Both of them fell silent.
After a long while, Elysia—having regained her composure—spoke again.
"When you first confessed to me, I was surprised," she said quietly. "You were the first boy who ever did. I rejected you because I felt that I didn't know you well enough. I thought there was time—time for me to understand you properly, and then give you a serious answer."
She paused briefly, then continued.
"But not long after that, you left my team. We spoke less and less. Even so, I kept watching you… watching you move forward, step by step, becoming a hero."
She had accepted the boy's sincere feelings, and because of that, she didn't want to treat them lightly. She wanted to understand him before responding.
'I am no hero,' Lumine thought.
"Then," Elysia went on, her voice softer, "I saw Iliya confess to you. She looked… beautiful at that moment."
Her fingers tightened slightly.
"I don't know why, but I didn't want to see what came after. So I left. I ran away."
Lumine remembered it clearly.
Iliya had asked him out, saying she had something important to tell him. Under the moonlight, she had appeared before him—carefully dressed, visibly nervous. She confessed her feelings without hesitation.
He had thought for a long time.
And then he rejected her.
He still remembered the way expectation in her eyes slowly faded, how disappointment crept in—yet she still smiled, telling him she wouldn't give up, that one day she would surpass Elysia.
He had replied honestly:
"You don't need to surpass her. You are you—unique. I rejected you not because of Elysia, but because… I'm not ready. I don't think I'm capable of responding to your feelings."
The truth was simple.
He didn't know how to be in a relationship.
His confession to Elysia had been reckless—an impulsive act sparked by Kevin's provocation rather than careful thought.
Only now did a realization strike him.
Elysia was there back then…?
In fact, she wasn't the only one. Iliya's deliberate appearance had drawn attention even before she arrived. Once people realized the person she was meeting was Lumine, most of them dispersed—after all, the relationship between Lumine and Iliya had long been a favorite topic of idle discussion within Fire Moth.
Lumine understood what Elysia was trying to say.
And precisely because of that, he realized something else, He...
He had once believed he was the chosen one. He had even undergone the Fusion Warrior surgery when the technology was still crude and unstable, convinced that sheer resolve would be enough to overturn destiny.
But what was the result?
What had he actually changed?
Dystopia died during the invasion of the Eighth Herrscher. He couldn't save her.
Ato fell in the Ninth Herrscher incident. He still couldn't save him.
Even after the tragedy of the restraints wiped out nearly all Fusion Warriors except the Thirteen Heroes, nothing truly changed.
He wanted to save Elysia—but humanity was driven back again and again by the Honkai. Unable to resist the larger tide, he could only watch as she walked toward her end.
Fate, in the end, stubbornly followed its original course.
And yet… at the very last moment, he *had* twisted it.
He left behind twelve heroes and one hundred thousand human elites. That was the limit of what he could accomplish.
But thinking back now—was any of it truly meaningful?
Had he really defeated fate?
He didn't know.
But at least for a fleeting moment, fate had bent beneath his hands.
This time, he could do better.
In his previous life, he had considered eliminating the high-ranking officials who obstructed him—but with what? He had transmigrated alone, without authority, influence, or a system. The first obstacle would have been Kevin. Even if Kevin didn't stop him, there were still Hen, Desdovia, and the other Fusion Warriors. Fighting them would have achieved nothing.
Later on, he *did* gain the power to erase the higher-ups entirely—but then what? Who would replace them? Should he force Vil-V to shoulder political responsibilities until she collapsed from exhaustion? Hadn't Mei eventually died that way?
Defeating the Honkai with incompetent leadership was a problem no amount of brute force could solve.
He had even considered giving up and leaving the future to Otto in the next era—but he still wanted to try.
He still wanted to save Elysia.
Seeing Lumine fall silent, Elysia hesitated before asking softly, "Feng… can you tell me when you fell in love with Iliya?"
Lumine opened his mouth—and stalled.
When *had* that happened?
They were never together. He had never accepted her confession.
And yet… at the very end, hadn't his feelings changed? Or had they begun shifting even earlier?
After a long pause, he answered honestly. "I rejected her back then. We were never a couple. If I had to say… it was only after the tragedy of the restraints that I realized I might have developed feelings for her."
"But after that, you were almost always seen with her," Elysia said quietly.
"She's my deputy," Lumine replied flatly. "Is that strange?"
Their cooperation was flawless. Iliya handled the logistics, negotiations, and interpersonal matters he had neither time nor patience for. To outsiders, suspicion was inevitable—much like the original timeline, where Kevin focused solely on power while Elysia handled everything else.
The difference was that Iliya never stopped trying to close the distance.
He didn't care what others thought. Romance had never been a priority. The war against the Honkai consumed everything.
What he hadn't expected was that Elysia herself had misunderstood.
And worse—she had fallen in love with him anyway.
Elysia stiffened. "You weren't lovers? Then what about the matching earrings?"
"The sun and moon set?" Lumine shrugged. "Her explanation was simple. I'm the leader of the Seraph. She's the vice-leader. Sun and moon—symbolic symmetry."
"After all, my code is Dawn, my other name is Lucifer, the son of Dawn, Iliya's code is Moon, her other name is Lilith which is often associated with the Moon"
Elysia narrowed her eyes, unconvinced.
Under her gaze, Lumine shifted slightly. "I did ask whether she had ulterior motives. She admitted it outright. Said that since I'd already rejected her, it was only fair she took some compensation while helping me clean up my mess."
In short—
He'd been played.
Elysia fell silent.
*Iliya… you're ruthless.*
---
Outside the room, Mobius came to a stop and clicked her tongue quietly.
"..Tck."
Not out of personal emotion. She was irritated because she had realized Iliya's maneuver too late—nothing more. To a researcher, delayed observation was the most irritating kind of mistake.
If she had noticed it earlier, everything could have been handled more… efficiently. She might even have pushed Lumine toward Eden from the very beginning. Partly because Eden was clearly the safer choice—more stable, more humane, and far less likely to keep walking along the edge of a cliff like Lumine was now. Iliya can't be trusted when it comes to this, instead of stopping Lumine from jumping off the cliff she's more likely to jump off the cliff with Lumine.
And the other part?
Mobius let out a quiet breath.
Eden was rich. Obscenely rich.
For a genius scientist, relying entirely on the sluggish, politically tangled Fire Moth council was a foolish strategy. A walking, talking backup wallet—one willing to invest in humanity's future—was simply the rational option.
Unfortunately, she had realized it too late.
Mobius turned and walked away, her expression returning to its usual neutrality.
A miscalculation was still a miscalculation—and this time, she had no intention of letting it happen again.
...
Lumine, however, was thinking back to that time when he asked Iliya,
"But the sun and the moon only have a brief moment to meet at the boundary between dawn and dusk."
"Even if it's just for a moment, being able to gaze at each other until they disappear is romantic, isn't it?" Iliya laughed like a little devil. "So, tell me—are you going to wear it or not?"
"Can I refuse?"
"Then I'll go on strike!"
"…"
Watching him reluctantly put on the earrings, Iliya said leisurely, "Besides, what can I do? My name is 'Lilith", the goddess of the moon, so of course I have to wear moon earrings!"
Lumine recklessly asked, "Then why didn't you choose star-and-moon earrings?"
What moon goddess? You're more like a moon demon.
Iliya squinted at him. "There are countless stars in the sky. What do you take me for?"
Lumine: "…"
Okay… that somehow made sense.
Snapping out of his reverie, Lumine noticed that Elysia was looking at him with a strange expression. He subconsciously stepped back a little and asked, "Elysia, do you… have any other questions?"
"I will not give up!" Elysia clenched her fist.
Lumine: "???"
Wait—shouldn't the most important thing right now be fighting the Honkai and trying to change the fate of the previous life?
Elysia stood up and left. "I'll go to Ato and get the examiner's authorization that qualifies you to join the team."
Lumine: "???"
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