Step!
Diana, clad in golden armor, held Vincent and landed lightly and precisely on their balcony from a hundred meters in the night sky. Since the balcony's French windows had already been shattered, Diana took a few more steps forward and entered the dark and messy living room.
Diana casually tossed her golden lasso, which re-attached itself to the living room ceiling. The golden glow emanating from the lasso served as temporary indoor lighting. Under the golden light, her tall figure adorned in the golden armor was dazzling.
"Auntie, what's with your outfit?"
Vincent couldn't help but glance at her a few more times, feeling that her current attire was noble and aloof, no different from the goddesses described in Greek mythology.
Diana calmly looked at Vincent and stated directly, "The battle suit I usually wear outside was taken by you, so I could only wear the spare Golden Eagle battle armor from home."
Hmm, reasonable.
But Vincent's mind suddenly went blank. He just realized that he was still in women's clothing, and everything he was wearing belonged to his auntie.
This time, he was really in a huge predicament! And he was caught in the act!
"How does it feel?" Diana even looked Vincent up and down with a meaningful gaze, asking with a half-smile.
"What do you mean, 'how does it feel'?" Vincent pretended not to understand, tugging at the short skirt and calling out in a slight panic, "Auntie, quickly put me down!"
Just as Diana released Vincent from her embrace, Vincent's body suddenly stiffened, feeling as if his body had been instantly emptied. His silver hair, which had fallen over his shoulders, began to shrink back as if dehydrating, returning to its original length, and the silver glow in his hair faded back to black.
The pupils of his silver divine eyes trembled slightly, then instantly reverted to the dark brown of an ordinary human.
The extraordinary power peeled away from Vincent like a tide.
Also leaving him were the weapons and armor he wore: the retro long sword, the dark gold round shield, the silver bracelets, the noble crown, and the skirt armor, among other things. They all spontaneously detached from Vincent and were strung up one by one by the golden lasso hanging above.
Vincent subconsciously looked at the grandfather clock in the living room; it was almost eleven o'clock at night.
"The Dependents ability has finally expired. It lasted for about four hours?" He let out a soft breath, looked down at his clothes, which had changed back to the long shirt and casual pants he had worn earlier, only the shirt and pants were soaking wet, full of sweat.
It was as if everything that happened tonight was just a dream.
However, looking up at his auntie standing beside him in her battle armor, and the golden light emanating from the golden lasso above, confirmed that everything had truly happened, just moments ago!
Diana, clad in the Golden Eagle battle armor, and Vincent, who had reverted to an ordinary person, exchanged glances, then quickly averted their eyes.
Too many unexpected events had occurred tonight, and these events had revealed the secrets they had hidden from each other.
Thus, whether from guilt, worry, fear, or embarrassment, under a mixture of complex and inexpressible emotions, Diana and Vincent didn't know how to speak, causing the living room to fall into a tense silence.
"You."
Diana was about to say something.
Just then, Vincent waved his hand, as if finding an excuse, and ran towards the bathroom like he was escaping: "Uh, I'm really dirty, I'm going to take a shower first!"
Leaving Diana standing alone in the living room, the bright moonlight streamed through the window, making her seem a bit lonely at that moment.
Slam!
Vincent tightly closed the bathroom door, leaning his back against it, breathing a sigh of relief.
If one suddenly learned that their only relative was not human, most people would probably find it unbearable, wouldn't they?
Perhaps because he was a reincarnator, Vincent didn't feel much about it. Even if she wasn't human, his auntie was still his auntie; this fundamental understanding in his heart had never wavered.
However, perhaps because his auntie had seen him in women's clothing, and because he had done something wrong, as well as keeping secrets from his auntie, Vincent suddenly didn't know how to face Diana.
So, Vincent chose to escape, temporarily.
After all, he was just a child.
Vincent comforted himself with this so-called reason, took off all his dirty, wet clothes, turned on the hot water tap for the bathtub in the bathroom, and almost collapsed into the rather spacious tub.
Although the extraordinary power had completely left his body, the residual effects of his earlier struggle with Abomination, as well as the accumulated fatigue and exhaustion in his body, still lingered.
As the somewhat scalding hot water filled the bathtub, warm steam rose and filled the single shower stall. Vincent, soaking in the hot water, let out a deep breath, the tight string in his heart finally relaxing.
He picked up a wet towel, placed it on his faintly aching forehead, closed his eyes, and lay back in the bathtub.
Just as Vincent emptied his mind and thoughts, there was a knock on the bathroom door.
"Auntie, you can just leave the change of clothes outside the door," Vincent said without opening his eyes, lying motionless in the bathtub.
No sound came from behind the bathroom door, but the next moment, the door suddenly clicked open!
"No need to bring it in specially," Vincent said, glancing towards the door. That glance made him completely freeze.
Of course, it was his auntie who opened the door and entered the bathroom.
But, but!
At this moment, his auntie was no longer wearing the Golden Eagle battle armor. She held her fluffy, beautiful hair with one hand, and gently clutched a white bath towel with her right hand.
The bath towel hung from her chest down to her legs, as if covering something, yet also as if it wasn't covering anything at all.
In the misty steam.
Vincent saw an unparalleled beauty that no work of art could rival, a sight more pristine than the clean white bath towel, like the pure white landscape gently covered with snow on the Alps in winter.
In that instant, Vincent suddenly remembered a legend.
In Greek mythology, Athena was blessed by the gods with all good things—beauty, strength, wisdom, honesty!
The beauty present before him, perhaps only the legendary gods could bestow and shape it.
Although he didn't know how many times he had seen her, Vincent was still stunned for a moment. Coming back to his senses, he quickly used the towel on his forehead to cover his crotch.
"What's there to see, since childhood?" Diana didn't know if she was talking about herself or referring to Vincent. She closed the door again and walked barefoot into the bathroom.
"Auntie, you, how did you come in?" Vincent stammered a little.
Diana didn't answer. She simply walked gracefully to the bathtub and softly said, "Turn around and make some room."
"O-okay!" Vincent, almost instinctively, hugged his knees and turned to sit in a corner of the bathtub.
Before he could comprehend the current situation.
With a splash, the already full bathtub overflowed by about half a person's worth of water.