The Lake and the Legend

(Bai Ziye)

Inducing Sailuno to send a message to “Bai Ziye” was all part of the plan. That’s why I had left my phone with Yin Wei. The key to today’s outing was to establish a firm, unshakable belief in Sailuno’s mind:

Miluno is Miluno.
Bai Ziye is Bai Ziye.

This distinction was crucial. Although Yin Wei had proposed it, I had agreed wholeheartedly.

However, I hadn’t expected this fool to say such embarrassing things to my face. If it weren’t for my years of practice maintaining a poker face, I might have blown my cover right then and there.

“Miss Miluno!” Sailuno, who had pulled out her phone, asked cautiously, “Um… could we take a photo together?”

I could understand her desire to take a photo with her idol, but she was far too nervous. Back at my apartment, she was usually quite relaxed—even a little too open… like last night, when she walked around the room in just a tank top and underwear, or sat cross-legged on the bed, leaving me unsure where to look.

“Miss Miluno?”

“A photo? No problem,” I snapped out of my daze. “Since we’re not boating, let’s take one by the lake as a souvenir.”

“Okay! I’ll do whatever Miss Miluno says!”

That said, for us, Changyue Lake was just a scenic spot at our doorstep. We could come here anytime by car. There wasn’t really a need for a memento.

Stepping out from the shade, I immediately felt the temperature spike. After drinking the water, I felt myself sweating even more. Sailuno, fiddling with her phone, suddenly let out a short yelp.

“Ah! I didn’t bring a selfie stick!”

“It’s fine. Just hold it up and shoot normally.”

“But then we’d have to stand very close to fit in the frame… Uwah!“

I reached out, put my hand on Sailuno’s shoulder, and pulled her closer. Her expression was adorably flustered, like a startled deer—mouth agape, staring at me in silence.

“Like this. You can take it now.”

“Mi-Miss Miluno is too…”

“Too?”

“Too hot!”

Sticking together in forty-degree weather was indeed a bit warm.

“Then hurry up and take it.”

“Ah-wah-wah-wah!!”

She squinted and frantically pressed the shutter button, freezing her clumsy, panicked expression in the frame forever.

“Wow! This won’t do—I have to delete it!”

“Pfft…” Her flustered antics finally broke my mask. A small laugh escaped my lips.

At the sound of my laughter, Sailuno quieted down instantly. She just stared at me as if lost in thought. Then, she stammered, “I… I think Miss Miluno looks really beautiful when she smiles!”

It was as if she’d used up every ounce of her strength to say that. Afterward, her face turned beet red and she gasped for breath. If it were the original Sun Yao saying that, it would have looked pathetic—like an obsessive otaku at a fan meeting. But since she was Sailuno now, it actually came across as endearing.

“I think the photo is fine. Just send it to that close friend of yours.” I pointed at the screen.

“Huh?”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Well, since Miss Miluno says so, I…” With her back to the sun, she fiddled with her phone in her own shadow, apparently intending to send that photo to “me.”

It seemed she would agree with whatever I said today. Was the persona of “Miluno” really that effective?

“It’s too hot. Let’s head to the mountain trail entrance.”

“Mm! I’ll do whatever you say!”

There were several paths up the mountain, all leading to the summit. Although the lake was named Changyue Lake, the mountain itself was shaped like a crescent moon, cradling the calm freshwater reservoir within its curve.

The trail wasn’t steep, and the vegetation was lush. Massive, ancient trees provided a natural canopy of shade and fresh air. Though not as cold as air conditioning, it felt genuinely comfortable. We eventually came across a babbling brook with crystal-clear water.

“Part of Changyue Lake’s water comes from mountain springs up here.” Sailuno stood in front of the information board at the trail entrance. “It says there’s a legend here—that Changyue Lake was blasted out by an ancient magical girl using magic to defeat a monster!”

I’d believe it if a meteorite had created it, since the shape did resemble a giant crater. But ancient magical girls? That was a stretch.

“The legend doesn’t make sense,” I noted. “Star Crystals only appeared twelve years ago. There couldn’t have been magical girls in ancient times. If they had existed, why would history have no record of them?”

“Miss Miluno, you’re so serious! The legend is just a romanticized story, you know~”

I sighed. “Nowadays, everything has to be tied to magical girls. Even if that’s the current social environment, I still think it’s a bit twisted.”

“Oh! I think so, too! Those magical girls who take commercial ads don’t act like magical girls at all!”

Sailuno really had the guts to say that, considering the one who took the most ads was the current Rank No. 1. She trotted a few steps to catch up and asked, “How did Miss Miluno encounter her Star Crystal?”

“Encounter?”

“Yeah. You’re not registered with the Association, so it’s not like they found you as a Suitable Person, right?”

Unlike the girls scouted by the Association, most “wild” magical girls were Suitable Persons directly chosen by the crystals themselves. It was said the ways they obtained them varied wildly—appearing in pockets, or even crashing through a balcony window to hit someone in the head.

But I… “My crystal was inherited from another magical girl.”

Hearing this, Sailuno perked up with intense interest. Like a curious fawn, she hopped in front of me, walking backward on the path with her hands behind her back. “With Miss Miluno being so strong, your predecessor must have been amazing, too, right?”

“No. I didn’t know her at all. I don’t even know her name.”

“…Huh? You got the Star Crystal without knowing anything about the person who gave it to you?”

“Yeah.”

Who was she? The one who entrusted this power to me? And who did she want me to protect? Even now, I hadn’t figured it out. But I had a feeling that as long as I continued my activities, the answer would eventually reveal itself.

Sailuno climbed up to the halfway platform and looked down at me from the top of the steps. “Miss Miluno, you’re usually such a secrecy absolutist… why are you willing to tell me all this?”

Only then did I realize I had been acting far too familiar with her. I knew her perfectly, but in her mind, we were still strangers.

“Does it need a reason?”

“After all, counting this time, we’ve only met twice. You aren’t even registered, so why would you… Of course, I’m really happy! Truly! I’m so glad that Miss Miluno is willing to tell me these things!”

“Sailuno, while I dislike the Association, I don’t hate you or other magical girls. In my daily life, I have my own friends and my own social circle. I’m not some ethereal being who’s above normal human life.”

In Sailuno’s mind, Miluno was a transcendent, idealized idol. It might be cruel to shatter that illusion, but I had to correct her. After all, I was far from perfect.