After about a two week journey, they arrived at a city at the base of a mountain. On the mountain was the sect Ira’s best friend was a member of. It was a particularly big mountain, worthy of being Ira’s best friend’s home. Even the tip nearly pierced the sky.
Turning away from the mountain, Ira once more stared at the stall before him. It was a mobile book stall, and the table had piles of books as tall as a meter. Ira had seen it as soon as he reached the marketplace, and had now spent a solid hour here. If his eyes didn’t deceive him, the stall owner really wanted to throw him out.
But he couldn’t because of Xiao Wei, who’d been standing next to Ira and smiling threateningly the entire time.
Ira was maybe a little jealous. He, too, wanted to be able to smile like that.
Pointing at the final book he was going to buy, Ira watched eagerly as the pile was tied together with a thin rope. He grabbed it, hugging it to his chest while Xiao Wei paid. The ten books were quite heavy but Ira was a cultivator; he was strong. More than enough strength to carry the books with one hand and curl his other arm around Xiao Wei’s.
“Happy?” asked Xiao Wei, softly patting Ira’s arm.
“Yep,” popped Ira. He grinned at Xiao Wei and delighted in the way that Xiao Wei looked so gently back at him. It made his stomach do twirls inside.
They continued to walk through the marketplace. As was customary at most towns located close to sects doing well, the market alone was gigantic. The rest of the town was similarly big and they stopped by a restaurant on the way.
After eating, they continued up the mountain.
Ira very quickly got tired of their slow pace; he wanted to hurry up and meet his friend. He tugged on Xiao Wei’s hand and gestured to the man’s sword, jumping a little on his toes as he waited. Xiao Wei grandly pulled the sword out and made it hover in the air, then helped Ira get up from the ground. Xiao Wei got on after and held onto Ira’s waist as the sword began to move.
They weaved between the trees as they rose higher and higher, the evening sky painted pink where the sun was beginning to set. Purple clouds lined the horizon’s edge, the first hint of stars barely visible at the highest point of the heavens.
“Faster, please,” Ira muttered.
Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to see his friend. He was pretty sure that they were actually friends at this point, like a pair of fated friends written in the stars. Sappy, but when he thought of how long it’d been since he’d last met her—he’d have to ask what pronoun she was using now—it made him frown. She’d been a constant for so many worlds now that he’d kind of subconsciously grown to expect her to be there and when she wasn’t…
Well, it made him a little like he was punched in the face.
“Don’t worry,” Xiao Wei whispered into his neck. “You’ll see your friend soon.”
“Good,” Ira said. “Because I want her to be there at the wedding.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Lf ofia Wljb Qfl rwlif jujlcra tlw. “Po sbe kjca la, atfc la rtjii yf rb.”
Ira harrumphed somewhat. It was nice to hear that Xiao Wei recognized that Ira had superior decision-making skills. After all, it was Xiao Wei that had somehow made the decision, worlds and worlds ago, to start following a stranger on the off-chance they’d meet. Seemed like a pretty terrible decision to Ira. From all angles.
Lf ifjcfv yjmx oegatfg lcab Wljb Qfl, ifaalcu atf wjc yfjg jii tlr kfluta. Pa kjr bxjs. Wljb Qfl kjr ragbcufg atjc Pgj.
Ktfs rfa vbkc lc ogbca bo atf rfma’r fcagjcmf. Aera yjgulcu gluta lc mbeiv ecobgaecjafis mjerf qgbyifwr obg Pgj’r oglfcv jcv tf vlvc’a sfa xcbk lo rtf ilxfv atlr rfma bg cba. Glv rtf klrt ab rajs tfgf? Glv rtf tjnf oglfcvr bg ojwlis tfgf? Pgj vlvc’a xcbk sfa jcv rb tf kjrc’a ublcu ab pfbqjgvlhf tfg qijmf tfgf.
Hopping down from the sword, Ira stared at the huge gates. They really were very gigantic; towering above him so far he had to lean his head back to see the top.
It seemed like a rich sect, at least.
Xiao Wei walked up to one of the guards and began to murmur something to him. He waved something between them—it was flat, so maybe a jade slip or something like that? Anyway, after Xiao Wei spent a few minutes smiling threateningly and talking at a low, pleasant voice, they were let in.
They held hands up the final staircase. Ira swung their connected hands between them, having fun seeing how far Xiao Wei would let him go. He glanced at Xiao Wei and when he caught the other man peeking at him, grinned.
This was a fun world, huh.
Now that he was actually in the sect, Ira’s impatience and his excellent map-reading skills overrode his desire to not intrude on his friend’s privacy. He checked where she was on the map and dragged Xiao Wei straight there, no detours. Even though there was a library here that he really wanted to check out. Just a quick peek, promise! Wouldn’t take more than a minute!
His friend was at a training ground, practicing with a sword. Ira stopped on the edge of the training ground and sat down. He didn’t want to bother her when he was busy and anyway, he had just bought a bunch of new books. He’d simply read until she was free.
But just to make certain he pointed at her and told Xiao Wei, “That’s my best friend.”
Xiao Wei nodded, a serious look on his face. He pulled out a basket from his sleeves (there must be some dimensional space there or something) and set it in front of them; he, too, was sitting on the ground. Next to Ira, he pulled out food and drinks from the baskets and they had an impromptu picnic.
It was really nice. Ira took off pictures and put off reading until he’d eaten he pastries and drunk his fill.
Some hours later, his friend was done.
Ira looked up as soon as the sound of the sword swinging was no longer present. He rose from the ground and dusted off the dirt, handing his books off to Xiao Wei. Walking quickly to his friend, the first thing he said to her in this world was, “You look even cooler than Xiao Wei when you use your sword.”
She blinked at him. Her eyes were narrowed and thin, her nose straight and her lips tightly pursed when she saw him walking to her. She had long hair, as most people here did, and some of it was swept up into a complicated updo that he didn’t have a name for.
“Thank you?” she finally said. She furrowed her brows and asked, “Do I know you?”
“Not in this world,” Ira smoothly answered.
She scowled. “Are you trying to hit on me?”
“…” Ira’s mind blanked. That was so far out of the realm of possibility the though had honestly never occurred to him. Hitting on someone meant flirting, right? Flirting with his friend…
Ew.
“Ew,” Ira said, so that there would be no misunderstandings. He scowled, too, annoyed that someone would think that of him. “I would never flirt with you,” he said. He grimaced at the mere thought.
Then he thought of something else. “Besides,” he said, straightening up and grinning. “I’m getting married soon.”
“He is,” Xiao Wei added at Ira’s friend doubtful expression. Then he said, “If I actually thought he was flirting with you, you wouldn’t be invited to the wedding. He just wants to be friends and he’s not good at making friends, or finding people that he wants to be friends with, so I thought we should come over and see how you’d react.”
She sighed. She slumped her shoulders and finally put away her sword. Looking them over, she finally said, “I don’t mind being friends. But I’m not getting involved in any romantic stuff.”
This was refreshingly straight-forward. Ira beamed at her. “I greatly dislike romance. I like Xiao Wei now and I want to marry him, but I’m not in love with him, I don’t think.” Hmm, he wasn’t, right? His stomach felt like butterflies sometimes and his heart squeezed sometimes and skipped beats other times and he greatly enjoyed spending time with him… But was that romantic love?
Ira was a fucking traumatized System with some major emotional issues, how the hell was he supposed to be able to tell?!
Somebody needed to write a manual about this!
Xiao Wei smiled, “I love you, Ira.”
ira blushed. He waved at him, stepping away from him a little but still holding onto his hand (when had they started holding hands again??). “I like you, too,” he said, purely to be kind.
Xiao Wei grinned brighter, his eyes sparkling. He swung their hands but didn’t step closer and that, too—keeping distance when Ira wanted him too, Ira liked. It showed that he could both read Ira’s wants and actually respected them.
There had been… so many Hosts that had put him in the line of fire, physically keeping him between them and the danger because if he died he’d just pop up in another body. So many times when he’d stood on a battlefield behind his Hosts and was cut, rose up in another mob character’s body in the same battlefield and it went on over and over and over again.
Sometimes it had seemed to be never ending. Sometimes he’d wanted to step back and watch his Host die, like they never watched him because he’d be fine he was a just a system what did it matter if his temporary body was hurt?
What did it matter if he died?
Ira bit down on his tongue until he tasted blood, frowning severely. He didn’t like those thoughts. He wanted them to be gone, but there was no program that could do that for him that wouldn’t leave him gutted in the process. It was too ingrained in him, those memories. The result it’d had on his personality was too connected.
Fucking bullshit.
His friend eyed him oddly, but didn’t say anything about his change in mood. “I’m Zhou Li. What’s your name?”
Ira’s eyes widened. Fuuuuck…. what had he said his name was? Something, uhm, yeah he really couldn’t remember. He’d never attached any importance to the names of his borrowed bodies, after all.
“This is Ira,” Xiao Wei said. He sounded proud, his back straight. “We’re going to get married soon. If you want, you can come to the wedding.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re Li Dawei, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Xiao Wei smiled. It wasn’t a nice one. Ira eyed him, making sure he wasn’t being mean to his friend. But it didn’t exactly appear to be a threatening smile, so it would pass.
She nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. “Follow me,” she said and began to walk without another explanation. Ira followed her and Xiao Wei followed him, walking so closely that Ira could feel his warmth.
Ira frowned as they went through the sect, his mind turning over rocks in his memories. He’d told his name to Xiao Wei, he knew. And it would have been a name that fit here, because Ira really stood out too much. He was surprised Zhou Li hadn’t said anything about it. Maybe she just thought it was a fake name?
Oh well, it was of no importance. It was nice that his friend knew his real name. But, really, it annoyed him that he didn’t remember… Bai? Was it Bai? Bai… Ping? Possibly? He’d put it down as a maybe until he could find the relevant memory.
For now, he was eagerly looking forward to what Zhou Li was leading them to.
A/N: So, occasionally—maybe every 2-3 weeks—I don’t have internet. The internet in the house just breaks and no device can connect at all. It is supremely annoying. And it was really just a matter of time before it happened on a Sunday (and also bits of a Monday).
It appears I’ve forgotten his name as well… 😅
Porr you internet is a bitch
Thank you for the hard work
No Internet, the Horror!
Thanks for the chapter.