"A Little dical Immortal, huh."
Leon thought for a mont, weighing which version of the character to bring up.
The Blood Wolf Pojun version? Or go straight to the source material?
"She's a girl who's a lot like you," he said, ultimately deciding on the original novel — because the parallels were genuinely real.
"You know her, my lord?"
Castorice tilted her head — so was he feeding her a substitute?
"She's a character from a serial novel I read a long ti ago."
"Just like you," Leon continued, "her constitution was 'fatal to the touch.'"
"Is that so?"
Castorice's expression shifted, sothing stirring quietly in her chest.
She hadn't expected that soone in this world could share a past so similar to hers.
"Yes. Later, she t a man nad Xiao Yan. He helped her cure the Calamity Poison Body that plagued her — and he stayed by her side from the very first chapter all the way to the end."
"Just like how you helped , my lord?"
Castorice blinked, her eyes soft. Because of Leon, she had been given a new life.
"More or less."
Wait, this is starting to sound way too on the nose.
"In the end, though — she sacrificed herself for him many tis over. But the two of them never ended up together."
"Why not?"
Castorice was genuinely puzzled. Wasn't that the most natural conclusion in the world?
"Because the dog of an author didn't write it."
Leon said this with the gravity of a man imparting hard-won wisdom.
"Butterfly — when we write our own story soday, we absolutely cannot do it like that. Understood?"
Castorice straightened up instinctively at those words.
"Understood," she replied, with a thoroughly solemn air.
"Also — what I just said a mont ago was a confession."
"...?"
Castorice blinked, montarily adrift.
"Calling you my Little dical Immortal — it's not just a nickna." Leon smiled. "It's a na I gave to soone very important to ."
Just like the Calamity Poison Body nearly destroyed everything — the mory Starship almost destroyed the greatest six-character ga that never had an ego.
"Simply put, your life story resembles hers a great deal. I'm sure you can see the parallels yourself."
Leon was being completely earnest.
"I just thought — when I ended up in the sa situation, I couldn't afford to leave behind the sa regrets that novel did."
"Understood," Castorice said softly, her face breaking into a warm smile.
She lifted her left hand — the one he wasn't holding — and pressed it gently over the back of his.
"If you don't mind, my lord."
She turned his hand over and took it in return, her voice barely above a whisper.
[Quest Progress: 10/24]
"Thank you, Butterfly."
The Golden Progeny really are sothing else — not a single shred of hesitation.
After all, for them, a lifeti of mutual reliance had already been decided long ago. They were a community of shared destiny. Whatever form that bond took — it was always only a matter of ti.
"I still have a few things to take care of. I'll co find you when I'm done."
Leon gently withdrew his hand and gave her head a soft pat.
"Alright."
Castorice half-closed her eyes at his touch, instinctively, and gave a small nod.
Leon rose from his chair and left with practiced ease — thoroughly familiar with the routine by now — heading straight for the next room.
——
Room Eleven.
No surprises. Another mber of the Golden Progeny.
Aglaea.
At the sound of the door opening, the room's occupant looked up.
Sure enough — exactly who she had expected.
"Aya."
Leon called out cheerfully and took the seat across from her.
"Was this your doing, Navigator?"
Aglaea wasn't surprised by his arrival at all — she had already moved to confirm the hypothesis forming in her mind.
Given the depth of the causal bond between herself and Leon, she couldn't imagine anyone other than him personally being able to whisk her into a completely sealed space out of thin air. Not even an Aeon could pull that off.
Because her backing was just that solid.
His expression confird it. If anything had truly gone wrong on her end, he absolutely would not be wearing that relaxed look right now.
"Yes," Leon nodded.
"To what end?"
Aglaea was curious about the purpose behind all this elaborate effort.
"To confess to you."
Simple honesty. Nothing more to it.
"To alone?" Aglaea was mildly surprised.
"There are others."
"Everyone on the train?"
"Not only them — a few old acquaintances of mine as well."
Whatever Aglaea asked, Leon answered. There wasn't really anything worth concealing here.
"I see."
Aglaea gave a small, composed nod, then offered her formal response to his stated purpose.
"The confession — I accept."
[Quest Progress: 11/24]
"I haven't even said it yet."
He knew the Golden Progeny would probably speedrun this, but this was just a little too fast.
"It's a formality," Aglaea said with a faint, elegant smile.
She used to care quite a bit about formalities — but there was no real need for that anymore.
"Truthfully, there's no necessity for it, is there?"
Did Leon even need to confess?
Regardless of any confession, they were all going to spend their lives by each other's side. A spoken "I like you" was nothing more than a formal stamp of legitimacy on what already existed.
"Even so, I have to say it."
Aglaea had already agreed — but the formality still mattered.
"Aya. Let weave the rest of your life."
Leon delivered his confession with full sincerity.
"I will."
Aglaea accepted without a mont's hesitation.
"May we walk this long road together."
"May this journey end among the stars."
With that, Leon stood up and moved into the next speedrun.
——
Room Twelve.
The mont Leon stepped through the door, he walked straight into Cipher, who had been in the process of thodically clearing out everything in the room.
"Well, if it isn't Navigator Leon."
Cipher noticed him and paused her activities.
"How are you here too?"
She turned her head and asked, genuinely puzzled.
Hmm. Not entirely surprising, co to think of it.
After Aglaea, of course it'd be this little gremlin.
"Is the Astral Express really that broke?"
Leon personally might not have amassed a nation-rivaling fortune yet — though add in the Xianzhou Alliance's assets and it was a different story. But the random odds and ends in this room were completely worthless junk. They weren't even worth stealing.
"Ah, haha, look at ."
Cipher imdiately smacked her own forehead.
"Sorry about that — old habits from my previous line of work. Probably gonna take a while to shake those off."
She rubbed the back of her head with an embarrassed grin, trying to bluff her way through the mont with a smile.
Sis, just admit you forgot to turn off auto-loot. Not picking it up if you don't open it. Not opened if you don't pick it up.
"I just figured nobody wanted this stuff."
"Blaming us Henan folks again, are we."
Caught you slipping, little hater.
"So — where exactly are we?"
Cipher had already tried to escape — multiple tis, burning through every trick she had, all to no effect.
"I made this place."
Fair question. "Though I genuinely don't know where 'here' is either."
Leon truly had no idea whether he was floating in the sky or standing on solid ground right now.
"Huh?"
Cipher felt a strange itch sowhere in her brain.
"So... can you at least get out of here?"
If even Leon couldn't find the exit, then they were absolutely cooked, ow.
"That part's no problem. Don't worry about it."
Cipher breathed a sigh of relief.
"So you ca here just to escort out?"
"Ah — no, that's not it."
The exit could wait. That would happen eventually regardless.
"I'm here to confess to you."
"Confess?"
Cipher looked genuinely thrown off by those two words.
She walked right up to Leon and began circling him — peering at him from every angle, while her small nose twitched delicately, as though sniffing to verify whether this was actually the real deal.
"Genuine article. Stop sniffing ."
Nobody in this day and age had the audacity to impersonate Leon.
"You're serious?"
Cipher looked even more confused.
"More real than the gold boots on your feet."
"You won't regret choosing ?"
Cipher stopped circling and asked, genuinely serious now.
"I've got no background to speak of — you're my only backer. I don't know the first thing about music or art or literature. I barely had any formal education. And my identity isn't exactly... presentable in polite company."
As she spoke, the tail behind her started swaying, just barely — because no matter how much she talked herself down, getting chosen by Leon was sothing she couldn't pretend not to be happy about.
Because in her heart, she genuinely believed she wasn't worthy of his love.
She didn't asure up to the other won on the train.
"None of that matters to ," Leon said.
In truth, all of that was completely irrelevant to him.
"You better not regret this."
Cipher double- and triple-checked. "Cats are clingy, you know. Once I latch on, you won't be able to shake loose even if you want to."
"I say what I an and I do what I say. Track record's verifiable."
[Quest Progress: 12/24]
"Hehe — then I accept!"
Cipher imdiately lunged toward his chest —
— and vanished into thin air mid-lunge before she could even make contact.
Leon understood exactly what had happened.
He was unfazed. He moved on to the next room.
——
Room Thirteen.
The mont Leon stepped in, he found Cerydra already engaged in a ga of chess — against herself.
She had produced a board from sowhere and was playing both sides in absolute tranquility, utterly unbothered by the strange and unfamiliar space.
She showed no concern whatsoever for her own safety.
At the sound of the door, she looked up and saw Leon stepping through.
"Sit."
She returned to the board and gestured for him to take the seat across from her.
Her tone implied this was entirely expected.
Leon walked over and sat down as she indicated.
Of all the Golden Progeny, Cerydra was probably the one least likely to have developed any particular feelings for him.
"Would you like to play?"
She had been fiddling with the board the whole ti; now, with him seated, she suddenly asked.
"Gomoku?"
"Chess."
Cerydra shot him a sideways glance at the word Gomoku.
She recalled the last ti they had played — this insufferable man had declared an unbeaten record, then proceeded to hustle her into a ga of Gomoku, where she'd lost in the most unsatisfying way imaginable.
In all her life, she had almost never lost at chess.
And then she'd lost to Leon exactly once — and he was never going to let her hear the end of it.
"Don't know how that one works," Leon said, waving it off. "Pass."
"Was this place your doing?"
Cerydra continued rearranging her pieces, unbothered by his refusal.
"It was, actually."
"The invitation too?"
"That too."
For so reason, every ti Leon confird sothing with those three words, Cerydra felt an involuntary flicker of amusent.
"All this effort — what for?"
They lived under the sa roof, practically bumping into each other at every turn. Going to all this elaborate trouble just to go around in a circle — was there sothing he needed to do that couldn't be done in plain sight?
"To confess to you."
Sincerity — the eternal trump card.
Cerydra's hand froze mid-motion as she reached to pick up the king piece.
She stared.
...What? A confession? To... to her?
What did she do?
"You want to conquer ?"
She set the king back down on the board and asked, clearly uncertain.
"'Conquer' — isn't that a word you use when you're pursuing soone powerful?"
The implication being...
What kind of powerful are you supposed to be, exactly.
"What's that supposed to an?"
Cerydra's expression went flat, and her right leg under the table rose to deliver a light kick at his shin.
As if Leon was going to let that land.
He caught her ankle in one hand, instantly. Done.
"Sit lower next ti."
At the exact mont Leon caught her leg — due to the height difference between them, combined with the fact that she was perched on a tall barstool — Cerydra nearly lost her balance entirely and toppled clean off the chair.
"Uwah!"
She scrambled desperately with both hands to grip the table edge, barely managing to stabilize herself, glaring daggers at him from beneath her disheveled fringe.
The image she cut — blue-haired, bristling, huffing — was almost precisely that of a small hissing cat.
Leon took one look at her and nodded with satisfaction.
Good. This is much better.
Cerydra didn't treat him with excessive reverence — she could even kick at him like it was a joke. He much preferred this over rigid formality. He found himself thinking he genuinely liked this dynamic.
He released her ankle.
Cerydra stumbled for a mont but managed to sit back down properly. She exhaled.
"Are you serious?" she asked. She ant the confession.
"Of course."
"Am I the only one?"
Cerydra fixed her gaze on him, as though this answer was of the utmost importance.
"No."
If it were only one person, Leon wouldn't be this exhausted right now.
"How many have you confessed to?" Cerydra pressed.
"That's not a topic for polite conversation."
Leon signaled firmly that this particular subject was off-limits.
"Ha — so there are others beyond the people on the train."
The way he deflected told her everything. A direct non-answer was a guilty conscience in all but na.
Leon didn't deny it.
"How many?"
"Cerydra — I'll be responsible for every single one of you. You have nothing to worry about."
Honestly, the number didn't matter.
What mattered was whether he had the resolve to back it up.
"If you won't take responsibility, who will?" Cerydra let out a quiet scoff. "Wasn't it you who bound all of us together into this community of shared destiny?"
"You don't like it?"
"No, I..."
The blunt counter-question hit her harder than expected. The indignant heat in her voice deflated all at once.
"Fine. I accept."
She turned her face away, as though unable to hold his gaze.
"What was that?"
Leon put on the expression of a man whose ears had tragically failed him.
Lying through his teeth — obviously he heard her perfectly.
Just teasing Little Cerydra. That was all.
"I said — I ACCEPT!"
Cerydra took a deep breath and repeated herself, enunciating each syllable at full volu.
[Quest Progress: 13/24]
Leon was genuinely moved.
"From now on, I'll never make another short joke, Little Cerydra."
"Hey!"
Just as she spun around to glare at him, she felt a large hand settle atop her head.
"Thank you for choosing , Cerydra."
Leon stood, and said it with complete sincerity.
"...You were the one who chose ."
It was Leon who had chosen Amphoreus. Leon who had chosen her.
"I won't let you regret it."
He made his promise, and then he left.
——
Room Fourteen.
You know, the order of the invitations — most of them really did seem to co in pairs.
Leon sat across from Hysilens, the thought crossing his mind unbidden.
Fu Xuan and Yao Guang. Feixiao and Yukong. Black Swan and Dahlia. Aglaea and Cipher.
And now, following Cerydra — Hysilens.
____
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