Under the moonlight, the two of them strolled hand in hand through the garden.
"I really wish this kind of peaceful time could last a little longer," Elysia said softly.
"Up until the Eighth Herrscher incident, people's lives were basically peaceful, weren't they?" Silas thought for a moment before continuing, "Even when the Seventh Herrscher burned down the Australian continent, the Honkai still hadn't been exposed to the vast majority of people. And for us, the ones fighting against it, our lives still felt relatively calm. There wasn't a suffocating atmosphere. Everyone was confident we could overcome the Honkai. As warriors, we just accepted a mission, went to the designated place, wiped out the Honkai—and when you start treating that as routine, there isn't much to it."
"That's not what I meant…" Elysia looked at Silas helplessly. "You promised Kevin, didn't you? After the Fourth Herrscher incident, you would arrange for someone to bring Lilith back. Do you really think that leaves me with much time?"
Lilith.
That was the woman who dared to steal a kiss from Silas not long after meeting him! If Silas hadn't confessed it himself, all of them would've been fooled by her acting.
The Fourth Herrscher incident… if it happened around the same time as before, that meant less than ten months remained. Just imagining Lilith showing up at Fire Moth already made Elysia feel guilty.
How should she put it… Although Silas had clearly stated that he never had a romantic relationship with Lilith, he had also admitted that he liked her. It gave Elysia the awkward sense that she'd stolen someone else's boyfriend.
Silas fell silent.
Ten months… not too long, but not exactly short either.
"I still don't know how I endured it back then. For a whole month I'd only get to see you a handful of times, and the rest of the time you were out running around the world with Lilith…" Elysia looked at Silas.
"Because when you've lost and regained something once, you're afraid of losing it again?" Silas thought aloud. "After all, in the last life, after the Eighth Herrscher incident, the frequency and time I spent with you really did drop significantly."
He looked at her. "Even if Lilith comes back, it won't be like last time, right?"
"And what do you think it'll be like after Lilith comes back? Silas, you really don't know?" Elysia narrowed her eyes at him.
Silas thought carefully, then said uncertainly, "Maybe… it'll have some impact?"
Elysia turned her gaze away. "I suddenly got curious. In the last life, how exactly did Lilith treat you?"
If possible, she thought, she could try to learn from her.
After all, Lilith somehow managed to raise Silas's emotional intelligence—this man who was even more of a blockhead than Kevin.
Silas narrowed his eyes at her. "Forget it, Elysia. You couldn't pull it off."
Did she think he couldn't see through her thoughts? Besides, the truth was, Elysia—high offense but zero defense in situations like this—was absolutely unsuited for learning Lilith's tricks.
"How would I know if I don't try? Tell me first," Elysia argued boldly. Since he'd already exposed her, she wasn't going to pretend anymore.
"Then… would you dare sneak into my bed in the middle of the night?" Silas grimaced as if recalling something unpleasant. Surely Elysia wouldn't go that far?
Elysia's eye twitched. Then, as if realizing something, she stared at him. "Silas, you didn't actually… do anything with her, right?"
Sneaking into someone's bed at the very least meant sleeping together. But Lilith…
Well. It really was Lilith we were talking about.
"Because Vill-V planted surveillance devices in my room, she didn't succeed," Silas answered. "After that I had Sariel keep an eye on her, so it only happened that one time."
Elysia let out a breath of relief—then frowned. "Wait, that's not right, Silas. As a MANTIS, there's no way you wouldn't notice someone approaching you…"
Her words cut off abruptly. She suddenly remembered: Mobius had said that Silas could only sleep with the help of her specially-made sedatives. At that time, he probably really hadn't been able to sense anyone approaching.
"…Sorry." She lowered her voice.
"There's no need to apologize. It's not something I shy away from," Silas said with a smile.
"You might not care, but I do." Elysia looked straight into his eyes. "That kind of thing, that kind of pain… it's not something we can just ignore because you say you don't mind. I think that's also one of the reasons why, this time, everyone is working together to stop you from carrying everything alone."
Silas was silent for a moment before giving a helpless smile. "Honestly… I really can't win against you all…"
"So this time, don't keep trying to shoulder everything by yourself. If something happens, you can tell us… at least tell me. Okay?" Elysia asked.
Silas smiled faintly. "Alright."
"Then, back to the earlier question—what other outrageous things did Lilith do?" Elysia asked carefully, choosing her words.
Silas let out a long sigh, his expression utterly dead inside. "Leaving aside how many times she tried to drug me, there were also a few times when the squad went to hot springs. Even if men and women were separated, she still found ways to sneak over to my side…"
Elysia: "…"
Wait—she… tried to drug him? And even bathed with him in a hot spring?!
Elysia thought for a moment. As for sneaking into Silas's bed… maybe it wasn't completely impossible to try… No, better not. For one, she already knew Vill-V had bugged Silas's room with surveillance. And besides, just sleeping together like that… it still felt way too early. Not to mention her own sleeping habits—she'd definitely be way too embarrassed!
As for drugging and hot springs…
If it was just the two of them, then bathing together in a hot spring… wouldn't really be a problem, right? It would just be a little embarrassing… As for drugging, absolutely not—that kind of trick was pointless. What she wanted was Silas's heart.
Come to think of it… this Lilith that Silas described felt completely different from the Lilith she knew, and from the Lilith the world knew.
"There are a lot of things I'd rather not even bring up." Silas rubbed his forehead. "Lilith… how should I put it… she had absolutely no sense of restraint in these matters. I basically never saw her embarrassed. So a lot of what she did shouldn't be used as reference."
Then he added, "Besides, Lilith is Lilith. You are you. Why would you want to imitate her?"
"I just wanted to know how she acted before." Elysia shrugged. "If it was something I could learn, maybe I'd try. But from the looks of it, I'm better off just being myself, right?"
Silas went quiet. Those words reminded him of what he once told Lilith, back when she confessed to him. The direct result had been Lilith cutting loose completely—because up until then, she had been, consciously or not, imitating Elysia.
Come to think of it, even his plan to pick up Lilith after the Fourth Herrscher incident might've been too optimistic. Knowing Lilith, she might just blow up her house one day because she couldn't wait any longer, and march straight to Fire Moth. With Lilith, Silas wouldn't even be surprised if she really did it.
"Alright, it's getting late. Let's call it a night and head back." Elysia glanced at the time. "Even though reminiscing about the past can be a little sad, overall, I had a really happy day today."
She smiled at him. "On the way back, please keep holding my hand like this, okay?"
"…I mean, I won't refuse, but do I even have the option to say no?"
"Nope~"
—Inside Dystopia's room.
After flipping through the Fire Moth internal management manual several times, Dystopia muttered to herself with a puzzled look:
"Fire Moth… doesn't seem to have a rule against early romance. Where on earth did Kosma hear that from?"