Before Dixue, Purple Illusion’s body began to change, like frost creeping over glass.
Her purple nails lengthened into crescent blades, and her hair grew jagged like brambles in a night wind.
Even her skin showed faint dark veins, like ink threads seeping through rice paper.
Purple lightning crackled in the air, and the dim office thickened with hatred like damp grave-soil.
“Huh? This is—”
Dixue’s pupils tightened like a cat’s in moonlight. She strode forward and struck for Purple Illusion’s neck in one clean arc.
A silver-white radiance cut neat as a blade, dropping Purple Illusion cold; the swelling terror shattered like foam on rocks.
“A living grudge-spirit… good thing I was here, or it’d be a storm.”
Dixue shook her head, watching the purple-haired girl slump in the chair like a fallen willow.
The girl’s state was perilous; left unchecked, she’d become a Murder Fiend, a knife in the night.
“LittleSnow!? What happened!”
Sensing bad omens, Yue Liuyi rushed in, breath quick as a startled bird.
The blue-haired girl wore a blue-and-white pleated dress, a delicate hairpin bright as dew, a petite gothic doll more than a maid.
“It’s fine. A small accident. It’s handled… Xiao Yue, the rest of the café, is it under control?”
“Mm… mm! The Flame Ruins Gang’s reinforcements arrived, and customers and maids are confined in rooms.”
For a fight this wide, they wouldn’t send only two grunts; most of the gang hid in the shadows, like wolves waiting to surge.
“Tell them not to wreck the place, and don’t lay hands on maids or customers.”
“Yeah, I already sent that out! It’s orderly everywhere… only…”
She glanced at the unconscious Purple Illusion, lost as a child in fog. “So… she really lied to us? Is that why we went with Plan B…”
Plan B was today’s move: draw off the enemy’s main force like a decoy kite, then strike by surprise.
Plan A was to have Purple Illusion go all-in for us, straight into the enemy’s heart like a needle.
“Mm. She’s more loyal than we thought… To the end, the kid still resisted, like a sapling in wind.”
Dixue took Yue Liuyi’s wrist, a light hold like snow on a branch. She could see lies, but not hearts.
As for what Purple Illusion had endured, even clever LittleSnow couldn’t pluck that thread from fate’s loom.
If this kept going, perhaps Purple Illusion would never see her sister again, two stars forever apart.
The Capital Alliance was falling; the purple-haired girl of lies had no mountain to lean on.
And Purple Dream, her sister, might be killed by Linoket in a rage, like a torch snuffed in a storm.
Purple Illusion’s false intel made her worthless, no hostage worth keeping, no straw to clutch.
But—
Yin Mu hurried in from outside, words tumbling like pebbles down a slope.
“Master! Your Majesty! A girl named Aya kept tugging me—she says it’s important!”
“Oh? Important?”
“Seems to be Purple Illusion’s secret… She wants to trade it to spare the purple-haired girl’s life!”
“To spare her…? Uh, LittleSnow?”
Yue Liuyi turned, searching LittleSnow’s face like a mirror for a sign.
The silver-haired girl’s expression barely rippled; Dixue only reached out and seized the unconscious girl, steady as winter.
…
Back in the receiving room, tea and drinks sat neatly on the table, quiet as a still pond.
Only the hosts and guests had changed, like chairs moved before a new play.
The purple-haired girl lay unconscious on the sofa, and the maid named Aya sobbed, stitching the past together through tears.
She didn’t know Purple Illusion’s childhood, but she told them why she was coerced, like a chain laid bare.
“So! Sister Purple Illusion serves the capital because they control her real sister! She’s not some abyss-deep sinner!”
“But you also said… her sister is gravely ill, right? Only the Star-Gel Industry can save her…”
Yin Mu sighed, heavy as rain on eaves; no one likes a choice that cuts both ways.
“Y-Yes…”
“Then by destroying the Star-Gel Industry, we cut off Purple Dream’s cure. Unless… we leave Linoket and the capital interests alive… but those bastards are vile!”
Yin Mu folded her arms, bristling like a hedgehog; in the novels she’d read, the road rarely forked like this.
“I’m not asking you to give up… Aya doesn’t know much, but she knows history won’t bend for one person,” the maid sniffled, voice thin as thread. “I only beg you to spare Sister Purple Illusion! She’s sixteen, knows nothing… with time, she’ll change!”
“I can’t promise that… I’m not a judge, and I’m not the Speaker of the Lindream Council.”
Dixue shook her head, pale-green eyes clouded like jade in rain.
“H-How could…”
“Uh? LittleSnow… then we should—”
“Xiao Yue, that girl called Purple Dream has lived this long by miracle… We won’t be the ones to kill her.”
“Ugh, but like this… it’s too… Wait! I’ve got it!”
A spark lit Yue Liuyi’s gaze, quick as fire catching paper.
“A way?”
“Mm! The first time Purple Dream was saved, it was with a life-support unit from Linluo Hospital, right?”
She turned to Aya, the question swift as a dart.
“Y-Yes… But ordinary units, like at Linluo Central Hospital, no longer work because of low purity and resistance… Only the Star-Gel core tech meets the mark. So…”
“Hahaha! So that’s the reason! Heh heh—”
Yue Liuyi suddenly laughed, bright as bells.
“Master!”
“X-Xiao Yue!?”
“I know what to do!”
The blue-haired girl smiled and pressed a fingertip to the purple-haired girl’s waist, playful as a cat’s paw.
It was a nerve-waking trick: a quick waist tickle no girl could endure, like a spark to dry tinder.
Purple Illusion drifted up from a hazy dream—deep and long, a night with no dawn.
She opened her eyes to a dopey blue-haired maid, face blankly adorable like a dumpling with eyes.
What happened?
The contrast left her adrift, thoughts like leaves in a current. She half-remembered resisting, seeking her sister, cutting down those in her way.
So she had to protect her sister.
Even if she became a devil, a shadow with teeth.
Resentment swelled like thunderclouds, but—
“I’m the World Tree Maiden of Dreamwood Star, and the only one who can save your sister. So bow to me, then serve me. Heh~”
The dopey blue-haired maid suddenly said that to her, words landing like petals and knives.
