Chapter 3: GRANDPA’S FIRST ROMANTIC MISSION

Vael woke the next morning biologically ninety-six and feeling better than he had at any point in the previous decade.

He sat up without using both hands.

Then stood.

No dizziness.

He bent forward.

No stabbing pain in his lower back.

He bent farther.

A vertebra cracked loudly.

Vael stopped.

"Still old."

[Correct.]

The System appeared above his washbasin.

[Daily Quest Available!]

Vael ignored it and examined his face in the mirror.

One wrinkle near his eye had softened. His hands looked marginally stronger. His mana channels—dry riverbeds for years—carried the faintest pulse.

The System was real.

Which made it dangerous.

Anything that gave power wanted something in return. That was how demons worked, how gods worked, how kingdoms worked, and how bankers worked.

"What do you want?" Vael asked.

[For you to live better.]

"That is not an answer."

[It is literally the answer.]

"What happens when I finish all your quests?"

[Classified.]

"There." Vael pointed. "Suspicious."

[You once signed a blood contract with an abyssal serpent.]

"That was different."

[How?]

"It had clear terms."

The System remained silent for several seconds.

Then:

[Daily Quest: Receive a sincere smile from another person.]

[Reward: Biological Age -1 Year]

Vael scoffed.

"Easy."

It was not easy.

He walked through the village and discovered that his natural presence made sincere smiling surprisingly difficult.

At the bakery, he nodded at the baker.

The baker became pale.

At the well, he tried saying good morning to two farmers.

They immediately checked whether they owed him money.

He gave a child a copper coin.

The child ran to his mother and whispered, "Grandpa Vale is dying."

By noon, Vael had received pity, fear, suspicion, and one deeply confused bow.

No sincere smile.

Finally, he found Mira carrying firewood.

"I will carry that."

She squinted.

"Why?"

"Because..."

Vael searched for an acceptable explanation.

Because I need your positive emotional response to reverse cellular decay was apparently not ideal.

"...you are old."

Mira hit him with the firewood.

[Affection -3]

Vael stared at the System.

"You are counting?"

[Of course.]

After several more failures, he encountered little Toma, the six-year-old grandson of the miller, crying beside the road.

His wooden toy knight had lost an arm.

Vael nearly walked past.

Then the System displayed nothing.

No quest marker.

No instruction.

Just silence.

Vael stopped anyway.

"Give it here."

Toma sniffled.

"Can you fix Sir Bernard?"

Vael examined the tiny wooden soldier.

One broken arm. Cheap glue. Poor craftsmanship.

"Sir Bernard would have died instantly in real combat."

Toma’s lip trembled.

Vael sighed.

He carried the toy home.

Twenty minutes later, he returned it with a reinforced wooden arm, a miniature shield, and a very small iron sword forged from a nail.

Toma’s eyes widened.

"He has armor!"

"Obviously. Sending infantry into battle unarmored is negligence."

The boy beamed.

A bright, uncomplicated smile.

DING.

[Daily Quest Complete!]

Warmth flowed through Vael again.

Then another message followed.

[Bonus condition fulfilled: Kindness performed before System prompting.]

[Bonus Reward: Biological Age -3 Years]

Vael stiffened.

"Before prompting? I was still completing your quest."

[You stopped because the child was crying.]

"That proves nothing."

[Host is embarrassed.]

"I am not."

[Host is extremely embarrassed.]

Vael walked away while Toma ran through the village shouting about Sir Bernard’s new armor.

That evening, Vael noticed three more black hairs among the white at his temple.

His biological age had fallen to roughly ninety-two.

He should have been thinking about power.

Instead, inexplicably, he wondered whether Toma would lose the little iron sword and stab himself with it.

Vael returned to the workshop.

He made a wooden one instead.

The System did not say anything.

Somehow, that was worse.