NOVEL NEXT Chapter 323: Not My Lee
"Alright, enough chit-chat. Seeing you useless lot just annoys me... If you ever dare bully Lihua again, don't expect me to go easy on you—not that I ever have, so just keep quiet."
"Ah, little Griseo, I wasn't talking about you" [Lee], who was about to leave the consciousness space, spotted Griseo among the crowd.
Her eyes lit up as she released the binding on Griseo, walking over with a smile and reaching for her head. "You come with me, little Griseo. We won't play with these meanies"
[Lee]'s smile froze.
Because little Griseo, now freed, silently took a step back, dodging her hand.
"...What's wrong, little Griseo? Didn't I always pat you like this?"
Griseo didn't answer, just silently looked at [Lee] with a blank expression. The silence stretched, the atmosphere growing awkward.
Seeing [Lee]'s mood sour, Lihua quickly stepped forward to comfort her: "Lee, Griseo is still a child. It's normal for her to be a little bewildered seeing someone who died return after so long... Kids are often like this. She'll warm up to you again once she gets used to you being back."
[Lee] didn't reply, just snorted noncommittally and vanished from the consciousness space, leaving Li and the prone MOTHs staring awkwardly at each other.
"Lihua, what do we do now?"
After [Lee] disappeared, Griseo looked up at Lihua and spoke.
Good question, I'd like to know the answer too... For now, Lihua could only play along with this person who was cosplaying as Lee.
It was awkward because, while Lihua knew the hostility definitely wasn't coming from the real Lee, in her current role, she wasn't actually close to Lee at all. So, she had to pretend to not know anything about her.
"For now, we can only listen to this Lee... Griseo, you don't like her? I thought you and Lee were close?"
"Hmm... It's different," Griseo said after a moment of thought. "Very similar, but... I don't like her."
"Well, her personality does seem to have changed quite a bit. It's understandable that it's hard to accept..."
Lihua gave a wry smile, her troubled gaze falling on the downed warriors. "But what about everyone here? She said to leave this place to me, but she didn't tell me how to undo this..."
"It's okay, just wait," Griseo shook her head. "A long time ago, when everyone was acting up, Elysia did something similar. They can usually move again after three days of standing like that."
"Three days, huh..."
"Hey! Lihua? Wake up! Time to get up~!"
Even within the Divine Key, Li still heard a certain someone yelling from outside.
Clearly, she had to go watch that [Lee] outside and didn't have time to waste here.
"Griseo, can I leave this to you? I'm a bit worried about the situation outside..."
Griseo readily agreed to Lihua's request, then watched as she disappeared from the Elysian Realm.
Today was chaotic, and everyone in the Elysian Realm was agitated... though, come to think of it, everyone here was always pretty excitable.
Although she didn't see it, it seemed Lee's ending wasn't a happy one. That's sad. But she was happy to see Lee return today. Seeing someone who looked like Lee but wasn't was strange.
The renamed Lee asked her to take care of the situation here, but what should she do?
After a moment of thought, Griseo quietly took out her drawing pad—it wasn't every day you saw everyone neatly lined up on the floor. Such a rare sight would be a waste not to draw.
Unable to stand or speak, even if they knew what Griseo was doing, they couldn't stop her.
Fortunately, no one cared about such trivial matters now. Too much had happened today. While the situation was embarrassing, it forced them to calm down and think.
They did need some time to think... at least to figure out how to act the next time they faced that person.
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The so-called Elysian Realm was essentially the necklace around Elysia's neck, which [Lee] had now yanked off and placed around Lihua's neck.
To Lihua's surprise, [Lee]'s power hadn't diminished with the disappearance of the 8th Divine Key. This suggested she likely possessed her own Herrscher core...
She wasn't reliant on the Divine Key; she was born within the Elysian Realm, inheriting the core's memories—and even influenced by the videos.
But [Lee]'s power was undeniable, especially since she had also ripped out Elysia's core... After all, the 3rd Herrscher had wreaked havoc using the dual cores of the Herrscher of Sentience and the Herrscher of Origin.
With the Unit 3 memories, [Lee] was probably about 70-80% as powerful.
Poor Elysia, a powerful Herrscher herself, seemed never to have participated in any high-level battles. Her core, on the other hand, had seen plenty of action—just never under her control.
Logically, the Herrscher of Sentience shouldn't be a match for Elysia, but it was like a defenseless sysadmin (I change it) encountering a hacker—game over before it even began.
Being a sysadmin really sucks, Lihua thought as she walked with [Lee] through the dimly lit stone tunnel.
Although the Elysian Realm was a consciousness space, a meaningless physical location had been built underground for the sake of appearances, and Elysia was currently dumped in its deepest part.
As [Lee] put it, Herrschers don't starve, so lying around wouldn't hurt her.
"Hmph... So annoying."
[Lee], silent until now, finally spoke, startling Lihua. "Lee, Griseo is just—"
"Oh, I'm not mad at her. Do I seem like a mean, petty person?" [Lee] waved her hand dismissively. "I'm mad at myself... Ugh, why am I getting worked up over a kid?"
"A hero who saves the world should be magnanimous. It's not good to be hard on children... Even if I'm trying to be a new person, I shouldn't bully the weak. Maybe it's those past things still affecting me, making me irritable and impolite!"
"Then, why don't we rest for a bit?" Lihua smiled. "There should be people waiting to greet us outside. Since you're new to this world, it's always good to rest and get your bearings."