Chapter 248 I Won't Let You Get Away
With plenty of time left before the agreed-upon hour of alone time was up, I leaned against the wall of the corridor, silently watching Ma Zao in the room.
Asaho seemed to be performing a one-woman mime. Her face wrinkled up in annoyance like a steamed bun. At the same time, she hugged her pillow tightly, then threw it aside. Then, as if she had lost all her strength, she fell backward and lay on her back on the bed.
She stared blankly at the ceiling, her face shifting between joy, distress, and even sadness. While I couldn't read her mind like a mind reader, I could at least somewhat grasp her emotions. But what decision she would ultimately make, whether she would accept my feelings, remained entirely unpredictable.
After a while, she seemed to remember something, her expression suddenly changed, she sat up abruptly, and looked embarrassed.
"Um... Zhuang Cheng?" she asked softly, "...Are you watching?"
It seemed she realized I might be spying on her using the thermal signature. I hadn't hidden my ability in this area, but in the current situation, I couldn't possibly admit it. I could only pretend nothing had happened. She seemed unsure whether I was spying or not, and returned to her reverie of daydreaming and contemplation.
An hour later, I returned to my room. When she saw me come in, her expression wavered for a moment, but she quickly regained her composure, though she seemed unsure how to speak to me. I took the initiative to start a conversation, asking her what she had been thinking.
She seemed to realize that she couldn't avoid the topic, lowered her head, hesitated for a moment, and finally gave me a reply that pleased me.
“I…I want one too…” she said in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
I suppressed my excitement and didn't rush to urge her, waiting for her to finish speaking.
She took a deep breath, then regained her normal volume and said, "I want to be with you too... Don't leave me."
Having received a definite answer, I could no longer hold back and hugged her tightly. She made a surprised sound, and two seconds later, she slowly turned around and hugged me back. I hugged her even tighter.
“You said it yourself,” I said seriously. “I will absolutely not let you get away.”
"……Um."
Her voice betrayed an irrepressible dependence and joy, and then, as if making a promise, she whispered, "I won't run away... as long as you don't hate me."
-
After so many twists and turns, I finally told Asahi my true feelings, and Asahi finally believed and accepted my true thoughts.
At this point, a major hidden danger in my relationship with Asaho has been completely removed. A huge weight has been lifted from my heart, and I feel lighter, as if I'm dreaming. Things have progressed so well that it feels unreal.
But this wasn't a dream. It was simply a description of my current state of mind, which could be described as blissful. I wanted to imitate Asaha, throwing myself onto the bed and rolling around to express my joy. But in front of her, I wanted to appear more composed, so I put on my mask of calm once again.
She gazed intently at my face, then brought something up.
“Zhuang Cheng, this ring…”
She took off the black cord heart-shaped ring from the middle finger of her left hand, intending to return it to me. I didn't reach out to take it; I just looked down at it.
The ring is now damaged. Although it was originally designed to look like it was made of black wire, it now looks charred, as if it had been mercilessly burned by flames.
Lu Youxun was right. Even with my full cooperation, the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring couldn't escape its effects after being used on a superpowered individual of my level. From the moment Ma Zao pulled her hand away, the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring lost its ability to keep the wearer's hand in a phantom form. This item had been with me for quite some time, helping me a lot during that time, and I had developed some attachment to it. Seeing it like this now, I still feel a bit of regret.
However, I immediately thought of Asahi's power of return.
“I should be able to repair this ring, but I don’t know to what extent,” she said.
"Even the power of time reversal can't completely repair it? Is it because this isn't an ordinary item, but a magical artifact?" I asked.
“That’s not the case. Even magical artifacts can generally be completely repaired. However, the difficulty of repair varies depending on the extent of the damage,” she said. “Destruction involving time and causality goes without saying, but high-level destructive forces can also make repair difficult. Your power is too great; the very fact that I was ‘scorched by your flames’ is shrouded in mystery and will hinder my repair.”
The idea that "facts themselves contain mystery" is not uncommon in occultism. Many rituals and ceremonies feature performances that mimic events from myths and legends, and some religious believers even think that reciting the words of saints exorcising evil spirits in scriptures can grant them exorcising power. This imitation is essentially borrowing power from events that occurred at a particular moment in the past.
However, most of the deeds for which power is borrowed are those of gods and immortals. Even if it is a great achievement of a mortal, the mortal will first be deified to some extent. It seems that throughout history, people have believed that leaving power in deeds is an act of the divine realm.
Since I am considered a being qualified as a Great Impermanent Being, it seems plausible that I could accomplish such a thing. Moreover, my flames themselves possess the property of burning cause and effect, which can be considered a kind of "destruction involving cause and effect." Even with the power of time reversal, erasing the destructive deeds I have left behind is not an easy task.
“Even if this ring is repaired, you don’t need to return it to me. Consider it a gift from me,” I said.
"Is it okay?" she asked, surprised. "Wouldn't this ring be very useful to you?"
"It doesn't matter."
I didn't mean to give her the ring as a "sexually suggestive" gift; I just felt it was a little strange to take the jewelry off her finger and return it. If I need it later, I'll just ask her for it again.
Mazao probably didn't know anything about it; she simply regarded it as the second gift I had given her after the red GPS bracelet. After thinking about it, she nodded, put it back on the middle finger of her left hand, looked at the ring with affection, then at the bracelet on her left wrist, and a happy smile appeared on her face.
(End of this chapter)
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