Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Blanca smiled and said, "Yes, let's get back to the point. Since you weren't actually in a dream from the beginning, why didn't you break free from it?"

"In fact, from the moment your first words to me at the airport were 'Moths of Flames,' I knew I was already in the Eighth Herrscher's dream, since you can't erase my independent consciousness. However, I also knew that if I was pulled into the dream outside the base, it could only mean that the Herrscher had moved to a different location. In other words, the Herrscher was right beside me."

"So what I need to do is not to escape, but to find out who is the anomaly in the dream, in other words, who is in control of the dream."

"In fact, I have seen more than one mental fusion warrior. The so-called dream creation must rely on the consciousness of the dreamer to construct it. However, because disordered consciousness is too bizarre and fantastical, bizarre and fantastical dreams are easier to wake up from. Therefore, the dream creator must give the dream a logic to operate. This requires the dream creator's consciousness to also enter the dream. Usually, it will specifically transform into a certain person in the dream."

"Since I am valued by the dream weaver, although I don't understand why, I guess she will definitely try to contact me, so I have targeted the people around me."

“At first, I didn’t target you and Paddo because you are too familiar to me and difficult to fake. Even the slightest difference could make the dreamer subconsciously sense something is wrong and realize that they are dreaming. In fact, you are flawless and act exactly like Blanca in my memory. I thought that even if you could see my memories, you shouldn’t be that similar.”

Blanca stroked her blue hair that fell over her shoulder, her smile serene: "If that's the case, then when you first entered the dream world two months ago, you pinned me down on the sofa while Pado was out shopping, were you observing my reaction? After all, a Herrscher can also be a shy young girl who hasn't experienced anything, while Blanca already had an intimate relationship with you back in the Moth of Flames?"

"You did a perfect job."

"Are you saying that I showed both my joy at your declaration of love for the doll and my guilt at the fact that while Hen was still fighting inside the base, I was indulging in romantic escapades with you?" Blanca looked at him quietly.

"These complex emotions are hard to control. I don't believe a Herrscher can do it, so I trust you."

"No, actually women are very ruthless creatures. The day you said you liked me, I even drafted the divorce agreement with Hen. Yes, it was that time Hen worked the night shift, so I asked you to stay up all night with me to watch a movie. While watching, you suddenly said that you learned how to kiss from Ellie and wanted to try it with me."

She laughed, "It's so strange. I saw the male and female protagonists kissing on TV and I wanted to try it with them... You were always so innocent and cute back then, but... I wasn't innocent."

"I know that what you call 'liking' is just a taste of pleasure from Ellie and Eden, but what you don't know is that I lived with you in the Infinite Experimentation Laboratory for three years, watching you grow up and become more and more lovable. In those three years, I couldn't live without you. To prevent this from happening, I deliberately stayed away from you and found Hen to build a complete family. But the moment you said you liked me, I knew I was doomed. I couldn't remember anything about family, children, or the future... Doll, you are truly a source of evil. Just one look at me and my life completely collapses. I'm like mistletoe that can only survive by relying on you. Why did God create a devil like you, the beloved devil's child?"

"Enough, don't talk to me like Blanca," Shen Liang said in a low voice. "You are not Blanca after all. What you're saying is exactly why I'm suspicious! Blanca isn't the kind of person who's single-mindedly indulging in love, or even indulging in me. She's different from you, completely different!"

Blanca suddenly chuckled. Shen Liang didn't understand what she was laughing at, so he had no choice but to continue.

"Regardless, Blanca was a researcher at the Fire-Chasing Moth, Möbius's assistant, and someone who dedicated her life to the survival of human civilization. Love was never her top priority, neither for her husband nor for me. Even if Hen were dead, even if the Fire-Chasing Moth were to perish, she would wipe away her tears and actively participate in the construction of the new Fire-Chasing, and for me as well," Shen Liang said coldly. "I am an experimental subject of the Son of Man Project. No matter how much Blanca is attached to me, she cannot hide me. I am connected to at least four Fire-Chasing projects, and my importance to the United Nations in rebuilding the new Fire-Chasing is self-evident."

"So that's why they confirmed I was a Herrscher." Blanca shook her head.

Shen Liang had been very resolute, but now he suddenly felt somewhat depressed. He had thought he could control his pity and sympathy for the Herrscher and tell himself that it was all a dream carefully designed by the Herrscher, but as expected, he still couldn't harden his heart when faced with Blanca's face.

No one can bear to see the sorrowful face of their beloved, the woman they've spent ten years with, the woman who wore a wedding dress and was ready to marry them…

“Even though it’s a dream, everything in the real world can be replicated here.” Shen Liang said slowly. “Ten years. If you read my memories, you might overlook this ability of mine. This ability was not reported to the Fire Chaser Council. Only a few people know about it. I can fuse the genes of any life form, including Herrschers. After fusion, I can even contact the Imaginary Space and deceive the Honkai through the similarity of genes to steal the powers of Herrschers.”

Blanca stared at him in astonishment.

"The Eighth Herrscher, who controls dreams and modifies consciousness, your source of power, the Herrscher Core, has already been stained with my color." Shen Liang stared into his eyes. "You have never been on guard against my plundering for a full ten years. And now, if I want, the Herrscher Core is mine."

Blanca's expression finally changed. She first touched her heart, then seemed to try something, but finally found that she could do nothing.

Her expression shifted from panic to fear to shock before finally calming down, regaining its weary composure, and she even managed a smile: "Great job, you truly are my little wolfhound. Heh, yes, I've never been on guard against you. What wife would be on guard against her husband?"

"But why? It doesn't need to be ten years, does it? What's the point of staying in the dream for ten years?" Blanca suddenly asked playfully. "Is it for me?"

"Indeed, it doesn't take ten years, but as I understand your power more deeply, I've discovered that the time ratio between dreams and reality is different. Möbius said that the brain works very efficiently in dreams, usually enough to dream for several months in an hour, and your dreams are even more so, with an even faster ratio. I suspect this is because you need to subtly age people rapidly in their dreams, and aging people will fall into brain death, manifesting as organ failure."

"But this gave me an idea: if the difference between the dream and reality is huge, I don't need to rush out of the dream. On the contrary, I learned something from it."

"What did you learn?" Blanca stubbed out her cigarette and tossed it out the window, then asked with a smile, "That girls' legs can bend 180 degrees, and even bend behind their shoulders?"

"I learned how to get along with people, things I couldn't learn at The Moth to the Flame, such as social skills," Shen Liang said calmly.

"Although it was a dream, I had never experienced the life of an ordinary person. Everyone in the Moth Chaser was a warrior with a heart of steel. The values ​​I held were not universal at all, but they were different in this dream. I read books, went to school, worked, interacted with people, understood the deeper meaning of many words, gradually became closer to humans, and acquired the thinking logic of normal humans."

“I have to thank you, Blanca, no, Herrscher. Have you read Dragon Ball? There’s a concept called the ‘Hyperloop’ where one day of training is equivalent to one year outside. Although dreams can’t increase your strength, the values ​​you gain from interacting with people won’t disappear when the dream ends.”

"So I spent ten years gradually understanding the will of humanity. This is something very important to me, something that many people, including Mei, Alicia, and Eden, hoped I would learn." Shen Liang finished speaking and looked at her. "Now that my training is complete, it's time for everything to end. Herrscher, I don't actually hate you, but I need to move forward. I can't be trapped in this dream by you. I need to go to the real world. The one I love has never been you, but the real Blanca."

Shen Liang was filled with determination.

But Blanca didn't answer. Instead, she continued, "When I became a Herrscher, I was filled with hatred for humanity."

"?"

Blanca suddenly rolled over into the driver's seat, pressing her forehead against his, and said coldly, "Honkai will change the will of humanity. I once hoped that all of humanity would die. I even thought about finding a way to escape from the Fire Chaser base, going to those large cities to put them into a state of slumber, then launching nuclear missiles to kill hundreds of thousands of people and end it all, doing justice to Honkai. I can't think of any other way to create a major disaster. I'm just filled with anger and think that you guys are the worst of the worst."

Shen Liang frowned.

“But I’m pregnant with Gretchen.” She changed the subject.

Shen Liang suddenly realized what he had been feeling was wrong all along!

“I have a deep hatred for humanity, yet I am carrying a human baby inside me. But I have no desire to cut open my stomach. As a Herrscher, my physical regenerative abilities are extremely strong. As an intellectual, I can administer anesthesia to myself and perform surgery. But I have no such thought… My few expectations for the world are that this child be born. I want her to live. I think the name Gretchen is very beautiful,” Blanca said softly.

"And I want to give Gretchen a home. It's unbelievable that I, as a Herrscher, still yearn for a family. But suddenly I really, really want to keep my life. I suddenly realized that I actually have someone I like. I want to find you. I hope to find you. I suddenly realized that I have hope. What is hope? I have my own detached house in Hokkaido, a beautiful and handsome husband who loves me, and a daughter. This is the hope that suddenly arose in me. It seems to be something tangible. Even though I am a Herrscher, I still have a future."

At this moment, Shen Liang no longer hesitated. He stared at the woman in front of him and suddenly kissed her.

Genes are intermingling!

Shen Liang reached out and pulled out the Herrscher Core from the Herrscher's body in front of him!

In the blink of an eye, the carriage dissolved, the world outside the window collapsed, and the sky within sight cracked open, revealing a pitch-black universe. The violent, abnormal sensation made Shen Liang instinctively close her eyes, but she bit the Herrscher's lips even harder. The two kissed in the destroyed world, biting each other until they drew pain and blood.

Suddenly, the chair behind him felt light, and Shen Liang jolted awake as if he had lost weight. Just like many people who dream of falling from a building, he suddenly felt a solid support behind him, making him realize that he was now in the real world.

came back.

But Shen Liang dared not open his eyes. He felt incredibly heavy, the pain in his lips was still clear and distinct, and he smelled a familiar fragrance.

He dared not open his eyes.

He knew what was on him.

"You said it yourself, it's time to wake up from this dream," the person on top of you said slowly. "I've lost everything about my future, open your eyes."

Shen Liang remained silent.

"You don't dare to open your eyes and look at me?" she laughed. "You don't even dare to look at me, yet you speak so heartlessly? Is this your heartlessness, husband?"

Shen Liang finally understood everything. He finally knew why the Eighth Herrscher, even after his identity as a Herrscher was revealed, still liked to chat with him about mundane matters, why the Eighth Herrscher's disguise was so convincing, and why the Eighth Herrscher hadn't learned from his memories that he possessed the ability to "fuse Herrscher genes"...

There is only one answer to all of this: the Eighth Herrscher, the Herrscher of Consciousness, the Herrscher who controls dreams.

She never had the ability to analyze other people's memories; the reason she could disguise herself so flawlessly was simply because she herself was Blanca.

Shen Liang was inexplicably furious. He was extremely angry and extremely sad, saddened that he didn't even have the courage to open his eyes and confirm the fact.

Even in a dream, ten years of living together day and night, ten years of deep affection remain.

He only managed to return to the real world by clinging to the belief that "she is not Blanca, she is just pretending." Men are such foolish creatures; if he didn't repeatedly reinforce this belief, he wouldn't even know if he would succumb to the tenderness and beauty of his dream.

But after this beautiful dream was shattered, I suddenly realized...

That gentleness and kindness were not a pretense.

Chapter 44 Blanca: I fired two shots into the air to do justice to the Emperor.

Shen Liang finally looked at Blanca and found that the other was looking at him with a calm expression.

That look in his eyes was as if to say, "See? You won. Humanity won against the Herrscher. Those who hold the future won against those who have no future."

Shen Liang recalled what she had just said.

Right now, Blanca, the Herrscher of Knowledge, is already determined to die. If he makes a move, Blanca will likely face no resistance and be killed here with a smile.

But he can't win.

Regardless of whether Shen Liang can kill the Herrscher, he cannot win; he knows he is a complete loser.

Because this is not just about humans fighting against the Herrscher, but about a man betraying the woman who loved him.

Shen Liang slowly clenched her fist.

He stared at the long, light blue-haired married woman lying on top of him, then reached out and ran his hand through her hair to stroke her face. "Why do we have to get married?"

In the dream, he actually felt that the Herrscher's behavior was very strange. Blanca was very keen to establish a formal relationship with him, and every day she dragged Pado to look at wedding dresses. In this day and age, she even went to the car museum to rent a stretch Lincoln from more than a hundred years ago as a wedding car. It could be said that Blanca was taking care of all the steps of the wedding, and Shen Liang was just dragged by her to change into various dresses.

At first, he thought a suit would suffice, but Blanca was very unhappy. She felt that she looked at least 1.8 meters tall in her high heels and veil, while Shen Liang in a suit looked like a flower girl. So she painstakingly designed a Lolita-style equestrian suit for him, paired with high-top riding boots, which looked much better.

However, the overly elaborate attire made Shen Liang look more like a little princess dressed as a boy. When taking the wedding photos, the photographer probably thought it was a lesbian wedding and Shen Liang was a child. So he had the two girls in wedding dresses stand together affectionately, each holding one of the boy's hands, making them look like a lesbian couple with an impatient little daughter.

Blanca and Pado were very satisfied with the wedding photo and forced it to become Shen Liang's terminal wallpaper. They even pasted the photo in his bedroom, making Shen Liang wonder if it was these two girls, not him, who were getting married.

“Because I like it.” Blanca held his hand that was stroking her cheek, tilting her head to get closer. “I’ve always loved dolls, even after becoming a Herrscher.”

Would a Herrscher pursue marriage as defined by humans?

“What an idiot,” Blanca chuckled softly. “I’ve known Hen for two years. We got married and had Gretchen during those two years. Because I wanted to avoid you, Hen and I rushed into not even having a wedding. But what woman doesn’t dream of a wedding? Maybe from the moment I rejected Hen’s proposal, I already had a vague feeling that no matter how much I ran away, I would eventually fall for you. I know that deep down I wanted the wedding dress you would put on me. I’ve always wanted you, so look how despicable I am. Doll, you say you’ve learned about human relationships, but you haven’t. A person’s upbringing determines their character from childhood. You’ve never been able to understand other people’s filth and depravity… like mine.”

Branca paused:

"Of course I want to keep you by my side, that's what marriage is all about. I was with Hen for two years, but even in those two years I spent more time with you, Wawa. We've been taking from each other for thirteen years in total. Thirteen years of life together, is it too much for me to ask for a wedding?"

"Is this the arbitrariness of a Herrscher?"

“Well, you could understand it that way. I was indeed quite reckless,” Blanca said softly. “Do you have any other questions?”

“There aren’t many left, just one more. So, are you now the Herrscher of Knowledge, or Blanca?” Shen Liang stared intently at her, his clear red eyes contrasting with her gentle yet fiery golden eyes.

Blanca suddenly felt as if she had seen Shen Liang from ten years ago again, the Shen Liang who was still naive and didn't understand human relationships, who held her hand in the base, worked with her, helped her carry things she couldn't lift, kept her company when she was afraid of the dark and sleeping alone, and even acted as her pillow.

Ten years later, Shen Liang emerged from the dream looking exactly the same, only his personality had matured considerably. However, the boy who had become the pillar of his family in the dream seemed to have reverted to that taciturn, aloof, and innocently obedient child. The sharpness and composure in his eyes had vanished, replaced by that dependent gaze, a look that evoked affection and tenderness, like that of a kitten or puppy.

This wasn't Shen Liang's disguise; it was simply his subconscious expectation and dream.

“It’s the Herrscher of Knowledge,” Blanca finally looked away from that gaze, smiling sadly. “I am the Herrscher. Don’t think about it anymore, doll. The Blanca of the past has been reversed. The Blanca of now is a monster who indulges in his own desires, hates humanity, and seeks destruction. You were just having a dream before, and no matter how beautiful the dream was, it was just a false thing I wanted to use to hold you back. All I wanted was to turn the earth into scorched earth, and then we would embrace and kiss on that scorched earth… But you wouldn’t like that kind of world, nor would you like that kind of monster like me. So goodbye, while your impression of me as a monster is still relatively good… Well, what I want to leave you with is my goodness. As for the ugly things, let them go.”

Shen Liang reached out and grabbed her neck, looking at her with her eyes closed.

She was still smiling, a gentle smile. Blanca was actually very beautiful; her long blue and white hair and frail appearance gave her a delicate, almost fragile beauty. She was one of the few gentle women among the countless researchers at the Fire Chaser Base; most women were decisive and efficient, even surpassing men in their abilities. So, when Möbius entrusted him to Blanca, most people at the Infinite Laboratory had no interest in raising children, but Blanca did. Perhaps it was maternal instinct, or perhaps it was the long-standing, inexplicable affection Blanca had for him.