You Can't Even Convince Me

Diya: "We don't really understand this either. We can only guess that perhaps Nina and I naturally possessed... well, to put it in the Watcher's terms, an extremely deep bond between us. The stronger the bond, the greater the enhancement when destiny is transferred. If normal people can only gain one hundred percent of an unconnected person's destiny, we might be able to gain one thousand percent of Nina's." "Even now, whenever I close my eyes, I can still remember how Nina looked as a child, covered in mud and grime. Perhaps it was precisely because of our bond that the Witch chose us to be the First Gospel and the unconnected." "That is why we had to flee the high tower—not just to escape the fate of the First Gospel, but even more so to save Nina! By now, she's likely already ranked first on the List of the Unconnected. If we don't save her, she will surely die as an unconnected!" "Yet we lacked the power to defy the Witch, let alone invade the imperial palace to rescue Nina. Our original plan was to find a way to seize the divine wish, and then wish to abolish the List of the Unconnected. That way, not only could Nina be saved, but tragic sisters like us would never exist again!" From birth, Lisdia and Niconalu were twins born of sin and suffering: Nina bore all the suffering, while Diya bore all the sin. From the day they were separated, she had lived upon the sorrow of another girl. It was destined from the very beginning: on the day Lisdia became monarch, the gem upon her crown would be Niconalu's very last drop of blood. Thus, after learning the truth, Diya could not bear the torment of her conscience at all. Crushed under the weight, in her despair she had summoned the Mask sorcery spirit, urgently splitting off sisters like the White Queen, Black Butler, and Red Apostle to share this agony—just like suffocating fish struggling for life, keeping each other alive with their breath. And precisely for this reason, although Diya had always called her grandmother an old witch, she harbored no hatred toward her. Because she knew that fifty years ago, her grandmother had endured the exact same thing. The only difference was that her grandmother had remained ignorant of the truth from beginning to end. The true culprit was merely the Isu royal family's cruel, twisted tradition of dynastic succession. This was why Diya wanted the divine wish—as long as the List of the Unconnected was abolished, all problems would be resolved. Nina would not have to sacrifice herself for Diya, and the Isu royal family would no longer need to produce sinful twins. "...Sister Diya and Sister Nina really are pitiable." After a moment of silence, Lisi said, "But right now, the person most likely to obtain the divine wish is Aunt Annan. We don't have a chance anymore." "Even though we can't abolish the List of the Unconnected, we still have a chance to save Nina," Diya said. "Because right now, inside the imperial palace's high tower, there is another princess." "After discussing it, we believe there are two possibilities: this princess is a 'spare' unknown to us, and the Witch might use the authority of the god 'Gospel' to transfer Nina's destiny onto this spare." "Yet I've never heard of any other princesses besides Nina and me. So there is another possibility: this princess is Nina herself." "Because we vanished, but the Isu royal family still needs the next emperor. So on the night we left, the Witch fished Nina out of the List of the Unconnected—at the cost of making Nina the new First Gospel." The Little Witch caught on immediately. "But without a sacrifice, Sister Nina can only live for ten years!" Diya: "Exactly. The Witch definitely won't have time to groom a new unconnected person, but that also gives us our chance. Nina was never groomed to be the First Gospel. The Witch letting her stay in the high tower is definitely so she can inherit the traces of my past, thereby tricking the Gospel List." "As long as we can bring her out of the high tower, and then have one of our sisters enter her body to temporarily replace her persona—given the bond between Nina and me, we sisters can definitely move freely between each other—we'll surely be able to help her escape the fate of the First Gospel!" "Even though we can't completely destroy the List of the Unconnected, at least both Nina and I can survive... That's why we must follow Yaxiu and the others into the imperial palace. We can't let him assassinate Nina! On the contrary, we have to find a way to save Nina!" Lisi: "...Sisters, you've had it so hard all this time..." Diya: "This is my responsibility." "It is our responsibility," the White Queen said. "Nina is our sister, too." Black Butler: "Actually, now that we've come this far, there's only one way left if we want to stay." Red Apostle: "Full honesty." Diya: "I've been thinking about this all along, too. Whether to confess everything to Yaxiu, reveal that I'm Princess Lisdia, and beg him to help us save Nina... But..." Black Butler: "You're afraid to reveal the secret, even to Xiu. Not because the secret itself is so important, but because you fear he'll resent you for hiding it." White Queen: "But there's no other way now. Even if we figure out how to stay behind, Xiao Xiu will never bring us into the imperial palace. As long as we keep the truth from him, there's no good reason for him to drag us into deadly danger. He'll only toss us out of the palace!" Red Apostle: "Honesty is the best negotiation skill." Just as the older sisters were passionately debating the viability of 'coming clean,' a childish yet resolute voice rang out in their minds: "No." Lisi sat down firmly on the hand mirror with her rear, took off her gloves, and looked down at her arms, keeping her gaze averted from any reflective surfaces as she spoke in her mind: "Sister Diya, Sister White, Sister Black, Sister Red, I feel very sorry for Sister Nina, and I understand your determination to save her, and even more so the sense of justice in your hearts." "Lisdia knows Niconalu, but Lisi doesn't." "Lisi doesn't want to save anyone, nor do I need strangers to applaud me." "I only want Papa to pamper me, and my sisters to dote on me. There are very few people I like, and not many who like me. Aside from you and Papa, no one else likes me... Uncle Harvey doesn't care about me; Aunt Bogin only tolerates me because of Papa; Aunt Annan treats me as a tool; Uncle Banjie only cares about Annan... So I don't want to lose a single one of you." "I will not let you and Papa take risks just to save someone I don't know. Never." "Sisters, if you wanted to do something so noble back then, you should have created a little sister with a noble personality." "I'm just a Little Witch—an ignorant, timid, easily satisfied, and selfish Little Witch." "You won't even be able to convince Papa. You can't even convince me." After pouring out what was in her heart, Lisi made up her mind. She turned her head toward Yaxiu, who was thumbing through the Book of Gospel. "Papa, let's run away. Don't take part in the assassination plan. Let's hide together until the Weaving Ceremony ends, okay?"