"After all, you just accepted my proposal. As your fiancé, isn't it perfectly reasonable for me to take my fiancée's first kiss?"
"In fact, wouldn't it be weirder if a couple on the verge of marriage both still had their first kiss?"
Caelus raised an eyebrow with great interest, looking up at the girl before him.
Her petite, lovely face was like a sugar-coated milk candy, her round apple cheeks glowing with a pearlescent light. With a flutter of her eyelashes, she could blend innocence and cunning into a bewitching cocktail.
Beneath her sakura-pink eyes were pea-sized pink dots, as if someone had gently dabbed them with a rouge-tipped brush.
It was somewhat similar to Japanese kabuki makeup, which traces its roots back to the huadian makeup of the Tang Dynasty in Shenzhou.
"But, my dear you already took back the engagement gift you gave me Does it still count~?"
Sparkle's large eyes blinked bewitchingly, her voice an enchanting, cutesy lilt.
But Sparkle's version of this was different from the norm; it had a certain quality that could easily go to a man's head, inspiring an impulse to... lend a helping hand.
"Of course it counts! My word is my bond!"
"But, my dear~"
Sparkle swayed her upper body cutely like a roly-poly doll. Her fingers brushed over the mask on her head, and her form instantly changed into that of Stelle.
"The person you just proposed to was your sister, Stelle, wasn't it?"
Her tone shifted to the forlorn sorrow of Lin Daiyu.
"Sister? What sister? And who's Stelle? Never heard of her!"
Caelus furrowed his brow as if he had amnesia, performing a lightning-fast disassociation.
"There has only ever been one person I love!"
Caelus lifted his head, gazing at Sparkle, and spoke in a solemn and passionate voice:
"I, who am never the one to take initiative, believe only in the love at first sight between two souls. The moment I realized it, I knew you felt the same—your passion sparked a long-dormant impulse in me. I wear a mask not to hide, but to have one more face just for you..."
Sparkle cupped her cute little chin in her palms, her fingers slightly curled, as if holding a freshly peeled sticky rice ball.
She listened to Caelus's words as if watching a play, her pink pupils half-closed, the tips of her twin-tails swishing with the rhythm of her nodding head.
"I should have pretended to meet you by chance, yet I despise such calculating deception. I should have cleverly used the threads between people to circuitously approach you, yet I agonize over such deliberate, insidious manipulation..."
"I finally understood. And so I appeared here, to burst into your sight unstoppably, to ignore the gazes of others as I always do, to make you fidget and squirm, to make you pretend to be calm and ask..."
"Will you marry me?"
"My dear, you were amazing just amazing!"
Sparkle clapped her hands together. "Such moving words of love You made my little heart go pitter-patter!"
Sparkle clutched her chest, as if she could barely contain the wild deer leaping within.
"Say a little more~!"
Sparkle pleaded in her signature charmingly coquettish voice, its lethality truly terrifying.
"I stand guard outside the chambers of your heart. The reckless have left, the greedy have left, the lonely have left, but I am still waiting... I can wait until life reaches its end, I can wait until the story turns its final page, I can wait until those feelings have burned down to nothing but embers, because I love you, far more than you could ever imagine!"
"Really?" Sparkle's voice was filled with delight.
"Truer than true!" Caelus's expression was incredibly grave, like a husband making a vow to his wife.
"Who do you love?" Sparkle asked, her smile brimming with meaning.
At this moment, staring at her for more than five seconds would throw one into a paradox: was the lingering baby fat on her cheeks more innocent, or was the arch of her eyebrow more wicked?
"I love you!" Caelus declared, his tone firm and decisive.
"And who is 'you'?"
Sparkle winked at Caelus. In the instant her eyelashes cast a barred shadow over her iris, her entire face was covered by a red-and-white fox mask.
"You are Sparkle."
"And who am 'I'?"
Sparkle's hand slid gently across Caelus's face. As her fair, jade-like hand passed over him, the Elation persona mask he rarely took off was drawn out by the power of Elation.
The next second, the solemn expression on Caelus's face vanished as the mask appeared, replaced by an irrepressible grin.
"I am Sparkle," Caelus said playfully.
"You're sure about that?"
"One hundred percent certain."
"Is there any possibility you're not?"
"There's a possibility, but it's not very likely."
"..."
After playing this nested-doll game for what felt like an eternity, Sparkle was the first to break, giggling like a little chick. The fox mask on her face returned to its place on her head like a stream of light.
Caelus began to laugh as well.
The joyous laughter drifted to every corner of the Moon-Gazing Pavilion, only slowly dying down after a long while.
"My, oh my This trip was absolutely worth it!"
"After Sampo went back to the tavern last time, he couldn't stop praising 'me'. I've also seen the recordings of his 'stage play'—swapping out the Grand Guardian's daughter, stirring the stagnant waters of Belobog, pushing the world to the brink of a cliff, and then doing a complete one-eighty to become a hero."
"Hmm, for that drama, I give you 97 Sparkle points!"
"Sounds like a high score, but hey, it's been a while now. Shouldn't we get up and play? The ground is a bit cold. Aren't you uncomfortable holding that pose?"
The two had been chatting and messing around for a while, yet they remained in the same position: Caelus on the ground, with Sparkle straddling him.
And it wasn't just any ordinary straddle.
Sparkle's snowy-white legs were clamped around Caelus's neck, her calves crossed. Her exquisite, art-like feet, shod in red-stringed geta, were twisted inward, the tips of her small feet touching.
Her crotch, thighs, calves, and feet formed two irregular diamond shapes with terrifying flexibility.
Her thighs and half of her calves were like the cangue worn by prisoners in ancient times, locking Caelus's neck, while the other half of her calves and her feet served as the fulcrum supporting her head and lower body.
Caelus took a few deep breaths, blowing open the lotus-leaf-like hem of her skirt.
"This is a position that only my dear gets to enjoy!"
Sparkle extended a finger and poked Caelus on the forehead, pushing his head back as it started to bury itself in her pelvic region.
"But, it is getting a little ticklish Just like my heart!"
Her perky bottom shifted back, moving from his neck to his chest. Pressing her hands on Caelus's head, Sparkle let out a 'hup!' and leaped off him.
Under the force from Sparkle, Caelus's head fell backward. Normally, it would have slammed hard onto the ground.
But Caelus had been ready the moment Sparkle moved her little butt. Tensing his waist, he reached out and grabbed her soft calf.
As a result, the backward-leaping Sparkle lost her balance. She could have adjusted, but chose not to.
"Oof!"
Sparkle, looking like a frail and easily-pushed-over loli, tumbled to the ground and whined resentfully:
"So rough on our first time, you even made me sprain my ankle, you bad boy~!"
She steadied herself with one hand on the ground, but extended the other toward Caelus, clearly expecting him to pull her up.
"I'll be gentler next time."
Without a moment's hesitation, Caelus extended his hand. Sparkle took it and got up from the ground.
"Mmm-hmm Okay, okay!"
She bounced happily over to the connected benches inside the pavilion. Sparkle swung her dangling legs, and as if suddenly remembering something, she once again extended her small, boneless hand toward Caelus.
"Hey I almost let my dear trick me. Where's my engagement gift?"
"Are you sure you want this gift?"
Caelus picked up the 'crystal' that had fallen to the side, tossing it up and catching it.
"Huh, that's amazing."
Although the sight of him playing with garbage was cringe-worthy, there was clearly no energy fluctuation from Caelus's hand, nor any special power, yet none of the garbage stuck to him at all.
"No way, I don't want it."
Sparkle pinched her nose and made a super exaggerated retching motion.
"My dear~ should save this gift for that little gray-hair."
"I want something else~!"
"Then how about me? You can play with me however you want. I'm your personal property now."
"Really?"
Her large sakura-pink eyes lit up as Sparkle showed a delighted expression.
"Really!"
Taking off his persona mask, Caelus nodded earnestly to show he wasn't lying.
"But, since I'm giving you such a valuable gift, shouldn't you give me something in return?"
"My dear~ what do you want?" Sparkle giggled.
"I'm giving you myself, so of course you should give me yourself in return! That way it's an even trade, right? How about it?" Caelus said with a grin.
"Okay Okay!"
Sparkle nodded repeatedly, taking tiny steps to circle around Caelus before reaching out and linking her arm tightly with his, as if hugging her personal property.
"So you're mine now?"
"Hey now."
Caelus held up his other hand. "My dear, I said I'd give 'a self' to you, not 'myself' to you?"
"'A self'... and 'myself'... what do you mean?" Her brow twitched slightly as Sparkle asked, her smile still radiant.
"I mean Stelle, the one you were just pretending to be. You didn't really think she was my sister, did you? No way, right? There's no way the great Detective Sparkle didn't notice, right?"
Caelus's voice became theatrical and affected.
Her delicate eyebrows arched slightly, and Sparkle's expression became profound. "Well now~ this is interesting."
"My dear~ you really are full of surprises!"
So those two gray-hairs were actually the same person. No wonder Caelus saw through her disguise so quickly. A clone?
Doesn't seem like it...
"I'll give you Stelle as an engagement gift. You can go get her yourself. Now, isn't it time for my return gift?"
"The great Sparkle never goes back on her word! My dear you have to be gentle with me~!"
Sparkle raised her hands, pressing her wrists together as if they were bound by a rope.
During this, a subtle change occurred in Sparkle's pupils; the sakura blossom within them bloomed.
The moment it bloomed, she completed a swap between her real body and an illusion. The Sparkle left behind was merely an energy clone.
However...
Catching Sparkle completely off guard, a gorgeous black and red tachi materialized in Caelus's hand, ruthlessly piercing through the clone Sparkle's chest.
Crimson particles began to spread from the chest wound, and red-gradient feathers drifted down from the air. Caelus pressed his palm to Sparkle's face, placing the black-and-gold persona mask on her, which then faded from view.
"Now, I'm really Sparkle~!"
A cunning light glinted in his eyes as Caelus-Sparkle looked mockingly in the direction where the real Sparkle was hiding.
"..."
The pupils of the real Sparkle constricted slightly in shock. She then slowly materialized, looking at Caelus and her clone in disbelief.
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