This Won't Do

Huanyue had thought today would be another warm, ordinary day.

When she woke early in the morning, she found the bed completely empty. The quilt had been folded neatly, and the sheets were smooth, as though they had been tidied.

Qian Huanyue stretched, closed her eyes, and lazily let out a breath. Ripples that were far from calm stirred in her violet eyes.

Her silver hair was a mess, and any thought of going back to sleep had vanished. Rubbing the corner of her eye, she instinctively said, "Kuo..."

Hm?

Huanyue's voice caught midway through the word.

She blinked and became fully awake.

Come to think of it... this place, this room, this city—all of it felt like somewhere entirely unfamiliar in her current memories.

Last night, she had secretly opened her phone browser beneath the covers and pulled up a map, searching over and over, yet she had found no information whatsoever about the city she had once known.

Sure enough... in a sense, this was another world, wasn't it?

She summoned [Featherheal Sovereign] and played with the floating angel for a while.

Come to think of it...

How could her illness have recovered so quickly and so smoothly?

Rather than dwelling on things she could not understand for now...

She should go downstairs and make breakfast. Rinne probably would not have gotten up early to help prepare things, like she had yesterday, right? She needed to lend a hand.

She dismissed the angel and stepped barefoot onto the faintly cool floor.

Thinking that, she began walking quietly, intending to sneak close when she went downstairs and give Rinne a fright.

As she reached the turn in the stairs, before she even entered the living room, faint, intermittent murmurs drifted into her ears.

"..." As though she had heard