They hadn't managed to rule out the wrong option.
Yet when the Sword Princess declared the answer incorrect, Yaxiu felt everyone breathe a quiet sigh of relief.
Unlike the first question, which featured a distinct middle-aged peasant woman and a little girl marked by age, the three people in the second question were roughly the same age. None bore any resemblance to Sonia, making it obvious they were not relatives. Moreover, the question asked for the person she "hated most." The odds were high that those three were not even Sonia's friends, leaving virtually no clues to analyze. Consequently, Sonia had had no choice but to pick the only person she recognized—pure white Diya.
Yet if the answer had truly been Diya, matters would have grown far more complicated. Why had Sonia ended up in this cabin of lost memories alongside the person she detested most? Had she been framed? Should she seize this chance to get rid of her arch-enemy?
And if Sonia and Diya were enemies, did that make Yaxiu and Denzel her enemies as well?
Take it a step further: could the four of them be irreconcilable nemeses rather than intimate companions bound through life and death?
At the end of the day, the harmonious castle in the air Yaxiu had constructed was far too fragile—so fragile that a single answer could reduce it to rubble. Therefore, having Diya not be the answer was an outcome everyone could live with. Even Sonia felt a heavy weight lift from her chest.
"Incorrect answer," the Sword Princess said. "You have lost your treasure—the mind faction."
A sphere of silver radiance was kneaded between the Sword Princess's fingertips until it dispersed into wisps of smoke, signifying that Sonia had thoroughly lost a silver-rank sorcery faction.
Sonia didn't actually feel any physical change, yet watching property and a reward that rightfully belonged to her vanish into thin air made her heart bleed. The sense of immersion was excruciating, as agonizing as watching an ice cream cone drop straight onto the dirt.
She abruptly turned to Yaxiu and asked, "Am I still your lover right now?"
"Huh? Well, yes, but why ask? We're only temporarily—"
"Then give me your hand."
Sonia snatched Yaxiu's hand and sank her teeth right into it, biting down so fiercely that her eyes went wide and round. Although there was no physical pain, the furious bite force sent a tremor straight through Yaxiu's soul, conjuring phantom prickles of agony.
He began to seriously wonder whether there was a fundamental flaw in his deduction. How could this possibly be his lover? Even if he had momentarily been blinded by beauty, his body couldn't endure this kind of abuse!
The little sister had at least merely tasted him, but you, the lover, look ready to tear off an entire chunk of meat!
Yaxiu looked down at Diya clutching his left hand, then at Sonia gnawing on his right hand, before turning his head toward Denzel.
"I'm fresh out of hands. Which part do you want?"
"...I likely have no need to vent my stress in such a manner."
After venting her frustrations, Sonia felt significantly refreshed. She released his hand with a satisfied air, though her grip remained tight, like a fierce little she-wolf guarding her food for the next meal.
"Done resting?" The Sword Princess showed zero interest in their antics. "Then we shall begin the third—"
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait~~"
The Witch suddenly bounded over to the middle of the hall, striking a sparkling "magical girl arrival" pose. "Hold on for a second!"
"Sword Princess, I've got a question that's pretty similar to your third one. Why don't we ask them together? Otherwise, once she answers yours, mine's going to be way too easy."
"Acceptable."
The Witch turned toward Diya. "It's time for you to answer too. Are you ready?"
Diya reflexively bit down on Yaxiu's finger, trembling as she shook her head frantically.
Yaxiu chimed in at once. "We should answer separately! It's still the lover's turn. Reasonably speaking, she should answer first, and then it's the little sister's turn. There's no need to lump them together."
If the questions were identical, answering them separately was obviously best. If Sonia got it right, they would know the correct answer; if she got it wrong, they could eliminate an incorrect option. Only a fool would answer simultaneously.
"Hmm... is something wrong with my tone...?"
The Witch scratched her head in annoyance, her eyes narrowing slightly as her lips curled into a dangerous arc.
Suddenly, her voice bloomed with an eighteen-fold resonance—
"*Come over and answer.*"
Diya shuddered violently.
Not just her, but every single voice inside her head fell dead silent, like prey encountering a natural predator.
For the first time, Diya and the voices in her mind reached complete consensus: *Obey.*
The multicolored Diya hid behind Yaxiu, nodding profusely like a chick pecking grain. The Witch instantly broke into a bright, innocent smile, as though that sinister demeanor had been nothing more than an illusion. She spun on tiptoe, her black skirt blooming like an ebony rose. "Great! Then next up is the collaborative question from the Witch and the Sword Princess—"
"Wait."
A second interruption echoed through the cabin, crisp and jarring like tearing parchment.
This time, not only the real people but even the three phantoms wore surprised expressions.
The Empress rose languidly from her chaise lounge. Her loose robes could not conceal the regal magnanimity of her bosom; the fabric slipped down over her fair shoulders, the buttons at the front barely preserving the final shred of modesty. Drifting over like a breeze, she wrapped one arm around the Witch and the other around the Sword Princess, smiling. "It seems I also have a question that's quite similar to what you two are about to ask... Why don't we join forces?"
Faced with such a blatant show of affection, the Sword Princess looked as though she were being harassed. "The questions might be similar, but the choices might not be."
"Exactly, exactly," the Witch said with a sparkling smile. "There's no room for anyone else between me and the Sword Princess. Empress, why don't you go cuddle up with the Watcher instead—"
"Wouldn't different choices be even better? It would raise the difficulty of the test." The Empress tilted her head. "Or is it that you *wish* to refuse me?"
The tip of a bizarre iceberg broke the surface, and an unknown leviathan loomed amidst the surging waves. The amnesiacs faintly sensed something amiss in the air, but lacking any information, they could not decipher the undercurrents swirling between the phantoms.
The Watcher, the Sword Princess, the Witch, and the Empress exchanged glances for a moment. Then the Watcher sighed softly. "A pity my question doesn't seem to match yours, or I'd want to join your collaborative quiz party too."
The Watcher's words acted like a release valve, instantly draining the taut tension from the room. The Witch giggled. "How could we ever refuse you, Empress? We couldn't be happier! The more, the merrier—let's ask together then, Sword Princess."
"Very well," the Sword Princess replied, expressionless.
At that moment, Yaxiu whispered to the others, "Look at their dynamic. It proves my deduction was right all along: you three really are my little sister, my lover, and my mistress."
"How on earth does that prove anything?" Sonia found his logic baffling.
"First, the Witch consulted the Sword Princess, and the Sword Princess agreed without hesitation. That proves the Witch and the Sword Princess aren't hostile to each other. In other words, you two couldn't possibly both be my lovers, or you'd be romantic rivals and incapable of getting along so peacefully. So either you're both my little sisters, or one is my lover and one is my little sister—and the current situation leans toward the latter." Yaxiu laid out his analysis with utter conviction. "But when the Empress asked to join in, both the Witch and the Sword Princess instinctively pushed back. Why? Because in their eyes, the Empress is a homewrecker coming between them!"
"Then the Watcher spoke up, clearly taking the Empress's side and even using his authority as the head of the household to compel the Witch and the Sword Princess to yield, hinting that they shouldn't ostracize the Empress. That shows the Watcher currently favors the Empress more!"
"I understand it completely now." Yaxiu sounded thoroughly grounded in his reasoning. "The little sister is the one I raised from childhood; the lover is someone I've been with for years and we've recently entered a plateau phase; and the mistress is someone I met recently and am currently head-over-heels in love with!"
The Watcher started to speak, then stopped. The corner of the Witch's mouth twitched as she fought with all her might to control her facial nerves. The Sword Princess narrowed her eyes slightly, while the Empress barely reacted at all.
"So that just makes you an ironclad, pure aluminum-alloy scumbag, doesn't it?" Sonia asked with utter sincerity.
"Whether I'm a scumbag is beside the point. What matters is that this gives us a foundation to answer the questions," Yaxiu said. "Besides, you all still like me even knowing I'm a scumbag—don't you think that's a crucial piece of intelligence in itself? Just imagine: under what circumstances would you be utterly devoted to me unto death?"
"I..." Sonia frowned. "Unless it were for the greater good."
"Excellent. That means there are major shared interests entangled between us." Yaxiu turned to Denzel. "What about you? Under what circumstances do you think you would willingly become my mistress?"
Denzel was thoroughly bewildered now. Truth be told, when Yaxiu was running through his logical deductions earlier, she hadn't believed a single word. It was only due to her cool, reserved temperament that she had watched quietly as events unfolded.
Yet the phantoms' interactions and Yaxiu's conjectures were making even Denzel waver. Could she really be Yaxiu's newly acquired mistress?
She wanted to refute it, but had no counter-evidence.
Besides, if not for that kind of connection, why would she have appeared in this cabin of lost memories in the first place?
"...As long as I deeply love someone, whether they love me back or not, I will devote everything I have to them whole-heartedly," Denzel said. "To me, becoming a mistress would not give me pause."
"Huh?" Yaxiu was dumbfounded. "Am I really that incredible, to win the affection of so many people? I'm honestly starting to feel quite flattered—"
"If you're so flattered, wipe that unmistakable smug grin off your face first!" Sonia fumed, thoroughly exasperated. "Setting aside whether you're mistaken, even if you're right, it only proves you're a morally bankrupt piece of human garbage, lower than raw ingredients!"
*Clang!*
A sudden chime of steel rang out. Everyone looked over to see the Sword Princess sheathing her blade, her expression unchanged. "Are you finished chatting? Then let us begin."
The Sword Princess, the Witch, and the Empress grasped the upper corners of the picture album in unison and turned to a new page together.
Perhaps because three people asking at once amplified the difficulty, five portraits appeared before the test-takers.
And everyone froze in disbelief.
The first was a young girl living in a basement.
The second was a young girl wearing a spiderweb eyepatch.
The third was a woman seated upon a throne.
The fourth was a young girl with black-and-white hair.
The fifth was a hooded man clad in a dark red trench coat.
Yet the problem was that, apart from the fifth painting, the women in the first four paintings all shared the exact same face!
Everyone turned to look at Diya. Diya stared blankly at the four portraits above, murmuring, "So many of me..."
The corner of Yaxiu's mouth twitched. "Looking at it this way, the me in the fifth painting seems a bit out of place..."
Although there were numerous differences in age, attire, and accessories, anyone could tell at a single glance: the females in the first four portraits looked identical to Diya!
It was as if they were Diya in various forms across different outfits, hair colors, and ages!
"This is the question that the three of you must answer together."
Unlike the Sword Princess's calm and the Witch's cheerfulness, the Empress's voice carried a weighty weathered tone that stood in stark contrast to her youthful appearance:
"If you knew you were about to die, who would you want to die with you?"
"Oh, right. Because this is a question for all three of you to answer together, the rewards and penalties will also be a bit different..." The Witch's voice held a trace of mockery. "Regardless of whether you answer correctly or incorrectly..."
"The answer to this question may very well become reality."
Chapter 305