Chapter 373: Ele Is Also Very Beautiful

What is a miracle?

Xu Xi felt that it was mostly one repetitive daily routine after another, dull and tasteless, without thrilling accidents or sudden changes.

Seemingly insignificant.

Yet it would settle over time.

Emerging with a unique charm.

Xu Xi was very satisfied with his current life.

On the way back to the Courtyard with Ele, Xu Xi looked up slightly and saw a corner of the clear sky's clouds lifted by the wind, with birds swooping and flying past the buildings.

"It's really nice, right now…"

Beside him was his loyal Mech-Servant.

At home, his younger sister, the witch, and the princess were waiting.

Although he had suffered quite a bit in the simulations and had tragically met the sacrificial ending five times, Xu Xi genuinely liked the real world.

He liked the peace and beauty he had created with his own hands.

Content and satisfied.

This was Xu Xi's state of mind.

"It's just that I don't know how Sevia is doing right now," the weak, helpless, and pitiful undead girl always made people worry.

Xu Xi waited for their reunion in the distant future.

"Master…"

A quiet summer day.

The voice coming from Ele interrupted Xu Xi's wandering thoughts.

In the scorching heat waves, the young girl's fingers tightly gripped Xu Xi's, but her calm gaze was fixed on a fountain by the roadside.

Very ordinary, very common.

Just the clear water flow seen everywhere in the city.

"Master, may I… use that?" Her fair fingertips pointed to that fountain.

Ele spoke vaguely, waiting blankly for Xu Xi's response, but Xu Xi knew what she meant.

A long time ago.

In the Sixth Satellite City during the fourth simulation.

Ele once had an experience of "playing with water."

The Mech-Servant, who did not understand the human heart, had realized the existence of beauty for the first time from the refracted colors of the water, and had been fascinated by that brilliance.

"Of course you can, Ele."

Xu Xi's expression softened; he reached out and gently stroked the top of Ele's head.

Her black and gold long hair had a delicate texture.

Like the embodiment of light.

Silently sliding through Xu Xi's palm.

"This is your freedom. Go if you want to; I will wait for you," his gentle voice, warmer than the sun in the sky, gave the Mech-Servant the strength to act.

"Thank you, Master."

After politely thanking him.

Ele, dressed in a maid outfit, walked towards the fountain.

Her eyes blinked, her expression serious, as she reached out both hands.

As if conducting some sacred and rigorous scientific experiment, the Mech-Servant Ele used her hands to cup the clear, cool spring water.

"…"

The water was so transparent.

Yet, under the shining sun, the palms filled with water gradually burst into a hazy halo of light.

First, a pure, incandescent white.

Then, a variegated array of colors.

Plop—

Her palms opened, and all the water fell back into the fountain. The dreamlike radiance vanished, yet water droplets remained between her palms.

"Beautiful."

The young girl tilted her head and raised her hands into the air.

Bending and opening them with a light posture.

Constantly flipping them back and forth between her palms and the backs of her hands.

It was a scene like that of a child, her ignorant mind chasing after the light, exploring that gorgeous beauty.

"Master, it's very beautiful."

Ele squatted by the fountain and reached out her hands towards Xu Xi.

Showing Xu Xi her "achievement."

Those were her long, slender, pale fingers covered in water droplets.

"Yes, I see it. It's very beautiful," Xu Xi walked over to Ele, also squatted down, and while being watched by those blank, silver-blue eyes, he stroked her head again.

Water splashed everywhere, dripping incessantly.

In that summer serenity.

Xu Xi, with a gentle expression, affirmed the girl's result of her exploration.

"Ele, you really like water."

"Because it's very beautiful…"

The Mech-Servant extended a single index finger and gently stirred the flowing water, watching the colorful halo get disrupted by her own movement, becoming even more hazy and brilliant.

That was the collision of water and light.

It was the intersection of cold spring water and the hot sun.

Outlined at the tips of her fingers, blooming in a momentary dream.

When in the Sixth Satellite City, Ele had done the same thing, but she couldn't specifically understand that feeling.

But now.

She possessed a human body.

Finally, she could definitely comprehend that aesthetics of light.

"Master, am I… closer to being a real person?" In the bright sunlight, Ele suddenly asked such a question, her expression calm, yet revealing a unique joy.

Closer to being a real human.

It meant being closer to Xu Xi.

Ele was happy because of this; her silver-blue eyes clearly reflected Xu Xi's figure, as well as the gorgeous, iridescent colors of the light.

Xu Xi's palm stroked that black and gold long hair.

"You already are, Ele, and… you are very beautiful right now."

"Is it as beautiful as the light?"

"No, the Ele I see is even more beautiful than the light."

Light was the epitome of beauty in the Mech-Servant's eyes.

But the Mech-Servant in Xu Xi's eyes.

Possessed beauty that surpassed the light countless times over.

"Are you saying… me…?" Her voice was slightly bewildered; the Mech-Servant felt that she could not yet receive such an evaluation.

Because she was the murderer who had killed her Master with her own hands.

She could neither protect Xu Xi nor save his life.

In the past, she could only watch helplessly as Xu Xi passed away in pain.

But Xu Xi affirmed such an Ele.

His eyes met hers.

"Of course, my Ele is very beautiful, isn't she?"

Ah…

Unable to answer, not knowing how to answer.

The young girl's brain stopped thinking.

Her cheeks were scorched hot by the sun.

She was dazed, unable to maintain her body's movements, and could only be passively led, following Xu Xi on the road back to the Courtyard.

After a long, long time, Ele's thoughts returned to normal.

In the blind spot of Xu Xi's vision, Ele silently took out a small booklet with the words "thirty-six stratagems for love" printed on it.

She flipped to the last page.

Skipping over the dense, packed strategies.

Ele saw the last line of black text.

The Thirty-Seventh Stratagem: Being Loved.

A person who is loved can ignore the preceding thirty-six stratagems and still possess love.

Is that so…

Ele stared at that line of text for a long, long time.

The Ele of the past viewed this little booklet as a holy book, constantly studying the strategies within, wanting to obtain Xu Xi's "love" through them.

But now.

Ele suddenly realized.

She didn't seem to need to do that.

"Hoo!" Ele closed the booklet and burned the holy book she had treasured for countless years into nothingness with flames.

"Ele," Xu Xi's voice came from in front, "What are you burning?"

"You don't need to mind, it's just… saying goodbye to the past."

The past?

What does that mean?

Xu Xi was a bit curious, but didn't ask too much.

Ele was an independently existing person.

It was normal to have privacy.

Although Ele kept calling him Master, Xu Xi had always treated Ele as an equal from beginning to end, so naturally, he wouldn't infringe on her privacy.

"How strange…"

"It's clearly still summer, yet I feel a chill down my back."