"Any wish."
"I’m the Adjudicator."
Shadow.Q showed no excitent at all.
There was not even the polite surprise or grateful delight she usually displayed.
Instead, her expression turned serious as she asked,
"Is the real disaster finally coming?"
Rita countered softly,
"Why can’t this simply be gratitude for all your years of work?"
Shadow.Q answered with certainty,
"You respect . When I contribute labor or strategy, you reward generously."
"But you would never suddenly appear in front of just to offer a wish."
Rita pressed her lips together in a faint smile.
Should she say that everyone around her was too smart?
Or simply that they understood her too well?
The smile slowly faded.
For once, uncertainty appeared on her face.
"I don’t know what the outco will be."
It felt eerily similar to that dark period years ago, right before she dragged BS out of the invasion sequence across the River of Ti.
She could face any hardship.
She had never regretted her decisions.
She always believed she could start over from nothing.
As long as the price was paid by herself alone.
Back then, the worst possible outco had been BS suffering because of her mistakes.
Now the stakes were all of Starsea and Quiet Mountain.
What if she was wrong?
She had given everyone a hundred years of happiness.
Would that make the worst ending hurt a little less?
Silence settled over the room.
Shadow.Q quietly watched the woman seated across from her.
A refined black robe draped around Rita’s body, its long hem spilling across the floor.
The color should have looked severe.
Instead, it only made her seem gentler.
In her hands rested a book glowing with pale platinum light.
The glow was soft rather than blinding, similar to the moonlight inside Rita’s lantern.
A few white petals drifted between the luminous pages, scattering and reforming whenever the wind slipped through the window.
Finally, Shadow.Q’s gaze returned to Rita’s face.
Beautiful.
Almost unreal.
Those eyes seed to contain countless beautiful and sorrowful eras long gone.
It was not rely physical beauty.
Rita simply looked like a story when she sat there.
Shadow.Q suddenly rembered an encounter from several months ago.
She had been out with subordinates when she ran into Rita by chance.
The Adjudicator always had a way of avoiding attention unless she deliberately chose to be seen.
And apparently, Shadow.Q qualified as one of the few reasons she would reveal herself.
Rita had appeared behind her and suddenly patted her shoulder, clearly attempting to scare her.
But Flower Crown Murder had an unmistakable scent.
Shadow.Q had recognized her before even turning around.
Still, what else could she do?
Naturally, she had professionally pretended to be startled.
After the Adjudicator left in satisfaction, Shadow.Q noticed one of her subordinates staring blankly after Rita’s retreating figure.
When the girl finally snapped out of it, the first thing she said was:
"I wonder what Adjudicator has been through. Her life must’ve been incredible."
That was also one of the thoughts that surfaced in Shadow.Q’s mind whenever she looked at Rita.
What had she experienced?
Why did she wear such an expression?
What was she thinking about?
One question beca another.
Before realizing it, you would find yourself staring at her for a very long ti.
And despite being so distant and untouchable, she occasionally still said kind things just to make people happy.
Shadow.Q had known Rita longer than anyone else.
Long before everybody else.
She had watched Rita grow from harmless deception into cold determination.
From soone obsessed with power into soone who could sacrifice emotion for logic during the Adjudicator war.
Then into the Adjudicator herself, carrying responsibilities she once despised.
And now...
Now she resembled a god gazing gently upon the world.
Warm.
Compassionate.
Yet the truth was that she had always been like this.
Even long ago, Rita had been capable of understanding why people made the choices they did.
Shadow.Q had witnessed every stage of her transformation.
Once, in private, Nivalis told her:
"I hate that Rita beca the Adjudicator. The day she took that title, the world gained a second Wrathful Moon."
And that moon had remained sealed away for many years.
A sigh pulled Shadow.Q back to reality.
Rita closed the glowing book in her hands.
"I just don’t know whether I should bring every world with ."
"I don’t know if I can succeed."
Shadow.Q answered without hesitation.
"Then please take with you."
Her mory was excellent.
She rembered a conversation from over a century ago, back when the ga had reopened voting for the Adjudicator position.
At the ti, BS had asked her a question.
"In your heart, which matters more? BS, or her?"
She had frowned in confusion.
"Why would you ask sothing like that?"
"Curiosity."
"Why?"
"Because I know every story that happened, and every story that failed to happen."
"Many years ago, when you and Rita fought Black Jade together, she once used ti reversal."
"Before the reversal, Black Jade persuaded you to switch sides."
"You chose to oppose Rita alongside Black Jade for the sake of the Special Affairs Bureau and your career."
"But after reversing ti, Rita acted first."
"...Ah."
"That really does sound like a decision I would make."
"No wonder you asked."
Back then, her answer had been silence.
Without BS Rita, BS would already have been destroyed.
But all of her ideals existed within BS.
Without BS, where could she pursue her ambitions?
More than uncertainty over the answer itself, what truly unsettled her was the possibility erased by ti reversal.
Rita had seen through her that early.
And still allowed her to beco one of BS’s executives.
Now, over a century later, Shadow.Q finally knew her answer.
Wherever BS Rita went, there would inevitably be grander futures and greater ideals.
She had no regrets left in BS.
She had climbed higher than everyone else.
Once upon a ti, she had admired Avery from afar for years.
Now she had finally surpassed her.
There was only one person left for her to look up to.
eting Rita’s surprised gaze, Shadow.Q repeated firmly,
"Whether you bring BS or not, please make sure to bring ."
"That is my wish."
"...Alright."
After Rita left, Shadow.Q heard BS’s voice once again.
It rembered that old question too.
[BS]: So this is your answer. She matters more than BS.
Shadow.Q switched off the automatic aroma diffuser running in the room.
No fragrance slled better than Flower Crown Murder.
Calmly, without emotion, she stated a simple fact.
"My ideals matter most."
"Whoever gives my life greater aning, whoever makes my career more brilliant, becos my ideal."
A faint smile appeared on her face amidst the lingering floral scent.
"And it’s not just ."
[BS]: What do you an?
"You also think she matters more than BS, don’t you?"
[BS]: Do you not realize I also have another na?
[Rita-BS]
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