Deep into the night, time crept toward two in the morning.
Luo Yu still hadn't rested. On the floor before him, a humanoid form had already taken shape—its outline clear, its structure steadily becoming complete.
Ranni, in her small doll body, sat nearby. Yet instead of staring at the new vessel that would soon be hers, she kept her gaze fixed on Luo Yu, quietly watching him work.
Then she sensed something wrong.
Not inside the room.
Outside the house, a dark, malicious presence was approaching slowly, crawling closer like cold fog creeping over stone.
"My king," Ranni said softly, "a wraith is trying to enter."
Luo Yu stopped his work without surprise. "I noticed too. These things really are endless—kill them, and more appear as if nothing ever changed."
He had already exorcised many wraiths since arriving in this world. They hid in the city's shadowed corners, and sometimes even wandered out in broad daylight.
For people who couldn't see them, they were harmless.
But they had a rule.
They would drift up to someone's face and ask, Can you see me? If the person could see them, the wraith could then attack through that very "recognition," as though the act of being perceived granted it permission to harm.
If you couldn't see it, it couldn't touch you.
When Luo Yu first arrived here, a wraith had asked him that question. He hadn't reacted in time and met its gaze directly.
The result was simple.
A single lightning spear had erased it.
He hadn't expected another to come knocking tonight.
Luo Yu rose, brushed off his clothes, and opened the window. At a glance, he saw it—an inky-black humanoid figure stepping into his yard, over six and a half feet tall, unnaturally muscular, its body twitching as it moved.
Hearing the window open, the wraith lifted its head and stared up at Luo Yu.
"You can see—"
It didn't finish.
A spear of lightning shot out and punched straight through its skull.
"GRAAAH!"
Its scream was miserable, warped by static. The wraith convulsed as arcs of light danced across its body, then dissolved into nothingness.
Luo Yu flicked the lingering sparks from his hand and shut the window again.
"Done. Let's continue."
The interruption hadn't stirred him at all. That thing's combat ability might not even rival an Albinauric armed with a weapon.
Perhaps powerful wraiths existed in this world, but Luo Yu hadn't encountered any yet.
Ranni glanced at the night beyond the glass, then returned her attention to the body Luo Yu was crafting—and only then did she notice something.
"My king… this differs from the body I used before. It seems far more complex."
Luo Yu nodded, carving sorcerous lines into the torso as he spoke.
"Making the old kind isn't difficult, but since we're in this world now, I want you to experience more. So I'm adding a sense of taste, and a function that can break down food and convert it into energy."
Ranni froze, eyes widening slightly as she looked at him.
Luo Yu smiled.
"Once you regain mobility, you can't just sit there watching me eat forever, can you?"
Ranni fell silent, unable to find words.
Yet the way she looked at him grew softer—warmer—like moonlight falling across still water.
The night slipped by swiftly.
Wednesday morning, six o'clock. The sky was only beginning to brighten.
Luo Yu let out a heavy breath and looked down at the completed puppet body, satisfaction clear in his expression.
"All right. Ranni—try it."
Ranni stared at the new body for several long seconds. It was about five feet three inches tall, carefully proportioned, prepared like a vessel awaiting a soul.
Only then did she allow Luo Yu to place her small doll body against it, and she drew her soul out—guiding it into the new form.
Five seconds passed.
A face began to take shape where there had been none—Ranni's features emerging as naturally as breath frosting glass.
Her eyes opened.
Under Luo Yu's gaze, she sat up.
This body moved far more freely than the one she had used before. Its skin wasn't the doll-like blue of her former puppet—it was flesh-toned like a human's, with only her hair retaining that deep, vivid blue.
After a brief inspection, her pale, starry eyes turned to Luo Yu.
"My king," Ranni said evenly, "I have a body now. What about my clothes?"
"…Ah."
Luo Yu froze, finally realizing the obvious.
Ranni was completely bare.
He immediately opened his inventory and pulled out a familiar set of garments.
"I don't have anything else suitable right now. For the moment, wear this."
Ranni looked at the outfit, and a trace of memory flickered in her eyes.
"To think… even here, I can still wear this."
She reached out, took the clothes, and put them on without hesitation—right in front of him.
He was her king, after all. And this body had been crafted by his hands. There was nothing to hide from him.
Once she donned the Snow Witch set, a fragment of her former presence returned—the princess of Caria as she had been in The Lands Between.
Luo Yu then brought out the Carian Regal Scepter and produced a ring. It resembled the Dark Moon Ring on his own hand, but its central motif was a longsword.
"The Carian Regal Scepter is yours now," Luo Yu said. "I have other staves, and their effects won't be much worse. But this is more important."
He held up the ring.
"As your king, I accepted the Dark Moon Ring as the symbol of your consort. Then you should have one to match. So I forged this ring with my own hands. I planned to give it to you after we defeated the Elden Beast… but we were pulled into this world instead. So let me place it on you now."
Ranni accepted the Carian Regal Scepter. Seeing the ring, she smiled faintly.
"A ring… how wonderful."
Without the slightest hesitation, she extended her right hand.
Luo Yu slipped the ring onto her right ring finger.
Ranni glanced at it, pleased, then picked up the small doll body—now dim and inert—from the floor and set it gently on the nearby table.
Then, to Luo Yu's surprise, she raised the Carian Regal Scepter and tapped him lightly on the head.
"My king. This height… you did it on purpose, did you not?"
Luo Yu laughed. "Isn't it good? It's only a little shorter than your previous body. I think it's cute."
Before Ranni could fully react, he lifted his hand and gently patted her head.
"Back in The Lands Between, I wouldn't have dared do that. Now I finally can."
And before she could respond, he grabbed a change of clothes and fled toward the bathroom.
Watching his back, Ranni blinked, then murmured softly, almost to herself,
"This way of living together… truly is different from The Lands Between."
Ten minutes later, Luo Yu emerged from his shower. Seeing that Ranni didn't appear angry, he quietly let out a small breath of relief.
After all, Ranni had once been a demigod—Caria's princess. Even if he was the king she had chosen, the intimacy of lovers was not something they had truly shared before.
He could only hope that from this point on, he could give her more of what a normal romance should feel like.