After Cipher had mostly restored the neighborhood, she had just returned to the clinic when Hong Guoguo hesitantly approached her.
"Um... well, Sister Cipher, can I ask you a question?"
Her voice carried a hint of hesitation.
Cipher was slightly startled at first, but then she nodded.
"Of course, what do you want to ask?"
"Excuse me, do you know of the Eresia Continent?"
Seeing Cipher agree, Hong Guoguo asked with some expectation.
"Eresia Continent?" Cipher repeated the unfamiliar name, tilting her head in confusion. "Never heard of it."
"Y-you don't know?!" This answer was like a splash of cold water. Hong Guoguo instantly widened her eyes in disbelief.
But she didn't give up. Instead, she began to rapidly ask about the names of several forests and countries, but Cipher's response was only shaking her head time and time again.
"It's over..." Hong Guoguo covered her eyes in despair, her voice choked with sobs. "Sister Cipher isn't from my world... Is it true that I really can't go back?"
"So, you want to return to your original world?"
Hearing Hong Guoguo's words, Cipher instantly caught the key information and asked thoughtfully, stroking her chin.
"Yes..." Hong Guoguo lowered her hands, took a deep breath, and began to explain. "Five years ago, I was caught up in an accident where magic went out of control... I thought I was definitely severely injured at the time, but when I opened my eyes again, I was in this world."
"When I first arrived, the incomprehensible technology made me dizzy, and there were several times when I was chased and beaten because of my feline traits... That's why I had to keep up a disguise magic all this time."
Speaking of this, she subconsciously touched her drooping cat ears.
At this moment, Hyacine, who had been listening from the side, asked with some confusion.
"Then the reason you were following me earlier was because of Little Ica?"
Hearing this, Hong Guoguo's gaze immediately turned to the round creature floating beside Hyacine.
"Yes... Because I saw that it looks very much like the pegasi from my world, I wondered if it might be a creature from our world? If it is... would it have a way to go back?" She then paused, her voice growing quieter. "However... the pegasi in my memory are all slender and elegant, not like this... with a chubby body, and its method of attack..."
Speaking of this, Hong Guoguo carefully glanced at Little Ica, who was pouting in dissatisfaction.
"Is using headbutts to hit people..."
"Dudu!"
As soon as her voice fell, Little Ica indeed began to protest, flying around Hong Guoguo in displeasure.
"Sorry, sorry! I'm not speaking ill of you! You really are very cute! It's just... just that you don't quite look like how I remember..."
Seeing this scene, Hong Guoguo was so frightened that both of her ears completely drooped down. She squeezed her eyes shut and hastily apologized, terrified that Little Ica would knock her flying if it got upset.
Hyacine, on the other hand, chuckled softly and raised her hand to soothe Little Ica.
"It's fine, it will only grumble a few times at most." Afterward, she turned to Hong Guoguo and explained, "Little Ica did used to be slender and elegant. It's just that it exhausted its power from saving too many people in the past, which is why it turned out like this now."
"So that's how it is..."
Hong Guoguo nodded in sudden realization, but soon, that sense of loss from being unable to go home welled up in her heart once more.
But just then, Cipher's voice, carrying an almost imperceptible hint of a smile, rang in Hong Guoguo's ears.
"By the way, I need to correct you on one thing. It's not that we don't have a way to send you back."
"What?!" Hong Guoguo snapped her head up, unbelievable hope instantly igniting in her eyes. "You mean... I can still go back?!"
"Of course, just not right now." Cipher leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, speaking in a certain tone. "Do you know who that giant beast that nearly destroyed the world just now was?"
"Th-that giant beast?!" Hearing the words 'giant beast', Hong Guoguo's body shuddered subconsciously, and then she quickly shook her head. "N-no, I don't know!"
Seeing this, a meaningful smile curled the corners of Cipher's lips. She then pointed her finger at Hyacine beside her and said,
"There, it's this one."
"...Meow?"
The amount of information was a bit overwhelming. Hong Guoguo was so dazed that she subconsciously blurted out her mother tongue.
She looked at Hyacine's gentle appearance with some confusion, while her mind began to recall the furious, world-destroying appearance of that giant beast...
Her brain instantly overloaded, going completely blank.
Looking at her bewildered expression, Cipher chuckled out loud, speaking with a teasing tone.
"This one here is the Sublime, Radiant, Avatar of the Sky, the Eye of Dawn and Dusk, Hyacinthia, who has lived for an unknown number of years."
"R-really?"
Hong Guoguo's heart pounded wildly. The terrifying, world-destroying giant beast was actually the gentle girl-next-door? Wasn't this a bit too fantastical?
"Of course it's true." Cipher responded with a smile. "I never lie."
Seeing that Cipher didn't look like she was joking, Hong Guoguo only felt her throat go a bit dry. She continued to ask weakly,
"Then... Senior Cipher, how... how powerful are you?"
"Me?" Cipher feigned a thoughtful look. After a moment, she said with a serious face, "Me? I'm just an ordinary little kitty."
"Senior Cipher, you must be joking." Hyacine's gentle voice rang out as she slightly turned her head to look at Cipher. "The years you've lived are far longer than mine. Furthermore, in terms of strength, you should be above me, right?"
"It's only a few hundred years more, is that a lot?"
"From a biological perspective," Hyacine retorted with a beaming smile, "even if you were born just one second earlier, you would still be older."
Listening to their conversation, Hong Guoguo, who was caught between the two, felt like a husky that had strayed into a pack of wolves, trembling in fear.
What did she mean Sister Hyacine was that terrifying giant beast? What did she mean Sister Cipher had lived even longer than Sister Hyacine?
An adult dragon could live for thousands of years, and the giant beast Sister Hyacine transformed into was simply more terrifying than several adult dragons combined. Her age should be quite high, shouldn't it?
Didn't that mean the two people in front of her had lived for at least tens of thousands of years?!
She thought she was already very capable, at least able to barely defeat an A- rank powerhouse of this world.
But she felt that under the terrifying strength of these two, she wouldn't be able to last even a single second...
Author's Note:
PS: If we're really calculating their ages, according to the plot in 3.5, Hyacine was born in 4297, while Cipher was born in 3942. Cipher is 355 years older than Hyacine. As for their exact ages, it's not very clear, because their time of death is different in each reincarnation. In the 3.5 reincarnation, Hyacine lived for 305 years, while Cipher lived for 592 years. This means that in the 3.5 timeline compared to the 3.3 timeline, Cipher passed away 68 years earlier than Hyacine.
(Sad