Ouyang’s castle, once echoing like a cold cavern, now hummed like a warm hive. Spotting him from afar, Xian shot over like an arrow and all but flung her sister aside.

Ruola, seeing Ouyang after so long, trembled like a leaf in wind. Words tangled on her tongue. She stood at the door and drew her pure-white wings forward like folded snow-draped sails.

“Big brother, Loyin—hee-hee, I missed you both so much!”

Emotion hit first—awkwardness, a splash of cold water. Xian barreled into Ouyang; he caught her just in time. He looked at Xi, at a loss, the air brittle as frost; he had no idea how to break the ice.

“Uh… welcome to my castle.”

He’d brewed that line forever. It still came out like lukewarm tea. Even Eika winced; a boy who’d never dated could smell the strange current between Ouyang and Xi. From Xian’s bright reaction, Xi clearly wasn’t an enemy. Which left only one guess.

These two are totally a thing.

Demon King, that was lame—rock-bottom lame, Eika groused in his head, wishing Ouyang’s mouth came installed on him instead.

“Sis, come here.” Xian tugged Xi over. “Sis, you sit here. Loyin, you sit there.” She pressed Ouyang and Xi shoulder to shoulder—Xi on his left, Loyin on his right; Xian perched on Xi’s other side like a chirping sparrow.

“Now our family’s all together!”

Family… all together…

Heat climbed Ouyang’s face; the smile he wore felt like a crooked mask. Xi, by contrast, kept her breeze-soft smile and patted Xian’s hair. “Xian, is big brother family to you?” The room’s attention tightened like a drawn bow—Ouyang, Eika, Nabelia, even Loyin looked over.

“Yeah! Big Brother is my brother-in-law. I know that much!”

Ouyang choked, a cough like a misfired spark. “W-Where did you even get ‘brother-in-law’ from?” Bewilderment creased him; what on earth made this girl so sure?

“Big brother, do you not want my sister anymore?”

The question fell like a stone into still water. Ouyang was suddenly wordless. Any answer was a forked road into a swamp. Deny it? He couldn’t lie to his own heart. And if he said there was nothing between them… he could start writing his will.

Xi kept that uncanny smile, eyes like still purple lakes with blades beneath. One wrong word and those eyes said everything.

“Ahaha… wife, of course we’re family. Right?”

Silence felt more dangerous, so he blurted it out. Only after did he realize what he’d called her, palm to forehead, a helpless smile twisting his mouth.

“Hee-hee, I knew it. Loyin, we’re all family!” Xian exploded into joy, kicking her heels on the sofa. The storm Ouyang feared never broke; Xi didn’t flare up at that “wife.”

“Dummy, do you remember our old pact?”

A pact?

Confusion pinched his eyes shut. Then memory rose like a moon from clouds. Back then, Xi had forced a deal: whoever gathered more wish-power would win; the loser obeyed one condition from the winner. No—worse. If Ouyang won, Xi could choose whether to grant a condition. If Xi won, Ouyang had to obey without question.

That wasn’t a pact. That was a bandit’s contract.

Worse, a small sphere of light lifted over Xi’s palm, tiny as a firefly lamp, but dense as night with gathered wish-power.

Seeing Ouyang’s face twist, Xi chuckled; her violet pupils held nothing but warm tidewater.

“If you can explain the girl in a maid outfit, I’ll consider letting that pact slide.” Her gaze flicked to Nabelia—black-and-white maid dress like ink and paper, long green hair caught in a white bow and swept over her left shoulder.

Nabelia was flawless—face and figure like a sculptor’s dream. No wonder Xi cared. A beauty like that living in Ouyang’s castle invited all the wrong stories.

Nabelia…

Ouyang’s eyes finally settled on her, and he realized how he’d overlooked a painting on his own wall. She’d been the quiet spine of the place—sweeping, watering, brewing tea. Cooking? Rarely needed—no one in this castle was ordinary, and they almost never ate, so her chances to show that craft were few.

“She? Strictly speaking, those siblings used to be part of my bonded vassals… Oh, right—what did you come to me for in the first place? I totally forgot…”

Thank the heavens—the Demon King finally remembered. Eika’s face lit like sunrise. He’d never once forgotten their purpose, but lately Nabelia had felt too unworthy to bring it up; they hadn’t earned a single merit yet.

“Lord Ouyang, here’s the thing. We were summoned by your summoning array. Our clan elders want to borrow your strength to restore the Hericot Clan.” Knowing her brother Eika had the tact of a brick, Nabelia cut in first and blocked him with a smile.

“Right, I remember!”

Ouyang tapped his forehead like knocking a dusty book. The memory was a year old—no, two. He’d spent a year in a rift between time and space. It took another year to return from the Mirage of Mists to the continent. Back then he brought back Ruola, brought back Eunice and the others.

“That’s easy. The city’s got hands to spare now. Grab a few Demigods, then snag a Demon King to help you open a teleportation gate. All simple.”

Compared to the past, Ouyang now had a dozen roads to help the Hericot Clan.

“See? That’s the relationship. Pure as clear water—nothing shady.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, trying to offer Xi his clean hands.

Xi nodded; she could tell Nabelia’s words rang true.

“Alright, you idiot. About that pact… remember, you owe me one condition.” She didn’t discard it, but the shape had softened. Ouyang let out the breath he’d been holding. Before, he’d have to obey unconditionally. Now? Better.

“So afraid I’ll make you do something you don’t want?”

He didn’t answer. First came stubbornness like a turned shoulder. He looked away, scooped Loyin into his arms, and kneaded her cheeks like she was a porcelain doll, not a person.

“Back to it… why aren’t you asking about Bai?” he muttered. Xi caring about Nabelia made sense. But why skip Bai? Did she assume he and Bai couldn’t possibly be that?

Xi glanced at Bai, then at Ouyang, smile blooming like dawn. “For Bai, you’re the one she’s always waited for. Because of you, she could be born. And for you, she’s the one who waited across ages. Fate already twined you together; even if you missed each other a thousand times, you’d meet again.”

As she spoke, the crystal pendant at Bai’s throat spilled a seven-colored glow. It was the rainbow crystal Ouyang had bought in Canopy City. He’d studied it for ages, learned nothing, then made it into a pendant for Bai.

Now the rainbow crystal shone again—dreamlike, mist over water.

Silence sank in. He didn’t need Xi to draw the map; he knew parts of it already. The girl before him had waited for him long, long ago. Their meeting was the river’s bend of fate. He usually chafed at prearranged destiny like a collar too tight, but not here—not with Bai, who waited inside a shell for millions of years, era after era, for him.

A girl like a blank page, sealed in an egg—alone in a dark world—waiting in the long river of time for the one who would lift her from the shell.

“In a way, she’s like Ruola,” Xi murmured. “Only, Bai came first. Ruola I created later, improved with Bai as the pattern. You should thank Xueying. To keep Bai from falling into other hands, to guide your meeting, she spent no small effort.”

Ouyang knew who Xi meant. Xueying—the Watcher of Fate and Hope. Among the Seven Watchers, the only one who never laid the title down. In prophecy, she was honored alongside the Sage of Truth.

“Ouyang…” While he sat inside that quiet, Bai reached out and patted his head. Maybe she’d learned it from him—he did that whenever someone looked lost. She bent, silver hair sliding like liquid moonlight, rubbed her hand gently through his hair, and smiled. “I waited for you.”

Yes—she waited. In the egg, in that pitch-black world, in a life of solitude. She couldn’t sense the outside from within the dragon egg, but with a heart as clear as blank paper, she never doubted Xi’s words. If Xi said so, then it was true. Through endless years, she had waited for Ouyang—for the one she meant to wait for.

Ouyang lifted his head. He saw Bai’s face, gentled by a small smile—soft as spring light, calming as rain.

“Bai, will you stay with me? Even if the whole world turns against me—even if the world casts me out—will we never part?”

“Mm. I will. Through right and wrong, I won’t leave you.”