Although they had planned to leave by lunchtime at the latest, Seele knew that if "preparations" were to be made, they had to start earlier.
For example, convincing close companions to support and help her.
Convincing Bronya had been surprisingly and logically smooth.
As for convincing Sin to go along with her "shenanigans," Seele had no confidence at all. However, having experienced one loop, Seele couldn't bring herself to leave her behind.
So, she braced herself and gave it a try, only to be met with a cold shoulder, as expected.
"Hah? What nonsense is this coward spouting? Another world? Loops? Have you been scared out of your mind?"
Sin scoffed at Seele's explanation, even doubling over with laughter. "If it's really like you say, that some creature from who-knows-where has taken over Seele's body—then shouldn't I be tearing you, this monster, to shreds right now to see if I can free that pitiful Seele?"
Unlike Bronya, who had quickly accepted reality, Sin was instantly filled with malice towards Seele after hearing her story, even feeling the urge to make a move.
"Tch, hasn't this one learned her lesson yet?" Veliona said, annoyed. "I really want to let her taste some of the surprises she got in the original world!"
"Sin, don't talk nonsense. Seele is Seele," Bronya stepped in to smooth things over. "Look, the fact that Seele is willing to tell you this means she trusts both of us as companions, right?"
For stubborn people, a direct approach was best. Bronya was already an expert at handling Sin.
"...Tch."
Sin thought about it and realized it made sense, but admitting it was too much for her pride.
She turned her head away and said with feigned disdain, "If you're looking for an excuse to run away, then just the two of you go. Without you two eyesores here, Mother will have only me to rely on, hahahaha!"
She still didn't believe a word of Seele's fantastical story, just assuming she was lost in her own fairytale world again. It wasn't the first time she'd done something so stupid.
"You..."
Bronya was getting a headache from this stubborn girl. She was about to try and persuade her again when Seele, who had been quiet behind her, spoke up.
"Sin, you don't mean that. You're actually just trying to buy us time with Mother Cocolia, right?"
"..."
Sin's face instantly darkened.
Seeing this, Seele smiled. "Thank you for your kindness, Sin. But neither Bronya Oneechan nor Seele wants to see you take such a huge risk for us."
She slipped out from behind Bronya, grabbed Sin's hand, and said with sincerity and determination, "Come with us, Sin. Leave this place. Let's go to the sea, the grasslands, the high mountains, anywhere!"
"Ugh... alright, that's enough, you're creeping me out!"
Sin felt goosebumps all over.
She shivered and pulled her hand away from Seele's slightly cool grasp, looking at her with a mix of suspicion and uncertainty. "Looks like you're really not that crybaby—that girl who cries all day couldn't even speak when she saw me!"
After all that, she was actually starting to believe some of what Seele had said.
"Because Sin has always been Seele's companion," Seele said with a calm smile, her voice soft yet firm and sincere. "Neither Bronya Oneechan nor Seele wants to leave you here alone!"
"..."
A hot-tempered person like Sin couldn't handle this. Her face flushed with anger, and she glared at Seele for a long time before finally letting out a cold huff and turning to leave.
"Where are you going, Sin?" Bronya called out, thinking she was about to break ties with them.
"None of your business!" Sin snapped back. After a couple of seconds, she added in the same annoyed tone, "I'm going to find a vehicle! It's this cold, the snow is this thick, are we supposed to walk?!"
You two idiots!
Bronya was speechless. Seele smiled faintly. The two of them exchanged a look and went back to their rooms to change into warmer winter clothes.
Ten minutes later, an engine roared to life. A snowmobile crashed through the courtyard wall. Seele flashed forward and grabbed the back of the vehicle.
"Ptooey, ptooey... What is this piece of junk?" Sin jumped out of the driver's seat, fuming. "Does either of you know how to use this? If not, I'm tossing it!"
"I'll do it. I learned how before."
Bronya just gave a surprised glance at Seele, who had moved like a ghost, but didn't ask any questions. She strode forward and swung herself into the driver's seat.
Then, with a reluctant look, Sin squeezed into the back seat with Seele. "Hold on tight," Bronya called out, started the engine, and shot off like an arrow, driving with exceptional skill.
"Where to, Seele?" Bronya tilted her head slightly and shouted over the engine.
Bronya's question stumped Seele. She frowned in thought, then pointed to the distant, rolling mountains. "Into the mountains..."
This was the only clue she had heard from Bronya Oneechan in the last loop. She had said she found Lin Wei in the mountains.
And now that Lin Wei was nowhere to be seen, she could only follow this vague clue and try her luck...
---||---
There was a reason Lin Wei didn't meet up with Seele a second time.
"I don't recommend you act rashly again, Mr. Lin Wei," Schrödinger pronounced, her face expressionless. "You're sick."
Back in the bear cave, Lin Wei, wrapped in another freshly-made "bearskin coat," leaned against the crackling bonfire and let out a weak, wry laugh. "Heh, I know..."
The physical exhaustion from the battle with Otto, the hidden injuries from facing Durandal up close, the aftershocks from the uninvited enemy in the Sea of Quanta, the repeated onslaught of the severe cold on the snowy plains, Yae Sakura's continued silence, the disappointment of having found Seele, who could take him away from this godforsaken place, only to have it all fall apart at the last second, and the series of verbal blows from Schrödinger before that...
All these factors had piled up, and finally, after one more small disappointment, the body driven by willpower had completely collapsed.
The "finish line" was clearly right there, but Lin Wei truly couldn't take another step...
"What a mess..." Lin Wei laughed, looking up at the rock ceiling covered in stalactites, then turning to look at the vast, clean white world outside the cave. "If Otto knew I'd ended up like this, heh... that would be utterly humiliating."
"You still care about that?" Schrödinger asked.
"Yeah, I was so full of myself back then!" Lin Wei's smile widened. "Fu Hua, Rita, Durandal, the Divine Keys, the Godsbane armor... heh, to deal with me, Otto brought out almost everything he had, but he still couldn't do anything to me. And then, just like that... tsk, I end up like this."
Lin Wei chuckled and summarized, "It's... hilarious!"
The fall from heaven to hell had come too quickly, like a—a surreal comedy.
Separated by a Sea of Quanta and a thin world barrier, the two who had once been at loggerheads were now on opposite ends of the stage, each silently drinking the bitter wine they had brewed together.
"...Is that so? That must have been an unimaginably fierce battle," Schrödinger commented. As a former companion, she was all too familiar with the meticulousness of that battle and the power of Durandal.
"Lying here like this, I can't help but think—if only I had just blown up Otto along with his lair back then, I wouldn't be in this situation now."
Lin Wei raised a hand. The square-shaped object lay quietly in his palm, as if even the Divine Key had lost its former vitality. He laughed. "A little more vengeful wouldn't have been so bad..."
"There may be people in this world who can foresee the future, but that doesn't include you or me. At least, neither of us can see our own destiny," Schrödinger said. "Just as the cat in the box can randomly decide between completely different world lines, for you, since you didn't do as you just said then, even if you could do it all over again, you still wouldn't do it."
"Ha, this cat has really had a bad run of luck in your hands, dying and coming back to life," Lin Wei laughed, then coughed a couple of times before continuing to laugh.
"You're right. Character is destiny. Even if time really did rewind and I had to choose again, I would still spare that guy's life."
"Is that so?" Schrödinger replied, her tone showing no hint of emotion at his agreement.
"Hehe, yeah..."
An enigmatic smile hung on Lin Wei's chapped lips. He turned the object over and over in his hands and sighed. "You know, this box, and the Stigmata on me, were my first spoils of war in that chaotic original world."
Perhaps because there was nothing else to do but chat, or perhaps because he just wanted to talk to someone, Lin Wei began to tell Schrödinger his story, starting from the Honkai sickness that had changed his destiny.
"Sometimes, I think I'm a very unfortunate person, to be dragged into such a terrible vortex. Other times, I think I'm a lucky person. At least I still have a chance to fight for my own life, even if I have to face a Herrscher who destroyed an entire civilization..."
Lin Wei coughed lightly and said with a chuckle, "Oh, the irony. The guy who once defeated a Herrscher with his bare hands, who quelled a sky-covering disaster, who suppressed the arrogant Otto, is now trapped and helpless because of a little cold. Is there anything more ironic in this world?"
"Because you've been pushing yourself from the very beginning, giving it your all with every step. It's not surprising that you're exhausted and have collapsed now," Schrödinger said flatly.
"You are not a Herrscher. A mortal body cannot contend with one. To have held on for this long is already a miracle."
"Heh... is that so? I'll take that as a compliment."
Lin Wei smiled, then sighed softly. "Now... hehe, back then, I was just a desperate person fighting for my life, with no thought for the future. After all, if you think too much, you lose the courage to even face it. Who would have thought that now, I'd be sitting by a bonfire, lamenting about 'a dragon stranded in shallow waters'... hehehe, what an interesting thing..."
Since when did a former "nobody" start to grandly call himself a "hero"?
Perhaps, it was after that tsunami in Manila, Lin Wei thought.
"I have no interest in the future and destiny of humanity, and I certainly don't want to be some 'savior' or 'liberator.' That's why I had no interest in killing Otto, even though our conflict was irreconcilable from the start."
Lin Wei said with a calm expression, "You're right. I am an indifferent person. I watch most things from the sidelines, because most people and things in this world have nothing to do with me, and I don't want them to. Even that so-called 'heroic act' in Manila was just a whim on the spur of the moment."
If he hadn't been angered by Anti-Entropy's stupidity, if Ana hadn't been trapped there, if he hadn't seen person after person, group after group, still fighting when he went to save Ana, he might not have done something so futile in the end.
"That final battle with Otto, the reason I jumped into the Sea of Quanta... heh, I guess you could call it running away?" Lin Wei laughed self-deprecatingly. "The troublemaker is gone. Otto, everyone else, you can play among yourselves now!"
"Is that so?" Schrödinger said noncommittally. "The Sea of Quanta is not as simple as you think."
"Haha, yeah... I've made a fool of myself in front of you, haven't I?" Lin Wei smiled, then his expression slowly sobered. He sighed. "I owe Yae Sakura a life—though she doesn't like me saying that—so I had to come."
He just didn't expect to run into trouble as soon as he arrived...
"Yae Sakura, is that your Stigmata? You've mentioned her many times," Schrödinger said.
"People always have some irreplaceable, important companions. Like Seele to Bronya, or you, Doctor, to Einstein..." Lin Wei said with a smile.
"Otherwise, to live as a loner would be too sad, wouldn't it? Even if the 'human' race is not very likable, there are always some things worth cherishing."
"...Is that so?" Schrödinger said noncommittally. After a moment, she said, "It seems you have some redeeming qualities compared to Otto."
"...I'll take that as a compliment."
Lin Wei pouted. Perhaps he had talked too much. A wave of drowsiness washed over him. He pulled the bearskin tighter around himself. "I'm going to sleep... I hope you can still wake me up like before tomorrow morning..."
As he spoke, he drifted off to sleep, leaving only the crackling bonfire to cast its precious, warm light.
This place was not suitable for human habitation, yet someone had to make a temporary home here.
Outside the cave, the cold wind howled, tree branches swayed, and snow fell with a soft rustle. Inside the narrow bear cave, it was quiet, with only a thin wisp of smoke slowly drifting out of the entrance, to be instantly scattered by the wind.
After a while, perhaps ten minutes, perhaps half an hour, Schrödinger, who had not been there before, appeared in the narrow cave.
Half of her face was elegant, the other half a phantom, a look that was both strange and harmonious.
This was the first time Schrödinger had appeared in her true form in this world bubble. She stood by the "bed" and looked down at Lin Wei's restless sleeping face, lost in thought.
"..."
After a moment, she sighed softly, tightened the rough seams of the bearskin for him, and took off her own cloak to gently cover him.
Then, she walked lightly to the bonfire, added two more pieces of wood, and sat down cross-legged, gazing at the breathtaking scenery outside the cave, falling into an even longer silence.