This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist-Chapter 1245 Divine Game: Divine Instruction 59

"Give me a moment. I can let you meet again."

The soul flame between Rita’s brows began to burn.

From the perspective of the spectators, the space behind her warped slightly.

This was not only for the sake of the match, nor merely to test the ability of her divine talent.

She also wanted to see Wildfire with her own eyes.

She selected herself as the target and activated Load.

Undead Wildfire, who had only left a little over a minute ago, appeared once more before everyone.

With the faint sound of gemstone cracking, she materialized beside BS Rita.

The two looked at each other.

It was like staring into a mirror.

Like seeing another self whose story you had already heard from others before meeting them.

Their faces were identical.

Yet they were clearly two entirely different people.

The white Flower Crown Murder and the blue Sir Camellia both extended their vines toward the other, as if trying to build a small bridge between them.

The moment Undead Wildfire appeared, Rita could already feel the soul flame at her brow slowly diminishing.

At the current strength of her divine talent, this load could only last about fifteen minutes.

Still, she could not resist spending time studying this other version of herself.

After a long silence, Undead Wildfire spoke first.

"You seem more suited to the name Wildfire than I am."

The version of herself standing before her was fierce and untamed, flames burning endlessly in her eyes.

But as for Wildfire herself, once her original rage had been soothed, she had once believed she would live the rest of her life without regrets.

She had underestimated the weight of losing one’s homeland and people.

Perhaps she should have been called Rita instead.

She had always been searching for something.

Yet whenever someone asked what she sought, she would only say she was searching for divine relics.

Sometimes she repeated that claim stubbornly in front of her teachers.

Deceitful Bloom, Foolishness, Lightchaser, Cinders, Apache.

Teachers who had never known each other, who had completely different personalities.

Yet every one of them would simply look at her quietly.

Their gaze gentle.

They were all so considerate.

They never exposed her lie.

Nor did they pity her without permission.

Rita’s eyes fell upon Sir Camellia.

The pure white vine glowed like jade beneath the Star Sea.

Blue buds grew sparsely along its branches.

The single blue flower blooming over her left eye revealed something important.

Sir Camellia was famous for being extremely difficult to make bloom.

The fact that it had blossomed meant she had received an enormous amount of attention and affection.

Enough to coax even Sir Camellia into flowering.

Rita took Wildfire’s words as a compliment.

"I possess two divine relics that resonate deeply with me," she said.

"Wrathful Moon and Cat’s Ideal."

As expected of another version of herself, Wildfire withdrew her gaze from Flower Crown Murder and smiled.

"Ah. What a pity. I only have one. Carve Error."

There was no clearer or more concise introduction than vines and divine relics.

Carve Error.

A relic whose description read:

"I carve new mistakes upon old mistakes."

What was the new mistake?

Was it stepping onto the battlefield as Lania Kaia Wildfire?

Joining Dawn and fighting for the Vineborne?

Or something else entirely?

And what had the original mistake been?

Undead Wildfire showed no confusion.

It seemed she understood perfectly what Wrathful Moon and Cat’s Ideal represented.

The two fell silent again.

Until a voice interrupted them.

"Excuse me. Would either of you like to accompany me to admire the scenery by the lake under the bridge at Isolated Isle?"

Rita: "..."

Undead Wildfire laughed softly.

"Teacher, you are always so humorous."

"...Alright, that’s enough," Rita said, covering her eyes briefly. "Back to business. I summoned you because I need your help. Team up with me and defeat Lightchaser."

The crown between Lightchaser’s brows had faded to little more than an outline.

Her soul flame was exhausted.

She could no longer use her divine talent during this match.

But Rita wanted to test Wildfire.

Her personality.

Her abilities.

And whether she would help.

"I’m sorry," Wildfire replied apologetically. "If it were anything else, I would help you. But helping you fight our teacher is not acceptable."

Rita had expected refusal. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But not this reason.

"This is just a match," Rita said. "When did you become so rigid?"

Wildfire shook her head.

Her brows lowered slightly, her sapphire eye half closed.

She suddenly looked oddly pitiful.

"Teacher Lightchaser treats me very well. She is my favorite teacher. She is powerful, humorous, beautiful, resilient..."

Lightchaser: "..."

Rita: "...Get to the point. Maybe look at Lightchaser while you say this. If you keep going she’s going to run over and hit you."

Wildfire did not even open her eyes.

She continued speaking in a mournful tone.

"When I was upgrading Carve Error, I needed rare vines for practice. When she learned about this, she was so worried she lost her appetite."

Lightchaser: "..."

Rita expressionlessly handed over a vine.

It was a piece of Heartless Temptation she had secretly harvested while working on Deceitful Bloom’s island.

She had plenty more where that came from.

She had underestimated her own genetics.

Wildfire took the vine and examined it carefully from several angles.

Satisfied, she stored it away.

Then she rolled up her sleeves, revealing two pale arms.

She lifted her staff in a posture more suited for holding a wrench.

Even such a crude stance looked oddly elegant when she did it.

"So we’re beating up Lightchaser, right?" she asked. "Alright. You tank or I tank? You tank. I’m better at ranged damage. Don’t worry. We’ll finish her in one burst."

Lightchaser: "......"

Something was definitely wrong with those etiquette classes.

Cinders thought silently that the version of her student from this timeline was honestly pretty good already.

Really.

...

Demon Tavern.

Deceitful Bloom and Foolishness sat silently drinking.

Hearthsmoke finally asked, "Why aren’t you two saying anything?"

Boiling Orange replied, "Probably because they don’t know what to say. They thought they found an angelic beagle, but it turns out the angelic beagle is still a beagle."

Ashveil asked, "What’s a beagle?"

Boiling Orange, cultural ambassador of BS, explained, "A dog from BS. Personality similar to a Sea Pony."

Ashveil nodded in understanding.

Deceitful Bloom and Foolishness silently clinked glasses several times.

Deceitful Bloom said, "This one’s to myself."

Foolishness replied, "This one’s to myself."

They drained their glasses and refilled them.

Foolishness said, "This one’s to you."

Deceitful Bloom echoed, "This one’s to you."

They emptied their glasses again and refilled them once more.

Deceitful Bloom said, "This one’s to Lynx Duke."

Foolishness repeated, "This one’s to Lynx Duke."

After draining the glass again, Deceitful Bloom set it down gently.

"But I feel much better now."

Foolishness pressed her lips together and said nothing, leaving the atmosphere briefly awkward.

Ashveil spoke up.

"Is it because the list of victims turned out to be very long?"

Deceitful Bloom smiled.

"No. It’s because it seems being the cooking teacher is still slightly better than being the etiquette teacher."

Foolishness: "..."