Silver Lantern Is Scared

"Sword Princess, Witch." Outside the study, Weise tapped her lips with a finger and smiled. "Pardon me for just now." With her hands on her hips, Diya glared indignantly at the Silver Lantern. "You broke the rules!" "Did I really break any rules?" Weise blinked innocently. "First, I didn't do it in front of you two. Second, we hardly had any intimate contact—it was just an ordinary embrace. Is even that not allowed?" "You call that an ordinary embrace?" Diya pointed accusingly at Weise's lethal weapons of crime. "You were practically smothering him to death!" "If you were capable of doing so," Weise murmured, glancing at her, "I wouldn't object to you doing it either." Diya was furious enough to bite, but having been utterly outclassed in every dimension, she could only tug at Sonia's arm. "Sword Princess, you be the judge!" With her arms crossed over her chest, Sonia glanced toward the study, then back at Weise, and asked abruptly, "Why did you go and disturb Yaxiu? You know he's busy." Taken aback for a moment, Weise replied, "I hope that whether he finds any traces or not, he will postpone exploring Hell." She reiterated the reasons she had just given Yaxiu, concluding, "He promised he would consider it." "Very well." Sonia pondered for a moment. "As for breaking the rules... it was indeed a violation. But since Yaxiu was on a date with me all day today, offering you two a little compensation isn't entirely out of the question. What do you think, Witch?" Weise froze. Diya opened her mouth, unable to object—after all, she had just received her own compensation earlier. Still, she stared at Sonia in utter bewilderment. "Sword Princess, you're letting her off just like that?" "What else?" Sonia turned to leave. "I'm going to take a bath." Weise and Diya watched Sonia head down from the second floor, then exchanged a look. Weise was perplexed; Diya was gloating. The Witch made a face at the Silver Lantern. "You're done for!" With that, she trotted off with cheerful steps, leaving behind a god whose expression flickered between light and dark. What was going on? The Witch had already snapped at her, so why hadn't Sword Princess pressed the advantage instead of coming to her rescue? This wasn't how things were supposed to develop! In truth, Yaxiu had been right: Weise did have plans directed at Sword Princess. One part of them was to deliberately stoke Sword Princess's temper, goading her into throwing a tantrum over inconsequential trifles. Hugging Yaxiu tonight was one such test—a bit over the line, yet hardly worth making a major scene over. She intended to repeatedly brush against the boundary and test Sword Princess's threshold. In time, that would lead to one of two outcomes: The first was that Sword Princess would become increasingly unable to bear provocation and lose her temper over trivialities; no matter how much Yaxiu favored her, he would grow tired of it sooner or later, and she would naturally be kicked out of the running. The second possibility was that Sword Princess's tolerance would grow higher and higher until she fully accepted the reality of sharing Yaxiu. If it came to that, Weise would simply yield and dutifully attend to Yaxiu alongside her. Naturally, she hoped for the former. Yet now, the turn of events had completely defied her expectations—Sonia wasn't angry, nor was she holding back; she was actually being understanding? Impossible. Absolutely impossible! Though they had only spent a few months together in the Distant Sky Realm, Weise knew clearly that Sonia was never one to be reasonable. She either endured in silence or blew her top; she would never meekly accept anyone encroaching upon her interests! Her possessiveness was etched deep into her marrow—whoever dared touch her food, she bit; whoever dared steal her belongings, she slashed! Why would she put on a show of understanding? Was she preparing to retaliate? What was she planning to do? I only gave Yaxiu a hug. It couldn't possibly be that serious, could it? The more Weise thought about it, the more terrified she felt. Finally gritting her teeth, she dissolved once more into a pool of silver light. By this time, Sonia had just stripped off her clothes and stepped barefoot into the bathroom. Just as she turned on the faucet, the sound of silver light gathering drifted from behind her. "I happened to want a bath too." Weise rested both hands affectionately on Sonia's shoulders and murmured, "The bathroom here has more than enough room for two. Shall we bathe together?" Sonia cast a puzzled glance at her, then nodded noncommittally. Standing beneath the showerhead, she let the stream of water wash over her body. The water slid down her blood-red hair, swept across her smooth back, and rippled across the floor. Strands of hair clung to her cheeks and neck. Looking at Sword Princess's silhouette from behind, Weise felt an inexplicable, eerie chill crawl over her. After washing her hair, Sonia bundled it up with a small towel so it wouldn't hang down, then slowly settled into the tub scattered with rose petals. The exhaustion of a day-long date melted away into the rising steam. Weise waited a moment before shutting off the faucet, stepping into the tub, and actively sidling up to Sonia. Sonia glanced at her shoulder-length hair and smiled. "Must be nice not having to worry about wet hair." A god had no need to bathe; as long as Weise wished, she could remain completely untouched by dust, fire, or water. Bathing for her was merely a way to relax, and she usually joined the others in the bath. "What's so nice about it?" Weise brushed through her hair with her fingers and said softly, "Not fearing getting wet just means I'm not human. Every part of my body reminds me that I am merely an inhuman god. "Even though I trust Yaxiu, for me to be resurrected from a god is already an unprecedented miracle. Even he might not be able to reshape a sorcerer's body for me." Leaning close to Sonia, Weise's gaze grew complicated. "I truly envy you, Sword Princess." "What is there to envy about me?" "The Witch is a little girl; even if she separates Lisi from herself in the future, Yaxiu will likely struggle to overcome that mental hurdle. Vichy presents the same sort of issue—Yaxiu won't be able to cross his moral threshold for her. And as for me, I'm not even human." Weise spoke in a quiet, haunting voice. "In the end, you are almost certainly going to be the sole winner." Sonia cut a sidelong glance toward Weise, her expression subtle and brimming with amused mockery, as if saying: 'I know you're talking nonsense to flatter me, but it's entertaining enough.' She raised her hand, softly stroking the Silver Lantern's cheek with the back of her knuckles, then moved down along the neck to rest on the trap in which Yaxiu had been buried earlier. Her fingers gradually tightened with pressure. Weise's heart fluttered in alarm, but her expression remained composed as she added, "More importantly, no matter who Yaxiu is with, you are always the one foremost on his mind." "Oh?" Sword Princess arched an eyebrow. "When the Witch, Vichy, and I formulated the Personality Analysis Model to track whether our personalities were drifting, Yaxiu's immediate reaction was that we were ostracizing you by leaving you out," Weise said sincerely. "But we just didn't want to trouble you. After all, neither of you is skilled in that field, and we didn't know if it would even be useful, which is why we didn't even inform Yaxiu." Sonia watched her in silence. Weise dared not make a single move, her heart thumping violently. Even when Yaxiu had confessed earlier, "I don't hate it, I'm just afraid," she hadn't felt this anxious and unsettled. As though an eternity had passed—or perhaps merely a few seconds—Sonia finally lowered her hand, sank deeper into the tub, and mumbled, "At least he still has a bit of a conscience..." Only then did Weise finally feel relieved, tension leaving her entire body. Suddenly, Sonia said, "I'd like some coffee milk. Could you fetch a can from the fridge?" "Sure." The Silver Lantern's voice was breezy. Even as she spoke, silver light had already opened the refrigerator door on the second floor and transferred two cans of coffee milk into her hands. Sonia took one, popped the tab, and signaled to clink cans. But when Weise tapped hers against it, she felt a massive surge of force transmitted from the opposite side, as if trying to swat her coffee milk right out of her hand! Only by flaring silver light on her fingertips did Weise manage to steady the can. When she gathered her wits, Sonia was already sipping away, as though nothing at all had happened. Following this little episode, Weise actually felt far more at peace, obediently sitting beside Sonia to enjoy the tranquil bath.