“So, if we were to just jump out and reveal our identity, it might indeed make Miaoyue very happy for a brief moment. But we can also deduce that the conclusion she would reach is: ‘As long as I keep waiting, keep believing, and never let go, Teacher really will return!’”
“For a simpleton like Little Yue, once she develops a path dependency, she will stick to it forever. She might even think this way is better.”
“Doing that would be equivalent to telling her that her five hundred years of creating curses and her obsessive waiting—which has bound everyone together—was the right thing to do. Not only would it fail to resolve her internal knot, but it would also validate her obsession.”
【Teacher will eventually return, so all who are lonely should learn to wait; those who cannot wait deserve to die.】
【Parting is not to be feared; as long as those parted remain forever under the moon’s gaze, they will eventually reunite.】
【All who have lost their home should be taken in by the moonlight until they find the one they have been waiting for.】
“If it evolves to the point where those laws overwrite reality, then we will have truly created an indescribable monster.”
Main Sophie tossed the half-piece of chalk onto the desk.
“Therefore, our current identity as the Saintess is actually quite good. Perhaps we can start as sisters. By utilizing her vague perception of goodwill toward me, we can slowly intervene in her life and change her heart from the inside.”
“We can’t just yank it; we have to follow the thread and untie it slowly.”
“But...” Angel Sophie’s voice trembled slightly, “what exactly is this internal knot? She has Blackening, Trauma, and Regret. Without Hiso as the key, how are we supposed to open the door to her heart?”
“Trauma, Blackening, Regret.”
Main Sophie picked up a new piece of chalk and wrote these three terms on the blackboard.
“These three issues appear together on the system panel, but perhaps... they aren’t actually the same thing.”
Main Sophie drew a heavy white line under the word ‘Regret.’
“First, Regret.”
“Regret is backward-looking. It points toward a moment that has already happened and cannot be changed, yet is something they chew on repeatedly.”
“For example, Little Yue’s Regret is that she let go of my hand on the Star-Gazing Terrace, that she failed to keep her teacher, and that she chose to believe her teacher’s mischievous lies. When she ran back to the temple, all she found was a body that was gradually turning cold.”
“For example, Little Dino’s Regret is that she didn’t hold onto that side-string, that she failed to make her brother stay, and that she sat atop the highest tower watching the play end without ever waiting for a single line of her own.”
Angel Sophie twisted her hands together and whispered, “So, Regret isn’t about what they want to do now, but rather that most painful scene they keep looking back at.”
“Exactly.” Main Sophie nodded in approval. “Regret is their most nightmarish memory. Their minds constantly reload back to that moment, and during countless sleepless nights, they repeatedly ask themselves: ‘If I had made a different choice then, like refusing to let go even if it meant death, would the result have been different?’”
Demon Sophie crossed her arms and chimed in, “Then what about Blackening? That state of mind sounds like a real pain.”
Main Sophie turned the chalk and wrote under ‘Blackening’:
【What they are willing to do now to ensure they never return to that moment.】
“Blackening is forward-looking. Or rather, it is the extreme way they handle reality, derived from their past Regret.”
“Regret tells them, ‘I don’t want to lose again, even if it means I have to die.’”
“Blackening provides the extreme answer: ‘Since I don’t want to lose, then I must become strong! I must exert absolute control! I must wait eternally! I must imprison them! I must kill every external factor that could lead to loss! I must drag everyone else, and even the entire world, into my own rules!’”
Main Sophie turned around and pointed the chalk at Miaoyue’s name.
“Little Yue’s Regret was letting go.”
“So her Blackening is: ‘Since letting go leads to losing the person most important to me, then no one shall be allowed to let go. Since loneliness will swallow me, then let loneliness become a monster that swallows the entire kingdom, forcing the whole nation to rely on one another and resist loneliness alongside me.’”
Angel Sophie’s brow furrowed deeply, her halo flickering constantly. “Then what about Trauma? This sounds very similar to Blackening. Don’t they both affect reality?”
“It’s different.”
Main Sophie shook her head, her expression solemn.
“Blackening is what she personally chooses to do; it is her subjective will and action.”
“But Trauma is not. Trauma is when her pain has become so heavy that she can no longer carry it herself, causing it to break free from her control. It doesn’t even require her subjective intent to activate; it becomes a world rule that operates automatically on the Red Moon continent.”
【Pain overflowing into laws.】
“The Destined Crown is a position that greatly enhances a heroine’s power. They are considered the pillars supporting the human realm—at least, that’s how the official setting describes it.”
“Perhaps if we want to make a move, we have to start with the Destined Crown itself, or somewhere that can interfere with the laws.”
Demon Sophie tilted her head. “Do you mean that if we solve these three things, Miaoyue will return to normal?”
“I don’t know,” Sophie said. “But at the very least, it will ensure that the girl who always trusted us and called us ‘Teacher’...”
“...will no longer be in so much pain.”
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