Aftermath 2

A plane slowly landed at London Airport. Touko and her group disembarked and led Caren and her group through the London night.

Touko was flipping through the newspaper on the plane when her stomach started to protest.

"Okay, let's go eat first."

"Didn't you eat airplane food on the plane? And now you should find a hotel to settle your luggage."

Faced with Shiki Ryougi and Caren's suggestions, Touko immediately refused, saying, "These aren't urgent, but I know a very delicious Western restaurant near the Clock Tower. It might close if we go too late, so filling our stomachs is our priority."

Seeing her say that, the two became more interested, and the group headed straight there. The taxi stopped, and after Caren paid, she followed the two to the restaurant. It was an inconspicuous little shop, but the interior was very cozy, and it was already full of people eating there.

"Looks like there are no seats left. Is it too late to call that taxi back now?" Shiki Ryougi glanced around briefly and said to Touko beside her.

Touko had wanted to eat here ever since she boarded the plane, since the prices here weren't low and she couldn't come here normally because she was wanted by the police. But now that she had a disciple to take care of her, she couldn't just give up so easily.

Touko's gaze fell on the Round Table by the window, where four people could sit, or even six if they squeezed in. Among those Round Table, there was one table with only one person.

Touko strode forward, where sat a fairytale-like girl, dressed in a blue and white dress with short blonde hair, who couldn't help but think of a princess in a fairytale.

A moment later, when a waiter was serving the girl black tea, he was about to ask her something, but before he could speak, the girl interrupted him, saying:

"If you'd like to share a table, that's fine."

After a while, Touko finished ordering her food and also ordered a cake for the girl.

"Thank you so much. This is on me. I'm a regular customer here, and I highly recommend their sponge cake."

"You're welcome. It's not really appropriate for me to take up four seats by myself. But compared to sponge cake, I prefer the sweet combination of fruit and cream in Dundee cake." The girl's gentle smile drew a second glance from Caren.

Shiki Ryougi, narrowed her eyes slightly, a hint of wariness in her gaze.

"Huh? Judging from your tone, this doesn't seem like your first time here."

Touko asked casually, and the girl, still with a gentle smile, replied, "It's my first time, but I've been sitting here since this morning and have basically tried all the dishes."

Everyone raised an eyebrow, Shiki Ryougi asked, "We got stood up."

"No, everyone's already here, aren't we?"

Upon hearing this, Shiki Ryougi's hand slowly fell to the dagger at her waist, her heart filled with vigilance. After all, Touko was once the Sealing Designation, and although she had been through so much, who knew if those Magecraft had put a new bounty on her?

"Oh, that's strange. I don't recall ever knowing a girl like you."

The young woman smiled slightly and said, "I just wanted to inquire about that male employee of your company."

"Mikiya it, he actually knows such a cute girl! I'm going to write to the Ryougi Family." Touko seemed to be playing dumb. Shiki Ryougi was already preparing to make her move, but the girl remained calm and composed in the face of these two threatening individuals.

"I'm not talking about that person, I'm referring to Mr. Bai Mo, who resolved the global crisis a few days ago."

The atmosphere plummeted to freezing point in an instant, like a time bomb with only ten seconds left before it exploded. In this suffocating atmosphere, the waiter's words as he served the food broke the frozen silence.

"Sure, it's not a secret anyway, let's talk about it." Touko took the cake and started eating, still maintaining her composed demeanor. Caren frowned and looked at Touko, who simply shook her head and said:

"They've been waiting for us for a long time, so let's just treat this as a casual chat over dinner."

What followed was almost entirely Touko talking, and the meal ended in an extremely bizarre manner.

After listening, the girl took her leave and departed. Once she was gone, Shiki Ryougi said with some worry, "Who is that guy? Honestly, Bai Mo is really unlucky; even in death, he's plagued by these troubles."

Since Bai Mo left everyone's sight at the end, only Tezcatlipoca and Root Shiki knew that Bai Mo had been taken away by the darkness; everyone else thought that Bai Mo had sacrificed himself to save the world.

Although both Caren and Shiki Ryougi felt that Bai Mo had not died, they would not tell the girl in front of them this news.

A young girl strolled along the riverbank, the gentle breeze ruffling her short hair. Her face was filled with melancholy. She spoke slowly, her voice brimming with disappointment, like a girl heartbroken from a failed relationship.

"What is this...?"

The world was Root Shiki reshaped, but there were some exceptions who were neither reverted to the past nor lost their memories of that time. Among them was her, who was also an almost omniscient and omnipotent being connected to the Root.

On the day the Supreme Heavenly King the Manaka Sajyou, who was still in Romania, felt a sense of astonishment for the first time. The world, which had been developing according to her knowledge, had undergone such a drastic change.

Although she disliked the apocalyptic scene, this unexpected event stirred something within her usually calm heart, and she ultimately decided to observe how things unfolded.

But before long, the world returned to normal, just like before.

Manaka Sajyou's heart, which had just come back to life, died again.

You keep changing your mind, you bastard!

Due to the previous interference from the system, Manaka was unable to ascertain what had happened. It was like watching a very long and boring comic book, when suddenly the style changed drastically and the plot became full of twists and turns.

Just when she had finally gotten interested, it suddenly went back to the way it was.

What a joke! Manaka rushed to the Clock Tower overnight to seek answers, but Zelretch, who was busy cutting the world lines and was already overwhelmed, had no time to care about her and only got some fragmented information.

Finally, she simply waited for Touko to arrive at the store, and the thoughtful Manaka even saved them seats.

She finally pieced together the story, a very good story: a princess imprisoned in a deep castle is rescued by a prince, who ultimately chooses to die to save her. It's a bit of a shame that it doesn't have a happy ending.

But it did fulfill all her fantasies about what she would experience after meeting the prince.

How wonderful! I wish I were the female lead.

Manaka Sajyou was a little angry. The life she dreamed of, the destiny she longed for, belonged to someone else, which made her feel upset and unhappy. "I can change the world too," she thought.

Looking at the river shimmering in the moonlight under the night sky, Manaka suddenly felt a surge of pent-up emotions within her, which she had to express. Disregarding her ladylike manners, she shouted at the river:

"I could do it too!"

After shouting those words, she lay down on the grass. Root Shiki is odious; how could she not feel envious that she had finally achieved the destiny she had always longed for?

Suddenly, space distorted, and a small ray of light landed beside her, like a luminous shard of glass. If Bai Wunan were here, he would know that this was something the system had revealed.

But it's not very valuable. It's just a piece of information he wanted to transmit to the past through that time tunnel, and it's only a tiny bit. Even if someone saw it, they would probably ignore it.

But for Manaka, this thing meant something completely different. She immediately reached out to touch the fragment, and then a memory flooded into her mind.

It was a fragmented and chaotic memory, but a small piece could be pieced together.

The system's voice trailed off. "There are two choices... one is... Tokyo... Mifune City... the latter is definitely the one."

Unfortunately, this memory comes at the crucial moment when the system asks Bai Mo whether he should go to Tokyo or Mifune City! And Manaka, having learned all this, seems to understand everything. It turns out that she did have the chance to encounter this unexpected destiny.

Tokyo, connected to my Root —isn't that me?! Although I was in Romania at the time, I was indeed preparing to go back. Considering the time Touko mentioned, it just so happens we'll meet!

If before, my Manaka was mostly envy, now it's clearly more about jealousy and resentment! It's like when you're job hunting, the person in front of you has almost identical skills, but she's the one sitting in front of you and gets the job you've always dreamed of.

At that moment, an idea grew wildly like weeds: If it weren't for her, wouldn't all of this be mine?

It was that woman; she stole my destiny! That man was supposed to be my prince!