I Like Sword Princess

"I'm deeply disappointed too!" Sitting cross-legged on the bed, the young girl was the picture of displeasure. "You're nowhere near as gloomy, cruel, and evil as I imagined." "Does my character portrait really give off that kind of impression?" Yaxiu scratched his head in shock. "Um... nice to meet you. I'm the End Watcher, Yaxiu." "I'm the Black and White Witch." She swayed gently on the bed. "Just call me Witch." "Good evening, Witch. Have you eaten?" "Stop. That's enough pointless pleasantries." She held up three fingers. "I came here this time to establish three rules with you first." "Hmm?" "First: unless I bring it up myself, you're not allowed to ask about my life." "Second: unless I ask, you're not allowed to share details about your life." "Third," the Witch raised her third finger, "whatever treatment Sword Princess gets, I get too." Yaxiu thought about it and asked, "Is it because of Secret Cache?" "You could say that," the Witch replied noncommittally. The Black and White Witch's Silver Blessing, Secret Cache, granted her buffs by concealing her personal information, so it was only natural for her to demand privacy. Still, while it made sense for her to guard her own secrets, why forbid Yaxiu from revealing his own information? Then again, Yaxiu couldn't reveal much anyway—Annan had just ordered them not to leak anything to anyone outside the agency, and even if Yaxiu wanted to badmouth his new boss during Void Realm chit-chat, the Contract would muzzle him. As for Sword Princess's treatment, Yaxiu gave it some careful thought: endless training, serving as the vanguard meat shield in Void Realm Exploration, guinea pig for all kinds of event cards... "No problem!" Yaxiu clapped his hands. "I'll do my best to grant your wish!" "Well, now that the ground rules for communication are set, if there's nothing else, I'll—" "Wait, do you know Sword Princess?" Yaxiu stopped her. "I haven't seen her in days. Is she... um... is she really busy on her end, so much that she can't spare even a moment to visit me?" The Witch looked at him with great amusement. "Are you asking about the Sword Princess who's a little scheming yet adorable, contrary yet kindhearted, and constantly preening in the mirror?" "...Probably?" "Sorry, then, I don't know a Sword Princess like that." The Witch spread her hands. "All I know is that, besides you, there's another teammate named Sword Princess." "Then how do you know so much about her?" "I could tell just from her character portrait." Question marks practically popped up over Yaxiu's head. Could character art really reveal that much information? Damn it. If only he hadn't lost the high-definition light screen, he definitely would have used a magnifying glass to scrutinize every detail of the Witch's and Sword Princess's character portraits—details worthy of studying day and night. "On the other hand, I'm quite curious why you think Sword Princess ought to visit you." Resting her chin on her hand, the Witch smiled. "If it weren't to lay down the ground rules before our official exploration, I wouldn't have bothered to come see you either. At the end of the day, our only point of contact is Void Realm Exploration. Beyond that, we're strangers who will never meet in person. Leaving each other alone is the only sensible relationship." "What kind of relationship do you have with Sword Princess? Why should she care about you?" Without the slightest hesitation, Yaxiu said, "Because we aren't strangers. We're bonded companions. I know for sure she cares about me, just as I care about her in my heart." The Black and White Witch gazed quietly at Yaxiu, falling silent for a moment. For some reason, Yaxiu felt her attitude shift slightly. Although the Witch had seemed natural and lively from the moment she appeared, she had sat on the bed the entire time, keeping quite a distance between them—polite, but distinctly detached. Now, while still seated on the bed, she leaned slightly forward, as if growing curious about Yaxiu, and her demeanor softened. "Whether we can appear before you like this isn't up to us to decide; it's decided by the bond between us," the Witch suddenly explained. "The deeper the bond, the harder it is for us to appear before you. If Sword Princess really cares about you, then I'm afraid it will be very difficult for you to see Sword Princess's projection in the future." "So it isn't Sword Princess's fault for not visiting you. She's actually waiting for you to appear before her, perhaps in the Void Realm, or perhaps..." The Witch paused. "In short, if you hope to see Sword Princess often, you'd be better off hoping the two of you can stay in the Void Realm forever and ever." "That's a weird mechanic," Yaxiu said with a frown. "Shouldn't a deeper bond make it easier to meet?" "Distance makes the heart grow fonder. Besides, in this state, we aren't physical bodies after all, but projections born of longing." The Witch shrugged. "That's what longing is: you don't appreciate it when it's right in front of you, but when you want it, it remains out of reach." "Still, you've only been apart for a few days, and you miss Sword Princess this much already..." The Witch's eyes sparkled, her face overflowing with curiosity. "o(*≧▽≦)ツ Could it be that you like her?" "I do." Hearing such a prompt, unabashed confession of love, the Witch's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. She lightly patted her own cheeks and asked, "Could you say that one more time?" "I like Sword Princess," Yaxiu said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "She's so strong, so cute, so pretty—of course I like her." *Whoa!* *Whoa!* *Whoa!* The Witch wanted nothing more than to rush right back and broadcast the news to the whole world, but then she noticed that Yaxiu was staring quite openly at her mismatched black and white stockings even as he spoke. She hesitated for a moment, then straightened her legs and pulled her skirt up above her knees. "Then do you like me?" "If you put on a miniskirt like the one in your character portrait, have high enough meta strength in Void Realm Exploration, and maintain decent growth stats, I'll probably like you too." Yaxiu admired the aesthetic beauty of the black and white stockings for a moment, evaluating her with utmost seriousness. "...What cheap affection." Yaxiu looked puzzled. "Just how expensive do you want it to be? Naming you as the sole beneficiary on my life insurance policy?" *Oh, right,* the Witch thought. After all, from Yaxiu's perspective, they weren't completely real beings at all. Just as no one fell in love with a piece of paper, Yaxiu's feelings toward them naturally stopped at "cheap affection." "Though I don't think you'll easily match Sword Princess's place in my heart—unless your tier strength is truly exceptional." "Oh?" The Witch raised her eyebrows. "Why? Do you really think Sword Princess is prettier than me?" "It's not just a matter of character art," Yaxiu said. "Mainly, Sword Princess was the first companion I could trust after coming to this world, the first comrade-in-arms I fought beside. We explored the Sea of Knowledge together, entered a Vortex together, read the sorcerer manual together, participated in Destiny Q&A together... My entire life in this world began alongside Sword Princess. "To me, she was like the sun rising over a graveyard. "For that shared ordeal alone, I don't think anyone could ever shake her place in my heart." Then he added, "Unless your meta strength is truly off the charts."