The desolate sunlight shone on Frélle's face. She still held the dagger made of crystal fragments in her hand.
The wound from gripping the fragment tightly ached in her palm, but compared to the scars on her wrists, that small wound seemed insignificant.
The tentacles behind her wanted to pull her back, but they were afraid of the sunlight, afraid of the desolate world, and they cowered behind her.
[The world is not as beautiful as you imagine.]
The black shadow held the broken iron chain. She still remained in her original spot, giving Frélle her opinion.
"I know," Frélle said, looking at the desolate world. She took a deep breath, turned her head, and gave a tearful smile to what was behind her.
"But at least for a moment, I thought it was beautiful, and that's enough."
The black shadow frowned. Frélle's look of detachment was a stark contrast to her desperate struggles before, so much so that one wondered why she had fought so hard, just for this moment of calm?
"Is it really enough?" the black shadow asked. "If you had such high expectations, and then saw such a ravaged world, wouldn't you be disappointed?"
"Of course I would," Frélle said, looking at the sky. Its vastness made her show a trace of yearning.
"Then why..."
"Do you think I will regret it?" Frélle interrupted the black shadow, turning back to smile at her.
The black shadow was indeed stunned by this smile.
"I have regretted too many things..." Frélle raised her hand, releasing her tight grip on the crystal fragment, looking at the cuts on her hand, at the bloodstains on the crystal fragment.
"We struggle cautiously in life, regretting every decision we make because of small mistakes... Is such a life truly meaningful?"
Before the black shadow could answer, she paused herself, then chuckled. "For some people... perhaps it really is. At least, many people in this world are living such a life.
"They put one shackle after another on their dreams, define one forbidden zone after another in their world, and stay in their comfort zone, unwilling to leave, yet exceptionally yearning for a life outside the cage.
"Life... is ultimately defeated by life. Sentimentality is clearly the foundation of being human, yet it must constantly give way to rationality. The sheep of dreams must kneel for the fodder of reality..."
Frélle stopped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The black shadow finally had a chance to interject.
"Since so many people in the world are like this, why do you have to be a maverick?"
"Perhaps this is self-importance?" Frélle showed a smile that was either bitter or relieved, but she only said this one sentence and did not explain it.
The black shadow didn't press further. Perhaps she had her own answer.
One last question...
"What made you willing to leave the cage (Cages)?"
Frélle was taken aback. She tilted her head up, a look of reminiscence on her face.
Was it the girl named Sirin who said she would definitely save her?
No... perhaps she had this thought much earlier...
It was on the train, when she would unconsciously join in Kiana and the others' games. It was in the manor, when Shu showed undisguised disgust at her disguise...
Even earlier...
It was at the moment this disaster called the Honkai descended. It was when she was about to die under the feet of a Honkai beast...
The AI that, even across species, was willing to risk its life for her—
Kai (key).
The freedom trapped in the cage had finally found its key, making her understand that the world was not as she had seen it. People could help each other unconditionally, and the reasons for doing things were not purely for profit...
So this time...
She didn't want to just look after her own interests anymore.
"Even if the price is unbearable for us?" the black shadow questioned.
"But the result we get in return is still something we are willing to endure," Frélle replied. "A transaction, isn't that what we're good at?"
"Alright..." This time it was the black shadow who closed her eyes. She did not stop her. In fact, she had no ability to stop her.
Her question was just to get an answer that could convince herself.
"Don't regret it this time..."
---||---
Sirin opened her eyes, but what she saw was not reality.
She was still in a dream. But she clearly remembered being expelled from Frélle's dream. She had failed to complete her mission...
"This is..." A strange feeling in her body made Sirin pause. She raised her hand in astonishment.
Her power should have been completely unsupported, so it was impossible for her to remain in a dream. But this feeling around her, she was indeed in a dream...
The sound of footsteps from behind suddenly startled Sirin. She turned and saw Frélle, dressed in a magnificent gown.
"You..." Astonishment appeared in Sirin's eyes. Frélle smiled gently at Sirin, then bowed slightly.
"Thank you," she said sincerely to Sirin. Sirin was taken aback, her lips trembling slightly.
"Ahem... in other words, this... uh, I succeeded, right?" Sirin suppressed the excitement in her heart and asked Frélle.
Frélle nodded. Sirin's heart relaxed, and the corner of her mouth was just about to curl up when Frélle said the second half of her sentence. "But, I also didn't succeed..."
"Why?" Sirin's eyes widened. "Aren't you already here?"
"You have indeed saved me, but I can feel that your other two companions were not saved," Frélle said. Sirin's expression turned ugly.
In other words, Mei and Seele had both failed?
"But I..." Sirin wanted to say that she didn't have the ability to save a second one, but she suddenly paused, looking at herself in astonishment.
She still had the ability to maintain this dream, and the power within her did not seem to be exhausted from lack of energy...
This was...
"If I give you Honkai energy, you should be able to do it again, right?" Frélle said, extending a hand to Sirin.
"Wait! You are a Pseudo-Herrscher now. Without a core, you will die!" Sirin was about to refuse the moment she saw what Frélle was offering.
"And now I don't even have time to get there! You'll just be dying for nothing!"
"This core is derived from the canopy, and the control of the canopy is only on me. In other words, as long as you absorb this core, you can pass through the canopy and project your power to other places."
Frélle smiled, as if completely unconcerned. "As for me dying... that's not a problem."