I'm Not a Flame-Chaser

Lin stared at the girl with a strange look in her eyes, while the girl's initial hostility turned into confusion about herself. She seemed unable to believe that her attack had been so easily neutralized by a human.

Of course, the girl—whether human or not—wouldn't immediately suspect something was wrong with her. While twisting her graceful body to try and break free from Lin's grasp, she stretched out her finger adorned with a purple cot and let out a charming roar, "Die! Human!"

"..."

Generally speaking, some works of art contain the idealistic notion that the louder the sound, the higher the output. However, the gray-haired girl's actions confirm that her world does not have this notion. Therefore, her actions, which seem to be about to launch a railgun, are like a special effects movie without special effects—she looks like a madwoman who has escaped from a mental hospital and is shouting that she can't tell the difference, she really can't tell the difference.

And so, Lin and the gray-haired girl stared at each other, in an awkward atmosphere where nothing had actually happened...

The "Departure" of the Heavens: Chapter Forty-Nine - A Fifty-Thousand-Year-Old Man Deceives a Young Dragon in His Decades

"..."

"..."

No matter how high a creature's intelligence is, it will be limited by the era and its own knowledge reserves. Even if Zhuge Liang were given a blueprint for a steam engine, he would not be able to manufacture it. As for whether giving Zhuge Liang instant noodles or pork trotter rice would have led to the success of the Northern Expedition, we will not go into details here.

So when the gray-haired girl's attack was blocked by a frail human, her hind limbs were easily grabbed, and her proud ability was as useless as if she were constipated—perhaps excrement would come out before her ability—her first thought was... what the despicable human had done to her.

"Ah--"

She tried to grab the feet of the man in front of her, who didn't even acknowledge her, but she was far shorter and had a shorter reach than him. As a result, her movements were like a fish pulled out of a river, jumping around by its tail but not affecting anyone else at all.

Lin Moran carefully observed the gray-haired girl's behavior. From her words, "Go to hell, human!", he could tell that she either wanted to play some strange game with him, or that, as Yae Sakura had said, the girl in front of him was not human at all.

"The Herrscher?"

Lin picked up the girl and swung her around like a windmill without any pity. The light and delicate gray-haired girl was so shaken that she almost fainted. Her brain was congested with blood, and she was dizzy, so her hands fell limply.

"..."

Lin stared at the girl who had no power to resist. To be honest, he couldn't associate this girl who acted cute with Herrscher. The only thing that reminded him of Herrscher was that the clothes they were wearing were very "fashionable".

"Who are you?"

Lin looked around, then picked up a hemp rope from beside the shrine's well and quickly tied the dizzy, drunk girl to a torii gate pillar.

After resting for a while and feeling better, she started glaring at Lin with her beautiful eyes, baring her teeth and looking fierce.

"Human, let me go... Where have you taken Her Majesty the Queen?!"

"Your Majesty Queen?"

As he pondered this, Lin looked up and glanced at the cloudless blue sky. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Yae Village gave him a very "comfortable" feeling, including the weather. It was practically the "most suitable" weather for humans.

The girl roared at the thoughtful man, "You smell like Her Majesty the Queen! What have you done to Her Majesty the Queen?!"

... Could it be that Lin's estimation was wrong? The girl wasn't from his era, but rather belonged to the era of Yae Village? Otherwise, how could he explain her referring to her as "Your Majesty"? Logically speaking, modern civilization is no longer in a feudal era, so where would a queen still exist?

No matter what questions Lin asked the girl, even if he asked her who the Queen was, she would become extremely agitated and spit as she questioned Lin about what he had done to the "Queen," insisting that Lin was the murderer who had taken away her "Queen."

... It seems that no matter what he says, Lin has to deal with the "Queen" issue first.

"Her..."

Lin spoke casually, as if he didn't care at all, which made the girl shut up for the first time. She stared intently at Lin, or rather, she was watching him closely, waiting for him to continue.

"She has to leave for a while and asked me to take care of you first."

"Fraud!"

As soon as she spoke, the girl retorted loudly, which was exactly what Lin expected. What he wanted to know was what she would say next.

"How could Her Majesty the Queen possibly allow a human like you to be her companion!"

"..."

A cold glint flashed in Lin's eyes, his black pupils like sharpened blades concealed in their sheaths. He continued to coax the girl into speaking, "How do you know she doesn't allow humans to be her companions? What's the difference between her and humans?"

To Lin's surprise, instead of saying that the Queen was completely different from lowly races, the girl spoke with disdain and contempt, as he had expected. Instead, her sky-blue eyes flashed with complex light as she murmured a sentence.

"Your Majesty... is a god."

After learning about the girl's non-human identity, Lin tied her to the torii gate and stood alone in the open space, contemplating the matter.

So far, strange things have been everywhere.

Yae Sakura is definitely not an ordinary human; she might be a Herrscher. But the villagers seem quite accustomed to the animal ears on her head—fox? pink donkey? rabbit?—that even the Previous Civilization couldn't identify. Is this related to the beliefs of Yae Village?

Lin always scrutinizes information through small details. There are many fox statues in Yae Village, and you can also see fox wood carvings in the shrine. The village's faith is probably some unknown Fox God. The animal ears on Yae Sakura's head may be regarded by the villagers as a symbol of the Miko's divine power. In addition, with the existence of "demon beasts", it is not so unacceptable that the Fox God bestows blessings on the Miko maiden.

The problem is... why are there monsters? The Honkai Energy in this area is so abundant that even Honkai Beast are no longer a novelty to the villagers? Lin can only think that Yae Sakura, as Herrscher, causes Honkai Beast to keep being born in the area, but the villagers are not affected by the Honkai Energy, which is very puzzling.

As for the gray-haired girl...

Recalling how Lin was swallowed by dragon-type Honkai Beast before he arrived in Yae Village, and seeing the canines in the gray-haired girl's mouth, and how she kept calling her "Queen" and "human," Lin had a bold idea.

If Yae Sakura wasn't lying, and the gray-haired girl wasn't just having a fit of chuunibyou (middle school syndrome), then she's a Honkai creature. The only one who fits Lin's understanding is that she's Herrscher.

But how could Herrscher submit to someone else? They are at the very top of the Honkai creature, and it can be said that the gap between Herrscher and an ordinary Honkai creature is even greater than the gap between a human and Honkai Beast.

Then there might only be one left...

Upper-class Honkai Beast.

When Herrscher is born, Companion Honkai Beast may descend upon the world. These Companion Honkai Beast are often extremely loyal to the Herrscher, and their relationship is essentially that of a superior and a subordinate.

If the gray-haired girl is indeed that dragon-type Honkai Beast, then her hostility towards Lin, her mention of "Queen," and the queen-like aura emanating from him can all be explained.

But another problem arises.

... This isn't a novel. The Honkai Beast transforms into a humanoid beautiful girl. Is this a function that the Honkai evolved to accommodate the increasing number of otaku in the world?

"The queen you're talking about, is she a girl with long white hair and blue... gold eyes?"

Lin originally wanted to say Kiana's eye color, but when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he hesitated for half a second and changed it to gold.

"You know perfectly well why I'm asking!"

The gray-haired girl glared resentfully at the man whose expression remained unchanged.

"... That makes sense, she did ask me to take care of you."

Lin made up a story without thinking.

The "Departure" of the Heavens: Chapter Fifty is Not Reality

"Everything you're doing now is nothing but digging your own grave. Once I have complete control of this body, I will personally... crush your ridiculous mask, you ant!"

Lin remembered what Kiana's Herrscher consciousness, filled with murderous intent, had said to him: the erosion from the two Herrscher Core was no longer something that could be overcome by willpower alone. Even if Kiana could truly control the Herrscher Authority, as long as the Herrscher consciousness and the two cores existed, the erosion against her would not stop.

Therefore, no matter what method is used, Lin must make Kiana completely defeat the Herrscher consciousness, and the Honkai Beast girl in front of him, who is most likely a familiar of the Herrscher of the Void, will be a good source of information.

All of this is based on the premise that the gray-haired girl is a "person" who can communicate and pose a threat similar to that of an ordinary girl. Since this is the first time she has encountered Honkai Beast that can transform into a human form and speak human language, the Honkai Beast she has encountered in the past were all monsters that opened their bloody mouths and could suffocate a pig, and only knew how to destroy. Therefore, Lin did not know whether her lie would work.

After all, the gray-haired girl wasn't clueless or ignorant. She wasn't surprised at all that she had transformed into human form and could even have a normal conversation with Lin, which meant that this wasn't the first time she had taken this form. She was mentally mature and had a much higher IQ than ordinary Honkai Beast.

"You attacked me and then claimed that Her Majesty the Queen asked you to take care of me?"

The gray-haired girl's hostility towards him clearly stemmed mostly from the fact that he jumped off the plane and poked her wound, leaving a strong first impression. The concept of Lin as an enemy was deeply imprinted in her mind.

"If you caused a civil aircraft crash, someone would come to deal with you immediately, so I told you to stay away from the plane." Unfortunately, even though the gray-haired girl's intelligence was equivalent to that of an eighteen-year-old and a five-year-old compared to a typical Honkai Beast, the gap between her and Lin was still as long as fifty thousand years. Lin could easily give her more than twenty reasons in a second, leaving her speechless.

However, this was not a debate. Lin was not trying to defeat the gray-haired girl, but to get her to accept his point of view, so his words and tone were very gentle.

Although the gray-haired girl didn't understand what civil aviation was, her pretty face immediately darkened when she heard that someone was coming to deal with her.

"So what... I want to go back to Her Majesty the Queen... She's waiting for me..."

"..."

Lin noticed the girl's unwilling look, but he calmly said, "I'll take you to find her when we get back."

"Do you... know where Her Majesty the Queen is?"

"I already told you that she asked me to take care of you."

The gray-haired girl's sky-blue eyes were like a pool of autumn water, reflecting the sky of the same color, making Lin associate her with that dragon-type Honkai Beast for the first time.

"If you dare lie to me, I'll eat you up." The gray-haired girl reluctantly gave in, twisting her bound and immobile body as she said uncomfortably, "My name is Bella, who are you?"

"My name is Lin." Lin neatly untied the knot, and the hemp rope fell to the ground, making the red marks on the girl's body particularly conspicuous. "Also, you've already eaten me once."

Currently, it appears that Bella, the Honkai Beast with only her own name, harbors hostility towards Rin because of Rin himself, rather than because of Rin's human identity.

This is actually quite subtle; in this way, Bella is really too special...

Now that they were on the same page, Bella could only grit her teeth in resentment and did not attack Lin again. After escaping, she looked around and showed unusual confusion.

Where... am I?

"... I have another question for you."

"And why am I able to turn into this again..."

Again? Can?

Bella looked at her slender fingers adorned with purple finger cots and her unintentional murmur was overheard by Lin without missing a single word. In other words, her ability to transform into human form was not something she could control.

In addition, her performance was completely like that of an ordinary little girl, unable to use even a trace of Honkai Energy...

Speaking of which, hasn't Yae Sakura been gone for too long?

Even without an accurate timekeeping tool, one can roughly estimate the time based on physical sensations and changes in the direction of an object's shadow Yae Sakura has been gone for nearly an hour.

Judging from the conversation between the villagers and Yae Sakura, they were probably just dealing with matters within the village, so it shouldn't have taken so long.

Already harboring deep suspicions about Yae Village, Lin's brows were now furrowed even more deeply.

"Let's quickly leave this place and go find Lady Lin, the Queen of the Three Kingdoms." (Bella, however, was completely oblivious to the unusual environment she was in, and it didn't attract her attention. She just felt like she had come to an unfamiliar place.)

"We shouldn't leave here."

After pondering for a while, Lin looked at the Yae Village, which was located on the mountainside outside the torii gate.

Then, their gaze fell upon a building that seemed out of place but was equally striking.

That building felt completely out of place.

"Can't leave?" Bella was taken aback, not understanding Lin's statement.

"You had an injury before, do you still have it?"

"..."

During the brief battle earlier, Lin noticed a wound on Bella's wing, but now the girl's skin was smooth and without any marks, not even a bruise.

In addition, considering Bella's statement that she did not intentionally become like this and that she was completely unable to use any abilities, Lin thought of a possibility.

He bent down, rolled up his shirt, and removed the bandage from his waist.

Really.

The wound that should have been still healing under the bandage had vanished.

"What on earth is going on?" Bella was now confused. Decades ago, after Her Majesty the Queen healed her, she gained the ability to transform into human form and think, but she lost it after that battle. Could it be that her once shattered "core" had recovered?

"This isn't the real world," Lin revealed, stroking his chin and shaking his head. "But it's not an ordinary consciousness space either..."

The consciousness space needs a person's consciousness as an anchor point to construct the consciousness world through cognition. However, neither the people of Yae Village nor Lin know Bella's human form, Bella does not know Yae Village. Therefore, the consciousness anchor point is someone who knows Bella's human form and also knows Yae Village.

"Yae Sakura..."

Lin narrowed his eyes as he spoke of the most suspicious and shady name.

"Let's go."

Lin Ruying's sharp gaze fell upon Yae Village on the mountainside.

Where to?

Bella, who hadn't fully processed the situation, asked in confusion.

"Go find a way to get you back to your Queen."

The structure of Yae Village is not much different from that of a typical medieval Far East village, except that stone statues of fox gods can be seen everywhere in the village.

Lin noticed something else while searching for Yae Sakura.

The villagers didn't seem to have much reverence for the fox god; some of the stone statues were left uncleaned and covered in dust and cobwebs.

"Where is your village's Miko?" Lin asked a Yae Sakura villager, accompanied by a girl who seemed unsure of what to do.

"Who?"