VAP - Chapter 76
Chapter 76: The Supreme Sage Hopelessly Obsessed with Beauty (End)
This was destined to be a wedding known to the world, yet one that would not be disturbed by uninvited guests.
On that morning, three hours before the wedding began.
One of the brides-to-be, wearing a soft, fluffy, silver-gray dressing gown, sat on the edge of the bed contemplating life.
A wedding… it was supposed to be a very important day.
Yue Du remembered an old saying about how girls always fantasized about themselves in a wedding dress. She, on the other hand, had never given it much thought—not in her most innocent girlhood, and even less so during her working years.
And now… she glanced at the neatly folded summoner’s formal attire beside her.
On the Ayers Continent, practitioners—be they mages, summoners, or warriors—all had formal attire for official occasions. Naturally, this was also what they wore to get married.
There would be no wedding dress, and Yue Du accepted this readily.
The female summoner’s formal attire was quite nice, too. A formal long dress paired with snow-white short boots, a sash with an amethyst stone on the shoulder to symbolize the rank of Grand Summoner. From head to toe, it was sleek and beautiful, ornate without being cumbersome.
Just as she was lost in thought, a pair of bare, slender arms wrapped around her from behind.
“You’re awake.”
“Stay in bed with me a little longer…” Nai Yin said lazily, tightening her arms.
“Don’t forget, we only have three hours.”
“Then let’s postpone it a while.”
Yue Du: “…”
That was certainly something her host would do.
Nai Yin let out a muffled laugh, sitting up and stretching her limbs. “I’m kidding. How could I postpone it? A sense of ceremony is very important.”
Yue Du was skeptical.
Her lover had always done as she pleased; she didn’t seem like the type to care about ceremony at all.
Nai Yin continued, “Besides, I can’t wait for it to start.”
Well, that part was believable.
Yue Du didn’t dwell on it. The two of them got dressed, adjusted each other’s collars, and then did each other’s makeup.
With great enthusiasm, Nai Yin sat Yue Du down in front of the mirror and made her up as if she were a doll.
The “cosmetics” of the Ayers Continent were all completely natural and additive-free, their ingredients sourced from various magical beasts and plants, carrying the most natural, fresh fragrance.
After applying a berry-colored lip gloss, Nai Yin studied her for a moment and said, “You’re more beautiful without it.”
Yue Du didn’t plan to debate which look was better. She knew Nai Yin’s aesthetic judgment was skewed whenever she was the subject.
…Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, she supposed.
When it was Yue Du’s turn to do her lover’s makeup, she found there was really nothing to be done—the woman was simply flawless in every way.
In the end, she could only blend a faint rosy color onto her cheeks to bring some life to her cold, porcelain-like complexion.
Her silver hair, usually worn loose, was tied up into a bun that was neither too tight nor too loose. Nai Yin looked at herself in the mirror and gave a deliberately demure smile.
“Do you like it like this?”
Yue Du said, “It’s very beautiful.”
Nai Yin: “Mm-hm.”
She turned and kissed her, the sweet fragrance of berries spreading between their lips.
After a moment, Yue Du said in a low voice, “We’ll have to reapply that.”
As they left the room, Yue Du thought for a moment and brought the entire tube of berry lip gloss with her.
With everything ready, the chief attendant and a few others were waiting outside the door, quietly awaiting instructions.
Tina stood at the very front, her expression aggrieved.
She had been heartbroken since yesterday. She had been looking forward to her lady’s wedding for so long and was supposed to be in charge of all the arrangements, but her lady had specifically mentioned there would be no guests and no need for advance preparations.
It was the perfect occasion for her to show off her skills!
Bifula said, “Look on the bright side. At least her ladyship didn’t kick us out.”
Tina: “That’s true.”
She recalled the scene from the day before yesterday when the royal court mage who came to offer congratulations was “escorted” out of the territory.
Towards any gestures of goodwill from the Empire or any other party, Lord Nai Yin had only one attitude: “Leave the gifts and be on your way.”
Compared to that, the treatment of the castle’s residents could be called quite humane.
Beside them, the chief healer, who had been dragged out of the pharmacy by his colleagues, grumbled, “I don’t know what’s so interesting to see. Boring. With this time, I’d rather be running a few more experiments.”
The captain of the knights said in a low voice, “Stop talking. Her ladyship will be displeased.”
The healer snorted, “I’m not afraid.”
The knight captain sighed, his head aching. “Sigh.”
He did his best. He really did his best to stop his colleague from courting death.
Sure enough, after the door opened, the first words from Nai Yin Galor, dressed in her mage’s formal robes, were:
“What are you not afraid of?”
The healer: “…”
Caught red-handed complaining about his superior, he was punished with a three-month ban on researching poisons and could only produce healing potions.
The healer completely wilted. As his colleagues passed by, they each patted his shoulder sympathetically.
Of course, the prevailing mood of the wedding was still joyous and sweet.
It was a custom on the Ayers Continent to visit the nearest temple of the God of Love on one’s wedding day. The newlywed couple would simultaneously kiss the knuckles of the ring fingers on the statue’s left and right hands, symbolizing their unwavering love.
Nai Yin skipped this step entirely. She said, “My only goddess of love is you, and the only one I want to kiss is you. As for the statue, forget it.”
Yue Du calmly replied, “What a coincidence. I was thinking the same thing.”
By now, Yue Du was not only used to such cheesy and sentimental words, but she could also respond to them without any difficulty.
The influence of a lover, perhaps.
Though it was still a little embarrassing…
The only ones in attendance were the residents of the castle. Everyone came, whether they were practitioners or commoners. Under their gazes, next to a giant, nine-tiered cake meticulously crafted by the pastry chef, they kissed each other’s ring finger knuckles and exchanged a restrained kiss.
After the simple ceremony, Nai Yin began to shoo people away.
“Go on, all of you. There’s nothing for you to do here anymore,” she said coldly.
Yue Du was bewildered. “But we haven’t served the cake—?”
Nai Yin: “There was never any for them. It’s all yours.”
As soon as these words were spoken, Yue Du was instinctively on guard.
“I suspect you’re planning to waste food.”
“Can using it on you be called a waste?”
Yue Du understood now. Her wariness had not been misplaced.
The giant cake was indeed not wasted. Every single cream flower fulfilled its intended purpose.
Cream—if Yue Du had to pinpoint the beginning of Nai Yin’s various tricks, it would definitely be this cloyingly sweet substance whose proper use was for consumption.
From then on, things got out of hand.
For example, one day, Nai Yin asked Tina for a new maid’s uniform.
Although the maid uniforms of Galor Castle had lace and bows, they were generally quite simple for the sake of practicality.
Nai Yin fell into deep thought while looking at the maid uniform.
The next day, Yue Du received a modified maid outfit from her new wife.
“…I’m not wearing that.”
“Well, objection overruled.”
In the end, she wore it.
Another example: one time, Yue Du was reading a book.
Nai Yin had appeared behind her at some point, staring at the pages with a thoughtful expression.
When Yue Du finished the book and turned to grab the next one, she inadvertently turned her head and was startled by her. “Nai Yin!”
Nai Yin: “I’m here.”
Truly silent, like a big cat, Yue Du grumbled internally as she opened another book.
Then she was lifted up completely. Nai Yin sat down in the high-backed chair herself, pulling Yue Du into her lap.
Nai Yin tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and gave her an innocent smile.
“Remember to read it out loud later, Little Nightingale.”
…And so, in the end, she did read it, albeit with quite a few stumbles.
The consequence of having a wife who was so full of tricks was that when you saw very normal items like the maid’s work uniform, the books in the library, the mirror in the bathroom, your lover’s black and gold staff, or an ordinary quill, there would be moments when you couldn’t bear to look at them directly.
Yue Du demonstrated this point with her own personal experience. A cause for celebration, indeed.
Yue Du lived on the Ayers Continent for over a decade.
She experienced the beauty and magnificence of this continent, but most of the time, she just stayed at home with her wife.
But ten years was still too short.
It was supposed to be much longer, just as Nai Yin had anticipated, using the opportunity of a long-timeline mission to drag things out until the end of the male lead Abio’s life.
At least two hundred years. It would have been a long, but not long enough, time.
However, the Main System did not seem to intend to let her have her way.
At that time, the main quest was only halfway complete.
Using elemental puppets to constantly monitor the protagonist’s movements, snatching the treasures he needed before he could get them, and replacing them with something of similar efficacy—this simple and effortless process had been repeated several times and was now second nature.
Yue Du guessed that the protagonist already knew it was the First Dharma Saint who was messing with him, but even if he guessed, it was useless.
No one could do anything about Nai Yin Galor. This was true even for the leaders of the various races, let alone a young man who had just been promoted to a Grand Practitioner and was weak, pitiful, and helpless.
He could only barely manage to advance and get by using the resources the First Dharma Saint had swapped out.
Originally, everything was proceeding according to plan, until one day the Main System issued an emergency recall order:
“Ding. Initiating emergency recall. Detected that the Ayers Small World mission is more than halfway complete. Confirmed that there is no possibility of the ending being reversed, which is equivalent to mission completion.”
“Distributing points earned from the mission. Awarding the host six thousand points. Awarding System 0996 two thousand points.”
“System 0996 is requested to return to the System Space within one day. Exceeding the time limit will result in punishment. Warning: Exceeding the time limit will result in punishment.”
After the cold, mechanical voice finished saying all this in one breath, it fell silent.
…Completely oblivious to the two people over here who were thinking about how to beat it to death.
“This is a violation of the rules, isn’t it? Can I file a complaint?” Nai Yin said coldly.
Yue Du wanted to complain too, but— “The system manual has a clause about emergency recalls. It’s within the regulations.”
However, judging from the pitifully few case studies during training, this clause was almost never used. She had no idea what the Main System’s purpose was this time.
Nai Yin: “Is that so.”
Her mood clearly darkened in an instant. Her eyes were like a bottomless abyss, almost identical to how Qi Jiu looked when she was angry.
“You’re going to leave, aren’t you?”
Yue Du gave a small, bitter smile and said, “I have to.”
“…I really want to lock you up,” Nai Yin stared at her intently for a moment, then suddenly sighed and said in a wheedling tone, “But I can’t. Mmm, you’ll meet other me’s in the future. I’m so jealous of them.”
Yue Du said, “I—”
Nai Yin pressed a slender fingertip to her lips and shook her head. “I know what you want to say. It’s not like that. It’s true that I’m very jealous, but I’m even happier that you’ll still get to meet ‘me’.”
“‘I’ love you, Yue Du.”
“I know.”
She had always known.
Yue Du closed her eyes and lightly kissed the hair on Nai Yin’s forehead. For the first time, she wished time could slow down.
Her last day in Ayers was spent in a peaceful, mutual embrace.
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