Erza and Qi Long finally had their first date in the city. They strolled around the streets and tried some snacks along their way. When they passed by a jewellery store, Qi Long decided to buy for her a beautiful bracelet made from jade. At first, Erza politely refused his gift, however since Qi Long kept insisting for her to accept his gift, Erza could only nod her head in the end.
They forgot about time until Erza received a call from Elsa.
"Hello, where are you?" Elsa's voice was heard from the other side.
"Ah, sorry, is everyone already there? Please wait for a while. We will be there shortly."
"Actually, I'm calling to tell you that it is okay for you two to continue your little date. After all, it is very rare for you two to spend your time like this outside the academy, so you better cherish it well. Besides, Mozart and Qi Di already went back first because they were too bored waiting for us here."
"Oh… so how about you, Lisa, and Linda?"
"We are still full due to all the street foods we ate earlier. So we are planning to just buy some fruits for our dinner, then go back to the academy."
"I see... Okay then, I'll see you girls tomorrow."
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"So it's only the two of us now? How about now we go grab a quick dinner, and after that I will bring you to a place where we will take a short break before going back to the academy?"
"Okay." In the end, Erza and Qi Long decided to eat some street foods as their dinner before going to the top of a small hill near the city. It was an open field with some small trees in its surrounding.
Walking toward the middle of the field, Qi Long then chose a spot and lied down on the grass.
"Come here." Qi Long asked Erza to lie down beside him.
At first, Erza was confused why Qi Long brought her here. However, once she lied down, she was surprised and mesmerised by what she was seeing. It was one of the most beautiful things she ever saw in her life.
She saw countless beautiful stars across the night sky, some were shinning brightly, some were a bit dimmed. They filled the entire dark sky with splendours.
"How is it?"
"Amazing. I honestly don't have any words for it."
"Your vocabulary is not big enough." Qi Long teased her, and slowly pointed his finger to the sky.
"Deneb, Altair, Vega. Those stars make the famous Summer Triangle, though as we are located at the Northern Continent, it is always winter for us."
"Next straight to the side is Ophiucus… so Serpens is over there."
"That bright star there is Spica, meaning Virgo is over there."
"Cancer is over there… It's a little hard to see."
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"That's all." Qi Long concluded his explanation.
"Hmm?" Erza was a bit confused.
"That's all I have."
"Being able to help you study and practice."
"A deep clan background."
"And this starry sky. That's all I have... That's all I can give you, Erza."
"That's everything."
"Everything…" Erza murmured under her breath. At the next second, Qi Long moved his hand and grabbed onto Erza's hand. He turned his head to look at the girl beside him.
"You are the best thing that come to my life and I'm afraid of losing you the more I spend my time with you."
"So right now, the last thing I can offer you… is this starry sky."
"When I was little, my mom and dad took me here… It's my treasure."
Qi Long paused a bit before suddenly asked, "Hey Erza, do you love me?"
"I love you." Erza decided to follow the flow.
"I love you too, Erza."
"Thanks." Erza weakly replied.
"So what do you love about me?"
"Everything. There's nothing about you that I don't like."
"I see.. Thank you."
"What do you love about me?" It was Erza's turn to ask.
"You're beautiful. You are cute. Even though you rarely show it, I know that you are a kind girl. In addition, unlike any other girl, you have a purpose and ambitious goal which is to my liking."
"To be honest, I don't care whether you are with me because of my background, or because of your promise to the Old Ancestor. As you probably already knew, at first, I wanted to be with you because of the Eternal Pagoda Art. However, it changed. The more I spend my time with you, the deeper I fall for you."
"I don't know whether you truly love me or not. But if there is one thing in this world that I know is true, it's the love that I feel when I'm thinking of you."
"Regardless of what happen in the future, you will always have my back. I may not be the strongest man you could find in this world. But I'll be the one who love you the most."
Erza looked at the boy with a loving expression, but deep inside she was feeling complicated. It would be a lie if Erza said that she was not touched by Qi Long's words. At first she was indeed playing with him, however, over time Erza realized that Qi Long was really a good boy, unlike the Qi Long in the samsara world.
"Thank you." Erza sincerely said.
As both youths were looking at each other in the eyes, Qi Long slowly got closer to Erza until their noses touched.
Qi Long saw Erza closed her eyes, then went for a kiss under the beautiful starry sky.
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It was finally Friday. Erza arrived in front of the Palace's gate with the principal.
The guards seemed to be already notified earlier about their arrival. Erza and the principal was later brought to a beautiful garden inside the Palace where Erza saw a beautiful lady seemingly in her early thirties sitting at the pavilion, enjoying her morning tea time.
Even though this was her first time meeting with the lady, Erza knew that she was the Empress. There was an absolutely majestic and graceful aura around her which caused one to have the urge to prostate before her. Despite being over 50 years old, the Empress still looked like in her early thirties.
"Greetings, Your Majesty!" Erza and the principal said in unison as they bowed.
"Hmm.. Please raise. Principal, thank you for bringing the girl here. But, would you mind to leave us two alone? I would like to have some private talks with her."
"It's absolutely fine, Your Majesty. Please excuse me." The principal replied politely and took his leave.
"Come here. Sit." The Empress beckoned Erza to get closer.
Erza was surprised that she was actually not feeling nervous at all around the Empress, instead she felt familiar about her. Erza guessed that it might due to the fact that it was the Empress who brought her from wherever she was before to Black Snow Empire.
Therefore, today was actually not the first time Erza met the Empress. It was only that she was too young at that time to remember the Empress.
After Erza took her seat, the Empress did not speak further and simply enjoyed her morning tea.
"Don't you have questions for me?" The Empress finally spoke up after a short silence.
"Yes, but I'm not sure if Your Majesty is willing to tell me the truth." Erza calmly stated as she looked at the Empress in the eyes. Surprisingly, she found that the Empress's eyes were quite similar to her owns.
"Go ahead." The Empress was impressed by the girl's calmness. Normal people would be trembling when sitting beside her. They would not have the guts to say such words to her.
"Is my mother really the Sword Saintess Lin Qingzhu?"
"No."