Chapter 320

Sakura took out a map, drew the route to Guanbu City on it with a red marker, and then handed the map to the boy.

"Brother Broly, remember to bring Sister Da He back for dinner tonight. Grandpa and I will make a big feast and wait for you at home."

"Mm, okay."

Broly looked forward to tonight's big feast somewhat, took the map, rose into the air, and flew toward Guanbu City.

His speed was very fast; although he didn't use full speed, he still arrived at the edge of Guanbu City, more than five hundred kilometers from Fuyuki City, in two minutes.

His figure slowed in midair; behind him were rings of contrails, like traces left by a passing plane.

Only compared to a plane's contrails, the contrails Broly left were somewhat not too obvious.

And this was because he himself, unlike a plane, would not discharge large amounts of high-temperature water vapor.

"Let me see where to go next……"

Broly took out the map, but he soon discovered the information density of a modern city map; the dense, packed street names made one's scalp tingle looking at them. Wanting to find the correct road in the sky was somewhat difficult; he could only find a landmark building to land first, then follow the map's route on the ground.

"Turn right on Sanhe Street, walk to the ramen shop directly opposite, turn into the side street entrance, but there are two forked paths here; which one do I take?"

Holding the map finding his way in the city, but as he searched, Broly got lost.

Just as he was troubled, a passerby old grandpa walked over and asked if he needed help.

Upon learning the boy was going to find his wife, the passerby old grandpa's expression was very strange.

But he didn't say anything, took the map from the boy's hand, and helped look at it.

"This map is from three years ago; Guanbu City has been under reconstruction these recent years, some routes have changed, it's normal you got lost.

You want to go to this apartment, right? Then the correct route should be like this: from here to here, then take Mountain Straight Road up……"

The passerby old grandpa seemed quite familiar with the city routes; holding the map, he pointed out the new route for Broly.

"Thank you, Grandpa."

Broly thanked politely, and while he hadn't forgotten the new route, hurried on his way directly.

"If you get lost again, remember to find the police……"

The old man's words were left behind.

Broly's figure shuttled quickly through the city; and due to excessive speed, he even made some passersby who saw his flash-by figure think they had seen a ghost.

Very quickly, Broly arrived before a sloped straight road; worried about missing the intersection, he went up along the road using a rabbit-hop style of leaping dozens of meters at a bound.

And as he hopped, the Crystal Palace's abrupt prompt information made Broly's figure suddenly stagnate in midair.

The boy turned in midair, gaze looking down, and met eyes with the kimono-clad girl who had just been looking up blankly at the sky on the sloped sidewalk — her eyes somewhat hollow.

【Discovered new capture target, Ryougi Shiki, current happiness value 0】

And the 0 at the back soon changed, but it rose upward by 1 point.

At the same time, Ryougi Shiki's originally hollow eyes suddenly gained some luster.

That luster was like curiosity, seemingly curious why the boy could stay stranded in midair like that.

The kimono girl's gaze was so intent, just like the youth, Kanata, who was now attracted by her clear, beautiful profile and standing at the bottom of the slope also gazing intently at the boy.

"Hello, I am Broly."

Encountering a new capture target acknowledged by the Crystal Palace, Broly subconsciously performed his habitual behavior; he descended from the sky, landed directly in front of the kimono girl, raised his head toward the gaze that followed his movement and now lowered its head still staring at him, and began his self-introduction.

"Mm, I am Ryougi Shiki."

Ryougi Shiki did not ignore Broly; on the contrary, she also simply stated her name, but that was it. After finishing saying her name, she continued looking at the boy with somewhat curious eyes, seemingly asking what the boy intended to do by landing in front of her and abruptly doing a self-introduction.

"Can I ask you a question?"

Broly asked.

"You can, but I also want to ask you a question."

Ryougi Shiki nodded.

"No problem."

Broly also nodded, paused, then asked directly: "Can you become friends with me on the condition that the result is you agreeing to become my wife?"

Hearing this, Kanata, not far away, his eyes behind his glasses widened. The heart-stirring feeling toward the girl he chanced upon made him want to act, but he soon realized he and the girl were also strangers, and extinguished this sudden impulse.

"Become friends with me on the condition of agreeing to become your wife?"

Ryougi Shiki repeated the boy's question, then said to the boy.

"Some pry into my identity, some pry into my talent, and some pry into this body's outward appearance, thereby having all sorts of desires toward me, yet I don't know what you are longing for."

She paused, then Ryougi Shiki added: "General people, I can see through their thoughts at a glance, but you seem somewhat different; I cannot see through your thoughts, so can you tell me the true reason?"

"There is no special reason; I am merely pursuing happiness. Pursuing my own happiness will also make you feel happiness."

Broly answered honestly.

"Happiness?"

Ryougi Shiki's eyes widened slightly; she could understand the literal meaning of happiness, but could not personally experience the meaning of the objective things happiness represents.

"Mm, happiness."

Broly affirmed this point again.

"I can feel you are not lying, but how will you do it?"

Ryougi Shiki had never been this curious before.

"We become friends, then you state your wish, and I will do my best to help you realize your wish."

Broly put it concisely.

Hearing this, Ryougi Shiki, or rather Root Shiki, directly fell into silence.

As an intellectual existence who reached the Root and was born from the Root, realizing wishes was a basic capability she possessed from the moment of her birth.

The girl before him is a genuine Wish Princess; if she is willing to help realize wishes, then as long as the wish is not too excessive — for example, destroying a planet, or destroying the entire human world — she can help realize it.

And now, the line that originally belonged to her to possibly say to others was instead spoken to her by a boy she had just met.

Even she, at this moment, experienced the feeling of an ordinary person being left speechless.

"Then what if I have no wish?"

The Root-style rarely thinks about problems, but at this moment, she indeed thought for a bit, then asked.

"No wish?"

Broly scratched his head; he really hadn't encountered a desireless wife type before. Thinking carefully, he said to the kimono-clad girl before him: "Then wait until you have a wish, come tell me then. At that time, I'll still do my best to help you realize it."

"Does that count as an answer?"

The Root-style was curious.

"Doesn't it count?"

Broly countered.

"That counts, but if you insist on asking what wish I have, I actually do have one right now."

The Root-style suddenly spoke.

"What wish?"

Broly pressed.

"Happiness. I've never experienced that thing. Can you let me experience it?"

The Root-style said.

"Eh?"

Broly froze.

"If you can't do it, then forget it."

The Root-style seemed to know she was making things difficult, so she didn't insist the boy before her absolutely had to help realize this wish.

"It's not that you can't do it, but aren't you in happiness right now?"

The Happiness Value on the Crystal Palace Panel doesn't lie. Since starting a conversation with this strangely encountered wife, the other party's Happiness Value had been rising. Clearly, talking with me, she could feel pleasure in it.

"I'm in happiness?"

Broly's words somewhat dazed the Root-style, but she gradually reacted.

She, who had always been Void, suddenly became interested in the matter before her.

This kind of interest, isn't it a feeling she'd never experienced before?

"So this is the feeling of happiness?"

The Root-style was somewhat enlightened.

When she came to her senses, she extended her hand to the boy.

"Since you let me experience the feeling of happiness, then I'll let you pursue your own happiness. I'm willing to agree to become your wife."

【Ding, Ryougi Shiki requests to join the Crystal Palace. Host, do you agree?】

The other party's thoughts had not a shred of falsity; the Crystal Palace even reacted to her words.

But Broly decisively chose no, pressed the kimono girl's hand back down, and said seriously: "Not yet. You can't become my wife right now."

"Why?"

The Root-style asked with a somewhat cool voice, while her Happiness Value continued to rise.

"Because your happiness isn't enough yet. Wait until the happiness on you is enough. Then when you become my wife, it'll be good for both of us."

Root-style: "..."

Her emotions fluctuated a bit. Being rejected N years in advance by someone she cared about, the feeling of slight disappointment made her feel a novelty.

"Alright then. I want to be even happier. Can I ask you some questions?"

The Root-style showed a 【I'm very curious】 expression.

"Sure, go ahead and ask."

Broly's mind flashed with the strange info 【Chitanda】, and he agreed to be questioned by this Reserve Wife who'd just become a friend.

"First question: Why are Alaya and Gaia both a bit afraid of you?"

The Two Great Counter Forces are right beside the Root. Upon first seeing Broly, the kimono girl detected the Two Great Counter Forces' near-fearful wariness of this boy.

"Who do you say is afraid of me?"

"Alaya and Gaia."

"Who are they?"

"The Two Great Counter Forces, ah."

"But I don't know them."

Root-style: "..."

Looking at the boy with a baffled expression, she already didn't need his answer.

【Seven years ago, Fuyuki City Holy Grail, Moon Fall Event...】

The historical information of this world recorded by the Root surged into the Root-style's consciousness, answering her doubts.

Letting the Root-style roughly understand what the boy before her had once done in this world, and how the Two Great Counter Forces afterward wiped asses and helped clean up the mess.

Mhm, the moon was nearly shot down by the other party. The Two Great Counter Forces urgently contacted the Second Magic User Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, who then contacted the Thousand-Year Princess Arcueid Brunestud, made a heavy promise, split off power, stuffed the other party into a US moon rocket launch to the moon, letting the moon regain Counter Force and begin self-repairing the celestial body. Only then was that year's Moon Fall Event resolved.

And after that, it was strengthening the construction of the Outer Wall of the World, preventing another star-destroying existence from entering this world.

Result: thousands of preventions, ten thousand preventions, still failed to defend. The guy who nearly shot down the moon inexplicably reappeared in this world again.

After digesting this info, the Root-style's cool expression couldn't quite hold: "Then can you tell me, how did you come to this world again?"

This is what the Two Great Counter Forces find most baffling, yet they're urging the Root-style to help figure this out.

"Mhm, can do. I spent 10,000 Happiness Points and came through a Cross-world Portal."

Broly answered honestly.

"10,000 Happiness Points, a cross-world portal?"

The Root-style thought for a moment, then helped pursue the question.

"Can that cross-world portal ignore the isolation walls on the outside of this world?"

"What is that?"

Neither of the two explained the meaning of the nouns in their own mouths, but just from the reactions, the Root-style obtained the conclusion.

Not to mention the other party being blocked outside the world, it's possible that when the other party came to this world, they didn't encounter any obstacles at all.

Alaya, Gaia: "..."

"Broly, I'll ask you one last question."

"Go ahead."

"If I had you destroy the planet beneath your feet..."

"I wouldn't do that."

"Why?"

"Because on this planet, there's a wife like you."

Broly answered seriously.

"Then if there wasn't a wife like me, and you were told to destroy this planet, could you do it with your power?"

The Root-style pursued the question; although this was something the Two Great Suppressive Forces wanted to know, she was also a bit curious about it herself.

"I could do it, but would doing so have meaning? Would it make you feel happiness?"

Broly asked.

"It could not."

The Root-style shook her head; although she held a cold attitude toward this world, she also didn't want to see it be destroyed.

Only if the world exists can I have the opportunity to prove whether my own existence has meaning.

Of course, it seems there's already been a bit of meaning now.

At least, she has already felt the feeling of happiness.

And this feeling is very not bad; to make it continue, the world, the planet beneath my feet, must continue to exist.

"Ryougi Shiki, do you have any other questions?"

At this time, seeing she no longer spoke and the Happiness Value's increase also stopped, Broly asked.

"None for now."

The kimono girl shook her head.

"Then leave me your contact info; I have to go visit my other wives now, and when I have free time later, I'll come find you again to keep you company chatting."

"Okay."

The Root-style didn't refuse; looking at the paper map in the boy's hand, she extended a slender, fair hand, and her fingertip tapped on it.

The map's appearance changed accordingly, seemingly becoming a Magic Tool, and two differently colored dots lit up on it.

"The green dot is you, the red dot is me; if you want to find me later, just look at the map, but sometimes I'll be sleeping inside this body, and the ones normally responsible for manipulating this body are the two personalities I created.

One is named Shiki, one is named Ori; Shiki is Yin-natured, leaning toward the Female Personality, Ori is Yang-natured, leaning toward the Male Personality.

The two combined are me, Ryougi Shiki; you can also call me Root-style; I'll leave them a portion of the impression about you; you chatting with them is the same."

Ryougi Shiki is a Multiple Personality born from the Ryougi Family bloodline; due to the original personality's cognition of their own gender being very blurry.

When creating the other personalities, they didn't create them entirely according to the Female Personality, but also created a Male Personality.

However, her body is genuinely female.

"Alright, Ryougi Shiki, then I'm leaving; I'll come find you again later, or your other two personalities to play."

Broly waved goodbye to the kimono girl; Ryougi Shiki also smiled and waved, watching the boy leave bouncing away again.

"Hello..."

But when Kanata walked forward and tried to strike up a conversation, the kimono girl's attitude suddenly changed.

"Who the hell are you?"

The girl's speech became masculine, and moreover seemed to carry an inexplicable displeased mood.

It's very obvious the real Ryougi Shiki has already hidden away.

The one currently controlling this body is Ori, who has a Male self-cognition personality.

And she has no concrete memory of what just happened.

Just, in her heart, there's an inexplicable displeased feeling.

"Don't randomly talk to ore (Japanese male-exclusive I/me), understand?"

And this displeasure also made Ori's attitude toward Kanata, who suddenly struck up a conversation, very poor.

Kanata was persuaded to leave.

And to describe his mood at this moment in one sentence, it would probably be:

【Finally got my heart moving once, but nothing even started yet, and you made me lose that miserably!?】