I'm on the Ark, and I started as a succubus.

"Huh?! Who was that just now?!"

"It's me, Lena. Don't yell and scare my flowers."

The perfumer, dressed as a gardener, stood up amidst the flowers. "Only one bunch allowed!"

"Oh, oh~"

Mudstone nodded, walked to the spot the perfumer had indicated, picked the flower she wanted, and said, "So, I'll just take this little bit?"

"Hmm, should we wrap it up?"

"no need."

Niyan scratched the back of his head. "My friends might not be the ones who are best suited to wrap the flowers."

"Ah."

The perfumer buried himself in the flowers again, his voice coming from within them, "Lappland, Lappland? The seeds you brought back seem a bit off."

Lappland poked her head out from the flowerbed. "Something's not right? I brought back all the seeds from those shops in Lungmen."

"Really? Where are the seeds?"

"Hmm... let me think. After I got back, I went to... wait, I think I pooped on the landship! I remember I called that old guy and told him to hold on a little longer, and I'd go back in person and make him give me a lot of gold coins."

"Really? Aren't you going back to see for yourself?"

"I won't reply; it annoys me to see it."

"you……"

Mudstone looked at the perfumer and Lappland in the greenhouse and asked, "You didn't run away?"

"Run? Where to?"

The perfumer picked up scissors and trimmed the flowers and leaves. "I contracted oripathy a long time ago and was kicked out of my home."

She shrugged. "Then, when I wanted to go back, I heard that something had happened to Minos... well, I actually escaped a disaster because of that."

The perfumer smiled and looked at the greenhouse and the countless flowers outside. "I still have so many flowers to take care of, I'm not leaving."

Mudrock's gaze fell on Lappland, who burst into laughter. "Why are you looking at me? You don't think I want to go back to Syracuse, do you? I'm not doing this for no reason. Besides, there are so many flowers here that need help taking care of, and there's a little guy that I need to keep an eye on."

Lapland snapped his fingers, and a fluffy, chubby-looking mouse beast suddenly poked its head out of the flowerbed.

"Lappland, keep an eye on your little pet. If it bites my flowers, I'll make you two pay!"

"Okay, okay! Manager Lena~"

Lappland drawled, his voice full of mocking laughter.

"Miss Mudrock, is there anything else?"

The perfumer glanced at Niyan and said, "If there's nothing else, then don't linger here. Go and get busy."

She paused for a moment and said softly:

"In a while, that opportunity may never come again; we'll be saying goodbye to this land forever. So, whatever you want to do, you have to seize the moment."

"Oh, thank you, Lena!"

Mudstone nodded slightly to the perfumer, then jogged away with the bouquet. A moment later, she ran back, saying, "Lena, could you lend me a shovel? I'll definitely return it to you in a while."

She didn't even wait for the perfumer to utter a sound before disappearing in an instant.

The perfumer sighed and shook his head helplessly. "Really, one after another."

……

……

Mudstone left the space with the flowers, trudging through the knee-deep snow.

As dawn broke, the snow-covered sky presented a dark, almost grayish-white hue, conveying a sense of melancholy.

Mud Rock paused briefly to determine his direction, then took a step towards the pine forest at the edge of his field of vision.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she finally reached the edge of the pine forest, letting out a sigh of relief from beneath her thick helmet.

Using the small shovel he'd swiped from the perfumer, Niyan shoveled away the snow, revealing the soil beneath.

Originium Arts activated, and after trembling for a while, the frozen soil slowly rose up, eventually transforming into a stone monument facing Kazdel under the manipulation of Originium Arts.

"Whoosh~"

Whether it was from the fatigue of using Originium Arts or from a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions or reflections), Mudrock let out another long breath.

"I...should have thought of that a long time ago."

Even though the sound was clearly altered by the thick helmet, one could still clearly feel the added tremor and choking in Mud Rock's voice.

She stood there in a daze for a while before taking out a stack of letters and placing them in front of the stone tablet. She then weighed them down with small stones and finally placed the flowers she had taken from the perfumer's flower room on top.

Her teammates and friends were already dead.

The changes on the tundra meant they were all trapped there forever, and no one ever returned to Kazdel.

It was all a lie used to deceive her.

"Feel sorry."

Bai Chen appeared behind Mudrock, “By the time I arrived, they were already dead… A few others survived, but an accident happened on their way through Letania, and none of them were able to return to Kazdel.”

267 I'm sorry, all I can bring is endless torment and pain.

Mudstone didn't speak, but stood silently in place.

"I...I knew it all along."

After a long while, she spoke in a low, trembling voice:

"They, those idiots, can't even write letters, let alone tell me so much in their letters, fantasizing about the future. They just talk about what they ate and what they plan to eat when they get back to Kazdel."

Mudstone remained silent for a long while before speaking softly:

"Many of them have been mercenaries since they can remember; all they know is how to pick up a weapon and do mercenary work. They...they don't actually know how to farm. The idea of ​​going back to Kazdel to farm was just something they said offhand when they were drunk around the campfire."

Bai Chen walked to her side and hugged her through the large, heavy protective suit. "If you want to cry, then cry it out. It will make you feel better."

He reached out and grabbed the helmet that Mudrock had put on his head, trying to take it off, but Mudrock suddenly grabbed his wrist and struggled violently.

"No! Don't take it off!"

I know what you're worried about.

Bai Chen released her hand and pressed down on her shoulder. "You're worried your teammates won't recognize you, right? They won't recognize that the tall, trustworthy, and reliable captain is actually a beautiful Sarkaz girl, right?"

He smiled and shook his head, saying softly, "They've all guessed it to some extent, and some even know it clearly. During meals, the captain always hides away, sneaking around and not wanting anyone to see him. When everyone is chatting about women around the campfire, he's always the teammate hiding to the side."

Mudstone was a little stunned.

Bai Chen placed his hand on her helmet again, and said with a silent smile:

"A beautiful and youthful Sarkaz girl. Mudrock, do you think this nickname came from? Someone secretly told me~ She told me that Mudrock, the leader of their team, is beautiful, cute, silly and adorable. Even in the entire Kazdel, she is a top-tier beautiful girl."

With a gentle push, Bai Chen swiftly removed the helmet from Ni Yan's head, tossed it onto the snow, and reached out to wipe away the tears streaming down her face beneath the helmet.

“Just talk to them like this, they can still hear you. This land full of beautiful girls has souls.”

Bai Chen gently wiped Ni Yan's cheek with his thumb and pressed his forehead against her head. "If you keep crying, it will make people worry. Didn't you agree that those who survive must live happily every day, instead of living a miserable life every day?"

Mudstone bit her cherry lips hard, and her slender shoulders twitched violently a few times beneath the oversized protective suit.

She may have tried her best to hold back her tears, but they still welled up in her eyes and, in front of the snow, were turned into glistening pearls by the cold wind of Ursus.

"I... I just wanted to protect them. I hid myself inside my clothes and used Originium Arts to make myself look weak, just so they would feel that I was someone they could rely on, gather around me, and believe that I could protect them and that I would never fall..."

His words were punctuated by sobs, but later they were completely drowned out by the crying, and the meaning of his words became fragmented.

The choked sobs and cries sounded like someone spitting out fragments of their soul.

"The mudstone has been done very well."

Bai Chen opened his arms and hugged her. "You've done a great job. It's not Ni Yan's fault at all."

Mudrock cried and said many things, but her words were all swallowed up by the cold wind of Ursus. Bai Chen just silently held her, providing her with a safe harbor at this moment.

Even the strongest hearts have a vulnerable side, a moment of vulnerability. Mudrock, who once vowed to illuminate his darkness, also revealed his utter fragility.

Now it was his turn to offer some support to this frail Sarkaz young woman.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but Niyan gradually stopped sobbing. She rested her face on Bai Chen's chest, still gently trembling and choking back tears. Suddenly, she looked up at Bai Chen with her tear-blurred face and said, "Aren't you a god? You should be able to find a way to keep them alive."

"can."

Bai Chen ran his hands through her silky long hair, hugged her little head, and said with some emotion, "But, Mud Rock... I am an evil god. Evil gods only do bad things."

He lowered his head, gazing into the eyes brimming with tears, and said softly:

“I can bring them back to life, but that’s all. From now on, living will be their greatest suffering, a suffering from which they can never be relieved.”

Even if they experience the slightest bit of happiness or joy, all those positive emotions and sensory experiences will quickly vanish, and they will never be able to experience them again.

Mudstone bit her full lips and stared at him for a long while.

Tears welled up again, rolling down her cheeks and turning into frost in the cold wind, making her muddy face look particularly ugly.

It seems unlikely that an unattractive girl would be the object of affection and pampering by a scoundrel like Bai Chen.

But he simply held Niyan tighter and then gently kissed her forehead.

Isn't the mind the source of everything?

If all you have is beauty, then you can only be a pretty girl, or even just the most ordinary kind of pretty girl.

"How... how could this happen?"

"Because this is the kind of world we live in. A small part of an evil god may be good, but a god formed by the extreme, twisted, deformed, and evil minds of countless distorted beings and countless intelligent beings is destined to be the most twisted, deformed, and evil god in the world."

Bai Chen gazed into Ni Yan's beautiful red eyes and said in a leisurely tone:

"It can only be this way, it is destined to be this way, and it will inevitably be this way."

He hugged Mudrock tightly, remaining silent for a long time. "I'm sorry, Mudrock. The evil god cannot give your friend a good ending. I can only bestow endless torment and pain upon people, and even the hope that springs forth in despair will eventually be absorbed into nourishment to strengthen myself."

Bai Chen sighed softly, "Being able to make your lives relatively comfortable is perhaps the limit of 'kindness'."

He paused for a moment after speaking, then suddenly let out a sneer.