“This one’s still full of pep, huh? So, you wanna know where Mo Ran’s gone off to? Hehe…” Mitrice nibbled on her finger, her tail swishing back and forth as she brimmed with energy.
“Mo Ran…”
The name felt strange yet familiar, as if it often whispered in her ears and carved out a space in her heart—though it had gone untouched for so long.
Without thinking, she recalled another name.
Xuefei.
“Do you know Xuefei?” Leia gazed at the two women in bewilderment. To her surprise, both Laer and Mitrice looked utterly puzzled, with no clue who this stranger might be.
“Xuefei?”
“Hm?”
It sounded like a girl’s name. Surely it couldn’t be that Hero.
Yet for some reason, the instant Leia uttered “Xuefei,” her heart jolted as if shaken by a tremor—a harbinger of some earthquake, impossible to fathom.
“Did that jerk Mo Ran hook up with some other girl?!” Mitrice exploded in fury. “Xuefei’s gotta be a cute girl’s name! Don’t tell me Mo Ran vanished because he ran off for a secret rendezvous with her? Damn it!”
“Let’s go find Mo Ran,” Laer said, her face set in a grim mask, shadows pooling in her eyes. It seemed she could summon Supreme Magic at any second and raze the whole place to the ground. Somehow, Leia knew she absolutely could.
“Eh?”
But before Leia could take a step, the two girls grabbed her by the arms and dragged her along. Mitrice’s big tail kept slapping against her, tickling her mercilessly.
“Perfect. We’ll track down that playboy and give him a thrashing he won’t forget. Damn it, Laer—where’s that potion of yours that turns people into girls? We’ve gotta teach that fool his place.”
“It’s not ready yet.”
“What a pity. He’d look pretty cute as a girl, but he’s too damn straight-laced. Time to show him what we’re capable of!”
Leia finally straightened up, wrenched her arms free, swallowed hard, and pressed onward.
Weeds choked the cobblestone path, damp earth pooling into shallow puddles between the stones. A few adorable little critters clung to the edges, craning their heads to stare at the furious trio marching toward them.
Does that person head out like this often?
No point dwelling on it now. First things first—they had to find her.
Something told Leia that if she just kept following this narrow, pitch-black alley, weaving past the tightly packed houses, she’d run into Xuefei for sure.
Water dripped from the eaves, splattering at her feet. A chill wind swept through, heralding the winter to come.
Strange.
Hadn’t she just glimpsed a wheat field? Must’ve been a trick of the mind. You really couldn’t sleep too deeply at night.
“What’s that?”
Mitrice suddenly pointed at the cloaked figure perched on a dry wooden plank. No telling if they were man or woman—just weathered arms and a chin etched with deep wrinkles, bearing witness to countless years. Most eye-catching of all was the Treasure Orb before them, radiating a rainbow glow that cut through the drab gray world like a beacon.
Leia was instantly drawn to the sparkling beauty, though she couldn’t say why shiny things captivated her so.
“Fortune Teller, don’t bother with that creep. Anything they can do, I can do better.”
“Got it, got it…”
Mitrice and Laer hurried past the elder, their figures receding into the distance. But Leia halted abruptly. She tried to call out to them up ahead, yet her mouth opened soundlessly.
She just wanted to rest for a moment.
“Hehehehe…”
A raspy, decayed voice rasped from beneath the shadowed hood—like the groan of rotten timber on the verge of collapse.
“Girl, you seem so lost.”
“Ah—no thanks. My friends are waiting…”
“Friends? You’re all alone here, aren’t you?”
All alone…
Was she?
The elder’s otherworldly question made Leia whirl around toward where Mitrice and Laer had been. But there was nothing—just muddy black cobblestones and weeds sprouting from leaning walls. Not even a footprint marred the ground.
The alley squeezed in tight, suffocatingly narrow. The sky hadn’t fully darkened, yet no shadows lingered in the corners.
It ought to have been terrifying.
And yet Leia’s heart lay still as a glassy lake. The girl felt not the slightest ripple.
“Let me read your fortune, hehehe. Let’s see what fate has in store.”
“How much?”
“…”
Leia’s blunt retort plunged the elder into silence.
The one in charge of the Hero Party’s operations was none other than herself—how could she not practice a little thrift? Besides, truly effective divinations like this were rare; only those tycoon merchants had the luxury to waste so much time and money on them.
The elder Fortune Teller spoke up. “Hehehe, Miss, you’re refreshingly straightforward. Whether it comes true or not is the work of heaven and earth. The affairs of the world are fickle and unpredictable—who can guarantee an outcome? All we can do is offer a bit of sincerity.”
“You mean… no charge?” Leia tilted her head, convinced she’d heard him right.
“…”
The Fortune Teller elder said nothing. They cradled the colorful treasure and raised it high overhead, like a pilgrim hoisting a cross aloft. A brilliant magic erupted from it, so powerful it dimmed everything else in existence. In that instant, the colorful Treasure Orb became the heart of the gray world, a raging rainbow storm whirling madly within its depths.
Yet why did her heart feel so utterly flat? As if nothing in the world could stir even the faintest ripple in her soul—like a machine deprived of vital components, its entire system seizing up.
The divination began.
“What’s going on? This is impossible… Who are you?”
“Who am I?”
What an odd question. Would something like that ever come from a fortune teller’s lips?
“The Hero Party’s Deputy Captain, Leia. What’s wrong?”
By now, the colorful Treasure Orb had turned pitch black unnoticed, though the world around it hadn’t regained its hues either. It lingered in that eerie black-and-white pallor.
The Fortune Teller elder stood frozen in place, his vacant eyes fixed on nothing in particular—perhaps on his own shadow?
Moments later, he broke into that hey-hey chuckle again, enigmatic and impossible to read.
“Hehehehe…”
“I see. I hope you make the right choice, Miss Leia.”
“On this long and winding road, can you pierce through the gloom and your past to confront your true heart?”
“An old man teetering on the edge of rot, a pitiful evil begging for mercy—my advice to you is this: no matter how harsh your circumstances, never release the grip of your [Obsession]. Hehe… You’ve already taken the first step. Why speak of tearing it all down and starting anew?”
Without giving Leia a chance to respond, the elder dissolved into a plume of black smoke and vanished, leaving only the shattered fragments of the blackened Magic Crystal Ball scattered across the ground.
Leia felt no lingering attachment, merely sighing softly.
“Is that so? But can’t I just hold tight to the things I love?”
But why?
She lifted her arm. Her clean palm lay empty…
Don’t leave me behind, Xuefei.
