In the apartment, the cult leader was staring at the Veela.
"Why?"
Hearing Ash's question, Freya was stunned, thought for a moment and said, "I am still a legal citizen. I can rent a house to shelter you, I can work to support you, and you can tell me if you have any inconveniences. I... I will do whatever you ask me to do."
"Although I'm glad that you're willing to work to support me." Ash couldn't help but laugh: "But what I mean is not "Why should I bring you with me", but "Why do you want to follow me"."
Freya blushed slightly and looked down at Xiaoxian who was rubbing her feet. "No reason... I just want to follow you."
"Then let me ask it another way. Why can't you accept me leaving you?"
Freya opened her mouth, but no words came out.
She bit her lower lip, feeling a pain in her heart but not knowing how to say it.
The education she received over the years did not allow her to reveal her weakness.
Suddenly, she remembered what Ash had just said to Xiao Xian: "If you feel pain in the future, don't just hold it in. Scream it out loud, otherwise no one will know."
"Because it hurts me." She whispered, "When I think about never seeing you again, never eating the food you cook, never chatting with you again... I feel a dull pain in my heart, very uncomfortable, and even a little bit want to cry."
Freya started to feel aggrieved as she spoke: "Obviously everything will return to normal after you're gone, but why do I feel so bad? Obviously, it's no different from before, but as soon as you show up, my mood gets messed up. Why is this happening..."
"Because you feel lonely."
"Lonely?" She was a little confused: "But I—we have always been lonely. The books all say that loneliness is the wings of freedom, and freedom is brilliant because of loneliness..."
Ash pulled Freya to sit on the porch and said gently, "But you didn't embrace loneliness before, you were just avoiding it. But because you are young, the world is new to you, and life is interesting to you, so you can keep running away, and loneliness can't catch up with you."
"You've also watched Financier's speech, right? Do you know why he's looking for his descendants? Because he's been chased by loneliness. He's too old, the world is no longer new to him, life is nothing but calculations for him, facing the pursuit of loneliness, he has nowhere to hide. So he urgently needs to find another container to hold loneliness - nothing can relieve the pain of loneliness better than watching his bloodline continue."
"And what I did was to establish a bond with you. When we are together, the bond can drive away loneliness; after I leave, the other end of the bond will be connected to loneliness, so you will feel pain - you have been caught up by loneliness and can't escape."
Freya looked down at her beautiful foot manicure and murmured softly: "You are so bad..."
"In your eyes, I am a villain, right?" Ash said with a smile. "You are right, actually. Blood Moon's education is for your own good. As long as you don't get into any intimate relationship and don't establish any ties with anyone, you won't be disappointed, lonely, or hurt. Because you have never experienced anything before, you are not afraid of losing anything."
"But... I refuse to acknowledge this 'for your own good'."
Ash waved at Xiaoxian, and when it came over, he lifted it up high and stared at the part where its testicles used to be. "The pet store sterilizes the cats before selling them to you, because estrus is very uncomfortable and painful for cats, and there will be many complications. Sterilizing cats is for their own good."
"In my opinion, what the blood moon did to you was no different from sterilizing a cat. You dare not step into an intimate relationship, and you are so timid that you are even cautious when facing marshmallows. This can indeed avoid a lot of potential harm, but it also makes you lose the greatest ability of human beings - the ability to love."
"But people are not pets. At least... they shouldn't be pets."
"I'm glad, Freya." Ash met the Veela's gaze and said, "You have learned to love, and you know to resist loneliness instead of running away from it. This means that it's not me who is crazy, but this country."
"Ash, you are really a complete cult leader." Freya's smile was a little sad: "Then what should I do?"
"Don't resist entering into an intimate relationship. Take the initiative to find new ties, whether it's friendship or love, so that you can resist loneliness." Ash said, "But you still need to correct the way you love others. It's too extreme. You even say things like you can support me by working. You go from 'completely self-centered' to 'completely dependent' in an instant. It's easy for you to be deceived by scumbags like this."
"Keep yourself and learn to love others. As long as you do these two things, you can live well in this crazy country, or at least live happier than others."
Freya looked at him infatuatedly, "You really can't let me follow you?"
"It's not that I can't. I'm willing to do so." Ash said, "But this means that you have to give up the fruits of your labor for more than a decade, risk becoming a wanted criminal, give up the degree you are about to obtain, give up the university with rich resources, give up the mature magician training system in the Blood Moon Kingdom, and even give up the chance to become a psychic... Are you willing?"
The Veela was stunned.
"I spent five days and four nights with you. Compared to your more than ten years of operation in Kaimen, this amount of time is really insignificant. I am not that important to you. You are just a little impulsive. Of course, I am very happy about this impulse, which means that your love is budding."
Ash couldn't help but laugh and said, "Come to think of it, I once invited someone to go with me, but she decisively rejected me for practical reasons. Now that you are actively following me, I am rejecting you instead."
Freya muttered, "You just covet what you can't have, and despise what comes to your door."
"You've scolded me so much that I'm beginning to doubt my own noble character." Ash said with a grin, "But my thoughts have not changed - I can give you this choice, but the prerequisite is that you have to think it through."
"I can be your regret, but I can't be your disaster."
Freya picked up Xiao Xian, sat on the ground and thought for a long time, and finally said slowly: "So you plan to play with me like this so that I can never go back, and then just leave?"
After being persuaded by Ash, she calmed down a little. Becoming a psychic was her dream. Although love was more important than anything else, it was only because she had not made a strict balance, or she did not want to make a balance. However, when Ash put her dream and love on both ends of the scale in front of her, she could no longer escape.
What you can see is always important, but what you can’t see can be easily discarded.
"You suddenly scolded me so harshly, making me sound like a scumbag, but I didn't do anything." Yaxiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "And it's not that I don't want to pay... Didn't I give you a magic spirit?"
He paused and said, "If you haven't found a new bond yet, then just watch Shu Ling miss me. Missing can relieve loneliness, and missing can breed expectations."
Freya looked at the sympathetic spirit in the fluorescent ball and suddenly felt sad.
"You've been so nice to me, and you've done so many things for me these days. Is it just out of sympathy?"