My Notoriety Spreads Throughout the World-Chapter 466 - 403: Old Wounds Reopened

"Nakamura Yuri: ..."

On the other side, Sevia sat on the bed, gazing at the suddenly materialized virtual chat window in front of her, her eyes full of wonder.

"Sevia: Why isn't You speaking? Is it like before when you're making me guess riddles?"

Seeing this, Xu Xiaoyou's eyes filled with complex emotions.

How much does she still remember about their past?

Clearly, the girl barely has any of her own memories left.

Xu Xiaoyou was certain.

The person chatting with her was not an NPC but the real Sevia, seemingly connected due to some reason.

"Nakamura Yuri: It's okay. How have you been recently?"

"Sevia: I felt much better after seeing You three days ago."

Sevia felt truly relieved knowing the person on the other side was Xu Xiaoyou.

During the long nights, having someone to chat with made the lonely journey feel less lonely.

Although the destination was still far, she had found her beacon, finally having a place to rest when tired.

Sevia thought of many things, and eventually couldn't hold back her desire to share.

"Sevia: I want to talk about some things from my journey. Do you want to hear, You?"

"Nakamura Yuri: Sure."

"Sevia: Of course, I won't say everything now because there are many things I wish to tell you in person when we embrace."

"Sevia: In the past, I walked alone in the Wastelands, like a solitary bird, like a stranded blue whale. Many memories that aren't mine have replayed in my mind. Occasionally, when idle, I would become a little girl growing up in a wealthy family, nurturing flowers, wearing beautiful dresses, reading operas, poems, and philosophy books, with loving parents."

"Sevia: Sometimes, staring into the fire at night, I'd grow up in times of war, living among ruins with no one around. Everyone was dead, except for a little bear named Jenny who accompanied me. It had lost an eye and its stomach was ripped, needing stitching. So, barefoot, I searched and eventually found a needle, thread, and a coin in an abandoned house."

Xu Xiaoyou, through the screen, was infected by the girl's cheerful tone, easing much of the fatigue accumulated in recent days.

"Nakamura Yuri: What happened next?"

"Sevia: Then I put the coin in Jenny's eye and sewed up its stomach with an old cloth. It looked like a pirate captain. Holding it, that was the most peaceful night I've ever slept."

"Because I didn't wake up."

"A shell hit that building, and I was impaled by falling steel rods, feeling the cold seeping into my dying body."

"It wasn't me, but a girl forgotten by history. I don't even know her name. She died on a cold night."

Sevia sighed lightly, memories of the girl reappearing one by one, scene by scene.

This girl's parents also perished in the war.

She struggled to survive on the scorched earth for half a month, never seeing another living person.

"Sevia: Sometimes I'd hold a guitar and cry in the dead of night, sometimes run on a sunlit field, sometimes read aloud in a classroom, sometimes carry out the darkest, most brutal assignments, killing innocent people day after day."

"Some memories are very distant to me. After waking, I consider them just a fish's dream, while some memories belong to characters very similar to me, both in personality and experience. After waking, I can't distinguish whether I'm still in a dream."

"I'm afraid of dreaming about people similar to me, of experiencing their memories, whether they are beautiful or painful, for I have become accustomed. I'm just afraid I'll never find myself again upon waking."

"But these dreams happen every day."

"I have countless such dreams every night, fifty or a hundred? I can't remember clearly. Everything in the dreams is so vivid and long-lasting, from a few days to years, even a lifetime."

"Ordinary people, epic legends, as long as they inadvertently close their eyes, their life paths pass through my eyes."

"Nakamura Yuri: While chatting with me now..."

"Sevia: It's okay, I've gotten used to it, I won't suddenly say anything strange."

Xu Xiaoyou was silent.

"Sevia: Oh, was You worried about me?"

The blue-haired girl chuckled softly and blinked, as the life of a woman named Giovanna passed before her eyes.

Giovanna was a lieutenant fighting against the Fars Religious Kingdom, leading her troops to many victories, but unfortunately hit by stray bullets in a battle to liberate her hometown.

The shot was fired by a soldier she personally trained, someone who behaved cowardly during training, even wetting his pants in fear of the shells, but eventually became her most hated enemy.

"Sevia: There are two stories deeply etched in my memory, You. They might be of some help to you."

"In my memory, there's someone named 'Cat's Eye Stone.' Before the company intervened in the Church war, she was a slave in a mine, later also experienced the Church war, achieved great military feats, and then joined Cosmic Heavy Industries. Maybe this doesn't mean much to you, You."

"But what if I told you she climbed from Amber 9 to eventually become Emerald 1?"

Xu Xiaoyou's memory was instantly taken back a long time ago, during her days on the Star of Art, working as an S-level employee under the company.

Under those circumstances, Xu Xiaoyou, a person with a particularly strong sense of self-respect, had to bow her head, with memories of Yorick, Emerald 1, and Diamond 9 remaining fresh to this day.

Sevia experienced those days with her, and the girl's delicate mind obviously knew about her entanglements with the company, but never spoke of them.

"Nakamura Yuri: How did Emerald 1 die?"

"Sevia: She met Diamond 9 just before being promoted to Diamond."

Sevia tried hard to recall the scene at that time.

Emerald 1's footsteps echoed in the darkness, her breathing heavy, anxiety in her chest could be clearly felt.

The woman sat atop equipment made of countless life-support machines, which from afar resembled a piled-up mountain, and the pipes on the ground twisted like a snake swarm. She looked very old, her skin sagging, hair all but gone, with only a pair of eyes remaining beautiful in the darkness, seemingly able to perceive time.

Just one glance and Emerald 1 deeply felt the chasm that separated her from Diamond 9, daring not to harbor any presumptuous thoughts.

This feeling was something Emerald 1 never experienced before.

Even Diamond 1, or Elias, never made her afraid to meet their gaze, never inspired such awe, such fanatical admiration.

Since joining the company, her career had smooth sailing, reaching the high ranks of the company in her early forties, standing above millions, her own family having to curry her favor, fueling her arrogance, believing she could look down upon everything.

But she was wrong.

She finally understood why for hundreds of years, no one in the company had ascended to the Diamond sequence.

— Do you wish to become Diamond 9, to own everything of mine, and even me?

— No, I wish for all I have to belong to you, to willingly turn manna into poison, to fill the vessel with venom. Wherever you direct, every harvest for the rest of my life will never defy the direction of your sickle and scythe.

Emerald 1 knelt before Diamond 9, expressing words of utmost loyalty, and from then on, her soul became a bargaining chip, perpetually belonging to Diamond 9.