Quadruple split.

Chapter 2702 Boy and Girl (Part 7)
Half an hour later
Game time AM11:09
Liberty City, No Nights Zone, Bella Street Promenade
"Cole."

The doll walking beside the clown turned its head slightly to look at the former, who had immediately slowed down and turned to face it after hearing the soft call, and asked indifferently, "Have I caused you any trouble?"

"trouble?"

Cole blinked, then chuckled after a moment's thought, "Of course not, why would you think that?"

"I said what I wanted to say."

Lorna subconsciously raised her hand to touch her veil, a hint of worry flashing in her indifferent eyes: "But I know I'm different from normal people, so I've been thinking since just now whether I'll cause you any trouble."

Cole, who had grown accustomed to the barely perceptible 'death aura' emanating from Rona, but still couldn't get used to her not being fully 'alive,' paused slightly before regaining his composure and shaking his head, saying, "What are you talking about? To me, you're no different from a normal person."

"you are lying?"

Lorna stopped in front of a small stall, took the money bag Cole handed her quite naturally, and while carefully counting the change, said without looking up, "I'm clearly dead."

The rabbit-girl half-orc stall owner's eyes widened instantly: "Eh!?"

"Don't worry about it, ma'am."

Cole immediately gave the rabbit girl a warm and gentle smile and said, "She hasn't been sleeping well these past few days, so she's in a bad mood and keeps saying some negative and strange things."

Lorna turned and glanced at Cole: "Don't laugh."

Cole: "..."

……

Two minutes later, when Lorna and Cole left the stall, each of them had an extra skewer of meat in their hand.

"hiss!"

Seeing how quickly Rona was eating, the clumsy thief, who had taken a big bite of meat without warning, suddenly widened his eyes. He used his high-fire-resistant teeth to precisely bite the meat, keeping it a safe distance from his tongue and cheeks, and said indistinctly to her, "Don't eat so fast when it's so hot!"

"do not know."

Rona shook her head, looking down at the skewer of grilled meat in her hand, which was emitting wisps of white smoke: "I don't feel anything."

"..."

Colton was speechless for a moment, then remained silent for a while before slowly eating the piece of roast meat and asking softly, "Is it good?"

"good to eat."

Perhaps because she had often sensed the sorrow in the other person's heart when she could only perceive the outside world in the form of a soul, Rona, who knew very well what Cole was thinking, nodded slightly and revealed a faint, reassuring smile: "It seems that the gentleman feels that a life without good food is meaningless, so he specially asked Master Winter to put in a lot of effort to help me regain my sense of taste, although my digestive system is still not 'activated' enough."

Cole immediately frowned and asked with concern, "Then what should we do..."

"I will ignite a 'spiritual fire' inside my stomach to break down the food I eat."

Lorna interrupted Cole and said seriously, "So it's okay, don't worry."

Cole breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "It's good that there's no problem. But Master Winter is really amazing. He can even restore your sense of taste."

"I heard he did a lot of experiments."

While recalling the casual chatter Mo Tan had shared with her, Lorna said, "I heard that Master Lin Dong has a few people around him who are similar to me. The master had me 'awakened' after he had experimented on them."

Ah, it's those guys—

Recalling what Xiao Ai had once told him—that she and Master Frost had 'stolen' several people who were originally buried by another 'ace' in the Violet Empire—Korton suddenly realized, and a faint smile unconsciously appeared on his lips.

"Thinking about Ai?"

Rona, who was walking beside her, also laughed and asked softly.

"Ah."

Cole nodded honestly and said, "I just remembered that Ai once told me about those people. It is said that the reason why the Master resurrected them, besides trying to coerce Ms. Futaba through them, was also largely due to one of our Uncrowned Ones... uh."

Lorna blinked and asked curiously, "Uncrowned? What?"

"I'm sorry, Lorna."

Cole sighed and said helplessly, "This matter is highly confidential. Even you can't easily reveal it without Mr. [the boss's] permission."

Rona, who wasn't particularly interested in the matter to begin with, didn't mind. She simply nodded to show her understanding and ended the conversation, gently shaking the meat skewers in her hand to 'cool them down' as she said, "You can smile when you think of Ai."

Cole: "Uh..."

"But smile less often."

Lorna then added very seriously, "Especially that housekeeper in the manor whose name I forgot."

"Okay, I understand, I understand."

Cole coughed lightly, recalling how his master had forced him to use his charm to control Eva Black Garden, the dark elf housekeeper at Caeves Manor, which made every accidental encounter between them extremely awkward. He then quickly changed the subject, saying seriously, "By the way, don't say you're not normal anymore because of... such a small thing."

Lorna frowned slightly and retorted seriously, "I don't think I'm wrong, after all, I've already..."

“This has nothing to do with what’s happened to you, Rona.”

Cole interrupted him decisively, and after a slight hesitation, raised his right index finger: "I'll give you an example, and you'll understand."

As Lorna walked forward, she said calmly, "You can raise it, but I think I'm right."

Cole smiled noncommittally, then asked bluntly, "Do you think the gentleman is a living person?"

"of course."

Lorna answered without hesitation.

"Do you think the gentleman is a normal person?"

Cole asked again.

"…………"

This time, because it was the deceased, her emotions were extremely stable, to the point that she was incredibly calm in most situations, and spoke with composure in any situation. Rona Moonshine, who rarely showed any emotional fluctuations, was speechless for once.

After remaining silent for a full two minutes, the [doll] finally couldn't go against its nature and shook its head somewhat dejectedly, saying, "...Sir, this is indeed not quite normal."

"That's it."

Cole smiled with satisfaction and said smugly, "So, this little problem of yours has nothing to do with whether you're a normal person or not. You're just not used to it yet, which is normal. After all, if I slept for such a long time, I would also feel groggy and confused for a while after waking up."

Lorna gave Cole a deep look, bit off the last piece of grilled meat from the skewer with some force, chewed it a few times with obvious emotion, swallowed it, and then said softly, "The way you were arguing just now was quite like Mr. Cole."

"Oh?"

Cole maintained his smile and asked cheerfully, "Are you complimenting me?"

I'm insulting you.

Without hesitation, Lorna defined the word 'Tanmo' as something terrible that could be used directly for personal attacks.

"pretty good."

Cole shrugged, looking at the other man's face, which, though pale and expressionless, still showed signs of sulking: "Not long ago, even being able to speak to you in my dreams was a luxury for me."

Lorna lowered her eyes and said nothing. She silently tossed the skewer in her hand to Cole and then walked slowly down the street, aimlessly and without uttering a word.

Cole followed Lorna at the same pace, walking half a body length behind, and also remained silent.

Although Bella Street wasn't short, it wasn't very long either, so even though they walked slowly, they still reached the end of the street in about fifteen minutes.

"Want to go get something to eat?"

After Lorna stopped, Cole raised his right hand, pointed to a bustling shop not far away that was changing its signboard, and asked with a smile.

"Don't go."

Looking at the spacious storefront with the new signboard bearing the three large characters for "Clownfish," Lorna asked without turning her head, "Is this the storefront you just snatched from them?"

Cole shook his head and said honestly, "I didn't steal it, Ms. Futaba did."

"What's the difference?"

No longer paying attention to the store, Lorna turned and walked back the way she came without looking back. She just said casually, "That David from earlier seemed to be afraid of you."

"The difference is that I simply made some arrangements so that the store manager could objectively assess our capabilities."

Cole smiled and said in a light tone as he walked, "In the face of absolute strength, any clever tricks are just icing on the cake. Even some superficial 'cleverness' can become 'great wisdom' on the basis of solid strength. And I'm just someone who only knows how to use clever tricks."

Hearing this, Lorna suddenly stopped, turned her head and looked at Cole with her lifeless and dim eyes, which were still as gentle as when she was alive, and smiled, "You've become amazing."

"It's alright." Cole touched the tip of his nose and said with a wry smile, "I have to say, although I've only been with you for a few months, I've learned a lot more than I did during my years at the academy... uh, much more."

Lorna nodded slightly, then walked to a bench not far away that was warm from the sun and sat down, tilting her head to gesture to Cole.

So Cole obediently went over and sat down beside her.

"Ai has become even more powerful."

Perhaps because the corpse was warm from the sun, Lorna lazily leaned her head on Cole's shoulder, her calm and serene tone carrying a hint of pride in her close friend: "When you talk to me, Mr. Cole often praises Ai for being very capable. He doesn't seem to praise people very often normally."

“I think the concept of ‘normal’ doesn’t exist for Mr. [Name].

As Cole tried to relax and make Lorna more comfortable, he chuckled, "But it's true that Ai is amazing. Like I told you before, she's much better than me."

"Is it?"

Lorna slowly closed her eyes and said softly, "I don't really understand these things. Although that 'clown' lady asked me to stay by your side and help you, most of the time I don't even know what I'm supposed to do, nor do I really understand what you're doing."

Cole chuckled and shook his head, saying, "It's okay if you don't need to know that much. Of course, if you want to know, I promise I'll make time to answer your questions regularly."

Lorna's lips curled up slightly: "You don't have that much time, Cole."

"Is it?"

Cole shrugged his right shoulder, which wasn't being leaned on, and chuckled, "But I'm clearly just sitting here idly in the sun with you right now."

“Evie Lehman told me that your dark circles make you look more like a dead person than mine.”

"Perhaps it was Ms. Futaba who instigated her to sow discord between us."

"Is this considered provocation?"

"Who knows, but there's never enough time."

"Did you notice? Your tone just now sounded a bit like Ai's."

Is this a compliment?

"I'm just stating the facts."

"To be honest, what you just said sounds a bit like her."

"..."

"hehe."

"Do not laugh."

"Oh."

"...Let's laugh instead."

"it is good."

"Cole."

"what happened?"

"I'm sleepy."

"Then I'll take you back..."

"Let me lie on your lap and sleep for a while."

"okay."

“...Cole”.

"I'm here."

"We're so far apart."

"It's just an illusion."

"Whether it's you or Ai, you've already come a very, very far ahead."

"What are you worried about?"

"do not know."

"I know."

"what do you know?"

“I know that no matter how far apart we are now, we are much closer than we were before.”

"It's actually easier to die."

Do you still think that way now?

"……a little bit."

"I'll wait for you."

"Ok?"

"Whether it's me or Xiao Ai, we'll be with you and waiting for you."

"Oh."

"and……"

"and?"

I won't make the same mistake again.

"mistake?"

"Back then, I failed to protect you."

"Yes, the gentleman said you were quite useless at the time."

"Not next time."

"Ah."

I will protect you no matter what.

"Ah."

"Do you believe me?"

"Ah."

"……Thanks."

Even if you cry, I have no intention of becoming your lover.

"Who's crying?"

"Didn't you cry?"

"You didn't cry!"

"……snort."

What are you angry about?!

……

Half an hour later
Kevors Manor, Main Building Rooftop, Magical Barrier [Infinite Circuit]

"So, the reason you were a full hour late..."

Futaba sighed, lazily looking at her long-lost friend not far away, and said with a forced smile, "Is it because you've been hiding in the shadows watching Cole Shulen's love gossip?"

"It's not considered a romantic relationship."

The girl with snow-white hair, who had once again slung her oversized longsword [Frostless] over her shoulder, shook her head, casually stuffed a handful of snacks into her mouth, and looked somewhat wistful.

"It's so awkward."

Chapter 2693: The End