"You're right, Elara in your world is still alive! Since I've decided to come to this world as Cyra, sooner or later I'll have to meet her face to face."
Cyrae readily agreed when she learned about the purpose of her journey.
As the successor of the deceased Elara from another world, Cyrae's relationship with our world's Elara was quite complicated.
You see, it wasn't just about inheriting power and experience - Cyrae even kept some memories from the other world's Elara!
Though the histories of both worlds were quite different, she had taken up the mission to revive the angel race from the deceased Elara. Coming to this world, she definitely stood out like a sore thumb. Her presence felt extra, some people would even reject her.
For example, many angels didn't value much of Cyra in Edenmere. Among the newest batch of angels, not only was she the most ordinary in strength, she even "invented" things like poker and mahjong, distracting angels in Edenmere!
Even Elara kept complaining to me that her subordinates now spent all their free time gambling, and they weren't as quick to follow orders as before.
Heaven knows what weird tricks this strange "Cyra" might pull next!
So even though Cyrae and Cyra looked exactly the same, and I personally vouched for her, Serena still wasn't at ease. She sent at least three angels ranked sixth-tier to watch her every move.
Well, the commander made this decision based on usual military practice and caution, so I couldn't stop it. But seeing how they treated Cyrae made me feel quite bad.
"No worries, they just not used to me. After some time they won't be so worried anymore!"
Instead, Cyrae comforted me, acting very understanding.
"But you're not dangerous at all..."
I suddenly felt like crying from being touched. If only the previous Cyra had been this thoughtful and understanding, I would have had way less headaches.
Before leaving, we needed to rest one night at the Light Elf village near Sifur City.
That place had been the angel legion's temporary base recently. Since we decided to leave, we naturally had to say proper goodbyes and thank the villagers.
"I didn't expect to hear anything about Irene anymore, but now hearing she might still be alive somewhere, I feel so much better!" said Betty, the retired Light Elf elder, who was sitting under an elf tree chatting with Elder Gwendolyn while enjoying the sun.
Village Chief Karati got even more excited and came over to grip Nicola's hands tightly, asking for more details.
You see, among magical creatures, there weren't many pure dark element beings. So once Dark Elves transformed into Light Elves, it was very hard to change back! Since these transformed folks often had trouble adjusting both mentally and physically, the village chief and elders always paid extra attention to Irene.
"I've said everything Feliciana asked me to explain. This is the Light Elf village that took in Irene, right? Let me look around by myself, okay?"
You could tell Nicola wasn't comfortable with such close contact. She pulled her hands away and quickly ran off with an excuse.
"Even though she hasn't said a word to me since coming back, not even looking at me, her attitude is much softer now! If she hadn't explained everything about what happened earlier, I would wonder if this Nicola isn't the same Nicola we used to know!" Adrian whispered in my ear. After all, we had met the Nicola from the parallel world before, so I totally got what he meant.
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If this was the Nicola from before she crossed over, with her overinflated ego, she probably would have pulled out her Condensation Sword by now and told them to scram.
"You all flying to Norvale tomorrow? I won't join you! Although I've been quite free lately, in a few days, the capital will send more officials to Sifur to discuss leftover issues like moving troops along the border and space portals. As the noble family's dedicated maid, I'll be super busy!"
When Serena invited Gwendolyn to go meet Elara together, she got rejected as expected.
This angel Elder who had been staying in the human world for so long was quite famous in Edenmere, though most angels didn't know exactly where she was in the lower realm.
When the First Legion members first met Gwendolyn, most thought she came to investigate because it was such a big deal. Only now did they realize she was actually working as a maid for an empire noble!
This truth stirred up another wave among the First Angel Legion members. Many angels couldn't imagine how a respected Elder would become a maid for humans.
But Gwendolyn herself didn't care that this got exposed. Of course, those gossips still reached her ears, so she jumped up angrily into the air and announce loudly:
"This is a long-term monitoring mission in the empire! None of you can do this job except me! Whoever dares to gossip about me behind my back will be arrested right away for disrespecting an Elder according to angel laws and thrown straight into prison!"
Now even Serena and I didn't dare make a sound. We could only watch as the Elder in the sky turned around and flew proudly towards Sifur lord's castle.
"Gwendolyn? I remember in the other world she was also hiding somewhere in the empire as a maid. Didn't expect both worlds to be so similar in this way!" Nicola commented meaningfully after she left.
The history of Cyrae's world was very different from ours, so having such similar developments in certain details was quite rare.
But that wasn't the main point! The important thing was that Nicola's words suddenly made me realize she must have experienced other things during her stay in the other world, things she hadn't told us about at first.
After dinner, the sky gradually turned dark.
Members of First Angel Legion mostly prepared for sleep except for those on patrol duty.
After sending Adrian away, I stayed alone in the elf treehouse prepared for high-ranking angels, but couldn't fall asleep.
Mainly because too many things happened during the day, I couldn't calm my mind. Just then, someone knocked gently on the door. With light element aura even stronger than Serena's, I knew it must be Nicola.
"Door not locked, just come in!"
"Actually, I want to talk to you privately about some things..."
Nicola seemed hesitant, standing at the doorway for a long time after opening it before finally deciding to come in.
"I'm quite curious - in Cyrae's world, besides meeting Irene, you must have experienced quite a lot of other things later, right?"
Since we were old friends, I didn't need to beat around the bush and just asked about what had been puzzling me.
Don't forget she was forced to spend several months in another world! If the timing matched when our space portal opened, then whatever caused Nicola to change might be in the parts she hadn't told us about, which was what I'd been wondering about.
"You noticed? Actually I also don't if I should come find you tonight or not, but since I already came, let me explain my situation first..."
Hearing my words, Nicola wasn't surprised. She lowered her head and stayed quiet for a while, then sighed before trying to explain:
"Different from your incomplete soul situation, after reaching ten wings, some of Liana's memories started appearing in my head. Although most of these memory fragments are quite scattered and need lots of effort to organize and understand, I really got this feeling - that ten thousand years ago, Liana seemed to have done many amazing things for the past you, that is, the Water Angel Gisphrael. Some things could even be described as sacrifices! Too bad I still can't completely remember the specific details of that part. But regarding the current you, after so much time has passed, I've slowly understood something - that no matter if you can eventually accept me or not, as long as you feel your choice was right in the end, all I need to do is protect your safety from behind. Of course, this should also be the first thought that popped into my head when I first saw you..."
"When you first saw me?"
Was she talking about when we first met on the street in high school? Suddenly bringing up such distant past honestly made me feel quite confused.
And seeing how Nicola kept rubbing her forehead, maybe Liana's memories were affecting her right now.
However, she didn't respond to my confusion. After introducing her situation, what she described next was the series of events that happened after Nicora sent Cyrae back to Earth in the other world.