Why Not Go Tell Her?
"You're back?"
Xia Yu, wearing an apron, brought a pot of spicy boiled fish to the table, then casually condensed a Water Ball. "Dinner is ready. Come wash your hands, and we can start eating."
"Ah... oh..." Ishtar opened her mouth, looking at the large table full of sumptuous food in front of her. Subconsciously, she reached her hands into the Water Ball, rubbed them together to wash them, and then picked up the floating towel beside her to wipe them dry.
The chair in front of the dining table automatically pulled back, and Ishtar sat down subconsciously. Her eyes were completely filled by the various dishes on the table, all perfect in color, aroma, and taste.
There weren't many, just eight dishes, but each one was incredibly appetizing.
"Let's eat," Xia Yu pulled out a chair and sat beside her, naturally handing her chopsticks and serving her a bowl of rice.
"Come try the boiled fish I made." She picked up a tender, white piece of fish meat with her chopsticks and brought it directly to Ishtar's mouth. The latter subconsciously opened her mouth and ate it in one bite.
"How is it? Does it taste okay?"
"Oh, it's very good... Wait, no!" Ishtar subconsciously wanted to start eating, only then realizing what she had just done.
"You, you, you, you..." She reached out a trembling finger, pointing at Xia Yu, a storm raging in her heart.
"What's wrong with me?" Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Xia Yu looked at her with a blossoming smile.
Ishtar opened her mouth but couldn't say a word.
'What was it that she was thinking before she came back?'
'Oh, right. She had to hold her accountable for her actions that offended the majesty of a goddess. She was just a mere hostage! How could she turn the heavens upside down!'
'She had to make her realize her mistake!'
'Otherwise, how was Ishtar supposed to show her face in Mesopotamia?'
'But the moment she returned to the temple, she was hit by the impact of that table full of food, along with her appearance of a good wife and loving mother after letting her high ponytail down...'
'Then she was led by the nose, served, and even fed food...'
'And she actually ate it!'
"You! What is the meaning of this!" Ishtar, who had been incredibly domineering in front of Fujimaru Ritsuka, now looked like a bullied little wife in front of Xia Yu.
"I am the goddess Ishtar!" She emphasized once more, "Do you think you can escape from me with just a little flattery!"
"Because theoretically speaking, these ingredients are offerings to you from Uruk," Xia Yu said, stroking her chin upon hearing this. "This temple is yours too, so right now I'm eating your food and living in your place."
"Naturally, I have to serve you comfortably."
"Uh... this..." Ishtar was stunned when she heard this. "You are a captive..."
"What's wrong? Can't a captive be a little attentive to secure better treatment for herself?" Xia Yu said, looking at her face with a beaming smile. "Here, try this. I brought this myself. It's authentic Iberia ham."
"Don't move!" Seeing that she was about to pick up food for her again, Ishtar directly held her hand down, then picked up the chopsticks with her own right hand, swiftly grabbing a piece of ham and stuffing it into her mouth.
"I can do it myself!"
"Is that so? That's fine too." Xia Yu smiled and picked up an oil-braised prawn, placing it into her own bowl.
"You... what exactly are you plotting?" Ishtar said hesitantly. "I don't believe your motives are this pure!"
"Can't it be that I just want to have a few good meals?" Xia Yu suddenly leaned in close to her upon hearing this. "What else do you think I could be plotting?"
"You, you, you..." Ishtar subconsciously dodged away. "Don't get so close!"
"What's wrong? Isn't it just getting a little closer?" Xia Yu said seriously. "We're just two girls anyway, what are you afraid of?"
"I, I, I..." Ishtar flew into a flustered rage at this. "Just don't get close to me, you hear!"
'Although it was normal for two girls with a good relationship to be a little intimate... this person Kiana was definitely not normal!'
"Alright," seeing her look so unable to withstand being teased, Xia Yu smiled faintly and returned to her seat. "Whatever you say."
Hearing this, Ishtar finally breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at the enticing dishes on the table.
'Hiss... these prawns are good, this ham is good too, and this stewed meat, this fish...'
'It had to be said, putting aside Kiana's unconsciously intimate behavior, she...'
"Oh, right, do you drink?" Xia Yu pulled out her own private collection. "Do you want another glass?"
"The same wine as last time?" Hearing this, Ishtar instantly craved it.
'That wine truly tasted amazing.'
"Yeah," Xia Yu poured her a small glass of wine. "Remember to drink slowly. The Goddess's behavior when drunk isn't very good."
"What? My behavior when drunk isn't good?" Ishtar couldn't stand this. "You actually dare to look down on me like this?"
"Do you remember?" Xia Yu said faintly upon hearing this. "What did you ask me when you woke up this morning?"
"Obviously, after you got drunk last night, you made me cook that massive pile of ingredients, which then all went into your stomach, and then you didn't remember a thing when you woke up this morning..."
"And you even questioned me about where all that stuff went?"
"Uh... this..." Ishtar was temporarily at a loss for words, finally resorting to unreasonable badgering. "Impossible, you must have remembered wrong!"
"How could a perfect goddess have bad drinking manners!"
"Alright, alright, I remembered wrong." Xia Yu smiled faintly upon seeing this, then picked up a prawn and placed it in Ishtar's bowl under her wary gaze.
"Try this, it's my specialty."
"Is it?" Hearing this, Ishtar hesitated for two seconds before taking small bites of the prawn.
"Phew, this tastes really good. So, have you thought it through?" After drinking half a round, Ishtar's face was slightly flushed. "Do you want to be my divine attendant? This is an invitation from the goddess Ishtar!"
"As long as you ditch that gloomy woman and come under my command, I can give you anything you want!"
'Sure enough, she was drunk... daring to say anything.'
Xia Yu quietly rolled her eyes at her.
'Can give anything? Why don't you pull out the Bull of Heaven for me to see?'
"Impossible," Xia Yu smiled. "Although Ishtar is also very cute, my heart will forever belong to Ereshkigal."
"Wow, you!" Ishtar felt a sudden wave of unwarranted grievance. "This goddess has already stooped so low as to invite you a second time! And you actually still bring her up!"
"It can't be helped." Xia Yu helplessly spread her hands. "There's no logic to some things. Just like Ereshkigal, she has long since taken residence in my heart."
"Ereshkigal this, Ereshkigal that... what kind of magical energy does she have anyway?" Ishtar said resentfully.
"Aren't you the same? Ishtar," Xia Yu, hearing this, directly reached out and held her shoulders, leaning close to her face and looking into her eyes.
"Don't avoid it. Tell me, why did you break into the Underworld back then?"
"Was it really just as the myths say, because you were arrogant, domineering, and unscrupulous?"
Xia Yu said softly, "Or... was it because you saw that girl's longing gaze from the Underworld as she looked toward the sunlit world outside?"
"Did you feel that she shouldn't stay forever in that cold, desolate Underworld? Did you feel it was unfair to her? So you recklessly broke into the Underworld, just because you wanted to bring her out?"
"You..." Ishtar was completely dumbfounded hearing this. 'No, sister, how do you know all this? Are you a roundworm in my stomach?'
"And me, Ishtar, do you really want to have me..." Xia Yu smiled and said, "Or is it just that you wanted to snatch me from her hands, and then expectantly watch to see if that girl who has nothing would become brave because of the loss, and escape from that eternal prison of the Underworld?"
Ishtar felt terrible hearing this. She felt as if she had been stripped naked, all her thoughts exposed to the moonlight-like girl in front of her.
'What should I do? Maybe I should run. Escaping is shameful but useful!'
Coincidentally, at that moment, the last trace of sunlight vanished over the horizon, and night arrived.
Ishtar's escapist mindset instantly triggered some fundamental mechanism. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Ereshkigal was online.
As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw that the hardworking little cook from last night was now resting her hands on the back of the chair she was sitting in, pressing her whole body forward, leaving them at practically a face-to-face distance...
In that moment, looking at the other party's flawless, moonlight-like face, Ereshkigal's brain crashed.
'No, Ishtar!!!'
'What on earth are you doing!'
'How can you get so close to someone?'
Seeing those eyes shift from bewilderment to sudden shyness, Xia Yu knew that Ereshkigal had come online.
'Heh, this is fun.'
She gently pinched Ereshkigal's chin, lifting her face toward her direction. "What, don't you dare admit it?"
"You care about her. Although you are by my side, your gaze always lingers on her in the distance."
Hearing this, Ereshkigal's pupils quaked.
'What in the world is this?'
'No, didn't you righteously tell me last night that Ishtar was forcing you to be her attendant?'
'Weren't you unwilling?'
'Why have your words suddenly become so intimate now?'
'You love her, she loves her, she doesn't love her...'
'Th-th-this...'
The innocent Ereshkigal was completely bewildered.
'However... last night you even solemnly vowed that you wouldn't betray me...'
Ereshkigal suddenly felt a trace of grievance in her heart.
"Silence represents avoidance," Xia Yu's playful nature surged. "Ishtar, you never wanted to have me, you just wanted her to spare you a glance!"
'What? There's such a thing?'
Ereshkigal's eyes lit up upon hearing this. 'Sister, if you know how to talk, say a bit more. Who is Ishtar being so lovey-dovey with?'
As mortal enemies, if she could gather information on her, Ereshkigal definitely wouldn't pass up the opportunity.
"Still avoiding it? Are you speechless because I saw right through your thoughts?" Xia Yu continued her output, "Do you still want me to say her name out loud?"
Hearing this, Ereshkigal looked at Xia Yu full of anticipation.
"Ereshkigal, your sister, the person you care about most!"
Hearing this, Ereshkigal's pupils quaked.
She never expected to hear her own name.
Xia Yu smiled and said, "For her, you would commit heinous crimes to break into the Underworld. For her, you would recklessly want to bring her out!"
"For her, you imprisoned me here, fully expecting that she would leave the Underworld to take me back."
Hearing this, Ereshkigal felt entirely unwell.
"How truly selfish, Ishtar." Xia Yu let go of her chin, returned to her seat, and sneered. "You care about her so much, yet she knows absolutely nothing."
"Your pride doesn't allow you to speak the feelings in your heart. All your concern turns into provocation the moment it reaches your lips, so much so that up until now, Ereshkigal still believes you two are irreconcilable enemies."
"Heh, Ishtar, don't you regret it?"
"Wh... what?" Ereshkigal felt entirely out of sorts. 'That Ishtar actually cared about her this much?'
'When she forcibly broke into the Underworld back then, it was for her? How could that be possible?'
'Wasn't she always so arrogant and overbearing... the image she envied the most...'
"It's a pity your plan fell through," Xia Yu shook her head and said. "You thought my relationship with her was deep, but in reality, I only admire her."
"I haven't even met her before. Those feelings... perhaps they naturally sprouted from mutual sympathy."
"Just give it up, Ishtar," Xia Yu sighed. "Ereshkigal wouldn't abandon her duties for me. She will never leave the Underworld, much less fly into a rage because you snatched me away."
"The relationship between me and her is that there is no relationship. It's questionable whether she even knows I exist. Even if you lock me up here for a hundred or a thousand years, it's useless."
"I, I, I..." Ereshkigal was already dumbfounded by this barrage of information.
"How could I possibly care about her!" Finally, after stammering for half a day, she spat out this single, dry sentence.
"You see, you're always so duplicitous," Xia Yu shook her head. "You just admitted it to me a moment ago, and now you want to take your words back?"
'Admitted it?'
'No, I've never admitted it!'
Ereshkigal's pupils quaked at this. 'So Ishtar was the one who admitted it? Right before she came over!'
'No, you... I... she... how could Ishtar possibly...'
Ereshkigal felt as if her entire worldview had been turned upside down.
"Sigh, let's consider ourselves friends for now," Xia Yu patted her shoulder, looking as if she were doing it for her own good. "I'll give you a few more words of advice."
"Being a tsundere has no future. The next time you see her, just openly and generously express your true feelings."
"Go tell her that the only reason you broke into the Underworld back then was because you saw her gaze from within the Underworld, filled with longing for the sunlit earth outside."
"Tell her that you truly treat her as a sister, that you feel her whole life shouldn't be trapped and wither away in that lonely Underworld, that you feel she deserves a better future..."
"But the Underworld cannot be without its deity," Ereshkigal said subconsciously upon hearing this. "If I... if she leaves, the Underworld will collapse, losing the cycle of life and death, and Mesopotamia will also..."
"But this is just a Singularity, isn't it?" Xia Yu interrupted her. "This is a history that shouldn't have happened in the first place, a world destined to perish. Everything that happens here cannot affect Pan-Human History."
"Even if it's just for a fleeting moment? Before this world collapses, why not bring her out to take a look?"
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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