Chapter 2160

"The part I like the most?"

The question, of course, had to be answered, but Xia De had already made up his mind that when he told stories to Miss Galina waiting at home after this adventure ended, he would definitely omit this part.

"I like... the rudder the most."

He pursed his lips, hoping his explanation would sound normal:

"The rudder is very small, but also very powerful. No matter how it needs to turn, it only takes a gentle twist to make the ship change direction easily. Although most people can only observe the part above the water, in my opinion, the rudder, which is generally invisible, is actually the best... that's it."

The blue-eyed girl laughed again, her snow-white feet swaying gently, making her look like a mermaid on the bed:

"I didn't expect you to say that, but I appreciate your honesty. How about it, do you want me to change my pose so you can observe my... um, yes, the rudder, more carefully?"

"Oh, no need, no need, this is fine, I'm almost done painting!"

Xia De said hurriedly, which made the girl laugh again. However, she didn't tease Xia De anymore after that; she just supported her face with her hand, lying on her side and watching him. She really was watching him the whole time, never once looking away.

He did indeed finish the oil painting quickly. When the final stroke was finished, Xia De looked with satisfaction at the "beautiful scenery" depicted by his own hand on the canvas. The girl on the bed also saw that the painting was finally finished, so she couldn't wait to get out of bed just like that, completely naked:

"It's finished, is it? Let me see. Oh, it's your turn to be the model."

"What?"

Xia De was startled, but he didn't expect another voice behind him to suddenly say:

"Okay."

Xia De immediately turned around to look, and then quickly turned his head back. At some point, another Miss Malong with crimson hair, the one he had seen at the ball not long ago, was already standing behind him. However, compared to the blue-haired Miss Malong who had just acted as the model, the one behind Xia De had a more heroic face.

She was wearing clothes at this moment, but not many. And as she walked toward the soft bed, the clothes were also thrown onto the floor.

The first Miss Malong smiled and came behind Xia De, then disappeared. The second Miss Malong climbed onto the bed and leaned against the headboard, striking a lazy pose:

"Start painting."

She said.

"Again?"

Xia De said, but his right hand had already uncontrollably touched the paintbrush.

The girl leaned against the headboard in a very lazy but artistic pose. Although her face and body details were roughly the same as the first Miss Malong, when she looked at Xia De behind the easel, Xia De always felt that he was being stared at by a beast.

His right hand was still automatically displaying extremely superb painting skills, while Little Mia poked her little head out from between the buttons on his chest, curiously watching the painting taking shape.

In the end, it was the girl on the bed who spoke first. Xia De also basically confirmed that the first Miss Malong he saw on the deck was the first one, and the one he saw at the ball was this girl.

"You have the scent of our kind on you."

Even though she was a person with basically the same appearance as the blue-haired girl just now, the tone of her voice was completely different:

"So, you actually know very well what I am."

"No, I don't know, after all, I haven't encountered this kind of thing before."

Xia De answered honestly, so Miss Malong asked that question once again:

"But you have obviously seen my kind, and a very powerful kind at that. Then please evaluate me; am I beautiful?"

Without even needing to look up, Xia De answered directly:

"Of course you are beautiful."

"Then from the perspective of which race are you evaluating me?"

Xia De continued to look at the oil painting taking shape on the canvas in front of him:

"From both perspectives."

Thus, the girl leaning against the headboard smiled:

"Is that the kind of rhetoric you used to win the favor of that powerful kin of mine? Then please look at me carefully and tell me again whether I am beautiful."

Xia De originally didn't want to look up, but the strange sound of wings flapping made him have to look up. He tried his best to control his gaze, focusing only on the wings extending from behind the girl's back:

"The scale color is between a brilliant sky blue and a deep indigo... it's a blue dragon~"

He sighed in his heart and hurriedly lowered his head to continue looking at the canvas:

"Yes, very beautiful. Although the wings are small, the shape is very good. Especially when you breathe, the pair of wings sway slightly; this is indeed very charming. From the perspective of a human girl, they don't have such 'talent,' and from the perspective of a dragon, the color of your scales is very seductive."

The girl on the bed continued to smile, and it could be heard that her mood was very pleasant:

"You really know how to talk. Alright, alright, hurry up and paint. If you paint me as less beautiful than you said, I will be angry."

Xia De's right hand's painting speed increased a bit more, because the time in this illusion seemed not as long as imagined relative to the outside world, so Xia De was not very anxious. And when the second painting was completed, Xia De did not get up. The two Miss Malongs stood behind him together, one on the left and one on the right, looking over his shoulders at the two canvases, and smilingly discussing who painted better.

Thus, amidst the voices of the dual Miss Malongs, the light around them gathered into that campfire once again. Raindrops soaked the clothes that had just dried, and the raging waves replaced the leisure inside the cruise ship's first-class cabin.

"What exactly am I?"

Both the blue-haired and crimson-haired girls had disappeared; there was only the lost black-haired girl here.

Seeing Xia De return from the illusion, the witches gathered around again:

"Xia De, is the oil painting in your hand the way Miss Malong looked when she stayed on the ship?"

Miss Theresa asked curiously. Xia De nodded gently, and then, under their surprised gazes, unfolded the rolled-up canvas, discovering that it was actually two canvases rolled together:

"Two?"

"I think the answer can be announced now."

He did not let the witches see the patterns on the canvas immediately, but asked the girl in front of him in the rain:

"Miss Malong, do you understand now? Is everything you and she experienced on the ship really what you described?"

"We... are all phantoms, incomplete souls, all... non-existent."

The lady with a somewhat dull expression said, looking up at Xia De:

"We are actually... no one can see us, we are..."

"The two of you gathered together and were active on the ship in a more peculiar way. The so-called dating all over the ship was just your souls wandering together. So you saw the behavior of the captain and others, but they didn't discover you because you inherently possess the ability to know everything on this ship."

Xia De grabbed one painting with each hand:

"Your accidental meeting allowed you to discover a way to make yourselves survive. Thus, an accidentally born broken soul—all things have spirits, but this is rare in the current era; the 'Glorious Messenger' developed a hazy consciousness and soul, which is a miracle that cannot be replicated; a phantom that had already died—that dragon egg had indeed died, but I don't know if it was a cultist conspiracy or another accident, the newborn life that hadn't truly been born had no breath, but the unformed soul remained. You decided to make yourselves truly become living; do you understand now? Are these two paintings just for painting?"

Miss Malong pursed her lips, her hair clinging to her side profile in the rain, her face pale as if she were about to turn into a ghost. Thus, Professor Evans said for Xia De what he wanted to say:

"Those two Miss Malongs who never truly existed were using the act of 'painting images' to anchor their own images, telling another existence everything about themselves, in order to prepare for merging into one."

Everyone's gaze turned to the two paintings in Xia De's hand that had not yet been displayed. Xia De took a deep breath:

"Miss Malong, do you still remember what you described as the last thing you did before falling into a deep sleep? You were... um, playing together with that lady in your cabin? I think this should also just be your memory, twisting some major event that happened to you into something ordinary humans could understand, and ordinary humans obviously cannot merge souls, so memory chose an approximate event for you. Miss Theresa, you tell her what actually happened before she fell into a coma."

The blonde witch, whose name was unexpectedly called by Xia De, reacted subconsciously according to how she would respond after being called by a teacher in class:

"The two of you underwent a fusion, making two non-existences become an existence, making two nameless shadows become the person before our eyes. So after you woke up, you found the other lady was gone; she didn't disappear, she is a part of you."

Miss Theresa even answered beyond the scope:

"The reason it was temporarily dominated by the memory of the 'Glorious Messenger' side, I think, is probably because the place where you merged was on the ship."

The two canvases in Xia De's hands unfolded in the rain. Of course, the canvases were not of two girls lying on the bed without wearing anything. The canvas on the left was a huge cruise ship sailing under the golden afterglow of the sunset, and the canvas on the right was a young blue dragon flying over the sea at dusk.

The three witches were not too surprised by this; Xia De had just painted these two paintings "with his own hands" while comparing them to the two girls, so they were not surprised either. Only "Miss Malong" looked at the contents of the paintings in shock. Those hazy memories were becoming clear bit by bit: two broken souls that no one could see wandering on the ship, meeting, getting to know each other, keeping each other company, until finally deciding to merge into one, truly achieving the goal of "surviving."

Her whole body was trembling. Suddenly understanding her own existence not only failed to make her heave a sigh of relief, but instead plunged her into a deeper level of confusion about "what exactly am I." Subconsciously, she hugged Xia De in front of her, her trembling body as if trying to draw courage from him.