She awoke.
Monrojina, Imperial Sequence's master of Ritual Cards.
Seeing the sorry state she was in, she blinked and spoke softly.
"Thank you, Ye Qiyan, you..."
"No need to thank me."
Ye Qiyan shook his head, cutting off what Monrojina was about to say.
"Just remember to pay me back."
He did nothing more and turned to leave.
"Wait, Ye Qiyan!"
Monrojina called his name again.
"Hmm? Oh, here, take this back."
He thought Monrojina meant the Ritual Card and casually tossed Cause and Effect Recompense back to her.
The card did not seem to have changed.
It still bore twelve Dark-Gold Chains that looked as though they had always been there.
Hmm?
Dark gold?
Ye Qiyan did not dwell on it. It was Card Sequence, after all; nothing that happened would be strange.
"That wasn't what I meant."
Monrojina held her lower abdomen and looked at Ye Qiyan with a complicated expression.
What did she want to say?
Yet she did not know how to put it into words.
"I..."
"Being this conflicted isn't like you. As for why I saved you, it was just a transaction. Don't overthink it. Anyway, until you've repaid all your Karma, stop thinking about jumping off a building to kill yourself and wipe out your debts."
Monrojina suddenly smiled.
"Right, so that wasn't what I meant, either."
She took a deep breath, condensing the countless words in her heart into a single sentence.
"Thank you."
"I accept~"
Ye Qiyan smiled back at her.
Saving someone at minimal cost and gaining a useful favor.
Then getting a painless word of thanks at the end-why not?
"I'm off, I'm off. If you're going to attempt the King's Authority Pathway again, you'd better not die."
He left, taking his Train with him.
Monrojina stood where she