Am I going to be controlled by the players too?

From the moment Alvira ascended the throne, she was no longer a mother.

She grew increasingly distant. The warm hugs were gone, the gentle caresses were gone, the bedtime stories were gone. The way she looked at Freya became more and more like she was looking at a stranger.

Polite, distant, devoid of any warmth.

At first, Freya thought she had done something wrong.

She worked hard to improve herself, wanting to please her mother; she studied etiquette, wanting to become someone worthy of the princess's status; she carefully tried to please her mother, always managing to put on her sweetest smile whenever they met.

But her mother merely glanced at her indifferently, nodded, and then continued dealing with the never-ending administrative affairs.

Later, Freya understood.

It's not that her mother doesn't love her anymore, it's just that... she can't love anymore.

The source is slowly devouring the mother's personality, her memories, and everything about her.

Until seven years ago.

That day, Freya went to see her mother as usual, but only found an empty queen:

"who are you?"

Freya stopped breathing.

“I…I am Freya, your daughter, Mother Queen.”

"Freya?" The Queen tilted her head, her once gentle eyes now devoid of any emotion. "Who is that?"

Freya didn't know how she got out of the palace.

All she knew was that after that day, she never called her "mother" again.

Later, the palace maid told her that in order to fight a certain demon, Queen Alvira sacrificed twenty-two years of her lifespan and all her memories to drive the power of the source matter and erase all concepts, entities and memories related to that demon from the entire world.

This is the "scepter" held by the kingdom, originating from one of the primordial demons, the "Understanding" Forgotten Demon.

The more humanity cherishes the past, the more it fears forgetting; and Queen Alvira, through her own forgetting, secured a small victory for humanity.

This was true of Alvira, and it was true of every queen before her.

Freya, too, will eventually suffer the same fate.

…………

"That's how it is. I chose to leave the palace, abandoning my responsibilities as a princess." Freya's voice echoed in my mind, eerily calm. "Someone once told me: 'Life is a winding labyrinth; we have nothing but memories.'"

"But humans are made up of memories. Once you lose your past memories, what's the difference between that and death?"

Cheng Cheng remained silent.

He recalled how, each time he rewound, Sylvia would forget what had happened before—those memories of fighting together, adventuring together, laughing and crying together, were only remembered by him.

Having experienced that kind of loneliness, he seemed able to understand Freya's thoughts.

"I don't want to become like my mother," Freya continued, "nor do I want my mother to become like that."

"So I started looking for a way... until about six months ago, I found the notes my father left behind before he disappeared."

Chapter 45, Beware of Fire, Theft, and Best Friends

"Your father?"

"Ah."

Freya continued, “Before Mother ascended the throne, Father knew what was going to happen. He searched through ancient texts and even went to the Theocracy to meet the prophetic saint, Serafina, and finally found a way—to defeat the demon lord, the ‘Hanged Man,’ who turned demons upside down.”

Cheng Cheng's eyes lit up for a moment.

"Its authority, combined with the kingdom's rituals, can reverse the authority of the source from 'forgetting' to 'memory,' which has the opposite attribute but corresponds to it in mysticism," Freya said. "In this way, future queens will no longer suffer from forgetting, and will no longer lose their personality and memories."

"Therefore, my father resolutely led the Imperial Guards into the twentieth level of the underground city."

"and then?"

"And then...no further news."

Freya's voice lowered even further: "And after Mother ascended the throne, she ordered all the troops to stop at the fifteenth level to resist the abyss's offensive, and forbade anyone to continue exploring downwards."

Cheng Cheng was silent for a few seconds: "So you left the palace to find the Inverted Demon yourself, kill it, and seize its fire?"

"Ah."

"And then become a legend, changing the regrets of past queens?"

"Ah."

"You're fighting a demon lord? Really?"

“We will win.” Freya paused, then gave a wry smile. “Originally, I recognized Felix as my teacher. With her help and by secretly contacting some forces, I had a chance to defeat the Upside-Down Demon… Then my teacher was scared away by Mr. Mambo.”

Upon hearing Cheng Cheng's account, Sylvia couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Cheng Cheng didn't laugh.

He was thinking.

Ascend the throne, become a legend, share the power, and then go to reality to resolve the Witch's Night—this is currently the most reliable solution.

The problem is, if he puts Freya on the throne, will she herself be consumed by the source matter?

According to her, donning armor and becoming a saint would cause the queen to constantly conform to the characteristics of the source, eventually losing her past memories and personality, and becoming a puppet of the source.

Then, what if I, possessing Freya's body, also...?

No, even if I am fine, and only Freya is affected by the source energy, this path is still not feasible—ability sharing depends on favorability, and a queen who has lost her past memories and personality obviously will not have any goodwill towards Cheng Cheng.

Then we need to first defeat the inverted demon and solve the problem of the source.

Cheng Cheng's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Isn't this the main quest?

I thought Freya was different from Sylvia, without a clear questline—turns out she was hiding here.

Level up, descend into the Abyss, find the Inverted Demon, kill it, seize the Fire Seed, and change the elemental attribute—

Then, Fufreya ascended the throne!

As Cheng Cheng was pondering this in his mind, he suddenly heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Luke walked in.

He bowed to Cheng Cheng, his gaze sweeping over Cheng Cheng, a hint of surprise flashing across his face.

Even though Miss Sylvia is the leader of the Silverglow City district of the Genshin Impact cult, she willingly takes a secondary seat, allowing this little girl she brought with her to sit in the main seat...

Who exactly is this person?

“My lord,” Luke said without further thought, “a new member wishes to join the cult, and he is at the peak of the Silver Rank…would you like to meet him?”

Cheng Cheng raised an eyebrow: "Silver Rank? Who's that?"

“A little elven girl,” Luke said, “carrying a very large coffin, saying she came from the Empire.”

Cheng Cheng was stunned for a moment, and a sense of familiarity suddenly rose in his heart.

"Bring her in."

Luke nodded, turned and left.

A few minutes later, the door opened again, and a figure walked in.

It was a little girl who looked no more than twelve or thirteen years old. She was petite and wore a large magic cloak that wrapped her whole body in it. The back of the cloak was bulging, and she was carrying a huge coffin on her back.

The girl walked to the center of the living room and stopped. She raised her hand and lifted the hood of her cloak.

A delicate little face appeared—short golden hair, pointed elf ears, and a pair of amber eyes that were currently sizing up the people in the living room.

Then her gaze fell on Sylvia, and she froze.

Sylvia was also stunned.

"It's you?!"

"It's you?!"

The two spoke almost simultaneously.

Cheng Cheng looked at Sylvia, then at the little girl, his mind raced for a couple of seconds, and then he suddenly remembered.

Isn't that Li Xianyu, the necromancer from the elf squad back then?!

Li Xianyu looked at Sylvia, remained silent for a few seconds, and then gave a wry smile:

"So you're a member of the Genshin Impact cult."

Sylvia didn't say anything.

She didn't have a deep impression of the elf. After all, Mr. Mambo killed Loo as soon as she arrived at the entrance of the dungeon, and the elf team also chose to keep their distance from her, eventually parting ways.

But Cheng Cheng is different.

Fighting elbow strikes, plane crashes, chickens, tigers, bears, wolves, and dogs alongside the elf team, the journey was filled with both sacrifice and laughter, perfectly matching Cheng Cheng's fantasy of adventure in another world. It would be impossible for him not to have a good impression of these elves.

But now when we meet again, we are just strangers.

I couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion, and I understood even more deeply Freya's fear of forgetting.

"Long time no see, Miss Endlight Judge."

"haven't seen you for a long time."

Cheng Cheng thought for a moment and then asked Li Xianyu, "What happened after we parted ways last time? Why do you want to join the Primordial God Cult?"

Li Xianyu looked at the little girl sitting in the main seat, somewhat puzzled, but still took a deep breath and said, "Our team encountered the gatekeeper boss on the eighth floor."

After leaving yourself, did you still encounter chickens, tigers, bears, wolves, and dogs?

Cheng Cheng was startled and waited for Li Xianyu to continue explaining:

"Yang Chen, Kong Wenbin, Tie Dan... everyone else is dead. I survived by faking my death."

Are you also learning from Zhongli's wits? That's interesting.

Cheng Cheng nodded slightly, showing increasing approval of Li Xianyu. Sylvia opened her mouth, wanting to comfort her, but didn't know what to say.