The Wandering Knight Doesn't Want to Let Go

The rainbow surge lasted for a full minute. When it all ended and the stream of light ceased, Diya immediately looked at the holy grail in her hand. Seeing that not a single drop of the blue liquid inside was missing, she breathed a sigh of relief, looked up, and called out, "Watcher—" Her cry came to an abrupt halt. All Diya could see around her were urban buildings painted in every shade imaginable. The paving stones were gradations of color, the walls thick with heavy pigments, and the houses resembled abstract oil paintings. The entire city looked as messy as if tens of thousands of paint buckets had been dumped across it. More importantly, she realized that her location had changed! Perhaps because the overwhelming surge of sorcery realm breakthroughs had clouded her senses, Diya hadn't noticed at all that she had been washed away by the rainbow surge! Yaxiu was gone again. Diya suddenly felt short of breath. Her heart felt as if it were being squeezed in a tight fist, the distress so acute that even her hair color began to dull. She squatted by the curb against a lamppost, wrapping her arms around her knees, suddenly feeling cold. It was happening again. It was always like this. They had reunited with such difficulty, only to be separated so soon. It was as though fate refused to let them be together. Last time, the Weaver had snatched him away. Who was it this time? I still have so much to say to him, we haven't even had a proper hug, there's still so much left to do... Why did I have to act mature and refuse to hold his hand? If I had, I definitely would have held on tight and never let go. Even if I can only be his daughter, even if we're just family, as long as I can be with him, anything is fine... "Witch, are you feeling unwell?" Diya snapped her head up. Yaxiu was squatting in front of her as well, looking at her with concern. "Is it an effect from the rainbow surge just now? Let me give you some healing and check." "No, I'm not..." Diya's voice trailed off into a whisper. She meekly accepted Yaxiu's treatment, as they had to avoid triggering the mysterious chains. Yaxiu could only cast Joy Sword through physical contact with Diya, and seeing that she looked as if something were wrong with her head, he naturally rubbed her head as he channeled the miracle. "Feeling any better?" "A little." Though she said so, Diya didn't stand up. She liked the vantage point of squatting. "Where were you just now?" "I was washed into a shop. When I pushed the door open, I saw you squatting by the roadside." Yaxiu glanced around. "Yinzhi didn't seize the chance to run off, did she? Should we go look for her?" Diya certainly didn't want a blinding third wheel like Yinzhi around right now. She immediately said, "I'm still feeling a bit unwell. I want to rest a little longer." "All right." Yaxiu sat down against the lamppost, and Diya followed suit, sitting beside him shoulder to shoulder. Back in the Distant Sky Realm, she used to look for every chance to date Yaxiu whenever the Sword Princess wasn't paying attention. In reality, she had cuddled with Yaxiu while sleeping countless times. Yet sitting beside him now, Diya's heart was thumping erratically, a trace of nervous apprehension mingling with her anxiety. Catching sight of her Rainbow Holy Grail, she hurriedly said, "Back in the rainbow surge, I used the holy grail to gather the time color." "I gathered the soul color too." "Here, take it." "You drink it." Yaxiu and Diya stared at the holy grails they were holding out to each other, both slightly stunned. Yaxiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What would I need the time color for? I don't have many time sorcery spirits; my current realm is more than enough." "Have you forgotten that I'm the Yisu Empress? Once you return to Gospel, I'll mobilize the entire country's resources to prepare a complete set of time sorcery spirits for you." Diya spoke with the arrogance of the wealthy. "I actually wanted to collect the sword color for you, but my swordsmanship isn't even at the Silver realm, so I couldn't even distinguish the sword color. I had to settle for time. The time faction is a very rare sorcery faction, so improving it a bit more can't hurt!" "It naturally can't hurt, but haven't you forgotten that your realm breakthroughs are shared with me as well?" Yaxiu chuckled. "Suppose the yield from my own advancement is 1; if you advance, our shared yield becomes 1.8~" "Even without that reason, I would never hog such a precious resource," he said. "In the past, I was willing to pass resources like Experience Orbs to you because the overall return was higher—the stronger you were, the better my expected gains. But at some point, I stopped caring about whether your growing stronger benefited me. As long as you keep doing better and better, that's enough~" Diya tapped her forehead. Having not explored the Void Realm with Yaxiu for so long, she truly had forgotten about that. Yet hearing what Yaxiu said next, she asked quietly, "Is it because of the Sword Princess?" Yaxiu glanced at her and thought about it. "Chronologically speaking, it's probably because of you." Diya froze. "Me?" "To be precise, it was Lisi." "But you wouldn't even buy her ice cream," Diya pouted. "Eating too much isn't good for a child~" "Lisi is indeed a child," Diya said softly. "But I'm not. Do you understand that?" "I know." "Then can you tell the difference?" Diya turned her head, her beautiful, limpid eyes gazing at Yaxiu. Yaxiu reached out and rested his hand gently on her head. "Right now, I still can't." Yaxiu said, "After finding out you were Lisidiya, I couldn't help reminiscing about every single detail from that time... Aside from you, the White Queen, the Black Butler, and the Red Apostle occasionally used Lisi's identity too, didn't they?" "Sometimes when she couldn't finish her homework and didn't want to get scolded, Sister White would step in to help," Diya smiled. "And that time at the Nabistin amusement park." "I was wondering why Lisi seemed like a completely different person that day. In just a short time, she changed what she called me three times." Yaxiu shrugged. "I know you're all different. But you all shared the same body, and sometimes I was talking directly with you..." "These past few months, I've been missing you and the Sword Princess all the time," he said softly. "You're both incredibly important people to me, but the way I miss the Sword Princess and the way I miss you are different." Hearing this answer, Diya felt neither sadness nor relief. It was just that a crack seemed to have opened in her heart, leaving it hollow. She hummed softly in acknowledgment twice, resting her head against Yaxiu's shoulder, and offered an airy smile. "Then... can I only ever be your family?" "No matter what happens, you will always be my family." "Oh dear, that feels so embarrassing. Doesn't that mean I'll have to call the Sword Princess 'Mom' in the future?" Diya bit her lip, mist gathering in her eyes as she tried to brush it off as a joke. "Still, we shouldn't jump to conclusions so quickly. Maybe once you can tell us apart in the future, we could still..." "No. Witch, you are my family, and you can be my lover as well." Looking at the holy grail Yaxiu held out in front of her, Diya was somewhat dazed. "Inside is the soul color," Yaxiu said. "Aren't you cultivating the soul faction and mind faction, trying to find a safe way to separate your sisters? Drink it." In the previous progress report, Yaxiu had noticed that the Witch's mind faction had advanced from Silver to Gold, while her soul faction had gone from non-existent straight into the Silver realm. With just a moment's thought, he had deduced her intentions. Diya took the holy grail, still not entirely sure. "You mean...?" "Over this period, I've come to understand one truth: emotional projection is something that shouldn't happen," Yaxiu said. "It dishonors one's true feelings for the original, and it tramples upon one's genuine heart for the latter. "Witch, after learning the truth, I really couldn't look at you separately from Lisi. I don't want romance between you and me, nor my family bond with Lisi, to be tainted with things they shouldn't be. "I want to like you purely, and I want you to like me purely as well." Yaxiu shook his head slightly. "So, I'll help you complete the separation of the witch sisters as soon as possible. Even if you're on the best terms, you've all reached the age where you should live independent lives." Black Butler: [If calculated by the time of our birth, none of us are even ten years old...] White Queen: [Then after the separation, Little Black, you can share a body with Lisi.] Lisi: [No way! I want my own room too!] Diya ignored her sisters' chatter. Staring blankly at Yaxiu, she asked, "So you specifically collected the soul color just to help me separate the other sisters?" "Even if you didn't need it, I would have collected other sorcery colors that were useful to you," Yaxiu said. "Still, I genuinely believe it's time for you to live independently. You needed to split off the witch sisters before because you were a princess trapped in a high tower, fighting the entire world in loneliness since childhood. "But now you're the Yisu Empress. You have followers, friends, a career, and hobbies. You are no longer alone, and no one will bully you anymore. You can embrace this world." Diya shook her head and stiffened her neck, saying, "Who says so? Right now I came to the Starry Kingdom all on my own, and the Sword Princess still bullies me!" "Then what about me?" Yaxiu said earnestly, "The amnesiac princess has gone home to be the empress, but the wandering knight still doesn't want to let go~" "I don't know what our relationship will become, but I will never let you be alone again." Diya blinked, raised the holy grail, and gulped down the soul color in big swallows, then did the same with the time color, frightening Yaxiu as he watched. "Drink slower! Absorb it slowly!" "I finished it!" Diya licked her lips, lifted her chin, and looked at Yaxiu. "Praise me!" "The Witch is so amazing," Yaxiu applauded softly. "Zero sincerity." Diya huffed twice, then added, "Lisi says she hasn't seen you in forever and wants to act spoiled with you. Let me switch." With that, the Witch threw herself into Yaxiu's arms, fussing and pawing like a cat. Helpless, Yaxiu could only let her act up, his body so stiff he didn't dare move. Yet the Witch grew bolder and bolder, hugging him and rubbing against him as she cheerfully cried, "Daddy..." Smack! The Witch sat dazed on the ground, subconsciously rubbing where she had just been spanked... Yaxiu scrambled to his feet, glared at her in exasperated reproach, and snapped, "Don't call me that!" Huh? So he could tell the difference after all? Diya blinked, then immediately realized something was off. Even if he knew she was just acting spoiled, Yaxiu had no reason to get this angry! If he truly only saw her as a daughter, wouldn't it be completely normal for her to call him that? And that reaction, that expression of his... Could he... Diya's heart pounded wildly, a wondrous radiance slowly welling in her eyes. It seemed light was shining into the empty crack in her heart. "Let's go. Even if we don't look for Yinzhi, it looks like we can absorb more rainbow colors further ahead." Looking at the hand Yaxiu offered before her, Diya held on tight, and together they continued toward the pillar of rainbow light.