Chapter 105: The Promise with Sister Bai
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 105: The Promise with Sister Bai
"Um... I'm sorry, Sister Bai. I was too willful..."
As soon as Sister Bai led me out through the spatial nodes she remembered, I immediately began to apologize.
"As long as you know. Anyway, don't ever come back here, okay? Promise me, Xiao Han." Bai Yu’s expression was solemn, and her voice carried a hint of authority.
"Mm-hmm!" I nodded quickly.
"Also, promise me... quit the Baking House, okay?" Bai Yu took advantage of the current atmosphere to press further.
"Uh... huh? Eh? Why?"
I suddenly snapped out of it. Why did Sister Bai suddenly shift the topic to that?
The previous subject had nothing to do with this at all. I looked at Sister Bai, who was still wearing a serious expression, my eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.
"What? Is that too difficult for you?"
"It’s... I... the Shopkeeper is very good to me, and the two Senior Sisters are great, too. If I suddenly told them I was quitting the club now, I..." I stammered in response, then looked back at Bai Yu. "Sister Bai, I believe you wouldn't make me do something for no reason, especially something against my will. So, can you tell me... why?"
"You can't do it? Then I'll change the condition. But you must promise me this time."
Bai Yu wasn't particularly surprised by my reaction. She also felt it was unlikely I would obey her so blindly for a reason she couldn't even disclose. She had intentionally proposed such an unacceptable condition just to set up the request she was about to make.
"Okay!"
I nodded. Since Sister Bai wasn't forcing me to choose on that matter, the alternative condition must be something she felt I could accept, right?
However, Sister Bai was wrong about one thing: if she had insisted, I actually would have agreed to quit the Baking House.
But I didn't explain that. I simply agreed, even though she hadn't said what the condition was yet.
"Promise me, don't have any contact or association with Tan Han, okay?"
"Eh?"
I looked at Sister Bai in shock. I hadn't expected her words to stun me again. For her to say this, she must already have a good grasp of my situation—my life at the Baking House, my relationship with Tan Han, and so on.
"Do you want to ask why? I'm sorry, but I still can't answer that." Bai Yu preemptively cut off the question I was about to ask, yet her statement was an answer in itself.
She simply couldn't give me the answer.
"Is that so?"
I bit my lower lip, my mind trying to find a balance. This was the typical mental process of figuring out how to comfortably give up something I once possessed.
Like my life in my previous world, like my family in this life, or like that old cell phone I’d kept by my bedside for so long, always saying I’d replace it but never throwing it away.
And now, my wealthy, beautiful, "Academic God" friend.
Letting go of a friendship is hard, but this one had only just begun. On the other side of the scale was Sister Bai. I was willing to do this for her. If I didn't cut ties cleanly now, dragging it out might lead to me losing everything later.
So, I chose Sister Bai. She was currently my everything. I was willing to sacrifice anything to ensure the longevity of our friendship.
"Okay, I promise you, Sister Bai."
"You... wait, what?" Bai Yu hadn't expected me to agree so readily. She had been mentally preparing a whole speech to counsel me.
After all, the world from this point on was no longer the kind of place that would keep spinning regardless of who was missing.
In the worst-case scenario, if the "protagonist" of the Script was missing, it wasn't impossible for the world to stop turning entirely.
She had paid such a high price to pluck Xiao Han out of her role as early-game cannon fodder precisely so that Xiao Han wouldn't be pulled along by the plot.
Xiao Han was an "Innate Spirit Vision" user and a "Lucid One." Such a "bug" of an existence would usually be casually erased as an unstable factor once the Script manifested.
If the Lesser Demon Academy hadn't discovered her, drawing the attention of the Witch Academy and using it as a fuse to intervene in the plot, such an Innate Spirit Vision user would have vanished into history without a sound, leaving not a single ripple behind.
"Xiao Han, you agreed? Really?"
"Of course." I looked into Sister Bai’s eyes, which were filled with disbelief and shock, and confirmed it again.
"Good... good. Xiao Han, let's go back." After repeatedly confirming my answer, Bai Yu couldn't quite restrain her emotions and moved to pull me into a hug.
Regardless of whether Xiao Han's answer was perfunctory or a sincere desire to obey, as long as she promised, Bai Yu was willing to believe.
"Eh? We're going back already? But today is the first day of the new term!" I used my hands to push the overly enthusiastic Sister Bai back a bit. I felt like she was currently immersed in her own world, moved by her own drama.
It felt a bit mean to think that, but I didn't even know what was going on, so I couldn't exactly empathize. It couldn't be that Sister Bai was a "regressor" who came back to change my tragic future, right?
That would be way too ridiculous!
"Sorry, Xiao Han, I got a bit too excited. Let's go. Where else do you want to go? I'll take you!" Bai Yu wiped away the "little pearls" that hadn't even started falling yet. "But you're not allowed to go back to that place just now!"
"Don't worry~ I won't go back there again," I promised immediately.
"Good. Remember the promise between us. Also, I know that because of your Spirit Vision, you can see many things ordinary people can't. If you see a place like that again, absolutely do not curiously look for a way in."
"Oh, okay. Are there many places like that in the Academy?" I listened carefully to Sister Bai's warning, but I don't know if it had the opposite effect—hearing her say that actually made my curiosity flare up again.
"Many... did you think there was only one Sentiment Street? Too naive. There are many places in the Academy that could be called Sentiment Streets. Even I don't know how many there are in the entire Academy. So Xiao Han, if you see one in the future, you must not enter. If possible, it's best to report it anonymously. Of course, if you can't do it anonymously, then just ignore it, understood?"
"Eh? You can report them?" I caught the key point immediately.
"Yes. The Academy explicitly forbids such places from appearing. But... there's always a 'but.' Those are the unspoken rules that can't be mentioned. Anyway, just stay away, especially since you're a freshman."
"Understood, I'll definitely stay away!" I walked beside Sister Bai and promised once more.
Since they were forbidden, I just wouldn't go. I had thought it was some kind of Academy specialty.
I was a law-abiding person; I didn't smoke, didn't drink, and didn't visit brothels.
That first time just now had made me blush the entire time. How could I handle that?
In the future, I'd report every one of those places I saw!
I didn't want to suddenly have my vision go black one day in the Academy and wake up in a place like that. That was scarier than a horror story.
"Let's go. The day of freshman enrollment is also the time for formal class assignments. It's time for you to meet your teacher. She will be with you for many years."
Bai Yu took out her broom and spoke to me. After I sat on the broom, Bai Yu glanced back at the now-invisible Sentiment Street. A cold glint flashed in her eyes. How dare they try to seduce Xiao Han? I have to find a way to get this place shut down for a while.
She’d file a report as soon as she got back. Though she felt it was a bit of a pity—after all, this was one of the few such streets she knew of—some things couldn't be allowed to start.
She knew Xiao Han well. She didn't believe all this happened without some kind of hint or guidance. Although it should have been impossible for a freshman to open the passage, the end result was that Xiao Han had gotten in.
Consider it a stroke of bad luck for this place. It was better for them to practice some restraint; she was doing it for the health of those indulgent fools inside.