Chapter 99 World H: 2 It was clearly only a few minutes...

In what should have been a few short minutes, the monsters were swiftly defeated by a swarm attack, and the guardians vanished. They hadn't even been in this world for five minutes, yet Tenas and Ethan felt as if they had lived a lifetime there, while Nadia seemed to want more.

Tenas and Ethan stared at Nadia, utterly bewildered and seemingly wondering, "What's wrong with you?!" They couldn't understand why she wasn't embarrassed. Nadia, in turn, couldn't understand their embarrassment either. Was this how you empathize with someone of the same kind?

What broke their bewilderment was a sudden force binding them, and they felt their mouths being sealed shut by an invisible force, unable to utter a sound. Only then did they stop staring at each other in disbelief and realize that the people floating five meters away were none other than the Guardians who had disappeared after the battle.

“Take it back,” Reena said coldly.

Then, Ternas and his group were taken away silently, leaving no trace of their presence.

In the center of the Guardian Alliance headquarters, in the hall where everyone usually rests and relaxes, three people are tied up.

They are not without the ability to resist, but resistance might backfire. If we only remain vigilant, rashly breaking free of their restraints would only exacerbate the situation.

Of course, if they had other bad intentions, they wouldn't have immediately defended or attacked.

“State your purpose.” Reena and a group of guardians surrounded them, their tone anything but friendly, bordering on interrogation, and gestured for their predicament: “Or die.”

"As expected of a leader, always so cautious," Ethan thought.

This is the first time in all these centuries that I've been treated like this.

Ethan remembered that, according to his counterpart, in World B, Tenas killed his rival Reena when he was competing for the leadership position. In that world, he and Tenas had a complicated relationship, so things were fine at first.

I didn't really notice anything in World C, but I did see my own dark circles and I felt so tired.

World D... He still hadn't seen any other Guardians by the time he left, let alone Reena.

World E is the home ground of the city's adults. I heard that the Tenas counterparts are still very young. I wonder if the leader of that world has been chosen to be a saintess or something.

World F...? Does this world even exist? Haha, isn't he just dreaming?

Moreover, Reena from the previous world seemed to have gone mad. This was the first time he had ever seen a living, calm, and composed Reena who was still at a normal age, after experiencing so much.

I'm so touched, I don't dare to move.

Seeing his counterpart in the corner, Ethan's eyes lit up like light bulbs.

Ethan looked up at the sky and down at the ground, but dared not look at him. After disengaging from combat, he had returned to the cloak he was wearing at the beginning, his hands tightly gripping the fabric of the collar.

Ethan: Stare—

Ethan*felt inexplicably and started sweating*: ……

Because the three of them were the center of attention, Ethan was also being observed by many people, who were puzzled by his inexplicable eye contact with Ethan from his own world.

"We are your counterparts from other worlds." Looking at Ethan exchanging glances with him and Nadia lost in thought, Turner reluctantly stepped in to explain, already bracing for a barrage of disbelief and skepticism from his paranoid sister: "Our world is facing a crisis..."

"What proof do you have that everything you're saying is true?" Reena asked, unsurprisingly. "Prove that you are our counterpart, otherwise we will consider you as enemies, clones created to disrupt our internal affairs, or other people who have undergone plastic surgery to look like us."

Here it is! The third question that Turner thought Reena would ask!

“You can ask me any questions.” Turner focused all his attention on Reena, preparing to deal with her outrageous remarks: “I will answer if I remember.”

Reena: "Your card PIN, all of it."

Without blinking, Tenas rattled off several strings of numbers.

Tenas: "..."

No, bro... what about him? Does he have to change his password again? He doesn't like changing passwords; he always uses the same passwords for a long time. What will he do then?

Brother, brother...

What kind of clothes did Nadia wear when we first met?

Tenas really wanted to ask, "Why don't you ask Nadia? Nadia's still in a daze. Why ask him about your first meeting? Was he even born then? Excuse me."

However, he did know about this; he had heard his two older sisters mention it when they reminisced about their friendship and reconciliation after arguing during their adolescence.

"The yellow dress was hand-knitted and embroidered with many white flowers." Turner recalled, "Nineteen flowers, there were nineteen little white flowers on the whole dress, and she also wore two little pigtails at the time."

"……correct."

A guardian walked around holding a sign, announcing that this time Tenas had won by a narrow margin.

Reba couldn't help but complain: "Wait, why are we making people hold up this sign?"

Nadia was a little uncertain: "...Maybe, it's just background?"

Where is it even?!

"The lipstick Nadia likes!"

"She doesn't like lipstick!"

What is the color code of the 17th birthday gift I gave her?

"FOFFF!"

"What was Nadia and I doing exactly in the first minute of our dance at the high school prom?"

"You're graduating high school, not me!" Turners couldn't stand the absurd question, his voice rising slightly. "Was I in the same grade as you? Just ask! I haven't even started middle school yet!!!"

Ethan looked at him: What's wrong with him?

Ethan understood: I don't know, I was just making eye contact with you and didn't listen carefully. I think I asked you some questions.

Nadia, who was lost in thought, snapped back to reality upon hearing the voice and asked Reena, "Why didn't you ask me?"

“Okay.” Reena agreed very quickly: “Then tell me, exactly in the first minute, what was your action?”

"..." Nadia paused for a moment, then said with a mix of unease and bravado, "I forgot."

"..." She knew it.

“Me too.” Nadia nodded in agreement. “How can I remember something like that? I don’t even know what I wore when I first met Reena.”

“…Nadia.” Reena said helplessly, “That’s because you’re two years old. You don’t remember things at two years old. Alright, let them go.”

The invisible restraints disappeared, and their stiff hands and feet were finally freed. They moved their hands and feet a bit.

Ethan and Ethna are chatting.

"Why did you decide to go into this line of work?"

"...I had no choice. I'm socially awkward to begin with...I didn't feel that awkward when I was watching from below, so why did I feel so incredibly awkward as soon as I went up there?"

Ethan poured out his grievances to Ethan, expressing his deep reluctance to work; the poor socially anxious man was driven to the brink of madness.

“I understand you.” Ethan patted his shoulder reassuringly. “I still have some social anxiety. When I was watching from down there, I felt like I was dead, or more accurately, like you and me.”

Nadia sat down on the sofa with Reba very naturally, their bodies close together. After finishing the cookies on the table, she took the juice Reba handed her and drank a big gulp.

Reba looked at her and smiled: "Nadia from other worlds isn't much different, she trusts everyone very easily."

“You didn’t mean any harm.” Nadia downed her drink in one gulp. “I can tell you don’t have any bad intentions toward me.”

Reba was taken aback, then her eyes lit up: "Sister Nadia..."

“Power?” Reena chewed on the word, then looked at Tenas: “We can lend you power, but you should know that everything comes at a price.”

“Of course.” Turner put away his earlier expression of barely suppressed anger and said seriously, “You said that if we can accomplish it, we will do our best.”

“Tenas,” Reena called softly, and Tenas immediately pulled away from the conversation.

"Yes—" Tenas watched as Tenas left the battlefield, making some embarrassing gestures, his tone much more enthusiastic than his usual gentle self: "Become a qualified idol! That's our requirement, and I believe you can definitely do it."

After all, they are their counterparts; if they can do it, then they can too.

Tenas froze, and Ethan, who was talking to Ethan, looked up abruptly, staring at Tenas with an incredulous look as if he were looking at the devil. Even Nadia stood up from the sofa: "...Are you serious?"

“Of course,” Reena said. “Because our world and your world are quite different, things that we can accept may not be acceptable to you. But unfortunately, that’s our requirement: you must become a qualified idol.”

The difference is quite large, what does that mean?

As Reena slowly explained, they gradually came to understand this world.

It turns out that the guardians of this world are not granted power by the city's will when they become guardians, but rather they must use dance to properly utilize their power.

While some people might feel ashamed, those dances do rely on exaggerated, large movements, full of energy or something else, in short, they're like guardians who are idols.

Being loved by fans is also quite important, as it brings more recognition and greater power. Conversely, if the city collapses, it will lose power. The city's will generally choose those who are more likely to be loved by the residents.

Ethan: “…”

Ethan: "So, the Starfall People of this world, if nothing unexpected happens, probably don't like us either, right? Does that mean their power is very low?"

“No, not at all.” Reena dismissed the idea: “Fans aren’t limited to residents of your own city; there are fans of everyone, and even residents of other cities.”

"Ah, that." Ethan seemed to remember something when he heard this and exclaimed, "It seems like there are still people following me. My merchandise is selling pretty well, but I don't know if they're using it to beat people up or what. It feels a bit insulting to my fans."

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Author's note: Ethan: How did you end up doing this?

Ethan: I didn't choose! I didn't choose!

Tenas: Bro... here's my password.

The sofa was so comfortable that I almost fell asleep while waiting to take a shower.