Gentle as a Fairy Tale (4k bonus chapter for donations) (Continued)

Besides, if she resisted fiercely, the things St. Freya had brought out could be used too, couldn't they?

—Of course, unless absolutely necessary, he would never use the latter method. He preferred vibrant white flowers swaying by his side rather than seeing a congealed, stagnant black abyss.

Don't disappoint me, Cecilia...

Otto silently said to himself.

"Personally, I don't really want to."

At last, Cecilia spoke. As he wished, she shook her head.

"But, Brother, if it is for your benefit, Cecilia is willing to go..."

Congratulations, Miss Schariac.

You escaped disaster.

The blond man was indifferent inside. He felt neither guilt over his useless suspicions nor satisfaction at the white-haired woman's loyalty.

"The first few words were enough."

Yet his words were decisively disguised, immediately cutting her off.

"That level of combat power isn't worth giving you away again. Just do what you want to do. I gave you my promise."

Just do what you want to do. I gave you my promise.

Cecilia savored those final words. Her heart was sweet, but she still wanted to say something. "But..."

"There are no buts."

Otto's voice was deliberately cold.

"If you aren't looking for him because of your feelings, but for such a ridiculous reason, Kaslana won't mind having one less foolish former family head."

Heh, if it were the former...

The blond man turned his head away, refusing to let the woman see the darkness and chill in his eyes.

Cecilia froze for a moment. Looking at Otto, who seemed to be angry, she finally broke into a radiant smile.

"I was wrong, Brother."

The woman apologized briskly, moving close to Otto.

"I won't mention going to find him again. As for everything else... arrange it as you see fit. Your will is the path I walk."

"Mm."

The blond man's voice softened.

"I'll have the two great families reach an agreement to dissolve the engagement. In other words, whether he agrees or not, you are free now."

"I will obey Brother's orders."

"That's my good girl."

Otto smiled, extending the hand behind his back. Cecilia naturally turned slightly and wrapped her arms around his arm.

The feather fragments of the Mimic Divine Key turned into golden particles. The firearm vanished into the air, the glow of the Staff of the Underworld fell silent, and only a few scattered purple sparks flickered across the Seven Thunders of Repose.

You passed this test. The blond man said inwardly.

"Want to take a walk?" Otto gave a gentle tug, drawing the woman to his side as he asked amiably.

"Mm."

Naturally, the woman had no objection to his suggestion and walked with him out of the bishop's quarters.

It was still January, and the weather was as bitterly cold as it had been at the end of last year.

Cecilia and Otto once again walked through the streets of Schicksal's floating island. Neither spoke along the way. Cecilia was thinking about something with a faint blush on her face, while Otto pondered what had just happened.

He had suddenly discovered that the white-haired woman had regained her sense of taste.

That could be considered a good thing, but he did not let down his guard.

The complete restoration of even her sense of taste meant that Cecilia herself had been restored to an ideal state.

There was an important rule in mysticism: equivalent exchange.

To gain something, one had to give something.

Then what was the cost of restoring the woman to such a state?

And besides that, what other changes had he failed to see?

"I'm afraid I'll have to pay closer attention from now on..."

Otto murmured indistinctly.

"What was Brother saying?"

A head of white hair entered his field of vision. Cecilia curiously leaned closer, her large blue-green eyes blinking, her soft, rosy lips very near.

Otto smiled faintly and lowered his head to ask, "What do you think?"

The two stopped by the roadside and stared at one another, as though playing some sort of freeze game.

As expected, Cecilia was the first to lose. Otto's fixed gaze made her little face blush, as though lightly dusted with rouge. A trace of unease lingered in her clear, bright eyes as they darted from side to side, making her even more endearing.

"Say, Raksha, after five hundred years apart, you've actually mastered the art of One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones? My, my, this really is..."

A clear voice rang out. A girl clad in bright yellow flew over on a sword from afar, and then...

She saw her former first love gazing at a white-haired woman, their arms linked and faces very close together.

"...Perhaps I came at a bad time?" Li Sushang froze for a moment before a line she had recently seen slipped out.

"No, you came at exactly the right time."

Otto calmly borrowed the old joke, his expression unchanged. He naturally extended his other hand and draped it over the girl's fragrant shoulder.

"Allow me to introduce you two. This is Li Sushang, Fu Hua's grand-disciple and inheritor of the Void Sword Qi."

"This is Cecilia Schariac, Schicksal's Saintess, and an S-rank Valkyrie like you."

The girl rolled her eyes at the blond man, took a step back, and clasped her hands in greeting toward Cecilia. "Li Sushang, chief disciple of the Unsurpassed Freedom Sect. Please guide me in the future!"

Cecilia also let go of Otto's arm and returned the gesture as she had seen Li Sushang do. "Cecilia Schariac. We'll be colleagues from now on."

She spoke in Shenzhou's language. As one of Schicksal's former figureheads, she could still manage a few phrases in it.

But for more complicated conversation, the woman could only wait for a translation.

"Colleagues? Oh, I see." Li Sushang rested a hand beneath her chin and said thoughtfully, "But... oh, right, Raksha, I mainly came to talk to you about this matter."

"Weren't you here to learn One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones?" The blond man teased her about what she had just said.

"Huh? You can teach me One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones?!" Li Sushang was a little surprised. "I was just praising your elusive immortal arts. I had no intention of prying!"

"It doesn't matter—I don't mind giving you a little help," Otto said. "If you're truly interested, you can first learn the art of divided focus. Draw a square with your left hand and a circle with your right..."

"So you read The Carving too?!"

Li Sushang clapped her hands together, cutting him off excitedly.

"I finally got Amber, your attendant, to find it for me—the only handwritten martial arts novel—and you've read it too?!"

Otto nodded, then said, "Was it difficult to find? There will be a ceremony in a few days, and people from Shenzhou will come to observe. I'll have her bring you several boxes of martial arts novels."

He did not ask why she did not read them on a terminal.

Not everyone liked using electronic devices to read, especially an "ancient person" from five hundred years ago like Li Sushang.

"Many thanks!"

Li Sushang did not stand on ceremony. In high spirits, she clasped her hands in greeting.

"I was planning to bid you farewell now and return when you were ready to do that thing. But in that case, this young lady will stay under your roof for a few more days!"

"Staying a few more days would be better." The blond man nodded. "I have quite a bit of property in Shenzhou as well. Once I've arranged things over there, you can return. That will put my mind more at ease."

"Huh?"

Li Sushang tilted her head with a smile.

"Raksha, you've become more human after five hundred years!"

"That's only toward you, my old friend."

Otto showed a bitter smile.

"Though five hundred years separated us in the slumber of all things, we did walk this road together, after all. Of course I should treat someone from the same point in time as me a little better."

Loneliness overflowed from his tone. Even Cecilia, who did not fully understand their conversation, looked at him with heartache. Yet the girl in yellow tilted her head. "What is a point in time? And what does the slumber of all things mean? Raksha, can you explain it more clearly?"

Otto: ...

His pose had been for nothing.

"I did forget that someone who only thinks about sword practice like you is basically half-illiterate..."

The blond man sighed. He stared seriously at Li Sushang for a long while, his emerald eyes settling on her bewildered figure.

"I mean, of all the Shenzhou people I know, you're the only one I treat this well."

"..."

Li Sushang went numb.

Did he know how devastating a flirtatious line from one's first love was to an ancient girl from the sixteenth century who was only fifteen or sixteen years old? (The five hundred years of slumber did not count.)

No matter how cheesy a pickup line was, it was still a line of affection.

The girl's shyness instantly erupted, and her little face turned so red it seemed ready to drip blood.

She tried to say something more, but no words came out. In the end, she anxiously stamped her foot, stepped onto the Key of Domination, and flew away on her sword at an unbelievable speed.

"She left?"

Cecilia watched her departure with an odd expression. For some reason, she felt a little happy, but when she remembered that Li Sushang had left with a red face, the cowlick on her forehead drooped slightly.

"She is a friend from five hundred years ago."

Otto saw the slight vacancy in her eyes. After a little thought, he guessed why the woman's mood had darkened.

But he did not explain anything.

In matters of affection, one could not indulge the other person blindly. One had to alternate between tension and release, stir the other's emotions, occasionally give them a sense of crisis, and then show tenderness elsewhere. Only then could things progress faster.

And just as he expected, Cecilia was a little sullen.

An intimate moment between two people had suddenly been interrupted by a close friend of the opposite sex. Anyone would be upset.

So Brother... Brother wasn't only this gentle with her...

That was reasonable too. The woman rationally analyzed the matter for herself. That young lady was also an S-rank Valkyrie, so naturally Brother had to treat her a little differently...

But rationality clearly did not ease Cecilia's mind. In her heart, there was always a girl wreathed in black mist, staring greedily and intently at his former first love and current brother. Even Cecilia herself felt a hint of danger.

Brother, when you look at someone else with that kind of gaze, does that mean... someone else can replace Cecilia as your little sister?

That won't do...

I don't want to keep losing things...

I want you to keep doting on me like this...

Even though I've already received so much, Cecilia... is quite a greedy child.

"Tomorrow is Little Goose's S-rank Valkyrie investiture ceremony, as well as your return ceremony."

Otto suddenly spoke, waking Cecilia from the battle between reason and the demon in her heart.

"Ah?—Ah, what is it?"

"Why don't you place the medal on her?"

"That is your authority, Brother."

The white-haired woman's beautiful eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Precisely because it is my authority," Otto said, "I am handing it to you."

Cecilia was not foolish. After the man's brief hint, she immediately understood what it meant.