The black quicksand suddenly dispersed, breaking apart like a thin veil drifting down through the air.
Rita stood before the desk, eting By’s cold gaze.
Ti passed.
Then, without warning, By smiled.
Still gentle. Still beautiful. Like every Vineborne, her smile seed to carry a faint fragrance.
The light from the wall lamps fell across her face. There was no shadow, no trace of darkness.
She looked exactly as she had yesterday, sitting here, smiling as she said, "So, a Vineborne."
"That does sound... like sothing I would do."
Her smile was almost innocent. Like soone admiring a completed masterpiece.
Then, with a hint of annoyance, she added,
"No wonder she never ca to see ."
There was no confusion left in her eyes. No hesitation.
Rita, however, felt sothing else entirely.
It was as if By had been waiting for this mont all along.
Who altered this mory?
Was it Deceitful Bloom?
Or By?
Or both of them, silently agreeing to reshape it together?
Rita didn’t know.
But she knew this.
By was done pretending.
She just didn’t want to be the one to tear everything open.
So she waited.
Waited for soone ddleso.
Waited for soone who understood the Vineborne.
Waited for soone who knew Deceitful Bloom.
Soone who would push that door open with her.
Could By have figured this out on her own?
Of course she could.
She knew far more than Rita did.
She knew herself.
She knew Deceitful Bloom.
She knew everything before the third bell.
Even if she had forgotten how her divine talent reached completion, she could still see its na, its effects.
And those had to be tied to what happened.
She had completed sothing unprecedented.
A pruning unlike any other.
She had cultivated the most brilliant Flower of Deceit.
The colors of the castle walls, and of the Vineborne before her, grew more vivid. More real.
Rita spoke softly.
"Does your divine talent... have sothing to do with cultivation?"
"’Pruning.’"
By gave the answer freely.
She seed to be in an excellent mood.
"You’ve already uncovered the truth. So what’s the last piece you want from ?"
"Have you regained your mories?" Rita asked instead.
"What she left behind could only alter parts of the story," By replied simply.
In other words, the forgetting had been her own doing.
And now that the truth was exposed, she no longer cared to maintain the lie.
"So you and Deceitful Bloom rewrote this ti together?"
"Yes."
Rita thought back to the alternate version of events. The false path.
She pressed her lips together, holding back judgnt.
There were still things she didn’t understand.
"I want to know how fast the bell ca," she said. "Was it so fast that she couldn’t even transfer a portion of the Vineborne?"
If they had planned to invade Tingo, they must have had enough invasion sequences prepared.
Even if Deceitful Bloom returned and found that By had not acted, even if ti was already running out...
She would not collapse into despair.
Rita knew exactly what she would have done.
She would not waste ti confronting By.
She would imdiately pick another world, initiate an invasion, and use the dungeon system to transfer as many Vineborne as possible before the bell struck.
No matter what, it should not have ended with only Deceitful Bloom remaining.
"So either there was no ti..."
Rita’s gaze sharpened.
"Or you did sothing else."
She paused, then said with certainty,
"You must have. Even if you were willing to gamble the lives of all Vineborne, betting that her suffering would make her brilliant...
"You would never gamble her life. Not on the hope that Starsea would spare her just because of her power."
By was a gambler.
But even gamblers had limits.
So things were never ant to be wagered.
"Why not assu she accepted it?" By asked lightly.
She tilted her head, as if genuinely confused.
"Your dragon is right. You trust her too, don’t you?"
"I don’t trust her," Rita said.
She ignored the strange look Nivalis shot her.
"If she doesn’t suffer, she gets pruned."
Stories shine because they are complex.
Tilines shine because of burning soul fire.
"If she had accepted that plan... she wouldn’t be who she is now."
By burst into laughter.
The lingering killing intent in the air vanished completely.
She looked almost delighted.
"Yes. Exactly."
Her eyes lit up.
"That’s why she’s worthy, isn’t she?"
Her voice rose, filled with conviction.
"Without her, the Vineborne would no longer be Vineborne. Without her, we would have died in the wars long ago."
"So why shouldn’t I have done it?"
Rita said nothing.
She waited.
Waited for By to finish.
Waited for the answer she needed.
By’s voice softened as she sank into mory.
"I used the Midsumr Celestialkin as leverage. I threatened Midsumr and signed a contract with it."
"After transferring the Celestialkin through an invasion, I gathered all players in Midsumr and initiated an Adjudicator vote."
"I wanted to beco Midsumr’s Adjudicator. Only an Adjudicator can appoint or remove leaders."
Her tone remained calm.
"Every ti I failed, I pruned everyone who opposed ."
"The vote was anonymous. But my divine talent let see which lives were vines that should be discarded."
"I beca Midsumr’s Adjudicator before she returned from Graveyard of Bones."
"On the final day, I stripped her of her position as leader."
"I removed every anchor she had to Midsumr."
"And then..."
By smiled faintly.
"I had Starsea assign her a new world."
"When she finished the ga, she would be sent there."
"Starsea was happy to comply. Everything followed the rules. Everything was perfectly valid."
She let out a quiet sigh.
"It was the first ti I saw her lose control in the chat."
"For her entire life... she had never looked like that."
Silence filled the room.
Rita couldn’t imagine that mont.
Couldn’t picture Deceitful Bloom like that.
And she didn’t know how to look at the Vineborne before her.
After a long while, she spoke.
"After figuring out part of the truth, I thought..."
She paused.
"I thought she was trying to fix her regrets inside your mory."
"And you were trying to hide your mistake."
By didn’t react to the word mistake at all.
She believed she was right. Completely.
No judgnt mattered to her.
Not even Deceitful Bloom’s.
"Sounds like there’s a twist coming," she said calmly.
Rita looked straight at her.
"I want to know one thing."
"The ability that let you see other tilines... the one that showed you how events unfolded elsewhere..."
Her voice lowered.
"Was it yours?"
"Or Deceitful Bloom’s?"
By answered without hesitation.
"Hers."
Then she gave a faint, crooked smile.
"So?"
"What new conclusion did you reach?"
Rita held her gaze.
"In this mory..."
Her voice was quiet, but certain.
"The one trying to prune away the truth... wasn’t you."
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