"Humanity's pursuit of beauty is perfectly normal. There's no need to feel embarrassed about it. Besides, it's just growing your hair out, not cross-dressing."
"I can't be bothered to police anyone's taste. What I mean is, what respectable man in the workplace keeps long hair?"
"Ah... achoo!!"
Elsewhere, Otto, who was handling work in his office, sneezed violently.
"What's wrong?"
A white-haired secretary beside Otto asked as she crushed a password-forgotten lock with her bare hands.
"I don't know. I just feel like someone insulted me."
"Forget the meeting. We'll talk when everyone's here tomorrow. Go home, everyone."
At half past six in the evening, Ye Ming clapped his hands and dismissed the employees who were still working.
Only Ganyu remained at her station. As a programmer, she still had quite a bit of work left.
"Tomorrow, my sister wants to come for an interview. Will you have time, Ye Ming?"
Before leaving, Ei leaned close to Ye Ming and asked.
"Ei? Perfect. Have her come over in the afternoon with Yae Miko."
"Huh? Yae Miko is coming too?"
"Yeah. I'm sure it'll be lively."
After saying goodbye to everyone, Ye Ming set off home alone.
It was late autumn, and darkness fell quickly. Pedestrians crowded the streets, and laughter could be heard everywhere.
Ye Ming avoided the main road and entered a relatively deserted path, quietly taking in the liveliness in the distance.
"I really did reconstruct a pretty good world."
There were no disasters, no Honkai, and no Abyss...
Even beastgirls like Ganyu and Yae Miko could naturally blend into society.
Come to think of it, Pardofelis had to be somewhere too, right? Maybe he'd run into her at a cat café.
"It really feels like a dream..."
Every day, he worked with his former lovers to make games, torment players, stab them in the heart, and trick them into spending money.
His biggest worry was nothing more than dying of embarrassment.
"Can I really live in a world like this?"
Thinking back to that final moment, Ye Ming remembered the system saying that the price for reconstructing the world was his own existence.
But afterward, the system seemed to change its tune, reducing the price to merely "not being remembered."
Had he remembered it wrong, or had something happened in between?
And Ragna... what exactly had she meant by those meaningful words?
What did becoming happy even mean for me?
"Ye Ming, I found you."
"Himeko?"
Just as Ye Ming was lost in thought, he happened upon Himeko beneath a streetlamp. From the looks of it, she had been waiting for quite some time.
"How did you know I was here?"
"Your address isn't exactly a secret. Everyone at the studio knows it."
"But this isn't the route navigation recommends."
"I know. You always like taking quiet little paths."
Himeko took off her coat, stepped in front of Ye Ming, and slowly walked forward beside him, shoulder to shoulder.
Only then did Ye Ming notice that beneath Himeko's plain coat, she was wearing a red formal dress.
The delicate silk dress wrapped around her lush, alluring figure, while her nearly bouncing slime showcased its soft pink presence.
The skirt that should have covered her thighs was lifted by her perky rear, making the black stockings faintly reveal the color of her skin beneath them.
"Come to think of it, you said you were going to prepare properly to meet someone important."
Under the dim streetlamp, Himeko's fiery beauty left Ye Ming somewhat distracted.
"Mm. I usually wear casual clothes, and everyone at the studio always teases me for being sloppy..."
"Someone like me needs time to tidy herself up too, right?"
Looking at Himeko's formal attire, Ye Ming asked:
"Did you just get back from meeting them?"
"You dummy~~ Haven't you figured it out yet?"
Himeko looked at Ye Ming with affectionate eyes and smiled.
"The person I wanted to meet was you. Other than you, no one has ever seen what I look like under this coat."
"Huh? But don't we see each other every day?"
"Is that so? Why does it feel like we've been apart for ages?"
Himeko looked at Ye Ming with an amused expression, as though she were watching an actor with terrible acting skills.
"Ye Ming, how long have we known each other?"
"Two months, I guess."
"Why does it feel like I've been with you for a very, very long time?"
"Are you taking what happened in the videos seriously again?"
"Can't I?"
Himeko stepped in front of Ye Ming, turned around, and looked at him.
"What if the stories in those videos were all real?"
"Haha, how could that be? This world doesn't have that much sorrow... mm!"
Before Ye Ming could finish, Himeko's cherry lips sealed his own.
·
The name Buer felt a little abstract, so from today onward, it had been changed to A-Tzu.
As long as everyone knew it referred to Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, that was enough.
Remember to keep it secret from Kiana~~
"Himeko?"
At first, Ye Ming was stunned by the kiss, but his expression quickly relaxed.
Surprise, curiosity, and confusion gradually turned into immersion and enjoyment of the kiss.
Neither of them needed an explanation, nor did either need to say anything. For the two of them at that moment...
That kiss encompassed everything.
"Long time no see, Ye Ming."
Upon hearing those words, Ye Ming understood that continuing to pretend would only be futile. So he replied:
"Welcome back, Himeko."
On that deserted street, amid the gusts of cold night wind.
Ye Ming intertwined with a flame that set his heart racing.
Every "last one" between them became "one more," as though they were making up for the regret of kisses they had once failed to share.
Only when they realized that kissing alone was no longer enough did they slowly part.
After all, continuing any further here would be rather inappropriate.
"So, how did you remember?"
Having calmed down, the two continued walking along the sparsely traveled path.
"After watching that video, I understood everything."
"Was it really that miraculous?"
"Mm. The sense of familiarity from before, as well as those hazy memories, all became incomparably clear in that moment."
"No wonder Ragna said those things to me..."
It seemed that she had remembered everything after watching the video as well.
"Senior Ragna? What happened to her?"
"Sorry, I need to step away for a moment. Wait for me for one minute."
Ye Ming quickly walked to the side, then said to the system:
"What's going on!? Those videos can do something like this?"
--Perhaps it wasn't the power of the videos. Their longing for you may have been too strong, and the videos were merely the trigger.
"Wait! They? You mean... besides Himeko, the others will also remember everything after seeing their own stories?"
--Based on the current situation, that appears to be the case.
"Ugh!"
--Isn't that a good thing?
"If I had to say, it is a good thing, but... I'm not ready yet."
--You're not ready to deal with a harem war, right?
"Why do I feel like you're making fun of me?"
--No. I'm just enjoying the show.
"..."
Ye Ming felt that the system was becoming more and more improper, though he had no idea who had influenced it.
"Ye Ming, are you all right?"
"Uh... y-yeah, I'm fine."
"Good. I have a question I wanted to ask you too."
Himeko looked somewhat ashamed, as though asking this question in their private world together would spoil the mood.
"If I'm still alive, then Kiana... how did she walk the path ahead?"
"Your memories haven't fully returned?"
"Mm. I only remembered things about you and me. As for everything else, I barely remember anything."
"It's a little complicated. I'll try to keep it simple..."
Ye Ming thought for a moment, then said to Himeko:
"After the timeline was rewritten, spacetime entered a discontinuous state. In other words, the world line where you were saved needed a long time before it could merge into the main world line."
"Kiana never knew you were alive. By the time the world lines finally merged and you could reunite with her, she had already grown a great deal."
"And after that, she lost her beloved as well, which was also how she gained tremendous power."
"I guess... with her companions' blessings, Kiana overcame the grief of losing someone she loved and completed her final transformation."
In only a few sentences, Ye Ming painted a grand story filled with both laughter and tears.
"What exactly did Kiana lose? Why are you guessing about the final part of her story? Weren't you a witness?"
Before you continue