A Private Date Between Watcher and Witch (?)

[Sword Princess's Leave Request] ["I'm competing in a very important match tonight, so I'm taking leave. I hope you know what's good for you."] [Effect · Paid Leave (1/15) (Bond Level 1): 30% of the sorcery power you obtain in Void Realm Exploration will be granted to the member on leave.] [Effect · Bonus Cut (1/10) (Bond Level 2): 30% of the faction realm you obtain in Void Realm Exploration will be granted to the member on leave.] [Effect · Common Prosperity (1/5) (Bond Level 3): Any special mechanics you encounter during Void Realm Exploration have a chance to be shared with the member on leave.] An operator could take leave?! If she dared take leave today, who knew what she'd dare do tomorrow?! She went on leave, and she still got a cut of his commission?! A share of his project experience?! Did his old company really make this game? Shouldn't annual leave be essentially nonexistent, sick leave treated as unexcused absence, and personal leave deducted from bonuses? And what did this (1/15) mean? Did it mean the Sword Princess could take fifteen days of paid leave? Fifteen days of paid leave a year—are you exploiting me?! ...Wait, did this quota reset every year, or every month? Yaxiu didn't dare let his thoughts wander any further. Otherwise, he would be dragged right back into the quagmire of memories from his years in corporate life, sinking into an inescapable funk—just as someone who had turned their life around could never afford to look back on their days in the pit. Still, Yaxiu wasn't surprised that the Sword Princess had triggered her personal storyline. He had heard her mention some Intercollegiate League at her school before. Clearly, this was the path of glorious flexes laid out for her, the route of the chosen one. Her first main story arc was bound to be sweeping the Intercollegiate League, followed by classic fantasy tropes like trials in the Abyss and aristocratic power struggles, culminating step by step in her ascension to Legendary Sorcerer. Come to think of it, the Sword Princess's plotline was far more fantastical than his own. She started at an academy, entered tournaments, and only needed to get tangled in a national conspiracy before joining the ragtag team destined to save the world—a complete, orthodox fantasy progression. That was a far cry from Yaxiu's opening act in a prison drama, which was a pretty rare genre even for cop-and-robber flicks. He really wanted to see the Sword Princess flexing on people... Speaking of which, even though the Sword Princess was always chattering about the trivial details of her daily life, Yaxiu had never really felt a strong sense of reality from it. His grasp of her life remained confined to pale stories painted by words alone. Her sudden tossing of a leave request just to enter a competition was what finally made Yaxiu realize that she truly had another life—a reality that belonged entirely to her. She had family, friends, mentors, distant dreams, and little joys within arm's reach. None of it included Yaxiu, however. The End Watcher and the Death Frenzy Sword Princess were merely friends in the Void Realm. Just as she couldn't reach into his life, he couldn't watch her matches. The thought left Yaxiu feeling a bit lonely. It was like an online gaming buddy with whom he ran dungeons in seamless coordination suddenly announcing that he couldn't make it tonight because he had to spend time with his girlfriend—a sensation that felt strangely like betrayal. Still, he quickly sorted out his petty feelings and silently cheered her on. As long as the Sword Princess won, she would gain more resources and more opportunities, pushing her personal storyline forward... ...Then again, if she lost, wouldn't her personal storyline stall, giving her more time to explore the Void Realm with him? *Splosh~* Yaxiu submerged himself completely in the bathtub, holding his breath. Only after nearly a minute did he resurface, clearing the pointless thoughts from his mind. He brushed his teeth, changed into pajamas, and prepared for tonight's Void Realm exploration. Since the Sword Princess couldn't come, did that mean it would just be Yaxiu and the Witch tonight? In Void Realm Exploration - Team Composition, Yaxiu added himself and the Witch. ... "Big Sis, help me wash my hair!" White Queen: [No. It's already the third day. You need to at least learn to bathe yourself. You can't just rely on us whenever there's something you don't like!] "Uwah... bubbles got in my eyes! It hurts!" Lisi reached out to turn the shower knob, but her foot slipped. Just as it looked like her bottom would smash into pieces, she pressed a hand against the floor, performed a somersault on the spot, and landed firmly on the soaking wet wooden boards. Half of her white hair turned crimson, her expression grew cold and aloof, and she sat down on a small stool to continue washing her hair. In the mirror, the White Queen said in exasperation: [Little Red, you're spoiling her! What kind of child doesn't even know how to wash her own hair? Look at her, she even bought herself a new bottle of shampoo.] Black Butler: [Knowing how to wash hair isn't a big deal. If she doesn't know, she doesn't know. We didn't know how back then, either.] [You said it yourself—back then,] the White Queen retorted. [This is all to foster her independence. She can't come crying to us every time she runs into a problem. How would that make her any different from Diya? Small things like this ought to be handled on her own.] Diya: [What does this have to do with me again?] While they spoke, the Red Apostle briskly finished washing the hair and handed control of the body back to Lisi. Knowing that her big sisters were angry again, Lisi obediently completed the rest of her bath routine, dried every inch of herself with a bath towel, put on her pajamas, and even brushed her teeth early. Only then did the White Queen's expression in the mirror soften. Lisi returned to the bedroom and sat before the vanity to dry her hair, only to see her reflection lick a finger and write several words across the glass: [You open the Gate of Truth tonight.] Lisi blinked. "A message from Big Brother Watcher?" [Hmm?] The sisters were puzzled. [What happened?] Lisi told them what had occurred, and the White Queen pondered, [I almost forgot that entering the Void Realm requires crossing the Gate of Truth. I assumed the Watcher had other methods... In other words, they were the ones opening the Gate of Truth the past two nights?] Black Butler: [Why does he want us to open it tonight? Is he trying to set a trap for us?] Diya: [Maybe they take turns. Us tonight, Sword Princess tomorrow, Watcher the day after...] After a brief discussion, they reached no conclusion. Instead, Lisi couldn't help yawning once her hair was dry. Diya took over the body, summoned her Mask sorcery spirit, seized upon the Gate of Truth, sank her consciousness, and connected to the Void Realm. When Diya opened her eyes, she found herself sitting in the front passenger seat of the sports car. The totaled vehicle from last night, which had looked ready to be hauled off and converted into a public restroom, was now brand new and fully restored. Diya had actually been the most worried of the trio about whether the car could be repaired. After all, neither of the other two had endured the misery of trekking through the Void Realm on foot. Only someone like her, who had spent over a month cross-country trudging through the Void Realm, understood that driving across the Time Continent was an imperial luxury you wouldn't trade for a crown. Stretching comfortably in her seat, she leaned her head back at an angle steep enough to cure cervical spine disease. "Sword Princess, I—" Diya's words came to a sudden halt. She stood right up on the seat, looking left and right. "Where's the Sword Princess? Where did she go? Did she get lost in the reverse golden rain?" "She has a match tonight, so she took a day off," Yaxiu said. "It's just the two of us exploring the Void Realm tonight." "What kind of match?" "No idea, but probably a sorcerer duel." "Aww, I really wanted to watch!" "Me too." After that brief exchange, Diya sat upright and proper, looking down at her knees and twiddling her fingers. Yaxiu opened the Void Realm Map and shook his head. "Bad luck. We didn't descend anywhere near a Star Hall region marked on the map, so we'll have to keep exploring uncharted territory." "Mm-hmm!" The sports car plunged into the reverse golden rain, flattening grass, crashing through trees, and speeding wildly ahead. Inside, it was dead silent. The two of them were like a law-abiding driver and passenger: the passenger didn't speak to the driver, and the driver didn't chat with the passenger. For some reason, both felt a little awkward. Granted, each had spent time alone with the Watcher or the Witch before, but back then, the other party had always arrived with a specific task and left promptly once business was settled, without wasting a second. Now, they were in the idle stretches of an exploration run. With no serious topics to discuss, what they needed was idle banter to fill the air. Yet Yaxiu and Diya rarely engaged in casual banter with each other. In the past, it was either Yaxiu chatting with Sonia or Diya clinging to Sonia and acting cute. As the one with the highest emotional intelligence among the three, Sonia had subtly functioned as the core of the team. When chatting with Yaxiu, she would make sure to draw Diya into the conversation; when Diya clung to her, she would feign annoyance and redirect the topic to Yaxiu, always ensuring that everyone participated and no one felt left out. This wasn't something Sonia did deliberately. Rather, the social skills she had honed over the past year had become second nature to her; every glance and every word was an effortless miracle, practically the textbook definition of a social butterfly. The moment Sonia wasn't around, however, their interpersonal shortcomings were laid bare. Setting Diya aside, Yaxiu's social charm was strictly an anti-male specialty. Stick him with a man and he could hit it off in no time, but put him with a woman... and he had no idea what to talk about. If Igola had been sitting next to him, Yaxiu's opening gambit would have been, "Are you seeing anyone? Thinking of having kids in the future? If you could turn into a pretty girl, would you rather be a voluptuous mature beauty or a petite, soft-spoken cutie?" He could keep that kind of nonsense rolling until dawn. Diya was in the same boat. With her extensive experience as a younger sister, acting spoiled around Sonia came naturally to her. She had dared to play nice with Yaxiu before only because Sonia was present, much like how a child felt bolder when an adult was by their side. *Damn it,* she thought. If only she hadn't exposed her sisters yesterday, she could have tagged in the White Queen right about now. But since the Watcher already knew her sisters' distinct personalities, switching people out now would seem dreadfully rude, making things even more awkward. "There's a sorcerer projection up ahead," Yaxiu suddenly said. "Oh. Run him over." "Got it." A dull, quiet night had begun.