Chapter 756: The Sword Princesss Game ④
“Are we really still asking privacy questions?”
Sonya stifled a laugh. “If this keeps up, everyone’s dark history is going to be exposed.”
“Yes!” Adelle said firmly. “It’s no fun otherwise!”
Originally, they just wanted to get Sonya drunk for a peaceful night in the dorm, but unexpectedly, there was a pleasant surprise-Sonya was actually willing to honestly reveal ‘that person’s’ intelligence during the drinking game. How could they miss this chance?
“All right then, I have never…” Sonya thought for a moment. “Spit in my roommate’s food.”
She raised her bottle to Adelle as a gesture, taking a drink herself first.
Adelle had no choice but to take a sip as well.
“Adelle!” Lois exclaimed in shock. “How could you-“
“But Lois, your temper was really bad those days.” Adelle said helplessly. “And it’s not like you were the only one on your period. I was in a bad mood too, and had some cramps… Seeing you with that sour face, so annoying and arrogant, it was only natural for me to pull a little prank!”
Lois was stunned. “I thought Sonya caught you… You actually dared to spit in my food! That’s disgusting!”“That’s disgusting?” Adelle wasn’t about to take the scolding, and with a bit of drunkenness, she immediately fired back. “I have never used my roommate’s toothbrush to scrub the windowsill!”
The atmosphere in the dorm froze. Engulite turned to look at Sonya, only to see Sonya down her drink in one go.
Noticing the surprised look from the Swordsmanship girl, the village girl explained, “I always put my toothbrush in a fixed spot. If anything’s off, I just change it. Hmm, but I really shouldn’t have drunk for this one, since I used her toothbrush to scrub the toilet.”
“But Lois, whether it was a guilty conscience or a Mental shadow, for that whole month she threw away her toothbrush after every use. In the end, I was the only one who cleaned the toilet for nothing.”
However, Adelle’s revelation made Lois furious. She’d always had things go her way since childhood, and only a few people like Sonya could make her suffer, but Adelle was definitely not one of them. “I have never called anyone ‘Master’!”
Adelle’s face turned so red it was about to drip. “You actually eavesdropped on me in the shower!”
“I didn’t do it on purpose. As a Water Sect sorcerer, I can clearly distinguish noises in the sound of running water.” Lois mocked. “But I didn’t expect you to get so into TV dramas. Watching isn’t enough, you want to act them out in real life. Slave, prisoner, investigator, teacher, student, performer, even wife… Now every time you go to shower, I put down whatever I’m doing and listen carefully to your little audio show with your fiancé. Ha, what other surprises do you have that I don’t know about?”
Adelle’s shoulders trembled as she listened, biting her lip, tears threatening to fall. Seeing her like this, Lois sobered up a bit, wondering if she’d gone too far.
But just then, Adelle squeezed out a few notes: “I have never… when everyone was in the dorm, secretly under the covers… and during class, secretly under the desk… Oh, and once outside-“
“A-delle!”
Lois screamed and lunged at Adelle, tangling with her.
Sonya and Engulite immediately made room for them to fight-not out of coldness, but because the situation was pretty evenly matched: water sorcerers were the least destructive among sorcerers, and Lois, who didn’t like exercise and dieted to keep her figure, was physically weak. Adelle, on the other hand, ate and slept well and volunteered every weekend, so she was in great shape. As long as Lois didn’t use her spirit, Adelle actually had the upper hand.
More importantly, with them exposing each other’s dark history like this, it was already beyond the point where ‘mutual apologies’ could smooth things over-it had to end in blood.
Coincidentally, both Sonya and Engulite approved of this fists-on-flesh way of communicating. Rather than stopping them, it was better to let them have a good fight and vent their anger. Once they were tired, they’d naturally make up.
Sonya walked out to the balcony and leaned against the railing. Engulite followed, and so the stretching paw sword saint asked, “What exactly were you all trying to do today?”
“You noticed?”
“I wanted to get Lois drunk and see her go wild since first year, but she doesn’t like drinking-never touches a drop.” Sonya nodded toward the room. “Look at how terrible their alcohol tolerance is.”
“So you did it on purpose just now?” Engulite leaned against the railing and asked.
“I just wanted to shift the topic away from me.” Sonya shrugged. “Didn’t expect it to work so well, exposing their fake sisterhood in one go.”
“They’re just drunk. Once they sober up, they’ll be back to normal,” Engulite said. “Unlike you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you noticed how off you’ve been this month?” Engulite sighed. “Bad temper, insomnia, staying up late-that’s one thing. But you’re often lost in thought, sometimes suddenly tearing up, and your Swordsmanship training is at its lowest level. Do you know what people on the forum are saying about you? That you really have a village girl mentality, that you won’t keep working hard, that you’re running wild and reckless now that you have your Sanctuary realm…”
“I haven’t, I just…”
“Of course I don’t believe that forum crap, but I can see your state for myself,” Engulite said. “Adelle put it well-your symptoms can be summed up as ‘long-distance relationship.’ Anxious, distracted, longing but unable to get what you want, your mind completely hung up on the person you like, with no room left to think about improving your Swordsmanship.”
“It’s not that I can’t understand, but I’m still disappointed. You know full well that wallowing in negative emotions is meaningless, yet you’re still willing to sink into your own misery, refusing to use training to replace self-pity.”
“I’ve said before, love only affects the speed of my sword, and my attitude hasn’t changed. Is love really so important to you that you’d give up so much of yourself?”
Engulite finished in one breath and let out a long sigh. “This isn’t the proud and stubborn sword Princess I know.”
Sonya stared blankly at Engulite, her heart filled with sourness, guilt, and an unspoken sense of grievance.
“I’m in trouble,” she said pitifully.
All of Sonya’s negative emotions could ultimately be traced back to one decree: “Stars Homeland Security Emergency Decree 51.”
This was a law urgently enacted by the Stars Kingdom on the second day after the Void Gate Spirit outbreak.
Simply put, it stipulated two things: all sorcerers were forbidden from using Void Gate Spirits to create unknown virtual realm passages, violators would bear criminal responsibility and be sentenced to at least three years in sorcerer prison; and surveillance and purging of “intruders” would be intensified-any intruder smuggling into the Stars Kingdom would immediately trigger Stars surveillance and be subjected to a carpet-style hunt by sorcerer troops.
Sorcerers were not allowed to create Void Gates, nor were outsiders allowed to enter Stars.
This was what drove Sonya to despair: she had thought that with the new concept of the Void Gate, the Observer would soon be able to come to Stars and reunite with her. But Decree 51 completely wiped out this possibility, unless she wanted the Observer to continue playing his favorite fugitive role in Stars, and their dates would have to be in the sewers watching rats wrestle.
Nothing could be worse than this: the village girl had just begun to hope, only to fall into despair again, and the situation was even worse than before. Previously, although outsiders were also treated with hostility, in most cases the response was “imprisonment” or “detention”-if the Observer was discovered, there was still room to maneuver.
But Decree 51 made it clear: all outsiders must die, the sorcerer troops need show no mercy, and must do their utmost to exterminate any vermin endangering Stars. In other words, once the Observer was exposed, he would have no choice but to take the path of being an enemy of the world… the path he was all too familiar with.
If they met in Stars, it would inevitably bring huge trouble.
So obviously, Sonya could only choose another path: she would leave Stars through a Void Gate.
That didn’t sound easy, since it meant Sonya would have to give up her career, her power, and all her connections in Stars.
But most importantly, how would she arrange for her mother?
Take her mother with her? But her mother didn’t even want to come to Galaxia, let alone go to a foreign country. The money Sonya gave her was already enough for her mother to enjoy her old age in her hometown, but she still couldn’t stop tinkering with her own fields. Someone so attached to her roots-how could she possibly leave her homeland in her old age?
Not take her mother? Leave her mother alone in the Stars Kingdom, while she left Stars to be with the Observer, unable to return for the foreseeable future, unable to invite her mother to her wedding, unable to tell her mother when she had children, unable to find her mother when she missed her…
That was her only family.
Sonya had always thought she could decisively solve all problems, and she’d always been proud of that, but in truth, she’d never had to make decisions about what was truly precious to her. When the most important things in her heart were placed on the Balance, she hesitated just like those petty villagers she knew-unable to pick it up, unable to put it down.
Her hopes for the future and her responsibilities to the past were woven into a hemp rope that choked her breath. Sometimes she made up her mind to pursue happiness, but then felt so guilty she cried; sometimes she wanted to delay and wait for the future to change, but her unwillingness made her, with her strong need for control, feel stifled and angry.
That was also why she had been so moody this month-she really couldn’t breathe.
“Trouble?” Engulite thought for a moment. “Is there anything we can help with?”
“If there was, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask.” Sonya let out a breath. “Thank you.”
But Engulite’s sincere words, while making the stretching paw sword saint feel ashamed, also sparked a strange thought in her heart.
Actually, Engulite’s core philosophy was very simple: I know you’re upset, so why don’t you just cut through all your troubles with your sword? What, you can’t cut through them? Then go practice Swordsmanship until you can!
Sonya understood very well that her enemy wasn’t her mother or the Observer, but Decree 51-in fact, she didn’t even need to resist Decree 51, she just needed Decree 51 to make an exception for the Observer, and then she could keep the Observer with her forever.
If she had enough power, could she do that?
Just how much power would it take to do that?
But in any case, as Engulite said, learning is never wrong, and training is always right. If one day fate arrived, a sword Princess who was prepared would always be better than a love-struck village girl who had done nothing.
Pa!
Sonya suddenly slapped her own cheeks, took a hair tie from her pocket, and tied her long hair into a ponytail.
After being a tragic heroine for a month, it was time to get back on the sword saint path!
Engulite watched this scene and snorted with a laugh. “Didn’t expect drinking to actually work.”
“Hehe,” Sonya laughed as she hugged Engulite. “Can’t help it, I just spoil Engulite the most.”
“I thought there’d be more twists and turns-I even got ready to clean your ears and counsel you tonight.” Engulite said, “I’ve never given anyone a lap pillow before.”
“Oh.” Sonya nodded, and, meeting the expectant gaze of the Swordsmanship girl, she turned and walked into the room. “Then I’d better go back and drink.”
Adelle and Lois were also tired from fighting by now, sitting in their seats catching their breath, occasionally glaring at each other. But aside from their hair and clothes being a bit messy, there were no signs they’d been fighting.
Sonya opened four bottles of cocktails, handed them over, then raised her own bottle. “Cheers.”
They looked in surprise at the village girl being so proactively polite, feeling that the familiar sword Princess had returned, the terrifying sword Demon had disappeared, and all breathed a sigh of relief as they raised their bottles to clink glasses.
“Cheers!”
Just then, everyone’s Miracle wristbands suddenly vibrated and rang.
Sonya looked down and saw it was an urgent news alert:
“Stars Police Department reminds you: Three suspected Sanctuary intruders have appeared in Galaxia District 37 ‘Narrow Abyss.’ Please evacuate the area around ‘Narrow Abyss’ as soon as possible! Please evacuate the area around ‘Narrow Abyss’ as soon as possible! The Griffin Meteorologist troops are about to take over the scene. All unrelated personnel, please evacuate the area around ‘Narrow Abyss’ as soon as possible!”