"How long do you think she'll stand there before she finally knocks?"
"Hmm? This Elysia has no idea~"
Senti and Elysia had been watching the gate for a long time now.
Fu Xuan was pacing back and forth like a total fool, repeatedly glancing toward the small courtyard, wanting to push the gate open.
But then she would freeze, completely unsure of how to bring herself to knock.
Elysia found Fu Xuan rather adorable. In terms of cuteness, she definitely had more of a typical girl's mentality than Tesla.
Tesla was different; that woman was the very definition of blunt. While both had tsundere tendencies, their particular brands of tsundere were ultimately worlds apart.
"Hey, Mebius, what do you think… what is Master Diviner Fu hesitating about? Honestly, I don't think Noldrei has any special feelings for her at all. I'm suddenly starting to feel a little sorry for her, being strung along like this."
Elysia knew Noldrei inside and out.
You couldn't call him cold-blooded; he actually had a strong moral compass and an even stronger sense of responsibility than most people.
The one thing he lacked, however, was any sort of special attitude toward women.
This was because Noldrei himself could switch between being male, female, or even identifying as an attack helicopter.
The flutters of the heart that most men and women experienced were far less important to him than finding someone who shared his path.
Elysia knew very well that a simple romantic connection wasn't nearly enough to earn a place by Noldrei's side. That's why she was so curious to hear what Master Diviner Fu would talk to him about.
Senti had drawn the short straw. She wore Mobius's face and had inherited her research abilities, but that was about it.
The other aspects of her personality were much milder, and she lacked Mobius's obsessive, near-insane drive. Senti's brand of 'crazy' was closer to an untamable, free-spirited nature.
Unfortunately for her, Noldrei and Elysia were the perfect counters to her personality.
Senti-Mobius had little interest in Fu Xuan's predicament. "Who cares about her?" she said, bored out of her mind. "I think we should be finding a way to get the Cosmic Juggernaut Train back. We built that thing by modifying systems from two whole civilizations in the solar system. If we lose it, wouldn't all my hard work have been for nothing?"
"Those damn thieves! And the divination abilities on this Xianzhou are pathetic! How can they be worse than the Stellaron Hunters? Now I'm stuck in this place for who knows how long."
Elysia wasn't listening to Senti's complaints at all. Her eyes lit up as she whispered, "She's moving! She's pushing the gate open! Quick, quick, let's listen in and see what she says to Noldrei! We have to gather all the juicy details and bring them back for everyone else to see."
"After all," she chirped, "helping people is what I, Elysia, love to do most!"
Fu Xuan pushed open Noldrei's gate herself, only to find the man watching… a Xianzhou cartoon.
He was actually watching a cartoon?!
For a moment, Fu Xuan wondered if she was seeing things. Noldrei was watching a Xianzhou cartoon?
It wasn't as if the Xianzhou didn't produce such animations, and many devices could connect directly to the network to stream them.
"Hm? You're here."
Noldrei closed the cartoon he'd been using to kill time—something with a garbled title like Spiritual Dream Homing Pigeon L-I-N-G-5-3-8-7-1—and looked up at the astonished Fu Xuan.
"I'm preparing to head out with the Astral Express to find my missing ship. I'll be leaving Elysia and Senti in your care for now. I'll be back regularly to check on them, and I'll consider taking them with me after I've helped you resolve the Alchemy Commission's issues."
Hearing this, Fu Xuan's feelings were a complicated mix.
She hesitated for a long time before finally speaking. "This one... I... I actually have something I want to ask you."
Noldrei sat up straight, deciding not to tease the Master Diviner any longer. Perhaps knowing that he wouldn't be returning to Earth for a while had granted him a bit more patience in dealing with her.
"Go on. What is it you want to ask?"
Fu Xuan was a little bashful at first, but she quickly composed herself and adopted the attitude she felt she ought to have.
She asked bluntly, "I want to ask you for your true opinion on fate. And... are you able to see my future? There's no other way you could be so certain about my affairs."
Noldrei hadn't expected her to ask such a question.
As for seeing fate, he couldn't see anything of the sort. But based on his understanding of Imaginary Energy, Noldrei was quite certain that the Aeons did indeed command the 'fate' of this region of the universe.
Imaginary Energy was a force that could drift through the dimensions of space and time, akin to the primordial power behind the motion of matter.
For example, the Imaginary Tree that Otto had witnessed represented the progression of civilization over time. The Tree itself was a massive concentration of Imaginary Energy.
But Noldrei's view of fate was different.
In his eyes, the moment fate became a tangible thing, it ceased to be fate itself. True fate was the unseen existence that the being who wielded such energy could not perceive.
This was the very reason he didn't care about fate.
But Noldrei knew this wasn't what Fu Xuan was really asking. The young woman was trapped in the past, unable to move on from her master's death.
Noldrei wasn't a heartless person, and Fu Xuan had, after all, treated him rather well. Aside from her occasional need to show off her skills in front of him—a minor flaw he was willing to overlook, since he'd already put her in her place several times—she was decent enough.
He thought for a moment before explaining.
"Fate, you ask..."
"What fate? Our relationship is our fate."
Fu Xuan blinked, not understanding what Noldrei meant.
"Our meeting, our conversations, our contact. Every time we part, every time we cooperate, even every single thought you have because of me—that is fate."
"The act of living itself is fate."
"Without contact between one life and another, fate has no meaning in this silent, empty universe."
"Fu Xuan, to me, you are fate itself."
Noldrei's words only served to confuse Fu Xuan further.
She stared at him, dumbfounded, making it clear she had no idea what he was talking about.
"Y-Y-Y-You... Wh-Wh-Wh... What in the world are you saying?!"
Fu Xuan's entire face turned crimson. No matter how she heard it, Noldrei's speech sounded exactly like a romantic confession.
But Noldrei truly hadn't meant it that way. In his mind, that was simply what fate was.
Fu Xuan's very existence, to him, was fate itself.
The "how" of fate that Fu Xuan was so obsessed with was utterly meaningless.
"I-I-I... I... I knew I shouldn't have come to see you!"
She was utterly flustered, her usual composure completely shattered. As if she had seen something terrifying, she stumbled, turned, and fled the premises.
"Hey, what are you running for? Didn't you come here to ask me what fate is?"
Noldrei didn't even have time to stop her. As she fled, the woman even used the power of her Path to speed away.
As heaven is my witness, Noldrei was actually speaking from the heart. In his eyes, life itself was fate.
Elysia and Senti watched the scene unfold with faces of pure shock.
They knew Noldrei probably hadn't meant anything more by it.
But his choice of words had been so incredibly intimate that even they, as fully informed bystanders, were starting to have their doubts.