Chapter 2205: The True Identity

Chapter 2205: Chapter 2205: The True Identity

"My favorite part?"

Of course, the question needs answering, but Shard has already made up his mind to omit this part when recounting stories back home to Miss Galina after this adventure concludes.

"My favorite... is the ship’s helm."

He purses his lips, hoping his words sound normal:

"The helm is quite small, yet so powerful. No matter how it needs to turn, a gentle twist can easily change the ship’s direction. Although people often only observe the part above the water, in my view, the helm, which is usually unseen, is actually the best... that’s it."

The blue-eyed girl laughed again, her snow-white feet gently swaying, making her resemble a mermaid on the bed:

"I didn’t expect you to say that, but I admire your honesty. How about I change my pose so you can observe more closely my... yes, the helm."

"Oh, no need, no need, this is fine, I’m almost done!"

Shard hurriedly said, provoking another burst of laughter from the girl. However, she indeed did not tease Shard any further, just resting her head on her hand, lying sideways and watching him, constantly watching without averting her gaze.

He really completed the oil painting quickly, and as the final stroke concluded, Shard looked satisfied at the "beautiful scenery" depicted on the canvas by his own hand. And the girl on the bed noticed the painting was finally finished, so she eagerly and bare-skinned got off the bed:

"It’s done, isn’t it? Let me see. Oh, it’s your turn to be the model."

"What?"

Shard was startled, but unexpectedly another voice behind him suddenly spoke:

"Alright."

Shard immediately turned to look, then quickly turned his head back. Somehow, Miss Malone with red hair, whom he met at the ball not long ago, was already standing behind him. However, compared to the blue-haired Miss Malone who modeled just now, the one behind Shard had a more handsome face.

She was dressed at the moment, but not much. And as she moved towards the soft bedding, her clothes ended up on the floor.

The first Miss Malone laughed as she came to Shard’s back and then disappeared, while the second Miss Malone climbed onto the bed and leaned against the headboard in a lazy pose:

"Start drawing."

She said.

"Again?"

Shard said, yet his right hand was uncontrollably reaching for the paintbrush.

The girl leaned lazily but artistically against the bedhead. Though her appearance and bodily details were roughly the same as the first Miss Malone, when she looked at Shard behind the easel, Shard felt like a beast was staring at him.

His right hand continued to automatically showcase an exceptionally high level of painting skill, as Mia poked her small head out between the buttons of his shirt, curiously observing the painting taking shape.

Ultimately, it was the girl on the bed who spoke first, and Shard pretty much confirmed that the first encounter on the deck was with the first Miss Malone, and the second at the ball was with this girl.

"You carry the scent of our kind."

Though she shared essentially the same appearance as the previous blue-haired girl, her tone was entirely different:

"So, you actually know what I am."

"No, I don’t know, for I haven’t encountered such a thing either."

Shard answered honestly, so Miss Malone once again asked that question:

"But you obviously met my kindred, and a very powerful one at that. So, please evaluate me, am I beautiful?"

Without needing to look up, Shard answered directly:

"Of course, beautiful."

"Then by which race’s perspective is this evaluation made?"

Shard continued to view the canvas before him as the oil painting took shape:

"Both perspectives."

And the girl leaning against the headboard laughed:

"Is it through such wordplay that you’ve won the favor of my powerful kindred? Then please look at me closely and tell me again, am I truly beautiful?"

Shard originally didn’t want to look up, but the strange sound of wings flapping forced him to. He tried to control his gaze, focusing only on the wings extending from the girl’s back:

"The color of the scales is between a brilliant sky blue and a deep indigo... It’s a Blue Dragon~"

With a sigh in his heart, he hurriedly lowered his head to keep looking at the canvas:

"Yes, very beautiful. Although the wings are petite, their shape is quite nice. Especially when you breathe, the slight movement of those wings is indeed enchanting. From the perspective of a human girl, they don’t have such ’talent’, and from the perspective of dragons, the color of your scales is very alluring."

The girl on the bed continued to smile, and it was clear she was in a very good mood:

"You really know how to talk. Alright, alright, hurry up and paint. If you don’t draw me as beautifully as you said, I will be upset."

Shard’s right hand accelerated his painting because the time in this Illusionary Realm didn’t seem as long as imagined compared to the outside world, so he wasn’t too anxious. Once the second painting was completed, Shard did not get up. The two Miss Malones stood behind him, peering over his shoulders on either side to look at the canvases and happily discussing which painting was better.

Thus, amidst the voices of the two Miss Malones, the surrounding light once again gathered into that campfire. Raindrops wet the clothes that had just dried, and the crashing waves replaced the leisure in the first-class cabin of the cruise ship.

"What exactly am I?"

The blue-haired and red-haired girls were gone, leaving only the bewildered black-haired girl.

The witches saw Shard return from the Illusionary Realm and gathered around:

"Shard, is the oil painting in your hand the image Miss Malone left on the ship?"

Miss Teresa asked curiously, and Shard nodded lightly. Then, amid their surprised glances, he unfolded the rolled-up canvases and discovered that they were actually two canvases rolled together:

"Two paintings?"

"I think now it’s time to reveal the answer."

He didn’t immediately show the witches the patterns on the canvases but asked the girl in front of him in the rain:

"Miss Malone, do you understand now? Everything you and she experienced on the ship, was it truly as you described?"

"We... are phantom, incomplete souls, we are... non-existent."

The somewhat dazed lady said, looking up at Shard:

"We actually, no one can see us, we are..."

"You two gathered together, manifesting more uniquely on the ship. The so-called rendezvous across various parts of the ship was just your souls roaming together, so you saw the captain and others’ actions, but they didn’t notice you. It was because you inherently possessed the ability to know everything about this ship."

Shard grabbed one of the canvases:

"Your unexpected encounter revealed a way to sustain yourselves. Thus, from an accidentally born shattered soul—a miracle within Animism, though rare in this current era—a hazy consciousness and soul were born within the Radiant Messenger, an unreplicable miracle; and an already dead phantom—the dragon egg was indeed dead, but whether due to cultist conspiracy or another accident, the not-yet-born life still retained its fragmented soul despite having no breath. You decided to truly become alive; do you understand now? Are these canvases merely about painting?"

Miss Malone bit her lip, her hair clinging to her side face in the rain, her complexion ghostly pale as if turning into a ghost. So Professor Ivins spoke the words Shard wanted to say:

"Those two Miss Malones that never truly existed were using the act of ’painting image’ to anchor their image, revealing their entirety to another existence, preparing for a fusion into one."

Everyone’s eyes turned to the two unread canvases in Shard’s hand, and he took a deep breath:

"Miss Malone, do you recall describing the last thing you did before you fell asleep? You were in your cabin with that woman... Well, playing together? I think it’s just your memory twisting a significant event that happened to you into something a normal human can understand, although clearly normal humans cannot fuse souls, so memory chose a similar event for you. Miss Teresa, can you tell her what really happened before she fell unconscious."

The blonde witch Miss Teresa, unexpectedly called by name, instinctively replied as if in class when the teacher calls you:

"You two underwent a fusion, turning two non-existent entities into existing ones, transforming two unnamed shadows into the person we see in front of us. That’s why when you awoke, another lady was gone; she didn’t disappear, she was a part of you."

Miss Teresa even expanded on the answer:

"The reason it’s temporarily based on the Radiant Messenger’s memories, I suppose it might be because the fusion occurred on the ship."

The two canvases in Shard’s hands unfolded in the rain, showing not two girls lying on the bed with nothing on. On the left canvas was a massive cruise sailing in the golden sunset’s afterglow, and on the right was a juvenile Blue Dragon flying over the sea at dusk.

The three witches weren’t too surprised by this, as Shard had just "personally" painted these two pieces comparing the two girls, so he wasn’t surprised either. Only "Miss Malone" looked on in shock at the content of the paintings, her hazy memories gradually became clear: two shattered souls unseeable by anyone roamed the ship, meeting, recognizing, and accompanying each other, until finally deciding to become one, truly realizing the goal of "surviving."

Her entire body was trembling, suddenly realizing her existence hadn’t allowed her to take a long breath but rather plunged her into deeper layers of the "what exactly am I" confusion. Subconsciously, she embraced Shard before her, her trembling body seemed to want to draw courage from him.