Chapter — The Tree That Saw Everything
The room was silent.
The article remained open on Du Xulan's phone.
Private schedules.
Confidential information.
Details that should never have been available to the public.
Tomoe stared at the screen for several seconds before slowly leaning back.
"This person has been planning this."
Du Xulan nodded.
"For some time."
Tomoe's eyes narrowed.
"Then we stop treating this as a scandal."
Du Xulan looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Tomoe's expression changed.
The gentle warmth he usually carried disappeared.
In its place was something much older.
Something Du Xulan had never seen before.
"We investigate."
Du Xulan raised an eyebrow.
"You sound confident."
Tomoe smiled faintly.
"I am."
He reached for his phone.
A translucent golden screen appeared before his eyes.
Only he could see it.
[CHEAT SYSTEM ACTIVATED.]
[Host: Tomoe.]
[Current Identity: Human Vessel.]
[True Origin: Yggdrasil — Tree of Origin.]
[Previous Profession: Gold-Level Lawyer.]
[Available Authorities:]
[Origin Observation.]
[World Thread Perception.]
[Soul Trace.]
[Causal Analysis.]
[Absolute Memory.]
[Truth Verification.]
[Universal Archive Access.]
[Origin Root Connection.]
Tomoe's lips curved upward.
He had spent three eons as Yggdrasil.
He had birthed worlds.
Watched civilizations rise.
Watched stars die.
He had witnessed the birth of countless souls.
And before that?
He had been a lawyer.
A very good one.
A gold-level lawyer who had spent an entire lifetime learning how to recognize contradictions, manipulate arguments, dissect evidence, and find the single detail everyone else overlooked.
Those two lives had given him something terrifying.
Perspective.
He could see things others couldn't.
And now he had a cheat system.
The combination was almost unfair.
Tomoe whispered,
"Let's see what you're hiding."
[Causal Analysis activated.]
The golden screen expanded.
Lines of information appeared.
The article.
The photographs.
The leaked schedules.
The anonymous accounts.
The uploaded documents.
Every piece of evidence became connected by glowing threads.
Tomoe's eyes sharpened.
He followed the threads backward.
One photograph.
Then another.
Then another.
The photographs had been taken by different cameras.
Different locations.
Different dates.
But the information had ultimately passed through the same digital relay.
Tomoe smiled.
"Found you."
Du Xulan immediately looked at him.
"You found something?"
"Maybe."
Tomoe swiped his finger through the air.
The system responded.
[Tracing information origin.]
[Tracing secondary transmission.]
[Tracing encrypted relay.]
[Tracing original source.]
The screen flashed.
[Origin located.]
Tomoe's expression became serious.
"Someone inside your diplomatic network accessed your schedule."
Du Xulan's gaze hardened.
"Who?"
"Give me a second."
Tomoe activated another ability.
[Universal Archive Access.]
For an ordinary person, the ability would have been incomprehensible.
For Yggdrasil, it was natural.
Every world had roots.
Every event left an imprint.
Every action created a causal thread.
And Yggdrasil had once been connected to them all.
The information unfolded before Tomoe's eyes.
Personnel records.
Access logs.
Security records.
Communication histories.
Tomoe searched.
One name repeatedly appeared near the beginning of the chain.
Liang Wei.
Du Xulan went still.
"I know him."
"How well?"
"Senior diplomatic attaché. We worked together on several international projects."
Tomoe looked at him.
"Did he know about us?"
Du Xulan's expression darkened.
"Yes."
"When?"
"Several months ago."
Tomoe nodded.
"That explains the timing."
Du Xulan frowned.
"Explain."
"Look."
Tomoe displayed the timeline.
"Three weeks before the first photograph was published, Liang Wei accessed your private schedule."
Du Xulan stared at the screen.
"Impossible."
"Why?"
"That schedule was restricted."
Tomoe gave him a knowing smile.
"Which means someone with high-level clearance gave him access."
Du Xulan's expression hardened.
"And then?"
"Two weeks later, the photographs began appearing."
Tomoe continued scrolling.
"But that's not the interesting part."
"What is?"
"He didn't leak the information directly."
Du Xulan looked at him.
"Then who did?"
Tomoe smiled.
"He paid someone."
Tomoe spent the next hour reconstructing everything.
He used his legal training to establish motive.
His system to locate evidence.
His Yggdrasil authority to trace causality.
And his absolute memory to compare every contradiction.
By the time he finished, the entire scheme had become clear.
Liang Wei had discovered their relationship.
He had considered it a vulnerability.
He had leaked selected information to a media contact, expecting the scandal to damage Du Xulan's diplomatic standing.
But there was more.
He had deliberately mixed legitimate information with fabricated claims suggesting that Du Xulan had used his diplomatic influence to benefit Tomoe.
That was the real attack.
Not their relationship.
Their integrity.
Tomoe's eyes became cold.
"He's trying to create the appearance of corruption."
Du Xulan nodded slowly.
"That could end both our careers."
"Exactly."
Tomoe stood.
"Then we'll dismantle the lie."
The next morning, Tomoe walked into the hospital administration office with a folder.
He placed it on the desk.
"I have evidence."
The administrators looked at him.
"Evidence of what?"
"Where the leaked information came from."
Within minutes, the room became tense.
Tomoe explained everything.
He didn't mention the system.
He certainly didn't mention that he had once been Yggdrasil.
Instead, he presented the evidence exactly as a gold-level lawyer would.
Access records.
Time stamps.
Communication patterns.
Financial transactions.
Contradictions.
Connections.
He didn't overwhelm them.
He dismantled the case piece by piece.
When one administrator questioned whether the evidence could be trusted, Tomoe calmly responded.
"I anticipated that question."
He opened another file.
"This independently confirms it."
Silence.
The administrator stared at the documents.
"How did you find all this?"
Tomoe smiled.
"I pay attention."
Across the city, Du Xulan was doing the same.
Except he had brought the evidence to the appropriate authorities.
The investigation moved quickly.
Within forty-eight hours, Liang Wei was confronted.
At first, he denied everything.
Then the evidence was presented.
He denied knowing about the photographs.
Then the communication records were shown.
He claimed someone had fabricated them.
Then the financial records appeared.
His story collapsed.
Piece by piece.
Eventually, the truth came out.
He had deliberately leaked the information.
He had manipulated the media.
He had fabricated portions of the allegations.
And he had hoped the resulting scandal would force Du Xulan out of his position.
The revelation spread almost as quickly as the original scandal.
But this time, the headlines were different.
DIPLOMATIC LEAK TRACED TO INTERNAL SOURCE
FALSE ALLEGATIONS EXPOSED
NO EVIDENCE OF MISCONDUCT BY DIPLOMAT OR MEDICAL PROFESSOR
The storm finally began to settle.
That evening, Tomoe stood on the balcony of his apartment.
The city was quiet beneath him.
Du Xulan stepped outside.
"It's over."
Tomoe nodded.
"Mostly."
"Mostly?"
"There will always be gossip."
Du Xulan smiled.
"You're right."
Tomoe turned toward him.
For several seconds, they simply looked at each other.
Three weeks apart.
Then weeks of accusations.
Interrogations.
Rumors.
Fear.
And somehow, they were still standing.
Together.
Du Xulan walked closer.
"I was afraid."
Tomoe blinked.
"You?"
"Yes."
"I thought you were incapable of being afraid."
Du Xulan laughed softly.
"I am a diplomat, not a machine."
Tomoe smiled.
"What were you afraid of?"
"Losing you."
Tomoe's expression softened.
Du Xulan continued.
"Not my career."
"Xulan..."
"Not my reputation."
He stepped closer.
"You."
Tomoe's heart began beating faster.
Du Xulan gently took his hand.
"I realized something during all of this."
"What?"
"I don't want our relationship to exist only behind closed doors because we're afraid of what people might say."
Tomoe stared at him.
"But we still have to be careful."
"I know."
"We have responsibilities."
"I know."
"Our positions aren't going anywhere."
"I know."
Tomoe smiled.
"Then what are you saying?"
Du Xulan's gaze softened.
"That I love you."
Tomoe's breath caught.
Even after everything they'd been through, those words still affected him.
He stepped closer.
"I love you too."
Du Xulan raised a hand and gently touched Tomoe's cheek.
Neither spoke.
There was no need.
Tomoe closed the remaining distance between them.
Their lips met.
The kiss was gentle at first.
Almost hesitant.
Then Tomoe relaxed into it.
The tension that had lived inside both of them for weeks finally disappeared.
No reporters.
No accusations.
No diplomatic meetings.
No hospital committees.
No responsibilities.
Just them.
When they finally separated, Tomoe rested his forehead against Du Xulan's.
He laughed softly.
"You know something?"
"What?"
"My system says our compatibility is extremely high."
Du Xulan stared at him.
"Your what?"
Tomoe froze.
"...Nothing."
Du Xulan narrowed his eyes.
"You were about to say something."
"No."
"You definitely were."
Tomoe smiled innocently.
"I think you've been under too much stress."
Du Xulan laughed.
"You're impossible."
"And you love me."
"Unfortunately."
Tomoe grinned.
"Very unfortunately."
Du Xulan kissed him again.
This time, neither of them hesitated.
Far beyond the limits of the human world, something stirred.
The moment Tomoe's lips met Du Xulan's, the golden system screen appeared again.
[Soul Resonance detected.]
Tomoe's smile disappeared.
Another message appeared.
[Target Soul Fragment: Detected.]
His eyes widened.
For three eons, he had searched.
Across countless worlds.
Across countless lives.
Across countless fragments of existence.
He had always believed that finding Du Xulan again would require him to search every corner of the myriad universes.
But now—
The system had detected something.
Something he had been searching for since the day Du Xulan's soul shattered.
Tomoe slowly pulled away.
Du Xulan noticed the sudden change in his expression.
"What happened?"
Tomoe looked at him.
For the first time, there was something almost otherworldly in his golden, silver-rimmed eyes.
"I found something."
"What?"
Tomoe looked toward the night sky.
"A piece of you."
Du Xulan's expression changed.
"What do you mean?"
Tomoe didn't answer immediately.
Because somewhere beyond this world, beyond this universe, beyond everything they could see—
A fragment of Du Xulan's shattered soul had awakened.
And Tomoe's cheat system had finally found it.
His journey was about to become far larger than either of them had imagined.