Chapter 173: 172 No One Sleeps Tonight

"Sorry, I seem to have eaten a bit too hurriedly."

After noticing Anna's suspicious look, Princess Veronika didn't panic because she had revealed her flaws, but instead proactively confessed with some embarrassment:

"There were really a lot of unplanned things today. First, I was suddenly proposed to by your brother, and then I encountered an attack by rebels, which made me not eat anything since morning. Just now, I couldn't help myself, making you laugh."

So that's how it is...

Looking at the Princess who admitted without avoidance that she was "tricking a meal," and recalling her elegant manners even though she was a bit hurried, the suspicion in Anna's eyes dissipated a little, and then she was attracted by the new topic she threw out, asking with some worry:

"So... how is Leon? Are you together today? Since you encountered a rebel attack, is he injured?"

"Don't worry, although he encountered a small problem, his shoulder was... hit by a small stone, and the wound should be healed by now."

After answering Leon's situation, looking at the sickly girl who was clearly relieved, Princess Veronika couldn't help but smile slightly, then took the initiative to hold Anna's hand and said intimately:

"To tell you the truth, when I saw you just now, I was really startled."

"Ah?"

After hearing the "sister-in-law's" words, the sickly girl couldn't help but tremble slightly, as if some hidden little thought had been seen through, and said with a forced smile:

"Why... why?"

"Of course it's because of you."

The Princess, who had no food to eat and no place to stay and urgently needed a place to stay, exerted her social skills of maneuvering through political storms, and praised with a smile:

"Although Leon told me that he had a younger sister about the same age as him, he didn't tell me that you were actually this beautiful."

Looking at the sickly girl who was shyly lowering her head, unable to hide her beauty even though she was wearing a simple white dress, Princess Veronika couldn't help but try to wrap her arm around her slender waist, and then sighed with three parts flattery and seven parts sincerity:

"Truly... so beautiful that it makes me a bit jealous, especially your waist... oh my, truly... on the day Leon and I hold our wedding, you must be my bridesmaid!"

"But you have to promise me, you are not allowed to dress too beautifully, otherwise I'm afraid no one will look at me, and the guests' eyes will all be glued to you, then I would lose too much face."

"How... how could it be that exaggerated..."

Made shy by Princess Veronika's words, two blushes flew onto Anna's fair cheeks, and she waved her hands repeatedly to indicate that she wasn't as good as she said.

After suppressing the small sourness in her heart, looking at the beautiful, generous, good-figured, and pleasant-speaking woman in front of her, who was impeccable in every aspect, Anna sighed faintly in her heart, then held the Princess's hand back and said:

"Sister-in-law... sister, you are the one who is truly beautiful, and also so... good-figured. Even if I dress beautifully, everyone's eyes will definitely be attracted by you... By the way, sister, how old are you this year?"

How old am I...

After hearing Anna's inquiry, the Princess's face stiffened slightly, and then she forced a smile and blurred:

"As for me, I'm a little bit older than your brother..."

A little bit older? Brother is sixteen this year, a little bit older is... seventeen or eighteen? Eighteen or nineteen?

Anna thought for a while, looked at the mature and full beauty in front of her, and finally reported a little higher, tentatively opening her mouth:

"Sister, are you... twenty years old yet?"

Meaning... do I look like someone who hasn't reached twenty yet?

After hearing Anna's question, the twenty-eight-year-old beauty Princess couldn't help but feel happy in her heart, and the smile on her face became more than a hundred times more sincere.

Leon's sister is not only beautiful and gentle, but also speaks so well, and cooks such good food. Oh my, truly... I really came to the right place today!

"Mm-hmm, about the same, about the same!"

After shamelessly accepting Anna's guess, the smiling Princess pulled her to continue chatting. With both sides intending to befriend each other, the topic seemed endless, and they chatted until late at night before stopping.

"Oh my, we chatted too happily and accidentally forgot the time!"

Keeping an eye on the outside of the window with the corner of her eye, seeing that most of the streetlights had gone out, and estimating that the last public carriage had left, the Princess immediately stood up with annoyance:

"I originally just wanted to come and see you, but I didn't expect to disturb you for so long. I'm really sorry, I should go!"

Is it already this late?

Looking at the street that had become pitch black because most of the streetlights had gone out, Anna hurriedly stood up to stop her:

"Don't, don't, it's already this late, sister, just stay here for the night!"

"How could I be so embarrassed?"

"What's wrong with this! You will marry over sooner or later, staying for one night now is just staying in advance."

"But Leon and I haven't really gotten married yet, is it a bit... to stay overnight now?"

"It's okay, he's not home anyway. Besides, it's already this late, maybe the last bus is gone. What if you encounter danger on the road?"

"Then... then okay..."

Unable to stop the future sister-in-law's enthusiastic invitation, and after agreeing to stay overnight, the very "reserved" Princess was taken into Leon's room to stay.

And after comparing her own dress and finding that the sister-in-law definitely couldn't wear it, Anna thoughtfully found a few of Leon's old clothes and placed them on the head of the bed in the room.

After picking up the old clothes and comparing them, finding that the size was just right, Princess Veronika smiled and thanked her:

"Thank you, I really disturbed you today."

"You're welcome, you are after all... mm... seems it's a bit late."

Looking at the Princess who had quietly yawned, and whose eyelids were fighting, Anna smiled and instructed:

"Sister, you've been tired for a whole day, so I won't disturb your rest. My room is next door, if you have anything, you can call me."

"Okay, sorry to trouble you."

After sending Anna out of the room, taking off the dress that didn't fit well, and changing into Leon's old clothes, the sleepiness on the Princess's face suddenly disappeared.

After silently pulling open the quilt and drilling in, she, who had just been full of fatigue, sighed lightly, lay flat on Leon's small bed, and stared fixedly at the slightly dilapidated ceiling above her head.

Falling asleep was naturally impossible. The original Princess had gathered all the conditions and was only one step away from completing her dream.

But in the blink of an eye, she had inexplicably disappeared from everyone's memory, and couldn't even return home, having to rely on the information she had about Leon to trick her way into food and lodging, so as not to end up wandering the streets.

The current her needs enough time to think, to ponder her future, to find a way to retrieve everything she lost. For Princess Veronika, tonight is probably destined to be a sleepless night.

However, she is not the only one destined to be unable to sleep tonight. Anna next door is the same.

Brother is really going to get married...

Lying on the bed without any sleepiness, staring at the ceiling for a while, the sickly girl couldn't help but turn her head and glance toward Leon's room.

The sudden appearance of this beautiful "sister-in-law" completely broke the fact that Anna was most unwilling to face in her heart... Leon would get married sooner or later.

And once Leon has his own family, his own wife and children, even if he still recognizes her as the sister who has no blood relationship with him, he is destined not to be as intimate as he is now.

At that time, Leon will likely move out, and the one who can leave food for him and wait for him to come home under the lights every day will become another woman, not her...

And besides that, there is also that strange man whose expression looks like he is crying!

Recalling the mysterious man who came to "visit" a few days ago,

Anna felt a chill all over her body, couldn't help but shrink into the quilt, and then looked toward the room next door with an extremely complicated expression.

If that man really took away the "photo" and made Leon forget everything, the original her could still try to find him and see if she could become family with him again in another way.

But now, brother already has a marriage partner, then I... can I still stay by brother's side? Will my home... continue to exist?

With a heart full of melancholy and worry, after staring at Leon's room for a while, thinking of the woman who was so perfect that she had no way to deal with her, and even couldn't hate her, in Anna's thoughts, which were stirred into a mess, some kind of extremely strong and strange idea vaguely emerged.

If... if I were her... how good would that be?

"Zhi..."

A strange sound rang out in the small mirror Leon used to store things. Little Ha, who was secretly grinding its teeth on the barrel of a sniper rifle, was startled.

"Wang?!"

(What is it?!)

After letting go of the sniper rifle barrel in its mouth, Little Ha shook its head with the little golden hair, turned around and looked at the pile of debris Leon had thrown in, carefully reached out its paw to rummage, and found the thing that was making the strange noise.

"Wang wu?"

(This photo... is a bit wrong, right?)

Looking at the strange photo on the ground that was trembling slightly, where the figures on it turned into three people one moment and one person the next, Little Ha tilted its head in surprise, feeling that this matter should be told to Leon.

"Wang wang wang! Wang wang wang! Wang wang wang!"

(Leon! Something happened, Leon! Take the mirror out of your pocket!)

However, Leon didn't know what was going on. Little Ha barked for a long time in the small mirror, and even stretched out its head to nudge him, but still didn't get any feedback.

Little Ha, who was a bit anxious, turned around a few times, then vigorously sniffed its shiny little nose, followed the smell of Leon, moved along the edge of the constantly changing mirror world, and finally found an exit that was relatively close to Leon.

"Wang wu... wang wu..."

(So he's drunk... humans are really unreliable...)

Sticking its dog head out from the whiskey bottle, looking at Leon who was lying on the table with blurry eyes, Little Ha couldn't help but curl its lips speechlessly, then prepared to try to bite him awake to tell Leon that the photo he put into the mirror world had undergone strange changes. However...

"What? Do you also want to have a taste?"

Reaching out her red fingernails painted with cinnabar, pinching Little Ha's neck skin, and lifting it from the whiskey bottle, the red-haired Director, who was drunk and hazy, chuckled. Regardless of Little Ha's terrified expression, she picked up a bottle of wine and poured it into it.

"Don't be polite, I'm treating today! Whether it's a human or a dog, I guarantee you'll drink enough!"

"Wang! Wang wang wang!"

(I! I don't @#￥%!)

"Zhi..."

Just as the unlucky Little Ha fell into the red-haired Director's hands, forced to replace Leon as the drinking companion dog, the strange noise in the mirror world finally gradually quieted down.

After the last strange twist stopped, the family photo on the photo disappeared completely, turning into a full and beautiful young woman, looking exactly like Princess Veronika.

"Di!"

Just as the family photo turned into Princess Veronika smiling, a harsh noise suddenly rang out, waking the old man who was dozing off on the recliner nearby.

This is?!

Following the harsh noise, he lowered his head and looked at the watch on his wrist, discovering that all six hands were moving. The old man, who had curved brows and a kind appearance, and was born with a smiling face, was surprised and widened his eyes.

It's complete! The last condition is actually complete!

Raising his wrist to look at the last

hand that had just started moving, discovering that the number that appeared was actually 0006, the old man with a smiling face... or rather, Director Water Bottle, was slightly startled.

0006? Didn't this one fail?

Standing up from the recliner with a suspicious face, walking to the table and sitting down, Director Water Bottle opened the drawer of the table, took out a thick book labeled "Full Record of Test Products," and flipped through it quickly.

"0006... 0006... Got it!"

After reading the records on it roughly and confirming it was the thing he knew, Director Water Bottle frowned and pondered for a while, wrote a few lines of words with a pen, tore off the page about test product No. 6, then flipped the book to the back cover, and clipped this page of records together with the other five records.

Number: 0006

Name: Anna Laien

Form: Photo

Seeding Level: Highest

Target Ability: Identity Substitution, Past Modification

Test Details: With the help of the test product's longing for a happy family, induce it to generate the idea of replacing others, and choose the carrier as a photo representing the past, memories, and experiences, to directionally cultivate a functional anomalous object with "Identity Substitution" and "Past Modification" abilities.

Record 1: Failed.

After learning of her parents' death, although the test product generated an extreme longing for a family, after guiding her to see a large number of happy families, the target did not generate the impulse to replace the other party's children, but instead longed more to find her parents.

Note: Judging that because the usual family environment was relatively happy, the test product envied not others' lives, but that the other party possessed real family members. Suggest giving up cultivating the "substitution" ability, and instead induce her to resist reality and generate the idea of modifying the past.

Record 2: Failed.

Even after witnessing the process of her parents' pension being embezzled and being driven out of the house she had lived in since childhood, the test product still didn't generate the idea of resisting reality, and didn't seem to hope that her parents could really be resurrected.

Note: Judging that although the test product was very young, her will was quite firm, and she already understood the meaning of death, did not believe that her parents could be resurrected, and was kind by nature, not completely disappointed in human nature, so the induction failed.

Record 3: Failed.

The test product activated the anomalous object, but the effect was completely inconsistent with the target ability, changing from identity substitution and past modification to regaining family members.

Note: The test is temporarily sealed, waiting for the test product to reach adulthood, and after her spirit is completely stable and unchanged, attempt to recover it and find a similar test product again.

Record 4: Complete Failure!

After a follow-up visit, it was discovered that although the test product's spirit was not yet completely stable, she had personally destroyed the anomalous object she created, and sincerely denied the meaning of the anomalous object's existence. After being repeatedly stimulated by me intentionally, her state didn't show new changes, and the test had almost no possibility of success.

Note: Because the test product's "family member" accidentally joined the Cleaning Bureau *** Branch, the photo anomalous object created by the test product was mastered by the Blood Hair Maiden, and the difficulty of retrieval is extremely high.

Record 5: Success?

While preparing to fall asleep at night, the 【Dream Seeking Wristwatch】 was suddenly activated, suspected to be the test product's spirit receiving a huge impact, the longing in her heart underwent a transformation, leading to corresponding changes in the anomalous object, and the new ability happened to meet the "substitution" and "modification" standards.

Note: Awaiting verification. ===== CHAPTER 174 =====