Mage Manual
Chapter 688 - 542 I Want to Keep Holding the Observer

Chapter 688: Chapter 542 I Want to Keep Holding the Observer

Although Ash didn’t see his teammates after entering the Void Realm, he wasn’t in a hurry.

After all, he had already selected all the team members in "Void Realm Exploration," and more importantly, he had the Void Realm Map, which could show him the locations of his teammates. However, when he opened the Void Realm Map, his attention was immediately drawn to a new special mechanism that had appeared.

While he was studying the mechanism, he suddenly heard someone calling him.

"Observer!"

"Here!" Ash responded almost reflexively, raising his hand and looking around, and he immediately spotted a dash of scarlet amidst the crowd.

Seeing her briskly walking towards him, lips pursed, pushing through the crowd, eyes fixedly staring at him, the Cult Leader couldn’t help but find it amusing—wasn’t it just over ten days since they last saw each other? Why does it seem like it’s been a dozen years? I’m not going to disappear; there’s no need to be so excited...

Even though he thought this, he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from curving into a smile; he bowed his head and ran a finger through his hair, and all the annoyances of reality seemed to vanish in that instant.

Ash walked quickly, trying to figure out what his first sentence should be. Before entering the Void Realm, he had specifically consulted Igula on how to quickly close the gap in a long-awaited reunion with a friend, whether to use a relaxed "haha," a calm "Let’s go find the Witch," a teasing "Did you miss me during these days," turning the tables with "How did you do in the Meteor Disaster," a flattering "Wow, you’ve become so beautiful I almost didn’t recognize you," or perhaps... But as the distance narrowed, Ash realized he wouldn’t need the techniques that Igula had taught him; his inexplicably accelerating heartbeat seemed to squeeze his processing resources, leaving his attention only on the target in his line of sight.

When there were no longer any passersby between them and noticing that the Sword Maiden showed no sign of stopping, Ash subconsciously extended his hands, ready to embrace her.

Just at that moment—

"Observer—!"

With a hurried shout, a soft body flung itself onto him, and Ash nearly toppled over.

When he embraced her, he couldn’t help expressing a hint of astonishment in his voice, "Witch?"

The Witch clung to him like an octopus, her arms tightly wrapped around his neck, her head nuzzling against his shoulder, her face brimming with an undisguised smile. Although he was surprised by the Witch’s sudden enthusiasm, given her capricious nature, Ash wasn’t very shocked.

Moreover, the joy and dependence in the Witch’s eyes reminded Ash of another little girl who was waiting for him, sweetening his heart as if ice cream were melting inside.

"Observer! Observer! Observer! Observer!" The Witch called out to him, singing like.

"Yes, yes, yes, I’m here," Ash laughed, "Looking cuter than ever after a few days, aren’t you, Witch?"

"Mhm!" The Witch affectionately nuzzled his face, giggling joyfully.

"You could also get down from him now, can’t you?" Sonia said coldly with a hand on her sword hilt, "It’s only been a dozen days; you don’t need to be this excited, do you?"

"No!"

The Witch’s response was very intense, "I won’t get down; I want to keep hugging the Observer!"

Both Ash and Sonia stared at her in astonishment; while the Witch had reason to hug the Observer, it shouldn’t be to this extent.

And while the Witch was indeed somewhat fragile and childish, she wasn’t really a little girl and wouldn’t say something so petulant.

At that moment, the Witch’s expression revealed a subtle change; her whimsical naivety quickly faded, and she shyly slid off Ash, excusing herself, "I got a bit too excited just now, sorry."

In Diya’s mind, the little witch Liss was being held by the Black Butler, and then the White Queen drew out the Red Death Cultist’s bronze belt and began to spank Liss’s bottom, with Liss crying out, "I was wrong, I was wrong."

Yes, the one clinging to Ash just now wasn’t Diya but Liss.

Diya, now Her Majesty, no longer needed to keep a persona stationed in reality; plus, Liss had been clamoring to see her father in the Void Realm, so Diya took her into the Void Realm and let her sister have the opportunity to indulge in their joyous reunion.

But Diya also knew the gravity of the situation; she had to continue with the "Secret Keeping Authority" in order to maintain the power of her Secret Avatar. Until she completely mastered the Divine Being "Gospel," if she were to reveal the secret in front of Ash, losing her Secret Keeping Authority, all her personas would be destroyed by the immense consciousness of "Gospel."

Therefore, Liss and Diya set the rules: they were not to call him "father" but only "Observer," they must not reveal their own situation, and they were not to ask about Igula and Harvey... Liss agreed to everything and also abided by it, but what Diya and the others didn’t anticipate was that even though she couldn’t call him "father," the moment she saw Ash, Liss still turned into his daughter.

Although her sisters were angry at Liss for overstepping the boundaries with her coquettish behavior, Diya knew that deep down everyone was still happy—despite the play of fate, the calculations of the Divine Lord, the vagaries of life, she was still able to embrace Ash.

However, they were still faced with a difficult problem.

Diya slightly turned her head only to encounter the Sword Maiden’s undisguised gaze, and hurriedly turned away, pretending nothing was amiss.

Sword Maiden.

She too, could meet Ash every night, was also a team member discovered by Ash, and she knew Ash before Diya and the others did.

Previously, on the Time Continent, because the Sword Maiden would often quarrel and cold-shoulder the Observer, incessantly speaking ill of the Observer to Diya, she wasn’t quite sure what the nature of their relationship was. After all, in her eyes, the Observer wasn’t all that great; Ash was much better by comparison.

But once they learned that the Observer was indeed Ash, the sister witches’ opinions did a complete one-eighty.

Because it was Ash, who they all liked, how could the Sword Maiden possibly not like him!

The Black Butler analyzed as follows, "She pretends to be in a cold war with Ash, tells you bad things about him, just to make you stay away from Ash. She must have developed improper feelings for Ash long ago, so she’s been trying to stop us from getting to know Ash since we joined the team."

"That’s despicable, if only we had realized sooner that the Observer was Ash, maybe..."

Diya didn’t want to think of the Sword Maiden as so malicious, but no matter what, any females appearing by Ash’s side were enemies of the witches!

Compared to the Sword Maiden, they had a huge advantage—they knew Ash in reality!

The Sword Maiden hadn’t even met Ash in real life yet!

Unfortunately, due to the power of the Secret Keeping Authority, Diya couldn’t reveal this secret, so this advantage was also, in effect, null and void. But no matter, even though she couldn’t disclose that she was Lissdia, she could still, as a witch, rightly pursue a romantic relationship with Ash!

Actually, upon deeper thought, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Diya had always wanted to differentiate herself from Liss. Given Ash’s personality, if he ever equated ’Liss’ with ’Diya,’ he’d probably only think of her as family—with purely familial affection.

Even without the ’Secret Keeping’ matter, Diya had originally intended to engage with Ash with a clean, new identity. Now, there’s no need to concoct a new persona, continuing to use the account of a witch to date Ash is actually more convenient.

Once she and Ash establish a new relationship, Diya would then reveal her own identity. Therefore, while the ’Secret Keeping Authority’ certainly affects her, it also serves as both a limitation and a driving force.

On the other hand, Sonia watched the blushing witch and was filled with deep perplexity.

Before their last separation, the witch’s attitude towards the Observer had been that of a normal teammate, so why the sudden enthusiasm now?

Since they hadn’t met in the Void Realm, the reason could only be internal or external.

The internal reason naturally would be a big change in the witch’s personality, and the external one could only be... reality.

In fact, it could also be that the Observer and the witch had met up in the Void Realm without her, but Sonia didn’t even consider that possibility. It wasn’t that she couldn’t imagine it, but rather that if she considered that scenario, she couldn’t imagine what she herself would do.

Hopefully, it’s just a momentary excitement on the witch’s part... hopefully, it is.

Sonia suppressed the discontent in her heart, turned her head, and saw Ash looking around. She couldn’t help but ask, "What are you looking for?"

"Looking for our new team member," Ash scanned the surroundings and called out, "Yooran Weiser!"

"I’m over here," a soft voice responded from not too far away.

However, neither the Sword Maiden nor the witch looked at the newcomer, both staring at Ash in shock—

Why do you call us by code names but her by her real name!?