You Leave Me No Choice

"Yaxiu-xiu-xiu-xiu-xiu..." Inside the villa's library, Yaxiu turned his head to see Rose standing by the door in elk pajamas. She was rubbing her eyes, clutching an exceedingly bizarre plush toy in her arms. "Did I wake you?" Rose shook her head. "What do you want to drink? Coffee, juice, or milk tea?" "Nothing for me. Go back to sleep," Yaxiu said with a smile. "I'm just reading in here for a bit." "No can do. If you're awake, I have to be awake too, so I can fulfill your wild whims at any moment—and keep you from killing someone without me even knowing." Rose walked over with a yawn. Noticing Yaxiu staring at the plush toy in her arms, she introduced it. "This is Mr. Fish, my good friend. Mr. Fish, this is my employer, Yaxiu Heath." In Rose's arms was an enormous golden eyeball plush wrapped in eight white wings, which were themselves studded with smaller eyeballs. Yaxiu hesitated, opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, before finally deciding it was best to keep his thoughts to himself. "Hello, Mr. Fish." Setting Mr. Fish aside, Rose walked behind Yaxiu with a sleepy expression and placed her slender fingers against the back of his head, pressing gently. Like a pianist touching a Steinway or a chef handling a Lalafell, Yaxiu almost felt as if his head had been made specifically for her fingers. With just a casual press from her, a tingling, achingly pleasurable sensation spread across his scalp. He gave a wry smile. "Go back to sleep. I just couldn't sleep, so I came down to review the files again. I won't do anything reckless." Rose hummed in noncommittal assent, having no intention of leaving whatsoever. Left with no other choice, Yaxiu asked, "How did you know I wasn't asleep?" "Intuition," she said. "The moment you wake up, I wake up right away." "And here I thought there was a surveillance camera or something in my room..." "Those can only serve as secondary measures at best." "Huh?" "You seem troubled. Want to talk about it?" Rose changed the subject immediately. "You and those friends of yours seem to have this setting where you're 'unfamiliar with this world.' As it happens, I know this world inside and out. I should be able to help you—and I won't leak your secrets; I'll only leak other people's secrets to you." Yaxiu resolved to thoroughly inspect his room for hidden cameras the moment he went back. "I'm not really that troubled, it's just... I've run into some things beyond my abilities that I can't control, yet I absolutely must achieve a good outcome." Rose blinked. "...In this world, that situation is usually called being troubled." "I don't know if you can understand." Yaxiu rubbed his forehead, a trace of exhaustion showing on his face. "Even though Igola and Harvey didn't act like they cared, this time... my good intentions really did cause a mess. "Of all times, I brought them here right when we were wanted by the Stars. Right now, our true bodies are stranded in the Starry Kingdom, completely helpless. For all we know, we might have already fallen into the hands of the authorities, and it wouldn't even be surprising if we suddenly dropped dead at any second. "Even if nothing goes wrong in reality, struggling to survive here is by no means easy. Legends from all five nations have infiltrated this place, and Vichy is merely the tip of the iceberg. On top of that, there are volatile wildcards like demons and angels... And worst of all, we're all just pawns, while the real chess players are the Divine Lords beyond the starry sky. "In the past, I could at least run away if I couldn't win, but now we're trapped here with nowhere to run." Yaxiu's voice gradually deepened. "Although doing nothing and waiting for it all to end is an option, still... "If Niya really is an angel..." "The worldbuilding and romantic subplots of your game are pretty complicated," Rose remarked. "In short, you're currently in deep danger, and the only way to survive is to win, right?" "More or less." "Then what advantages do you have right now?" "My advantages are these." Yaxiu tapped the notebook in his hands. "The records and assets Heath accumulated in the past. Almost everyone else is a vagrant or an ordinary civilian, but I alone am a successful member of the elite in the Country of All Stars. I can leverage social status and the power of money to sway the situation. "That's why I couldn't sleep tonight and came down to study..." He smiled slightly. "If only Heath had left a walkthrough in his notes to beat the game directly." "If that's the case, isn't your victory guaranteed?" Rose asked, puzzled. "If the opponents are vagrants or ordinary people, couldn't I just hire someone to murder them for you and solve the problem? You wouldn't even need hitmen—staging a traffic accident or something similar would do the trick, and the police department wouldn't even look into it." They're Legendary magicians, how could hiring a hitman possibly— Yaxiu was just about to retort, but the words caught in his throat. In the outside world, taking down a Legendary magician would require an encirclement by several fellow Legends at minimum, and even then, there was a high likelihood the target would escape. All Stars was different. There were mysterious chains here. If a Legendary magician truly suffered an attack by ordinary people and dared to cast a miracle to evade danger or counterattack, the result would be triggering the mysterious chains and getting locked down completely! Not that he was actually going to hire someone to murder them, but Rose's words reminded Yaxiu that Heath's eight years of accumulation were by no means in vain. Even if the Divine Lord had created demons to unbind the chains of the Legendary magicians, whether demons or Legends, they were ultimately anomalies in the Country of All Stars. All Stars had always been the starry sky of mortals! Suddenly, Yaxiu finally understood why Heath was qualified to become a feeler of the Four Pillar Gods. Even if it was merely entering the Country of All Stars eight years ahead of time, those eight years alone were enough for Heath to turn the Country of All Stars into his home turf, turning the tables to usurp the fruits of the Divine Lord of Stars! Heath was the bayonet forged by the Four Pillar Gods specifically for the Divine Lord of Stars! He himself was an anti-god weapon! Yaxiu pondered for a long while before his whole body gradually relaxed. "Thank you." "Relieving your worries is an assistant's duty," Rose replied calmly. Only now did Yaxiu realize that he had unwittingly leaned back against the chair, the back of his head resting softly against two supple, resilient mounds. Yet no wanton thoughts entered his mind; he merely felt utterly relaxed, as though all the worries in his heart had been swept clean. In truth, even with social resources, dealing with Legendary magicians was by no means simple; after all, they weren't fools. Moreover, there was another crucial issue: how was he supposed to bring his home-field advantage into play? Yet the answer to that question stood right behind Yaxiu. As Yaxiu Heath's assistant, Rose could coordinate all his resources and flawlessly execute all of Yaxiu's unlawful intentions. If Heath was the bayonet aimed at the Divine Lord of Stars, then Rose was the scabbard that maintained that bayonet. Curiously enough, it had taken Rose only a single day to earn Yaxiu's trust; even the suspicious Deceiver regarded her as a 'usable tool.' Yaxiu had been spared even the effort of adjusting to the new world. Shortly after entering All Stars, he had found Harvey and Igola, encountered 'Dead Frenzy' Niya within half a day, and captured a maid on the way back that night—and Rose had played an immense role in all of it. Without Rose, Yaxiu would have spent a substantial amount of time just brooding in isolation. Yaxiu hadn't expected that he would bare his heart to someone he had known for less than a day. Such psychological counseling had typically fallen under Igola's purview, and not even the Sword Princess or the Witch were necessarily qualified—he didn't want to expose his weak side before the people he loved. "Even though you're my assistant, is your taking such good care of me also because you and Heath grew up together as childhood friends?" Rose was noncommittal. "Maybe." Yaxiu asked, "Was Heath very good to you when you were little, so you wanted to repay him when you grew up?" "Not at all. When we were little, I was usually the one protecting him." Rose gently kneaded Yaxiu's head. "I'm three years older than him. "Up until he suddenly claimed he 'came from the Blood Moon,' he had always been an unlucky child. He'd get beaten if he walked down the street, hit by a car if he stepped outside, and if he passed a funeral, the coffin lid would suddenly slide toward him. "Compared to when we were little, working as your assistant really isn't that hard." Yaxiu came to a sudden realization. "So you look at me as family, like you're my older sister, and that's why you take such good care of me?" "No, no." Rose shook her head. "Between us, it's a purely monetary relationship. Very clean. None of that stuff." Yaxiu felt a little baffled, but he also breathed a sigh of relief at Rose's words. If Rose truly regarded him as family, he wouldn't know how to interact with her—he wasn't the real Heath, nor would he stay here for long. Besides, Rose was merely a projection of her real-world self. Thinking of this, Yaxiu tilted his head back to look at Rose. "You haven't dyed your hair or had cosmetic surgery, have you?" "No. Why?" "Nothing. I'm just surprised that I don't know you in the other world." Yaxiu thought to himself that this roleplaying setup was extraordinarily convenient for speaking freely. "I previously thought relationships in the Country of All Stars were projected from reality, but the relationship between you and me is enough to disprove my conjecture. I certainly don't have an older sister who takes care of me like you do." "I am not your sister. We have a strictly professional relationship," Rose corrected him. "Right, right, right." ... "He is the feeler born for the Stars, and I am the companion born for him." Daidalos smiled brightly. "Many years ago, before the seat of the Four Pillar Gods, we already forged an eternal bond. Our destinies are intertwined like a helix. "Now, please step aside. Whether it is him or his companions, the Four Pillar Cult will take good care of them." Facing the idol she had worshipped since childhood, Sonia narrowed her eyes slightly, her moist, lovely cherry lips softly parting to utter a single word: "Scram." Whoosh. A gust of wind suddenly kicked up inside the room. Surging fluctuations of sorcery mana tore through the calm atmosphere, leaving Felix shivering by the door. On one side stood the Sword Princess with her red ponytail; on the other, the Song Maiden with her long, dark-blue hair. The starlight itself seemed split into two opposing camps for them, and an invisible murderous intent set the glass windowpanes rattling and trembling. Felix thought to herself that this house still couldn't escape the fate of being demolished. But the problem was, the prize of your battle is the man lying on the bed! How badly she wanted to take a picture of this scene and post it to the Paw-Stretching Club and the Bite You Fan Club, letting fans know that the two most celebrated independent women in the Starry Kingdom were actually fighting over an utterly ordinary man! Honestly, is this man made of gold? Is this really necessary? Thinking this, Felix glanced at Yaxiu on the bed. At this moment, Yaxiu was still wearing her clothes—and even more infuriatingly, he genuinely looked a tiny bit more handsome in them than she did... "I can give you everything you desire," Daidalos said softly. "Fame, resources, social status, and the ritual to break free from the blessing of the stars. If you are willing, I can advance you to marquis right now without any shackle of the stars, while keeping every bit of the blessing's benefits. "Of course, if you're interested, I can also turn you into a national starlet. Although you won't be able to reach my heights, I can voluntarily retire from the screen to make room for your career. "You must also know that Yaxiu is the Legendary magician being hunted by the Throne Room. Staying with him will only bring you endless trouble. But if you hand him over to me, not only will he be safe and sound, you will also reap infinite rewards." Daidalos's voice grew gentler and gentler as she looked at the Sword Princess with earnest sincerity. "If you truly love Yaxiu, you should consider what is best for him. "There is a kind of love called letting go. "Besides, the Four Pillar Cult couldn't possibly control him anyway. If he wakes up and wants to find you, could we ever stop a Legendary magician? Parting is merely for a sweeter reunion—or do you believe your love is so fragile?" The Country Girl quietly gazed upon the foremost beauty beneath the starry sky, then suddenly broke into a bright smile. "As expected of the idol I admire most. "Enticing with profit, appealing to reason, moving with sentiment, and provoking with faith—for a brief second, I really was swayed. "But do you know? I'm just a country girl from a backwater village, cursed with the short-sighted mentality of a petty commoner." Daidalos's smile gradually faded. "So?" "So, we hold on tight to the happiness in our hands and never let go." A bloody gleam rose in the Paw-Stretching Sword Saint's eyes as she enunciated each word: "No one can tear him from my grasp. Not even death can part us. "I've made my choice; now it's your turn." Sonia's left hand lightly rested on the hilt of her sword. "Kill me, or be killed by me." Felix's legs felt like jelly. She glanced sideways toward the corridor, thinking that the moment fighting broke out, she would flee the battlefield at once. "Sonia Sevier, you leave me no choice," Daidalos said calmly. "Yet the divine oracle of the Four Pillar Gods must be executed, so I can only..." "...invite you to join the Four Pillar Cult."