"Phew~ It seems like they didn't follow us…" Li Xuan secretly peeked out the window through the gap in the blinds. Apart from a few scattered Honkai Zombies wandering around, the huge campus was empty.
"We're safe for now…" Li Xuan stood up and looked at Liv behind him. They had taken advantage of the flashbang's intense light to escape from that vine monster at full speed. To avoid being found, Li Xuan had led Liv and the others all the way to a relatively hidden infirmary in the junior high section of Senba Academy to hide…
"Speaking of which… this Senba Academy is really rich…" Li Xuan sighed as he looked at the spacious infirmary, which had three rooms and a living room. Just a small infirmary was an insanely large room of over a hundred square meters… In his past life in China… this could have been used as a house… How many people in the mortgage tribe would cry themselves to sleep…
"…Liv, is that child still unconscious?" Li Xuan asked as he walked into the room.
"Yes, Master…" Liv said with a somewhat grave expression. "That child seems to be injured. Although she has self-healed, she has also been poisoned by something…"
"Poison?!" Li Xuan was a little surprised, but on second thought… those vines were covered in thorns and their tips were the color of fresh blood, so it was normal for them to be poisonous…
"…That's a bit troublesome…" Li Xuan said, reaching out to pull aside the white curtain in front of him and walking into the infirmary's ward. The first thing that came into view was Yae Sakura sitting on a clean white hospital bed, the white-haired little loli resting on her round thighs. She had her long, slender white arm over her forehead as if she had a headache…
"What's wrong, are you okay… Sakura?" Li Xuan asked with concern.
"I'm fine, Li Xuan-kun… I just feel like something I forgot is about to surface in my head…" Yae Sakura shook her head, her long pink hair swaying slightly as she spoke.
"Mm… as long as you're okay…" Li Xuan paused, hesitated for a moment, and then said directly, "Sakura… do you know what that person just now was?…" Li Xuan looked at Yae Sakura curiously.
"That…" Yae Sakura opened her mouth and hesitated…
"Let me tell you…" Before Yae Sakura could speak, a black mist emerged from behind her and slowly coalesced into a black, red-eyed fox, which then spoke.
"That kind of existence…" the black fox said faintly as it lay on the clean white bed, "it's called a Pseudo-Herrscher…"
"Herrscher?!" Li Xuan was somewhat shocked… He knew, more or less, what a Herrscher was… Humans infected by the [Honkai], some would become mindless, low-level Honkai Zombies, while one in a million infected humans would give birth to a 'Herrscher'! A 'Herrscher', as if favored by the heavens, possessed the peculiar ability to easily destroy a city.
"No, not a 'Herrscher'… but a 'Pseudo-Herrscher'…" the black fox Higokumaru shook its head and said, "Under certain circumstances, when a human comes into contact with high-concentration Honkai energy, they will become… a 'Pseudo-Herrscher', an individual similar to a Herrscher… but because they lack a 'Herrscher Core' in their body, they are called 'Pseudo-Herrschers'… 'Pseudo-Herrschers' have power infinitely close to that of a Herrscher, but it is very difficult for them to reach a Herrscher's level of power… even their consciousness will be controlled by the Honkai energy…"
"And as for us and Yae Sakura…" Higokumaru stood up. Although it had no expression, Li Xuan could see seriousness and solemnity in its blood-red eyes… giving Li Xuan a bad feeling…
"And as for us and Yae Sakura…" Higokumaru stared at Liv and Li Xuan and said, "…we are also Pseudo-Herrschers!"
"…" Li Xuan's eyes widened in disbelief. His gaze turned to Yae Sakura, who had her head slightly lowered, her pink bangs covering her face so he couldn't see her expression. Although Li Xuan had never asked about Yae Sakura's origins… he had never imagined that she was a 'Pseudo-Herrscher', only slightly weaker than a 'Herrscher'.
"But… but that 'Pseudo-Herrscher' is a complete psycho! Sakura didn't become like that… Sakura is very kind," Li Xuan said defensively.
"…Kid, you may not know…" Higokumaru paused for a moment, then raised its head, its blood-like eyes staring into Li Xuan's as it said, "…Sakura's hands were also once stained with the blood of your fellow humans."
"…" Li Xuan's mind went a little blank. He understood what the fox meant… Sakura had killed people in the past.
"This…" Li Xuan murmured, at a loss for words. In his impression, Yae Sakura could never be associated with murder, though Honkai Zombies and Honkai Beasts were another matter.
It was Yae Sakura who had extended a helping hand and saved him from the Honkai Beasts back then…
"So…" Higokumaru said softly, "the reason Sakura didn't tell you is because she was afraid… afraid that you would be scared… afraid that you would see her as a 'monster'!"
"…" Li Xuan lowered his head in silence.
"Drip!~" Like the sound of a raindrop shattering on the ground, Li Xuan slightly raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound. The beast-eared girl was covering her stunningly delicate face with her long, slender white right hand. Crystalline tears still trickled down her wrist, silently dripping onto the bed and dampening the sheets.
"…" Li Xuan's heart felt as if it had been wrenched. A look of determination appeared in his eyes. He suddenly took a step forward, grabbed Yae Sakura's hands, and said, "So what if Sakura is a 'Pseudo-Herrscher'?!"
"I told you!… I will protect Sakura! Even if I'm not strong right now… as long as I'm alive, I won't leave Sakura's side!" Li Xuan reached out and held Yae Sakura's tear-stained, beautiful face, saying seriously, "A man must keep his promises."
"Isn't that right?! Sakura…" Li Xuan said with a smile.
"…" Yae Sakura stared blankly at Li Xuan's smiling face, which was so close. The warmth of Li Xuan-kun's hands seemed to have dispelled the chill that had just been in her body. She suddenly wrapped her arms around the man in front of her, tears falling like broken strings.
"Sob… thank you…" Yae Sakura sobbed softly in Li Xuan's ear. Even though her hands were stained with foul-smelling blood… there was still someone willing to reach out and hold her. This must be the warmest thing in the world.
"I like the Sakura you are now… the past is the past. If anyone dares to call you a 'monster', I'll definitely beat them up," Li Xuan said deliberately, shaking his fist.
"Mm!" The sunlight gently streamed in through the blinds by the window, falling upon the embracing pair. Yae Sakura, her face buried in Li Xuan's shoulder, responded softly with a smile on her lips.
The ground under the big tree outside the window was covered with withered leaves… Winter was coming… but spring was not far behind.
(End of this chapter)