, by planning his next moves, by thinking about anything except the gnawing fear that Lola might be dead or captured. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the time came. The system’s restriction lifted, and Noah felt the familiar pull of world travel activate. As soon as the portal became available, Noah’s body instantly vanished from Earth, pulled through the dimensional barrier with such speed that it left no trace of his departure. He materialised inside the shop, his feet finding solid ground in the familiar main floor where displays of items sat on their shelves exactly as he remembered. The space looked completely undisturbed, with no signs of battle or forced entry, which was expected given the safety mechanisms. But Noah felt no relief. He looked around immediately, his eyes scanning every corner. He found nobody around—no Lola waiting to greet him, not even Leo, just empty silence that made his chest tighten with dread. The nagging feeling in his heart grew with each passing second. Where was she? Had she survived? Had she been captured after his death? "Lola!" Noah called out, his voice carrying desperation he couldn’t suppress. No response. He rushed toward the stairs. The second floor remained equally quiet, that oppressive silence making every heartbeat feel deafening in his ears. Noah sprinted down the short hallway toward Lola’s private room, the door closed as it always was when she desired privacy. But he didn’t care about propriety or permission right now—he needed to know if she was alive. He grabbed the handle and barged the door open. Inside the room, he found Lola sitting cross-legged on her bed in a meditation pose, clearly deep in training. Her facial features were composed in concentration—wings folded neatly against her back, tail curled around her body, horns catching the soft light from the window. Leo, was sitting peacefully next to her on the bed, his golden eyes tracking Noah’s entrance,. "Lola?" Noah breathed, profound relief flooding through his system so intensely it made his knees weak. She was alive, well and safe within the shop’s protection. Lola’s closed eyes stirred at the sound of his voice, her meditation breaking as external stimulus penetrated her focused state. The beautiful ruby eyes that he’d feared he might never see again slowly opened and landed directly on Noah’s face. For a fraction of a second, there was no reaction. Then her eyes widened dramatically as her brain processed what she was seeing. The shock that flooded her expression was so profound it seemed to freeze her entire body. Lola’s breath caught audibly in her throat. Noah stood in the doorway, very much alive, looking at her with obvious relief and concern rather than the death and absence she had spent so long grieving. The moment stretched between them, charged with emotions too complex and overwhelming to immediately articulate. Her mind struggled to reconcile what she was seeing with what she knew had happened—she had watched him die, had seen the spear pierce his heart, had heard his heartbeat stop. --- Yet here he stood, breathing and whole, as if resurrection was simply another impossible thing this mysterious shopkeeper could accomplish. "Noah...how?!" Lola yelped, her voice cracking with disbelief as she stood abruptly from her meditation position. Her mana immediately flooded outward, scanning his body with desperate thoroughness to ensure this wasn’t some cruel illusion or hallucination born from grief-induced madness. But every sense confirmed the impossible truth. His aura was real. His heartbeat was strong and steady. His physical presence was solid and undeniable. This wasn’t a trick or a dream—Noah was genuinely standing before her, alive and apparently unharmed. Despite the evidence her enhanced senses provided, her brain still couldn’t fully fathom how Noah was standing in her doorway when she had watched him die. She had seen the dark spear pierce his heart. She had heard his final heartbeat stop. She had wept over his loss while trapped helplessly inside the shop. "It’s me," Noah said with a bright smile that reached his eyes, genuine happiness radiating from his expression at seeing her alive and well. "I’m really here, Lola. I’m okay." Something inside Lola broke at those simple words—all the carefully constructed composure she had been maintaining, all the ruthless determination she had been channelling into training to prepare for revenge, all the grief she had been trying to process through meditation. It shattered completely. Lola launched herself across the room and jumped into his arms with such force that even Noah’s strength had to brace slightly to catch her. Her wings wrapped around them both instinctively, creating a cocoon that shut out the rest of the world. Tears that she had been fighting to contain finally broke free, streaming down her face as she buried it against his chest. Her entire body trembled with the overwhelming release of emotions she had been suppressing for what felt like an eternity, but had only been a day. "You idiot!" Lola’s voice was muffled against his shirt, wavering between anger and relief and joy and lingering fear. "You made me worry so much about you... I thought you were gone. I thought I’d failed to protect you. I thought I’d lost you forever, and it was my fault." Her grip on him tightened to the point where it would have crushed any normal person, her strength manifesting through the desperate need to confirm his solidity and presence. "I watched you die, Noah. I saw the spear go through your heart. I heard your heartbeat stop. How... how are you here?" Noah wrapped his arms around her in return, holding her close while one hand moved to stroke her hair with gentle comfort. "I’m sorry I worried you. I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone."