The little hand on her back moved away, and for a long time, there was no further movement. Wang Yue couldn’t help but feel a flicker of doubt. Why had Lilith stopped? This wasn’t like her usual personality at all… Is this the calm before the storm?
Listening intently, she heard the faint sound of sobbing floating through the air, startlingly clear in the silence.
“Lilith?”
Wang Yue called out softly, but received no response. She turned around hurriedly, asking with concern, “What’s wrong?”
The blonde girl was crouching on the floor, her face buried in her hands. She was trying her best to suppress her cries, but a few muffled, nasal sobs still escaped.
Her long, golden hair draped over her dazzlingly pale skin like sun-kissed branches. Strands of wet hair clung to her moist, white shoulders, and the way her legs were tucked beneath her created soft, supple curves. Her small body trembled slightly, looking fragile enough to collapse. To keep herself steady, her toes gripped the smooth floor tiles, the arches of her feet pulled taut.
Wang Yue panicked, momentarily at a loss for words. After a frantic moment of thought, she blurted out:
“Y-You’re the super cool Lilith! How could you cry over something so small? This isn’t like you at all!”
“I’m not crying! It’s… it’s just soap in my eyes. Water…” Lilith’s voice was hoarse.
Wang Yue quickly slid the bucket over.
Lilith reached out blindly until she found the rim. She scooped up the water to wash her face, eventually regaining her composure, though her eyes remained slightly red and swollen.
Wang Yue couldn’t fathom what she was thinking. The girl’s shifting moods gave her a sinking feeling—a premonition that things were about to take a turn for the worse.
She watched Lilith leave and then finished her own bath in a hurry, not even bothering with the tub.
After changing into the full outfit Lilith had prepared for her, Wang Yue returned to the living room, only to stop at the doorway, afraid to step inside.
The blonde girl sat with her back to her, cradling a wakizashi sheathed in a black-lacquered scabbard with gold-traced metal fittings. With a sudden movement, she drew the blade, her wrist flicking as the edge traced an arc outward. Then, she took a soft cloth stained with blade oil and began to wipe the steel slowly.
It was a Nagamaki-style Straight Naginata (Modified). The blade was long and slender, the tip tapering into an eerie, upturned curve. The fine edge was covered in Damascus patterns shaped like tangled tentacles and staring eyeballs—layered, twisted, and profoundly unsettling.
The temper line was a chaotic choji-midare pattern, like scattered cloves.
A Supreme Grade Blade.
Wang Yue’s pupils contracted. This was one of the several bladed weapons she had forged for Lilith, also engraved with High-Frequency Particle Blade Runes. Even if Wang Yue’s waist were made of solid iron, this thing could slice through it in a single stroke.
Yikes…
The little black-haired girl turned on her heel, preparing to slip away.
“Where are you going?”
Lilith’s voice followed immediately, as if she had eyes in the back of her head.
Gulp…
Wang Yue’s body stiffened. Like a marionette, she pivoted back with mechanical rigidity. Feeling like a lamb led to the slaughter, she dragged her feet into the living room, pulled by invisible strings.
With a trembling heart, she asked timidly, “What… what are you doing with the sword?”
“Preparing a ‘Dedication Sword Dance’ for you, of course, Divine One,” Lilith said seriously.
“Oh, I see… Ahaha.”
Right, a shrine maiden performing a Kagura dance for a god. Makes sense. I’m definitely overthinking it, she told herself. As for deicide or anything like that… yeah, impossible…
Wang Yue sat formally on the bed in her full regalia, her heart hammering against her ribs.
On the open floor barely three feet away, Lilith held the lethal blade, dancing to an invisible melody. Her steps were light and graceful, her crimson hakama swaying like shifting shadows of blood. The blade flashed with a cold, rippling light. Her white robes grew increasingly translucent, as if thirsting to be stained with hot blood.
The flickering candlelight and the tangled threads of fate seemed to flow thinly across the patterns on the blade.
Wang Yue’s breath hitched. A subtle sense of familiarity swirled in her mind, growing clearer and clearer… Wait, I remember now!
The Summer Festival, Ashikaga Inori, and the Kagura Sword Dance.
It was the Ashikaga Inori route from that legendary “Nice Boat” visual novel!
Spare me, Lilith… please…
Wang Yue felt like she was sitting on a bed of needles, terrified that a flash of cold steel would end it all. Wait, why did the world just turn upside down? Oh, it’s because my head has been cut off and she’s holding it in her hands…
Lilith came to a halt, the blade tracing a beautiful spiral before she snapped it back into its scabbard with a clean click.
Wang Yue let out a shaky breath. It seemed Lilith really did like her; she hadn’t been “decapitated” after all. She had truly thought her head wouldn’t stay on her shoulders.
Lilith closed her eyes in contemplation, her aura becoming peaceful and serene. She felt a slight sense of relief. Her previous mindset—that she had to snatch whatever she couldn’t have—had shifted. She realized that violent coercion couldn’t get her everything.
She pulled a coin from her sash. The Wishing Coin was now brimming with supernatural power, ready to be activated once more.
The two shared a knowing look. The time for relaxation was over.
Wang Yue changed into more practical clothing and took her Wand from Lilith. Once they were ready, they headed to the outskirts of town.
This time, Lilith would make the wish alone. Wang Yue remained hidden on high ground to observe from a different perspective, scattering her Crow Sentinels.
When faced with the Value Actuary’s question, Lilith—like a contestant on a talent show—spun a heart-wrenching, sentimental story and passed the trial.
However, the Value Actuary did not provide the silver immediately. Instead, they told Lilith to go back and wait.
Inside The Low-Crawler Colin, Wang Yue handed Lilith a liver-repairing potion. Lilith downed it and reported what had happened.
“The mastermind is finally going to show their tail. I knew it,” Wang Yue said. “Power can be borrowed from thin air, but how is matter transported? It turns out it’s home delivery.”
Power could be transmitted over long distances, but physical matter couldn’t instantly bypass the barriers of space. Back when Prima had traded her limbs for gold, she hadn’t received it instantly. Instead, she had fainted, and a “delivery man” had brought the gold, hiring a carriage to send her and the treasure home.
It seemed there was a vast organization behind the Wishing Coins maintaining their operation.
Wang Yue also surmised that the coins weren’t being distributed globally but were kept within a “service area”—the organization’s own territory. Therefore, the “Legend of the Wishing Lake” wasn’t a universal phenomenon, but a regional deviation in perception.
The two returned home to wait patiently.
Wang Yue sipped her coffee, stealing glances at the blonde girl. For some reason, she felt that Lilith had become more reliable. An obedient Lilith was an incredibly powerful asset.
A few hours later, an envelope was slid through the gap under the door.
Lilith walked over, ignoring the performative mystery of the wax seal and the stamp. She tore open the corner and poured out a silver coin.
This was the money she had earned by selling her liver.
Wang Yue switched her perspective to one of the Crow Sentinels perched on the roof.
Looking down at the street, the person who had delivered the letter looked familiar. It was the second-in-command of the Oak Town prospecting team—the tall, thin man from the tavern.
Having anticipated this, Wang Yue wasn’t surprised. She was now certain that the prospecting team was the organization operating the “Fish-man Coins.”
The Hybrid Deep Ones did not consider themselves human. They dreamed of “recalling” to the underwater cities of the Deep Ones. They collected gold on the surface for their kin and maintained the operation of the Wishing Coins, secretly controlling this region, including the nearby small towns.
Of course, it was highly likely that this wasn’t the only group of hybrids in the Evernight Realm. In other regions, similar hybrids were probably lurking among humans.
A sudden possibility struck Wang Yue. Her eyes lit up as she turned excitedly to Lilith.
“Prima’s ‘parts’ might still be around!”
“Really?” Lilith’s face was a mix of surprise and disbelief.
“Exactly.” Wang Yue rested her chin in her hand, her expression serious as she deduced, “The Deep Ones require living offerings and virgins. Scattered limbs and organs are useless to them. What they actually want is for the coin holders to exchange their entire bodies, which are then, through some method, transferred to them.”
“That’s great. We have to take them back!” Lilith nodded, her eyes filled with hope.
“Remember, our mission is to produce an investigation report, not to destroy a Deep One nest. This report needs to give the Taboo Names enough expected gain to make them anticipate massive profits,” Wang Yue emphasized again.
Lilith listened intently, her gaze sharp. She asked, “So, what’s the next step?”
“We can’t use our public identities as Witches to contact the hybrids,” Wang Yue said with a smile. “Let’s disguise ourselves and go prospecting!”
