Chapter 1387 Doesn’t She Hate That Name?

The hardest painting surprisingly was not BS.

Rita completed that one in a single uninterrupted session.

It depicted the moment she dragged BS out of the invasion sequence.

Once the centerpiece, BS, was finished, the entire illustration had reached its halfway point.

And time itself had reached halfway too.

Recently, players from every faction kept sitting beside her asking whether she had finalized the rules for the Adjudicator game yet.

Rita always gave the same answer.

"Almost. Almost."

Today, for once, she was not painting.

Instead, she sat in her usual spot, gazing toward the distant main city.

This was the best location on the entire ship.

From here, she could even see Smoke Tune, Quex, and Fat Goose squeezed together on a motorcycle as they headed into town to buy things.

Even though all four of them could fly.

Even though teleportation was faster.

They still preferred traveling like this.

And today there was an extra vehicle beside them too.

A little bumper car built from toy blocks.

Inside sat Nivalis and Sea Pony.

Sometimes they tagged along with Smoke Tune’s group whenever they went shopping in the city.

Just as Cicada frowned every time she saw Smoke Tune hanging around those three players, Rita also got headaches whenever she saw Nivalis and Sea Pony together.

She withdrew her gaze and looked toward Deceitful Bloom, who sat nearby painting seriously.

Around the seventh year, Deceitful Bloom had started learning to paint.

This time, Rita was the teacher.

Rita rested her chin on one hand and watched quietly for a while before suddenly asking,

"Why didn’t you go learn from gods you’ve known longer?"

Even Graffiti, the god most skilled at painting, admitted that BS Rita had already developed her own artistic path.

Strictly speaking, Rita herself was mostly self taught.

Her formal foundation had only lasted a few years during Moonlight Marsh.

Later, she learned countless artistic styles by experiencing other people’s memories through World Sigh.

What truly shaped her art was the thousand years she spent wandering through timelines, practicing and understanding.

Deceitful Bloom glanced at her with smiling eyes.

"We’ve been doing this for decades and you’re only asking now?"

So Rita had enjoyed teaching her all this time too.

Caught red handed, Rita simply looked away in silence.

Deceitful Bloom’s leisurely voice drifted into her ears.

"Among all your teachers, I’m the only one who is both your teacher and your student."

"The only one who helped you, used you, manipulated you, and even became your enemy."

"Think about it. Isn’t that true?"

Stack enough qualifiers together and she practically won by default.

Deceitful Bloom still looked focused on painting, yet her vines spread happily around her.

Sometimes Rita truly had no idea what to do with her.

Her thoughts were often so strange and unpredictable that no one could follow them.

At times Rita felt impossible to understand her.

At other times, she felt Deceitful Bloom was easier to read than anyone else.

But Deceitful Bloom was right.

Rita did enjoy teaching her.

Even if painting was the only thing she could really teach, there was something undeniably pleasant about the way the Vineborne listened so attentively while she spoke.

Rita withdrew her gaze again.

Her fingers lightly brushed the half completed illustration.

Back when she reached the two thousandth puzzle piece, she had already begun vaguely sensing the painting’s abilities.

Now that it was halfway done, the feeling had become even clearer.

She suddenly asked,

"Aren’t you curious about the Adjudicator game?"

Deceitful Bloom paused her brush.

She turned to look at BS Rita.

After several seconds of silence, she asked,

"You want all the gods to participate in your Adjudicator game?"

Vineborne really were frighteningly smart.

Rita asked back,

"Then do you want to play?"

"Is it far away?"

"A little."

"Then of course I’ll play."

"The final game should include all of us."

...

After night fell over Quiet Mountain, everyone returned to their own homes.

Once Rita packed up her art supplies, she rode Nivalis back through the portal toward BS.

While passing a certain manor, she patted Nivalis lightly, signaling her to stop.

The former Lopez Family estate.

Later it had been used to imprison Black Jade.

After Black Jade died, it became abandoned once more.

Now it housed Little Bear Cookies.

This year marked the fiftieth year since Zoey ran away from home.

And the thirty seventh year since Maple Syrup moved to BS.

Not long after Zoey disappeared back then, Maple Cang had also worked desperately to reach BS by contacting the BS players "grinding levels" in Lania Kaia.

Once Maple Cang left, Maple Burn naturally followed.

After all, what difference was there between "visiting BS" and permanently relocating at that point?

They had long grown tired of living in Lania Kaia anyway.

Back then, Rita had mocked Maple Syrup with a smile.

"I heard your family listens to you?"

Maple Syrup had replied painfully,

"Can we not discuss this?"

The forcibly relocated Maple Syrup actually became busier than she had been during wartime.

Every day she attended lessons in Quiet Mountain, returned to Lania Kaia afterward to handle official matters, then used the pass Rita provided to teleport back to BS.

Still, the owlfolk did not settle in Pine Bloom’s Four Seasons City.

Instead, they moved into the new home Zoey purchased inside BS.

Not long ago, while everyone ate together aboard the ship, Rita had curiously asked Maple Syrup,

"So what do you call her now? Zoey or Maple Mu?"

"Obviously Zoey," Maple Syrup answered matter of factly.

"Doesn’t she hate that name?"

The moment the topic came up, Maple Syrup’s expression twisted dramatically.

"Hate it?"

"She loves it!"

"I don’t even know where she found a family genealogy book, but she secretly wrote all our names into it and changed our surname to Su."

"Has she completely lost her mind?!"

Remembering Maple Syrup’s utterly broken expression while telling that story, Rita could not help laughing softly.

Nivalis tilted her head.

"What are you laughing about?"

Rita happily retold the entire story.

"I thought she hated the surname Su," Nivalis said in confusion.

"No."

Rita analyzed Zoey’s feelings almost like she was telling a bedtime story.

"She never hated the surname."

"She just hated that the Lopez Family wasn’t hers to control."

"Now she genuinely doesn’t care what surname she uses anymore."

"She simply wants to become family with Maple Syrup and the others."

"So she secretly found a genealogy book and secretly wrote everyone’s names inside."

"As Zoey."

"She quietly stole Maple Syrup, Maple Cang, and Maple Burn away from Maple Mu for just a little while."

"And then carefully claimed them as her own."

What did Maple Syrup mean by "secretly wrote our names down"?

Obviously Maple Syrup had secretly peeked at what Zoey was doing herself.

Who knew Maple Syrup was that kind of person?

Rita was absolutely going to laugh about this for the rest of her life.

"But Maple Syrup didn’t seem genuinely angry though."

"Of course not."

"She only discovered it because she snooped through Zoey’s privacy."

"Zoey never openly asked for any of this."

"So how could Maple Syrup possibly expose her after secretly peeking?"

The person who once declared that she would gladly become a second rate fool as long as she could stay beside Maple Syrup and Maple Cang...

Had finally gotten her wish.