Ever since I joined the Inquisition, I have been through several battles. Quite a few of them could even be considered battles to "save the world," but never once have I been this nervous and uneasy. I know exactly why. In our previous battles, Duanmu Mr. was either by our side or behind us. That made us feel very reassured. At the very least, whenever we encountered something we could not deal with, we knew there was someone who could solve it.
But now he was standing opposite us.
Everyone was a little uneasy and nervous. Actually, I was wondering if this might also be some kind of plan on Duanmu Mr.'s part. Based on my experience, he often made strange moves without offering any explanation, and only afterward did we learn what had prompted his decisions. I had spoken with several others, and they held similar optimistic hopes—as if Duanmu Mr. would immediately turn around and become our companion the moment he saw us.
However, I also knew that this was merely an optimistic expectation, and that it was highly unlikely to become reality. Duanmu Mr. had said more than once, "Expect nothing, and you won't be hurt." He seemed to mean that we should not expect circumstances to change, but focus on what we had to do in front of us... I did not know whether that interpretation was correct, but I had to admit that I had benefited greatly from those words.
Since some readers had written to ask why I rarely described the romantic relationship between myself and Duanmu Mr. in my novels, my answer was... it was not that I was hiding those relationships for some reason. Rather, from an ordinary person's perspective, there was nothing romantic about interacting with Duanmu Mr. To put it