“My Saintess, your methods are a bit too... bloody. You’ve turned a perfectly good yard into this ghastly mess. There’s blood everywhere; there's not even a place to step.”
Bloody was fine, as long as the stench didn't reach her.
During the fight, Sophie had strictly used her vampire blood-control abilities to keep any blood from splashing onto her.
“Oh, Teacher, how can you say I went too far?” Sophie adjusted her mask and shrugged with a grin. “Didn't that kid Toby just say so? These bandits kill and plunder, committing every evil imaginable. I’m just enforcing justice on behalf of heaven and accumulating merit. Sending them to meet the Moon Goddess is a massive act of kindness.”
“I don't want to see creatures like that.”
“You are you, Teacher, and the Moon Goddess is the Moon Goddess.”
Saying this, Sophie turned around, placed her hands behind her back, bent over, and patted her shoulder toward Miaoyue.
“Since the ground is so dirty and there's nowhere to step, how about your student reluctantly carries you over? Come on, Teacher, hop on.”
Miaoyue looked at Sophie’s back and floated backward slightly in resistance. “No way. I can fly over myself.”
“That won't do.” Sophie turned her head, winking slyly. “Teacher, don't forget, this is part of our romance training.”
“According to the love guide, when a lover returns from the battlefield, shouldn't the partner waiting at home offer a warm welcome or a reward upon seeing them return safely? Even if it's just a hug, it's part of the training.”
At the mention of romance training, the New Moon Witch paused slightly, her floating figure coming to a halt in mid-air.
As a love mentor who was holding nothing back, Miaoyue absolutely refused to show any lack of professionalism in this field.
Miaoyue entered deep thought...
Thought complete.
The battlefield was a cold, cruel place filled with death.
She had seen lovers who had just returned from a life-or-death struggle, their emotions still volatile, leaning on each other to recall what it felt like to be alive.
So Miaoyue took a deep breath, adopting a businesslike, serious tone, trying to make her voice sound majestic and mature. “Since this is... is a teaching demonstration, as your teacher, I will reluctantly grade you... Hm, your combat movements just now were very clean, with no unnecessary openings. For a lover, you did a good job.”
Sophie’s face fell instantly.
“I told you, we're not lovers, just friends,” Sophie grumbled. Pouting, she stared at Miaoyue with a look of deep resentment. “And that was so half-hearted! Teacher, how can a reward between friends sound like an officer lecturing a soldier? That was way too dry.”
“If you were with Kaila, she’d probably be the one returning from the battlefield while you wait at home. I... I was just putting myself in Kaila’s perspective to run a stress test on you!” Miaoyue huffed.
Sophie: “...”
She actually had a point.
The Miss Hero would probably dismiss her with a simple “Good job” or “Thanks for your hard work.”
But this wasn't Miss Hero!
Sophie lowered her head in feigned disappointment, looking thoroughly dejected.
“W-what's wrong?” Although she could tell at a glance that Sophie was playing dumb again, Miaoyue still felt she had indeed been a bit too dismissive. She quickly began racking her brain for some romantic sweet talk.
Damn it, why am I the one who has to say sweet talk? Sophie should be the one saying it while I judge. Who's the teacher here, and who is training whom?
She searched her memory.
She searched and searched.
Although she had plenty of similar scenarios in her shipping database, if she had to choose words of comfort for someone returning from a battlefield...
It had to be that one.
“I'm glad you're not hurt. Thanks for your hard work—”
Miaoyue spoke in a soft, gentle voice.
The moment those words left her mouth, the pretending Sophie froze.
The casual, nonchalant grievance on her face melted away instantly, like thin ice suddenly exposed to a warm sun.
Though she had been interacting with Miaoyue as the Saintess for a while now, this constantly snacking, silly girl had always maintained a high-and-mighty facade while bickering with her.
She had never spoken to her in such a... gentle, tender tone.
Yet, this tone was closer to the Miaoyue in her memories.
In this instant, the little girl in her memories—who used to follow closely behind her, her eyes welling with tears as she sought protection whenever danger struck—overlapped with the New Moon Goddess before her, who was trying so hard to put on airs and play the part of an elder and mentor.
Little Yue... has grown up.
It hadn't been a very long time.
If calculated by the calendar of Blue Star, the time from when she picked up Little Yue from that altar, to when she planned the ending on the eve of the Moon Rite and faked her death to exit the stage...
The total real-world time spent on the main storyline was... two days.
A mere forty-eight hours of data transfer was nothing more than a fleeting weekend in the world called reality.
If she hadn't actually transmigrated into this world, perhaps her impression of this girl would have remained forever confined to the screen—nothing more than a flat label like “a silly, kind girl with a likeable personality.”
Yet, five hundred springs and autumns had passed, with a hundred and eighty thousand sunrises and sunsets.
How did this silly, kind girl endure those long, deathly silent nights without her mentor's company?
How much fear and helplessness did that once-crybaby girl swallow? How long did she struggle alone before she was forced to bury her raw, naked vulnerability deep within her heart?
How many centuries of weathering did it take for her to finally don the hard, arrogant shell of a goddess? And beneath that shell, how clumsily did she mimic her mentor from back then, attempting to guide the current her?
Sophie’s vision blurred slightly. Her heart felt as though it were being gently squeezed by a soft hand, bringing a wave of both soreness and warmth.
“W-what's with that look? This is clearly what a lover is supposed to say!” Miaoyue felt a bit creeped out by Sophie’s blank stare and raised her voice in frustration. “Y-you won't get anything else, even if you want it!”
It was indeed what a lover would say.
Except, it wasn't some cliché from a romance guidebook.
It was the fixed greeting that the silly girl outside the door would always trigger back then, whenever Sophie finished clearing a dungeon and was warming up for the next run.
It was supposed to be a simple love lesson, yet it had crossed five hundred years of time, summoning the spirit of the Little Yue of the past.
For a fool who couldn't even remember the most basic elemental magic...
Even as the sun and moon rotated, and even as the seasons changed...
Did you truly remember nothing but those insignificant moments from back then?
That was only two days in my long life, and it wasn't particularly long in yours either.
Don't waste all of your pitiful brain capacity on such trivial things, you dummy.
Her guilt was soaring.
“At most, at most I'll give you a hug.” Miaoyue stamped her foot and opened her arms, a look of mock disgust on her face. “Come on, though you smell awful...”
Normally, Sophie would have taken the opportunity to leap forward with a cheeky grin.
But at this moment, looking at Miaoyue forcing herself to stay calm,
Sophie’s heart began to race.
She didn't even dare to look Miaoyue in the eye, fearing that the moment she drew close, the emotions and vulnerability she was trying so hard to hide would be completely exposed.
She couldn't let that happen.
She had to run.
“W-who tells a returning friend that they smell awful...”
Sophie’s voice faltered for a rare moment. As if to cover it up, she glanced down at her mud-stained clothes, taking a guilty, stiff half-step back. Laughing it off, she waved her hands. “Never mind, never mind. I really am quite dirty. I wouldn't want to ruin your clothes, Teacher. I'll go back and wash up first before claiming this reward.”
“You—”
“The atmosphere is already set, and you're still acting like this! You bratty disciple, what more do you want!”
She had made such a huge sacrifice!
The normally germaphobic Moon Goddess pinched her nose in exasperation and floated forward of her own accord, deeply dissatisfied.
Then, giving Sophie no chance to escape, she flung her arms open and pulled the messy, retreating girl into a tight embrace.
Caught off guard, Sophie was thoroughly pinned.
The scent of sweets, combined with the girl’s strange, crisp fragrance like frost and snow, instantly overwhelmed all of Sophie’s senses.
They had hugged many times before.
—Every time Hiso returned from a dungeon, Little Yue would always say, “I'm glad you're not hurt. Thanks for your hard work~” and give him a hug.
But to her former self as a player, that hug had always been nothing more than a cold line of text refreshing in the system log.
In the real world, she had merely felt a mechanical thud against her chest from the inflated air bladders inside her heavy gaming helmet, experiencing only a cold, rigid pressure and the dry, industrial smell of synthetic rubber.
But a real embrace was entirely different.
Little Yue’s body was much softer than Miss Hero’s.
She carried a strange, alluring fragrance like frost and snow. This girl’s scent was hidden beneath the aroma of sweets, and could only be smelled clearly at this distance.
Even though the Moon Goddess had stiffened her spine and was dramatically holding her breath out of distaste for the bloodstains, her genuine, warm body heat was transferring through their clothes, continuously warming Sophie’s cool skin.
This was no dry, lifeless line of code, nor a fake feedback from an air bladder. It was a living, warm soul, carrying a reality that spanned across vast years, drawing close to her without reservation.
This tangible sense of being accepted caused Sophie’s heart to skip a beat.
Sophie: ...
This was bad. Though she had practiced other techniques,
she had never practiced this kind of hug.
Damn it. I've already practiced holding hands and kissing, so why can't this weak, feeble body of mine apply those skills here?
Her body went completely limp. If Miaoyue weren't supporting her, she felt like she would have collapsed right into her arms.
Damn it, hurry up and adapt, body!
Sophie roared in her heart.
She didn't want Little Yue to see her blushing face, much less let her discover her current defenseless state.
It felt so embarrassing.
But her body refused to adapt.
Instead, her body involuntarily lowered its head, burying her face deep in the crook of Miaoyue’s neck. Her arms followed their instincts, greedily and tightly hugging the Goddess back.
A sweet, soft hug! I want more!
Sophie: “...Useless Sophie.”
A moment passed.
Another moment passed.
And another.
With their chests pressed together, the vibrations of their heartbeats had nowhere to hide. Miaoyue not only noticed Sophie’s unusually tight grip, but also felt the other’s warm breath brushing against her neck in waves, causing an unignorable shiver.
The faint smell of blood lingering at the tip of her nose had long been replaced by a different, ambiguous warmth. Feeling a bit embarrassed and flustered, Miaoyue struggled slightly. “Alright! You can let go now! This has been long enough. The teaching demonstration is over!”
“Mm... thank you... for waiting for me here.”
Sophie murmured softly, her face still buried in Miaoyue’s shoulder.
“...I really like you.”
Miaoyue’s struggling movements instantly froze.
She had hugged many times.
Except, she had never received a response from that person.
But in this instant, she heard two responses.
One was a faint sigh traveling through the air to her ear.
The other arrived first despite being spoken later, carrying the faint resonance of Sophie’s chest cavity, traveling along their touching bones all the way into her, striking directly against her fragile eardrum.
Her extraordinary body clearly captured this sub-millisecond difference. Two confessions with a tiny time delay traveled along entirely different paths, finally reuniting in her heart in the exact same second.
With a sudden rush, an indescribable heat instantly climbed up the side of her neck, flushing the Moon Goddess’s ears bright red.
The girl’s blush spoke louder than any words.
“W-what nonsense are you suddenly talking!” Miaoyue abruptly pushed Sophie away, taking a panicked half-step back.
“Usually, someone who returns is supposed to thank the other person for waiting.” Sophie’s face was completely flushed. She swayed for a moment before steadying herself, luckily avoiding falling straight onto the ground. She teased in a low voice, “My, Teacher, you're really getting into character.”
“Well? Wasn't my performance just now worth a perfect score?”
“You—you bastard disciple!”
Miaoyue was speechless with anger.
Her already pounding heart now beat even more deafeningly in her chest due to embarrassment and anger.
For a brief moment just now, her heart had stopped because of those sweet words, and her eyes had even felt a bit warm.
She had thought that person...
Damn it, was it really just my imagination? I must have been blind to think this rogue Saintess could overlap, even for a split second, with my noble, gentle, and reliable Teacher.
Recalling that reassuring figure, the restless heart of the pure love warrior quickly calmed down.
It was just a lesson, after all.
“Since we've already hugged, as an extension of the reward,” Sophie pushed her luck, turning around and patting her back toward Miaoyue, “Teacher, you should carry me back. I can't walk anymore.”
“Walk back yourself! You stink!”
The angry Miaoyue didn't even bother to maintain her physical form this time. She turned directly into a streak of red moonlight and vanished in a flash, leaving behind only a frantic voice echoing from afar: “I'm going to the carriage first!”
“Aw, how heartless.” Sophie watched the fleeing streak of moonlight and let out a long breath, a layer of cold sweat already breaking out on her tense back.
That was close. I got carried away just now and almost blew my cover...
She withdrew her gaze, the panic, tenderness, and relief in her eyes instantly vanishing without a trace.
Sophie turned to look at the two large men behind her, who had been cowering like quails, not even daring to breathe loudly. Reclaiming her arrogant, bully-like demeanor, she raised her chin and kicked a piece of broken wood nearby.
“What are you two still standing around for?” Sophie snorted. “Hurry up! Gather all the valuables, food, and alchemy materials in the stronghold, and bring them all down to the alchemy carriage at the foot of the hill. If you dare to dawdle, watch out for your death curses!”
“Yes! Yes! Rest assured, Milady, we wouldn't dare to delay!” Buck scrambled to his feet.
At the mention of the death curse, Buck and Gru were scared out of their wits, frantically plundering the stronghold's treasures as if their pants were on fire.
Rate on N.U.
