"This Calypso... her identity is really hard to guess."
"Let me guess... her identity probably isn't some Circe, and she's definitely not some Titan of Reason, right?"
"Hiss... I can't figure it out. I can't figure it out at all."
In the Player World, on the Bilibili platform, within a live stream hosted by "Little Bear"...
From his first encounter with Calypso to his reunion with Trianne, Little Bear had finally pieced together Calypso's true identity.
Now, armed with this knowledge, he immediately started showing off in his live stream.
"As expected of the HSR devs, this is so mind-bending."
"I can't figure it out! I absolutely can't figure out Calypso's identity!"
[Is it really that mind-bending? Calypso's identity is a total mystery. It's too hard to guess!]
[Calypso definitely isn't some Circe, and she's definitely not some Titan of Reason!]
[According to unofficial lore, Calypso is actually a creation of Ruan Mei. She placed her in Amphoreus to monitor Lumina and Herta, preventing them from getting too close. To put it bluntly, she's protecting her wife.]
[Why not preventing her wife and husband from becoming a couple? (laughs)]
[Is Ruan Mei two-timing? Kinda interesting.]
"I feel like it's Lumina who's two-timing," Little Bear said with a chuckle, looking at the comments.
How could Ruan Mei be two-timing? It's more likely Lumina is the one two-timing.
Hmm... wait!
It seems Lumina isn't just two-timing.
Roughly speaking, based on the currently known information, Lumina is juggling over a dozen relationships... and so far, not a single one has capsized. That's impressive.
If only Little Bear were that skilled...
As he thought about it, a super bold idea suddenly popped into Little Bear's mind.
And Little Bear would actually implement this super bold idea.
In fact, Little Bear had been implementing this super bold idea all along.
For example, in Amphoreus, he uniformly called all the men "hubby" and all the women "wifey"...
Monogamy, right?
Absolutely no problem.
Isn't "unification" also "one"?
[To be honest, I'm really looking forward to seeing Lumina's downfall. Are there any masters who can draw or write something about it? The kind where Lumina gets "taken care of" by numerous beautiful girls in turn... You guys know what I mean (lewd).]
[To be blunt, I doubt all those "numerous beautiful girls" combined would be enough for Lumina to handle with one hand...]
[You're right, but she's the character with the most ship pairings in this game: Lumina-Stelle, Lumina-March, Lumina-Herta, Lumina-Fu, Lumina-Qing, Lumina-Aglaea, Lumina-Castorice... etc. It feels like Lumina might be overwhelmed. In that case, I'll just take Lumina for myself (hehe).]
[Go ahead and try. If you're not some beautiful girl, I doubt you'd survive even a day.]
[No worries~ My wifey Little Lumina will protect me~ And I just need to enjoy the warmth she provides in her arms.]
"Lumina is my wife! Go find your own wives and stop trying to steal mine!" Watching these comments, Little Bear, as the host of the live stream, used his "host" advantage to claim Lumina for himself.
Without giving the live stream audience a chance to refute him, he immediately turned his attention to the screen and continued with the story.
As for the constantly scrolling comments in the live stream's comment section, Little Bear paid them no mind, letting their words fizzle out like duds, unable to create any meaningful stir.
"Back to the main topic, the spindle Agy gave me is really amazing. Trianne seems to have found Little Anaxa." On the screen, Trianne stood with her hands on her hips, revealing Anaxa's whereabouts.
"He's near the treetop!"
"His presence is very faint, but it's completely different from those Dryads earlier. He's still alive."
"But... since Trianne is alone and afraid of danger, she didn't fly down to check."
Trianne still remembered Castorice's instructions before she left.
Although Trianne looked and spoke like a child, she was not a child at all.
Trianne knew that if she ignored Castorice's earlier warning and went straight to Anaxa's location upon sensing his presence... if there was no danger, it would be fine, but if she encountered danger, it would only cause unnecessary trouble.
Causing trouble for Cas and the others, causing trouble for Tribbie, Agy, and the others—Trianne didn't want to be the "troublemaker" everyone talked about, so of course she wouldn't be reckless.
"It seems Lady Trianne has remembered our agreement well," Castorice smiled. If only she weren't unable to touch others, Castorice would have loved to pat Trianne's head, just as Lumina had done earlier...
But such a thing might never be possible in her lifetime.
Though Castorice felt sad and melancholic inside, she showed no sign of it on the surface.
Her face still wore the same respectful smile she reserved for Trianne as she continued, "Teacher Anaxa is indeed alive, and he's at the Luminary Throne."
"At least on this matter, Miss Calypso wasn't lying."
"Huh? Calypso? Who's that?" Trianne asked, puzzled by the unfamiliar name.
"She's more or less a ghost, and she just left," Lumina said, looking at Trianne standing with her hands on her hips, her face beaming with pride and self-satisfaction. Lumina's hands were already starting to twitch with anticipation.
So adorable, Lumina found it hard to control herself.
Fortunately, in the end, Lumina managed to suppress this urge with her powerful willpower.
"Whoa!" Trianne gasped upon hearing Lumina's words. The proud and self-satisfied expression on her face vanished instantly, replaced by curiosity.
"A ghost? Trianne's never seen one of those."
"Trianne really wants to meet her, to get to know her, to see this ghost that even Golden Threads can't detect!"
"It's just a shame she left so suddenly..."
A hint of regret tinged Trianne's voice.
"Coming and going without a trace... What is she planning?" Calypso's sudden disappearance had caught Castorice by surprise.
But at least... the clues Calypso had provided about Anaxa were all true.
As for the rest of what she said... well, at least most of it was probably true, right?
"Um... actually, Trianne also found this. Could it be related to the ghost you mentioned?"
Trianne suddenly remembered something and took out a piece of scorched black cloth.
"This is..." Mem stared at the scorched black cloth, feeling it was somehow familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
Feeling everyone's gazes on her, Trianne began to explain: "Trianne found this on a branch a little while ago."
"After finding this scorched black cloth, Trianne used Agy's Golden Threads to search and found similar traces all over The Grove."
"Could everything that happened in The Grove be related to the owner of this cloth?" Trianne asked the group, puzzled.
"Hmm... could this be something Anaxa left behind using [Alchemy] to teach us a lesson?" Mem asked.
Although Mem found the cloth familiar, she couldn't recall where she had seen it before.
"Little Mem, the Black-Robed Swordsman. From the fragments you saw on the Dryad. Remember now?" At this point, Lumina felt there was no need to hide the truth about the Black-Robed Swordsman any longer.
After all, the Black-Robed Swordsman was currently waiting above for Herta to arrive and break his restraints.
The Black-Robed Swordsman, unable to break free from Madam Herta's restraints, was up there crying and wailing. Sob, sob, sob... so pitiful.
"Black-Robed Swordsman?" Hearing this, Mem rested her chin on her hand and thought for a moment. Then, a lightbulb seemed to flash above her head, and she instantly remembered: "That's the information I saw through the Ages back then!"
"Ah..." Castorice sighed softly. Hearing this, she could basically piece together what had happened.
This Black-Robed Swordsman must be the culprit responsible for The Grove's current state.
"Lady Trianne, where is that trace located now?"
In such an unknown situation, the priority should be safety: leave The Grove, return to Okhema, and assemble a powerful team before coming back.
But... the main objective of this trip was to retrieve the [Reason] Coreflame, and the Black-Robed Swordsman's goal... might also be the Coreflame.
If they left now, allowing the Coreflame to fall into the Black-Robed Swordsman's hands or be buried by the Black Tide, it would be a catastrophic disaster for the entire Flame-Chasing Journey...
And the Flame-Chasing Journey was a matter of life and death for Okhema, for all of Amphoreus.
The Coreflame... must not fall into the hands of that Black-Robed Swordsman.
Otherwise, later on, we'll likely have to pay a price several times greater in both effort and cost.
So, even knowing the Black-Robed Swordsman was an extremely dangerous figure, Castorice had to risk her life to retrieve the [Reason] Coreflame.
"Mmm..." Trianne didn't overthink it. Hearing Castorice's words, she pondered for a moment, then lifted her head to look toward a high point and answered truthfully: "It seems to be just a little higher, not far ahead of us."
"Is that so..." Castorice muttered to herself.
Teacher Anaxa and the [Reason] Coreflame were both at the Luminary Throne.
While the Black-Robed Swordsman wasn't necessarily at the Luminary Throne, if they went there, there was a very high chance they'd be discovered...
At that point, they would have to face the Black-Robed Swordsman who came from the Black Tide and nearly annihilated the entire Grove...
"You two." Thinking this, Castorice turned her gaze to Lumina and Herta.
After a moment's hesitation, she finally spoke: "Sister Lumina, Big Sister Herta, what comes next concerns Amphoreus, concerns Okhema's own affairs."
"Stelle and Mem formed an alliance with Aglaea, so..."
Castorice didn't state it explicitly, but her intended meaning was already very clear.
"Mhm, so?" Lumina understood what Castorice was trying to say but pretended not to, asking with a smile, wanting her to be more direct.
"Uh..." Seeing Lumina's counter-question, Castorice froze for a moment.
This wasn't how she'd imagined it...
Lumina and Herta would either leave or stay; how was a counter-question even an option...
Faced with Lumina's question, Castorice was momentarily stunned.
But she quickly recovered.
Taking a deep breath, she met Lumina's gaze and slowly began to speak: "Sister Lumina, Big Sister Herta, what I mean is... mmm."
In her staring contest with Lumina, Castorice managed an impressive record of two seconds!
Under Lumina's smiling gaze, Castorice turned her head, averted her eyes, and her voice grew quieter and quieter until it became completely inaudible.
"Hmm? Little Sister Cas, what did you say? I couldn't hear you."
"Could you please speak a little louder?"
Having decided to befriend the beautiful girl right in front of Herta, Lumina no longer had any reservations.
Trianne was just a child who didn't understand anything.
Stelle was already a friend, Mem was a doll, and Herta was a "Witness."
Under these circumstances, Lumina could act boldly without worrying about what others thought.
Just like now.
In front of everyone, Lumina leaned close to Castorice, staring intently at her.
At this moment, the distance between Lumina and Castorice was so small that a gentle inhale would be enough to catch the scent of each other's bodies...
Thump! Thump! Thump!
"Sis... Sister Lumina!"
Feeling the warmth radiating from Lumina's body, a warmth more comforting and pleasant than anything else, Castorice suddenly felt an urge to embrace her, to rest in her arms.
But this was just a fleeting thought; the flaw of [Death] made it impossible for Castorice to do such a thing... that was one reason.
And the other one...
Was the shyness in Castorice's heart, now more intense and overwhelming than any other feeling or emotion.
Too close, too close...
She didn't even have the strength to meet Lumina's gaze, and now Lumina was suddenly this close. Castorice couldn't handle it at all.
Panicked, she stumbled back several steps, quickly putting a safe distance between herself and Lumina.
About five meters apart...
Lumina: ...
Lumina knew Castorice would retreat, but she never expected her to back away so far. Five meters. The corner of Lumina's mouth twitched, feeling a mix of speechlessness and displeasure.
In that situation, anyone else would have probably hugged her, right? Who would retreat five meters like Castorice?
Very well, Lumina was "angry"!
If Castorice's goal was to get her attention, then Lumina had to admit, she had succeeded.
She had successfully captured her attention.
Since you're retreating, don't blame me, Lumina, for not holding back.
No one can refuse me, Lumina. The more you refuse, the more I like it!
You refuse my approach, so I'll insist on getting closer.
I'll insist on pulling you into my arms