Adanis ordered bluntly, "Give it to me."
Adanis had already prepared herself to butt heads with Angel, but Angel seemed completely unconcerned with her commanding tone. He casually tossed the bronze mirror over. "If you want it, take it."
Adanis hadn’t expected Angel to just hand the bronze mirror to her so directly, so when she saw it flying toward her, she was still dazed. It wasn’t until the mirror was about to fall that she snapped back, scrambling to catch it in a fluster.
Only after Adanis caught the bronze mirror firmly did the panic on her face ease.
Right after, Adanis lifted her head in anger to glare at Angel, wanting to question how he could just casually throw the bronze mirror at her.
"You—" But as she opened her mouth in fury, she suddenly remembered: she was the one who told Angel to hand the bronze mirror over. The words changed on her lips. "Is this how you treat Olao?"
Angel looked completely puzzled, and the others also turned to Adanis in confusion.
Adanis said, "I tell you to give it, and you just give it. And you even toss it over so carelessly—this is the attitude of someone who cherishes Olao?"
After hearing this inexplicable complaint, everyone looked even more bewildered.
What Adanis was trying to say was that Angel doing as she asked actually showed he didn’t cherish Olao? If that’s the case, then why did you demand the bronze mirror from Angel in the first place? And with that arrogant attitude, no less?
Even the simple act of handing Olao to her could be interpreted by Adanis as a form of disrespect.
This level of casual tossing—wouldn’t an ordinary person be able to catch it? Even if an ordinary person might fumble it, you, an Extraordinary Life, would you really fail to catch it? Obviously impossible.
So how exactly does your logic hold together?
Angel said, "So what you mean is, I should’ve shown resistance, then fought you, and only as a last resort handed Olao over to you?"
Seeing Angel’s suspicious expression and everyone else’s doubtful faces, Adanis was momentarily at a loss for words, because according to the ’script’ in her head, that really was supposed to be one of the scenes...
Angel continued, "As for why I handed Olao to you directly—wasn’t that what you asked for? Besides, would you hurt Olao? You wouldn’t. So why shouldn’t I give him to you?"
By now Adanis had actually managed to regain a bit of her logic. Looking back at the angry words she’d just thrown out, they were indeed full of groundless emotion.
She had this kind of baseless emotional flare-up fairly often anyway. But no matter how much trouble she made in the past, Olao would tolerate her. So she never felt her logic was a problem.
Now, being stared at by all these puzzled eyes, and listening to Angel’s internally consistent explanation, Adanis belatedly realized that the way she occasionally approached problems might really be a bit off?
Was it because of that missing part of her, or was it that her emotions messed up her thoughts?
Even though Adanis had this faint realization, she had no intention of admitting she was wrong. She stiffened her mouth and kept accusing him: "Augustine asked Olao to follow you, and you’re giving up on Olao this easily?"
Angel: "So when you told me to hand Olao over to you, you were planning not to give him back?"
Adanis’ lips trembled; she wanted to say something, but before she could speak, Angel went on, "The reason I gave Olao to you is because I trust you won’t hurt him. And Olao said before that you’re his closest family."
"I’m handing him to you precisely because I’m at ease with you. If Olao were awake and you called him over, he’d definitely follow your wishes too. So where does this accusation that I’m ’easily giving up on Olao’ even come from?"
To Adanis’ ears, there really was nothing wrong with Angel’s words. Thinking it over carefully, it actually seemed more like she was the one being unreasonable?
No—that won’t do. How could she just follow along with Angel’s logic? Adanis desperately tried to regain her own stance.
But just then Angel added, "You still haven’t answered my question. When you told me to give you the bronze mirror, was it with the intention of not returning it?"
Adanis fell silent for a moment. "And what if it was? What if it wasn’t?"
When Adanis asked Angel to hand the bronze mirror to her, she actually only had two ideas in mind: First, pick a fight—she couldn’t stand Augustine, and she couldn’t stand Angel, who was valued by Augustine, even more. Second, she wanted to take a look at this bronze mirror, this ’True Body’ that Olao had never once shown her.
As for after she got it, whether she’d give it back to Angel or not, Adanis hadn’t really thought that far. Because in her "script," she was going to fight Angel, fight until she had him imprisoned, or forced to flee, or knocked unconscious.
After that, naturally there would be no issue of returning or not.
But now, her ’script’ hadn’t followed the expected act list at all, and instead left her with no reason to make a move against Angel. Only then did this question get placed openly on the table.
Angel said, "If ’no,’ that would of course be best. But if you don’t return him, I won’t force you either."
"Why?" Adanis had been waiting for Angel to show even a hint of dissatisfaction so she could flip the table and start a fight. But once again, Angel’s answer followed her line instead.
Angel let out a sigh. At this point he really suspected Adanis had something wrong with her head. Wasn’t this obvious?
Though he felt helpless, he still patiently explained, "I said before, whatever choice Olao makes is his freedom. And whether Olao is in my hands or in yours, he’ll eventually awaken. At that time, whether he chooses to stay by your side or leave you to follow me—that’s Olao’s own will."
"Of course, all of this is premised on the fact that I trust Olao, and so I also trust you. Because I trust you, I believe that even if Olao chooses to go with me, you won’t forcibly keep him."
Angel’s words were naturally polished for effect; he definitely did not actually trust Adanis. But putting himself on the moral high ground—that’s just basic operation.
Whether Adanis chose to fight or make peace later, he’d be the one "in the right." And the reason he wanted to claim that "rightness" as his private plot of land was precisely because he was deliberately staging this for Olao to see.
Even though Olao was in a deep sleep right now, that didn’t mean he was unaware of the outside world. Laplace had said before: wherever the Mirror reflects, it can become memory. As long as these memories aren’t taken away by a Mirror-dwelling lifeform, they’ll eventually flow into the Sea of Void Mirror, then drift for a while and be washed clean by the tides.
Would Olao really let the memories reflected by his bronze mirror just flow off into the Sea of Void Mirror? Obviously not.
So even if Olao was "asleep" at the moment, once he woke up he’d still know everything that had happened.
What Angel needed to show, throughout this whole process, was simply that he’d always held the moral high ground. That was enough. And his "I trust Olao, so I trust Adanis" line was also meant for Olao to hear.
Of course, if what Olao actually wanted to see was Adanis’ kind of "script": Angel refusing to yield unto death, absolutely refusing to bring out the bronze mirror—
Then Angel would have nothing to say. He could only shrug and think: as expected of someone who has spent ten thousand years with Adanis; wanting to emerge unstained from such muddy waters is really hard.
But based on Angel’s observation of Olao, he seemed the more reasonable sort, and likely wouldn’t be fond of the script Adanis had written.
On the other side, after listening to Angel’s whole righteous speech, Adanis was even more at a loss for how to respond.
She only felt a stuffiness jammed in her chest.
There was a surge of anger she wanted to vent, but faced with Angel, who had firmly occupied the moral high ground, she simply couldn’t let it out.
This scene, too, fell fully into the Black Earl’s sight. By now he already understood what Angel was thinking, he had just not expected Angel to use this sort of method to choke Adanis.