About half a month after France’s liberation, with August’s sun charging like a warhorse, Ain suddenly called Yekase.

She was sprawled on the Ambition Divine Ship’s sofa, head pillowed on Ivaris’s thigh, legs draped over Liu RuoYuan’s lap, lazily flipping a Japanese travel guide like a fan catching summer wind.

She glanced at the TV, two race cars colliding like stags in rut, and spoke first. “What’s up? Someone trying to resurrect the crown?”

“Thanks to you, things are moving smoothly. I’m calling because we ran into… an alchemical automaton about to stop for good, at the royal gate.”

“Mm. Anything special?”

“There were rumors the royal family turned living people into humanoid weapons. She’s the source of those rumors.”

“Then host her a bit. Wait for her candle to gutter out, right?”

“She keeps muttering she must see Isaac Newton one last time. I told her he died hundreds of years ago. She wouldn’t listen.”

“…”

Yekase scratched her head, mood wrinkling like paper.

So the lifelong bachelor left a love out there?

She said, guiltless as a clear sky, “I beat Newton to death myself… Her intel’s stale. Don’t tell me she walked from a crypt to the palace.”

“I’ll pass that along.”

…

After a while, Ain’s voice returned, thin as radio static. “She says she wants to see you.”

“Uh…”

What a hassle.

Why does Newton’s centuries-old flame end up on the student’s plate?

But Yekase was kind and soft-hearted; the thought of a dying wish tugged like tide on the moon. She’d oblige.

“I’ll be right back.”

Liu RuoYuan and Ivaris were busy tossing items at each other like magicians trading tricks, no time to mind her. Yekase pouted, stepped out.

Since the Flash Energy research was reassigned, her load had lightened. She’d rebooted her space compression project, doubling the interior of the Ambition Divine Ship. The new space held a warehouse, several rooms, and—commissioned from Labyrinth City’s artisans—a simple observatory, where boredom scattered under starlight like seeds in wind.

She walked past the Goddess of Victory statue displayed beside the stone-brick road and spoke offhand, voice like a pebble skipping water. “I’m traveling Japan with Iva for about a month. Do your greeter duty, okay?”

She pressed her ear to the statue’s cheek.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm…!”

To the world, the statue remained silent and steadfast, flag of freedom raised—of course; stone doesn’t speak or step.

Yekase patted the statue’s generous chest, satisfied with her handiwork, and slipped through the portal off Sky Island.

After half a month, her feet found Paris again, shoes tapping like sparrows on morning cobbles.

She moved fast; no flight needed. Ten minutes later she reached Ain’s meeting spot, a hotel by the royal castle.

Inside, she saw the so-called “ancient humanoid weapon”—which looked simply like someone with limbs replaced by ball-jointed prosthetics.

Yekase greeted first. “Hey. I’m Newton’s disciple.”

“…”

Anne leaned against the bed, silent as winter bark, and nodded weakly.

“Heard you wanted to see me?”

“Mm…”

Her voice finally scraped out—like gears without oil, dry and stuttering.

“In the end… I didn’t see her…”

The sound was too distorted; Yekase couldn’t read whether that line carried regret or release, only heard a wind-blown echo.

“…Let it be. Let it be…”

In new-born France, a fresh tide roaring with change, some old things were left on the shore.

No one would remember an alchemical doll who waited four centuries and still missed, nor the soul beneath steel, flickering like a candle in a draft.

Let it be.

Yekase thought so too, heart quiet as dusk.

“Her methods were flawed, sure. But she loved Earth and humanity to her last breath. At least, you weren’t alone on the road.”

Anne tugged a smile like a thread from old cloth.

She saw that afternoon again—a blond boy at her side, reading a picture book about the sun and stars. Then a ripe apple fell—gravity’s whisper made flesh.

…

…

When Yekase came home, Ivaris asked, testing the currents, “So our itinerary…”

“No change.”

“Oh. I thought you’d repair her or something.”

“If you fix and reboot her, she’s not her anymore.”

Yekase shrugged and went back to plowing the little guidebook, field by field, planning routes like furrows.

“Tokyo was destroyed ten years ago… by an exogenous incursion, right? No wonder I still hear about it; they built a Second New Tokyo. So the ruins just sit there? On land-scarce islands?”

“Go look and you’ll know.”

“No. That’s a magnet for trouble.”

Yekase’s voice kicked like a sparrow. “I’m not fighting on vacation. Even if someone begs, I’m out.”

“Okay, okay.”

Ivaris knew Yekase had been doing the work of three for months in Europe, and would soon contact the Lunar Resistance. Wanting real rest on a rare duet trip made sense, like rain after drought.

Pick a peaceful route, then…

Luckily, the Japanese dislike bothering others; even their Sinister Organization reflects that trait. They hold power like Huaxia’s brothers, but for face, they don’t do annexation or annihilation directly. They send delegations to duel inside government-designated combat Special Zones.

That means life outside those zones stays calm, steady as a pond at dawn.

Ivaris leaned over to share the booklet, shoulder to shoulder like twin oars.

“Second New Tokyo’s in the mountains, set to overlook Old Tokyo. So Old Tokyo probably became the Special Zone.”

“An entire city of ruins turned into a battlefield? Whoa…”

“Go see?”

“No.”

So boring.

Ivaris’s itch from years of watching battles on the horizon hadn’t faded yet, and she wanted to gauge Japan’s punch. But Yekase clung to pacifism this time; splitting up would kill the honeymoon vibe. What now?

“Got it!”

Light clicked in Ivaris’s eyes. “You play a defenseless heiress. Sit beside me and watch me fight.”

“That’s so dumb.”

“Isn’t roleplay your favorite?”

“…”

Yekase had no words, mood spinning like a top.

This is what happens when everyone around you learns your operating system. Jiang Bailu grasped it first, and after some girlfriend-level whisper-talk, Ivaris’s progress caught up fast.

Like now—if Ivaris insists on ‘beneficial body interactions,’ even suggests tying her up—Yekase can’t refuse with a simple “I don’t like that.” So she eats a 2000 LP penalty for a pre-duel interference. Comeback? Nearly impossible.

And given Ivaris’s open attitude toward Jiang Bailu and Ling Yi, Yekase had no doubt that in a few months the fight would go from 1v1 to 3v1.

“Then I’ll book it. City of Ivalice to Second New Tokyo, twelve-hour flight.”

To play heiress perfectly, she’d even skip cheap, convenient flight magic and drop two grand on a plane. Yekase realized Ivaris was more hyped than she was, and felt awkward, words catching like burrs.

Ivaris even ran back to the bedroom to pick outfits for her.

Yekase was terrified. She went to the fridge for a cola to steady herself; her hands shook, bubbles fizzed wild, and it splashed everywhere.

XiaoLei came back from the flowerbeds, little spade and watering can in hand. She saw the sorry scene and fired a line like a pebble at a window.

“No spine.”

“???”

“I never expected you to grow into a pillar-of-heaven man, your dad’s always been sickly… But being whipped before you even get the papers? As your future mother-in-law, I can’t hold my head up.”

“How’d you fall for a sickly dad back then?”

“I was blind back then!”

Ruthless, zero hesitation—she insulted herself and him in one stroke.

But Yekase didn’t think her dad was a wimp; he was a life mentor who lit her path, even if Mom could probably skewer father and daughter with one punch like lamb kebabs. She braced her heart and argued, stubborn as a pine.

“The twenty-first century belongs to science! We researchers—aren’t we pillars-of-heaven men too?”

“Mm. ‘Men.’”

XiaoLei chuckled through her nose and looked Yekase up and down.

Glossy, smooth, shoulder-length hair. A black embroidered dress that framed waist and chest. Headlights inflated to a C, to satisfy Ivaris’s OS. White thigh-highs full of summer, and round-toed little leather shoes.

“I feel like you’re more radiant than your sister.”

“Uh…”

Yekase couldn’t answer. She chickened out and compromised. “Dad’s more of a man than me!”

Old wisdom says a step back opens the sky; but XiaoLei didn’t care for that. She kept flaying one of the great Three Pillar Machine Gods. “Yeah, a guy over six feet, but when it came to love, fussy like a girl with her first crush. I had to confess first. Very ‘manly,’ huh.”

“…”

Yekase didn’t know her parents’ love story and didn’t dare ask.

From Liu Qizhou she inherited not only the ideal of Flash Energy research, but also a perfectly replicated domestic status—firmly under a woman’s thumb.

“Haha… I’m toast. Whatever.”