“This princess… she’s really an idealist…”
Yao Xing shrank her neck in the cold wind of the bell tower, glanced at the frost-see grasses along the wall.
Before the thought could fade, the scene in front of her began fast-forwarding like a dream.
The eldest princess Huan moved astonishingly fast.
In the following days, she almost single-handedly tore a gap in King of Lin Qi’s impenetrable web of surveillance.
Secret meetings, documents smuggled out, and even a set of light leather armor that was said to be left by the “previous Hero.”
Until that moment, Yao Xing sat in the carriage heading out of the city.
The carriage was piled with wooden boxes disguised as goods, and the air was filled with the faint smell of wood lacquer.
Huan lifted a corner of the curtain—that was the last time Yao Xing saw her in this kingdom.
The setting sun spilled onto Huan’s face, just as gentle and determined as the day they talked in the bell tower, filled with a kind of almost martyr-like sanctity.
“Go, Hero.”
Huan’s voice was very soft, yet carried an unwavering trust: “Don’t come back.”
Yao Xing looked at those eyes that had never changed, watched Huan turn back, and felt a strange tremor in her heart.
‘She seems to be hiding something…’
The carriage slowly rolled out of the city gate.
The bumpy sensation allowed Yao Xing to relax a little.
‘Although the process was hasty, at least… I got out…’
Click
An extremely faint sound of wood scraping rang out, jarringly loud in the quiet carriage.
Yao Xing’s body reacted before her mind.
She whipped her head toward the largest cargo box in the corner.
[Xing Cai Yue Affection -1]
“It’s her!”
BOOM!
The wooden box shattered, splinters flying.
A scarlet figure shot out like a venomous snake.
Immediately, that nauseatingly violent aura locked onto the cramped carriage.
“Found you, you liar!”
[Xing Cai Yue Affection -1]
“You liar! Liar! Liar!”
The cold iron blade pierced through the leather armor without resistance, burying deep into Yao Xing’s left shoulder.
The excruciating pain instantly stole her breath.
“Ugh—”
Yao Xing crashed clumsily against the carriage wall.
In her field of vision was the almost twisted, tear-streaked face of the second princess, Yue.
“Why did you—”
“Think you could escape?”
Yue gripped the hilt tightly, letting Yao Xing’s blood splatter across her face, her tone filled with chilling hatred.
“Because of a good-for-nothing like you with no background, my sister actually went to steal Father’s royal decree! She forged an exile order—do you know that once Father finds out, her throne, her reputation, even her life will be gone!”
‘Forged?!’
“Cough—!”
Yao Xing vomited a mouthful of blood.
She tried to reach out and push the blade away, but found that even though her physical condition had improved, it was still useless against such a fatal wound.
“She bet everything for your little ‘possibility’… What makes you worthy? A coward like you who fears death—what right do you have for her to go this far!”
[Xing Cai Yue Affection -1]
While cursing, Yue violently pulled out the long blade, then stabbed wildly without any technique.
“Dammit! Dammit! As long as you’re dead, that fake order will never take effect! Sister can still be that perfect heir!”
Her vision began to blur.
Yao Xing leaned against the box that was gradually soaked with blood, listening to Yue’s nearly unhinged roar.
‘Xing Cai Huan…’
Before Yao Xing could close her eyes, Yue’s tears and sobs seeped into her ears first:
“Why, why! I’d rather have sister be angry with me… than sister being punished… Sister is innocent… Wuwu… Why… why would sister go this far for a stranger…”
“I really… don’t understand…”
‘Xing Cai Yue…’
Darkness gradually encroached.
This time she died at Xing Cai Yue’s hands again.
But Yao Xing’s eyes carried guilt and pity.
‘Looks like I took the wrong path…’
Blindly accepting Huan’s “goodwill” is useless.
If she didn’t want to die again under this sister-protecting maniac’s blade, next time… she must personally tear apart Huan’s flawed “forged decree plan.”
‘Xing Cai Huan… this time… I won’t let you make such a foolish decision again…’
[Bad End]
Darkness fell.
After an unknown amount of time.
“Hero…?”
Once again, back to that day.
Yao Xing sat in the carriage with frantic eyes.
Huan beside her nervously leaned in, trying to pat her back to comfort her: “What’s wrong? Was it the food father gave you?”
‘I actually returned to this point in time.’
Yao Xing looked at the flustered Huan.
Then looked at her own hands.
Outside the window, the commoners’ bows, many times over.
The footsteps of guards and accompanying sounds rose and fell.
Yao Xing’s heartbeat and breathing couldn’t slow down for a while.
‘I can’t let on that something’s wrong, I have to calm down…’
‘The cold war’s hoofbeats, the commoners’ suppressed breathing… all overlapping.’
Yao Xing pinched her thigh hard, using the sharp pain to forcibly suppress the trembling that came from the depths of her soul.
“Hero?”
When Huan saw that Yao Xing remained silent for a long time, the worry in her eyes almost overflowed.
She didn’t even care about the guards’ prying eyes outside the carriage, her warm hand directly covering Yao Xing’s cold one:
“Your complexion is frighteningly pale. Is the carriage too stuffy? Or… did father say something to you during the banquet?”
Yao Xing looked up, meeting Huan’s eyes that were so clear they seemed untouched by any impurity.
The owner of these eyes, in the near future, would stake her throne and life for a stranger.
‘Idiot… a hopeless idiot.’
Yao Xing cursed inwardly, but her nose inexplicably tingled.
“I’m fine.”
Yao Xing forced out a stiff smile.
“It’s just that… this carriage ride makes me feel uneasy. I feel like the carriage is too cramped, making it hard to breathe.”
Even knowing that the crazy second princess wasn’t hidden in the cargo box behind her yet, Yao Xing still felt a physiological chill and couldn’t help frequently glancing at the box.
Huan was slightly taken aback, then showed a look of understanding.
She pulled open the curtain and looked outside, just as the carriage passed by a sparkling man-made moat.
“In that case, we won’t go to the White Tower Restaurant as planned.”
Huan raised her voice and instructed the guard commander outside: “Stop the carriage. The Hero is unwell. I will take her to walk for a while. You wait a hundred paces away; do not approach and disturb us.”
“Your Highness, this is against protocol…”
The guard commander looked troubled.
“Rules are dead; people are alive. Do you want the Hero to faint in the royal carriage before everyone’s eyes?”
Huan’s tone instantly turned stern, the pressure of the eldest princess making the guards shrink their necks.
The carriage stopped steadily.
Huan jumped down first, then extended her hand to Yao Xing.
“Get off, Hero.”
Yao Xing took a deep breath of fresh air.
The moment her toes touched solid ground, the fear of being “locked in a box to be slaughtered” dissipated a little.
The two walked slowly along the riverbank, the guards following far behind like a flock of black crows.
“The wind here is strong; it can carry away unpleasant emotions.”
Huan walked beside Yao Xing, her voice fragmented by the wind.
“Sorry, I didn’t consider carefully… I wanted to take you to eat something good, but I didn’t take into account your possible aversion to enclosed spaces.”
‘She’s even apologizing to me.’
Yao Xing looked at Huan’s silhouette.
In her mind, the heart-wrenching cries of Yue from the previous life wouldn’t go away—”Sister is innocent,” “I don’t want sister to be punished.”
“Huan.”
Yao Xing suddenly stopped and called her by name directly.
Huan turned her head in slight surprise, golden sunlight spilling on her hair ends.
“What’s wrong?”
“If… let’s say if.”
Yao Xing stared at the flowing river, her tone seemingly casual, but her hands hidden in her sleeves were clenched tightly.
“If one day, you find that no matter how hard you try, you can’t achieve that ‘ideal,’ and it will even destroy yourself or cause the most important person to you to suffer… would you still continue?”
Huan was silent.
The wind lifted her long skirt.
She watched the silver fish struggling to leap out of the water surface.
After a long time, she spoke softly: “Hero, do you know what the national flower of Lin Qi is?”
“…”
Yao Xing shook her head.
“It’s the ‘Frost-see Grass.’ This flower blooms only on the coldest winter nights, has a very short bloom period, and fades as soon as it sees light.”
Huan turned her head, a kind of almost mad tenderness dancing in her eyes.
“Many people think it’s foolish, think it overreaches. But I believe that even if it only blooms for a moment, proving that life once existed in this frozen wasteland—that is worth it.”
She looked at Yao Xing, so serious it was frightening:
“So, as long as there is even a glimmer of chance, I am willing to bet on it!”
Huan tilted her head in confusion.
“But… why did you suddenly ask such a question? Do you miss the world before you were summoned? Or do you want to leave Lin Qi? If so, I’d be happy to help you!”
‘It’s that plan.’
Yao Xing gave a bitter smile.
The budding “persuasion route” in her heart was completely extinguished.
She understood that if she didn’t change this plan, if she didn’t find another way to leave this place, no matter how many times she was reborn, the box in the carriage would always have a crying Xing Cai Yue jumping out to kill her.
“Huan, listen to me.”
Yao Xing leaned close to Huan’s ear, using the sound of the wind as cover, and lowered her voice: “You said I could ask you anything, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then… can I make some requests?”
“…Yes.”
Clap
Yao Xing suddenly grasped Huan’s hands tightly.
“Don’t risk yourself like that. I’m willing to accompany you to try other methods!”
Huan was puzzled.
“Huh? Hero, what are you talking about? I don’t understand…”
“I mean, how are you planning to take me away? Can we change the method?”