I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Lin Jinyu no longer easily showed her emotions like she did three years ago, nor would she lie on his chest and say a lot of things afterward.

She simply hugged his waist quietly, buried her face in the crook of his shoulder, waited a while, then stood up, straightened her collar, and said, "I'm leaving."

But every time he reached the door, he would stop, holding onto the door frame with one hand and clenching the other into a fist at his side.

Her knuckles turned white from gripping her fists so tightly, as if she was using all her strength to suppress the urge to turn around and rush into his arms.

After a long silence, he released his grip and walked into the depths of the corridor without looking back.

Chiyomiya Hanyu seemed to have noticed something.

She didn't say anything, but sometimes when she passed by his room in the early morning, she would stop and glance at the light reflected on the paper door before walking away silently.

Sometimes, when he was making tea in the kitchen, she would walk up behind him and stand very close, close enough for him to smell the very faint scent of cypress in her hair. Then, just as he was about to turn around, she would step back as if those few steps had never happened.

Her pheasant dagger gleamed brighter than ever before, her deep brown pupils shimmered gently under the paper lamp, and her eyelashes drooped, concealing emotions that no one could understand.

The great evacuation officially began after the start of winter.

Millions of civilians poured out of Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and every city along the eastern coast of Japan, evacuating westward along the road network behind the defenses.

Civilian trucks, buses, private cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians, including elderly people carrying children, pushing wheelchairs, and carrying luggage, formed a long line and moved slowly along the mountain road.

No one cut in front, no one honked their horns, only the sound of wheels rolling over fallen leaves and a mother's soft words to comfort her child.

The convoy stretched for hundreds of kilometers, its lights at night resembling a river that refused to go out.

The defending troops on the front line did not withdraw.

The remaining fleet and hundreds of thousands of ground troops of the third line of defense voluntarily stayed behind to guard the line that had been destroyed by nuclear bombs, buying time for the evacuated civilians.

The Shiodome was the fleet's flagship, and its captain was an old English navy man with graying sideburns and a clean-shaven beard. He held a cup of red tea in his hand as he issued orders from the bridge.

Two thousand crew members stood on the deck watching the swarm of bone-eating insects surging on the horizon. No one spoke; only the sea breeze made the ship's flag flutter.

Their ammunition was exhausted, their main guns were all destroyed, and their hull was burned all over by the dragon's breath.

The flagship aimed its bow at the direction where the Kuroshio Current was most concentrated, and with its engines at full power, it plunged into the black ocean like a silver meteor.

"Never back down."

The captain's voice came through the communication channel, as calm as if he were announcing an afternoon tea menu.

May the sea god bless the Queen.

Then came the second one, and the third one.

The entire rear fleet used its hulls as shields, ramming through the Kuroshio's front line on the sea. Until the mast of the last destroyer sank into the black waves, the extremely short and simple farewell on the communication channel still echoed in the ears of all the survivors.

The ground forces and mechs also did not retreat.

Heavy mechs lined up in a horizontal row at the front of the road, using their tattered steel bodies to block the evacuation convoy from the torrent of bone-eating worms.

When you run out of ammunition, use your battle sword. If the battle sword breaks, use your mechanical arm. If the mechanical arm is torn off, use the machine itself to crash into something.

A mech knelt in the middle of the road, its cockpit pierced by the Gorgon's mental attack. Before dying, the pilot activated the self-destruct mechanism to maximum power, and the explosion illuminated the convoy that was slowly driving away behind him.

A girl in the convoy poked her head out from the back of a truck, looked at the ever-growing flames, and waved her little hand a few times.

She thought it was the defending troops setting off victory fireworks.

A woman with a headscarf pulled her back into the carriage and sat her down, then gently covered her eyes.

The last to evacuate were the shrine maidens of the Chiyomiya family and a group of rune technicians who volunteered to stay behind.

Yuzuru held his pheasant sword horizontally in front of him, standing on the cliff and looking at the sky in the distance that was completely swallowed by the black tide.

No one spoke, but her fingers gripping the knife handle turned white at the knuckles.

The battle has lasted for three days and three nights. The entire fleet and mech units have been wiped out, and all ammunition has been exhausted.

They had no way out, but the defense line could not fall.

Behind them were millions of civilians still being evacuated, the convoy that had not yet fully entered the fourth line of defense, the wagashi shops in the old streets of Kyoto, and the wives and elderly people still waiting for their families to return.

Yuzuru drew his pheasant sword from its sheath, and the dark red runes on the blade lit up in the night.

She wasn't afraid of dying, but she wanted the people behind her to live on.

Just then, a seven-colored light curtain rose from the mountain ridge.

The vast spiritual power spread out like a tide, transforming into an overwhelming barrier that firmly blocked the Black Tide vanguard from retreating.

The bone-eating worms that had just broken through the mech's defenses all stopped in their tracks, then turned around and bit their own kind behind them.

Their will was forcibly stripped away by the Mirror Flower Seal, and their bloodthirsty desires were completely overwhelmed by another, more powerful force.

The skeletal knights' charge was crushed from the side by the betrayed steel colossi, and the Gorgon's mental screams were blocked outside the defensive line by the rainbow light curtain, like raindrops hitting a steel plate, splashing up countless echoes.

The Black Tide Vanguard crashed into this barrier like waves hitting rocks. Each impact created dark red cracks on the light screen, but each crack was repaired by the surging spiritual energy in the next instant.

The last convoy of refugees safely entered the territory of the fourth line of defense.

The surviving soldiers on the defensive line used their remaining ammunition and the Anti-Flood Calamity to temporarily repel the Black Tide, and then retreated in an orderly manner.

Yuzuru sheathed his sword, glanced back at the deserted city behind him, then pulled up his hood and led the shrine maidens deeper into the defensive line.

That evening, the special report on world news was repeatedly broadcast on television stations around the world.

The title was in bold and large font, and the background music was the third movement of the Requiem. The host read each word in an extremely emotional tone.

Several blurry images taken with a mobile phone appeared on the screen.

In the instant the colorful light curtain swept across the defensive line, the image of Yuzuru tightly embracing the young man from behind appeared on the city wall.

Although the footage is blurry, the posture and duration of the embrace, as well as Yuzuru burying his face in his back in front of everyone, are enough for the interpretation experts to analyze frame by frame for an entire night.

Then, even more material was unearthed.

Someone photographed Prince Chiyo-no-kyo walking side by side with a young man in the old streets of Kyoto. The two were less than a fist's distance apart, and when Yuzuru turned his head to talk to him, there was a very faint smile on his lips.

That was an expression she had never shown in public before.

Someone else captured a moment when the two exchanged a glance during the rehearsal for the Barrier Conference.