Nabu was very unhappy.
So what if she schemed a bit more than usual—how did that make her "crazy"? This was blatant slander, plain and simple.
If Nahida didn't hug her and comfort her, then she was running away from home. This place clearly didn't have room for her anymore.
So she waited. And waited.
But Nahida didn't budge. Through mind-reading, she already knew what Nabu was thinking—she wanted to take advantage of her body.
Absurd. Nahida's orientation was perfectly normal, thank you very much.
"Nabu, I think you really can go plant flowers in the desert," Nahida said, as if she were seriously considering it.
"Huh?"
Nabu stared at Nahida in disbelief.
You're serious?
In that kind of soil, if she wanted the flowers to survive, she'd have to keep them alive with divine power the whole time.
"Nahida… you're joking, right?" Nabu forced an awkward laugh.
"I'm not joking," Nahida replied. "You said you don't want to do what you're doing now, so I found you something else to do."
"Turning the desert into a sea of flowers… I'm really looking forward to that view."
Nahida smiled slightly, and there was a faintly mischievous edge hidden in that smile.
The expression on Nabu's face froze completely.
She chose silence.
Planting flowers in the desert… yeah, no. Let's not.
"Nabu, do you know Columbina? She should also be a member of the Seelie race."
"Columbina? Yeah, I know her. Not super well, though."
The Flower Goddess paused.
As Seelies, their lifespans naturally fell under the category of long-lived beings. Columbina's age was absolutely not as young as she looked.
If a Seelie didn't fall in love with a human, they would eventually return to their Seelie true form. Ordinary Seelies could live for a very long time.
"Why? Have you met her?" Nabu asked.
"She's a Harbinger of Snezhnaya now, serving the Cryo Archon Barnabas," Koji nodded as he answered.
"The Cryo Archon's nation…" Nabu said with a playful tone. "Nahida, I remember you once said the Ice Empress wants to rebel against the Heavenly Principles."
To be honest, Nabu felt that was overestimating herself.
The Heavenly Principles might be asleep, but the Four Shades were not weak in the slightest.
If it was only the Cryo Archon's authority, then she definitely wouldn't be a match for Celestia.
"The Ice Empress is only missing the Pyro Archon's Gnosis now. Once she gathers all seven 'remains of the Descender'—what do you think will happen then?" Koji said meaningfully.
"…"
Nahida and the others fell silent.
That former Descender had once fought the Heavenly Principles directly. Their strength was obvious—undeniably at the pinnacle of Teyvat.
So why was the Cryo Archon collecting the Gnoses?
To revive that Descender?
Or to use them to seize the Descender's power?
Either way, once the Cryo Archon obtained all the Gnoses, upheaval would arrive.
The odds of her ultimately failing were extremely high… but the impact would be profound.
The Gnoses were held by the gods of the various nations, and yet the Cryo Archon had been able to take them so easily—was it intentional, or an accident?
It was maddeningly hard to guess.
And no matter what, someone would have to answer for it.
"Could my bones be made into something like a Gnosis too?" Lumine asked curiously.
She was a Descender as well—so in the future, she should be able to wield all seven elements.
"Probably," Koji nodded. "You're a Descender with a rather special status."
"If you unify and fuse the seven elements, you can form the original Light Realm power—an ancient and extremely powerful force. Is that what the Cryo Archon is aiming for?"
Koji took out a Light Slime.
A dense, rich power swirled over it—that was Light Realm power.
"I don't know," Nahida said. "But a slime that carries Light Realm power… that's genuinely interesting. To think we'd see one of those old legends recorded in Irminsul manifested in a slime."
"Mmm…"
The Light Slime examined Nahida and the others.
Unfamiliar faces—it didn't recognize them.
But they were probably its scooper's girlfriends.
Even though it had once been a simple elemental life-form with little intelligence, it had grown much smarter now. It could analyze a lot of things on its own.
Among Koji's blessings was one that nurtured pets. He had raised the slime very well.
"What an adorable little dumpling," Nabu said. "Light Realm power… that's the predecessor of the seven elemental powers, right?"
Nabu had heard of it.
She came from the Seelie race, and King Deshret Al-Ahmar had come from Celestia. Between the two of them, they knew many things from the distant past.
"And this little one—Paimon. Are you related to Celestia?"
Nabu looked at Paimon—or more precisely, at the three-colored pattern on her.
Because she had known Al-Ahmar, she understood some things about Celestia. She had seen that kind of pattern before, back then, through Al-Ahmar.
"I don't know… maybe I am?" Paimon shook her head.
She didn't know her own past. Maybe after she accompanied Lumine through her journey across Teyvat, she would learn what she truly was.
"Little sister, here's some advice," Nabu said, staring at Paimon. "Be careful with that little thing. She might betray you."
So mysterious.
Her true identity definitely wasn't ordinary.
"That's not something you need to worry about," Lumine said. "I trust Paimon. She won't betray me."
"And even if she did, I'm not afraid. A tiny Paimon? Easy. I can handle her with one hand."
Paimon felt touched… and also wanted to laugh.
She knew exactly what Lumine meant by "handle her."
"Fine," Nabu shrugged. "Not my problem. Nahida, I'm going to have some fun."
She turned into flower petals and vanished.
After being busy for a while, it was time to rest.
"Nahida, was the Flower Goddess Nabu always like this back then?" Koji asked.
"More or less," Nahida nodded. "Even though Sumeru was governed by three gods, the Flower Goddess didn't really handle affairs. She was basically a mascot."
Nabu wasn't cut out to govern a nation. She was good at scheming, sure, but her path wasn't the same.
"Nahida, have you been harassed by Nabu recently?" Koji asked.
The little shuttlecock Nahida shook her head. "Not recently. Maybe Senior Nabu has been busy."
Nahida and Nahida's other self looked so much like mother and daughter that Nabu enjoyed treating her like a kitty to pet.
Nabu didn't mean harm, but Nahida still didn't like it.
She was over five hundred years old—she wasn't some little kid anymore. Of course she didn't want to be treated like one.
"If she starts touching you again, tell me directly," Nahida said. "I'll step in personally."
Nahida nodded.
She couldn't handle Nabu, that Flower Goddess.
"But… about the desert," Nahida said. "Is there really no solution for governing it?"
Nahida cared a lot about the desert folk. They had lived there for generations, and most of them wouldn't move to the rainforest region to settle down.
So improving the desert environment was the only path.
"It's not that there's no way," Nahida said. "It's just a massive project."
Turning the desert into a livable homeland wasn't a small matter—it required a lot of preparation.
As for when… they'd talk about it after most of Sumeru's bigger problems were resolved.
(End of Chapter)
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