Chapter 299: Chapter 167: Girls Must Guard Their Own Romance (Three in One)
Empire Capital, Black Lily District, Osmanthus Street No. 32.
The faint afternoon sunlight sprinkled down, dressing the long-uninhabited, dust-covered mansion in a layer of pale golden gossamer.
Shiayar lifted his head, looking toward the familiar yet somewhat foreign residence, and couldn’t help but stretch.
"It’s been a long time indeed."
"Indeed, it’s been a while, not just for our home."
By his side, a blonde girl wore an oversized sun hat and was dressed in a flowing white gown.
The clacking of her crystal high heels tapped on the ground, carrying a hint of irritation and gloom.
Not long ago, Shiayar used the skull of the King of Giants—a Sacred Relic of Ashes—as an anchor point. Through a summoning ritual his opponent had opened, he arrived in the present world from the remnants of the Garden of Eden in the Imaginary Zone.
And only after Shiayar arrived on the real timeline could he then serve again as an anchor point, providing coordinates and guidance for Enola’s Sacred Spear to traverse the river of history.
The gap in time between the two was a matter of hours.
Normally, Shiayar and Enola had spent ten years together in the Garden of Eden, so this momentary delay really didn’t matter much.
However, when Enola maneuvered the Sacred Spear through the river of history and returned to the present world—
The scene she witnessed caused her newly liberated spirit ocean, just released from the restraints of the Sacred Spear, to stir with perturbation.
Under the breaking dawn’s early light, among the ruins of destruction.
A dark-haired young man and a Silver-haired Empress reaching out to each other.
What was this, a famous painting from the moon?
And, the most crucial question was—
It was supposed to be her who arrived first, right?
It didn’t matter whether it was meeting Shiayar, swearing oaths by the crook of a little finger, or even falling in love.
How come, after just a few hours apart, she suddenly turned into a third wheel?
With that thought, Enola gently pushed down the brim of her wide sun hat and leaned in close to Shiayar, sniffing at the collar of his clothes.
"I could understand if it was Her Royal Highness,"
"But Miss Silvia, and it seems there’s also the scent of President Dyres."
"What on earth did you do in these hours I was gone?"
She had never noticed before that Shiayar had the potential to be a master of time management.
"Ennie, you really haven’t changed a bit, always quick to jealousy."
"But I like it."
Shiayar toyed with the few strands of Enola’s cascading hair, smiling softly.
Time was enough to change many things.
Yet, there were also things that time could not sway.
Ten years of companionship hadn’t made their once-burning love fade to mundanity or deteriorate over trivial disputes, as many stories depicted. Nor had they endured the so-called ’three-year itch.’
On the contrary, these ten years, along with the complete unsealing of the Sacred Spear and the growth of power, had only intensified Enola’s possessiveness towards Shiayar.
One could see it in the goji berry tea Shiayar guzzled daily and the grilled kidneys he obsessively cooked in the last few weeks before they left the Garden of Eden.
It could only be said that the girl had become more and more proficient at tactics of usurpation.
The pair walked into the residence at No. 32 Osmanthus Street in the Black Lily District.
Shiayar looked around the dust-laden living room and study, then pulled out a bucket and cleaning tools from his Spatial Pocket.
He summoned the Pet Beasts who were sound asleep in the Soul Pact Space, "Time to work."
"MEW MEW MEW (Master, isn’t this something that could be easily done by Jayee, with those tiny nanorobots finishing it instantly?)"
The little white ferret, still half-asleep, opened its eyes on Shiayar’s shoulder and gave a soft mewl.
Ever since advancing to Legendary, becoming the Legendary Species "Boundary Breaker. Snowy Plains Ferret," Silver’s habit of slumbering had gotten seriously worse.
Of the 24 hours in a day, Silver spent at least 18 sleeping in the Soul Pact Space. The rest of the time was either spent in Shiayar’s arms seeking rubs or lounging on Shiayar’s head basking in the sun.
Laziness was its signature trait.
"There’s an old saying from my homeland—’Long stay at the top, easy to lose one’s true heart.’
"That is the understanding I gained from the fragmented memories left within the skull of the King of Giants. deities once also had their kin and those they cherished and were bound to. They were once living beings."
"Yet, as power grows, and one lives on high, looking down upon all life, those original human emotions and feelings slowly fade away, leaving only cold Divinity."
"Of course, removing emotion to leave only high and lofty Divinity is not bad from the perspective of becoming stronger; it’s just different choices."
Shiayar stroked Silver, Shiny, and Crimson’s heads.
"However, I do not wish for our journey—where we have fought against deities and fate, acting for that slight persistence in our hearts as Humans—to end with us becoming like the dragon-slaying youth who ultimately becomes a dragon. I don’t want that, hundreds of years from now, we too become new Deities, high above and looking down upon all life."
If not for this, he would have accepted the goodwill and marriage proposal from the Crimson Rose Family at the Borgia family’s banquet, rather than opting to fire that Magic Breaker shot at the condemned criminal.
"MEW~ (Let’s not dwell on it, Master, I got it.)"
With a hint of resignation, the little white ferret shook its fluffy snow-white tail and jumped off Shiayar’s shoulder.
Then, it picked up a broom from the pile of cleaning tools on the floor and, with its little short legs, trotted towards the inner rooms.
It had been tiny, too young to remember, when Shiayar adopted and contracted it.