"How long was I gone?" Reaching up to shield the slightly dazzling sunlight, Chu Lian softly asked Inori Yuzuriha, who had walked over from the windowsill.
"It's already the fifth day. Chu Chu and the others have all gone to school. After all, sometimes appearances still have to be maintained." Inori sat sideways on the edge of the bed and reached out a hand, as if wanting to touch Chu Lian's cheek.
Raising her hand, Chu Lian gently caught it and pressed it against her own face. Closing her eyes, she said softly, "I am real. I'm not a dream. You don't need to worry that I'll disappear."
"That's wonderful. I don't have to worry that you'll disappear anymore, Lian..." Feeling the warmth coming from her cheek, Inori finally believed the person before her was not just a fleeting dream born of momentary confusion. Biting her lower lip, she spoke quietly.
"Of course I won't disappear. Because even if I were in the deepest pits of hell, for the sake of seeing you, I would crawl out step by step and slaughter my way upward." Holding both of her hands, Chu Lian no longer wanted to think of anything else. In this moment, she only wanted to engrave Inori's appearance into the depths of her heart.
"Mm. That would be best, wouldn't it?" She did not doubt whether Chu Lian could do it, because she herself would do the same. Their bond had long since become unbreakable after that journey.
"Yes... this is good. Very good..."
Her body suddenly leaned forward. Inori tightly embraced Chu Lian's delicate frame and whispered into her ear, "Lian, don't speak. Don't speak. Just let time stop at this moment, all right?"
"Mm..." Answering softly, Chu Lian tilted her head to the side. What she saw was the faint glimpse of a fair cheek beneath pale pink-white hair. At this moment, she seemed to be suppressing something intensely.
The spotless tabletop, the curtain trembling gently in the breeze, the swaying shadows, the warm sunlight, the girls embracing each other... in this instant, it was like an exquisite painting. Anyone who saw it would feel warmth rising from the heart.
No one knew how much time had passed before Inori finally loosened her arms and freed Chu Lian from the embrace. Seeing the faint mist in her eyes, Chu Lian raised a hand and wiped it away, asking gently, "Inori, you've become sentimental. Look, there are even tears now. That feeling really isn't pleasant."
"If it were not for you, I would never have these emotions." Inori shook her head, caught the hand she was withdrawing, and placed a light kiss upon her fingertips, leaving behind a faint lip mark that matched beautifully with the pattern of the Seven Illusions Bow.
"What's wrong?" Chu Lian felt that Inori's emotions were strange. Even if she had been gone for five days, Inori should not have become this fragile.
"Because Lian... you were gone for far too long." As if understanding her confusion, Inori lifted her head and turned to look out the window, murmuring softly.
"Gone too long...? Yes. Very long. Far too long..."
Without even realizing it herself, she had been away for nearly fifty days. She had missed them deeply the entire time. Even in ordinary moments, she had never forgotten their faces or voices.
Though only five days had passed in the main world, who could say those five days were less than those fifty? At least from Inori's state, Chu Lian felt that the time passed in this world might have been far longer than the fifty days she spent in Overlord.
"Yes. When longing becomes an emotion that cannot be driven away, then it becomes obsession." Pulling back her hand, Chu Lian caressed Inori's face. Then one finger lightly traced over her lips. Looking into her eyes, she pleaded, "Inori..."
"Lian..."
That soft call brought Inori's memories back to that night. Her gaze suddenly became hazy. One hand pressed against the bedsheet as she leaned closer, and their delicate cherry lips met...
"Mommy, Mommy..."
Just as the two girls were losing themselves in passion, Anna's voice suddenly came from outside the door. Her arrival made their joined lips part. Seeing the blush on each other's faces, they both burst into laughter.
"Anna, I'm here."
That Anna knew she had returned was entirely expected. Most likely, she had just been held back by her mother and so had not been able to rush over immediately, giving Chu Lian time to be alone with Inori.
"Mommy, Mommy..."
The moment the door opened, Anna's tiny body darted inside. As if she did not even see Inori, her eyes were fixed only on Chu Lian.
Opening her arms, Chu Lian said to Anna, "Seeing Mommy come back, aren't you going to give me a hug?"
"Mommy!"
Hearing that, Anna threw herself forward, tackling the duck-sitting Chu Lian directly onto the bed. With both legs curled beneath her, the pose carried a strange sort of allure.
"Oh my, Anna. Have you been eating a lot lately? Why does it feel like you've gotten so much heavier? Mommy's chest is starting to hurt from being squashed."
Chu Lian held her by the waist and lifted her slightly. Seeing Anna's face turn speechless and awkward, she could not help laughing.
"I didn't eat a lot at all. It's just that Mommy's mommy keeps making Anna eat things. So many things Anna doesn't like. But I had no choice. Mommy, tell her not to make me eat those things, okay? They don't taste like anything. And Mommy doesn't even have breasts, so how could it hurt there?"
Anna firmly denied getting fat and pushed all responsibility onto Li Mingxue.
Of course, Chu Lian knew Anna was not truly heavier. She was only using this method to ease the atmosphere and dispel the lingering intimacy from before.
"You. What Mother gives you is what truly has nutrition. The things I give you have none at all. If your body weren't so absurdly strong, you'd probably already be bedridden recovering. How could you still be bouncing around like this?"
Chu Lian found the matter both funny and exasperating. Anna's diet was far too bizarre, yet those strange foods were the only things she willingly ate. Everything else was either tasteless or unpleasant.
Though this was related to Anna's own bodily needs, it truly should not be encouraged. But there was no helping it. Aside from Chu Lian and Mother, if anyone else offered her food, she simply refused without giving them the slightest face.
As for Anna saying she had no breasts, Chu Lian absolutely did not hear that. Did not hear it. Definitely did not hear it. She did not care at all!!
"Anyway, I just don't like it."
Held up in midair by Chu Lian, Anna waved both hands to show her dissatisfaction. She had eaten several days of those flavorless but nutritious foods already. Now that Mommy had returned, she wanted to eat the delicious things Mommy gave her.
"If you don't like it, I can't help that."
If she wanted to correct Anna's unhealthy eating habits, she could only begin by changing Anna's constitution first. Yet constitutions were not something that could be changed overnight. It would require a long period of adjustment.
Of course, perhaps one tremendous stimulus might change her all at once. But that was not something Chu Lian could handle now. Anna's identity was far too special. If she tampered recklessly, Tírnas might come over carrying a scythe at any moment.
Even though the spatial wall of the main plane was stable and powerful, to Tírnas it was nothing more than an amusement park she could enter and leave at will.
Even Yukari Yakumo—the eternally seventeen-year-old girl—had once slipped through a gap to appear beside her when she was mentioned, let alone the even more formidable Reaper of Tyrael.
That incident with Yukari opening a gap suddenly came back to her, and she felt inexplicably relieved that she hadn't spoken ill of her back then. Otherwise, without even needing to sell her doujinshi in person or trigger the quest scroll "Pursuit from the Realm's Great Youkai," she might already have been subjected to all sorts of plays by Yukari.
Come to think of it, my relationship with her now is rather subtle. Should she be considered an enemy, a friend, or merely a passing stranger? And once the Pursuit from the Realm's Great Youkai quest scroll is triggered, what exactly will happen?
She was genuinely curious whether the system would forcibly twist the memories of a boundary-level great youkai because of a quest.
And this great youkai was one of the strongest among the most ancient batch. If the system could accomplish that, then its capabilities would need to be reassessed entirely.
If it could not, then what was she supposed to do about that quest?
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..."
Lost in thought, she failed to respond when Anna called her twice. Seeing her mother's drifting gaze, Anna immediately knew she had zoned out again. Puffing up in anger, she bent down and bit into the soft flesh at her neck.
"Hey—Anna, if you have something to say, say it properly. Don't bite me." Chu Lian was jolted back to her senses. Seeing Anna sprawled over her, she shot a pleading look toward Inori, who was watching the show from the side.
The girl had been quietly observing the playful fight between mother and daughter. Now that Chu Lian's eyes had turned toward her, she knew she could no longer stay out of it.
So she spoke, "Lian, aren't you going to go speak with Aunt Mingxue?"
Inori's words were like a lifeline. Chu Lian immediately found a way to escape Anna's grasp.
"Anna, Anna, Mommy has something to take care of. Can you let go for now?"
She knew that her earlier absentmindedness had made Anna feel ignored, which was why she had gotten angry.
Now that she had already taken a bite, she should have vented enough. To stop her from continuing, Chu Lian could only divert her attention with something else.
"Hmph. Mommy, if you do that again, next time Anna will eat you. I mean it."
Within her golden pupils, a dark-gold inverted cross faintly surfaced. Chu Lian inexplicably felt that Anna meant that quite literally—and that it was something that would inevitably happen.
To avoid becoming Anna's next meal, Chu Lian nodded immediately. "I definitely won't do that again. I just came back, so I was a little out of sorts."
She did not grow angry over it. Anna's temperament was far too strange. There were too many factors behind the personality she had developed, along with her extraordinary origins. Changing her would be a difficult and long-term matter. It could not be accomplished overnight.
Anyway, she was her daughter. If she really did try to eat her one day, so be it. At worst, she'd just "eat" her back.
Carrying Anna in a princess hold, Chu Lian lifted her feet. Glancing down at herself, still dressed in a cheongsam, she thought for a moment before deciding not to change.
"That cheongsam looks unexpectedly beautiful on you, Lian." Unlike Narberal, who had only thought it fit well, Inori's evaluation was simply that it was beautiful.
"Well, it adjusts according to the wearer's size. Once it fits properly, of course it looks good." Chu Lian knew Inori was right. The cheongsam's style was simple, yet when she wore it, it felt unexpectedly fitting and elegant—almost as though it had been made just for her.
"Mommy, didn't you say we were going to find Mommy's mommy?"
Seeing the two of them chatting so happily, Anna pouted unhappily.
"All right, all right, you little troublemaker. Mommy will take you to find Mommy's mommy right now."
As for Anna's way of addressing her own mother, Chu Lian truly had no way to correct it. It had been brought up before—her mother had likely mentioned it as well—but Anna still called her that. It was probably impossible to change now.
"Pfft..." Watching their interaction, Inori finally could not hold back her laughter.
Chu Lian turned back and frowned. "Stop laughing. Let's head downstairs first."
"All right..." The girl responded obediently and followed her out of the room.
A light breeze stirred the curtains. The bedroom, lively just moments ago, became especially quiet once more.
After one seems like an old friend returning, the lonely empty chamber knows no sorrow.