Me, the Sword Princess, and the Witch

A clothing store. "Master, I'm coming out!" Vichy stepped out of the fitting room in a dark mini-dress. Straps wrapped around her fair, long legs, pressing in just enough to show their soft fullness. She looked young and adorable — nothing at all like a demon monster that had killed countless people. She bent forward slightly, hands clasped behind her back, tilted her head, and gazed at Yaxiu, girlish charm pouring off her until Yaxiu found himself briefly dazed. But just then, Feili's voice came from the next fitting room: "Yaxiu, I'm changed too!" Yaxiu snapped awake as if from a dream, let out a long sigh of relief, studied Feili's outfit seriously, and shook his head. "I don't think that works. Why don't you try that blue one from before..." A dessert shop. "Master, don't move." Yaxiu blinked, watching Vichy reach a finger toward him. The maid smiled. "Look, you've got ice cream on the corner of your mouth..." Feili beat her to it, wiping the ice cream from the corner of Yaxiu's mouth with her finger and popping it straight into her own mouth. "Right, right, Yaxiu, you're so careless." A restaurant. "Master, ahh~" Vichy speared a piece of beef and held it out. "Serving Master his meal is a maid's duty." "But Miss Vichy, you're not wearing a maid's uniform right now." Feili thrust her fork forward first and stuffed a shrimp into Yaxiu's mouth. "So there's no need to carry out a maid's duties." Yaxiu nodded vigorously too, chewing as he said, "No feeding each other. Eat properly!" "But it's boring if we don't feed each other," Vichy said with a shrug. "We don't have much to talk about anyway. After all, you and I are sorcerers, Yaxiu, but those two aren't—" Feili: "Speaking of which, can sorcerers really do the things they do in the movies?" "Yes, but not a One-Wing Sorcerer." Yaxiu explained, "That kind of miraculous effect takes at least a Two-Wing Sorcerer." "Th-then, can you do it?" Feili asked hopefully. "Like... miracles that strengthen other people..." Yaxiu thought it over. "I can pull it off, but the light and shadow effects definitely won't be as impressive as in the movies. Next time I'll let you experience it." Feili gazed at Yaxiu with admiration. "Really?! That's amazing!" Vichy waited quietly until they finished their movie talk, then said suddenly, "Time to go. Next is the last stop of the date — the amusement park." "Your date-planning isn't all that great either, Vichy," Yaxiu said. "I thought you'd have some kind of surprise plan, but every step has been pretty ordinary." "Heh heh, you underestimate me." Vichy smiled. "This amusement park will absolutely astonish you." "As if." Yaxiu's face was full of disdain. "I'm a legendary sorcerer. What kind of scene haven't I seen?" ...... ... "I never knew a legendary sorcerer could scream so pitifully." Coming off the Sky Veil Behemoth roller coaster, Yaxiu and Feili staggered along and braced themselves against the wall by the drainage channel, both looking ready to throw up. Vichy and Rose were completely fine; the maid even had the presence of mind to tease her master. "If only I could use my sorcery..." Yaxiu covered his mouth. "A mortal body... has its limits." Vichy: "But screaming is one thing. Why were you calling for Harvey?" "Because I thought I was about to die. I was calling Harvey over to collect the corpse." "Then why did you start calling for Igola afterward?" Yaxiu raised his right hand, which bore ten clear fingerprints. "The last person who grabbed me like that was Igola." "Sorry." Feili's face was a little pale. "I was too nervous." Vichy blinked at the hand. "Both hands at once? You were clinging to him like the last straw that could save you from drowning." "That's nothing. If it were Igola, he'd leave spiral-shaped marks. I suspect he wrings towels when he's nervous." Yaxiu finally got his upside-down insides back in order. "Let me say this in advance — I'm not riding any more of these violent rides." "Then let's ride the Ferris wheel and head back." Vichy pointed at the huge Ferris wheel standing in the starry sky in the distance. "In the date guides I read, the Ferris wheel is always the last part of a date..." Halfway through, the maid realized she had let something slip, and Yaxiu immediately caught it. "So you copied your guide off the internet too!" "What else?" Seeing no point in hiding it, Vichy threw caution to the wind. "I've only been here a few days. I don't even know the local customs — how could I possibly plan a whole date itinerary?" "If you can't do it, why insist on grabbing this job?" "Otherwise how would I lead this date?" Vichy said self-righteously. "Master, haven't you already seen through my intentions? Come on, Master, let's ride the Ferris wheel together~" "No. All four of us ride together." "But the atmosphere of four people is completely different from two. Feili has a date in two days, and the end of it will definitely be just two people riding the Ferris wheel. Fifteen minutes in an enclosed space — without some advance rehearsal, they could easily spend those fifteen minutes in an awkward prison cell." Feili couldn't help nodding. Never mind Senior Dimi'er — among her friends, only Senior Liya was someone she could be alone with without any awkwardness. If she were suddenly shut up in a small room with anyone else, she would surely be like a quail, afraid to lift her head and speak. Vichy patted her chest. "It seems the only option is—" "Rose, you ride with Vichy. I'll ride with Feili." Yaxiu said at once. "Understood." Rose immediately went over and handcuffed herself to Vichy. With fast-pass tickets, they were soon seated on the Ferris wheel. As the wheel turned slowly, the capital of Jiashi beneath the multitude of stars unfolded before the visitors without reservation; the canopy of the sky and the earth seemed joined as one, the Milky Way hanging upside down, the stars lying upon the ground. While everyone was deeply captivated by the sight, the passengers in one car weren't looking outside at all. The two of them gazed at each other in silence, not saying a word. "Though I've never been fully confident about analyzing human behavior," Rose said suddenly, "you're creating an opportunity for those two, aren't you?" "Something like that." Vichy leaned lazily against the seat. "At least everything is going according to my plan." "What makes two people's feelings grow the fastest? Not a date — a fight. If they have a common enemy and help each other, their mutual affection will shoot right up." "He shouldn't have asked Igola how to deal with me. The mind faction is the field where rank suppression is harshest. Compared to sorcerers who've never set foot in the mind faction, someone like Igola is actually easier for me to manipulate. As they say, good swimmers drown." Rose said, "I thought you wanted Yaxiu to fall for you." "It's not that I couldn't." Vichy said honestly. "But it wouldn't last. His fear and wariness of me would quickly wear that little bit of desire down to nothing. And I don't need him to truly fall in love with me anyway. If I can control the people around him, that's the same as controlling him." Rose nodded. "A person's essence is the sum of their social relations. But is it really a good idea to be so frank with me?" "You won't report me," Vichy said calmly. "Because you're on my side." "You may not know the details, but you know how badly Yaxiu wants Feili. Now I'm helping bring them together, letting Yaxiu bind Feili with chains of love. How could someone who serves only Yaxiu's interests possibly object?" "For me, Yaxiu gaining Feili would be the best possible outcome. That would make him eligible to take part in hunting the angel, and whether it succeeds or fails, it's a chance for me to escape. And yes, he's hard to manipulate — but Feili is a different story..." "Still, you're a peculiar one. Your tool-like nature is far too strong — even a projection couldn't reach this level." Vichy studied Rose thoughtfully. "Add that to Yaxiu being a feeler of the Four Pillar Gods... I can roughly guess your true identity." Rose tilted her head at her, apparently not understanding what the maid was talking about. "Never mind." Vichy lifted her head and looked up at the car diagonally above theirs. "By now, our little lamb should have figured out her own feelings..." ...... ... "We did it!" Yaxiu let out a long breath. "I wasn't charmed by Vichy. We saw through all her tricks and successfully resisted her offensive! I've built up a resistance to Vichy!" "Yeah." Feili said. "She's really formidable. Several times I nearly couldn't keep up." "I really owe you today." A wave of belated fear came over Yaxiu. "If you hadn't been watching, I might have actually started to like that bastard by now..." Feili said, "I think if you really don't like her, any affection would fade quickly. But if you truly do like her, no matter how unwilling you are, you wouldn't be able to resist." Yaxiu was taken aback. He turned to look at the distant silver streetlamps and said softly, "Maybe you're right." "But we still have to stay wary of Vichy. Compared to you, she's the real demon. We can't give her any chance to slip free of her chains." He paused, then suddenly scratched his head. "Come to think of it, this was supposed to be your date rehearsal, and yet you spent the whole day helping me interrupt Vichy's spellcasting..." "It's fine. Your matters are much more important, after all — I did agree to become your... demon." Feili shook her head. "My business is trivial, and besides..." The blonde girl glanced at the brilliant starry sky and the star-sea earth outside. "Today... I was pretty happy too." "Yeah, me too. Except for that last roller coaster." Yaxiu laughed. "At least it proves the date guide Vichy copied was right." Feili looked at Yaxiu, and the cult leader looked back at the blonde girl. Their car was carried up into the starry sky, and in the gentle stillness threads of starlight drifted over them, lending them a dazzling glow. Suddenly Feili felt her cheeks burning. She quickly avoided Yaxiu's gaze and looked down at her knees, but she still couldn't suppress her pounding heart. It struck her that today she had watched a movie with Yaxiu, browsed the shops, gone to a dessert shop, eaten dinner with him, and in the end even ridden the Ferris wheel alone with him. Weren't all of these... things couples did? A fresh scent of mint drifted through the air — Yaxiu's shampoo. She had smelled it during the movie too. It was a clean, fresh smell, yet it made Feili feel dizzy. Her toes curled involuntarily, warmth spread through her whole body, and her breathing grew shallow and quick. I... Could I be... But he's Yaxiu Heath, and I'm just ordinary Feili Lena... "Today was my first date too." Feili's head snapped up. "No way?!" "Why not?" Yaxiu rolled his eyes at her, then looked out at the starry sky. "I told you — in the other world I was a fugitive who never knew if he'd live to see tomorrow, either running or being hunted. When would I have had such peaceful time? And even if I did, I had no one to date." At those words, Feili felt as though a hundred thousand roses had bloomed from the iceberg in her heart. Joy overflowed from every strand of her hair, and her whole body felt warm and languid, as if soaking in a hot spring. She lowered her head and said quietly, "Today was my first date too." "Now that I think about it, if you took that Vichy out of the picture, our first date was pretty successful, wouldn't you say?" "Yeah." "Then that's great." Feili felt as if her heart would leap out of her chest. She raised her eyes to Yaxiu, and an irresistible impulse suddenly surged up inside her. All her life she had been indecisive and afraid to step forward, never daring to make a decision. But since meeting Yaxiu, she had felt two impulses completely unlike herself. The first had been confronting the school administration for Senior Dimi'er. And the second was now. Say it. I have to say it. Otherwise from this moment on I can only hide it silently in my heart and carry it into my coffin as a regret and a grave good! The army of impulse had reached her throat. Feili closed her eyes, opened her mouth, and words full of feeling were about to spill out— "If only my date with the Sword Princess and the Witch could go this well," Yaxiu said. All her surging emotion receded like the tide. Feili stared blankly at Yaxiu and saw the stars reflected in his eyes. On his face were longing, anticipation, and a tenderness she had never seen before. He looked at Feili and clenched his fist. "Your date in two days is bound to go well too. You can do it!" Feili watched him quietly, then gave a small nod after a moment. "Yeah." The corners of her mouth turned up little by little, while the light in her eyes dimmed little by little.