SWNOVELXO Chapter 49 - Questioning WuYue
“……”
The situation was looking grim.
Watching WuYue, who was now glaring intently at him, YouYu’s thoughts raced.
“Did I trigger something? What did I say? This escalated way too fast… completely outside my expectations…”
He barely had time to process the current situation as his mind scrambled to identify where things had gone wrong. What had he said that had “ignited” her?
After carefully retracing his words, he pinpointed it: it was the reason he gave about possibly dying at any moment. That seemed to have hit WuYue’s minefield.
“……”
It was his mistake.
What can I say? Initially, when WuYue hesitated earlier because she didn’t want to hurt him, he thought he could use that to talk her out of her current mindset…
But clearly, he had miscalculated. He went too far, and now the situation spiralled out of control.
Perhaps mentioning his potential death reminded her of that first time he “died” right in front of her. And, she might have recalled the wish she made at that moment.
Now, that wish—fueled by her emotions—was manifesting this way.
It was undeniably a tragic outcome… He could only hope that WuYue wouldn’t escalate things any further.
At least, not too much.
“……”
As YouYu’s thoughts concluded, WuYue continued explaining her plan on how she intended to “protect” him:
“If we go by what you said, YouYu, I’ll keep you locked up at home. That way, you’ll always be safe, right?”
“…You don’t need to worry. I’ll learn to use my mana and set up a barrier around this house. With that, no one… except for me… will be able to enter.”
“And as for you, YouYu… you won’t be able to leave. After all, this is absolutely necessary to ‘protect’ you, isn’t it?”
Although her words sounded like a question, YouYu knew… this was less of a question and more of an “order” from WuYue, one he absolutely could not defy.
Still…
“It should be within the acceptable range,” YouYu calmly reasoned.
At least for now. For the moment, all WuYue seemed to want was to “lock him up.” It hadn’t escalated to the point where she intended to chop him into a human stick… yet. If it didn’t go that far, well… he could live with it.
“After all, the best one can do is seek out the best among the bad endings…”
And now, WuYue doesn’t seem to be joking. Her words were dead serious as if she was fully prepared to carry out her plan.
However… if she actually succeeded, YouYu wouldn’t be able to accept it. It would mean his future actions would be unnecessarily restricted, affecting the progress of his plans.
So, he figured he should at least try to negotiate and see if he could get better conditions from WuYue.
“…”
After thinking it through, YouYu reached up to grab the hand she’d placed over his mouth, attempting to move it aside.
Noticing his action, WuYue paused for a moment. She didn’t remove her hand right away; merely loosened her grip slightly as she spoke:
“YouYu… you need to understand, the only reason I’m doing this is because you ‘made a mistake’.”
“So…”
“……”
“You have to be punished.”
“……”
And so, after two minutes of silent tension, WuYue finally removed her hand from YouYu’s mouth.
Fortunately, she did it just in time—any longer, and YouYu might have started considering whether he should just “suffocate” right in front of her.
“……Hah.”
After exhaling as if relieved, YouYu looked at WuYue, who was staring at him with a hand poised to do something inappropriate. He quickly said:
“WuYue! What you’re planning… isn’t acceptable! I know my safety makes you anxious, but that shouldn’t be a reason to confine me! We still have… better solutions!”
Hearing his words, WuYue stopped her movement and said indifferently:
“……Better solutions? What is it? You’ve mentioned it before, haven’t you? You said that you and I are both idiots who would do anything to help others—even to the point of dying.”
“If you really are like me, then aside from locking you up, there wouldn’t be any other way for me to protect you, right? You understand that, don’t you, YouYu?”
“Besides, it’s also for your protection, right? An idiot like me can only think of this kind of ‘protection’.”
“It used to be me relying on you, and now, YouYu, you get to rely on me. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“If… if you really don’t want to accept my ‘protection,’ then you might have to face a little punishment…”
“……”
“So, WuYue, do you really have to do this?”
“……”
“What?”
As she watched YouYu’s expression shift from earlier agitation to growing anger after a moment of silence, WuYue felt a wave of unease wash over her.
But soon, she steadied herself.
It didn’t matter… After what she had just done and said, she had already mentally prepared herself for this.
YouYu might be disappointed in her methods… but whatever, let him curse at her. She wasn’t afraid of the usual level of his remarks.
With that thought, WuYue turned her head away.
However…
“WuYue!”
“What?! What’s wrong?!”
Suddenly, YouYu shouted her name, adjusting his position to stand directly before her. He quickly placed both hands on her shoulders, startling her.
Forcing WuYue to meet his gaze, YouYu took a deep breath and spoke in a furious tone:
“Stop joking around, WuYue!”
“I’m not afraid of dying! I’m not even afraid of those monsters! Do you really think I’d be scared of your threats?!”
“WuYue, before, I thought you were just a bit stupid in terms of character! But now it seems… you’re equally stupid in how you treat people and things!”
“You say you want to lock me up to protect me? Sure, maybe you could manage that in the short term, but what about later? What happens when the enemy discovers where we live? What if they try to use me as a threat against you? Have you ever considered that?!”
“And! Locking me up means I lose my job! It means I’ll become a useless person with a mouth! From the very beginning, I told you we were going to live together and share the pressure! Are you really going to destroy our initial agreement over this?! Are you going to deny everything we’ve been through together just for this?!”
“WuYue, can’t you just calm down and not make things so extreme?!”
“……”
YouYu’s ‘lecture’ rained down on her like bullets from a machine gun.
At that moment, WuYue realized that her so-called “pressure resistance” was utterly non-existent.
The more she listened to YouYu, the redder her face became, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Finally, unable to endure the tumult of emotions any longer, she shoved YouYu’s hands away and stood up, her expression slightly twisted as she shouted:
“……Then what can I do?! YouYu, didn’t you say yourself that you could die at any moment?! How could I possibly stay calm after hearing that?!”
“And it’s your fault to begin with!”
“Do you really think I won’t lock you up?!”
“If you can’t understand, then I can show you right now!”
With that, she grasped the red gem hanging from her neck with trembling hands.
“……”
However, seeing this, YouYu didn’t react with the fear she expected. Instead, after calming his tone, he sighed and said:
“WuYue, is this really what you want?”
“Is this your idea of ‘protection’? One that comes at the cost of harming me?”
“……”
After a brief pause, as WuYue’s thoughts spiralled into confusion, YouYu suddenly raised his voice:
“Is this your way of protecting me?! Tell me, WuYue!”