Inside the tower, a spiral stone staircase wound upward into the shadows, seemingly without end.
They ascended one after the other, their footsteps echoing through the hollow stone interior.
With every tier climbed, the view beyond the arched windows widened, and the jagged skyline of Herrom sharpened into focus.
"Honestly," Sigrid said, turning around as she climbed to look down at Lanqi, "on our last date, we clearly had a whole day together, but we rushed about as if we were being hunted and fleeing for our lives the entire time."
"Did you already sense back then that I was going to leave?" Lanqi asked.
"You always know what you must do, and no one can stop you from doing the right thing or fulfilling your mission. It was only in Brillda, the capital of Creti, that I saw how you acted under immense pressure. When driven into a corner with nowhere left to retreat, you turn into a veritable god of duty." There was not the slightest trace of blame in Sigrid's tone. "Still, that's why I make your best partner. The Wolf Clan is born with fighting spirit in our blood; once we're set to strike, there isn't a shred of hesitation or retreat. If I believe in you, I'll walk straight through death beside you."
"This time," Lanqi replied with a smile from a step below her, "we have all the time in the world. I'll take things slowly with you."
Only a few breaths after the words left his lips, both of them sensed something amiss at the exact same moment.
The surrounding air began to hum with a faint vibration. The light and shadows along the stone walls warped without warning, and a familiar spatial distortion rippled in from every direction.
Having traveled through spatial gates before, they instantly recognized the telltale sign of teleportation magic.
Their bodies reacted before conscious thought could catch up.
A split second before space twisted completely out of joint, their hands reached out by instinct, clasping each other tightly.
Past experience had proven that within this old district, so long as they held hands, they would invariably be transported to the same destination.
In the next instant, the world folded and stretched, dissolving into a kaleidoscopic blur of brilliant light.
When the brief, familiar sense of weightlessness faded and their surroundings stabilized once more, they found themselves no longer standing on the narrow stone steps.
An intoxicating, crisp floral fragrance flooded their senses, accompanied by the gentle rustle of leaves in the breeze and the melodious splashing of a distant fountain.
Lanqi opened his eyes to discover they were standing at the edge of a lush emerald lawn, bordered by a pure white marble balustrade.
"Did we... end up in a hanging garden?"
Lanqi peered over the edge.
The garden they stood upon resembled a floating island, drifting peacefully across the azure sky of Herrom.
In the distance, one could even spot clusters of grand buildings and streets dotted with storefronts.
"Talk about getting what you wished for. Now we can not only overlook the old district, but take in even more of Herrom's sights."
Sigrid leaned over the railing to look down. The mysterious "Distorted Old District" lay spread out below them, every twisting street and ancient structure laid bare in crystalline detail.
Taking in the panoramic spectacle, they turned to meet each other's eyes, both reflecting the same uncontainable delight.
Neither spoke a word, simply breaking into spontaneous laughter together.
Finally, Sigrid drew in a deep breath, as though inhaling all that joy straight into her chest, and shouted at the top of her lungs across the sprawling cityscape:
"Herrom! Thank you!"
Her voice, ringing with pure gratitude, echoed beneath the vast expanse of the open sky, lingering for a long time.
Here, she had no need to maintain the solemn dignity of a bishop; she could shout and carry on like a carefree child.
***
They strolled along the garden paths, taking their time to admire the scenery.
Both could sense that the illusion crafted by the Dust-Forgetting Star was likely halfway through its duration.
Because of that, they were in no hurry to return to the ground, choosing instead to linger in this castle garden floating high in the sky and savor the fleeting beauty of the moment.
The hanging garden drifted languidly above Herrom.
They walked along a path paved with lustrous white pebbles skirting the outer rim. On one side bloomed an array of vibrant, exotic flora native to the southern coastal nations of the Northern Continent, releasing sweet scents into the air; on the other, clouds soft as cotton candy floated within arm's reach.
"I don't know why," Sigrid said, pausing to rest her hand against the balustrade as the breeze ruffled her pale hair, "but standing amidst this sea of clouds always reminds me of the days when we first traveled together across the snowfields. Back then, as long as we were together, we never ran out of things to talk about, even though we barely knew each other."
"Perhaps I already found you intriguing even then," Lanqi said, stepping up beside her and following her gaze into the distance. "Before I even realized it, you'd already caught my attention."
"My, look at the Holy Son, saying something like that. You're actually making me blush."
"Can Bishop Sigrid actually blush?"
"I am not!"
"Then take your hand off your cheek."
"There, see? My cheeks are just flushed from excitement, not embarrassment at all."
They continued forward, chatting amiably as they went. Deeper within the garden, a quaint commercial promenade appeared, lined on both sides with whimsically designed boutiques and sweetshops.
Sigrid's eye was promptly caught by an open-air accessories shop. Like a kitten discovering a shiny new toy, she tugged Lanqi inside.
Approaching a rack outside the shop draped with various headwear, she picked out a white hat with a jaunty, playful brim, set it upon her head, and turned to Lanqi.
"Wearing that makes you look too old-fashioned. It doesn't suit you at all."
Lanqi looked her up and down, then shook his head with grave seriousness.
"Does it really?" Hearing his verdict, Sigrid puffed out her cheeks in discontent. "I think it looks fine."
Though she pretended to shrug off Lanqi's sharp tongue, her frustration was clearly gathering force.
"Truly. You look like a little old lady on her way to buy groceries," Lanqi piled on.
"Why, you—!"
Sigrid finally snapped. Feigning outrage, she raised a hand, making a show of preparing to swat him across the head.
"Ah!"
Lanqi raised his arms in an instant reflex, shielding his head.
Yet when he slowly cracked an eye open, the anticipated strike never fell.
Sigrid's raised hand had already retreated to her side. She hadn't been angry in the least; she simply stood there gazing at his defensive crouch, her eyes crinkling into radiant crescent moons, bright and disarming.
In the end, Sigrid happily purchased and wore the very "old-fashioned" hat Lanqi had teased.
They carried on just like that—one eagerly browsing ahead, looking left and right, while the other ambled leisurely behind.
"Sometimes I wonder... if I treated you the way Tata does, or restrained you like Hubao, what would you even be like?"
Sigrid knew full well that Lanqi's reflexive head-covering had been conditioned entirely by Tata's discipline.
Of course, the primary cause was that whenever Lanqi botched a card craft, he would talk back, infuriating Tata until she eventually trussed him up like a prisoner to interrogate him on precisely which step had gone wrong.
"I think instruction must be tailored to the individual," Lanqi mused. "That's how I treat my students nowadays."
In the past, his training methods—whether applied to the pugilists of the Soul of the Fighter club or to Char—had been far too ruthless.
While those methods offered an absolute guarantee of reaching their goals, to Hyperion's eyes, the way he granted wishes looked like nothing short of a corrupted Holy Grail.
To Lanqi himself, or to Lankeluosi, trials of that caliber were trivial hurdles cleared in the blink of an eye. For ordinary people, however, they were anything but.
"After all, the way my teacher educated me simply isn't suitable for other students. Most people wouldn't be able to survive that level of intensity," Lanqi concluded upon reflection.
"Which teacher do you mean...?" Sigrid stopped in her tracks, turning to ask.
"A strict master breeds a capable apprentice," Lanqi answered. "Every time I fought him, I underwent an evolution."
"..." Sigrid smiled knowingly; she understood exactly which teacher he meant. "That's true enough. When I first met you, you still had a bit of humanity about you. But after your first battle with him, realizing you needed to go all out against the strongest enemy of your life, you began unleashing your potential without restraint. And after the second fight, your entire mindset transformed completely. I heard that when you returned to the Southern Continent, you were like some evil god, manipulating people's minds on a whim."
Some teachers spent an entire semester unable to teach Lanqi how to cast a first-tier spell, while another had brought him to the pinnacle of the Protos Empire in just a single month.
"Of course, I also heard there was another benefactor in your life," Sigrid added. "If Askesan taught you to awaken your divinity, then she was the one who taught you how to become human again."
Talia had told her the story of the City of Flowers later on.
"..."
Lanqi lowered his gaze.
"Uh..."
Sigrid noticed his sudden silence.
It seemed that even now, he had never forgotten.
Perhaps it was precisely because he couldn't forget that he had been forged into who he was today.
A mortal heart could never be flawless; only gods possessed perfection.
"Never mind... let's not talk about her," Sigrid said, raising both hands to stretch lazily. "The most I can do is treat her former subordinates well and give them a chance to start anew."
Back then, Lanqi had referred those Destruction prelates from the Southern Continent to work under her, and they had proven immensely helpful. Now, her Domination Branch had absorbed not only part of the Silence Branch's legacy, but also the elite prelates of the Destruction Branch.
"By the way, before you left the Northern Continent, how did you handle Askesan's estate?" Lanqi asked.
He had only taken Askesan's gray coat and magical artifact; the rest of the troublesome assets had all fallen to Sigrid to manage.
"It was fairly easy to deal with. His illicit assets were handled by the Protos Empire and the Great Sage, while the empire naturally assisted me in legalizing all of his gray and legitimate holdings," Sigrid answered.
"He actually had assets that could be legalized?" Lanqi asked in surprise.
His attention had been almost entirely occupied by the sealing slabs at the time. During his stay in Protos, he had been swamped with his own duties and affairs at the Protos Royal Magic Academy, leaving him no spare energy to investigate Askesan's hidden enterprises.
Yet as Askesan's longtime rival, Sigrid was clearly far more knowledgeable on the subject.
"Did you know that Askesan was a real estate developer?" Sigrid asked.
"...Huh?"
Lanqi stood utterly stunned.
Chapter 890