“That’s right, this ice-blue power comes from the elven princess of the Divine Empire, left behind and imbued with Purification Magic.”
“Big Sister XÄ« said that when this magic is condensed into a Magic Array, even our family’s baby whale will fall into a deep, docile state if it touches it.”
“For a little human like you, resisting is out of the question.”
Yosena gazed at Lin Nuo, whose eyelids drooped weakly. Still, a flicker of struggle flashed in his eyes.
Yosena shook her head slightly, increasing the input of the magic she’d collected from the cracked Magic Array on the surface of Silver Tears Lake—magic with ‘Purification’ and ‘Cleansing the Heart’ effects—when she was brought back by Big Sister XÄ« with the illusion scroll.
Finally,
She saw Lin Nuo’s eyelids fall shut for the last time.
All the strength left his muscles, and he collapsed limply into the chair.
Only then did Yosena feel completely relieved. She recorded Lin Nuo’s relaxed heartbeat, her tone tinged with surprise:
“No wonder Big Sister XÄ« wouldn’t let me talk to you much.”
“It’s really unbelievable. I don’t even know which of my words led you to deduce so much information.”
“Big Sister XÄ« also said you know the elven princess, but what reassures me about this hypnosis is that you can’t absorb the princess’s magic.”
“But Big Sister XÄ« never underestimates your intelligence.”
“She told me that you’d definitely think of releasing the Blood Leech Curse inside you, letting that black energy clash with the ice-blue magic inside your body to exhaust all the magic and keep yourself from passing out.”
“But ah,”
“Big Sister XÄ« is always one step ahead. The last thing she told me was—she fed you magic potion boiled from Rongxin Grass yesterday, didn’t she… Mm, honestly, that wasn’t very good!”
“Grandma gave her such precious medicine to help her recover and replenish her magic, but I never should have told her that Rongxin Grass can counteract a hundred poisons… Who knew she wouldn’t save any for herself and actually let you drink it all.”
“Since she watched you finish every drop, the Blood Leech Curse in your body won’t activate for at least the next two days.”
“So now, you’ve lost your last way out.”
“Ah, you’re the luckiest test subject I’ve ever met. For now, just have a nice sleep.”
“….”
Bang bang bang
Bang, bang, bang
[Heartbeat normal]
[Pulse normal]
[Breathing steady]
[Hypnosis in progress, test subject’s thoughts completely relaxed, illusion scroll activated…]
The mermaid Yosena, blowing bubbles in her water orb while busily recording, muttered, “I’ll wait for you to wake up and give you a full check-up before letting Big Sister XÄ« see you…”
When she felt it was about time, she took away the illusion scroll placed before Lin Nuo and, turning away,
She didn’t see that, finally out of her sight and collapsed early in the chair, the person who seemed to have completely lost all resistance—even the strength to move his eyelids—subtly twitched his finger.
—
XÄ« had always been a little confused.
A few years ago, she once asked the Heart Mirror Flower, unique to Shilang Bay and said to reflect anyone’s thoughts.
She asked the Heart Mirror Flower what she was thinking, and sure enough, the flower’s vines wove out Lin Nuo’s likeness.
She was satisfied. Then she asked the Heart Mirror Flower what Young Master Lin Nuo was afraid of.
But inexplicably,
The Heart Mirror Flower continued to weave Lin Nuo’s whole body, and then, in a posture with his hands over his backside, it just smiled wordlessly?
Was this… afraid of encountering some kind of tragic fate?
XÄ« still hadn’t figured it out.
But most of the time, her young master’s thoughts weren’t that complicated—she could always guess them.
“I saw young master sneak out at night with you, Fatty Bird, to Silver Tears Lake. I thought he was going to be reckless again, like before.”
“With a little misstep, he’d be bedridden for years. When I had to take care of him during that time, feeding and giving him water, I always thought he was like a fragile glass doll.”
“This time, at least he returned safely, but out of so many people, he’s the only one poisoned by something unsolvable.”
“Thinking about it… maybe I should just keep him tied by my side forever.”
“Wouldn’t that be a great idea?”
“Chirp chirp!”
Fatty Bird opened its beak and was rewarded with a plump green grape from the girl, fluttering its wings in joy.
If Lin Nuo saw this, he’d surely call it a useless, gluttonous bird, thoroughly fallen to XÄ«’s hands.
“Besides…”
“He’s the pig I’ve raised myself for eight years—how could I let another cabbage get to him?”
“It’s about time,” XÄ«, who sat on a seaside rock somewhere, stood up. “Once the hypnosis is over, I’ll finally have an excuse to… at least check on my young master’s development for a bit.”
“Chirp chirp!”
“I can’t take you with me. You stay here and wait. Or just fly home yourself.”
“Chirp.”
Rustle, rustle—
Thunk, thunk, thunk…
In a cellar near some seaside port, the granite walls were tinged with the scent of damp and the brine of the sea.
As the girl crossed the bubble wall Magic Array that blocked the water, her light footsteps landed on the ground. She used a torch made from the oil of some sea creature, casting her elongated shadow on the wall.
XÄ« walked slowly toward the place she’d agreed on with Yosena.
She pushed open the door to the innermost secret chamber in the cellar.
There were traces on the ground, as if a water orb had rolled through, dragging a long, narrow trail from the inside out. It seemed Yosena, her task complete, had already left.
XÄ« paused for a moment, then stepped into the silent, empty chamber.
Neatly arranged ropes lay beside a chair.
What came into view was an iron cage, so large it could easily hold a person.
It wasn’t locked,
But inside, as if he had willingly locked himself up, Lin Nuo gazed at her with eager and passionate eyes. Upon seeing her, as though seeing his dearest treasure, he clutched the bars in excitement.
He was displaying, in every possible way, the success of this hypnotic Magic Array.
“XÄ«, my only love in this life, you’ve come!”
On his still-handsome face, his eyebrows danced. This look of deep affection, one that XÄ« had never seen before, seemed to appear only before the object of one’s heart.
Yet,
Standing at the door, the girl’s eyes, which had carried a certain hope,
Upon seeing Lin Nuo’s feverish gaze fixed on her, hands gripping the bars, as if awaiting her command to release him from the cage, subtly changed in an instant.
XÄ«’s graceful brows were still relaxed as before.
But her smile was no longer sweet—within half a second, it was tinged with coldness.
“Did I say you could stand?”
The cold voice made Lin Nuo, who seemed utterly devoted to her after hypnosis, confused for a moment.
“Kneel.”
Bang.
He paused, then obediently bent his knees inside the cage, kneeling and crawling on the ground, even pressing his face to the floor.
Like a loyal servant, humble to the bone before his noble mistress.
Still dissatisfied, the girl crouched down languidly, then stood, placing one hand on her knee, bending her slender waist. With the other, she beckoned with a smiling gesture.
In her open palm was a handful of dirt scooped from the floor:
“Crawl over and lick it clean.”
Lin Nuo, as if surprised by this turn of events, still pushed open the cage door. Assuming the most humble posture, he crawled forward, inch by inch on his knees.
As he crawled on the ground, when he was about three meters from XÄ«,
A magic-forged chain was tossed onto the ground by the girl, who now seemed increasingly impatient.
“A leash for you.”
XÄ« said, “Tie yourself up. Also, lead the way and get me out of here.”
“What are you talking about?” Lin Nuo looked up from his knees, eyes pleading pitifully, his tone thick with flattery. “XÄ«, did you forget? When you brought me here, you blindfolded me—how could I know the way out?”
“Oh, is that so?”
As if confirming something important,
XÄ« nonchalantly dusted her fair fingertips, “But the Lin Nuo I know, even if I blindfolded him and tied his hands,
“He’d remember that I took him out of Claremont Manor at about ten in the morning. Here, at noon, the clock on the surface will chime on time, and he could judge how much time has passed by that.
“…As for this,” the man before her explained stiffly, “Maybe… I was just too nervous and didn’t notice…”
“Oh, and I forgot to mention,” XÄ« continued, her smile gentle as if listing the merits of her dear husband, “Even if there were no iconic clock towers, just by pulse, heartbeat, breathing—any bodily sense he could use—he’d calculate how long it took to get here.
“Outside the manor, follow the moat downstream to the south. By the humidity of the air, the saltiness of the sea, even the warmth of sunlit water, he could judge the general location.
“Based on all of this, the real Lin Nuo would tell me:
“He is currently in the west at Low Tide Port, in a southernly underground chamber guarded by the Treading Wave Sea Guard Knights.”
“So…”
XÄ«’s sweet voice gradually chilled like falling into an icy pond: “How much longer are you going to pretend? Cheap impostor, wearing his face.”
Clang!
The magical chain on the ground instantly whipped toward “Lin Nuo,” whose expression had completely darkened.
Yet, at the moment it was about to strike him,
He disappeared.
Like a shadow melting into the darkness, he vanished without a trace in an instant, leaving only the chain smashing into the ground with a deep thud.
In the torchlit shadows around, real figures slowly emerged—several weapon-wielding, fierce-eyed monsters crawled up from below.
“It’s really…beyond me!”
A voice, exactly like Lin Nuo’s, but filled with malice and venom so different from his usual speech, echoed once more:
“You see how much I resemble him? This isn’t any kind of morphing spell—you have no idea how long it took me to shape this face, learn his habits, copy his gestures, predict his expressions.”
“Only when I saw you, the longing in his eyes you most wanted to see—but that he never showed you—came from me…”
“Facing a perfect imitation like me, who’d never go against you like he does and would be endlessly obedient—why do you still see through me and tear me down with a glance?”
“Wouldn’t it be fine to just treat me as him?”
That person, with Lin Nuo’s exact voice, sounded even more puzzled, viciousness in every word:
“Respected Princess of Shilang Bay…”
“Please, answer me.”
“What must I do to make you love me?”