—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Boothill: "Son of a biscuit."
Boothill: "You're the only one with this ability?"
Boothill: "Brother, you're talking pretty wild. Do you really take yourself for an Aeon?"
Boothill: "Have you lived in the dreamscape for so long that it's given you this illusion of omnipotence?"
Furina de Fontaine: "Couldn't tell before, but Mr. Sunday can be quite full of himself…"
Qingque: "Being full of himself is fine. One good beating and he'll snap right out of it!"
Stelle: "Got it, we're the ones to give him that beating!"
Stelle: "Don't worry, watch me beat him awake from his daydream!!"
March 7th: "Uh… we were huffing and puffing just fighting Aventurine."
March 7th: "Fighting Sunday… that's probably even harder, right?"
Hu Tao: "Aventurine has its Cornerstone!"
Hu Tao: "He's basically one-tenth of an Emanator, at least."
Hu Tao: "But looking at Mr. Sunday right now, he hasn't shown that kind of combat power!"
Lumine: "But… as the final boss of Penacony, there's no reason Sunday would be weaker than Aventurine, right?"
Paimon: "Seeing Mr. Sunday so calm and unhurried…"
Paimon: "Feels like he hasn't even used his full strength…"
Stelle: "Don't worry, as long as he's not a real Emanator, we can go toe-to-toe with him!"
Stelle: "Just trust in the strength of our Astral Express crew!"
....
『 [ You intend to resurrect a dead Aeon? ]
[ No one has ever accomplished this. ]
Himeko listened to Sunday's words, feeling that the purpose of Sunday and these remnants of the Order was to resurrect the Aeon of Order.
[ Since you're interested, Ms. Himeko, let's stop beating around the bush. ]
[ I have always believed that people can understand each other through peaceful means. ]
[ I am willing to share the aspirations of the Order's followers, so you can make better judgments for the Astral Express, Penacony, and this universe. ]
[ Words are pale and powerless, difficult to depict that ideal appearance… ]
[ So follow me, everyone. ]
[ Let us retrace the path we came from and see where it leads. ] 』
『 ....』
—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Asta: "Resurrect… a dead Aeon?"
Asta: "Are you kidding me?"
Asta: "In the entire universe, who has the ability to resurrect a dead Aeon?"
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "The answer is, none for now."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "Whether such a miracle will appear in the future is another matter."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "But as of now, I have never heard of such a thing happening."
Furina de Fontaine: "Sunday and the remnants of the Order, they want to resurrect the Aeon of Order?"
Furina de Fontaine: "Do they even know how?"
Zhongli: "But the Aeon of Order was absorbed by the Aeon of Harmony."
Zhongli: "To resurrect the Aeon of Order, wouldn't one need to peel it away from the Aeon of Harmony?"
Welt Yang: "In principle, yes."
Welt Yang: "Perhaps… this is why the remnants of the Order are lurking in the territory of Harmony?"
Lumine: "Peeling Order from Harmony… is this really something a mortal can do?"
Aventurine: "Forget mortals, even Emanators can't do that."
Stelle: "Stop guessing, didn't Sunday say it before?"
Stelle: "He doesn't want to resurrect the Aeon of Order; he wants to use Order to do something else."
March 7th: "I just feel like what he wants to do might be even more outrageous than resurrecting an Aeon…"
....
『 [ Huh, why did he disappear? ]
After Sunday finished speaking, his figure vanished on the spot.
This surprised March 7th.
[ Welcome. This is not any corner of the Penacony dreamscape. ]
[ It is my inner world. ]
[ The scenery before you hasn't changed because your consciousness has extracted similar concepts to fill in the gaps. ]
Sunday's voice rang in everyone's ears again.
[ Who just shows off their inner world like that… ]
Hearing Sunday's explanation, Stelle couldn't help but complain.
[ Exactly… ]
March 7th also felt speechless.
[ You… did you do the same thing to Welt? ]
Himeko asked curiously.
[ This is a form of tuning. It's more effective, but also more taxing. ]
[ Stelle has experienced it before; she should understand. ]
[ Through tuning, you can more intuitively understand my emotions, which means I will have no secrets from you. ]
[ Next, I would like to invite you to watch the big screen. The road we came from starts here. ] 』
『 ....』
—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Stelle: "Show their inner world?"
Stelle: "Good grief, you really are showing us everything!"
Stelle: "I mean, aren't you afraid of social death?!"
Hotaru: "Uh… his resolute openness is truly astonishing…"
Hotaru: "So this is what it really means to have no reservations…"
March 7th: "Outrageous… you couldn't pay me to let someone enter my inner world!"
March 7th: "Because that would definitely lead to social death in reality!!"
March 7th: "How does he even dare to do this?!"
Zhongli: "Although our philosophies and paths differ, Mr. Sunday does indeed possess the character of a gentleman."
Furina de Fontaine: "Treating people with sincerity, rather than just spouting trash talk and fighting at the drop of a hat."
Furina de Fontaine: "Sure enough… the charm of this kind of villain puts one-dimensional villains to shame!"
Furina de Fontaine: "Hmm… when I design scripts in the future, I should aim for this direction too!"
Welt Yang: "Hmm, I can tell, Mr. Sunday truly wants us to understand his philosophy."
Welt Yang: "In this regard, he spares no effort."
Acheron: "He is a steadfast seeker of the path; there is no need to doubt that."
Acheron: "It's just that his choices are destined to lead to a bad ending."
Robin: "Brother… is this worth it?"
Qingque: "Asking that is pointless."
Qingque: "If he thought it wasn't worth it, he wouldn't be doing it…"
....
『 [ From here, you will see many choices I have made. ]
[ I have selected a portion to share with you. ]
[ I think after experiencing shared hardships, you will surely understand my thoughts. ]
[ Let's begin. ]
[ The first choice concerns a story about a fledgling bird. ]
[ This story happened when Robin and I were very young. ]
[ We were victims of the Stellaron disaster. Gopher Wood of the Family—the future Dreammaster of Penacony—saw that we two siblings were helpless and adopted us. ]
[ After that, Robin and I spent a relatively carefree time. ]
[ One day after dinner, my sister and I accidentally discovered a lonely little Charmony Dove in Gopher Wood's garden. ]
[ The chick was still young, its feathers hadn't even grown in, and it couldn't sing. ]
[ When we found it, it was lying in the grass, dying, seemingly abandoned by its parents. ]
[ We immediately decided to build a nest for it. ]
[ But after thinking about it, that winter was very cold, the wind in the garden at night was strong, and there were many venomous insects and wild beasts… ]
[ Undoubtedly, if we left the chick in the garden, it would never survive until spring. ]
[ So I suggested taking it back, placing it on the wooden stand by the window, and asking an adult to build a birdcage. ]
[ We agreed that when it was strong enough to spread its wings and soar, we would release it back into the sky. ]
[ But unfortunately, we never expected that the fate of this bird was already set long before that— ]
[ What kind of end it met depended entirely on our one thought. ]
[ Now, I will hand the right to choose to you. ]
[ Facing this scene, how would you choose? ]
[ Will you take our original plan and use cushions to build a nest for the Charmony Dove on the spot? ]
[ Or choose to build a birdcage for it and carefully raise the bird in the warm house? ]
[ I await your answer. ] 』
『 ....』
—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Stelle: "Here it comes! The place where the dream began!"
Stelle: "The source of all current tragedies!"
Stelle: "The scene of saving the little Charmony Dove is replayed!"
March 7th: "Ahem… the little Charmony Dove would like to say it's not taking the blame for this."
March 7th: "It was obviously Sunday who painted himself into a corner."
Qingque: "Tsk, if this bird knew its encounter would become the fuse for the two siblings' ideological divergence, it would definitely scream injustice, right?"
Furina de Fontaine: "Speaking of which, is Mr. Sunday trying to use empathy and putting ourselves in his shoes to turn the Astral Express crew?"
Furina de Fontaine: "What a sincere approach!"
Silver Wolf: "Sincerity is the ultimate move."
Silver Wolf: "But unfortunately, this ultimate move isn't very effective on the Express crew."
Nahida: "So… what will everyone on the Express crew actually choose?"
Nahida: "A bit curious."
Stelle: "I protest, why is there no third option?"
Stelle: "You're forcing me to choose between two?"
Stelle: "Can't I choose not to save it?"
Hanabi: "Wuwu, little grey-haired one, you won't even save such a cute bird… you're really… just amazing~."
March 7th: "What kind of heart of stone is that?"
Stelle: "That's a heart of stone?"
Stelle: "If I chose to let it be, wouldn't I be the ultimate big bad villain!"
Qingque: "Good grief, it really has to be you, being so inhuman."
Paimon: "Pfft, as expected of Ms. Stelle, she really has so many ghost ideas."
Lumine: "Hehe, Ms. Stelle is just joking. If she really encountered something like this, she'd be more proactive than anyone, right?"
Stelle: "Oh.~."
Stelle: "My sister from another mother, you know me best!"
Stelle: "I love playing with birds, especially pulling on Origami Birds!"
Stelle: "So, encountering a scene like this, even if it's not an Origami Bird, I'd still save it."
Stelle: "And then, make it a music box every day, singing for me!"
Guinaifen: "Sister, are you raising a tool-bird here?"
Stelle: "That's a way of putting it. I saved its li; it's good enough that I didn't make it work like a horse or ox. Shouldn't it sing for me to repay me?"
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "Excellent, you have sound values."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "Not overly pitying others, nor losing the warmth of being human, you maintain both in a balanced range."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "I'll give you a point."
Stelle: "Did you hear that?"
Stelle: "The famous Professor Ratio gave me a point!"
Stelle: "Why aren't you guys learning from my good morals!"
Fu Xuan: "There is an old saying in the Xianzhou, 'A drop of water in need shall be returned with a spring of gratitude.'"
Fu Xuan: "From this perspective, Stelle's concept is correct."
Sampo Koski: "Hey, then old Sampo has to play devil's advocate."
Sampo Koski: "How do you know this bird even wants to be saved by you?"
Stelle: "I think it wants to, so it wants to."
Stelle: "I want what I want, I don't care what it thinks."
Robin: "This… doesn't this just mean not giving the bird the right to choose?"
Stelle: "But when you two siblings chose to save it back then, did you ask for its opinion?"
Stelle: "Didn't you also impose your own thoughts on it?"
Stelle: "So, do you understand now?"
Stelle: "People always impose their thoughts on other living beings unconsciously."
Stelle: "As for whether the other party wants it or not, most people won't consider it."
Stelle: "At this moment, Sunday is making this mistake."
Stelle: "Isn't this just another kind of 'I am the only one who is right'?"
March 7th: "Good grief, going in circles, you're actually spouting big logic here?"
March 7th: "You… your understanding of human nature is quite profound!"
Zhongli: "Different paths, no common language."
Zhongli: "Mr. Sunday seems to be practicing his own ideals, building a paradise."
Zhongli: "But in essence, he is just pursuing his own Dao."
Zhongli: "And those who do not align with his Dao…"
Venti: "Hehe, then they just have to be 'kacha'-ed!"
Aventurine: "Ha, what a naked reality."
Aventurine: "So, people are born with different minds, how can one talk about building an equal paradise?"
....
『 After Sunday's words fell, Stelle started discussing the answer with everyone.
[ That guy threw such a question at us without rhyme or reason. What exactly does he mean? ]
[ But answering isn't impossible… ]
[ If it were me… Had I probably chosen to build a birdcage for the little Charmony Dove? ]
[ After all, if it's left on the spot, it will definitely be hurt by wild beasts… that would be too pitiful for the little bird. ]
Stelle walked in front of March 7th and gave this answer.
[ Hmm, you're right. ]
[ Protecting the little bird is everyone's responsibility! ]
[ I'll go ask Ms. Himeko what she thinks. ]
Stelle said goodbye to March 7th and walked in front of Himeko.
[ It seems he doesn't intend to imprison us. ]
[ If it's just a trivia game, it doesn't hurt to play along with him. ]
[ Returning to the question itself, I personally would choose to build a birdcage for the little Charmony Dove. ]
[ No special reason. ]
[ I just feel that every fledgling has the right to fly in the sky… ]
[ But if it doesn't live to that point, it's out of the question. ]
Himeko gave her answer.
[ Ms. Himeko makes a lot of sense. ]
[ Save its life first, then there's a future. ]
[ Then I'll go ask Hotaru what she thinks. ]
Stelle walked to Hotaru.
[ Still can't see through his intentions for now… ]
[ If I only look at the question, I should choose to build a birdcage for the little Charmony Dove… ]
[ Even if it's to be released back into the sky, it has to be able to spread its wings and soar. ]
[ If it's left on the spot… I'm afraid it will never have the chance to fly in the sky again. ]
Hotaru, Himeko, and March 7th's choices were the same. 』
『 ....』
(Did our Stelle get possessed?)