Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

How will we explain that then?

Yes, I killed your mother because I had no other choice... How can I explain this—you no longer have a mother, but you still have me, right? I can be your guide in life, and we can be each other's parents in the future, wouldn't that be better?

What a load of rubbish!

"While I don't support the idea of ​​sacrificing the entire city," the witch's voice came from the other side, tinged with a hint of amusement, "the two of you seem to have a very deep bond."

"It's just a dream trial anyway," Cheng Cheng said, putting his hand down and looking at the starry sky. "We're not killing real people."

"What about in the game?"

He turned his head, and the witch, holding a teacup, tilted her head to look at him.

“Freya, Sylvia…” she said, “Anyway, their lives are just a game to you, one you can start over an infinite number of times. Would you kill their parents and destroy their hometown in this game?”

"of course not."

The witch smiled softly.

"So, emotions are truly a strange thing," she said. "Even knowing that everything is fake, knowing that this is just a world simulated by data, you still can't help but develop feelings and bonds with it."

Cheng Cheng remained silent for a long time.

"The game world..." he began, his voice slightly hoarse, "is it really just a data simulation? What does it have to do with the real Earth?"

"Don't tell you."

Miss Witch smiled, put down her teacup, and leaned back in her chair.

Cheng Cheng sighed softly, leaned back in his chair, turned his head, and looked at the sleeping figure beside him.

He reached out and gently stroked her sleeping face, his fingertips sliding down her forehead, then pinching her chubby cheeks, and then her ears, small and soft, which would move when pinched.

Then there was her hair, pink, fine, like silk slipping through her fingers.

Finally, he roughly played with her little hand, stuffing his fingers into her palm. She unconsciously gripped it tightly.

"It's starting to go downhill, huh?" The witch's voice came from the other side.

Cheng Cheng ignored her and continued pinching.

He played with it for a long time until the witch cleared her throat, at which point he withdrew his hand.

"Just knowing that she's still alive and still by my side..." he paused, "it just feels so good."

The witch looked at him but didn't expose him.

"When will her trial end? How long will I have to wait?"

“I don’t know. It depends on when she finishes the game in the dream, or when she dies.” She picked up a macaron from the table and took a bite. “But it won’t be long. You spent several days in the dream, but actually only slept for a few minutes at this tea party. Time accelerated further after you left, so it shouldn’t have been more than half an hour.”

Cheng Cheng leaned back in his chair, looking at the little girl who was still fast asleep opposite him: "Then can you tell me what Freya has been doing after I left?"

"Sure."

The witch put down the macarons, her gaze passing through the garden, through the starry sky, and looking towards a very distant place.

"When she awoke from her apparent death, all she saw was ruins—the charred palace, the molten marble, and your corpse."

"Knowing that you destroyed half of the capital to avenge him, she knelt beside you, holding your hand, and stayed with you for a long time—until the remaining nobles supported her to ascend the throne."

“Alvira is right. At times like these, the ones who can support her are the nobles she despises the most—they need someone to clean up the mess, and the remaining troops need someone to give orders. As for the commoners whose families and friends you burned to death, they all wish Freya, who brought the dragon, would die.”

After a long silence, Cheng Cheng asked:

"Then she will surely become a wise and virtuous queen, won't she?"

After all, Freya is so kind and gentle, and she speaks up for the people; she will surely treat them well.

"Hard to say."

The witch glanced at him: "'The world is kind to her, and she is kind to the world; the world is cruel to her, and she will repay it with blood'—Freya has two completely different inherent talents. You chose the angel route in the game, but don't forget that she also has a witch side."

Cheng Cheng was slightly taken aback.

"And the first order she signed after ascending the throne was to execute the dragon-slaying hero Sylvia."

"what?"

Cheng Cheng panicked immediately and hurriedly asked, "What about Sylvia...?"

“Sylvia did not resist.”

The witch put down her teacup and gently traced circles on the rim with her finger: "Don't worry, it's just Sylvia in the dream. The real her is fine."

"After Sylvia's execution came the war. Freya wanted to resurrect you and your mother, and she needed the 'Kingdom Resurrection Ceremony' of the Holy Kingdom, but the Pope refused. So her army set off from the capital, marching westward, conquering cities and leaving nothing but desolation in its wake. The Empire took advantage of the chaos, so she fought on two fronts."

"Forty winters extinguished the fire, forty summers boiled the sea. No one knows how long this war lasted, until all the disobedient were conquered by her, and she finally obtained the kingdom's resurrection ritual."

Cheng Cheng's throat moved slightly.

"Finally, she held a ceremony and sacrificed nine cities around the world, where hundreds of millions of people were slaughtered in flames... It was on that night that Li Xianyu chose to leave her."

"But the ceremony failed, after all, your soul has already returned to the tea party."

"Finally, there were rebellions. Uprisings broke out all over the world, and even armies mutinied..."

"On her last day, she stood on the city wall, looking at the dark mass of rebels outside the city. Then she returned to the ice chamber of the palace, leaned against your corpse, climbed onto the dragon's back one last time, and drank the poisoned wine—this time it wasn't a fake death, but real poison."

At this point, the witch paused for a moment.

"Ah, she's awake."

Cheng Cheng looked at Freya, who was still fast asleep beside him, and her eyelashes trembled.

Freya opened her eyes.

At first, there was a blankness in those light blue eyes. Then, the memories of the forty years since the dragon's death surged up like a tide, and just like every time I woke up from a dream, they shattered like bubbles—leaving only those fragments that I could never forget until death, lingering in my heart.

Life is but fifty years, like a dream or an illusion. Birth is the beginning of death, so what is there for a brave man to regret?

She suddenly raised her head and looked at Cheng Cheng, her small face covered in tears.

The girl then lunged forward and crashed into Cheng Cheng's arms.

Cheng Cheng wrapped his arms around the girl, and as soon as his hand touched her back, he felt his lips being sealed. He instinctively opened his mouth to respond—and then a sharp pain followed. The girl's sweet taste and the metallic taste of blood spread in both of their mouths.

What are you doing!

Cheng Cheng pushed Freya away as if he had been electrocuted and covered the corner of his mouth.

But Freya did not reply.

She pounced on him again, tearing and biting, but this time much more gently. She carefully licked the blood off his lips, then buried her face in his chest, listening quietly to his heartbeat.

One, two...

"Cheng Cheng."

After a long while, her muffled voice came from her deeply buried chest:

"You are not allowed to leave me again."

Chapter 71, The Cave Fable: Don't Ask Why There's So Much Water in the Cave

Just like every time I wake up from a dream.

Forty years of memories from the Witch's Trial faded from her mind like the receding tide, leaving only faint echoes and those unforgettable fragments.

After a flurry of kisses and nibbles, Freya collapsed into the arms of the person beside her, clutching his sleeve tightly until her knuckles turned white. Only when Cheng Cheng's hand enveloped hers, the warmth emanating from his palm, did her fingers slowly loosen, then she grasped his hand in return, their fingers intertwined.

"You must never leave me again," she said sullenly. "I will never be happy again without you."

Cheng Cheng hugged her back and nodded gently.

Across from her, the witch held a teacup, a strange smile playing on her lips.

After a long while, Freya finally raised her head, brushed aside her tear-soaked hair, tidied her appearance, and then frowned sharply: "Wait, where are my shoes?"

Cheng Cheng awkwardly looked away.

"No, where did my socks go?"

Cheng Cheng picked up his teacup.

Why are my feet still a little wet?

"It really wasn't me this time, you were the one who cried just now," Cheng Cheng quickly retorted. "It's because you had too much water, just like that BOSS Cave in the Rainy Realm. You can ask the witch if you don't believe me!"

The witch nodded: "Yes, I stopped him when he was about to eat it."

"So you really took your clothes off?!"

What did you do while I was sleeping?!

Freya shrank back in fright, and just as she was about to lift her skirt to check, she saw Cheng Cheng throw the teacup on the ground and then bend down to pick it up.

Freya: "..."

Now we're even further apart.

Fortunately, the check-up was successful; the most crucial piece of clothing hadn't been removed.

Why didn't you take it off?

Slightly disappointed, Freya sighed, composed herself, and turned to look at the witch opposite her: "Miss Witch... is everything that happened in the dream related to reality?"

"Don't tell you."

Elle smiled and said, "I'm a witch, not a sage. Why would I kindly tell you the truth?"

Freya bit her lip, placed her hands on the tea table, leaned forward, and blinked her big eyes: "Please."

"Tsk."

The witch almost dropped her teacup when she suddenly acted cute.

“…How about this?” She put down her cup and tapped her fingers twice on the table. “I’ll be the riddle teller and tell you a fable. Figure it out yourselves.”

“A group of people were locked in a cave, facing the cave wall, unable to turn around. Behind them was a fire, and someone was moving in front of the fire holding animal models, casting shadows on the cave wall. The prisoners could only see these shadows and thought that this was the real world.”

Cheng Cheng was slightly taken aback.

He had heard this story before; it was Plato's allegory of the cave.

The witch didn't tell the rest of the story—until one day, a man broke free of his restraints, left the cave, and saw the real world outside. He discovered that the sun was the source of all things, symbolizing truth and wisdom. Excitedly, he returned to the cave, wanting to share his discovery with his people. However, because he had suddenly gone from light to darkness, he couldn't see the shadows on the cave walls and was instead ridiculed by his companions.

Freya tilted her head and thought for a moment: "You mean, the trial dream is the shadow of reality projected into the cave. Although there is a connection, it is not entirely true because of the perspective, right?"