Lappland turned over and stared at the ceiling.
Su An had once said that he was a god born from her wish.
But now that she thought back on the expression he'd worn when he said it, the more she looked at it in memory, the more it felt like something he'd just made up on the spot.
He wasn't...
He hadn't appeared because of her.
He had already been there all along, drifting here and there, wandering for who knew how many years. It was just that, on that particular day, he had happened to drift in front of her.
He was real.
But just because he was real didn't mean he would always stay.
The moment that thought surfaced, Lappland felt a tightness in her chest.
She didn't know what Su An did when he went out at night, and she didn't know where he disappeared to during the day. She had asked before, but every time he gave her some vague answer—said he was just wandering around because he was bored, that he'd seen something interesting.
He didn't want to say.
Why didn't he want to say?
Was it because she was too boring?
Lappland began to think back on how she usually interacted with Su An. Other than telling him to shut up, telling him to turn around, and telling him to stop causing trouble, it seemed like... she rarely ever said much to him on her own initiative.
No, that wasn't entirely true. She asked him questions. She listened to his stories. She scolded him a few times whenever he started acting obnoxious.
But aside from that?
Every day, he stayed beside her. He watched her train, followed her while she ate, stayed by her as she slept. Year after year, he just drifted there at her side.
And what had she done in return?
Apparently... nothing at all.
Suddenly, Lappland realized something.
Su An might not need her at all.
He could drift anywhere. He could go find anyone. So why had he stayed with her all this time?
Because she was interesting?
What was interesting about her?
Every day was just training, eating, sleeping, and handling family affairs. Boring to death.
Because she was pretty?
He was a ghost. He couldn't even touch anything. What use was beauty to him?
Because she was his client?
But he'd said before that when he helped people, he charged for it. Yet she had made so many wishes, and he had never once mentioned payment.
Then why?
Lappland couldn't figure it out.
All she knew was that recently Su An had been gone for longer and longer.
Had he gotten bored of her?
Had he found someone more interesting?
Was he... thinking of leaving?
The thought was like a thorn buried in her heart, impossible to pull out.
Lappland suddenly felt that Su An ought to have a body.
If he had a body, then maybe he wouldn't drift all over the place anymore. And the way they interacted wouldn't be limited to just talking...
A wish.
A wish for him to have a body.
Could he do it?
No.
He could do it.
He had to be able to.
Su An drifted out through Lappland's room, his transparent form almost invisible in the moonlight.
The night wind passed through his body, leaving him feeling chilly. He shivered, though he didn't actually have a body. That didn't stop him from being dramatic about it.
"What's gotten into that girl today...?"
"She didn't want to hear a story? In six years, this is the first time she hasn't wanted a story. My heavily rewritten Journey to the West is so good too..."
Forget it. No point thinking about it. A woman's heart was already unfathomable; a wolf-girl's heart was probably even deeper.
He sped up and drifted toward the city center.
Brunello City was much livelier at night than the Saluzzo estate. Taverns were still lit, and from inside came the sounds of drinking games and clinking glasses.
With practiced familiarity, Su An floated straight through the door of one tavern.
He drifted over and stopped behind a certain penguin. Passing through from the back until his face was level with the ceiling, he suddenly—
"Wah!!!"
The penguin didn't move. It just kept drinking.
Su An froze for a second, then leaned in even closer.
"WAH!!!!"
Still nothing.
Su An floated around to the front and got face-to-face with him.
"Emperor? Gone deaf?"
The Emperor slowly set down his glass and lifted his eyelids to glance at him.
"After all these years, you still haven't come up with anything new."
Su An: "..."
"It's no fun at all when you don't react."
The Emperor was silent for two seconds. Over the years, Su An had done this practically every time they met. He was long past caring enough to react.
"You're the most boring thing I've ever seen."
Su An accepted the insult with a cheerful smile.
The tavern had gone quiet for a moment at the Emperor's outburst, but once the patrons confirmed it was just another drunk talking to himself, the noise quickly resumed.
"How come you're out so early today?" the Emperor asked. "The little wolf brat fell asleep fast?"
Su An immediately started complaining to him.
"...She didn't let me tell her a story today."
The Emperor's brow rose—though with a penguin, the effect was subtle. Still, Su An could tell.
He'd already noticed that Su An treated this new client differently. After all, Su An had never before stayed attached to a single client for so long.
Usually he'd fleece them for what he could, annoy them until they made a wish not to see him anymore, and then leave. So now the Emperor was interested.
"Go on."
"Go on about what?"
"Tell me about your little wolf brat. I'll analyze it for you."
The Emperor poured himself another drink.
"Fine." Su An figured he had nothing better to do anyway, so he might as well talk.
The Emperor listened in silence and finished a glass of liquor.
"Do you know why she didn't want to hear a story?"
"No."
"Did you ask?"
"No."
The Emperor: "...If you didn't ask, then what exactly are you sulking about here?"
"She wanted to sleep, so I didn't want to bother her. Besides, maybe tomorrow she'll want to hear one again."
"Fine... then I'll tell you."
Su An floated a little closer. "You know?"
The Emperor didn't answer right away. He took a sip of his drink first, then said at an infuriatingly leisurely pace,
"That little wolf brat is sixteen this year, right?"
"Yeah."
"The thoughts going through the head of a sixteen-year-old girl—do you, a ghost who's been drifting around for who knows how long, really think you understand them?"
Su An blinked. "You mean... she's in heat?"
The Emperor nearly sprayed out his drink.
"You motherf—cough, cough, cough—" He coughed for quite a while before glaring up at Su An. "Can you stop dragging everything in that direction?"
"Then what is it?"
Instead of answering, the Emperor asked a question of his own.
"How long have you stayed with her?"
"Six years."
"Never apart?"
"More or less."
The Emperor nodded. So there were times he left—but clearly not for long.
"You bastard... have you seriously never once told her where you were going?"
"Uh... I have. I told her I was just wandering around."
"Wandering around?" The Emperor repeated the words. "Where did you go? What were you doing? Who were you with? When were you coming back? Did you tell her any of that?"
"Uh... did I really need to be that specific? Besides, she never asked further."
Su An had his own selfish reasons. If he told Lappland that he sometimes slipped away to accompany other clients, she'd probably be unhappy to some degree. And if that happened, his gains from her wish-power might very well drop.
The Emperor lifted his glass and drained it in one go.
"That little wolf brat has had only you beside her from the age of ten until now. Six years. Every day you followed her, stayed with her, told her stories every night."
"She's long since gotten used to having you around. Used to turning her head and seeing you there. Used to calling for you whenever something came up. Used to the last thing she saw before falling asleep being you."
"And now you disappear all the time. You don't say how long you'll be gone, you don't say where you're going, and you don't say when you'll be back."
The Emperor set down the empty glass and looked straight at Su An.
"What do you think she's going to think?"
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