Was I Really an Incubus?

Bai Luoming pulled open the office door. Cold air from the corridor rushed over him, but it failed to quell the heat burning from his neck to the tips of his ears.

Stelle was leaning against the wall beside the door with her arms crossed. Her gaze lingered on his face for half a second before she looked past him at the figure inside, who had resumed her detached expression.

"Oh, that examination," she drawled, her tone suggestive. "It looked physically demanding."

Bai Luoming's hand jerked. He quickly switched off his terminal screen and gave a vague reply. "Ms. Herta's examination methods are pretty advanced. Ordinary people wouldn't understand."

"I see," Stelle said with a knowing nod, bringing the subject to a close. "Research secrets, right?"

That was what she said, but her eyes were full of disbelief.

The office's automatic door silently closed behind Bai Luoming, shutting everything inside from view.

The two of them headed toward the platform.

Bai Luoming raised a hand, his fingertips unconsciously brushing the corner of his mouth. The skin there seemed to retain a trace of warmth that wasn't his own.

He began to seriously consider a question.

The first time Asta formally met him, she had transferred him a hundred million Credits on the spot. Herta had gone even further: by their second meeting, her examination had progressed from energy testing to the inside of his mouth.

He reviewed the whole sequence of events and reached a conclusion: the problem might not lie with anyone else, but with his own excessively handsome face.

Was I really an incubus?

Lost in thought, he arrived within sight of the space station's platform.

March 7th was waiting at the door of the Astral Express. When she saw them approaching, she waved energetically.

She first gave Stelle a big welcome hug, then walked halfway around Bai Luoming, looking him over curiously. "So? Herta didn't take you apart for research, did she?"

"Nothing like that," Bai Luoming replied. "She just tested the Simulated Universe and gave me a physical examination."

As soon as he finished, he changed the subject, afraid March 7th would keep digging into it.

Dan Heng stood beside the train door. His gaze swept over the two of them, and only after confirming that both were still in stable condition did his tense shoulders relax a little. He looked at Bai Luoming and reminded him, "Joining the Express isn't a short sightseeing trip. The journey of Trailblaze will bring us face-to-face with unknown worlds, conflicts between civilizations, and enemies more dangerous than the Doomsday Beast."

Bai Luoming put away his joking expression and answered seriously, "I've thought it through. More than I want to stay somewhere safe, I don't want to miss the chance to see those worlds for myself."

A gentle woman's voice came from the direction of the parlor car.

Himeko stepped up to the group and formally extended an invitation to the two of them. "Then, Stelle, Bai Luoming, would you like to board the Express and become Nameless who travel alongside us?"

Stelle looked at Bai Luoming, and he happened to turn toward her at the same moment.

Neither bothered with polite deference. They gave their affirmative answers almost simultaneously.

"We do!"

March 7th cheered on the spot.

Stelle held out her fist toward Bai Luoming and raised an eyebrow. "Welcome aboard, sickly."

Bai Luoming had just raised his hand to meet hers when her words made his ears burn. He could only pretend to be composed as he lightly bumped her fist. At that moment, he recalled the excessively "advanced" examination in Herta's office again.

The moment Bai Luoming stepped onto the Express, his attention was drawn to the sight outside the parlor car.

There was none of the sense of separation created by the space station's windows. Brilliant trails of stars seemed close enough to touch, stretching endlessly to the edge of his vision.

He fell silent for a moment.

March 7th had already pulled him along, ready to introduce the Express's various facilities, but when she saw him like this, she swallowed the words on her lips.

She simply stood beside him and followed his gaze to the same starry sky. A few seconds later, she urged him on with feigned casualness. "Don't block the doorway. There are people behind you."

Mr. Welt was waiting inside the car.

After briefly greeting the two newcomers, he began asking Bai Luoming about his homeworld.

Bai Luoming said only that he came from an ordinary planet, where people also called their home "Earth." The country and city he had lived in had no capacity for interstellar travel, much less any publicly known power of a Path.

The word "Earth" brought a subtle change to Welt's expression.

He continued, "Have you heard of the Second Eruption, or the eruption in Nagazora? What about organizations like Schicksal and Anti-Entropy?"

Bai Luoming understood that Welt was checking for a connection between their two homeworlds. He simply answered according to his own experiences. "None of those disasters happened, and no such organizations exist publicly in my world."

Welt asked about a few more specific place names.

Bai Luoming mentioned that the name "Nagazora" seemed to exist only in works of fiction in his homeworld, with no corresponding disaster in reality.

Welt fell silent for a moment after hearing this. He concluded that the two worlds had highly similar languages, place names, and traces of civilization, but their histories had taken entirely different courses. Perhaps they were parallel universes.

Bai Luoming didn't take the opportunity to ask about Welt's past. He merely smiled. "That's good, then. At least we can still swap recipes from home sometime."

He paused slightly, then added, "Otherwise, when we're too far from home, all we can do when we miss it is stare at a can of space food."

Welt saw that he was deliberately trying to lighten the mood, and his expression softened again. He merely adjusted his glasses and said gently, "Come find me after you've settled into life on the Express. We can take our time talking about Earth."

A rapid patter of footsteps approached from a distance. The fluffy Conductor stopped in front of them, hands on its hips and visibly huffy.

"Listen up, newcomers!" Pom-Pom raised its voice, its two long ears twitching. "Pom-Pom will only say this important stuff once. Now that you're aboard this train, you have to follow the rules here!"

"No running around the train like passenger March 7th! No damaging public property! And absolutely no touching the controls without permission!"

It enunciated the final rule word by word, deliberately sweeping its gaze back and forth between Bai Luoming and Stelle twice.

The two of them hid their hands behind their backs in unison and straightened up. One tilted her head up to look at the star map on the ceiling, while the other lowered his head to study the tips of his shoes.

As everyone knew, rules were made to be broken. Just like a doctor's orders were made to be ignored.

Pom-Pom then took the two of them to the guest room area to choose their rooms. March 7th volunteered to come along, chattering about the archives, the parlor car, and daily life on the Express. She also made a point of warning Bai Luoming, "Don't pick a room too close to Dan Heng's archives, or you might run into a sleepless ghost drifting through the hallway in the middle of the night."

Dan Heng followed behind and calmly corrected her. "I'm organizing the data bank's records. It's not that I don't sleep."

Bai Luoming didn't choose the biggest room or the one in the most convenient location. Instead, he picked an empty room near the middle of the car, not too far from anyone.

Stelle chose another room not far from his.

When March 7th learned of their choices, she looked visibly pleased, though she maintained her tough manner. "Mm, that's good. It'll make it easier to gather for missions."

She sent the two of them a list of things to keep in mind about life on the Express. When she turned to leave, her steps were much lighter than they had been on the way there.

Pom-Pom told them to put their personal belongings away first, then come to the parlor car for a brief welcoming ceremony.

Bai Luoming looked at the empty guest room. It was the first place he could call a "home" since coming to this world.

He didn't dwell on it. He simply set his terminal on the table, turned around, and went back out.

As he closed the door, he reached out and carefully straightened his name on the doorplate.

Meanwhile, in the parlor car.

Having learned that the rooms had been chosen, Himeko was personally preparing welcome drinks.

When March 7th saw the pour-over coffee equipment she brought out, the smile on her face froze for an instant.

She was just about to warn the two newcomers, who were still in the dark, when Himeko smiled gently and asked, "Would you like a cup too, Little March?"

March 7th immediately changed what she was going to say and came up with a perfect excuse. "I'm in charge of taking the welcome group photo for the new members! I shouldn't take their share!"

Welt and Dan Heng, who were nearby, refused even more bluntly.

The welcoming ceremony began.

Himeko pushed two cups of deep brown liquid, whose color was clearly off, in front of Stelle and Bai Luoming.

Stelle looked down at them for a moment and decisively concluded that the darker cup, which looked more like crude oil, was the riskier one. With lightning speed, she took the slightly lighter cup.

The moment the coffee entered her mouth, her body froze. It was as though her sense of taste had taken a direct hit on the level of a Doomsday Beast.

Under everyone's concerned gazes, Stelle showed no sign that anything was wrong.

She slowly raised a thumb and said without a change in expression, "It tastes good. It really wakes you up."

She even pushed the cup a little toward Bai Luoming, signaling with her eyes that he could go ahead and try it.

Seeing that she was still standing, Bai Luoming suspected the rumors about Himeko's coffee had been exaggerated. Perhaps this time Himeko had simply gotten the ratio of coffee beans wrong, making the color look abnormal.

With that trust, he picked up the remaining cup and took a sip.

Even a body strengthened by the Path of Destruction could offer no help against this mysterious power.

Bai Luoming's vision went black, and he fell stiffly backward.