"Of course I'd be embarrassed to do something like that, but kissing is absolutely not supposed to happen this way. The normal way would be for me to invite Cheng-kun to the fireworks festival before the holiday, put on a kimono, pretend I'd twisted my ankle, and have Cheng-kun carry me up the mountain. I'd press close against his back, feeling his body heat."
"Then, when the fireworks festival was over, Cheng-kun would watch the fireworks while I secretly watched him beneath them. I'd gaze at his eyes reflecting their dazzling colors, and when he finally noticed me looking and turned around, we'd meet each other's gaze completely by surprise. He'd see himself in my eyes and the bashfulness on my face. I'd see the dazed look in his eyes, and how radiant he looked beneath the fireworks."
As she spoke, Raiden Mei seemed to be drawn into the scene herself. Her deep-purple eyes grew dreamy, like a spring pool stirred into ripples, brimming with warmth and bewitching charm. Her words were so romantic that it was hard not to be swept up in them, captivated by the vivid image of a fireworks festival unfolding right before their eyes.
"At that moment, there should be a 'bam!' as the grand finale fireworks are launched, lighting up the whole sky. It would be as if the stars had secretly hidden all the flowers on the ground, then dropped them in a panic. At the height of the festival, I'd face him as he stood there stunned, rise onto my tiptoes, and then..."
[Then you wouldn't even get to see his taillights.]
The voice in her mind offered its merciless assessment without hesitation.
[You haven't already forgotten how deep Cyrene and Jiang Cheng's feelings for each other are, have you?]
Raiden Mei was instantly left speechless.
The words caught in her throat, refusing to come out. Even her dreamy, intoxicated gaze was broken, like a mischievous child had tossed a stone into a clear spring.
"That still doesn't give you the right to take Cheng-kun's first time."
[I'm Raiden Mei too.]
42. Thunder Queen: That's Not How You Date
"----!!!"
In those hot-blooded manga, the most common predicament for a male lead facing his own rampaging power was that the other person rejected his gentle personality and refused to believe he was the male lead.
Raiden Mei had once worried about what she would do if she encountered a situation like that.
—She wasn't worried anymore.
What hot-blooded protagonist's rampaging self would fight the male lead over the heroine? And use the excuse that she was also the male lead? If an author wrote a story like that, wouldn't they get flamed?
"Ahhhhh—!"
"Kill me! You lunatic... you lunatic!"
—Their less-than-pleasant exchange was interrupted by a scream.
Raiden Mei's gaze turned razor-sharp. She took several deep breaths before managing to suppress the urge to summon ten thousand bolts of lightning and reduce Cocolia to ash.
Killing her like that would be a kind of release for Cocolia.
By comparison...
Keeping Cocolia locked up in a state between life and death, and watching the agony she showed after being drenched in molten iron—just seeing it made Raiden Mei feel as if she could eat three extra bowls of rice.
Especially with her authority in the mix. She could send down a bolt of lightning from time to time to give Cocolia a little bonus.
However...
Her delight lasted only a moment.
That was because Kiana's muttered "dummy" was so clear in her ears, and she wasn't making the slightest effort to keep it down.
Raiden Mei could easily pick up on the two of them calling each other big dummy like a pair of lovesick fools.
"I'm sorry. You were the one who was right."
She apologized to herself without hesitation.
[...]
[...How did you get there so fast, too?!]
[That's not how you're supposed to date! Shouldn't you talk more first, then raise Jiang Cheng's affection level? Give Jiang Cheng gifts now and then, and have some kind of special interaction with him on a special holiday... At the very least, you should have a relationship where you save each other. A prince who's the only one for a delicate princess...]
Raiden Mei's face went dark. She couldn't help smacking her forehead with her palm.
She kind of wanted to take back her apology.
How to put it?
—No wonder she'd come from Raiden Mei. Deep down, she was still all bark and no bite... Could even that decisive streak of hers just be recklessness?
The more she thought about it, the more depressing it became. Better not to think about it.
At least let me believe I'm the protagonist of a hot-blooded manga, will you?!
To be honest, Jiang Cheng wanted to lie there just like that.
He wanted to lie there until dusk swallowed the bright sky, then watch night swallow dusk in turn.
Maybe wasting time like this was beautiful in its own way. Maybe lying here with Kiana and watching the clouds didn't count as a waste of time at all.
But unfortunately, he still had things to do. And the dark canopy of clouds on the other side had already begun to spread. If he stayed there for even a few more minutes, there probably wouldn't be any clouds or dusk left to watch—only silver-white dragons of lightning winding across the sky. They might not strike anyone, but they'd still be enough to make a person's nerves fray.
Time to go.
Jiang Cheng sat up and said goodbye to Kiana before turning to leave.
In an instant, he crossed a distance of a thousand meters. He didn't even kick up any dust when he landed.
"Eh? Eh...?"
"It's me, your very, very, very, very best friend."
Turning around, he faced the familiar girl.
His renewed vision made it seem as though he could pick out details more perfect and exquisite than ever in a form he'd already seen countless times.
There were no flaws whatsoever. She was divine—so perfect and beyond reproach in every way that Jiang Cheng, who had only just seen an Aeon, couldn't help imagining she possessed the same majestic, dazzling beauty.
Even though dust coated her purple coat and her white slip dress had turned gray, even though it was as if she'd been carved from snow, no amount of grime on her skin could hide her heart-stopping beauty.
Cyrene was looking at him, too.
No matter how many times she saw his left hand, it made her heart ache, as if someone were roughly squeezing her stomach.
But now, there was no trace of anything rotten or disgusting. Even the purple that made her feel as if her heart might stop had been replaced by dazzling, radiant gold. Golden patterns burned across it like molten gold in motion.
"A-Cheng, what happened to you...?"
"In a way, I've become a Chrysos Heir."
"Eh—!"
Perhaps because the news was so shocking, Cyrene didn't realize what had happened at first.
Only when he held out his left hand and showed her the dazzling patterns wrapped around his arm did the stunned look on her face bloom into joy.
"That's... that's wonderful! A-Cheng, you don't have to worry about Honkai Energy Erosion anymore. Now we can go study in Janusapolis together and become priests of Oronis."
"..."
The excitement in Jiang Cheng's heart suddenly dimmed a little.
In the end, even after obtaining this power, he still couldn't go back and defeat Laigushi. The shadow behind it all still remained.
There was no point thinking that far ahead.
Jiang Cheng clenched his left hand, as if he meant to grasp the blazing, majestic sun in the sky.
"Anyway, let's enjoy the fruits of our victory first and test our combat strength while we're at it. Then—we'll get stronger in this world!"
"By the way, Cyrene, it didn't hurt you, did it?"
"Nope. And I beat them so badly they were running around like headless chickens. I was almost about to win even before you showed up, A-Cheng."
"But it was really cool when you took down that tin-can man with one arrow." Cyrene clenched her little fists, her pink-and-blue eyes blinking. "Is this what they call a hero saving a beauty? It made my heart race~"
"I wouldn't say that. You could've handled Grey Snake by yourself. And actually, he was running with his tail between his—"
"Never mind. This suits you better."
Looking at the girl's adorable expression, Jiang Cheng promptly gave up on correcting her choice of words.
"So those crystals were your power?"
"A-Cheng is still so clever~"
"Do I get a little praise?"
Cyrene brought her hands together with a clap, tilting her little head to the side. Her eyes and brows curved into gentle crescents.
"...Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'm not even a little bit hurt~ My body and my heart are both super, super healthy."
Cyrene rushed over, her fingertips—smoother than the finest silk—lightly curling around his arm.
Her voice was like melted strawberry candy, so sweet it seemed to stretch into strings. She gently tilted her head, and the ends of her hair brushed Jiang Cheng's arm, tickling him faintly.
It was perfectly natural, that effortless intimacy—and someone else witnessed it, too.
"That's good."
Jiang Cheng believed her without hesitation.
The thought that she might hide her troubles to keep him from worrying appeared for only a moment before he dismissed it.
She wouldn't be that foolish.
She should know better than anyone just how important Cyrene was to him.
More important than the parents who'd given him a second life.
43. The Victors Make the Rules? Cocolia, You Don't Even Qualify
In everyday life, Cyrene was like a mother, a little sister, and even a daughter to him.
She would smile warmly and look after him like a mother, helping him survive when he first arrived;
she would also blink playfully like a little sister and take him to all sorts of places, her feet carrying them across all of Aedes Elysiae;
and sometimes she would sit on his lap and let him hold her like a daughter, listening to his stories. Or she would turn the pages of a book beneath the setting sun, calling out to him with an air of innocence. Every time, though, she would make his gaze meet that of the girl who had quietly turned her head toward him in the sunset, their eyes colliding squarely.
Her pink bangs would sway softly in the breeze, yet somehow her clear eyes seemed to blur and fade, like something straight out of a manga.
If Cyrene died, he didn't know what would become of him.
Even if she wanted to protect him, Cyrene would never arrogantly hide anything that was wrong with her.
Sigh. They cared for each other without holding anything back...
If only he could run away with Cyrene, fleeing beneath the sunlight in a grand escape. If only she didn't care so much about the world, didn't love it so much.
Unfortunately, that wish was nothing but a fantasy.
He shook his head.
There was no point imagining the impossible. At least he didn't need to think about it until he hit a wall. For now, all he needed to do was keep moving forward and work hard to grow stronger.
—Now all that was left was Mei.
She still hadn't set foot on the ground. She remained high in the sky, and only the flashes of lightning in the endless, darkened canopy of clouds revealed her mood.
"Mei?" Jiang Cheng called up to the sky tentatively.
"...I'm here."
Raiden Mei answered at once, but she didn't come down. She remained hidden in the thunderclouds.
Kiana was a little too far away to hear him, but the moment she realized it was his voice, she jumped up where she stood and waved back from a distance.
"I'm over here, Jiang Cheng~!"
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