Chapter 121. A Ga Beneath the Moonlight (9)
Crack—
The mirror surface shattered; the world plunged once more into darkness.
Before he could hear his mother's response, Luo Nan found himself back in the Moonlight Greenhouse.
'Mother—your son is going to keep on fighting for his life……'
Composing himself, Luo Nan fixed his gaze on Aeldelin across the round table.
"Lady Aeldelin—as you saw, I lost this round."
"Huh?! Luo Nan, you actually lost?"
The first to respond was Anya; the golden-eyed girl's cherry lips parted slightly, her face wearing an expression of pure disbelief.
"Seeing how confidently you carried yourself before, I had thought……" At this point, Anya bit off the rest of her words.
She seed to feel it wasn't quite right to mock him under these circumstances.
After a brief pause, she continued: "Hey, Luo Nan—for Round Three, do you need to step in? If I do, I guarantee I'll take the win for you."
Aeldelin's brows arched faintly; she replied in a cool voice: "Miss Anya Sivans—don't you realize…… Mr. Luo Nan is the one speaking with ? Is there room for you to butt in here?"
"?!"
A crushing pressure bore down on Anya's shoulders in an instant, clamping shut the words that had been rising to her lips.
"H—how hateful……" Anya's teeth chattered, her heart pounding—only now did she truly register the terror of the crimson-haired beauty before her.
Could it be…… that Luo Nan had been facing off against her this whole ti under this kind of pressure?
Anya found that sowhat hard to believe.
"Lady Aeldelin, there's no need to take it out on Anya—this person…… is just naturally a big-mouthed blabbermouth," Luo Nan rose to his feet, gave a slight bow toward Aeldelin standing across from him. "If she has offended you, please allow to apologize on her behalf."
"Oh?"
The crimson beauty gave a faint smile. "How does Mr. Luo Nan intend to make ands? Are you planning to offer yourself directly to as compensation?"
Aeldelin once again reached out her jade arm toward Luo Nan, her expression sowhat hazy, a flicker of barely-there longing gleaming in her rose-red eyes.
"If Mr. Luo Nan were to offer himself to directly, then I would…… grudgingly find it in myself to forgive her."
Luo Nan slipped away from the jade hand reaching toward him without a trace and sat back down in his seat.
"You flatter , Lady Aeldelin—Round Three of the ga hasn't even started yet; I guarantee…… Round Three will be far more interesting."
The crimson beauty neither agreed nor disagreed; she didn't rush into playing Round Three with Luo Nan, and instead revealed an expression of concern, asking:
"Round Three can wait for a mont~~ there's sothing in Round Two's Mind Phantasm I found rather curious—I wonder if Mr. Luo Nan could clear up my confusion?"
"Please, go ahead."
Aeldelin stretched her body languidly, drawing herself upright, her waist pulled in and chest lifted, allowing that pair of gorgeous, snow-white, full curves to display themselves freely before Luo Nan.
Simply breathtaking.
"Ahhh~~" she gave a light yawn and asked in an unhurried voice: "Mr. Luo Nan, if I'm not mistaken, you…… should have realized what the Phantasm Keystone was, shouldn't you?"
Upon hearing this, a quietness passed through Luo Nan's eyes; he said softly: "Yes—I know what Phantasm Keystone you set."
"Then why……"
"I was unwilling."
Before Aeldelin could finish her question, Luo Nan cut in without hesitation.
The crimson beauty whose words were cut off didn't grow angry; she tilted her head lightly, letting her waterfall of vivid-red hair drift freely with gravity, like a blossoming spider lily in full bloom.
Extending her flawless jade arm, Aeldelin picked up a lock of hair and toyed with it at her fingertips; her eyelids drooped slightly, her lashes fanning gently against her cheeks; her jade eyes seed entirely absorbed in her own hair.
She seed to ask casually, or perhaps she was murmuring to herself: "So this is…… what short-lived species call emotion? Rather…… difficult to comprehend."
After a mont, Aeldelin pulled back the jade elbow that had been propping her cheek, letting the hair cascade freely from her fingertips.
She redirected her gaze onto Luo Nan, and said softly: "It seems I've touched on the softest place in Mr. Luo Nan's heart~~"
"All you had to do was draw that gun from your jacket and pull the trigger at the featureless 'Mother,'" Aeldelin's vermillion lips parted slightly, her tone seemingly one of regret, seemingly one of relief. "The ga's victory would have been yours—I would naturally have honored the agreent and returned your little maidservant to you……"
"Sigh~~ to make it easier for you to fire, to help steel your resolve, I even erased her facial features on purpose……" the crimson beauty said with wicked amusent.
"……" Luo Nan furrowed his brow slightly.
"Lady Aeldelin—Round Two is already over. Let's move on to Round Three as quickly as possible."
"No, no, no~~—if Mr. Luo Nan doesn't satisfy my curiosity, I won't play Round Three with you."
Aeldelin drumd her shapely legs, pouting like a little girl: "Tell quickly why! Give specifics—I don't want vague answers!"
So at odds with that "sweet and adorable" exterior—the crimson-haired beauty seed intent on prying open his wounds and plucking them out of his heart with her own hands.
Watching Luo Nan's brow pull together tightly, Aeldelin broke into a slyly scheming smile.
Luo Nan's left hand resting on his knee clenched so hard the veins stood out on his arm, as if on the verge of erupting.
"……"
But he held it back.
After all……Aeldelin Xueting was just this sort of unfathomable person.
He drew a slow breath and did his best to keep his voice level: "As you saw, Lady Aeldelin—even knowing that the Phantasm Keystone within the Mind Phantasm was my featureless mother; even knowing that my mother was a fake, that she was my Heart Demon……"
"I still could not bring myself to raise a gun against 'Mother.'"
"Nothing to do with winning or losing—only what my heart dictates."
This outco, Luo Nan had actually been fully prepared to accept.
Before he ca face to face with Aeldelin, he had already settled on the strategy of winning one and losing one across the first two rounds, and prepared to execute the ultimate counter-strike in Round Three.
Things had also gone as planned—Anya had successfully taken Round One, and he had also conceded Round Two as intended.
As for his reason for conceding, on the emotional level it was naturally "unable to raise a gun against Mother"—
but on the rational level—it was to allow the ga to advance to Round Three.
When Luo Nan realized what the Phantasm Keystone was, he had actually felt a flash of relief in his heart.
Relief that he had decided on the "win one, lose one" strategy beforehand.
Relief that he didn't need to fire a shot at the still-bleeding wound deep within himself.
And even more relief that he didn't need to face the "moral tribunal" within his own heart.
"Mm……so that's how it is? Ha ha~~"
Hearing Luo Nan's unmoved response, Aeldelin's entire bearing shifted abruptly; she tilted her head slightly, covered half her face with a jade hand gloved in black lace, and in the single rose-red eye that remained uncovered, a dangerous crimson glow flickered.
"To be honest, I've always found it difficult to comprehend you short-lived species' sentintality……"
Aeldelin lowered the hand shielding her face, revealing her other eye—gorgeous as a kaleidoscope.
"Right now…… I find myself more and more wanting to tear open the disguise of your exterior and devour your bloody, raw truth~~"
"So, Luo—Nan—first—co—on—let us begin Round Three!"
The instant her voice fell, through his Magic-Sight, Luo Nan perceived an imnse, indescribable wave of vivid crimson radiating outward from Aeldelin as its center, spreading to infinite distances in an instant.
Almost simultaneously, the surrounding environnt shifted abruptly.
He pressed down on his pounding heart and kept his expression composed.
"As you wish, Lady Aeldelin."
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