Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

She walked across the vast, desolate wilderness.

Her long hair had grown dry and tangled from the long journey, and her clothes were torn and dust-stained from the thorns that had clawed at them. Her face wore the weary look common to all travelers, but her eyes were startlingly bright. That light was steadfast, decisive, and filled with hope, like the world-famous Star of Nasula in Kandel Castle, able to bring radiance even into the darkest night.

Her silhouette was framed by a full purple moon. At her waist, an exquisite Mithril Mirror swayed, as if shattering the starlight across the sky. The wind, thick with the stench of blood, whipped up her long hair, making it look like the battle standard he had clutched tightly before losing consciousness, still flying with hope despite being torn to shreds.

A purple full moon. An abandoned battlefield. Against that backdrop of despair, she stood in bloodstained, shattered armor, both hands gripping a massive sword completely at odds with her slender build. She glanced back, and in that instant, surprise bloomed across her cold, severe face. Her lips moved. “I finally found you…”

Like War God Xisaluo, redeeming a failure like him.

Unable to stop himself, he reached toward that miraculous figure.

“God… please…”

Ruiyin raked a hand through her hair, which had long since become a filthy bird’s nest, roughly yanked up the armor she had stripped off a corpse after it had slipped down to her ankles, and, panting hard, dropped the unbelievably heavy greatsword to the side with a clang. Her gaze, cold with rage, hatred, and the pleasure of revenge, fixed on the man she had just dug out. “I finally found you… Lars, you bastard whose whole family deserves to be drafted onto China’s national soccer team…”

For the rest of her life, she would never forget that scam of a mage named Lars.

Three days before her accounting exam, he had dragged her into a magical world with the ridiculous excuse of “please stop me from destroying the world,” dumped her directly into a postwar wasteland, tossed her a copy of The Complete Timeline of Lars Becoming a Freak, then promptly kicked the bucket and vanished, leaving her with “go find the boy waiting for you to save him in his hour of need, for he is the hope of the world, ohohoho.” To hell with the boy! She was the one who needed saving here, okay?!

Ruiyin’s entire body radiated the edgy teenage energy of someone who wanted to destroy the world. After trudging through a corpse-strewn wasteland for three days and digging through piles of bodies for another three, she now understood exactly why Lars had set out on the path of world destruction back then.

Panting, she tossed the boy she had dug out to the side and kicked him irritably. “Stop playing dead. You clearly opened your eyes just now. Get up!”

Then she glared with hatred at the younger version of the disaster that had screwed her over.

No response. The boy lay unconscious as if he were dead. In fact, if the origin chapter of Lars’s Perverted Notes had not begun here, Ruiyin would never have believed he was still alive.

Ruiyin bent down, checked the family crest in the center of the boy’s armor again, then pulled the name tag from around his neck and compared it with the notes over and over. At last, she confirmed that this really was the person she was looking for.

Lars at nineteen was still an Apprentice Knight loyal to the king and to Kandel Castle. He had survived a war against the Orcs in which nearly the entire army had been wiped out, then made the arduous journey back to Kandel Castle alone, only to be hanged by the king as a traitor. That was also the starting point of his later transformation into a freak.

The boy lying on the ground wore the armor of an Apprentice Knight, though it had already been shattered beyond repair by prolonged battle. Through the gaps in the metal, she could see at least two or three horrifying wounds on his body. The nineteen-year-old Lars was still far from the mature, handsome uncle she had seen in the mirror. His dirty face held the stubbornness of a boy who had not yet lost his childishness, and in the instant he had opened his eyes earlier, Ruiyin had seen that those emerald-green eyes were still firm and clear, not yet worn down by reality.

Ruiyin looked in disgust at the culprit who had dragged her into another world. After struggling for a long while, she finally suppressed the dark thought of “if I strangle him now, let’s see how he destroys the world,” crouched down, and used a damp strip of cloth to moisten the boy’s lips.

She did not have much food or water, and most of it had been stripped from corpses. Ruiyin poured water into the boy’s mouth with rough movements. In any case, this guy was still half-dead and would not notice her petty revenge for a while, so she might as well bully him a little more while she had the chance, ahaha… Eek.

The head in her arms abruptly opened its eyes.

A pair of deep green eyes, like emeralds, stared at Ruiyin from up close. Perhaps he had not yet had time to see who was in front of him, because the hand that had been dangling weakly a moment ago suddenly grabbed Ruiyin’s armor. “God, please don’t leave!”

“…” Ruiyin’s expression showed that she was still searching vaguely for the word “damn” that should have come after “God,” but even after the echo of that exclamation mark had drifted away, the word still never appeared.

He could actually call someone who was getting revenge on him a god. This guy had been sick in the head since he was young!

The boy continued gazing at her with reverent eyes full of hope. He seemed to notice that his entire body was lying in her arms, and his face turned scarlet, visible even through all the dust and blood. He struggled to get up, flipped over like a sparrow hawk, then prostrated himself before Ruiyin in a full tiger-pounce-to-the-ground posture. “Lord Xisaluo, please save our army!”

Because he had used too much force, and because Ruiyin’s armor did not fit her at all, the groin guard three inches below her navel was yanked off by him and hit the ground with a clang.

The boy threw himself down in the same tiger-pounce prostration again. “Ah… I’m sorry! Please forgive my recklessness!” As he hurriedly pulled his hand back, the armor caught on Ruiyin’s clothes, and he directly tore off the entire lower hem of the armor with it.

The boy’s face filled with remorse and agony. “I… I know I am beyond forgiveness. Please, Lord Xisaluo, grant me death, and then save our army!”

“…” He really was sick in the head!
“First, my name is not Xisaluo.” Ruiyin calmly fastened the lower half of her armor and explained with a cool expression, “Second, I can’t save your army. Third… I think you should be asking the God of Death to save your army right now, because I absolutely, definitely, one hundred percent cannot possibly be that God of Death!”

“Huh?” The boy seemed to finally come back to his senses. He straightened up, looked around in confusion, and instantly froze in open-mouthed shock.

“How is that possible?! Everyone… How is everyone dead?!” the boy cried, devastated and unable to believe it.

“Not everyone,” Ruiyin kindly reminded him. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

“But… what good is it if I’m alive?! Everyone… everyone is… Damn it, why am I the only one still alive? If I had just…” The boy slowly lowered his head, his whole body radiating a gloomy black aura, like he was about to start growing mushrooms in a corner.

Not good! This was the first sign of going dark!

Alarm bells blared in Ruiyin’s head, and she hurriedly tried to soothe him. “How could that be? Think about it from another angle. If even you had died, then it really would have been a total wipeout, wouldn’t it? But look, they’re all dead and you’re still alive, so the real winners of this war are actually your side!”

“Really?” The boy raised his head doubtfully.

“Really!” It was total nonsense.

He lowered his head and gazed at his companions’ corpses with sorrowful, devout eyes. His armor was stained with the blood of enemies and comrades alike, and the longsword in his hand was already covered in nicks and scars from too much killing. Slowly, he lowered himself to the ground and kissed the earth with cracked, bleeding lips.

“God of Life Herbotiya above, may you and the land endure forever…”

By the time he stood again, his emerald-green eyes had regained their clear, steadfast light.

“I must return to Kandel and report this battle to His Majesty.” He looked at Ruiyin and said, “Thank you for saving me. I, Apprentice Knight Lars, swear in the name of War God Xisaluo that if there is ever any way I can repay you, I will brave ten thousand deaths without hesitation!”

After saying that, he tilted his head a little. “But… are you truly not Lord Xisaluo? If you are, then saying that in front of you would be terribly rude…”

“…I really am not!”

Who would want to be the god whose name got dragged into every oath? With that many people’s vows piled on him, even Lord Guan, emperor of loyalty and righteousness, would be crushed to death!

When Ruiyin arrived in this world, the only equipment she had on her, aside from her pajamas, was a mirror. And it was an absurdly luxurious mirror, the kind that reeked of something that made people want to rob the rich and give to the poor. When she was hungry or thirsty, biting it did absolutely nothing except nearly knock out a tooth.

It was a mirror carved from mithril, the kind used only for drawing high-level magic arrays and above, its entire body engraved with delicate, extravagant rose patterns. The mirror’s surface was a strange deep blue. The clarity was fine, except every face reflected in it came out looking seventy percent like an Avatar.

At the very beginning, this mirror had once spat out a book called Complete Record of Lars’s Perversions. After that, no matter how Ruiyin knocked on it, it never made another sound. But she had always firmly believed that the Holy Archmage who claimed to have kicked the bucket was still inside the mirror, spying on the progress of her mission just like he had once spied into her room.

Ruiyin placed the mirror on a nearby rock, adjusted it so the surface faced her directly, and cleared her throat.

“Ruiyin?” The young Lars watched her go through this strange series of actions with a baffled look.

“Shut up. Listen to me now.” Ruiyin adjusted her posture and looked at him solemnly. “Do you want to destroy the world?”

“…Huh?”

She desperately recalled everything she had said to Lars that day, then took a deep breath and launched into a rapid-fire speech without punctuation. “First of all let’s take a look at the pioneering work in world destruction Ultraman and all those many carefree little monsters blah blah blah…”

Lars: “…”

“…In conclusion of all the people who throw themselves into the great cause of ending the world those who are not recruited by the protagonist as underlings invariably die horribly and then die even more horribly while using their bodies as experience points for the protagonist to level up…”

Ruiyin paused, took a deep breath as punctuation, then delivered her solemn conclusion. “…No one can destroy the world or save the world by their strength alone. All right, young man, do you still want to destroy the world?”

Lars: “…No. I don’t.”

Ruiyin raised an eyebrow and eyed him suspiciously. “Really, really? Not even a little?”

Lars: “Not even a little!”

“Good.” Ruiyin turned decisively to face the mirror, which had clearly reflected the entire process just now. “Hey, whoever you are, I’ve already said everything I needed to say. The current you says you don’t want to destroy the world at all, so can you send me back for my exam now?”

The mirror maintained a noble silence.

Ruiyin’s face went cold. “Hey, are you trying to go back on your word? I’ve already finished the job, so hurry up and send me back!”

After a brief pause, her eyebrows drew together until they looked ready to fire killing intent. “Keep playing dead and I’ll smash you!”

The young Lars: “…Um, I think it’s just a mirror, so it probably won’t answer you…”

Her killing intent instantly switched targets. “Nonsense, of course I know it’s just a mirror. What, did you think this was the Mirror of Erised?”

Lars tactfully changed the subject. “Ah, um, I think I see a house over there!”

Ruiyin: “Oh? Are you saying that every road we walked before was actually you leading me around in circles?”

Lars, in tears: “…Anyway, let’s get out of here first!”

Author’s Note: The male lead is a little unhinged, the supporting male lead is extremely unhinged, and as for passersby… basically none of them are normal either.

Not a single normal person. That is the guiding principle of this story!