The scene before Doreen's eyes: a tightly bound, tearful princess, an evil dragon recklessly intent on killing herself, Little Yellow Chick standing on Hera's shoulder arguing, and Winslow sitting off to the side, watching the show as she took out the dried apples she had brought.
What even was all this? Was there a single normal person here?
Doreen was extremely efficient. She picked Luoleila up with one hand and tossed her beside the evil dragon, then threw two knives down before them.
"Kill her, and you can regain your freedom and go back to being a princess."
"You can also kill her and erase the marriage record between a dragon and a human woman."
"It was only a fleeting romance. There is no need to dwell on it."
Doreen handled the matter impartially, watching the two of them with cold eyes. Little Yellow Chick objected again. They had to be reasonable about this! Just as she was about to chirp out an argument, Winslow scooped her up and stuffed a strip of dried apple into her mouth.
"Quiet. Her Majesty and Doreen will make their own decisions."
Fine, then. From the sound of it, Winslow meant they had prepared for this long ago. What was she worrying about? A salted fish should just lie back.
She began gnawing on the dried apple. Winslow really was good at this; it had been dried just right, soft and sweet. Li Jia loved sweets. Life was bitter enough already. Eating something sweet would release a little dopamine.
Winslow took the opportunity to stroke her feathers a couple of times. They were soft and fluffy. No wonder Her Majesty never wanted to let go.
But Li Jia felt that Winslow's technique wasn't as good as Hera's. Her strokes weren't as comfortable.
After a while, the show finally approached its end.
Neither Luoleila nor the evil dragon was willing to kill the other. They chose to die together and asked Doreen to do it.
Doreen showed little expression as she untied Luoleila and stepped back a few paces. She offered no comment on this outcome.
The blond, red-eyed woman revealed her true form, her oppressive aura spreading throughout the castle. Her expression was cold and stern. "In that case, I do have a way."
"Lorella Pokape, are you willing to abandon the glory and protection of Bokape and be only yourself?"
Luoleila understood what Hera meant and wept with joy. She knelt before her, nervously biting her lower lip as she said expectantly, "I am. It's what I've dreamed of all my life."
"Then I will remove the surname Pokape for you. From now on, you will be only Luoleila. Have you thought this through? You will cast aside everything belonging to the Pokape Dynasty and become a commoner."
At the same time, Hera said to Mofeiliya, "Mofeiliya, she will lose the surname Pokape and no longer be a princess of noble blood. Are you still willing to marry her?"
The red-haired woman knelt beside her wife. She removed her gloves that shielded her from the sun and took Luoleila's hand, interlacing their fingers. "I didn't marry her because she was a princess. What does who she is have to do with me? All I know is that I want to take care of her and share all her suffering. That's enough."
"I will cleanse all the blood from her body. I will need your heart's blood as the source of her new bloodline. Are you willing?"
Exchanging heart's blood meant pain equivalent to having one's heart gouged out.
"I am."
Mofeiliya did not hesitate in the slightest. This was already the best possible ending.
From the day she and Luoleila formed their bond and entered the marriage records, she had prepared for the worst: to face life and death with her.
Little Yellow Chick was moved to tears. Throughout history, in every fairy tale, it was always a male character who served as the hero, defeating the evil dragon and rescuing the dodder flower who was supposed to cling to him, thus achieving a happy ending.
But Li Jia felt that what saved a princess was never a knight or a prince, but the princess's courage called love.
Besides, the evil dragon had carried the princess home without hurting her. The princess had gained the freedom she wanted.
If this wasn't true love, what was? This was absolutely fucking true love!
Holding Judgment of the Dao, Hera slit the princess's wrist, then used her sword to open a narrow cut in Mofeiliya's chest as well. With divine power, Hera linked their blood and began the exchange.
The pain beneath her chest burned like wildfire, spreading from the wound throughout her limbs and body. Gritting her teeth, Mofeiliya tried to push herself up, but a tearing pain suddenly shot through her ribs, as though something had snapped. Every breath brought a sharp, serrated pain that forced a muffled groan from her.
Luoleila was little better off. Cold sweat streamed along her jaw and beneath her collar, splashing onto the ground to form puddles of bloody water, spreading in little bright-red ripples.
All the red blood in Luoleila's body was replaced by Mofeiliya's green blood.
Once the blood exchange ritual was complete, both lay collapsed on the ground, drenched in sweat and unable to move.
"From now on, Bokape will no longer have a princess named Luoleila. You are only Mofeiliya's wife."
Hera brought out the marriage records and erased her surname with divine power.
From then on, Luoleila no longer had any entanglements or ties with Bokape.
"Mofeiliya, you deceived the contract vessel. Your punishment is that you may not leave the Eternal Rift for a hundred years."
Mofeiliya caught her breath, struggled to her feet, and supported her wife as she thanked the goddess of marriage. She knew this was Hera's gift to them.
Without the constraints of Bokape, no outsider could ever submit a bond petition concerning Luoleila again.
Routine procedure.
The matter had been handled and the problem resolved, so the bond petition would disperse on its own. It was the same as resolving a case in modern society. This was equivalent to closing the case.
Pokape II had never imagined that Luoleila would willingly give up her surname to become an evil dragon's wife. In a fit of rage, he struck Luoleila from the royal register. She was no longer of Bokape's bloodline.
Somehow, word leaked out, and Pokape II learned that the eldest princess was not his biological daughter and that the queen had cuckolded him. He immediately announced that the wedding would proceed as scheduled, with the eldest princess taking the place of the princess in the marriage alliance. The queen was sent along as part of her dowry. The queen's lover, a priest in the palace, was sentenced by the king to a brutal execution, hanged at the crossroads and left exposed to the blazing sun in the street.
Just before they returned, Li Jia remembered the two little goldfish Hera had caught in a glass bottle. By then, Li Jia had left the demon's lair and regained her human form.
Li Jia said, "Your Majesty, let's put the little goldfish back. They belong to someone else. Besides, their parents will be sad if they can't find them."
Hera thought for a moment. "They'll be sad if they can't find them? You have a point."
Then she disappeared for a few minutes and returned carrying two bottles full of little goldfish.
Hera said, "I'll take their whole family back to Hot Spring Ravine. That way, they won't be sad."
Li Jia couldn't understand whether a deity's brain was built differently from a human's. She had asked Hera to return someone else's property, yet Hera had gone and caught the entire family instead.
Even imprisonment only involved one person. She had directly implicated all nine degrees of kinship.
Li Jia said, "But Princess Luoleila raised these little goldfish... Isn't this a bit wrong?"
Hera said, "I asked Luoleila. She said I could take anything except Mofeiliya."
Li Jia said, "..."
Fine, fine. You're awesome, you're great. Having backing really did make a difference.
And so the reservoir at Hot Spring Ravine acquired an entire family of little goldfish. Then they bred, growing more and more numerous, until Doreen had no choice but to expand the reservoir for them to live in.
Li Jia: You've all got a good life now, too.