You're Still My Favorite

On the Time Continent, an exceedingly rare sight was taking place: three sorcerers gathered together. Even though the activity area was far smaller than the Sea of Knowledge, the Time Continent was still vast beyond measure. Coupled with the fact that Two-Winged Sorcerers were much fewer in number, and the curtains of reverse golden rain drastically obscured visibility, encounters between sorcerers on the Time Continent were no more frequent than in the Sea of Knowledge. Everyone was like someone walking through a dark forest. Yet starting today, the sight of a trio of sorcerers traveling together would likely become a daily fixture of the Time Continent. Feeling the grip on his throat tightening by the second, Yaxiu hurriedly said, "She's the Witch, a new companion who just joined our team. It took me a tremendous effort to get her! From now on, she'll be exploring the Void Realm with us..." *From now on?* *With us?* *Took a tremendous effort to get her?* An unspeakable grievance and fury rapidly swelled and boiled within Sonia's heart. Yet her facial expression didn't change at all; only her eyes grew brighter and brighter, her pale-red pupils looking as if they were turning into vertical slits. A sudden chill ran down Yaxiu's spine. A boundless sense of dread squeezed his entire body, as if he were standing trial at a Blood Moon Trial. In a flash of inspiration, he lowered his voice and said, "Don't worry, the one I like best right now is still you!" "Huh?" Sonia blinked. She let go of Yaxiu, stepped back two paces with wandering eyes, her hands fidgeting with the corner of her clothes as she said in slight embarrassment, "What are you saying all of a sudden..." "Sword Princess, our bond is still the highest right now, so any Experience Orbs we find will go to you first. If there are good sorcery spirits, you get first pick. For any other benefits, we'll see if you want them first, and only the leftovers will be split between the Witch and me," Yaxiu said solemnly. "You don't need to worry that the Witch's arrival will lower your place in my heart." "Who cares about my place in your heart!" Sonia cursed under her breath. Glancing at Diya, who was watching them with curious interest, she stepped a little closer to Yaxiu and lowered her voice: "Even though I don't care... you're not allowed to lie to me!" "I'm not lying to you!" Yaxiu swore solemnly. "Unless the Witch's bond with me rises higher, or she demonstrates greater potential than you, resources will always be prioritized for you!" The red-haired Sword Princess froze. "In other words, if she becomes stronger than me..." "We're a team, after all, and the ultimate goal of resource distribution is to make the team stronger." Yaxiu didn't deny it. "Although I have faith in your aptitude, Sword Princess, if you want to maintain your dominant position in the team, you'll have to put in more effort." Actually, before entering the Void Realm, Yaxiu had vaguely sensed that Sword Princess would be angry; he just hadn't expected such a violent reaction. Putting himself in her shoes, though, Yaxiu thought she had every reason to be angry—just like in a startup company, if your partner suddenly brought in someone new without consulting you, how could you not be mad? How would shares be calculated? How would the workload be divided? Even though a three-person team was theoretically more efficient than a two-person one, gains in the Void Realm depended largely on luck. Sometimes hunting knowledge creatures yielded zero Experience Orbs, or fighting sorcerer projections dropped only trash sorcery spirits. Other than cursing today's lousy drop rate, what could you do? And when returns were poor, splitting the spoils among three people meant someone could easily end up empty-handed—wouldn't that breed arguments? Yaxiu and Sword Princess had taken quite some time to establish their tacit understanding, rarely bickering over loot distribution. But now that another person had joined, the game theory dynamic instantly grew far more complicated. For instance, if two sorcery spirits dropped and both Sword Princess and the new Witch could use them, even if Sword Princess had priority and got first pick, wouldn't the second still go to the newcomer? At first glance it seemed fair, and Sword Princess even got the better end of the deal, but the issue was—if not for the Witch, both of those sorcery spirits would have belonged entirely to Sword Princess! As a corporate slave who had spent years navigating the workplace and witnessed office politics firsthand, Yaxiu understood the subtleties of human nature all too well. A newcomer arriving to shoulder the workload, boost department performance, and help bake a bigger pie was certainly as good as could be, but a newcomer's arrival also signaled a reshuffling of interests. Her presence would inevitably encroach on the senior employee's share, and could even shift office faction lines. So Yaxiu brought the Witch along, and Sword Princess was supposed to welcome the new operator with open arms? How could that be possible! To use an imperfect analogy, it was like a wife seeing her husband bring a mistress home to sleep under the same blanket—how could the wife ever agree to that? Sword Princess was hardly some self-less anime waifu; on the contrary, she was a hypersensitive pragmatist. If she had worked at Yaxiu's previous company, even if she didn't become a vanguard of cutthroat rat-racing, she would at least have been the kind of rights champion who constantly recorded audio to preserve evidence—someone even the company wouldn't dare bully. Sword Princess would certainly worry that the Witch would encroach on what was hers, and fear even more that the Witch might replace her position. Add to that the fact that leadership of the Void Realm exploration was entirely out of her hands, and it was only natural for her to feel uneasy and resentful. Her anger was completely justified. People were rarely satisfied with getting a little extra, yet constantly disgruntled over receiving even a tiny bit less. Yaxiu wasn't blaming Sword Princess for being ungrateful or pushing her luck. Greed was human nature, after all, and he was the same kind of selfish creature. Who was born a saint? Who worked if not for more money? Blaming subordinates for lacking gratitude was something only failing startups did; team management was a profound art. So he couldn't suppress Sword Princess with high-minded preachiness. Instead, he had to look at things from her perspective, dissecting the pros and cons of the Witch's addition, while dangling a carrot to motivate her—telling her that as long as she worked twice as hard in the rat race, she would always be the star of this team. Yet that was all Yaxiu could do. Yaxiu could comfort Sword Princess, but he would not indulge her. No matter how deep their bond, no matter how much she was one of the pillars of his inner world, Yaxiu would not yield. Yaxiu had a great relationship with his parents, but when they wanted him to take the civil service exam in his hometown, he ventured off alone to grind in the big city, visiting home only during holidays. Yaxiu had a great relationship with his older brother, but when his brother had a late-night heart-to-heart with him waxing sentimental about things like "people always meeting the right person at the wrong time," Yaxiu immediately alerted his sister-in-law that very night, nipping his brother's affair in the bud. Yaxiu had a great relationship with his nephew, buying him countless gifts, but when he went home and found the kid misbehaving, he wouldn't hesitate to take off his belt and whip the little brat into a spinning top. Affection was affection, but deep down, Yaxiu had his own set of operating principles and would never compromise himself for the sake of sentiment. In a sense, Yaxiu felt he was quite suited to the Blood Moon Country—he, too, was the sort of selfish sinner who placed his inner desires above all else. *Aurora's Sorcerer Handbook* was his most crucial trump card; there was no way he wouldn't use it. Operators were vital combat assets for exploring the Void Realm; there was no way he would give up the Black and White Witch. Sword Princess felt uneasy, angry, and aggrieved—he could understand and comfort her, but he would never apologize, much less concede a single inch. He needed Sword Princess to understand and support him. Under Yaxiu's gaze, Sonia remained silent for a moment before asking, "Will there be more people in the future?" "Perhaps." Yaxiu wasn't sure himself. "Our team might even grow to a dozen or so—" "A dozen or so?!"