Ryan focused his awareness on the Fate Bracelets shown on the status panel and opened the item details.

  Back when he had drawn them, he had been busy fighting an enemy and had not listened carefully to the Grimoire's explanation at all.

  Activation conditions of the Fate Bracelets: only when a man and a woman are truly aligned in heart and mind, their emotions resonating and their affection reaching a specific intensity, can the bracelets be worn and activated.

  Magical effects: once the Fate Bracelets are gifted to the person each wearer acknowledges as their destined partner, the ancient oath sealed within the bracelets will be awakened.

  At the moment of awakening, the laws of heaven and earth will respond, giving rise to a resonance phenomenon at the level of origin.

  During the duration of the oath's echo, the wearers may temporarily ignore the limitations of their current magical rank, forcibly prying open higher tier magical structures and achieving a significant breakthrough.

  The flow of magic, life state, and trajectory of fate of both parties will be synchronized and calibrated, drawing them together and mutually strengthening one another.

  At the same time, through a magical contract, the Fate Bracelets will permanently lock the soul fluctuations of the two wearers.

  Once the oath is established, it cannot be betrayed, and the connection cannot be severed.

  After reading the description, the corner of Ryan's mouth twitched several times. What kind of activation condition was this? It even required affection to reach a specific intensity?

  And what exactly counted as that intensity? There was not even a concrete standard. How was he supposed to judge whether he and Evelyn met the requirement?

  "Grimoire! Say something! What is the origin of these Fate Bracelets? I want a refund!"

  Outside, Ryan irritably poked at the campfire. Sparks flew up and fell back down as he vented his complaints at the Grimoire in his mind.

  But no matter how much he called out, the Grimoire gave no response at all, leaving Ryan so annoyed that he cursed it a few times internally.

  If the standard for this affection intensity meant that Evelyn had to become as devoted to him as the previous mission requirements had demanded, completely loyal and without reservation, then waiting to meet such an absurd condition would be pointless.

  He might as well craft a piece of jewelry himself. At least that would show more sincerity when giving it to Evelyn. What use were these Fate Bracelets otherwise?

  I will let Evelyn try them first. Let us see whether our feelings can activate them.

  After thoroughly berating the Grimoire in his mind and seeing that it still refused to respond, Ryan gave up on communicating with it. He stood up and quietly walked toward Evelyn.

  Evelyn lifted her gaze as Ryan slowly approached, her eyes filled with confusion and vigilance. What was this guy planning to do now?

  "Evelyn..." Ryan stopped in front of her and spoke hesitantly, his tone carrying a hint of awkwardness.

  "What is it?" Evelyn raised an eyebrow at him, her eyes full of wariness. He was usually straightforward. Acting this coy all of a sudden meant he definitely had something up his sleeve.

  Before she could think further, Ryan reached out in front of her and grasped her wrist.

  Evelyn was startled and immediately tried to pull her hand back.

  But in her current condition, that bit of strength was nothing compared to Ryan. He held her firmly, and she could not break free no matter how hard she tried.

  She knew it. Whenever Ryan came close, nothing good ever followed.

  "Do not move," Ryan said, his expression turning extremely serious. He lifted his eyes and met Evelyn's gaze with unwavering determination.

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  Next, she heard Ryan call out, "Evelyn..."

  "Hm?" Evelyn responded, her confusion deepening as she wondered what he was about to say or do.

  But Ryan did not continue speaking. Instead, a faint glow rose from his palm, and an exquisite Fate Bracelet appeared out of thin air.

  The Fate Bracelet was wrapped in a soft aura of magic. At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary ornament.

  Seeing this, a ripple stirred in Evelyn's heart. It was obviously an accessory imbued with special magical power.

  On the surface, however, she maintained her composure, merely looking at Ryan with feigned puzzlement, trying to discern his intent.

  Holding the Fate Bracelet, Ryan gently slipped it toward Evelyn's wrist.

  The cool bracelet slowly passed over her fair, slender hand, its touch smooth and pleasantly warm.

  Evelyn instinctively resisted a little, but the force was negligible. Rather than true struggle, it was more like a young woman's natural shyness in the face of intimate contact, far from enough to make Ryan let go.

  The Fate Bracelet slid smoothly past her hand and finally settled lightly around her wrist. It then automatically tightened to fit perfectly, as if custom made.

  Against her pale skin, the Fate Bracelet only accentuated her cool and stunning elegance.

  Did it work? For a moment, Ryan looked stunned and quickly lifted his head to look at Evelyn.

  Evelyn, meanwhile, was staring at the Fate Bracelet on her wrist in a daze, her eyes subtly shifting, completely unaware of Ryan's gaze.

  Ryan gently released his grip on her wrist. Only then did Evelyn come back to her senses and raise her eyes to meet his.

  A faint ripple stirred in her gaze, her deep pupils slowly turning as if she were lost in thought.

  Ryan then lowered his eyes to the other Fate Bracelet in his palm and slowly slipped it onto his own wrist.

  The moment the Fate Bracelet fully fitted around Ryan's wrist, both the bracelet on his wrist and the one on Evelyn's suddenly transformed into two streaks of light.

  They intertwined for a brief instant before vanishing without a trace.

  Evelyn watched Ryan's actions the entire time. When she saw the Fate Bracelets turn into streams of light and disappear, she instinctively lowered her head to look at her own wrist.

  Gone.

  The sudden turn of events sent waves of shock through Evelyn. She stared blankly at her empty wrist, her mind completely blank.

  The Fate Bracelet had felt so real. How could it suddenly disappear?

  "Gone?" Ryan spoke up at that moment. His voice was filled with surprise, though not much true alarm.

  After all, items produced by the Grimoire behaving strangely was nothing unusual.

  In truth, Ryan was only surprised by the manner in which the Fate Bracelets disappeared and was not overly flustered.

  However, when he focused his mind to check his storage space, wanting to confirm whether the Fate Bracelets had returned, his blood pressure nearly spiked. He immediately started furiously cursing the Grimoire in his head.

  "Where are the Fate Bracelets? Where did my Fate Bracelets go?"

  "Even if our feelings are not aligned enough to meet the activation conditions, and they are not suitable, they should have been returned, right? How could they just disappear like that?"

  "They did not even come back?"

  【The Fate Bracelets have not disappeared.】

  The Grimoire's voice finally echoed in his mind.

  "Then where did they go?" Ryan demanded sharply at the Grimoire, unable to stop himself from suspecting that it might have confiscated his Fate Bracelets.

  The Grimoire fell silent again, clearly enjoying making Ryan guess. Ryan clenched his fists in frustration at its behavior.

  He took a deep breath to calm his rising irritation and turned to look at Evelyn, who was quietly watching him, his cheeks tinged with a hint of embarrassment.

  After all, a gift given to a woman already carries a subtle implication of affection.

  Now, however, the situation was even more awkward. The Fate Bracelets had just been worn and already disappeared. The scene was unbearably embarrassing.

  "Evelyn, don't worry that the Fate Bracelets are gone. They are still properly on our wrists, you just can't see them with the naked eye," Ryan quickly reassured her, speaking while fabricating the story in his head, unsure if Evelyn would believe it.

  Evelyn kept her beautiful eyes on him, silently observing. After a long moment, she finally said, "Acting without permission."

  With that, she slowly closed her eyes and began meditating to heal her wounds, leaving anyone guessing what she was thinking.

  Ryan awkwardly chuckled twice. It seemed Evelyn wasn't too concerned about the Fate Bracelets disappearing; she was simply displeased that he had given her a gift without consulting her first, acting on his own initiative.

  After a while, Ryan moved to a spot not far from Evelyn and added some dry branches to the fire to keep it burning brightly.

  Then he took a large wooden bucket from his storage bag along with a pile of crystals infused with pure magic and began arranging a protective magic array around them.

  Hearing the faint sounds, Evelyn slowly opened her eyes.

  Watching Ryan busy at work, a flutter of unease stirred in her chest. She had the vague feeling that Ryan was about to do something reckless again.

  Why was he suddenly setting up a protective magic array? Such an array blocks external magical detection and vision, usually used for private matters.

  "What are you doing?" Evelyn finally asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

  She reasoned that Ryan wouldn't do anything truly underhanded to her; after all, he had never really hurt her in the past.

  "I'm going to take a bath," Ryan replied, turning his head toward her.

  "There might be other adventurers or magical beasts hidden in this forest. What if someone sees me? So I set up a protective magic array just to be safe."

  That explanation seemed reasonable enough.

  "Then why are you including me in the array?" Evelyn froze for a moment before realizing the key point.

  She looked at him in confusion, noticing that the range of the protective magic array clearly encompassed her as well.