Chapter 87

"My parents' relationship… Although I might not have the right to say this, I feel that rather than being loved by my father, my mother is being pitied by him. What my mother craves isn't my father's love, but… a kind of pity."

Hmm.

This is truly a somewhat complicated family dynamic.

Qi Xing ran away as soon as he transmigrated in this life and had no real sense of family relationships, but in his previous life, his parents' relationship was quite good.

But the word [pity] still slightly stirred some feeling in Qi Xing's heart.

Pity, huh?

Feeling that others are weak and need his protection—Qi Xing certainly has such thoughts from time to time, for example, with Elaine. Or with some of Qi Xing's other friends—or rather, he was afraid of making friends in the first place precisely because he feared others were too weak.

So he deliberately distanced himself, not interacting too much with others. In this regard, Jingo Rin and Qi Xing are quite similar.

Although he wasn't very clear about the specific situation of the Shingo Family couple, if there is a huge disparity in strength between a husband and wife, whether they can truly love each other is likely a very difficult question to answer.

And pity… the word pity is actually quite heavy; it's something that is a bit condescending.

"Although I have no interest in that sort of thing right now, I might get married and start a family in a few years."

Then, unexpectedly, Jingo Rin suddenly said this,

"Sometimes I wonder, when that time comes, will I really be able to have love between husband and wife… and whether marriage is actually a good thing."

This wasn't just worrying about her parents' disharmonious relationship.

Even Qi Xing could see that Jingo Rin was questioning the very act of [being able to fall in love with someone].

This was probably the first time Qi Xing had seen her troubled.

"So, besides shonen manga, I sometimes read romance manga… although there are romance manga in JUMP too. But honestly,"

Jingo Rin sighed again,

"It's hard for me to put myself in their shoes."

087: The Greedy and Selfish Me

Jingo Rin's dilemma was truly a rather unique problem.

It wasn't just the simple matter of a teenage girl worrying about whether she could date.

Because in essence, this was actually a beast born with immense power, worrying that its claws might poke someone and break them; it was doubting, wanting to know if it [could love someone]—and here, it specifically meant romantic love.

If we are only talking about [love], then Qi Xing felt that even if Jingo Rin said things like [I'm just doing what I want to do], even if it might be condescending pity, at least she persisted in protecting those she wanted to protect. In Qi Xing's view, this could definitely be considered a very remarkable kind of love.

It's just that this kind of love is vastly different from the kind of love Jingo Rin is worried about whether she can possess.

"That's a really hard question to answer."

At the very least, Qi Xing wouldn't tell her—you're just overthinking it—or other dismissive things like that.

As it turned out, Jingo Rin's next sentence caught him off guard.

"Oh? I thought I could gain some experience from you."

Jingo Rin frowned,

"Isn't Ms. Elaine your fiancée?"

Eek! Why did you have to bring that up!

For a moment, Qi Xing was so startled by this that the wine he had just drunk felt like it was turning into cold sweat.

Why would Jingo Rin know this? The answer was actually quite simple; naturally, Sasa had intentionally let them see it in Qi Xing's file.

"Ms. Elaine is much weaker than you, but the feeling between you two doesn't seem like pity. Although I can see that you have a higher status and Ms. Elaine wants to try her best to devote herself to you, it's still not quite the same."

Jingo Rin said, her expression pensive,

"Ms. Elaine seems to desire to stay by your side more than she desires to possess you."

"My mother, on the other hand, is completely dependent on my father. Even if one day my father disappeared without a word, she would probably just sigh in sadness all by herself, right?"

Good heavens.

Jingo Rin herself probably had no ill intent; she was purely just chatting with a friend and discussing relationship problems.

But hearing her talk about Elaine really stung Qi Xing's sense of guilt!

I don't want to be a scumbag!

He had to change the subject a little.

"Let's look at it from another angle. What kind of love do you want?"

Qi Xing asked, trying hard to appear calm.

"What kind of romantic partner do you want?"

"I haven't really thought about this question carefully."

Jingo Rin frowned again,

"First of all, my future husband certainly cannot be someone I might accidentally break. But…"

But… is that it? Is just being strong enough?

Although Jingo Rin hadn't met as many powerful people as Qi Xing, she vaguely knew that she probably wouldn't just pick any random expert to marry.

Obviously, she cared about more than just that.

She didn't want a relationship like her parents', which was just pity and the desire to be pitied. She wanted a partner who wouldn't be easily broken. But to say that this was love? It seemed a bit strange.

What specifically did she want to get out of love?

This part that she couldn't clearly explain was obviously something Jingo Rin herself was still troubled by and hadn't truly realized yet.

Just like that, unconsciously, they seemed to have forgotten that they were both stark naked, and continued chatting while soaking in the hot spring.

They talked about many things, from romance to teasing each other about manga, and then to past combat experiences.

This sense of distance was truly incredible.

But Qi Xing never truly forgot that they were both stark naked.

Twenty minutes later, he finally found an opportunity to leave the hot spring and walked back to his room in a bathrobe.

On the way, his expression appeared calm, but his heart was very complicated.

I can't—I can't be a scumbag!

But Jingo Rin is also so great!

"Still struggling, still struggling."

Sasa popped out to look at Qi Xing and shook her head,

"Well, at least you admitted your desires."

"But I have Elaine."

"No one told you to only pick one. That shrine maiden wasn't wrong either."

Sasa raised an eyebrow,

"The little nun is satisfied just staying by your side. I suspect she wouldn't mind at all what method you use."

"One thing is one thing. I said I would take responsibility."

"Ha."

The Loli Evil God scoffed at this,

"I'll bet my mouth on it. If you really went back to the room and told the little nun—'Oops, sorry, I just hit it off with Jingo Rin in the hot spring and I want to take two wives,' the little nun would nod immediately, and might even start helping you argue that it's perfectly reasonable for a powerful emperor to have a harem."

Shakespeare once said that the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. Look at this Sasa, she didn't even need to blink, just started spouting off: "Charlemagne, you know him? The founder of modern Europe, the eternal emperor of Europa, and he was also beatified by the church, listed as a blessed one, with a rank second only to a saint—do you know how many wives he had?"

Qi Xing didn't know about this, but at least he understood what Sasa wanted to express, and was speechless.

"Let's try an even earlier one, one I'm more familiar with—Solomon's father, King David. Oh, an old friend. I wanted to kill him back when I was still an angel. All Abrahamic religions, including the current Christianity, regard him as a holy king and hero. Do you know how many wives he had? He didn't just have a harem; he even coveted other people's wives."

"They were kings, that doesn't count…"

Qi Xing said weakly.

"That's why I said you don't have the bearing of a king. Why can't you be a king?"

Sasa sneered.

"Then let's talk about my dear brother."

"Yego didn't take a wife."

"How do you know he didn't?"

Sasa shut down Qi Xing's retort with one sentence.

"Did you forget what you came to Japan to investigate in the first place? I'll tell you the truth, Qi Xing, in various folk legends and variant Christ myths, my brother has married so many wives!"

"Whether it's Celtic barbarian girls, rich women from Egypt, the Magdalene prostitute, mermaid queens—from the British Isles to the Japanese archipelago, he basically married his way through various folk legends; he truly is a worthy descendant of David. In the Yazidism mythology you are currently investigating, my brother alone has nine sons and three daughters. King David would be sweating just looking at that!"

Huh? Huh??

Qi Xing had previously asked Sasa if she had followers in Yazidism, and Sasa played dumb and didn't say anything, so how is she now exposing such a huge scandal about her own brother?!

Unfortunately, Qi Xing hadn't returned to his room yet and was still in the hotel corridor.

If Elaine heard this conversation, she would definitely warn Qi Xing immediately that the devil is always good at spouting nonsense. It's very easy to get confused when arguing with her. The simplest way to deal with the devil is to ignore her.

Unfortunately, Elaine wasn't here at the moment.

Another person came instead.

"Young man."

A voice suddenly rang out from the side of the corridor.

The next second, a middle-aged man with a blonde afro and wearing a Hawaiian shirt slid out from a door like a fish, holding a folding fan in his hand.

He was, of course, Jingo Rin's weird father.

"I seem to have heard you talking to yourself in the corridor just now, saying something about [taking responsibility]?"

Father Shinji closed his fan and asked with great interest.

Honestly, Qi Xing was very sensitive to the word responsibility right now.

But he still maintained his usual state, calm…

"Are you talking about my Rin? I saw you two soaking in the hot spring together."

Pfft!

Perhaps because of a guilty conscience, it was very hard for Qi Xing to remain calm now.

"To tell you the truth, young man—I don't know what will be going on in Rin's head next either."

Jingo Shinji gestured with his fan, his gaze sweeping across Qi Xing's face and stopping at his eyes,

"But I know one thing—if a man doesn't even have the courage to take responsibility for his romantic affairs with women, then in the end, he won't be able to bear greater ambitions."

"Didn't you say you wanted to change the world?"

"Young man, changing the world is—much more difficult and heavier than two or three women, or four or five women."

"If you can't even face or bear the burden of seven or eight, or even a dozen women, then it's better to give up early. Why bother talking empty words about changing the world?"

Why does the number of women you're talking about keep increasing?!

"Changing the world means taking responsibility for everyone in the world. How can a man who doesn't even dare to start a harem bear the entire world?"

"[I will take responsibility!] This sentence alone is indeed not a problem. But if this responsibility fails to become the driving force for your efforts, and instead becomes a burden on your life's path…"

"Then you had better stop now."

"Otherwise, sooner or later, you will be like a certain—"

Suddenly, Father Jingo smiled, the corners of his eyes once again showing a bit of a devil-may-care curve, and his tone became relaxed: "Like a certain Hero of Justice who first shot his biological father, and then shot down his adoptive mother's plane, regretting his initial choices."

Qi Xing was speechless for a moment.

After saying this, Father Jingo patted Qi Xing on the shoulder and turned to leave as if nothing had happened.

"I'm going to prepare your dinner. If you can take it to heart, then think about it some more; if not, it doesn't matter."

The next second, Jingo Shinji was humming an off-key tune, his swaying figure disappearing at the end of the corridor.

"Why is everyone suggesting I start a harem? Is it the world's fault? It must be because you broke this world, right, Sasa?"

"Go away, don't dump the responsibility on me."

Joking aside, Qi Xing's heart was actually still quite complicated—however, he was not a wishy-washy whale, and he certainly didn't want to be Kiritsugu.

Since he had been given such forceful guidance, if he didn't change at all, Qi Xing wouldn't be qualified to be a man.

Qi Xing, oh Qi Xing, having just gotten what's in the bowl, you're already eyeing what's in the pot; how could you be like this? Why are you such a greedy and selfish person?