Wouldn't she hear everything if I called her name in my heart every day?
"What?"
Talia snapped out of her thoughts and moved closer to Lan Qi.
"No, nothing!"
Lan Qi shook his head frantically, desperately suppressing his thoughts.
In that instant, he felt that he wasn't so far from death.
Talia looked at him suspiciously.
But now wasn't the time to dwell on such things.
The most important question now was, if she replaced the Poet of Great Love, what would life be like for her during the time she spent with Lan Qi next?
At this moment, the wooden house bedroom was unusually quiet.
Talia had activated a soundproof barrier when she entered the door, even blocking Cat Boss outside.
This matter concerned the life and death of both of them and couldn't be known by anyone else!
Talia drew the curtains and turned on the floor lamp on the soft carpet by the wall. The wall immediately reflected a soft light, making the entire space spacious and bright.
"I always feel like something else has changed in me."
Talia walked up to Lan Qi, frowning as she muttered to herself.
It was hard for her to describe, but she felt that something had indeed changed.
"Maybe it's your constitution? If you become my Natal Summon, maybe you are actually immortal now. As long as I don't die, you won't die, but if I die, you will disappear with me."
Lan Qi analyzed.
"Of course, if you want to restore your state by summoning again, we probably can't use this method for now. Without even considering the cooldown of resummoning, my mana is completely insufficient."
Even reviving Lan Fu required a lot of mana, let alone Talia.
Using his own mana to support an eighth-order summon was too much for a sixth-order summoner.
It was simply an unbearable burden.
"I'm not very heavy."
Talia said, looking at Lan Qi.
At 168cm tall, she weighed only 52kg and wasn't heavy at all.
"What are you even focusing on..."
Lan Qi muttered to himself in confusion.
If he remembered correctly, Talia was supposed to be 51kg when they first met a year ago.
Sure enough, even if she could speed up digestion and break down energy into mana, she still gained a little weight eating like that every day.
"How do you know my weight?"
Talia asked in surprise.
"Huh?"
Lan Qi covered his head.
Now it seemed that whatever he thought, Talia shared his thoughts.
And he could hear her thoughts too!
Even without saying it, they were talking!
"You pervert!"
Talia had never felt so eager to get away from Lan Qi.
"Wait, let's discuss what to do next. If this continues, I'll die from mana exhaustion in less than two hours."
Lan Qi finally said with a bit of panic.
If mana was completely exhausted, forcibly consuming it would start to deplete life force exponentially.
Until the magic circuit in the body was damaged, even if his life was saved, he would be disabled.
"Then what can we do?"
Talia asked.
"First of all, any action you take will increase mana consumption, especially if you enter a battle state. Mana consumption will skyrocket instantly, so if possible, can you sit down first."
Lan Qi advised.
Talia hesitated for a moment and sat on the edge of the bed. She also gestured for Lan Qi to sit next to her.
What Lan Qi said was true.
That was how summons worked. She could indeed feel that she was consuming Lan Qi's mana in this state.
"For the next few days, you may have to turn back into a magic card and stay with me most of the time."
Lan Qi said seriously.
"Are you kidding me?"
Talia stared at him wide-eyed.
What would she eat?
Where would she live?
What was the difference between becoming a magic card and being in jail?
"You'll definitely have to stay in my dorm before I separate you from the Poet of Great Love, but don't worry, I'll summon you for every meal. In the magic card state, you can also sleep directly in a near-soul form."
Lan Qi analyzed with a solemn expression, then he added,
"If you want to maintain the summoned state for longer, eat as much as possible, or you can lie still and I'll feed you. This way, the power consumption is lower."
"You're really..."
Talia frowned and closed her eyes, her cheeks a little red. She wanted to punch Lan Qi.
"Most of the time, you should just lie on the sofa and rest. If you need anything, just tell me and I'll get it for you. Don't move around yourself."
Lan Qi looked at her with concern, as if he were looking at a deity.
"..."
The veins on the back of Talia's hand throbbed again.
Did she need him to take care of her like this?
She didn't know if Lan Qi was forced to or if he was willing.
Anyway, even if this guy wasn't thinking about anything right now, his way of thinking was a bit damned.
"Anyway, I bought a lot of equipment cards for Cat Boss that increase mana上限 (mana limit) and increase mana recovery speed. Now I'll unbind all the cards that can be unbound. Except for you and other Epic cards, they will all be used to expand mana. At that time, as long as you don't enter a battle state, it should be no problem to maintain your simple activities for a few hours."
Lan Qi calculated his card slots.
He was currently at sixth-order, with a total of 60 mana card slots. Epic cards couldn't be unbound, except for the six 1-mana Soul Imprints, the 3-mana Hell Choir and the 3-mana Little Sun, the 4-mana Wolf and the 5-mana Slate. Plus, the 8 mana slots forcibly occupied by Talia, he had 31 free card slots left. Using all of them to stack mana bars, mana limit, and mana recovery speed could stack up quite a bit.
Of course, the reality was that it wouldn't be possible for Talia to really maintain the summoning for so long, because if the mana reached the bottom, both Lan Qi and Talia would lose their combat ability. For safety's sake, he would usually keep at least half of it.
"What else can we do? That's all we can do."
Talia hesitated for a moment, then finally shook her head and compromised.
On the bright side, at least dating and traveling in the Kingdom of Boson shouldn't be delayed too much.
"Yeah, dating and traveling won't be delayed too much."
Lan Qi repeated.
"..."
Talia bit her lip.
Her fist clenched even tighter.
The way he looked, so calm and sentimental, didn't seem like he was being malicious at all.
Lan Qi was now propping his chin with one hand, squinting and smiling as he looked at her.
"I've been putting up with you for a long time!"
The more he was like this, the more annoying he was!
Talia finally couldn't bear it anymore and pinned Lan Qi to the ground.
"Don't! Sister Tata, don't enter a battle state!"
Lan Qi immediately realized that this was Tata's room, and the sound was isolated. No one would hear him even if he screamed!
In a few moves, he was completely subdued by Tata.
"Do you recognize who's the boss now?"
Talia slowly sat on Lan Qi's back, elegantly crossing her legs, and asked as if talking to herself.
"..."
Lan Qi felt that he couldn't move no matter how hard he struggled. Talia made him realize what eighth-order power meant.
What's worse, his mana had dropped a bit just now.
What kind of summon depleted mana and beat him up!
Putting aside how strong [Mad Love Demon Lord] was, he couldn't take this side effect!
"...I was wrong."
Lan Qi said through gritted teeth, full of humiliation.
"Oh, this is really the most beautiful sound I've heard in the past year."
Talia stood up from Lan Qi, hugged her arms, and said with satisfaction.
(End of chapter)