Attack on Titan.
The evening breeze lingered softly, gently cradling the orange-red bonfire. The flames stretched and contracted in the night.
"The General's eyes… they look so exhausted."
Mikasa clutched the scarf around her neck tightly, her face full of worry. It was hard to imagine how General Jing Yuan had endured these hundreds of years—memories of the shattered High-Cloud Quintet, reality filled with mountains of documents and paperwork, dealing with the Six Charioteers of the Luofu, and still having to play political games with the Ten-Lords Commission and even the higher echelons of the Alliance…
No one could truly put themselves in Jing Yuan's place. If anyone really did, they would probably be driven mad by the torment…
"Speaking of which… don't you think the High-Cloud Quintet back then was kind of like us now?" Eren suddenly spoke up from the side.
"Hey hey, Eren… that's way too ominous!" Armin shot him a dissatisfied glare. "And how are they alike? The High-Cloud Quintet ultimately fell apart, but we won't! No matter what happens in the future, the three of us will always be together, right?"
Saying that, the blond boy turned to her: "Mikasa, you agree, don't you?"
"Mm…"
The evening breeze lingered softly, gently cradling the orange-red bonfire. The flames stretched and contracted in the night, just like the words the girl wanted to say but held back.
Mikasa's gaze quietly climbed to Eren's profile.
In the flickering firelight, Eren's outline was edged with flowing gold. Warm colors tinged his brow, yet deeper shadows than the night itself pooled in his eyes… He seemed to be carrying a burden, as though something heavy weighed down on his shoulders.
A gust of wind came. The flames suddenly dipped low. In the brief moment when the light dimmed, Mikasa hurriedly tore her eyes away from his face.
"Mm, we'll always be together… Eren."
——
[At the same time, inside the Seat of Divine Foresight.]
[Jingliu planned to set out and revisit a few old places, pour a cup of wine, and pay respects to old memories.]
[She demanded that Dan Heng accompany her—no refusals allowed. Accepting her letter meant accepting her invitation. Her attitude was extremely firm. Dan Heng did not want to cause any more complications, so he agreed.]
[The first stop of this revisit to old haunts was chosen by Yanqing—Stargazer Navalia.]
[Arriving at the port, Yanqing looked at the countless starskiffs filling the sky and began to grow curious about her intentions. However, Jingliu preemptively posed a question to him: "Little brother, have you ever heard the name of the Foxian pilot [Baiheng]?"]
[The name Baiheng sounded quite familiar to Yanqing, yet he couldn't quite place it for the moment. Meanwhile, Dan Heng beside him felt a sudden daze—although the name was as unfamiliar as a fleeting gentle breeze, for some reason, a voice seemed to drift in on that wind.]
["Just let the noble Imbibitor Lunae command the clouds and rain, and drown the enemy formation. Us supporting cast can just watch from the sky, right?"]
["…!!"]
[Dan Heng's eyes snapped open wide. That fleeting voice pierced his heart like a needle.]
[Jingliu noticed Dan Heng's abnormality and curiously asked what he had remembered. Dan Heng took several deep breaths before slowly saying: "She… seems to have been a comrade of Imbibitor Lunae."]
["A comrade, and a friend. Imbibitor Lunae's, and ours." Jingliu raised her head, gazing at the starskiffs repeatedly coming and going in the sky. Her voice was light as a withered leaf in late autumn.]
["Never mind… all of it is past smoke and clouds. The reason I came to Stargazer Navalia is simply to pay respects to her here."]
——
Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.
"It's the Foxian's Soul-Soothing Ceremony…"
Stark lay slumped over the chair. The atmosphere of regret and sorrow in the light screen practically overflowed, weighing heavily on the hearts of those watching.
"Lady Frieren, I feel like… although the High-Cloud Quintet had good relationships with each other, Jingliu and Baiheng seem to have been especially close," Fern said from the side.
"Is that so?" Frieren gently shook her head. "I believe it's simply reminiscence for a comrade and the past. However, if that Imbibitor Lunae Rebellion had never happened, Jingliu's tone would not be so heavy now."
"…In Jingliu's eyes, Imbibitor Lunae was the source of the problem."
Sein looked toward Dan Heng's back in the light screen and sighed deeply: "But we all know now—Dan Feng had no choice. The regret of a comrade's death, the crisis of dwindling numbers among his kin, the heavy burden of being Imbibitor Lunae… rather than doing nothing and wallowing in sorrow, he preferred to take the next dangerous gamble."
"He bet everything on the dragon-transformation art… unfortunately, he lost completely."
——
[Jingliu did not understand starskiff construction, so Yanqing handled it on her behalf. Only then did he suddenly recall that he had once read the name [Baiheng] in a travelogue titled "A Survey of Starskiffs Across the Boundary Seas".]
[The book was almost certainly filled with the author's accounts of starskiff crashes and frequent near-death experiences in various worlds. Yet the astonishing luck that allowed him to turn danger into safety and survive every time left Yanqing in awe.]
["Yes, her luck was always shockingly bad. Whenever she piloted a starskiff into battle, either she would be accidentally swallowed whole by an Abundance beast as a snack, or she would crash behind enemy lines."]
[Speaking of Baiheng's past, a rare warmth crept into Jingliu's voice: "But when it came to surviving… her luck was shockingly good. No matter how perilous the situation, she could always turn misfortune into fortune."]
[As they spoke, the starskiff assembly line began to move. The group arrived at the spaceport, where a newly constructed starskiff had just been placed.]
["It's been so long since I left the Luofu. Finally, I can come to bid you farewell."]
[Jingliu took a deep breath. The moment her fingertip touched the cold shell of the starskiff, she turned back toward Dan Heng and continued: "Imbibitor Lunae… do you still remember the battle where we severed [Impermanence]?"]
["I don't remember anything." Dan Heng shook his head.]
["Then let me tell you. In that battle, that fool Baiheng ultimately exhausted all the luck bestowed upon her by the Reignbow Arbiter."]
["She charged alone into the formation, allowing the Alliance soldiers to break through Impermanence's blood-painted prison realm and even called you back from draconic madness. Yet she herself could not leave that battlefield. We all owe a debt that can never be repaid."]
["For Cloud Knights, falling in battle and being buried on the field is an honor. But Imbibitor Lunae… you do not understand these things."]
[Jingliu's fingers unconsciously clenched tightly. Recalling the scene of slaughtering the mara-struck dragon long ago, she felt an icy chill seep into her limbs and bones. Her shoulders could not help but tremble.]
["You could not accept Baiheng's departure, and so… at the moment when she should have rested in peace, you committed an irreparable mistake."]