I want to be a faded person for life

Greg turned to look at the female warrior.

"You over there, yes, that's you, give us a signal."

Nepheli was stunned for a moment.

"I?"

"Ok."

The female warrior sheathed a hatchet and put her fingers to her mouth.

"Ready?"

After a loud whistle, the thin old man and the petite girl began to charge towards each other.

A flash of azure sword light passed by, and the remains of the demigod fell into the cooling scorched earth.

"King Gefulei...did you witness this?"

The gold in Greg's eyes gradually faded and turned cloudy. He seemed to see the darkening royal city at dusk, bathed in the soft light of the golden tree.

"...One day, we will return home."

His voice grew weaker.

"...return home to the foot of the golden tree."

Greg the Limb-Graconteur has been slain by the Faded One.

-

Since arriving at the border, Xiangzi has never slept so comfortably.

No—even before arriving at the border, she hadn't slept in such a comfortable bed in a long time.

The moldy tatami and the lingering smell of beer seemed to have become a part of her life, so long that she had completely forgotten her sleeping environment for the past decade or so.

It must be an illusion again, right?

She felt a soft and warm touch from beneath her body, so warm that she almost felt like her body was melting.

The quilt and pillow had a pleasant scent of incense, not the excessive spices used by the nobles who had their limbs grafted to cover up the stench of decay, but a more gentle and comfortable kind.

Where did this hallucination occur in? When did that dead man become so considerate?

Xiangzi had thought about the identity of the dead person. From a scientific point of view, it might be another personality that she had split out.

Perhaps we could call him Oblivionis.

This was her private setting for the protagonist of the stage play. The so-called "forgetfulness" was just right for the other person.

However, the hallucinations now are clearly not Miss Oblivionis's style, so has she developed a new personality and become even crazier?

Xiangzi was startled by this thought and opened his eyes suddenly.

This won’t do. Your mental state will affect future battles.

She suddenly sat up in bed, and there was no part of her body that didn't hurt.

The wood crackled in the fireplace, and she was indeed lying on white velvet.

This is a room with a European classical style.

Original wooden floors, stone walls and arched supporting columns, oil paintings and dark red tapestries on the walls, and jars and decorated armor placed in every corner.

When Xiangzi saw the face of the person sitting beside the bed, he fell into complete stupor.

That is... someone who absolutely cannot appear here.

It wasn't her own face, not Melina's, not Neferi's, not Teacher Serenity's or Kale's.

That is--

The other person noticed that he had woken up, and an expression of surprise appeared on his face - but that soon turned into a kind of shrinking, and finally he could only lower his head in some bewilderment.

It was a very familiar reaction. She had seen the same expression before when they passed each other in the corridor of Yugaoka.

That is--

Tears filled my eyes unconsciously.

It doesn’t matter if it’s an illusion, it doesn’t matter what. Xiangzi just hopes that this illusion can last a little longer.

Xiangzi rushed over and hugged the gray girl sitting at the head of the bed tightly in his arms.

"Eh? Xiaoxiang——"

Facing countless deaths, facing countless difficulties, facing powerful enemies and demigods... When acquaintances she could communicate with turned into zombies, when she missed home, and when she faced the mother-like Seren - Shoko Toyokawa, who had controlled all her emotions, finally burst into tears at this moment.

"lamp!"

"Light...Light!"

She called out the name over and over again, which she almost dared not say out loud recently, and then began to confess continuously.

“…I’m sorry, I ...!”

There was a hint of confusion on Gao Songdeng's face, but he slowly raised his hand and patted Xiangzi on the back.

"Don't be afraid, Xiaoxiang is fine."

Author's message

Ps:

PY recommends a young book, which is about pure magic and a harem-themed female protagonist.

If you are interested, you can read "In the Magic Circle, I am the Boss". By the way, is it really useful to ask me for chapter recommendations? (

Chapter 41 Another Story

Xiangzi cried and explained the reason why he left Crythic.

At this point, there was nothing to hide. Whether it was that his bastard father was kicked out of the Toyokawa family for being in debt of tens of billions, or that he received a call that his father was sent to the Metropolitan Police Department for alcoholism - it didn't matter anymore.

"Xiao Xiang... you've encountered so many things."

Deng, whose eyes were a little evasive when he heard the word "Crythic", listened to Xiangzi's words silently with a confused expression.

"So that's how it is. It turns out it's not because you hate me—"

Xiangzi shook his head hurriedly.

"I've never hated Deng—and everyone else. This is all my fault. I made such an arrogant decision without authorization. It's all my fault... So, I'll do anything. Please don't leave me again!"

She cried even louder and didn't let go until she fainted from exhaustion.

......

A few hours later, Xiangzi woke up and found himself sleeping on someone's lap.

The blue-haired girl's hands were still tightly wrapped around the other's waist, like an insecure child holding a large plush toy.

She raised her head and met those smiling amber eyes.

The girl couldn't help but ask questions.

"If this is a hallucination or a dream...isn't the reward time a bit too long?"

“What is bonus time?”

Xiangzi's face turned red and he immediately moved away from Deng's thigh, but he seemed to be afraid that the other party would suddenly disappear, so he still held Deng's hand tightly.

"Deng, why are you here? I clearly found you in Stonewell..."

Those fragmented images reappeared in Xiangzi's mind, and she retched.

After that twisted willpower relaxed, she became even more fragile than before.

Deng stroked her back, as if he suddenly remembered something.

"Xiao Xiang, you're talking about that...that's indeed me."

"Eh?"

Xiangzi was stunned. She felt that she had heard it wrong.

An excited smile appeared on Deng's face at some point, and his eyes were shining.

It was like when we first met and she was introducing her insect-patterned notebooks, oddly shaped stones, or her marine life series of Band-Aids.

"Even though I didn't become a human...I have now become a true stone!"

"Stonewell does have my body, but it's just a replaceable shell."

There was something creepy about the light's excited state.

She suddenly raised her hand to her chest and took out a purple-black pyroxene mixed with blood from the position of her heart.

"This is me, Xiaoxiang."

The lamp was speaking, but the sound came from two sources: the purple-black stone and the opening and closing mouth of [Takamatsu Lamp], which made the sound together.

Xiangzi's mind became confused.

The scene before her was too abnormal, but her remaining rationality still allowed her to think of the corresponding answer.

The witch Se Lian once told Xiangzi about this. Her real body did not exist in the underground prison of Yizhan Street, but was sealed somewhere else. It was something called Yuanxiao Stone.

"Could this be... Source pyroxene?"

"Huh? So, Xiaoxiang, you also know about pyroxene magic—right, after all, you have the color of stars on you too."

Deng didn't notice the confusion on Xiangzi's face at all and continued to talk about this topic.

"That day, I encountered a powerful enemy calling himself the evil omen demon, Market, on the outer wall of Stonewell. Although Roger and I worked together to defeat him, that body was no longer usable. I had to ask others to bring out my source radiant stone. I can be resurrected by simply changing into a shell with the same properties. Isn't that convenient?"

Xiangzi pressed her forehead and she began to feel a headache again.

"Wait, you know Roger... So the magician who left traces on the outer wall of Stonewell was actually Lantern, and the warrior on the other side wasn't Greg but an ominous demon?"

The missing clues were filled in.

Indeed, Xiangzi gradually discovered that something was amiss. Greg should have fought with all his might, but even at the very end, he hadn't used weapons like a greatsword, a warhammer, or a long staff. All his arms were designed to wield that heavy golden battle axe.

——It turns out that the owner of that city was not among the two people who fought on the outer wall of Stonewell.

But such terrible traces... No wonder Roger couldn't match his description with the magician on the outer city wall. When did the lamp become so powerful?

"...Deng, what happened after you came to this world?"

That's a long story.

The story has a similar beginning to Xiangzi's arrival at the border.

Gao Songdeng also saw the dead witch in the Houwang Chapel, and met Fan Lei and the tree guard.

But the difference is that without Melina or the witch to show her the way, the lamp has no reason to follow the blessed light.

She had been lost in Nimgefu, died, and then resurrected.

until--

"Xiao Xiang, do you know that there is a strange box in the Yakir Lake east of Nimgefu? After opening it, I was teleported to a dark cave."

"I was terrified at the time, but the insect friends and miners there were very friendly to me. My insect friends said that I was also a corrupted follower like them."

"I'm so happy...it turns out I'm not alone in the borderland. There are people like me here too."

"There were so many rocks in the cave, it looked like stars had fallen from the night sky to the ground. But the world outside the cave became very strange. Everything was dyed red, and the mushrooms and crows became very big."

"That time, I almost died. My whole body felt like it was being eaten by ants, and pink flowers bloomed in my eyes."

That place is definitely not Nimgefu.

Although Deng downplayed the dangers he encountered and the deaths he experienced when sharing these stories, Xiangzi still felt a chill down his spine.

"What then?"

Xiangzi was a little anxious. Although Deng was sitting in front of her safely, she still felt a little uneasy.