With the oddly shaped left half of his bangs dangling in the air and his hands propped up on his elbows on his thighs, he had been in this position for nearly half an hour. During this time he had been thinking and simulating over and over again.
What was the best thing to do? This was the question the dark-haired man had been considering up until now.
He wondered if the Queen had gotten over the pain, and whether she had left a psychological shadow behind.
Wanting to know the details of the Queen's sad past, but not being able to use Thought Reading on the Queen; wanting to change the past to help the Queen get rid of her past grief, but not being able to do a Particle Retrospection on the Earth.
It wasn't that it couldn't be done, but that it shouldn't be done.
As one of the people appointed by the God of Creation to be in charge of the multiverse, it was only natural that one would carry the corresponding responsibilities and constraints.
The ability to intervene in everything was not something that could be used as one wished, and because of one's duties, it could only be used when the multiverse was in great peril.
It was really ironic that a god who could easily do anything had encountered a situation where he wanted to do something but couldn't. This definitely made Danley sink deeper into the quagmire called worry.
However──after all, he was an all-powerful Lord God, and even when he was in such a state with himself being weakened significantly, he was still able to break free.
After a long period of repeated thinking and pulling, Danley finally came to a realization.
Even if the other options were unsolvable for the time being, then at least he had to know what the Queen was thinking, right? This was not something that could not be solved.
It was not only out of concern and worry, but also to remove as much of her mental weakness as possible.
Although it might cause her to be hurt twice by the pain of remembering and looking into the past again, it can't be helped, and it wouldn't be good if this matter becomes her fatal weakness in the future.
It could be used by the enemy to force the queen to surrender, and that alone was enough for Danley to act on it.
He knew what to do now, and how to do it.
Talk to the Queen and observe if she was still bound by the sadness of her past, if not then that would be best. If so, try to enlighten her without hurting her. If that didn't work, then it was time to think long and hard.
Danley set a goal in his mind and made up his mind. He passed through the door of the room without any resistance as he did in the hall, and then began to move towards the Queen's bedchamber according to the route he had taken earlier and memorized in his mind.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
After a long walk, Danli finally arrived at his destination, the door to the Queen's chamber.
Along the way, Danli did not intentionally lower or hide his footsteps, in order to prevent the Queen from mistakenly believing that he had the possibility to carry out an assassination, so as to minimize her alertness.
Stepping with no intention of hiding his movements, Danly knocked on the wooden door a few times.
"Kittralefa, are you there?"
There was no answer.
"Is it because calling her by her last name upset her ...?"
Danley beeped in a very low volume.
Because he was in a more cautious state, Danley's thoughts had become far more sensitive and attentive than usual.
"Queen-sama?"
Danley called out to the Queen once again from inside the room. Seeing that there was still no response, Danley immediately became alert, his mental energy highly concentrated, and his whole body and mind in a state of readiness.
Gripping the door handle tightly, with an uneasy feeling, Danley cautiously opened the door
With the door completely open, the line of sight to the interior of the room was no longer blocked.
Everything in the room was intact, and the figure that Danley had been looking for finally came into view.
His left hand was holding down his right hand, which was hanging down, and he was elegantly looking out of the window as if he was thinking about something. The dress that adorned her body was still the ordinary white dress. The posture of the beauty under the moon made Danli stare at her, deeply mesmerized by the picturesque scene in front of her.
Was she now contemplating a future course? Or was it some fragment of a story that she had created on the spur of the moment?
Danley speculated darkly. Just as the next apprehensive step was taken.
The Queen finally realized that Danley had come within her room and she looked back at the man who had entered her room. Danley immediately realized that something was wrong, and that what she was thinking couldn't possibly be anything funny or nice at all.
The woman in front of her had two lines of tears running down her face, and she was holding herself back from an emotional breakdown.
Following the sound of the door opening to the source of the sound, a tearful expression looked up at her.
Danli's eyes widened in shock, his heart tightened, and he could only look back at the mournful-faced queen at a loss for words.
◇◇◇◇
At a time about 11,000 years ago, he himself was born amidst his mother's love and expectations.
Since my father was of the noble class in the clan, and my mother herself was born into a noble family, my family was considered quite wealthy and had no worries about food and clothing.
However, this did not lead to a happy life for me.
Due to his vicious and brutal nature, my father would beat my mother and me from time to time, in short, there was a lot of domestic violence. Having said that, he always sent a seemingly sincere apology to my mother after he did it, and due to a variety of factors, my mother could only forgive him over and over again, and I could only go along with my mother's decision because I was afraid and didn't dare to say anything more.
But even in such a suffocating environment, there was a trace of warmth that existed, and that was my mother herself.
If it wasn't for my mother's constant comfort and companionship, I would have been overwhelmed by the burden and chosen to end my life.
It was my mother who held on to the last glimmer of hope for me.
But change always comes when people have little to fall back on.
One day, news came from the clan that there was a serious shortage of manpower on the front line, and that many clansmen with practical combat abilities or powerful special abilities were urgently needed to replace them.
At that time, the clan was already short of manpower due to the losses brought about by the successive years of wars, and with the large number of people killed in action this time, it undoubtedly made the current situation even worse.
In order to find suitable personnel, the clan conducted an emergency test on all available personnel. The results came out quickly, and I was judged to be the most capable of all of them, meaning that I was sure to be chosen and forced to join the battle.
This meant that I was about to enter the brutal battlefield of hell as a newcomer to the world.
At that time, I was still quite innocent and weak, and even though I had powerful abilities and talents, I didn't know how to utilize them.
My mother and I were caught off guard by the sudden news, and to make matters worse, the clan wouldn't even give me the time to train in combat and wits.
While all of the chosen ones were on their way to an unknown future, I was the only one who remained in the same place and refused to move forward.
It was at this critical moment that my mother chose to volunteer to take my place.
Mother herself was a reserve combatant whose ranking was not too far from that of the front section of the waiting class but who had not been selected, and she was also the strongest of all those who had not been selected at this stage, so after some discussion, the leadership agreed.
Thus began the hard days of Mother's traveling back and forth between the battlefield and her family.
Day after day of hard work, my mother was like the last refuge, warmly guarding me.
It was still a hard life, but I managed to get by.
But the good times did not last long, and the smooth times that were barely maintained were soon shattered by a sudden war.
When I turned sixteen, the Shadow Clan and the Abyssal Court fought an unprecedented battle known as the Battle of the Lamp.
This battle was also one of the key battles that brought ShadowClan to its complete decline.
At that time, the battle was quite tragic, and both sides invested a large number of troops and high-ranking combatants.
At that time, my father was appointed as the highest combat commander, and my mother also participated in the battle as a major combatant, while I worked in the rear as a logistician along with the clansmen who didn't participate in the battle.
My mother was afraid that I would be in danger, so she specifically put a grounding order on me, not allowing me to leave the logistics barracks for a single step. It wasn't pleasant, but I knew that my mother was doing it for my own good, so I didn't complain.
As the battle heated up, the deaths and injuries on both sides became heavier and heavier.
Just as the battle reached the end stage, the fighting in all the major regions had basically eased off, and the Abyssal Court had already withdrawn most of its angelic forces, leaving only a handful of places where heavy fighting still continued.
Just as I was waiting for my mother's return with great anticipation, an urgent message suddenly came from the front line that a legion had encountered a sneak attack by one of the previously defeated angelic forces of the Abyssal Court while retreating, and that troops were urgently needed to be sent to support them.
Right after the messenger read out the name of the legion, I felt a sudden dizziness, almost unable to stand on my feet, and bad imagery immediately filled my mind. For that was the very legion led by my mother.
At that time, father happened to be leading a group back to the reserve position from the front line he was in charge of, and he was the first to receive the request for help.
Yet father simply ignored the request.
Instead of choosing to go forward to rescue his mother, he requested from the leadership for an immediate retreat of the entire army.
At that time, my father clearly had the absolute leeway and ability to support the base, so he could have sent troops to support it.
However, he did not do so.
I went up to my father and asked him why he didn't save those people, but I received a ruthless reply that I couldn't accept.
"I don't want to risk the safety of other people's lives to save them for an unimportant and failed legion, whose defeat is a foregone conclusion anyway."
But in reality that was not the case at all.
At that time, the enemy's strongest forces that remained on the battlefield were already close to zero, and it had been proven that the enemy's top brass had no intention of fighting again, so even if a legion had been sent to support them, it would have suffered very little loss.
However, my father ignored this and insisted on a full retreat, which was quickly approved by the leadership.
My father thus gave up his only chance to save my mother, and the precious golden time to rescue her was thus let go.
I was so eager to save my mother that I didn't consider that I was not strong enough to fight, so I violated the grounding order and quietly left the formation when no one was looking to go to the place where my mother was supposed to be fighting.
After a long search, when I finally arrived at my mother's side. When I finally arrived at my mother's side, she had already fallen to the ground and was dying, with no hope of saving her.
Even so, I continued to gather healing energy in my hands, applying it to my mother's serious injuries.
I knew that all these measures were useless, but I still wanted to do it, I didn't want to stop just because I didn't want my mother to leave me.
Seeing this, my mother grabbed my hand that was releasing healing energy and told me to stop this pointless action.
"No need ... There's no way to save it... Cough..."
Buckets of teardrops fell from my eyes as I gradually lost control of my emotions.
"No! I can't! Mother-sama will die this way!!!"
"I can't anymore... Elif ... Be a good girl and get out of here. Okay?"
"No! I won't leave without my mother!!!"
"Don't run away from reality ... I'm hopeless ... Elif knows that, too, doesn't she?"
Faced with this sudden cruel reality, I could only look at my mother helplessly and continue to sob.
My mother's warm hand gently stroked my face, and in a hoarse, feeble voice, she said to me: "Don't be too sad.
"Don't be too sad, I'm just a guest in the early part of your life, it's not worth it to be so sad. ... One day, you will meet someone who is really important to you, and that will be someone you can be with for the rest of your life, maybe a good friend ... Or ... A man you'll fall in love with.
"No! Mother, don't leave me! Don't leave me alone!"
"I'm sorry. I guess I can't live with you anymore. I'm happy, aren't I? The only thing I'm not happy about is that you met such a bad person. That you met such a bad father, right?"
"I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear it! Stop it!"
The cries of unwillingness to face reality didn't stop her mother from continuing.
"Live a good life... ... Elif."
"Oooo... Mother ... Your Honor....."
I was already sobbing uncontrollably as the harsh reality hit my consciousness.
"I've always... loved you so much..."
My mother took her last breath, and the hand that was caressing my face fell vertically due to the loss of strength, symbolizing my mother's departure from this world.
As my mother passed away, the night sky echoed with my own childlike cries.
I later realized that my father had been having an affair with another noblewoman for a long time, and that he no longer had any love for my mother since the moment of the affair. The reason he didn't want to rescue her was because he thought her existence was troublesome, so he wanted to take this opportunity to get rid of her.
When I found out about this, I was so sad and angry, but there was nothing I could do about it.
The pain of watching my mother die in front of me, and the grief of seeing my father on the loose, completely destroyed my mind.
I hated the people who killed my mother, and I hated Fountainhead who killed her.
I no longer had a place to return to, so I chose to take my mother's remains with me and break away from ShadowClan.
I explored the area in order to find a place to stay, and I finally found this suitable area around many years ago.
After burying my mother in a safe place, I used my powers to build a castle and settled in it.
I hid myself from the world and entered a state of seclusion.
I eliminated all intruders, and I would not interact with anyone.
I have frozen my heart, which is already full of holes, and no longer open it to others.
The scheming and scheming that pervades the human condition is the main reason for my rejection of contact with the outside world. I suffered all the loneliness in silence, except when I went to pay my respects to my dead mother and to defend myself against foreign enemies, the rest of the time I stayed inside the fortress behind closed doors.
Until the man arrives.
In that case, that Danli was able to break this custom ...
Appearing at exactly the right time and helping me, it made me lose my reason to attack him.
Even so, in order to guard against this man who might be a double agent sent by Fuchiai, I chose to bring him back inside the castle for interrogation. As a result, he gained my trust and was allowed to stay within the castle, and eventually even became my companion.
In the days I spent with him, I didn't see anything suspicious in him, and although I had the occasional suspicion, I ignored it every time when I thought about it and decided that those points weren't that suspicious.
As we spent more time together, I gradually realized that I had grown to trust and rely on him.
He helped me defeat my enemies twice, and declared that he would fight with me until the very end, which made me feel the warmth from another person that I hadn't felt for a long time, and he gradually made up for my traumatized heart with his own actions.
I no longer thought he could be a double agent, my heart had already ruled that out.
I began to see him as a fellow human being, and to relate to him with a sense of normalcy.
I even began to want to talk to him more, to interact with him more, after all, thousands of years of lonely routine was not very pleasant even for me, almost every day was spent in emptiness.
That hole in my heart needed someone to fill it.
"Tanri Hidemasa", the smile he showed after I named him "Tanri Hidemasa", which I didn't have a name for, for some reason made me feel a little shaken.
I wasn't offended by that innocent reaction.
In fact, I knew it well, more than well.
Deep down inside myself, I also longed to develop a deeper relationship with someone with a good heart, but those desires were continuously suppressed by myself.
Ah ...
In fact, I also want to have someone to rely on in my heart; in fact, I also want someone to whom I can confide in.
Now I finally have the possibility to realize my wish.
The shadows that had covered my heart in the past were gradually being illuminated by that man.
It seems that this man is the kind of important person that my mother talked about, isn't he? It could be a future best friend, or it could be the man that I will ... The man that I will fall in love with?
If that's the case, then I definitely won't reject it. I've never experienced either friendship or love before, and I'm curious about both.
The present Danley is an important companion to me, an existence that could become a close friend or love, so ...
In the future, Danli will die by Fuchi Tei's hand just like his mother──
No, it shouldn't be like that, right? It's unacceptable that the person who is most important to me right now will die in the future because of me... ...
I don't want to go through the pain of losing someone important to me again... ...
Strange ... What's this feeling of heartburn?
It's obvious that Danli is just a companion of his, why do you feel heartbroken about it? I don't want this to happen.
I don't want him to die, I don't want him to leave my side, I don't want to lose him...
Why is my heart filled with these thoughts?
My mother, now Danley, will be gone forever.
I can't save anyone. There's nothing I can do.
No, this can't be, I can't allow this to happen--
Thoughts were suddenly interrupted, and my consciousness was brought back to reality.
I don't know what caused it, but the first thing I saw when I came back to my senses was the starry night sky, the place I had been staring at before I fell into thought.
I felt even more depressed, and couldn't feel any energy at all.
When a large number of memories and thoughts were connected, I completely realized that I actually valued Danley and I didn't want him to die at all.
He was the one who liberated me from the boring routine of being set in my ways; he was the one who made me feel the kindness from an outsider after a long time.
I don't hate the feeling of him staying here, rather I somewhat like it.
With your company, I will not feel lonely it ...
If I could, I would even like you to stay by my side forever, so that we can continue to grow in peace.
Really ... In that case, maybe I've found the reason why I was swayed when I saw his smiling face...
I felt a warmth in the depths of my eyes, and they grew moist.
Something crossed my cheeks, and it felt a little warm.
It's a tear...... Am I crying?
Why am I crying? Is it because I'm remembering how my mother died? Or the anxiety of losing another important person?
It doesn't matter.
Realizing that I was about to lose my grip on this sadness, I did nothing to counteract it.
Didn't wipe away the tears, didn't try to adjust my breathing, didn't try to distract myself.
It was an amazing feeling that neither my body nor my consciousness did much to stop the crying.
It seemed good to just let off some steam.
Maybe that's what I subconsciously thought.
Although what I'm going to do next will be a bit embarrassing, but since there's no one else here──
Ahh ... You're doing it again.
You're always breaking into my bedroom at the worst possible time, shouldn't you do some soul searching? I mean, is my current appearance really that shocking to you?
I didn't want to be seen with this vulnerability, so I subconsciously turned my back to the door, but ...
I don't seem to be so reluctant to let you see me in this state.
I'm even a little bit eager ... I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do this, but I'm going to be able to do it.
Perhaps, you are really my destiny, right?
The flood of sadness is about to burst out of the dike, the body can not stop trembling slightly, has reached the limit.
Since I've already been witnessed by him, then at least, before I completely break down---.
If it's in his arms to cry, perhaps it will be better than being alone and weeping in silence....
The woman who was about to break down, and the man who was stunned, looked at each other in the bedchamber.
The teardrops that shimmered with a faint light broke through the last line of defense with the intense sadness and turned into two lines of tears across the delicate cheeks.
"Dan ... Leigh ..."
The longing for him made the Queen involuntarily say his name, the name she had personally given him──
"Just for a moment .... Just a little ... Just a little ...
She stretched out her right hand towards Danli trembling, she wanted to touch the only support as soon as possible.
In the face of the unexpected scene, Danli's head went blank, the strong shock blocked all thought.
Her body involuntarily moved towards the tear-filled queen. The feeling was amazing, the body acted on its own as if it was being dictated to, and the consciousness did not make any objections.
As the queen's body was buried in Danli's arms, things began to develop in an unexpected direction.
◇◇◇◇
The current situation was something that Danley had not envisioned.
The woman he wanted to talk to was being embraced in his arms and was whimpering.
Reaching out his hand to caress the crying woman's head, he slightly smoothed out a few strands of her disheveled hair and warmed the crying woman's heart with his chest.
There were no fancy words of comfort, no complicated means of calming, only the simplest form of comfort.
The man simply embraced her and touched her head, that was all.
But this brought the queen great psychological comfort, and this was the best medicine.
The warmth from Danli spread throughout the Queen's body, as if she was being warmed by the warm spring sun. Danley's soft sniffling came to the Queen's ears, but it was quickly overshadowed by the Queen's own sobs.
"Don't leave ... Don't die ... Please ... Ooohhhhhh ....."
Uneasiness and powerlessness turned into tears that overflowed from the Queen's eyes, and her tearful voice echoed throughout the room, everything tinted with a layer of sadness.
At this moment, she was no longer the noble and elegant Queen of Shadows, but a weak and ordinary woman.
Danley just listened to her cries silently.
Even his own emotions were gradually rendered sad.
However, he himself could not have any obvious emotional fluctuations, and had to maintain a firm and stable performance.
Danley knew clearly that the Queen's current mental state was quite fragile, if even herself, who was her backbone, broke down, then who else could she rely on?
Forced to endure the contagion to their own pain, in order to not let the haze of the past continue to erode her, Danli is determined to become a strong haven, with their own strength to protect her forever.
Danley embraced the queen deeper, and tears of mourning flowed from the corners of his eyes.
What seemed to be the worst time to break in might not be so bad---
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
Often times, things need a chance to happen, such as the inspiration ヽaccident or the feeling of loathing, all of them are like this.
The origin of goodwill is certainly no exception.
In addition to long-term cultivation, good feelings can sometimes appear instantly for some reason.
It may be due to a chance rescue of a hero, it may be due to the tender comfort of the other person in the most vulnerable time, or it may be due to a certain situation to see the other person's attractive appearance.
As for the development of the other side of the good feelings, it depends on the performance of each side.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
The stars dotted the dark canvas, making the night sky no longer boring and monotonous.
The dull moonlight shone through the window into the dimly lit room, and since the eyes had already adapted to the darkness, the surrounding displays were clearly visible.
Perhaps because she was tired of crying, Elif's eyelids were a bit heavy. She collapsed onto the bed with her whole body relaxing, covering her eyes with her arm and letting out a breath.
Elif wiped away the tear tracks on her face and thought back to what had just happened.
Not too long ago, she had snuggled into that warm chest and poured out her grief to Danley, letting out her emotions.
She had revealed her weakness to Danley, opening herself up to the man.
It was the first time he had ever felt such a sense of dependence from the bottom of his heart.
At the most opportune moment, he saw himself at his most vulnerable.
At the time when I was most eager to rely on him, he also resolutely accompanied me.
I kept telling myself that I should not trust anyone easily, that I should not show my true feelings to others, and that I should not do so no matter what the situation was.
But at that time, I ignored all the risks and opened my heart to him.
Was it pure coincidence, or was it fate?
I kept asking myself questions in my head, but it was difficult to come to a proper conclusion.
Just as her brain was gradually falling into a thinking cycle, Elif felt a few vibrations coming from the side of the bed she was sitting on.
Looking that way, the source of the vibrations was none other than the man who had just taken himself in his arms and soothed him, as he was about to get up from the edge of the bed.
He was wearing the familiar black and red overcoat, the ankle-length back hem of which was slightly ruffled by the breeze blowing into the room. His tall stature gave off a rather reliable feeling, making it hard to imagine the image of him losing to someone else. The tears that had been shed after being affected by his emotions had also dried up, leaving two thin tear tracks on his white cheeks.
"I can't believe I was affected by someone else's emotions and cried along with them... ... Strange man."
The corner of the Queen's mouth grinned slightly as she recalled what had just happened.
"It's all because of you... ... You made me look bad along with you. Also, I didn't cry, I just shed a few tears."
"Don't argue, if you're crying, just say so, I won't laugh at you."
"Just say no ..."
At this moment, Danli felt a little embarrassed, he couldn't help but move his eyes away from looking at Elif, at this moment, he no longer had the high pride of being a three-phase god, right now, he was more like an ordinary man who was ashamed of his earlier behavior.
The tone of the two men's voices had no negative connotations or emotions mixed into it, and the conversation just now was more like the daily banter between a couple.
Perhaps feeling that there was no need to be formal anymore, Iliffe used a far more intimate tone with Danli than she had earlier, and it was the first time she had ever been this open with him in terms of her attitude in an interaction.
"Honestly, I like your tone better now, I didn't realize you could be this approachable."
"Hey? Well ... Did I give you the impression that I was this serious before?
"Absolutely."
The contrast was so big that Danli was not used to it, as if she had been cleansed by the tears, her coolness was almost washed away. Previously, she always faced herself with a cold expression, but now she was showing her natural look.
Unlike the previous high-strung image, the current Iliffe was like a simple and sincere young girl, although her figure was so good that it barely matched the word young girl.
"That's why ... What exactly is the detailed process of your past ...?"
This is the question that Danli has always been very curious about, and it is also for this reason that he has come to talk to the Queen, but how could he have met with that kind of situation.
"What? Curious?"
"No, I just want to know more about you. Besides, if you were crying like that, it must have something to do with your past, right?"
"That's true. ... I can't help but cry because of the memories of my past, and that incident has left me with a certain degree of psychological shadow."
"Really? ... How do you feel now?"
"Because I've already vented, it's a lot more comfortable. Besides, I have you by my side now, don't I?"
The latter part of the sentence caused the man's cheeks to color a light pink, and Danley was once again shy.
However, judging from the current situation, it was fortunate that she might have become the pillar of her mother's mind instead of her, so it seemed that there was no need to probe into her past experiences anymore.
The only thing left to worry about now was how to destroy Fuchi Tei without her being surprised.
I'll consider that later, but for now, I'll focus on Elif.
"Let's say ... There's something I want to do, an idea that I've had before."
"Hey!?"
The originally calm woman instantly lost her color, a face of panic, what she understood and what Danley wanted to do could be said to be vastly different.
"That ... That ... That kind of thing should only be done after both parties have established a romantic relationship, right?"
"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do ...? I just want to change the weather scenery around me, it's nice to change the background once in a while, right?"
Danley sighed helplessly. I didn't realize that this kind of misinterpretation would happen to Elif as well.
"Hey...? Well, I don't mind, but what do you want to do?"
Elif looked doubtfully towards the man who was walking towards the window, he raised his arm towards the low night sky, and then made.
"Thank you, then please watch carefully."
Danley gave a frank smile to Elif, a look that caused a slight stirring in Elif's heart.
At first the queen was a little confused, as it seemed that nothing had changed outside.
But immediately afterward Iliffe was stunned by the scene in front of her.
The surroundings were gradually covered by a white curtain. Snow and rain began to fall around the outer perimeter, and the sight was so beautiful that one would think that the night and the snow were a perfect match.
Elif looked at the scene that was unfolding in front of her eyes and felt incredulous.
"So you can still do this kind of thing..."
Perhaps because she had already completely trusted Danli, Elif didn't have any warning that he was harboring other abilities.
Luckily, Danley didn't mean any harm, if it was someone else with bad intentions, she would have already fallen into a trap that would be hard to escape from.
"Do you like it?"
"It's okay."
So she said, but the smile on her face and the mesmerized look in her eyes betrayed her true feelings.
Danley was glad the gesture hadn't been in vain. Danley was willing to do anything that wasn't too much more than that to make her a little happier.
Of course, there was one more thing to do next.
"I have something for you."
"What is it ...?"
"Come outside with me first, I want to give you this item in the right atmosphere."
Danley pointed to a clearing outside, where he was going to deliver the item.
"Hey? Uhm ..."
The Queen agreed. As for how to get there, naturally, it would be easier to use the familiar space rift to teleport there.
The next step would be the most crucial moment, and Danli wouldn't dare to be slow about it, after all, it was about the future development of the two of them.
◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇
According to Dan Li's request, the two came to an open space outside the castle.
Because of the snowfall, the ground was covered with an uneven white film.
Each step made a "swish" sound, which sounded quite healing.
"Almost there, this is the spot."
Danley stopped where he was and turned to face Elif, who had followed him to a halt with confusion and curiosity.
It was a clearing with no special features, and like the rest of the area, it was covered in a layer of snow.
Danley would be remodeling this place, giving it a magical look like no other.
"Then ..."
A ringing of the fingers reached the Queen's ears.
Then a strange phenomenon occurred.
Strange things began to grow around the two of them, and when they looked at them, they were cones of some kind of black energy, the same kind of energy that Danley used to devour his surroundings.
Based on the original thick trunk, the upper part of each cone column grew many thin branches, and on those branches there were some even smaller branches.
Although the size was much smaller compared to the large tree on the side, it was indeed very much like a dead wood with no leaves but only branches and trunks.
However, unlike ordinary deadwood, the "deadwood" created by Danley had a beautiful and profound appeal, like a kind of installation art.
Once again, Danley had put on a fantastical performance. Elif watched in amazement as all of this was formed, and she had an indescribably marvelous feeling in her heart.
Just as Elif was still focused on the change in her surroundings, a voice pulled her gradually wandering consciousness back.
"Come back to your senses, Elif, I can't go on like this."
"Ah... ... Sorry."
Elif blinked, and then went into a state of concentration.
Seeing that his opponent was ready, Danley did not delay any longer. He took out a black ring with a reddish glow from his waistband, and on top of it, there was a delicate decoration that looked like a vortex, which, if it wasn't a surprise, would be the symbol of a black hole. He had designed it after racking his brains.
Instead of using the thinking of a Lord God, he had created it with the mind of an ordinary human, so that it would be more sincere.
Gently cupping Iliffe's hand, he slipped the ring into his slender and tender middle finger.
Not quite understanding what Danli meant, Elif looked a little confused at the man who was putting the ring on herself, only to see him looking at her with a smile on his face.
"When the time is right, I'll put this ring on your ring finger, but don't take it off until then."
Elif didn't quite understand why the other woman was doing this, she only knew that it was supposed to be some kind of important ceremony, an important ceremony about their relationship.
After it was done, Danli looked at Elif with a kind face and made a sincere vow in a soft tone.
"I will always be by your side, never leave you alone, so ... You only need to be with me forever."
Elif's face gradually turned from pale to crimson, she could deeply feel that the man in front of her was serious.
A sweet stirring arose deep inside her heart, and even though she tried her best to avoid the sight of the man in front of her, her heart beat faster and faster and could not be slowed down as a result.
It seemed like Elif understood the meaning of this ceremony.
Such a scene was no different from a so-called confession.
Although she didn't feel disgusted, for Elif, who had never tasted love before, she was still physically and mentally shocked.
"Is there a need to be so alarmed ...?"
A warm palm gently pressed on Elif's head, but because of the hair barrier, she didn't feel much of the warmth from Danley's palm.
"Oooo!?"
Startled by the sudden touch on her head, Elif let out a peculiar sound, which made the already rather shy her seem even more touching.
Looking at such a lovable Elif, that protective desire in Danli's heart only grew stronger, and he couldn't help but hold such a queen tightly in his arms already.
But no, not yet.
Forcibly restraining his own desire, Danley smiled and bent his body slightly towards the queen.
Using his hand to push aside the bangs that blocked her forehead, Elif's forehead was covered with a special mark.
"Kiss ... Kiss!? The forehead was ..."
Another impact. The current Elif had lost her color, and even trying to walk a few steps normally seemed a bit difficult.
"Do you need me to help you back?"
「Noヽno need, I can walk by myself ...」