Chapter 1 World Quiet

Closing the door behind them, the world seemed to quiet down, even the sound of the stream outside the courtyard seemed to soften.

The two walked along the corridor leading to the living room, with Talia leading Sigrid forward.

The indoor lights were soft, illuminating the clean corridor, and the air was filled with a faint aroma of grapefruit, rosemary, and bergamot.

The entire fragrance was like a soft, whispering movement, both comfortable and focused, and the harmonious and balanced environment instantly put people at ease.

Sigrid silently stared at the gray-haired woman, sniffing lightly.

If it weren't for the absence of Kaliyera's unique scent, Sigrid would almost have been convinced that the other person was Kaliyera.

This gray-haired woman, despite looking different, had a voice and temperament that made her feel like she was in another world, completely captivating her gaze.

"Have you had lunch?"

Talia led the violet-eyed girl into the first floor of the mansion, stopped, and asked softly, with a hint of probing.

As if wanting to get close to her, yet being cautious.

"No."

Sigrid was startled, stopped trying to smell the other person's scent, touched her stomach, and replied.

After all, this was someone else's wife, and secretly sniffing her scent felt a bit like a crime.

Indeed, she had been rushing around since coming out of the Shadow World.

Crossing from South Wantina Territory to Brilda through the space gate, then confirming her new identity on the second floor of the Brilda Opera House, and then arriving at St. Cri Monastery, without even having time to consider lunch.

"Why don't you eat at our house before you leave? I happen to be cooking."

Talia decided simply.

Since she was a subordinate of her old friend Yabo, she could be considered a junior from their old Demon World, and helping to take care of a young child from a dimensional branch was no problem.

"Is that really okay? I'm just here to complete a mission, and now I'm getting a free meal at your house. I feel so embarrassed."

Sigrid didn't expect Professor Landry's wife to be so generous.

She couldn't feel any hostility from the other person.

That feeling of 'mother' was getting stronger and stronger, about to overflow.

"I usually make a lot of food anyway, adding a set of tableware is nothing. Eat more later, don't be shy."

Talia pulled at the kitchen door and said.

But she found the kitchen door locked.

And locked from the inside.

"Then I won't be polite, thank you!"

Sigrid bowed gratefully.

Talia tried to pull open the kitchen door again.

"Tata, I'll do the cooking! I'll bring it out to you later!"

The cat boss shouted from inside the kitchen door, her voice particularly tense, changing from a childish voice to a teenage girl's voice, even forcing herself to get rid of her verbal tic, meow.

"..."

It was the first time Talia had heard the cat boss speak without meowing.

"Eh, is someone cooking in the kitchen?"

Sigrid asked curiously.

She felt that the voice was a bit familiar, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard it before.

"It's the cook we hired, Miss Yami."

Talia thought for a while and said.

The cat boss was sometimes quite shy around strangers.

Now that Talia was Landry's wife, it was reasonable for the cat boss to act as their Landry family's helper.

Since the cat boss didn't want to see guests, Talia wouldn't make things difficult for her.

Or rather, since the cat boss had taken over the cooking for lunch today, she could take a break and chat with this cute little dimensional branch girl who had come to their house.

"So, you're called Tata? Can I call you that?"

Sigrid, based on the shout from the kitchen just now, figured out the name of the woman in front of her and asked familiarly.

"It's kind of... a nickname, but you can call me Tata if you want."

Talia walked into the living room, looking back at the dimensional branch girl.

She originally didn't want to use this half-true, half-false name in the Cri Empire.

It was a bit too informal.

However, she felt an inexplicable sense of tolerance towards this girl, and seeing the other person's excited eyes, she agreed.

"Tata..."

Sigrid murmured the other person's name.

"Oh, right, I shouldn't call you Auntie, I should call you Sister, you're so young and so beautiful, and you're Professor Landry's wife. You must be loved and welcomed by the students at St. Cri Monastery, because you look so much like my mother, so I accidentally called you..."

Sigrid remembered something and quickly apologized.

"Call me whatever you want, I don't mind."

Talia's lips parted slightly, her expression carrying a strange glow.

Hearing the child's sincere words, she realized that everything the child said was true.

If other teenage girls called her Auntie, she might mind, but it was completely okay for this child to call her that. She even couldn't help but imagine how wonderful it would be if she had a child like this calling her Mom.

"Is your mother doing well these days?"

Talia inquired further.

The girl actually just happened to say that she looked like her mother, which made her heart subtly flutter.

"She... is no longer here."

Sigrid lowered her eyes, saying with a sense of sorrow.

Having grown up in an orphanage in the Northern Continent, she had never seen what her mother looked like. Only the Kaliyera in her dreams perfectly matched her fantasy of a mother. After spending two dreamlike weeks with Kaliyera in the Shadow World, she had almost convinced herself that Kaliyera was her only mother.

However, Kaliyera had disappeared tens of thousands of years ago.

She had to accept this fact that she didn't want to accept. Perhaps she could only see Kaliyera again in the Gentle Township, but it was impossible to see her in this world.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you think of sad things."

Talia looked at the child's appearance, and a pang of sadness arose in her heart, with an unknown emotion surging up in her body.

"Actually, I don't know why, but when I saw Miss Tata for the first time, I felt that you looked especially like my mother... It might be very rude to say this, but I swear I'm not lying."

Sigrid stared into the gray-haired beauty's eyes and confessed.

She also couldn't figure it out.

Why did she feel that every smile and frown of Miss Tata, even her melancholic appearance, was exactly the same as Kaliyera's, so gentle.

"I believe you, I know you're not lying."

Talia was stared at by those sincere and bright violet eyes, and she felt even more distressed. She finally couldn't help but hug the girl in front of her whom she felt so sorry for.

She had verified that everything the other person said was true.

It was eerily coincidental.

She was hallucinating the other person as her daughter, and the other person was also hallucinating her as her mother.

Was this really the Goddess of Destiny manifesting, allowing two lives that needed each other to meet?

"Miss Tata..."

Sigrid dazedly felt the other person's warmth and softness, and gently placed her hand on the other person's back.

It was exactly like Kaliyera, as if it was Kaliyera's body.

At this close distance, if the other person also had that unique scent, she might feel disoriented, believing that her Kaliyera had been resurrected in this world.

How could there be such similar people?

Sigrid was still stunned.

Although it wasn't good to hug someone else's wife like this, her selfishness made her want to keep smelling the faint fragrance on Miss Tata's body, the mellow fragrance of maternal love that she couldn't resist.

After a few seconds, Sigrid reluctantly let go of the gray-haired woman, as if leaving a warm bed early in the winter morning.

"Miss Tata, you must be a good mother. Do you and your husband have children?"

Sigrid sincerely praised and asked.

Professor Landry was truly blessed to be able to marry such a Kaliyera-like woman.

Having this kind of wife was like having everything in life.

Sigrid hadn't seen any children in this house.

It seemed that only a married couple lived in such a large mansion.

Talia's cheeks flushed as she turned her head away.

"I, he and I don't have that plan yet..."

She murmured.

"Do you like children?"

Sigrid asked her again.

"Probably, I wouldn't dislike them."

Talia thought that whether a child was as well-behaved as Hugh, as lively as Sigrey, or as mischievous as Lanch, they would all be very cute.

"Then why don't you hurry up?"

Sigrid bumped Talia with her shoulder, squinting and smiling as she whispered.

"No, no, we, he..."

Talia became flustered and couldn't speak clearly.

She was now regretting bragging to this child a bit. Even though they had just met, chatting with her felt like a long-awaited reunion, and she subconsciously treated her as her closest person.

She was actually just pretending to be his fiancée, not a wife in the true sense of the word.

Have children?

What would she have to do?

Talia's head was spinning just thinking about having descendants with Lanch, and her cheeks were burning like fire.

"Could it be that you haven't..."

Sigrid seemed to see through the situation of this newlywed couple and asked in surprise.

"He and I sleep together every night these past few months!"

Talia retorted with a red face.

Just as a way to play the role of Lanch's fiancée and not be seen through, she had to put on a brave face.

She was telling the truth. Ever since she became Lanch's Life-Bound Card, she would turn into a magic card and stay in Lanch's soul space when he was resting. Wasn't that the same as a married couple living together every day?

"Can you tell me about your romantic love affair?"

Sigrid moved closer and raised her eyebrows as she asked.

She had never seen Kaliyera blush, but seeing the state of the gray-haired woman in front of her made her imagine it a bit.

"W-Well, we often went on dates, sometimes held hands, and then he hugged me..."

Talia felt both shy and sweet just thinking about the past in the City of Flowers, Pareo.

...

Second floor.

"Seriously, that Toliado didn't even confirm with me first before letting the little girl come over..."

Lanch muttered to himself in distress, rushing to find Talia to tell her to properly entertain the dimensional branch girl later.

He walked down the stairs.

He had just been communicating with Toliado halfway when Toliado seemed to have been arrested by the Empire's Special Operations Division. He didn't know what he was monitoring, but he was directly surrounded by the Empire's Special Operations Division, who had been lying in wait, and then taken away as a suspect.

"What exactly is the surprise Toliado mentioned? He didn't even finish his sentence."

It was said that he had made a special trip from far away, and now he had to send her back. He felt too embarrassed.

Suddenly.

He heard laughter and conversation from the first floor.

It was surprisingly harmonious.

Immediately afterward, Lanch saw an apple floating toward him with telekinesis.

It seemed to be flying out from the crack in the kitchen door on the first floor, and then the cat boss did her best to send it to the stairwell.

The apple had a carving by the cat boss.

It was written in two big characters—

Run.

"..."

Lanch held the apple, looked at it in confusion, but there was no other information.

"What could be the matter?"

Lanch took a bite of the apple and walked down, juggling the apple freely.

What danger could there be in this house? Talia was clearly on the first floor, and he could hear her happy voice.

Lanch walked out from the corner of the stairwell.

He saw Talia standing in the living room with a light-haired girl with a violet eye having a pleasant conversation.

They seemed to have hit it off, holding hands and chatting.

"So, there's a guest."

Lanch thought, with a smile on his face, and raised his hand to greet the dimensional branch girl.

"Hello, I am Professor Landry. I was on a communication upstairs and couldn't entertain you right away."

Lanch said cheerfully and generously.

Next to the living room dining table, Talia shifted her gaze from the girl in front of her to the stairwell.

"My husband has come down. He's actually just so-so, not as great as the Empire's Magical Engineering Society makes him out to be. I only married him unwillingly."

Talia released the girl's hands, saying with a hint of showiness,

"We'll eat together later."

Although she didn't usually think much of this little disciple of hers, it seemed that having him as her husband was quite respectable.

The fair-haired, violet-eyed girl turned around and looked towards the figure at the stairwell.

"Lan..."

She was about to call out Professor Landry's name, but stopped.

Her breath paused, and then she took another breath, her eyes widening.

There was one person in this world whom she could recognize without any need for identification, even if they were turned to ashes.

That aura was too familiar, and that temperament was unique.

Sigrid's eyes trembled, and she couldn't believe it.

She had imagined ten thousand scenarios of reuniting with the Holy Son in the Southern Continent.

But she never expected that when they met again, he would be someone else's husband.

With a thud, the apple in Lanch's hand fell to the ground, rolling round and round.

Lanch's pupils also shook.

In the entire living room, only the sound of air flowing remained, but none of the three people moved.

It was a still image.

Only Talia moved first, looking at the two of them.

She didn't understand why Lanch and this child seemed to have their brains crash after meeting each other.

Talia waved her hand in front of Sigrid's eyes, but couldn't change her gaze that was staring straight at her husband.

Until a long time had passed.

"Side, why are you here?"

Lanch squeezed out a smile, trying to maintain his composure, and asked.

His brain was working rapidly, seeming to sort out some of the cause and effect that could explain all of this.

If Sigrid had crossed the sea to the Southern Continent, she would most likely contact the channels of the Revival Church, which would probably reach out to the Dimensional Branch.

And Toliado, the Cardinal Bishop of the Dimensional Branch, knew the situation in the Northern Continent, so he naturally knew the story of McCarthy and Sigrid!

Lanch's memory seemed to return to the night a month ago.

Every word that Toliado had said in the theater that night began to float to Lanch's ears like a demonic sound, echoing in his mind.

"!"

Lanch understood everything, and swallowed nervously.

It seemed that something big was about to happen.

"You really can't underestimate the Holy Son. How long has it been since you turned around and ran to the Southern Continent, and you've already married such a good wife."

Sigrid said almost word by word, reaching the end of her sentence.

"Wait, wife? No, it's fiancée, no, it's not fiancée either..."

Lanch was about to explain, but saw that Talia's eyes had gradually become stern.

It seemed that his attempt to deny her status as his wife in front of outsiders had made her very angry.

In the moment of Lanch's brief pause, he heard Sigrid's sneer.

"What's wrong? Are you so concerned about her opinion that you can't deny it anymore? She tastes pretty good, doesn't she? So good that you have to be with her every night, not wanting to be apart for even a moment?"

Sigrid asked Lanch, keeping a smile on her face.

She repeated the words that Tata had just told her, understanding Lanch's look just now.

"No, it's not like that."

Lanch stood firm as if resigned to his fate, looked at the two wolves and tigers in front of him, and sweat broke out on his forehead.

If he ran away at this time, he really wouldn't be able to explain himself.

"How is it not? And... you two know each other?"

Talia looked at the girl in confusion, then looked at Lanch, who was in a very strange state.

So, Toliado had sent an acquaintance?

But she had never seen Lanch know such a girl.

The ambiguous relationship between the two of them could be smelled across the air, and Talia felt very unhappy.

"You two hold hands, and you eat together in each other's arms. Is this true?"

Sigrid continued to press, the three of them each speaking their own mind.

She confirmed the seemingly fabricated past that Miss Tata had just told her to Lanch.

The more she asked, the more she realized that what Tata said was a bit true.

Lanch seemed to have dropped his vocal cords on the floor upstairs, and couldn't say a word for a long time, stared at by two sharp gazes.

If he admitted it, Sigrid would explode.

If he denied it, Talia would explode.

In any case, at least one of them was going to explode!

"Lanch, say something."

Talia also saw that the two of them had a relationship.

She seemed to understand why Lanch had tried so hard to deny their relationship in front of other women. The sourness in her heart was like disappointment, anger, suspicion, and sadness all mixed together. This indescribable emotion made her particularly unhappy.

"We clearly did those things together, right? You even said I was like a big gray cat that could be hugged, and you held me and fed me all afternoon."

Talia questioned him, not caring if these words would make her explode as well. She just wanted Lanch to admit it.

Clang!

A series of pots and pans fell to the ground in the kitchen.

It seemed that the cat boss couldn't hold back after hearing these words, and was so frightened that her telekinesis became unstable, and the pots had fallen down.

Even if the cat boss knew that the time in the City of Flowers, Pareo, when they ate together in each other's arms was a misunderstanding, Tata must have misread Lanch's mind at the Cologne de Zhi Bridge Inn restaurant. However, the always strong Tata wouldn't give in in front of other women.

The air in the living room once again became unpredictable, like a powder keg about to explode, waiting for a single spark.

The distance between the three of them was only a few meters, but a chasm that was difficult to cross stretched across them.

Talia's breathing was full of unease, and the slightest movement of Sigrid's knuckles could trigger disastrous consequences.

Lanch, in the eye of the storm, was like a lone boat in the eye of a typhoon, ready to be swept into the war that was about to break out in this house.

Finally.

"Although this matter is not so simple, one thing is certain, and that is that Miss Tata and I are currently trying to play the role of a betrothed couple in order to deceive the Cri Empire."

Lanch took a deep breath and spoke to the two of them,

"I have made a full explanation of this matter to my client, Mr. Toliado, and he knows everything. However, there may be many misunderstandings in the middle, because he has just been arrested."

The cat boss was eavesdropping on the movement outside in the kitchen.

First of all, panicking at this time was useless. The more guilty the person was, the more they would be misunderstood.

Only sincerity and courage could make both of them accept and calmly explain the whole story.

Lanch's tone was slow and relaxed.

The cat boss was cooking in the kitchen, listening to Lanch's fire fighting.

It knew that sincerity was Lanch's killer skill, and neither Talia nor Sigrid could resist it.

But Lanch was also forced to the end before he would return to his true self, using sincerity to face danger.

Moreover, after being too sincere, he started to become abstract.

But today Lanch could only fight to the best of his ability.

"I understand that you two are meeting for the first time in the Cri Empire, and it is my responsibility to explain it to you. In fact, there are some things that even I have never been able to control, which has led to mistakes. Sometimes we are too clever for our own good, we have illusions, we are deeply obsessed, we are hurt by others, and we hurt others."

He continued, bowing to the two of them in apology,

"I made a wrong example, a wrong demonstration."

Even though Lanch was still apologizing clearly and sincerely, his slip of the tongue had already exposed his unease.

Today's unexpected situation was too sudden.

When he saw Sigrid, she was already in the living room of the house and had been chatting with Talia for a while.

Sigrid had already walked right up to his face on the mini-map before he realized the problem.

He also didn't know how to solve this situation.

"It's okay, fortunately, there's a right meal here, so the three of us can sit down and chat while we eat. What do you say?"

Sigrid was always familiar with Lanch's problem-solving ideas and often imitated them. She pointed to the dining table.

This could satisfy the demands of the three of them. Both of them would get an explanation, Lanch would explain the matter clearly, and they could also take care of lunch.

She understood the Holy Son's art of language too well, and wouldn't let the Holy Son avoid the important and take it easy.

She had to listen carefully to what was going on.

And was the "big gray cat" really that cute?

Just a cat thief!

"..."

Talia turned her head and stared at this woman. The golden eyes were no longer the caring eyes from before, but had lost their luster, tilting her head and looking at this guy who wanted to steal her man like a killer.

She had lost everything since the fall of her kingdom, and now she only had a precious disciple left. If anyone dared to steal her disciple, she couldn't guarantee what she would do.

"Good."

Lanch felt the heaviness of the air pressure and walked to the opposite side of the dining table where Talia and Sigrid were sitting, pulled out a chair, and prepared to sit down and have a good chat with them about the whole story.

"Come here."

Sigrid patted the chair next to her.

After she and Talia sat down, they probably disliked each other, and there happened to be an empty seat in the middle.

"..."

Lanch didn't dare to speak, but just looked at the empty chair.

He was sitting in the middle of the two of them...

Would the three of them really be able to eat dinner later?

"What's there to be nervous about?"

Seeing Lanch hesitate, Talia's voice also became a bit softer, with a perfect smile, and said to Lanch,

"Lanch, sit down."

She, the mentor, was by his side, what was there to be afraid of?

"..."

Lanch walked around the table in silence, and quickly walked to the position they requested as if resigned to his fate.

Talia on the left, Sigrid on the right, both girls were looking at him.

Lanch sat down, wiping the sweat from his neck.