Three-Way Trial of Vill-V

When the lighting rig descended from the sky, the whole thing could only be described as extremely bizarre. The instant everyone came down, they all vanished—even their pink elf disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Their great magician Vill-V had flawlessly pulled off a multi-person version of making people disappear. If this had been a stage performance, Li Ming figured not only would all the performers vanish, but everyone in the audience would disappear too.

This kind of magic trick was best performed when everyone was leaving. Why not perform it earlier? Because if they did, the show would be over early, and someone might even dismantle the stage—just like that lighting rig.

After everyone came down, Kevin and Chrono, who had just finished showering, destroyed the lighting rig together.

Vill-V furiously pounded the ground, which was covered in yellow juice, accusing them of throwing her away once she had outlived her usefulness. But no matter how bitterly Vill-V protested, she could not stop them from wanting to destroy the lighting rig.

If Elysia and Pardo had not stopped them, Vill-V would probably have been destroyed first.

In the end, Kevin and Chrono made their move. Kevin first drew the Heavenly Fire Greatsword and split the lighting rig into four pieces. Flames then erupted across Chrono's body, soaring into the sky. Not even ashes remained of the lighting rig.

After that incident, no one in the entire Golden Courtyard went out for a full three days. They were all forced to take three days off and, together with a group of children, scrubbed the Golden Courtyard spotless. They did not even spare the leaves of the flowers and grass.

If those children had to write diary entries for their summer homework, this would definitely leave a deep impression on them. Speaking of summer homework, Li Ming suddenly realized that the children were already this old. Why had no one sent them to school?

After thinking it over, though, he realized that, given the orphanage's circumstances, sending every child to school was not very realistic. He had been taking things too much for granted.

But there was nothing they could do about that. His system was just too lousy.

Other people's systems either came with several spaces of their own or gifted them huge villas. Unlike his, which gave him nothing and instead required him to keep putting money into it. His system could not even turn into a cute girl.

No, wait. The more he thought about it, the more something seemed wrong. Better not think about it, lest he get beaten up.

But Adam was different. Kevin and Mei were both here. How could they let Adam keep wandering around like this? That would not do.

Yet when he brought it up with Kevin, Kevin looked at him in confusion and asked seriously, "Isn't Aponia's place the biggest and best kindergarten in the whole city?"

Caught off guard by Kevin's question, Li Ming was dumbfounded. "Huh? Which place are you calling a kindergarten?"

Mei came over at that moment and said, "Yeah. Its official name is an orphanage, its nickname is a convent, and its actual job is being a kindergarten. Elysia was the one who suggested it. I just didn't expect Aponia to agree."

But Li Ming remembered that the system's commission had also called it an orphanage. So the system actually thought it was an orphanage too? The system could make wrong judgments? How embarrassing for it.

Still, the moment he heard the pink elf's name, Li Ming found everything made sense. After all, nothing she did was surprising. She was the cute girl who had once disliked Black Abyss White Flower for not being cute enough.

Even Black Abyss White Flower's activation chant seemed to have been someone's idea.

"I am the black that journeys to hell, the white that comes from heaven, born before creation and existing after annihilation. I shall turn heaven and earth upside down and return order to the world..."

Idea by: Elysia. Execution by: Vill-V.

All he could say was that the Elysian Realm really was full of people who loved a good laugh. This kind of stunt was not surprising at all.

Three days later, the Golden Courtyard unveiled a new production—Three-Way Trial of Vill-V.

Sitting in the central seat on the sofa was Mobius, with Eden and Elysia seated to her left and right. After taking a sip of her homemade test-tube beverage, Mobius decided it was not bad. The green color was especially soothing—at least it was not yellow.

After taking the final sip, Mobius slammed a hand on the remote control. "Guards! Open the court! Bring forth the criminal Vill-V!"

Adam and Kevin stood to the side holding a broom and mop, shouting, "Order in court~"

"My lord, I have been wronged!"

Before Vill-V had even been brought in, her voice carried over from afar. Chrono and Cosmo had to exert tremendous effort to haul the caterpillar-bound Vill-V into the living room. After setting her down, they saw Vill-V lying on the floor and struggling little by little.

"You are the mastermind behind defiling the Golden Courtyard. Do you have any grievance..."

After saying that, Mobius glanced to either side. Eden was still calmly drinking tea, though for some reason her wine-red hair seemed slightly lighter in color. Elysia was merely smiling, clearly there to enjoy the show. Seeing that neither of them spoke—

Mobius tossed the test tube in her hand onto the floor. "If she has no grievance, drag her away and execute her!"

Perhaps the test tube was simply too well made, because it merely rolled around twice without breaking. Mobius was left thoroughly embarrassed, but she was too ashamed to go pick it up.

At that moment, Pardo dove forward, picked up the test tube, and hugged it to her chest. With grievance on her little face, she cried, "She does have a grievance, my lord! Vill-V tricked me. She said she would help me find Canned Food, but before Canned Food has even been found, she's getting executed. Isn't that unfair to me? Please, my lord, show some mercy..."

Pardo secretly pretended to wipe away a tear, then glanced at Li Ming, who was holding up a sign beside her. "Oh, right, show mercy. Let this criminal find Canned Food before coming back to confess her crimes."

"What crime have I committed? I'm innocent!" Vill-V had completely let herself go by then and began improvising freely.

Su and Hua, the editors of this play, frowned from the side. The performance had started deviating from the script from the very beginning. Mobius was supposed to hear Vill-V's appeal, but who knew she would sentence her without even holding a trial?

Vill-V had begun improvising too. She could not even be bothered to plead her case. In the original script, Vill-V was supposed to go up and complain, "Yes, yes, let me perform one more Canned Food disappearance trick before I die!"

Now, they had no idea how to carry the plot forward.

Still, it was not easy for them to have persisted this long. None of them had particularly calm temperaments, so lasting this far was truly impressive.

"How dare you! You still dare to rebel?" Mobius frowned and raised her hand to smash the remote control on the floor. Fortunately, Griseo rushed over to protect her remote control for the sake of her future TV privileges.

Otherwise, the remote control would probably have been smashed to pieces.

"So what if I rebel? Let me tell you, I've already kidnapped Klein. If you don't release me, I'll make sure Klein dies without a body left behind!" A cloud of smoke exploded, and Vill-V broke free of the ropes and leaped out.

She held the bound Klein in one hand and the remote control in the other. Klein was still sleeping groggily. Even with all this noise, she showed no sign of waking up.

"Release Klein at once!" Mobius's voice turned cold. Vill-V merely shook Klein around and laughed arrogantly. "Hahaha! Klein is in my hands! I shall use Klein to command Mobius!"

"Hm? What's going on, Doctor? Why am I here? I must have gone too long without sleep. This has to be a dream." Klein woke briefly in her daze, but thinking she was dreaming, she fell asleep again.

Just as Mobius was overwhelmed with grief and Vill-V was full of herself, Elysia rose to the occasion. Joining forces with Eden, she seized control of the Golden Courtyard and had Kevin, Adam, Cosmo, and Chrono apprehend Mobius and Vill-V together.

"Guards! Give each of them fifty strokes and lock them in solitary confinement for ten days. As for Klein, sentence her to two days of sleep!"

Sakura and Rin quietly emerged and silently dragged the two away. Soon, heart-wrenching cries rang out from the room.

At that point, the play came to an end. The children sitting in rows in the living room all began clapping. "That was amazing!"

"Big Brother Adam was so cool!"

"Little Sister Elysia was awesome!"

That's right, this play had been put on to make it up to the children. Though most of it had gone off-script, it had turned out well overall. At the very least, it successfully made those children forget about what had happened the night before.

But although it was just a play, someone had taken it seriously. Pardo looked utterly confused, with tears still on her face.

"What? Sister Mobius and Sister Vill-V were both locked up? Then who will help me find Canned Food?"

Poor Pardo's eyes brimmed with tears. No one dared meet her gaze, while Elysia pushed Li Ming in front of her. "Isn't Ming still here? Let Ming go with you!"

Li Ming also saw the marker light up above Pardo's head and went along with it to trigger the dialogue. "It's okay, Pardo. I can help you find Canned Food."

"Really? Big Brother Li Ming, you're the best!" Pardo looked at Li Ming through tearful eyes, her eyes slightly red and swollen. Though Li Ming felt a little unsure, he thought of his doll costume. It was not as if he had no backup plan, so he nodded heavily.

The moment Pardo saw Li Ming agree, her tears immediately vanished. "Really? That's great!"

Then Pardo charged straight toward the room where Vill-V was being held. "Then rebel! Charge! Kill that traitor!"

"Obviously, she's overly excited." Su glanced at Pardo, whom Li Ming was holding back, and somehow produced a medical record book.

Hua did not see it that way. "This is more like the great ups and downs of life. The shock got to her."

"Stop chatting, you two! Help me hold Pardo back!" Li Ming grabbed Pardo's hand, only for a cat tail to suddenly pop out and slap him across the face several times.

"My, everyone certainly is energetic, aren't they, my dear Eden?"

Elysia wrapped an arm around Eden's waist. Eden merely held up her wineglass and clinked it against Aponia's.

After the children had their fun, they began getting sleepy. They were not especially energetic to begin with, so Hua and Li Ming led the children back to the orphanage, since both of them had experience taking care of children there.

Pardo followed right behind them. She did not move closer or say much—she simply stared longingly at Li Ming, afraid that if she looked away for even a moment, he would run off.