Xyrin Empire
Chapter 563: The Days Away from the Mercury Lamp

Chapter 563: Chapter 563: The Days Away from the Mercury Lamp

In the end, I gave up on the idea of using force.

I had to respect Mercury Lamp’s opinion, a decision I made from the start. For such a stubborn Rose Maiden, coercion is meaningless.

It was clear that Mercury Lamp had also been conflicted before. Causing her such distress was never my intention. Now that she had made her decision, the least we could do was not to pressure her further. Perhaps returning to her own world, resuming her standoff with the six sisters, and stepping back into loneliness might cause Mercury Lamp to reclaim her icy shell. But when that time comes, I’d just lead a bunch of Imperial High Level off to melt it again. Fearless as a "daddy", I’ll one day make Mercury Lamp willingly come home with me to be cared for...

"You really are quite accepting," as if she had seen right through my thoughts, Lin Xue said leisurely from behind, "At times like this, shouldn’t you, the male lead, be the one to see off our Little Princess?"

Pushed forward by Lin Xue, I wasn’t embarrassed but instead boldly walked up behind Mercury Lamp. Watching the petite doll standing at the edge of a huge rock several meters above the ground, she silently gazed into the distance, facing the setting sun.

Just half a meter taller and she could be the female lead.

To be honest, I was really worried she’d fall off... When I was little, Big Sister taught me not to stand in high places, especially not at the edge of places like this...

"What are you looking at?"

"The sun," Mercury Lamp’s tone was flat, "The same sun as in that world."

"Tonight, you’ll be able to go home."

"Yes, I want to see Little Hui first."

Little Hui? She must mean that human girl who became a Magic Girl through a contract with Mercury Lamp... Why am I thinking about this now!

In another line: That must be the human girl who contracted with Mercury Lamp and whom the latter cares for because of a congenital heart disease, right? Seems like Mercury Lamp is quite concerned about her. Isn’t your main goal for returning home to find your long-deceased father?

"Will you stay?" I asked in a very calm tone.

"No," came the unhesitating reply, which made it clear that Mercury Lamp wouldn’t change her mind so easily after her resolve.

"What would happen if I used force?" I was just joking, "With all the power I hold, I could close off this universe, preventing anyone from leaving."

"You wouldn’t do that," Mercury Lamp’s response was even more crisp, and she answered before I could inquire further, "Because you are just a hopelessly kind fool!"

I took that as a compliment.

"Fine, I respect your thoughts," I scratched my head; although a bit annoyed, I still found her irritating assessment quite fair, "But you should also expect that I will come looking for you. When that time comes, I hope you don’t greet me with a sour face."

"Hmm, mere human fools..." Mercury Lamp’s signature harsh words followed, and then, to my surprise, she turned around with a faint smile that was completely uncharacteristic of her usual image, "But if by chance I’m in a good mood, maybe I’ll treat you to black tea!"

She showed her vulnerable side. Despite her strong words and serene expression, the fleeting gleam in her eyes suddenly made me feel her vulnerability. Mercury Lamp, like her name suggests, beneath the silver brilliance of strength, lies the fragility of water. This girl, irresponsibly abandoned by her creator on a dusty shelf, who suffered greatly and yet was ultimately deemed "useless", had woven a solid shell with her obsession and will. But now, a large hole had been melted in that shell, revealing a pure and fragile heart, as white as mercury.

With this promise, I felt at ease, hoping she wouldn’t revert to the pitiful "foolish doll". I looked forward to the moment when she’d hold out a cup of tea to me with her 92.3cm stature.

With that thought in mind, I slightly narrowed my eyes. The air around us seemed intent on bidding farewell too. A gust of wind suddenly picked up and when I opened my eyes again, Mercury Lamp had already vanished from my sight.

Is this your departure? It’s so fitting of your elusive heart...

"Ah Jun," Qianqian suddenly ran over and poked my arm, "Mercury Lamp just got blown away by the wind!"

I: "..."

Even though I knew what had happened, couldn’t you have let me linger a little longer in the domain of moisture?! Besides, didn’t I just say so? You can’t stand in places too high or too close to the edge, or else it’s easy to fall off. Big Sister truly doesn’t deceive.

In this scene, where the melancholic atmosphere and the mournful background music could have won an Oscar with just two violin solos, the heroine who was bidding farewell to the male lead was actually blown away by a gust of wind. The entire scenario immediately leapt from a tragedy to a situational comedy. As a result, Mercury Lamp, who still wasn’t quite adapted to these script changes devoid of morals, displayed a slight daze for the whole three hours, and I didn’t know if it was the fall from a few meters high that affected the little doll’s head: Speaking of which, she was really unlucky, a few meters was just not high enough for her to react and spread her wings. If the stone had been just a bit higher, Mercury Lamp might have performed an acute angle climb.

So, did this infinitely unfortunate little chit contribute a joyous memory for us right up to the last long shot before departure? Could it be that this girl was related by blood to Cu Chulainn?

That Gunman nearly lost his own Magic Spear while fishing just the other day.

Let’s skip the details, but in the end, Mercury Lamp left.

A super train ticket, signed by the Imperial High Levels, that could make a Dimension Hub Guardian go weak at the knees, a special express only carrying a single passenger left this world with a little doll and her mountainous luggage (prepared by us). Mercury Lamp declined everyone’s offer to see her off, insisting on leaving alone. Thus, our home was one noisy Little One short.

"Really boring..."

The first one to sigh, of course, was Qianqian, this girl who can’t stand saying goodbye always gets down for a long time after farewells, even though she possesses the Ability to cross Planes, in her eyes, leaving is leaving. The convenience of travel doesn’t change the fact. Mercury Lamp returned to that distant world, and that was enough to make this silly girl sentimental.

She is just a bit dense, not heartless.

"Ah Jun, when are we going to find Mercury Lamp? Why don’t we settle over there?"

Well, perhaps a bit heartless after all.

"I mean, you’ve seen off Ilya, Lola, Kane, Sal... you’ve seen off so many people without much fuss. Why is it that you want to search for that doll just after ten minutes of not seeing her?"

Although I felt a bit empty too, I still didn’t understand Qianqian’s reaction.

"It’s different because we already started treating Mercury Lamp as family," Qianqian said, voicing everyone’s sentiment, "Ilya and the others were just friends, it’s normal for them to leave, but Mercury Lamp is family..."

Family... I see, without realizing it, we had started to treat Mercury Lamp as family, which is why even though we were clearly aware that we could see her anytime, we still missed her so much.

I hadn’t expected that Qianqian, with her blunt sensitivity, would be the first to point out this situation as an insider; should I say that those who lack a screw often find it easier to get out of the puzzle, looking through everything from the perspective of an outsider? Qianqian, your Talent is too terrifying!

The night was deep, and the city lights still twinkled, the distant streetlights kept the room faintly lit, combined with the unusually bright moonlight, lying in bed, I found it hard to sleep.

... Just an excuse.

From inside the lampshade on the nightstand came the faint, rhythmic snoring of a certain Goddess, discernible only with enhanced hearing amidst the occasional murmur of unclear meaning, probably Dingdang talking to someone in her sleep. I stared somewhat absent-mindedly towards the window, where there once stood a little girl less than a meter tall, gazing over here against the backdrop of moonlight with her purple-red eyes, like a solitary black Rose Maiden.

My gaze lowered to the floor beneath the window, where the huge black leather case still lay quietly, adorned with a layer of enchanting gauze by the moonlight.

...

The case!! Mercury Lamp, you forgot your packaging box!

...That dumb doll dragged away half a ton of our prepared souvenirs but forgot her own box... At this moment, amidst the moisture-filled blues and sadness, I was thrown into utter chaos.

Wait... It wasn’t forgotten, it couldn’t be—Mercury Lamp once mentioned that the Rose Maidens’ boxes share a resonance with their souls, similar to the spiritual connection humans have. They are containers made so that the Rose Maidens, with their alchemy souls, could replenish their drained spirits, almost another "body" for them; something that important, how could Mercury Lamp possibly forget?

"Click," I suddenly turned on the bedside lamp, and after waiting three seconds, a sharp, fine, and somewhat panicked voice rang out, "Waaa! Why did it suddenly get light?! Is there a problem with the sun’s orbit again!? Dingdang clearly checked the parameters of the universe’s stars just yesterday..."

I should have noticed this issue sooner; it was only because someone had the attributes of a pet that I completely forgot about their setting as intelligent beings: Dingdang is the most sentimental among us (believe it or not, I certainly do). This little thing once cried her eyes out in my hands because she had to leave us to report back to the Divine Realm, but today, seeing off Mercury Lamp, she played like a loon all day!

And more than once, she looked at us with a confused gaze, as if we weren’t quite enjoying ourselves as much...

"Huh? Ah Jun?" the little one drowsily fell out of the lampshade and looked up at me confusedly. It took a while before it snapped out of it, and then it hopped onto my shoulder with a bounce, "Are you going to take Dingdang out to play?"

I have no idea how her mind works.

"Little thing," I said seriously, grabbing the little one in my hand, "what did Mercury Lamp tell you before she left?"

"Mercury Lamp?" Dingdang reminisced briefly, "She asked me for two small sprouts from the World Tree, saying when she comes back, she’ll trade me with her world’s lollipops!"

"Alright, you can go back to sleep."

The little thing nodded obediently, crawling back into the lampshade, then immediately popped out again: "Then why did you wake Dingdang, Ah Jun?!"

"Because you, you dizzy little thing, really need to wake up!" I gave Dingdang’s little head a flick, sending her reeling. This silly thing was on an entirely different plane from us from start to finish (and the adjective fits with no dissonance at all!), even fooled by Mercury Lamp to the point of disorientation!

World Tree sprouts? A lollipop? Dingdang, you really know how to bargain, you wasteful girl.

By then, I had guessed what Mercury Lamp wanted those for. The World Tree’s sprouts are the most "useless" part of the World Tree itself. Barely having accumulated any energy just after sprouting, Lilina uses those things to clean pots every day without any growth to show for it, which is proof of their triviality to us. But even the seemingly inconsequential sprouts are akin to Foundation Establishment Pills for ordinary people.

Raising the dead is a bit difficult, but curing hundreds of diseases is a certainty. Boiling seven bowls’ worth down to one, mixed with some rock sugar, and served hot, it could let Hawking knock out Schwarzenegger with a single punch as if playing, and of course, it could easily treat heart disease as well.

Moreover, in the end, the World Tree’s sprouts hold another very important function: as part of the universe’s most origin power, after the establishment of the Time-Space Administration, we used it as a kind of special ticket. Any transmigrator registered in Shadow City can activate it in case of emergency, capable of initiating the Administration’s automatic servomechanism transport. Each Reviewer carries a few of these "Internal Vouchers," so there’s no doubt about why Mercury Lamp wanted two sprouts.

Return tickets, and ones that didn’t pass through my hands...

This epochal discovery, of course, I didn’t enjoy alone; the next second, the whole family knew about Mercury Lamp’s little mischief.

Thus, the next morning, before the sky even brightened, my originally spacious bedroom was suddenly crammed with the Imperial High Level. A crowd of world firsts, seconds, and thirds, eagerly rubbing their hands, just waiting to give that wretch a good scare.

"Mercury Lamp, that damn girl! She even dared to deceive the great Prophet!" Lin Xue was the most enthusiastic among us. This is easy to understand; as a Prophet being duped by a doll was an insult to her professional ethics, similar to how it would not be embarrassing for a shut-in to be knocked over by Tyson, but if Tyson got kicked flying by that shut-in—forget Tyson, even the handwarmer on the police station’s radiator couldn’t stand such an outrage.

Moreover, Lin Xue, who had been successfully deceived by Mercury Lamp the night before, with her sighs of regret, had already become an indisputable historical shame. Miss Lin believed that if she did not avenge this, she would have no face to meet the ancestors of the Lin Family, while I pondered one problem consistently:

How did Mercury Lamp, initially so proud, pure, and independent, end up stained this dark by us? That girl had completely learned to be bad.

"Alright, alright, you’re not on call 24 hours," I patted Lin Xue’s shoulder, "That girl is really lucky, with so many loopholes she still almost made it—Girl Lin, are you sure she will jump in here soon?"

Lin Xue bared her teeth at me: "Don’t worry, I haven’t slept all night."

"I mean, you went to all this trouble just to mess with a doll, don’t you feel ashamed?"

"Hey, stop messing around, here she comes!"

Just as I was about to give Lin Xue a chop to the neck, she suddenly started whispering, and immediately, everyone exchanged a bunch of meaningful glances.

"Group Invisibility Field activated, space distortion commencing!"

As soon as Sandora’s words finished, the room, which had seemed a bit crowded, appeared completely empty in the blink of an eye.

Half a minute later, as we, the creepy invisible gang, held our breath and stayed quiet, a tiny figure appeared outside the window. She cautiously checked her surroundings to make sure no one had noticed before gently pushing the window open and jumping down like a thief.

We were all nearly suffocating from holding our breath in a circle.

"Spread out, spread out, don’t bump into her! Stick to the plan!"

I quickly used Spiritual Connection to assign tasks to everyone else and then stealthily crept behind the Mercury Lamp and blew a breath.

The little thing sprang up immediately, and I dodged swiftly, or else I would have knocked out my teeth.

"Strange, there’s no one?"

The Mercury Lamp looked around in surprise, undoubtedly, the feeling of being watched even though there was no one around must have been creepy, but the bold doll was only slightly puzzled.

The night was gradually receding, and the eastern horizon began to light up a faint pre-dawn glow. The room was enveloped in just the right amount of dim light, and I quickly signaled to Qianqian: "Pause!"

Time around the mansion stopped.

Of course, the doll girl didn’t know what had happened, she just looked at the empty bed with some regret: "Tch, I thought I could scare that dumb human, what is he up to so early in the morning?"

Mumbling to herself, the Mercury Lamp gently opened the room door, and we cautiously followed out—right then, I was really envious of Anwina; she just phased straight through the walls to her station.

"No one here either... Are they still not awake?" The Mercury Lamp clicked her way down the empty hallway, "Although it’s a bit early, by this time that big crow named Anwina should have started cleaning."

I immediately glared at a certain innocent maid, so the eerie wind blowing through the house every morning at four-thirty was your doing?

In a state of confusion, the Mercury Lamp slowly made her way down to the living room; of course, it was silent here as well.

Only the TV on one wall of the living room was still on, flickering with a mess of static snow.

The Mercury Lamp looked puzzled at the TV, which seemed to have been on all night, then suddenly jumped onto the couch and quietly sat there.

We were immediately at a loss—what do we do when the guest doesn’t play along?

What stunned me even more was that, in less than a few minutes, the Mercury Lamp fell asleep with soft snores...

No way!!! A grand plan that the Imperial Leaders had spent half the night devising hadn’t even been put into action before it was ruined? How could this doll act so out of the ordinary? Normally, shouldn’t you be panicking and checking every room upstairs? Shouldn’t you be calling out our names? Shouldn’t you be turning off the TV that’s making all that noise? Anwina is hiding behind the screen and is about to fume with rage! And you just found a comfortable spot and fell asleep!

You’ve let down a whole host of classic suspense and horror film directors!

(To be continued. To know what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. There are more Chapters available. Support the author, support genuine reading!)