Chapter 471: An Ugly Premonition
Chapter 471: An Ugly Premonition
[To those of you who didn’t read the author’s note in the previous chapter: Lol you thought I was going to write another smut chapter… but it was me, Dio! Now, pull your pants back up, unless your name is Enrico Pucci.]
*****
By the time Feng Mian and I came back from the woods where we had done it until she was satisfied, the other girls were all chilling in the hot spring, and enjoying the beautiful view of the starry sky. Mei Gui had innocently asked where we had been, but Qing Yue and Ling Xin had helped me dodge the question, thankfully.
In the end, the girls and I never returned to the Long Family residency that night. Hell, we probably never would. Since there was a 5-star quality inn right on-site, there was hardly any need for us to return there.
Eventually, the girls and I agreed to just make this private beach our new home. It was isolated from the rest of the world—an uninhabited island with no dangerous wildlife or plants—but there was a teleporter that could connect us directly to Fragment. I made a call to Long Lu so he could set things up on the other end, and now, the teleporter here would take us to the guest room of the Long Family residency, which was our ‘other’ home, basically. There were plenty of other guest rooms to use if the Long Family ever received any guests.
Apparently, while I was away in the Death Realm, the girls had gotten Long Lu’s parents to take a liking to them, so they gladly agreed to my proposal. Guess these girls around me just had too much charm—but I was far from complaining.
Regardless, the next few days went without a hitch. Yu An Yan and Yu An Xue made up their mind to make their date together, making space for Zhao Xiuying, and I took them to the mall because… well, they loved clothes and everything about them. An Yan basically spent the entire day dressing me up, and An Xue looked for inspiration on what to sew next (she loved sewing).
After that came Xiao Su. That one was easy. Her love of books was something all of us knew, so I took her to a library in the morning with the intention of going somewhere else after lunch, but… well, she ended up wanting to stay there the whole day, reading with me. At night, though, she dressed up as her stage self, Su Ning, and gave the other girls and I a private concert. Needless to say, her voice was angelic.
Next up on the list was Mei Gui. This date… was a bit of a tough one. The only thing she really liked doing was spending time with me, but that was information so incredibly useless that I was stuck racking my brain for ideas. In the end, I just took her out on a stereotypical date—a movie theater, a museum, and all that.
She seemed especially intrigued by the assortment of different exhibits in the museum, though, so that was a score at least. She and I also finally had proper sex that night, which she was extremely happy about. After all, before then, she felt the other girls had gotten one step in front of her.
Then came Lin Luo, who was very reluctant about it. I offered to just cancel it, but she refused and stuck with me for the whole day. Needless to say, it was… not very amusing. Neither of us could find the right conversation topics, and in the end, it turned more into just a simple talk about our respective pasts rather than a date.
Growing up, she never learned about her Half-Celesticus identity until her wings sprouted on their own one day, and left her in a state of shock and ridicule from other students at the school she had been attending. Humans and Celestici didn’t have the best of relationships, and tended to stay away from one another. I could only imagine how she must’ve felt, being isolated from everyone else. Through the chat, we got a bit closer, as we could relate to one another on multiple levels. Despite her snappy, easily-angered appearance, she was actually not a bad person deep down.
And as for the final date with Zhao Xiuying… it was bad. Very bad.
The night before, I had entered the Infinite Realm to ask Sylvoir to summon Aluna, the Elven Founder. When she arrived, I asked her about things an elf might like, and she responded that it was different from everyone, but almost all share an appreciation for nature. Elves were, after all, originally creatures of the forest.
As such, I took Xiuying to a nice forest park and went on a hike with her, but her expression remained as indifferent as ever, and only spoke a collective total of about five words that entire day. I couldn’t even tell if she liked the date or not.
In the end, though, all of the dates were a fun experience for me, bar the one with Xiuying. I definitely got closer to all the girls except for her through this week or so, but I have no doubt Xiuying will open herself up to the other girls and I with time. We have only just met, after all. This makes sense.
The day after the date with Xiuying, I had a little break and alone time. I spent it practicing my alchemy skills in the morning, then hanging out with Ming Hao and Long Lu in the afternoon. It’s been a while since I saw them in-person, and it ended up being pretty wholesome. Both of them seemed pretty happy to see me alive and back.
And now… there were only two days left before school started once again. Before that happened, however, there was still one final event to take place—the Summer Festival. For some reason, I had an uneasy feeling about it, like something was going to happen.
Or it’s just my overcautiousness acting up… I’m aware of how careful of a person I am, which is usually a good thing, but can be bad if overdone. Whenever things go without a hitch, doubts start creeping into my mind, like something bad’s going to happen sooner or later. And so far, the past week has been the dream of any man. A date with a different girl everyday, all of which are goddess-level beauties? That’s something you can’t just wish for.
Still…
“You guys all prepped for the Summer Festival tomorrow?” Qing Yue asked the other girls, who were sprawled on the couch, watching television. “Apparently, there’s going to be fireworks at the end of it!”
“Yep,” Yu An Yan replied with a wink. “I even bought all of you yukatas to wear, just to fit the spirit!”
“Woah…” Feng Mian’s eyes widened as An Yan brought out the assortment of clothes she had picked out on our date, all of which had a different color scheme to it but were beautiful nonetheless.
“Sorry… I tried… to sew them by hand, but…” Yu An Xue trailed off, pursing her lips a bit.
“My, my, don’t worry about it,” Ling Xin said with a warm smile. “Sewing yukatas for all of us in such little time? That’s next to impossible, unless you have robot-like hands. Even magic can’t make you automatically sew faster.”
… Seeing these smiles and uncontrollable excitement on these girls’ faces, I couldn’t help but give up the thought of something bad happening tomorrow. I mean, this was Fragment—the heart of the world, the Magic Capital. This was the least likely of all places to have something bad happen in it, considering how powerful the security is…
Then again, one could never be too sure.
And as it would turn out, my suspicions were correct.
*****
– Sometime in the Future –
“Run! Get awa- AH!” A woman cried as a powerful stone rock smashed down on his head, crushing his body completely.
“H-Hngh… h-h-hngh…” A man’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, foam forming in his mouth, as his very lifeforce was absorbed by a mere touch of the beautiful woman that stood before him, wearing revealing clothes that highlighted her voluptuous body.
Everywhere, people were dying. A shattering hole had appeared in the artificial sky of Fragment, like a window getting blasted open by a flying baseball. The blue heavens have been painted red in blood, and the floors littered with bodies. Those who have not died yet were now fleeing for their lives. The IMF’s best, the Council of Arcanity, had been taken down, and the remaining Council Members fled to fight another day.
And amongst it all…
“Xiuying!” I called out, tugging on her slender, pale arm. “Listen to me—I know what that feeling is like… but we have to go. Now!”
“M-Mother… father…” She whispered, voice as frail as an old ghost and eyes as dead as a corpse. She was usually already expressionless enough, but this only made it worse.
“Tch… you leave me no choice.”
Gritting my teeth, I struck the back of her neck with my hand, knocking her out cold, then picked her up on my back and ran to where the other girls and other survivors were.
Ran, ran, ran.
For there was no turning back. Not after this.