Unbeknownst to Li Wu, while his attention was focused on the people on Ireland Beach, Anna approached him silently.
When he turned around, he found himself face-to-face with Anna, their faces very close. Instinctively, he turned back around.
"I just feel... it would be a pity to miss out like this..." Li Wu's voice was very quiet.
"Then... I'll go prepare the things we need."
Just like the fleeting time, Anna reached into Li Wu's pocket, retrieved her card, and then slipped outside as if fleeing for her life, walking leisurely along the road.
The orange light flowed over her pale, delicate face like a masterful painter, dabbing just the right amount of beautiful blush onto Anna's cheeks.
The hotel wasn't very tall. Leaning by the window, one could see the only path leading to the shops.
When Anna passed by the window and saw Li Wu by the window again, her steps suddenly faltered. She even started walking with the same arm and leg moving together, her movements extremely bizarre.
It was as if an unskilled conductor were recklessly controlling her limbs.
Realizing how pathetic she looked, Anna broke into a run, hurriedly fleeing from Li Wu's sight.
Her clumsy figure grew fainter under the brilliant sunlight, finally leaving only the comical image of her walking with same-side limbs playing over and over in Li Wu's mind, as if locked on single-track repeat.
[She has fallen for you.]
"..."
"I know."
[I am being honest. I thought you would play dumb, just like those gentle male protagonists in island nation anime, saying things like 'Is that so?', 'No way, how could she like me? We just get along well.']
"Before waking up today, maybe I would have said that. But now, no matter what, I don't have the right to turn a blind eye to her sacrifices."
Li Wu took out the bizarrely shaped Flame-Chaser's Feather from his chest pocket. He opened his mouth, but eventually fell silent again, staring blankly at the feather.
"Anna doesn't know I possess the two special abilities 'Return by Death' and 'Tomorrow's Loan.' But how could an ordinary person carry her unconscious body and evade the pursuit of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast?"
"Since we woke up, no matter how awkward or subtle the situation became, she never once asked me how I got her out."
"Just using a bit of brainpower, you'd think that someone who passed out on a battlefield with constantly appearing enemies would definitely ask how they survived upon waking up, right? But she didn't. Not because she doesn't know..."
"Because she knows the answer, so she never needs to ask."
[Once she asks, it means she would have to record your identity as a 'Suspected Herrscher' in the mission report. In her eyes—you would be captured and taken to a lab, have your blood drawn, be experimented on, lose your human rights, and face a tragic fate devoid of humanity: forcibly having your relics extracted and being bred with Honkai Beasts, injected with various illicit drugs to test reactions, having your organs and flesh constantly cut off to make special medicines... Finally, to facilitate experiments, your vocal cords would be removed. When your organs regenerated, they would be removed again. You wouldn't even be able to whimper, dying in despair and agony.]
[Anna Schariac refuses to let you head toward such an ending.]
After listening to the future described by the system, even though Li Wu was mentally prepared, he couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
Even organs that hinder experiments would be removed?
"..."
Once restraint is lost, humanity indeed has no bottom line. Li Wu understood this principle, but having lived in the Celestial Empire for sixteen years, he still knew very little about the true darkness of this world.
That kind of ending...
Anna was right. Suicide would actually be the best outcome.
Provided he didn't have the special ability 'Return by Death.'
However, in a certain sense, 'Return by Death' gave him hope, but it could also be a deeper despair. If he really were captured...
He would have no release whatsoever. His life would repeat the previous pain in one Return by Death after another.
[But based on this alone, how do you know she has developed genuine feelings for you? When you first met, Anna Schariac also took the risk of violating regulations to help you, but at that time, she had no romantic feelings for you whatsoever.]
The system asked an obvious question.
Li Wu paused. Images of Anna being "awkward yet cute" flashed through his mind, becoming clearer and clearer.
"I once saw a sentence online in my original world. I think it was written by Hugo? I can't remember the book title, but it went something like this: The first symptom of true love in a young man is timidity; in a girl, it is boldness."
"Realizing they like another person, men suddenly become timid, insecure, and afraid. They want to become better, want to be more special and dazzling in front of the person they like..."
[Her reaction is timidity, which does not conform to your saying that true love in a girl is boldness.]
"Because the worlds are different." Li Wu gave a bitter smile. He reached out his hand towards the window, grasping the sunlight. It was the same as his original world, yet somewhat different. "If in my original world, if you really fall in love with someone, you would be afraid that your abilities aren't enough and that you'd make her suffer. You would hesitate, you would doubt: Can I give her happiness? What if she despises me? What if I can't shoulder the responsibility of supporting a family?"
"But Anna is different. She grew up in Schicksal since childhood. The biggest difference between Valkyries and ordinary girls isn't the strength of their power, but the division of labor in society. Valkyries are required to be 'pillars' from a young age. Plus, with Schicksal's restrictions on the two great Holy Blood families, Anna has been required to do much more since childhood."
[The difference in worlds created her current first reaction: cowardice. So it is a difference in social identity?]
"You could say that, but it's not accurate enough. Reality has many logics; what you said is just one of them."
"The first symptom of true love is cowardice. It might not have much to do with gender or social identity."
"Actually, I can't explain it clearly either. I can only roughly guess a bit..."
[What is your guess?]
"Have you ever been chosen unconditionally? That is to say, what people often call pure liking. I think it's this."
"Anna said that when she was little, she almost died on the battlefield. It was her aunt who paid a huge price to rush to the battlefield to save her. Her parents, the people who should have shouldered the responsibility most, did not shoulder it and did not appear in front of her when she desperately longed to be saved."
"System, do you know? If the love a person receives from childhood to adulthood is conditional, they will lack a sense of worthiness. When they fall in love with someone, they will wonder, Am I worthy? Can I shoulder the responsibility of giving the other person happiness?... When the brain overthinks, actions in reality become very awkward, completely unlike their usual self."
[You understand very well.]
"It's okay. When I lived on campus in junior high, I couldn't sleep at night, so I often chatted about this with the bros in my dorm. I don't know if it's right or wrong, I just felt it made sense, so I always kept it in mind."
[So, what do you plan to do? Accept? Reject? Or turn a blind eye?]
"Wait a little longer..."
[You chose to turn a blind eye because it would affect clearing the subsequent plot, so you can only temporarily wrong Anna Schariac?]
"No, quite the opposite. Right now... I don't have the ability to stand with her yet."
[You are already standing with her.]
"It's different. I'm not talking about being together in space, but..." Li Wu clenched the Flame-Chaser's Feather tightly in his palm, gritted his teeth, and lowered his head, the light failing to shine into his eyes.
He remembered an anime he watched before. The character inside clearly possessed powerful special abilities, yet could only watch helplessly as relatives and friends died one by one. His peaceful life was shattered; he tried his hardest but still couldn't stop it.
Because he was still too weak.
Unable to fight against the entire world.
" all the disadvantages in this world stem from the concerned party's lack of ability..."
"The Previous Era should have a Flame-Chaser that didn't exist in the original work. I'm guessing it's because my manga has a plot where the protagonist travels to the Previous Era later, causing the Current Era plot to change. Now that I'm clearing the plot in place of the manga protagonist, it is highly likely that Schicksal has mistaken me for 'that person'..."
"This one-month 'observation' is just a cover. Even Anna accepting the mission might be within Schicksal's expectations."
"Whether it was the meaningless extermination mission far exceeding A-rank, this week-long vacation, or throwing the unconscious me and Anna naked into the same bed, it was all to make me reveal myself."
"While I was asleep, Schicksal definitely performed some checks, but they didn't find anything significant. But the fact that I brought Anna safely out of Siberia remains. The mastermind behind the mission is definitely not a fool; they will inevitably see the clues."
"Under these circumstances, if I really get entangled with Anna, that would be the greatest irresponsibility to her..."
"She doesn't know anything, yet she still helps me foolishly. She's simply a hopeless idiot... The idiot is already so silly; at least I can't bully her anymore."
Li Wu stared blankly at the Flame-Chaser's Feather in his hand.
This was his last trump card. Schicksal was so powerful; they should know about this thing.
As long as he took this out, his identity from the Previous Era would be confirmed. But what then? Why was Schicksal so eager to make him return to his original state and then win him over? Even going so far as sacrificing Anna, the Holy Maiden of the Schariac family of this generation?
Li Wu couldn't think of a reason.
So many Flame-Chasers from the Previous Era survived, yet Schicksal targeted him specifically.
Intuition told Li Wu that it definitely wasn't as simple as he thought. The "slap then give a candy" approach was more likely a smokescreen.
Schicksal also had a basic policy—
Not allowed to harm ordinary people.
Even if that person hindered Schicksal's engagement system for the two major families, at most they would be knocked out and sent home, not killed.
Combining the intimacy after waking up this morning and yesterday's Honkai Beast extermination mission, Li Wu came to a conclusion—
"The mastermind knows that my relationship with Anna is significant, so they have been trying to set us up and force me, who appears to be an ordinary person on the surface, to display the power of a Flame-Chaser..."