Under Vivienne’s command, the maids filed out of the bedroom in perfect unison. After the last one exited and pulled the double doors shut, Vivienne let out a soft breath and turned her gaze toward the balcony.
The floor-to-ceiling balcony windows were covered by curtains, and the room’s light came from the magic lamps, which were no weaker than the morning glow outside—indeed, even brighter. Naturally, she couldn’t see the figure behind those windows.
Enya landed on Vivienne’s balcony almost soundlessly. She knew the place well, having only just arrived, but she had been sensed by Vivienne even before she touched down.
She pushed open the unlocked floor-to-ceiling window, gently lifted the curtain, and slipped through the narrow gap.
Letting the curtain fall, she raised her eyes to look at Vivienne, who sat alone before the vanity, combing her own hair. Enya pursed her lips and walked slowly to stand behind her.
Enya took the comb from Vivienne’s hand and gently brushed through the pink locks. The faint fragrance wafting from the strands was a scent she knew well.
Many years ago, they had sat like this—one seated, the other standing behind, combing each other’s hair.
Through the mirror, Vivienne watched Enya’s serious expression behind her, and a faint smile appeared on her delicate face.
“You’ve gotten much more skilled than before…”
“Nonsense!”
Enya raised her eyes, meeting Vivienne’s crimson irises in the mirror. She narrowed her gaze and continued, “It’s no different from before.”
“Your touch is gentler now. You know pulling hair hurts.”
Vivienne laughed.
Enya, however, curled her lips and shot back, “That was how many years ago? You’re still bringing it up now?”
“How many years ago? Wasn’t that when I first met you?”
The smile on Vivienne’s face gradually faded. Gazing at herself in the mirror, her eyes grew distant, as if recalling the past and longing for bygone days.
When Vivienne snapped back to the present, she tilted her head up to look at Enya’s chin.
“Why did you come to me instead of going to Antiros?”
“Is it because you think I’m easier to handle?”
“No.”
Enya lowered her head as well. This time, their eyes met not through the mirror, but at a distance close enough to be ambiguous, the inverted angle adding a different sort of atmosphere. Just before sparks flew, Vivienne straightened her head.
Vivienne let out a breath first, then drew in a deep one.
“Enya, you’ve always thought that as long as you didn’t know, you could stay uninvolved, keep yourself apart, and focus on your own solitary business. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“You don’t care how the world’s vision shifts, don’t care about the politics of kingdoms or empires—but they still care about you, still affect you. As long as you exist, you can’t avoid it.”
“People—those who existed before and those who still exist now—are ultimately cogs in this world. Once they appear in this world, they’re inevitably pushed to turn. Yet you consider yourself not part of this world at all.”
“So don’t say things like ‘these matters have nothing to do with me’ anymore.”
Hearing these words, Enya’s brows lowered slightly.
Indeed, as Vivienne had said, she didn’t consider herself a person of this world. She didn’t want to influence it, nor be influenced by it. She wanted to be a traveler, a wandering adventurer, punching those she found disagreeable and flirting with the pretty girls.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
But precisely because of that, after becoming a Sword Saint and a Ninth-Rank Legend powerhouse, after completing that novel-like revenge against her “father,” she had fallen into a hollow confusion.
Enya’s hands, resting on Vivienne’s slender shoulders, squeezed the soft, fair skin with a bit of force. Then her hands moved toward Vivienne’s front.
She bent her entire body down, wrapping her arms around Vivienne from behind, burying her face in the pink strands, and spoke with a hint of reproach:
“So this is why you and Antiros schemed against me?”
“In your eyes, am I a toy?”
“Not entirely.”
Vivienne gave a faint smile. Her left hand lifted to grasp Enya’s wrist, stroking the delicate palm with skin as fair and smooth as congealed fat, idly toying with Enya’s middle and ring fingers. Enya’s embrace tightened.
Through the mirror, Vivienne saw the tips of a pair of pink-tinged ears barely peeking out from the silver hair behind her.
In her eyes, Enya’s bashful appearance looked positively adorable.
Vivienne took the opportunity to rise, and Enya’s encircling arms loosened accordingly.
Enya stepped back, but was caught by the quick-moving Vivienne.
Their heights were about the same, except Enya wore high heels while Vivienne wore fuzzy slippers, making Enya appear about nine centimeters taller.
If this pattern continued to shrink, what would the distance be next time? She dared not even imagine. Their eyes met—this time, only twenty centimeters apart.
Enya’s gaze darted away slightly, but a pair of hands cupped her face.
Vivienne suddenly flashed a mischievous smile. The hands that had been gently caressing Enya’s cheeks gave a light push against Enya’s chest, sending her tumbling to the floor…
Enya, of course, went down with the fall. Just as she was about to get up, she saw the Imperial Princess, clad only in a light nightgown, lift the hem of her skirt and sit astride Enya’s waist.
Enya instinctively raised her left hand to block, but Vivienne caught it, their fingers interlacing, and pressed it mercilessly against the cold stone floor.
Silver hair scattered around her, Enya looked at Vivienne with some panic.
She had planned a fake fall and fake cry combo, but never expected Vivienne to follow up with a suppression move. Before she could even cry out, she was forcibly interrupted. Enya was about to really cry now.
Oh no, she was going to be on the bottom!
Vivienne’s other hand braced directly beside Enya’s ear. She leaned down, looking at Enya lying on the ground, and licked her lips.
Enya swallowed hard and said:
“You’re on my hair.”
“Mm, I know.”
“It hurts.”
“But I’m doing it precisely to make you hurt~”
“It hurts.”
Enya was speechless. What topic required this kind of position?
“Aren’t you supposed to attend that departure ceremony soon?”
“Let them wait.”
Though Vivienne’s features were soft, giving her the look of a delicate pink-haired girl, her words were exceptionally domineering—and her actions even more so.
Why else would she push Enya down?
To keep her hair from being pulled, Enya had no choice but to face the hand braced beside her ear, while shifting her eyes sideways to look at Vivienne.
“So, what exactly do you and Antiros want me to do?”
“My Enya, how many fragments of the Goddess of Night have you absorbed?”
Vivienne asked with a knowing look.
Enya answered truthfully:
“Demon, Night, Desire—three fragments in total.”
“Guess where the fourth one is?”
“The Northern Mountains?”
“They’re also called the Moonfall Mountains—a great affliction upon this world.”
Vivienne revealed a heavy piece of information to Enya.
The Northern Mountains, also known as the Moonfall Mountains, were essentially a disease to this world. It didn’t appear dangerous now only because someone was suppressing it.
Almost instantly, Enya thought of the Elven Saintess Elif.
She had known before that, as the Elven Saintess, she couldn’t leave the temple of the Forest Elven Kingdom, able to act only through her incarnation within those forests.
Enya had always assumed it was an innate restriction placed on the Elven Saintess as an apostle of the Nature God—never did she imagine it was for this reason.
Vivienne continued:
“Do you know… no, of course you don’t know. After all, you were a history flunkie who never seriously studied this world’s history. Heh~”
Enya smiled.
She loved skipping exposition, so she only knew the gist of most things. Her knowledge of this world’s history was pure hearsay, so when Vivienne scolded her, she could only smile shamelessly.
Vivienne suddenly dipped her head down like a strike and pecked Enya’s cheek. Enya scrunched up her face, staring at Vivienne.
For Vivienne to speak, she had to extract a little price!
By now, Enya had gone numb to it. She simply let Vivienne do as she pleased, pretending nothing had happened just now, eagerly waiting for the Imperial Princess to hurry up and tell her.
“Many years ago, the world was plunged into eternal night. Though later generations know that everlasting darkness lasted only three days, the mortal masses living in that era fell into despair by the second day. And the cause of it all…”
“It was the Goddess of Night?”
Enya answered eagerly.
Vivienne narrowed her eyes and said with a smile:
“Wrong answer. A penalty is due.”
“Mmph…”
Enya’s mouth twitched. She had just been pecked again.
“Your Highness, are you a woodpecker?”
Usually, it was Enya who took advantage of others. But in front of Vivienne, Enya felt she was the little white rabbit being devoured. Against Vivienne, she instinctively backed down.
Vivienne continued her unfinished words:
“The cause that time was something indescribable from beyond the world…”
“Indescribable?”
Enya’s heart trembled. Did this world have such things?
Vivienne sat up straight, gazing at the ceiling as she murmured:
“Antiros said it was something we couldn’t comprehend. It bore no malice as we understood it—merely descending here was enough to cause irreparable disaster.”
“This world wasn’t supposed to be so small, but in that single three-day night, the Terst Continent lost two-thirds of its land!”
“No one knows where those lands—and the people on them—went. Only a scattering of races remained on the surviving landmass, which are the many intelligent species of today.”
“When the three days and one night ended, much pollution still remained. To cleanse that pollution, one person stepped forward.”
At this point, Enya’s eyes went wide. She seemed to know who that person was.
Indeed—it was the woman who had not yet become the Goddess of Night. She became the Goddess of Night and eliminated the lingering pollution.
And after that…
Vivienne lowered her head, looking at Enya once more.
“I think you’ve guessed it. The Goddess of Night solved the pollution problem. But the Night Church that worships her is truly a pure heretic cult—they usurped the right to interpret the whispers of the Goddess of Night.”
“Then… do you and Antiros want me to become the Goddess of Night?”
Enya blinked, then continued:
“But someone already cut in—no wait, it’s Enya the Dragon you’re riding now, not a human. En isn’t even one of your races anymore…”