Transition (2)

Song Jia continued watching the video. When she saw that Xiang Feng did self-mutilation, she covered her mouth to suppress her gasp.

Nova explained, "I saw in your memories that you made him promise three things. For him to live well, to find another girl to love, and for him to have a long life. The world was saved because of these promises, but as for him...well, you can see for yourself."

Before Song Jia arrived, Nova deliberated on whether to show her the video. She may have not loved the male god as a romantic partner, but she greatly cared for him. In the end, Nova decided not to coddle her. It would be good if she stopped underestimating her worth in the male god's heart.

Especially...since these worlds were merely preparing* her for what was about to come.

"He married a girl, he 'loved' her, he became the highest authority in the land and lived well. He also died at a proper age. Isn't this because he was fulfilling your promises? And although his disposal of his queen was rather immoral, he had secretly prepared a suitable candidate to take up the throne. He tried to fulfill his promises to you as much as he could."

Song Jia angrily stood up. "But because of those promises, he suffered for a lifetime!"

Don't think that she didn't understand. Xiang Feng harmed himself because he wanted to follow her; he pushed himself into battle to seek death. For him to bend over to pick a rose at that timing; for him not to see a sword coming straight at him, heh, what a great, big 'accident.' He must have decided that he had lived long enough, that's why it was alright for him to die!

In the end, he was just committing suicide.

And because he couldn't love his queen, he decided that it was good enough to love her body once, and be done with it. Song Jia realized that her promises pushed him back into his past, forcing him to touch other people that he didn't want to touch.

He was angry about this, but he did it for her. He even loathed his queen because it made him feel dirty to see her.

Song Jia sat down, her face pale.

"...what have I done?"

This kind of love, she did not understand it. Why did they have to be so desperate? Why couldn't they just move on and live well?

Nova became silent. He thought, this was probably one of those times he should have lied to protect a human's delicate emotions.

Out loud, he said, "886, this seems to be a recurring problem for you. If only I could invent some kind of gauge to measure the intensity of the male god's feelings...aha!"

He snapped his fingers. He pointed his finger at her. "You, get out."

Song Jia who was still in the midst of her grief, "..."

This A.I. really doesn't know how to care for a human's delicate emotions.

"Go get your salary and I'll give you a week long leave to calm down your emotions. After that, return to HQ for your next mission. We're severely lacking in transmigrators, so I can't give you enough time to mope around. Take whatever lessons you can get from your guilt, and apply it to the next world. See you."

He gave her a lazy salute.

Song Jia's spirit lifted when she heard the word 'salary.' Maybe her boss really did know how to care for her!

Song Jia silently stood up and noticed that Nova's bangs had truly overgrown, covering the upper half of his face.

Song Jia stared at him.

"You're not going to cut your hair?"

Nova looked at her, "What, you're uncomfortable that you can't see my eyes, the windows to my soul?"

"..."

"I don't have a soul anyway, so it doesn't matter."

Song Jia pursed her lips and was about to get out of the door, when Nova called her back again.

"886. What happened to the male savior wasn't your fault."

"Well, I..."

"Alright, get out."

"..."

Song Jia really wanted to hit him.

...

That afternoon, Song Jia booked an interplanetary spaceflight to take her to a third-rate planet called Planet Anjing. It was a planet that was very small, comparable to a large satellite. Another reason why it was labelled as a third-rate planet was because it was nearly uninhabitable.

Planet Anjing was tidally locked to its host star, which meant that it kept the same face towards the star. The immediate disadvantage of of a tidally-locked planet was obvious. One side of the planet cooks while the other freezes, a yin and a yang side.

People could only live on a circular belt between the two sides, a so-called 'twilight zone.' The lit side of the planet will be stripped of its oceans and would face scorching hot winds while the dark side would be covered with frozen seas and experience biting cold winds. The only place where water could be found in a liquid state would be in the twilight zone, where it was always dusk, the sky a permanent reddish yellow.

Song Jia lived in the so-called 'twilight zone.' She had moved here two years ago, shortly after she got her license as a professional transmigrator. Using her savings and the small credit she earned doing part-time jobs, she finally managed to buy a small house in the cheapest planet she could find, Planet Anjing.

When her spacecraft finally landed, Song Jia was the only passenger left. Most of them had disembarked on other popular planets on the way to Planet Anjing.

Song Jia wore a floppy straw hat and an airy, light dress. Walking happily in her strappy sandals, she swung her shopping bags on one hand as she waited for a space bus to arrive.

The space bus was old and clunky. When it stopped in front of her, Song Jia had to grab the sides of the door and push sideways for the sliding doors to open.

*Edited, I think I used the wrong word.