Clockwork Bride

Page 220

Actually, none of those are true.

The person that Joanna is so afraid of and paralyzed at home wailing about... is actually Karen, who didn't even go to the meeting with Hayden and the others today.

246: Being a spy is not easy

As a corporate spy sent by other gods to infiltrate the Flower Magic Company, Joanna's intelligence-gathering abilities were also specialized. Anyone with sharper eyes and ears than her was practically a true god.

So after working in New Sprouts for half a month, Joanna quickly figured out some principles.

The Flower Magic Company is usually home to several gods and near-god-like beings. It goes without saying that Hayden created these true gods; he himself possesses a celestial body. Furthermore, Red Leaf, originally an ancient god, received enhancements from Hayden, becoming even stronger than ordinary battle gods.

Besides, top-tier mortal archmages like Professor Albion were already on par with the gods in various aspects of their abilities. After being transformed into a celestial body by the Hayden Elixir, he possessed the power to contend with minor gods in actual combat.

Hayden himself could actually do the same thing. With the power of the ritual he had prepared beforehand, he was indeed able to blast down minor gods in actual combat, as he had done in Fallen City before. Their manipulation of supreme arcane power through the Great Engineering Ritual was essentially the same method used by capitalists four hundred years ago to blast down the Old Gods.

In other words, New Sprout City possesses a power equivalent to nearly an entire small pantheon!

...That being said, Joanna wasn't actually that afraid of Hayden and his colorful friends. Having worked in Newbud City for only half a month, she had already seen through the true nature of many people.

Abigail, the young goddess who recently appeared at the social events of the gods, though mysterious and reminiscent of an ancient demon goddess, is ultimately a newcomer among the true gods, and her actual power is relatively limited. Moreover, Joanna has investigated and studied her personality, knowing that Abigail isn't truly enthusiastic about the Flower Magic Company's business, only helping out incidentally. Since she's not serious, Joanna, possessing dozens of espionage techniques, naturally has ways to evade Abigail's gaze.

So what about [Mahasthamaprapta]? He was indeed very serious and concerned about the construction of the new network. However, after observing for half a month, Joanna had discovered that this dragon god didn't seem to trust Kallen much. He had to divide his energy into three parts: handling his own business, the new network project, and also keeping a three-tenths of his attention on Kallen—how could [Mahasthamaprapta (Alastor)] have time to pay attention to her? Therefore, he was not a threat. Because Joanna knew how to avoid his attention.

On the contrary, Joanna was somewhat afraid of Professor Albion, an older, more knowledgeable, and exceptionally powerful archmage. However, Professor Albion wasn't always in Newbud. He spent most of his time away from the city, and when he was there, he was busy providing technical guidance, so he certainly wouldn't be distracted like a god watching over everything.

Hayden is a great mage on par with Professor Albion, and he is indeed managing new recruits. However, he lacks Professor Albion's two hundred years of practical experience (plus, Hayden's approach to ritual magic is basically to use anything that can be applied), so Joanna has always been confident in her ability to control him. She is a master of nearly a hundred stealth techniques and a master of seducing and manipulating men!

As for Panya… hey, she's just a little kid with superhuman strength. Why would Joanna be afraid of a brainless child?

Hayden's friends were indeed all extremely talented, but Joanna was also qualified to be sent here by her boss as an undercover agent; she was among the top spies under that boss.

But the fact that she's now wailing in fear in her own apartment means her espionage plan isn't going well. What has made her so terrified, and what has caused such a failure?

Of course, it's Karen.

Just as Joanna had predicted, Karen was the kind of rigid woman who was completely focused on her career and had no time for leisure. She rarely even attended the tea parties that Hayden and his friends held, since she knew those young masters didn't really like her.

So what does Karen usually do?

...Of course, it's about work, and directing others to work.

Within New Sprout City, Karen's gaze was like the thousand eyes of the Peacock King, sweeping over every corner of the company city. Even ordinary employees felt a sense of dread under this divine surveillance; wouldn't a spy like Joanna be like a thorn in their side? Although Karen didn't actually care if employees slacked off a little (she had worked at the bottom for a few years and experienced the life of a normal employee, knowing that slacking off occasionally was human nature), spies were a different story!

Therefore, every day when Joanna was at work, which meant acting as a spy, she could feel Karen's eyes watching her from behind.

Looking at her

staring at her

Keep an eye on her!

Ordinary employees wouldn't feel Karen's gaze, because she is, after all, a goddess, and the gaze of a god is not easily detected by mortals.

However, Joanna was a specialized intelligence-type Coordinator. She could sense the gaze of God; she could feel that Karen was listening in and watching her; she could feel Karen's gaze, like an all-knowing eye, constantly sweeping down from the mountaintop. To avoid being seen through by this gaze, Joanna had to fully activate her entire personality, using every trick in the book to hide herself. In just two weeks, with only eight hours of work a day, Joanna was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

She had thought about how to solve this problem, but she couldn't find a way. She had ways to deal with Abigail, she had ways to deal with [Maheshvara], and Hayden and Pania were even easier to deal with—but this Kallen, only this Kallen, Joanna couldn't think of a way to deal with her at all! Just seeing her, witnessing Kallen's extraordinary and magnificent divine power, that radiance that could even dim the stars in the sky, Joanna could only feel boundless fear.

Even with dozens of personalities and mastery of hundreds of different techniques, she was still helpless against Karen. All her skills were useless; her chances of winning were zero.

Before arriving in Newbud City, Joanna had already investigated and calculated the power dynamics between Karen and Hayden. According to her calculations, she could gradually undermine their relationship by subtly manipulating things daily, tempting Hayden, and playing it safe. Her plan was to maintain this balance and bring Hayden under her control before Karen discovered her scheme.

However, after arriving in New Sprouts and seeing Karen in person, Joanna realized with despair—what kind of balance is this? After dozens of simulations and calculations, she finally concluded that if she made even the slightest move under Karen's nose, Karen would immediately see through her and obliterate her.

The brutal, rational calculations drawn from dozens of personalities led her to this conclusion: Karen was a god she couldn't fight against. Once exposed, even Joanna's own boss might not be able to protect her!

So now, Kallen is more terrifying to Joanna than a billion serial killers... much more horrifying!!

Every day after get off work, Joanna returns to her apartment, trembling with fear. She sits on her bed in her shared apartment, her head buried in her hands. She still harbors an immense fear of Karen, and dozens of her personalities share her dread.

The constant fatigue and fear would eventually dull her senses, yet being a spy was precisely when Joanna needed to be sharpest. Crises were always like this, but this one was particularly bad. In the current situation, she didn't even dare use stimulants—even the gods of capital hadn't discovered any drug that could optimize thinking without affecting emotions or values. If she took drugs to stay alert, Joanna might make a wrong judgment at a crucial moment and be exposed by Karen, so she dared not.

Fortunately, she still has dozens of personalities who can hold meetings and discussions with her in her mind, which has indeed given her dozens of times more mental resilience... The only problem is that these dozens of personalities are now arguing amongst themselves.

"It's all your fault that you're taking this job!"

"The boss has already assigned the work, who can say no? That person originally asked us to be technical spies and to sow discord between Karen and Hayden as much as possible. So no matter what we think, the danger is still there! Stop complaining!"

That's right, this was a task assigned by their boss. To ensure sufficient secrecy (any communication can theoretically be eavesdropped on, especially under the noses of other gods), their boss also forbade Joanna from making any communications during her undercover work. Meanwhile, to ensure Joanna's loyalty, she actually carried a "time bomb" (this is, of course, just a metaphor). This "bomb" wasn't time-based, but rather determined by her progress in her mission.

Now here's the problem: she can't contact her boss under Karen's nose, nor does she dare to actually seduce Hayden; she can only desperately try to work for the Flower Magic Company. However, the harder she works for Karen, the faster her "bomb" timer ticks... Isn't this a complete dead end?!

So in this situation, even the other personalities who were mocking her were somewhat powerless: "Number 28, didn't you say you were best at seducing men? Where exactly are you seducing Hayden? If this continues, the 'bomb' will explode, and we'll be the first to die!"

Joanna could only bury her face in her hands and wail, "What can I do? What can I possibly do?! Everyone knows the boss values ​​this mission highly. If we're afraid to die and come back empty-handed, you all know what will happen to us!"

"Let's look on the bright side. Over the past two weeks, Hayden is clearly satisfied with my performance; at least he's lowered his guard. And those other gods aren't paying attention to me either, so there should be an opportunity later, right?

In truth, Karen wasn't really "paying attention" to Joanna. Her gaze was simply sweeping over every employee in Newbud City equally. However, even if an elephant isn't watching an ant, it can still accidentally step on and kill it!

"So we have to seduce Hayden while avoiding Karen's attention, or rather, avoid Karen's attention is the primary condition... Damn it, is it really possible to do this now!? But as long as we succeed in seducing Hayden, or at least ruin their relationship, we can quickly end our undercover operation and go back to report to the boss!"

Good heavens, just two weeks ago Joanna was dreaming of achieving great things and becoming a goddess, but now she's only thinking about finishing her work and getting it back to her boss. Karen is just that terrifying to her.

After rattling off these words in her internal monologue, Joanna collapsed, exhausted. Another, less weary personality took over control of her body, pinching her cheek and transforming into a dark elf boy.

This ability was originally their advantage. When one's mind or spirit weakened, they could immediately switch to another. Their bodies also possessed remarkable plasticity, allowing fatigue to be quickly eliminated.

However, perhaps due to the exhaustion from working for half a month, or perhaps because they were too concerned about Karen's gaze, and now that they had left New Sprout City and returned to New Yatu after get off work... they finally made a mistake at this moment:

Having transformed into the appearance of a dark elf boy, he left the apartment and went to the street to buy some things.

This process was observed by Momiji, the ninja responsible for monitoring him.

Although Momiji couldn't see what they were doing in the apartment, nor could she tell if the dark elf and Joanna were the same person (their transformation abilities were very powerful), she could at least see who was coming in and out of the apartment. This made her feel very strange:

"This dark elf is actually living with a man?"

It wasn't that the company should interfere, but Hongye knew that Joanna had said she was very interested in Hayden and often fawned over him at work. The fact that a woman like that was living in the same studio apartment as another man seemed rather strange to Hongye. And it didn't seem like they were siblings either.

Out of instinctive vigilance, she immediately turned around and reported the news to Hayden.

Hayden, of course, also found the situation a bit strange, but he didn't think too much about it at first. After all, it was none of his business who his female employee lived with, and these days, with incubators, there was no need to worry about maternity leave. However, the next day happened to be Joanna's day off after her shift. She was already nearly driven crazy by this spy work, so she quickly seized the opportunity to curry favor with Hayden: "Mr. Hayden, I haven't been in Newbeam City for very long and I'm not familiar with it yet. Tomorrow is my day off, could you please show me around the city?"

To prevent Karen from getting involved, she added, "Of course, if possible, just the two of us?"

Normally, this would sound like a date invitation. But Hayden had just heard from Hongye yesterday that Joanna was living with another man, which made this virgin, who was allergic to bad women, even more puzzled. He couldn't help but ask directly, "Don't you have a boyfriend?"

what?

Fortunately, Joanna wasn't stupid. After only a half-second of hesitation, she immediately realized that someone was watching her, and that Hayden hadn't seen through her abilities, but instead mistakenly thought that the transformed Joanna was a different person. This should have been a good thing, because her most important ability hadn't been exposed.

But if Joanna is seen as a woman already living with another man, how can she continue to seduce Hayden?

Qixi Festival Special: Lovers

Since the events at Fallen City ended, Hayden has never forgotten to continue his research on Angela.

In recent times, besides helping Karen with her affairs, he has also been working hard to study the mysteries of the so-called "upper realm" and ponder the so-called "external god"... That being said, these overly secretive pieces of knowledge are really difficult to study.

How much knowledge from other worlds could this world possibly possess? In reality, there's only the massive cataclysmic event in ancient times, and Angela, this special case whose origins are unknown. Aside from that, this universe and the so-called outside world have probably never truly interacted.

At least that's what the Peacock King told Hayden, and the Peacock King had no reason to lie to him.

This left Hayden with a severe lack of material to study the so-called "Outer Gods." However, Hayden had always been adept at finding solutions where none existed. So he thought and thought, and soon came up with a clumsy idea—in ancient times, when humanity had just been brought down from the outside world by fallen angels, might the people of that era still remember some secrets of the "Outer Gods"? Did the ancient legends and myths of that time still contain some truths about the upper realm?

So Hayden recently started delving into ancient mythological texts, searching between the lines for those "gods who fell from the sky." After studying ancient India, he looked at ancient Egypt; and after studying ancient Egypt, he naturally had to turn back to look at the legends and stories of his ancestral homeland.

Tonight happens to be the seventh day of the seventh lunar month. Hayden looked up at the stars and the moon, and suddenly remembered that today was also a traditional mythological festival where "a beautiful maiden from heaven falls to earth." So he dug out relevant old materials from Professor Albion's collection of ancient books, looking at them here and there, but the more he looked, the more worried he became:

The Qixi Festival legend of a beautiful girl falling from the sky and marrying a mortal seems a bit eerie upon closer reading.

The earliest written record of the legend found by Hayden is in a document from about 1,900 years ago. The original text is very simple, just this passage: "A man from Xinyu County, Yuzhang, saw six or seven women in a field, all wearing feathered garments, but he did not know they were birds. He crawled over and found the feathered garment that one of the women had taken off, and hid it. He then went to the birds. The birds all flew away, but one bird could not leave. The man took her as his wife. She gave birth to three daughters. Later, their mother sent the daughters to ask their father, who told them that the garment was under a pile of rice. They found it, put it on, and flew away."

These stories, known as "feathered fairy tales," are similar to the so-called "Swan Maiden" stories and are actually world-class legends found all over the globe. At first glance, they seem interesting, but upon closer inspection, they are quite bizarre: a mortal steals the clothes of a beautiful girl who falls from the sky, preventing her from returning home, and then forces her to marry him and have children—what kind of nonsense is this?

Even so, even if she gives birth to three children for you, the celestial maiden will still try every means to get her clothes back after marriage. Once she gets her feather robe back, she will immediately flee the human world without looking back, without any regrets.

So Hayden carefully searched through the professor's library for different versions of the story throughout history, and finally determined that the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl's love being thwarted by the Queen Mother of the West was basically an evolution and adaptation that had only occurred in the last few centuries. Hayden also discovered that in the earlier versions of the story from the Jiangnan region, the Milky Way was created by the Weaver Girl herself to block the Cowherd's pursuit.

In conclusion, the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, or the ancient myth of the "Fairy Maiden in Feathered Robes" that exists all over the world, is less a love story of mutual affection and more a story of a mortal abducting and kidnapping a fairy maiden... Thinking about it this way, it really gave Hayden the creeps.

Because it seems he himself inadvertently did something similar.

Although Hayden didn't know it at the time, his summoning of Angela back then was perhaps, well, something similar.

Thinking of this, Hayden couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. He then flipped through documents from the last few hundred years and discovered several similar ancient folk tales, such as "The Snail Maiden" and "Xu Xian Meets the White Snake." The basic premise of these stories was actually the same: an extremely poor, weak, or incompetent man, by chance, acquires an exceptionally beautiful, wealthy, and even powerful woman. This woman not only provides him with physical affection but also offers him unlimited financial support and, when necessary, provides security, such as flooding Jinshan Temple and rescuing her husband from afar.

So, generally speaking, the female protagonist in these stories is not only the man's virtuous wife, but also his loving mother, and even his bodyguard, capable of taking care of the immature male protagonist through thick and thin. And the male protagonist? He's mostly portrayed as an incompetent figure who neither takes initiative nor refuses, and is irresponsible.

So the more Hayden read, the more cold sweat he broke out in. He felt as if he were riddled with arrows, a target from which he had been shot. In the end, he could only collapse on his desk and cover his face.

This ancient myth of "feathered celestial maidens" is found all over the world, and frankly, Hayden doesn't believe it doesn't share a common, ancient origin. But if it truly does have an ancient origin, does it hint at something about the outer world? And Angela, as everyone knows, came from beyond the heavens.

The thought of his situation with Angela made Hayden's stomach churn. He hadn't stolen any of Angela's clothes, of course, but items in myths and legends were often just symbols and metaphors. Who knew what this symbol truly represented? Who knew if Hayden had messed something up? Who knew if, after some condition was met, Angela would fly away?

He was really scared.

As luck would have it, Angela just walked into the study with some pastries and tea. She immediately saw Hayden sobbing at his desk and frowned. "Master, what's wrong with you again?"

Hayden opened his mouth and pointed to the large pile of ancient books on the table: "I'm reading."

Angela peeked over and immediately understood. So she put down her tea and snacks, reached out and stroked Hayden's head, gently comforting him: "Master, you have no power to force me to stay by your side, and I will not leave you. As you said, I was born to fulfill your wishes. I love you, and I want to help you achieve happiness."

Hearing her words of comfort, Hayden felt even more bitter: "Then why do you want to grant my wish?"

Angela calmly replied, "Because you asked me for help."

"...Then why didn't you help other people fulfill their wishes?"

Ange tilted her head: "They don't have it because they don't ask for it."

Hayden was speechless for a moment. Conversations with Angela were always so perplexing and incomprehensible. But this still made Hayden think of something else.

If we're talking about the legend of the Weaver Girl, then there's one more person we have to mention: Dong Yong.

Ancient texts from 1,900 years ago describe him as follows:

"Dong Yong was a man from Qiancheng. Orphaned at a young age, he lived with his father. He worked diligently in the fields, always carried in a deer-drawn cart. When his father died, having no money for a burial, he sold himself into slavery to pay for the funeral. His master, knowing his virtue, gave him ten thousand coins and sent him away. After three years of mourning, Yong wished to return to his master and resume his slave duties. On the way, he met a woman who said, 'I wish to be your wife.' So he took her with him. The master said to Yong, 'I have given you the money.' Yong said, 'I am deeply grateful for your kindness in burying my father. Though I am a lowly man, I will certainly serve you diligently to repay your kindness.' The master asked, 'What can you do, woman?' Yong replied, 'I can weave.' The master said, 'If that is so, then have your wife weave one hundred bolts of cloth for me.' So Yong's wife wove for the master's house, finishing in ten days. The woman went out and said to Yong, 'I am the Weaver Girl from Heaven. Because of your filial piety, the Heavenly Emperor has sent me to help you repay your debt.' After speaking, she rose into the sky and disappeared without a trace."

The story also features the Weaver Girl. Although not explicitly stated, it's clear she is a fairy maiden of the Heavenly Emperor, or very likely his daughter. This is because the *Records of the Grand Historian* states, "The Weaver Girl is the granddaughter of the Heavenly Emperor," and the *Book of the Later Han* describes her as "the true daughter of the Son of Heaven." In other words, she is a daughter of Heaven.

She married Dong Yong because the Jade Emperor was moved by Dong Yong's virtue and ordered the Weaver Girl to marry him to help him repay his debts. Once the debts were paid off, even though Dong Yong possessed great virtue, the Weaver Girl had no love for him, so she left after completing her task.

In this story, Dong Yong neither pursued the Weaver Girl nor stole her clothes to force her to marry him. To compare Dong Yong to the Cowherd is a stretch, but this legend inevitably reminded Hayden of himself. If the Cowherd forced her with stolen clothes, and Dong Yong moved God with his virtue, the two are completely opposite, yet their endings share a similarity—both wives who fell from the sky eventually left. Even a rare good young man like Dong Yong, after the Weaver Girl obeyed the Jade Emperor's command and completed her task, still ended up leaving.

And what about Hayden?

Will Angela eventually leave too? Does she truly love Hayden? Even if Angela treats him well, their current relationship is probably just a sacred affection, not romantic love. Just like there's no such thing as love between a person and a cat, no matter how much a person loves their cat, or how much the cat cherishes its owner, it can't be love.

One day, people and cats will be separated.

...But Hayden, no matter what, did not want to become that cat.

He would not allow that outcome to happen in any way.

In any case, he would never allow himself to become the protagonist of such a story.

So no matter what, he was determined to make it happen. Reason couldn't stop him, and neither could self-interest. Because it truly was the light of his life, the fire of his soul. Even if it meant turning from a cat into a human, from a human into a god, even if it meant extracting knowledge from the minds of bodhisattvas.

Hayden would learn whatever he needed to learn, invent whatever he needed to invent, and explore the secrets of the Outer Gods. He did not accept this ending, because there was no reason why—

"Owner."

Angela spoke up at this moment,

"Please don't forget that I'm not the only one who has given you so much and supported you."

A sharp glint flashed in her eyes.

"Others have also given you a lot of support and love. You don't intend to accept this support while continuing to act like you don't want to take responsibility, do you?"

These words stunned Hayden, who had just made up his mind, and left him speechless.

Was Angela the only woman who provided Hayden with substantial material and emotional support? Of course not. So who were these "other women"?

Was it Abigail? I wouldn't say. Although she had helped Hayden a lot, and although Hayden always gave her face and respect, their relationship was actually more like that of equals, with Hayden probably giving her even more benefits.

As for Panya, that's even more impossible. It's somewhat ironic that, despite her superior fighting ability compared to Hayden, she's actually more dependent on him both psychologically and materially, much like Hayden is raising a lioness.

Besides Angela, who is the woman Hayden has received more than he has given, and who he truly cannot live without?

Of course, it was only Karen. Although she also received a lot of help from Hayden, it couldn't compare to the help she gave Hayden!

Thinking about it this way, Mr. Hayden, you really are a very impressive gigolo!