“Xiaoxian!...”
Yaxiu buried his face in the cat, inhaling its fur voraciously while vigorously kneading both of its paw pads. Xiaoxian looked utterly weary of life, turning pitiful eyes toward Freya, only to be met with an envious look from the nail-biting Veela.
“How’s its cartilage condition?”
Even after huffing his fill, Yaxiu still wouldn't let Xiaoxian go, cradling the cat in his arms while rubbing its head.
“Xifulin helped cure it, and it will never flare up again.” Freya retrieved two teacups from beneath the table and began brewing tea. “Besides, Xiaoxian has gotten so much more delicate and needy. Whenever it bumps into something and gets hurt, it won't stop crying until I help heal and soothe the pain.”
“All animals are delicate and afraid of pain; they just have to learn to endure it.” Yaxiu rested a finger against Xiaoxian's mouth, and the cat instantly clamped down on it. “Only those who are loved have the privilege of being needy, because they know you'll respond to their vulnerability.”
“Mm.” Freya pursed her lips and nodded, her finger tracing the rim of her teacup. “You don't seem to have changed much...”
Yaxiu blinked. “Didn't we just see each other not that long ago?”
In truth, it hadn't been that recent—it had been several months already. Back then, only a few days after Yaxiu had advanced to demigod, Freya's group of four had accidentally stumbled into the Inverted Color Staircase, a newly formed Path of Origin leading from the Dream Staircase to Ruby Mountain. If the Princess of Dazzling Fireflies hadn't linked Yaxiu to them, they might have perished quietly inside that Path of Origin.
The Veela shuddered. Her already flushed cheeks turned so crimson that blood practically looked ready to burst forth at a pinch; Yaxiu could almost see steam rising from her head. Lowering her head, she let out a soft murmur. “I haven't even thanked you properly... If you hadn't helped, we might have been lost in the Inverted Color Staircase forever, without any chance of setting foot on Ruby Mountain.”
Yaxiu said sheepishly, “Even though the outcome was good, I didn't get your consent beforehand, so I felt pretty embarrassed too. I wasn't sure if you would blame me...”
“No!” Freya anxiously replied at once. “No one would blame you! We all felt wonderful, and we've been looking forward to when there might be a second time—”
Meeting Yaxiu's stunned gaze, she panicked instantly and scrambled to backtrack. “No, no, no, I misspoke, that's not what I meant—”
“It wasn't comfortable?” Yaxiu stiffened, deeply crestfallen.
Freya froze, flustered and darting her eyes about, at a complete loss for how to answer. In the end, she looked down at her teacup, covered her face with both hands, and replied in a tiny whisper, “...It was wonderful.”
“So you aren't looking forward to it...?”
“...I'm also really looking forward to whether there'll be a next time.”
“Then which did you actually mean?”
Freya fell silent for a moment before lowering her hands to look at Yaxiu. Lightly biting her lower lip with pearly white teeth, she tried hard to sound nonchalant, but the shy coyness in her eyes made the entire compartment feel heart-stirring. “It's exactly what you're thinking.”
Now it was Yaxiu's turn to feel at a loss. Xiaoxian seized the opportunity to wriggle free from the cult leader's embrace and leapt onto the table, lazily stretching before curling into a drumstick shape to bask in the sun.
“...Were those train announcements earlier looking for me?”
“Mm.” Freya nodded. “Last night, Annan told us you were coming to Blood Moon and had already booked tickets, so Xifulin and I knew you would be on this train.”
“Annan said Sword Princess and the others were wicked and wouldn't let us get near you, so if we wanted a proper reunion, we had to lure you out alone... Oh, right! One of the announcements earlier was written by me. Do you know which one it was!?”
Yaxiu pondered for a moment. “Could it be... the one asking for a handsome young man?”
“Shouldn't the focus be on gentle, kind, devoted, and loving to eat Lalafell!” Freya swayed side to side, giggling breezily. “I was terrified it might be too obvious, that anyone listening would know it was looking for you, but they told me not to worry—”
Seeing Freya gazing at him with eyes brimming with starlight, Yaxiu felt genuinely embarrassed this time, his face burning. “I'm really not that great...”
“That's what they said too,” Freya said. “I was actually a bit worried. After all, things aren't what they used to be. You're an incredible sorcerer now. Back when I was an ordinary mortal, I could still see your back, but now I can't even see your shadow. I thought maybe you'd turned into someone I wouldn't recognize...”
“But Xiaoxian told me that you haven't changed a bit from back then.” She blinked, her voice soft. “Still just as gentle, kind, and devoted, and still making me... But didn't you go to Car 10? Do you not like eating Lalafell anymore?”
“I didn't think the Lalafell the train could offer would be all that good.” Yaxiu paused, then asked with mild confusion, “Wait, that's not right. If you thought I'd show up in Car 10, why are you here? Isn't this just behind our compartment?”
Hearing Yaxiu's question, Freya's expression suddenly turned very strange. She kept her head down in silence, looking more embarrassed than shy.
“Is it something you can't talk about?”
“No, it's just...” Freya hesitated for quite a while before speaking with a flushed face. “We spent the whole night discussing plans on how to 'run into' you, but after I woke up back in reality, I had second thoughts.”
“Second thoughts?”
“Mm. I didn't want to meet you through such calculated schemes.” Freya pressed the tips of her fingers together, speaking softly. “They even suggested that I hide in the restroom, wait for you to pass by, and pull you inside to do whatever I wanted with you... That was their idea, though! I didn't agree to it!”
“Everything had already been planned out, but after waking up to reality, I thought about it for a long time. I felt that luring you out was essentially no different from ambushing you in the restroom—both were deliberately manufactured encounters. I don't like that. There are two kinds of encounters I look forward to. One is where two hearts chasing each other overcome every obstacle to finally embrace, until even fate has to make way for them, just like you and Sword Princess.
“And if there's no encounter that conquers fate, then at the very least, it should be an encounter blessed by fate. Just like the first time we met—I came home to find a cult leader eating my food, using my light screen, and petting my cat, and then...” Freya said softly, “our story began.
“You might think it's childish, but I've always felt our meeting was practically destined. I've been looking forward to our reunion, so I didn't want to manufacture an opportunity through deliberate schemes like that. It feels like tarnishing our affinity.
“I had originally made up my mind: if you didn't come looking for me, I wouldn't seek you out either. It wasn't out of spite, but if you didn't come to find me, you surely had your reasons. If I rashly sought you out, it might disrupt your plans. After all, you're an incredible sorcerer now with so much to do; you might really not have time for a tiny Veela...
“Though maybe I was being a little petty too, since you came to Blood Moon and still wouldn't come see me...”
Yaxiu said, “I—”
“Let me finish first.” Freya pressed a finger against his lips. “Even though I felt very resolute during the night, when Xifulin came to find me this morning, I still followed her here... But I don't think that's a personal flaw of mine—Veelas just tend to have weak willpower!
“Still, I didn't want to deliberately stage an encounter with you, so I didn't go to Car 10. I told Xifulin not to mention that I was on this train, because if you knew I was here, you'd definitely come see me, and that would feel like I was forcing your hand... That isn't the encounter I dreamed of.
“I never expected our meeting to be as dreamlike and magical as yours with Sword Princess.” Freya gazed into Yaxiu's eyes. “But I hoped it would at least be... two hearts chasing after each other.
“It sounds childish, doesn't it? That's what they all said. Even Tamashi thought I should take the initiative and fight for it.” Lowering her head, she murmured, “Sadly, I couldn't even realize such a humble wish, and you ended up finding me here anyway.”
“Um...”
Yaxiu couldn't resist saying, “I actually had no idea you were here... So why on earth are you in this compartment in the first place?”
Chapter 1254