Ariella was pulled out of her negative emotions, dragged back by that familiar and powerful arm.
She looked at the man she loved with a face full of surprise, reflexively covering her mouth.
“Huh? You… why?”
“You can finally hear me.”
Lin Yue let out a breath of relief as he looked at the girl before him.
He could not only see and hear her, but he could also experience her pain and emotions in vivid detail.
This was not mere empathy; the agony was physically transmitted to the depths of his heart.
Had his will not been so firm, he might have accidentally succumbed to it as well.
He was merely experiencing it, but Ariella had to face these problems for real.
He knew her background was tragic and that she was strong, but he never imagined she carried such a heavy burden of pain.
Ariella didn’t seem to have fully detached herself from her memories yet.
She let go of Lin Yue’s hand and stumbled, accidentally tripping over herself.
She crashed into Lin Yue’s chest again.
Unlike the illusion from moments ago, this felt firm and incredibly real.
“You… you’re not a figment of my imagination?”
Ariella finally seemed to realize the gravity of the situation, and her temperature began to skyrocket.
“When did I ever say I was fake?”
Seeing Ariella look as if she had been struck by lightning, Lin Yue couldn’t help but feel a spark of amusement.
She really was cute.
“As for your memories, I watched them along with you… How should I put this? It was quite surprising.”
Ariella’s mouth hung even wider.
That meant… the fact that she used him as ‘material’ for her fantasies, rolled around in bed thinking of him at night, felt jealous in secret, and plucked flower petals every day to decide whether or not to see him had all been seen?
‘Ah…’
She felt like she was dying.
No, that wasn’t the point either…
If he heard those things she was muttering to herself just now…
“You didn’t hear what I said to you just now, did you?”
She began to fiddle with her fingers nervously, praying that Lin Yue was just like her and hadn’t been able to hear anything.
Lin Yue rubbed the back of his head, his eyes shifting slightly as he said, “I didn’t. I could only hear muddled noises. I couldn’t make them out.”
Lin Yue told a lie.
Ariella breathed a sigh of relief.
If he had heard everything, she would have been too ashamed to ever show her face to him again.
Talking about how he was rough in bed… a girl who spoke her sexual fantasies out loud was the absolute worst!
And those fairy tales… she had clearly fantasized about herself as a tragic female lead, but she had tried to make it sound so refined and artistic when she spoke…
Little did she know, Lin Yue had already seen through everything and chose not to expose her for the sake of her pride.
‘The two of us… we’re both idiots.’
“Then… my memories? You didn’t finish watching all of them, did you?”
Ariella felt a bit apprehensive.
Her long-standing pain, hesitation, and guilt had been transmitted without a single mistake to the person she cared about most.
She didn’t know if it would cause him trouble or make him worry.
“I only saw the key parts,” Lin Yue said.
“I also know what you’ve been through along the way.”
“Is that so? It’s pretty embarrassing, right? Hehe. I’m like an idiot…”
Ariella tried to force herself to regain her vitality, but she still felt a bit dejected.
Her eyes involuntarily grew moist again.
‘Why are there so many people crying today? Isabella was crying her eyes out too. Am I some kind of mobile tear factory?’
Looking at Ariella with tear stains on her face, Lin Yue gently cupped her cheeks and wiped them dry.
Ariella froze.
She hadn’t expected the usually distant Lin Yue to take the initiative and perform such an intimate gesture.
She closed her eyes tight, and more tears fell.
Feeling Lin Yue’s large palms, Ariella remembered the day he had held her hand with a death grip.
This warmth was exactly the same as it was then.
“I… I was so afraid of causing you trouble. I was afraid that because of me, you would all be captured just like I was. You clearly didn’t have to care about me…”
“I’ve always been a jinx. It seems like everyone who stays by my side ends up in a mess. I really am just a witch…”
The experience of being abandoned by her biological parents, bringing disaster to her village, and leading Lin Yue and the others into a crisis made her feel lost.
She couldn’t find an anchor.
She restrainedly rubbed her cheek against Lin Yue’s palm.
She wanted to hug him tightly and be held in his arms, yet she was afraid of hurting him.
Lin Yue hadn’t expected her to think so much.
In the original story, her decision to activate the Forbidden Magic Beast was largely due to the way people looked at her.
She wanted that power so badly so she could hold the ability to define good and evil in her own hands.
In the end… it had backfired.
Lin Yue knew that the simplest and most efficient way to break the current situation was to give her some proper guidance.
The Forbidden Magic Beast hadn’t caused too much impact on the surroundings yet.
She had finished the plot sequence, so it wasn’t too late to stop now.
As for how to explain everything… he would probably have to handle the negotiations.
But he was used to it; as long as he achieved his goal, it was fine.
Since this Ariella was the version that hadn’t turned dark yet, there were other possibilities for the future.
For the game, her plot had already ended.
If the ending could be a bit better, that would be for the best.
“You… don’t need to feel troubled by this. Doing what is within your capabilities is enough. There’s no need to force yourself.”
“Even if you make a mistake sometimes or cause me trouble, it’s fine.”
Lin Yue didn’t demand that Ariella do anything for him.
There weren’t many people in this world who could give him spiritual comfort, and Ariella was one of them.
Everyone had flaws.
Even if she was a bit silly sometimes and might accidentally sell him out, as long as she stayed the same after this was over, it didn’t matter if she was a foolish girl.
“The fact that you’ve worked hard until now and persevered without breaking down is already very impressive.”
He had seen many, many people who couldn’t hold on, so he was unwilling to let this girl, who was originally destined for tragedy, continue down that path.
“Within my capabilities… forcing myself…”
Ariella murmured Lin Yue’s words to herself.
She wasn’t thinking about her own troubles; instead, she felt that hearing those words from Lin Yue’s mouth was particularly strange.
Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she thought of a certain possibility.
Seeing Ariella open her mouth as if she didn’t know what to say, Lin Yue thought about saying more.
“I mean, just relax. You don’t have to be afraid of messing up or anything. I’ll help you think of a way—”
“What about you?” she interrupted.
She couldn’t help but blurt out what was on her mind.
“Are you not forcing yourself?”
The words Ariella spoke inadvertently caused Lin Yue’s pupils to shrink, as if the world had slowed down by two beats.
Forcing… himself?
He had thought he was the one providing psychological counseling to others, but he was stunned by a single question.
That was right.
Was he really just doing things within his capabilities, as he had claimed?
“I…”
Lin Yue wanted to say something, but he felt as though he were choking and couldn’t speak.
Forcing himself… this was something Lin Yue had never noticed.
If Ariella hadn’t mentioned it, he might not have thought about it for the rest of his life.
His mind, which had always been as calm as still water, was disturbed, like a small stone being tossed into a pond.
No matter how tiny it was, it would still create ripple after ripple…
Seeing Lin Yue look as though his secret had been exposed, Ariella smiled.
She seemed to have figured something out.
She turned around and said, “I see… then I can rest easy.”
“So, Lin Yue, you think that way too. Mmhmm… so that’s how it is.”
“As I thought, we are the same.”
Ariella suddenly took Lin Yue’s hand.
The dark memories behind her seemed to be gradually distancing themselves from her.
He had actually… always been very tired, hadn’t he?
She had originally thought that she was the only one troubled by this pain and falling into anxiety because she couldn’t do more for the people she cared about.
But after seeing Lin Yue, she suddenly understood.
In fact, it seemed as though everyone was struggling with their inner desires and expectations.
Everyone was chasing their own wants.
Perhaps it was the hope for a perfect ending, the avoidance of an unbearable past, the expectation of being recognized, or being stained by hatred.
Even someone as calm as Lin Yue, as powerful as Liya, as talented as the Valliana sisters, or as stubborn as Allen…
So… she didn’t need to be in such a hurry.
She didn’t need to worry about being a burden.
Because they were the same.
They were all… worrying and working hard in the same way.
Looking at Ariella, Lin Yue involuntarily smiled and shook his head.
It seemed he didn’t need to spend so much effort to guide her after all.
He remembered the final stage of the game’s first act, where Ariella, with dark eyes, controlled a fierce and brutal Giant Dragon, plunging the entire kingdom of Avelina into a desperate situation.
Comparing that to the way she looked now—the gloom dispelled, brilliant like a blooming flower—his heart was struck by a powerful sense of shock.
“Kindred spirits… that’s a pretty good term to use.”
Lin Yue gave a light chuckle.
This was the first time he had heard such an evaluation from Ariella.
“Hehe, I only thought that because I felt like you were very lonely. Since you were kicked out, maybe your situation was similar to mine back then.”
Lin Yue’s thoughts were different from hers, but they weren’t too far off.
As someone who had traveled from another world, no one could truly understand what he thought or felt, just as no one could understand Ariella’s predicament.
“However, things are different now…”
Ariella put her hands behind her back and skipped along the line where their shadows intersected, smiling happily.
“Because we have each other. We are companions, aren’t we?”
Companions…
Lin Yue had always been alone.
Whether it was school, work, part-time jobs, or daily life, he was always by himself.
Aside from the girl lying quietly in the hospital, he had no attachments or expectations for the world.
He was like a gear that couldn’t detach itself from the machine; the world he lived in had always been gray and white.
It wasn’t until he traveled to this world and met Ariella that he truly saw a world in color.
That was why he had been so angry after that knight hurt her.
He couldn’t stand to see this splash of color stepped on and torn to shreds.
“What are you doing? You look so reluctant. Don’t tell me you want to run away after all this…”
Ariella looked at Lin Yue reproachfully.
She knew this guy loved to flirt with others and then act like nothing had happened.
Since he had entered her mind without permission, she absolutely wouldn’t let him run away this time.
“…”
Lin Yue felt his throat go dry, unsure of how to answer.
He was always like this; when it came to casually showing kindness or doing what he thought was right, he never hesitated.
But when it was his turn to be taken care of, he was at a loss.
“Are you going to tell me you just like this feeling of being a guardian? Hehe… then I won’t care about you anymore!”
Even though Ariella said she wouldn’t care about him, her body moved closer to him.
Looking at Lin Yue’s avoidant expression, she felt a pang of heartache.
She could vaguely sense that her beloved had seemingly never been cherished by anyone.
‘So, I can’t wait for others to love him. I have to look after him properly…’
Ariella took Lin Yue’s hand and slowly looked up.
“Come on, say it with me… I won’t run away.”
Feeling this throb in his heart, the emotions that had been blocked inside Lin Yue began to slowly loosen.
‘In the end, was I the one influenced by her?’
In reality, the two were influencing each other.
Without Lin Yue’s subtle intervention in Ariella’s growth curve, she wouldn’t have grown up in such a relatively healthy mental state, and the appearance of a blackened Ariella would have been inevitable.
“I… won’t run away.”
He had changed the course of the plot once again.
But this time, he wasn’t so reluctant.
Ariella held Lin Yue’s hand, no longer obsessed with the Forbidden Magic Beast.
As long as Lin Yue was by her side, she had a goal.
“Let’s go…”
There was no need to deliberately pursue anything.
“All things have a spirit. There’s no need to force it; you just need to use your heart. Isn’t that right… Grandpa?”
Watching the two leave the mental world, a subtle change appeared in the eyes of the blue-haired, red-eyed girl.
Perhaps this time, things would be different.