That gentle yet sincere, utterly heartless declaration, like the sharpest ice blade carved from the purest diamond, instantly pierced the hearts of the two young women present.
"...My knightly name now exists only for the one young woman by my side."
The voice was not loud, yet it echoed like thunder in the large, palace-like room.
One heart belonged to Chloé.
That haughty heart, always wrapped in pride, confidence, and arrogance, shattered completely at this moment.
"Wh-what?" She couldn't believe what she had heard.
Her blue eyes, which always sparkled with disdain and superiority, were now wide like two fragile, about-to-shatter glass marbles.
They were filled with shock, humiliation, and... heartbreak, a million times deeper than being attacked by an Akumatized Person.
"Th-this is ridiculous!!!"
She shrieked hysterically, her voice so sharp it almost pierced everyone's eardrums, "This is impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"
She pointed at the figure in the black and white bodysuit, gently protected by Mr. Information, then pointed at herself, her exquisitely made-up face, for the first time, showing genuine, despairing collapse.
"Clearly... clearly it should be me! Clearly I am His queen!"
She incoherently poured out the anger of betrayal and indignation in her heart, "The first time we faced a crisis, it was me! It was I who was by His side!
It was I who worried for Him! Clearly... clearly all of this... should belong to me!!"
The other shattered heart belonged to Ladybug.
That heart, always full of resilience and hope, beating to protect Paris, was also harshly cut open with a deep, bleeding gash the moment it heard that declaration.
Unlike Chloé's hysterical shouting, her heartbreak was silent, restrained, yet also more... profound.
Sourness and bitterness, like a burst dam of icy tide, instantly engulfed her.
She could clearly feel her heart twitching and aching, beat by beat.
But she still maintained her final dignity and strength as Ladybug.
She forcibly suppressed the turbulent personal emotions of Marinette in her heart, raised her head, and met the gaze of the familiar yet strange, elegant enemy before her with her still clear blue eyes, now tinged with a faint sadness.
"Mr. Information." She deliberately did not use the name "Jaden" to address Him.
This was both to psychologically separate this Akumatized "enemy" from the gentle young man in her heart; and to allow herself to focus more on dealing with this unprecedented, severe crisis.
"Cat Noir?" she asked in a low voice, "What have you done to him?"
"Him?"
Mr. Information's face even held a polite, gentle smile.
He slowly raised the hand that wasn't holding Lady Wifi, spread His palm, and then, as if displaying an insignificant, beautiful ornament, lightly tossed something upwards.
A metallic gleam from a black ring with a cat paw design arced gracefully and chillingly under the room's dazzling crystal chandelier.
It was Cat Noir's ring!
Ladybug's pupils instantly constricted to pinpricks!
Her heart plummeted!
She wanted to say something, but didn't know where to start.
"Don't worry," Mr. Information seemed to see through all her worries, and slowly said in His elegant yet sincere tone, as if stating a fact, "I have no interest in his true identity.
Hawk Moth also has no great interest in his true identity."
"So, I merely used a small 'information storm' to send him back the way he came."
"At this point, he should already be home."
A violent surge of data, like being caught in a tornado, suddenly appeared out of thin air!
Immediately after, with a "bang," Adrien's body was flung out of the data vortex like a discarded rag doll, landing heavily and disheveled on the soft, pure white carpet of his room!
His Cat Noir transformation had already ended.
He sat up from the floor in a daze, feeling as if he had just experienced a magnitude 10 earthquake; every part of his body ached.
But what frightened and emptied him the most was the hollow feeling on his right ring finger.
His ring... his miraculous... was... taken?!
He stared incredulously at his empty finger, his mind completely blank at that moment.
He didn't know what to do, nor did he know what he *could* do.
An unprecedented, immense sense of powerlessness and frustration, like the heaviest shackles, firmly bound him in place.
In the presidential suite.
Mr. Information elegantly toyed with the black cat paw ring, which was still in its transformed state, between His fingers.
His eyes calmly watched the lonely hero before Him, who was already in an absolutely disadvantaged position.
"What I want, and what Hawk Moth wants, is actually very simple." His voice was soft, like a whisper in the ear,
"Just the miraculous."
"Excellent! Well done! Mr. Information!"
Hawk Moth's voice, filled with ecstasy and excitement, roared frantically directly in His mind!
"Cat Noir's miraculous is in hand! Only one last step remains! As long as I get Ladybug's earrings!
My wish... my wish will... will come true! And our deal can be perfectly completed!"
Mr. Information and Lady Wifi's gazes, like two cold searchlights locking onto their prey, simultaneously fell on Ladybug's small, ladybug-red-and-black-spotted earrings.
At that moment, Ladybug felt as if she had been completely locked onto by two of the most skilled, most patient predators.
She no longer hesitated! The instinct for survival made her react correctly immediately!
She wanted to leap directly out of this dangerous, enclosed room!
However—
"Bang!"
There was another dull thud, like hitting tempered glass!
Her body was forcefully bounced back by an invisible, solid wall!
"Don't waste your energy." Mr. Information's voice was like a final, unchangeable verdict, "When I entered this room, I had already set up an information barrier.
No messages can get out.
Similarly, no one can get out."
He slowly walked towards her, step by step.
With every step He took, Ladybug's heart sank a little further.
"I have no interest in your identity." His voice was still so gentle, so... sincere,
"So, will you give it to me yourself? Or... shall I take it myself?"
Ladybug took a deep breath, forcing herself to break free from the immense, mountain-heavy pressure!
"You forgot," her voice, though with a barely perceptible tremor, was still so firm, so... unyielding, "I still have a trump card I haven't used!"
Hearing this, Lady Wifi, standing nearby, couldn't help but sneer.
"Trump card?" Alya's voice was full of sarcasm and disdain, "Are you referring to that 'Lucky Charm' that nine out of ten times produces some inexplicable, useless object?"
"Ladybug, I advise you, don't waste your energy." Her face held the absolute confidence of a victor, "Now, my Mister and I are both here.
No matter how heaven-defying your 'Lucky Charm' is, do you really expect to defeat both of us at the same time?!"
"Don't underestimate her! Lady Wifi!"
Hawk Moth's wary voice immediately sounded in her mind, "In the past few weeks, most of my Akumatized Persons have been defeated by her seemingly useless 'Lucky Charm'!
Absolutely do not be careless!"
However, at this moment, Lady Wifi was already dizzy with the joy of victory.
She disdainfully replied to Hawk Moth: "That's because they were too careless! Hawk Moth, you can rest assured!
Now, my Mister and I are both here!
No matter how heaven-defying her power is, it's absolutely impossible for her to turn the tide against the two of us!"
"Yes! Use it! Use your Lucky Charm! Ladybug!" Chloé, thrown on the sofa, couldn't hold back either! Like a spectator who loves to see a spectacle, she urged impatiently, "Hurry up and use it!
Anything is fine! I really can't stand Alya, that four-eyed nerd, looking so smug and showing off!"
Under everyone's gaze, Ladybug no longer hesitated!
She placed her only hope on that elusive power called "luck"!
She suddenly swung the yo-yo in her hand towards the high, classically embossed ceiling of the room!
"Lucky Charm!"
Pink light, full of creation and hope, instantly erupted from the yo-yo!
The light dissipated.
A small, black, seemingly unremarkable object slowly fell from mid-air.
It was a voice recorder.
It's settled.
This thought flashed simultaneously in the minds of Lady Wifi and Hawk Moth.
After all, what good could a small voice recorder do?
To record Ladybug's last words after losing her miraculous?
"A voice recorder?!" Chloé exclaimed with exaggerated disappointment upon seeing this, "What the heck?!
What time is it?!
Your Lucky Charm is still as unreliable as ever!"
However, Ladybug ignored all the sarcastic and disdainful voices around her.
Her beautiful blue eyes instantly entered a state of absolute, heightened focus!
Her vision transformed into countless special perspectives!
She quickly scanned all the items in the room!
The huge bed, the magnificent crystal chandelier, the dressing table covered with cosmetics, Chloé's phone thrown on the carpet, and even... Chloé herself!
In her mind, the hero's supercomputer was running at an unimaginable speed!
She had to combine this small voice recorder with all the potentially usable items in the room!
She had to find the one and only path, even if there was only a 0.01% chance, that would allow her to turn the tide from this absolute, suffocating predicament!
However... one second passed... three seconds passed... five seconds passed... nothing.
In her special, spotted vision, no object was flashing at her, no object was giving her a hint.
Her heart sank, little by little.
Could it be... could it be that this time... luck truly wasn't on her side?
The "Lucky Charm" brought an eerie, awkward silence.
Mr. Information looked at the small, black voice recorder in Ladybug's hand, and deep inside, the complaining soul belonging to Jaden, which hadn't surfaced in a long time, almost burst forth.
No... what the heck? He silently screamed in his heart.
Couldn't it be something a little more useful? Like a key that could break the information barrier?
Or a bomb that could temporarily interfere with my abilities?
You give me a voice recorder, how am I supposed to "go easy" legitimately now?!
"
He had made all the preparations; as long as Ladybug showed even a slight, symbolic possibility of turning the tide, he would immediately "cooperate" by exposing a huge flaw, enough for her to turn the situation around.
But now… "Mister…" The Lady Wifi beside him clearly didn't have such a complex inner monologue.
She looked at the almost certain, undisputed victory before her, and a sweet smile, full of happiness and adoration, appeared on her face.
She pressed her body closer to him, her eyes reflecting his elegant, cold, and perfect profile. "We'll… finally be together… forever…"
She had long forgotten that her initial goal was merely to punish Chloé, to seek a so-called "justice."
Now, her entire world revolved solely around him.
Ladybug looked at the voice recorder in her hand, then at the "enemies" opposite her, who were practically glued together, oblivious to their surroundings, and at Chloé, who was still on the sofa, watching her with an expression of schadenfreude.
A tremendous sense of powerlessness, unlike anything she had ever felt before, surged within her. But she still didn't give up.
With the last glimmer of faint hope, she pressed the play button on the seemingly unremarkable voice recorder.
After a crackle of static, a girl's dreamy, infatuated voice, full of adoration, suddenly emanated from the tiny speaker: "Jaden… Jaden… Roni…"
"…" The entire room instantly fell into an even more eerie, deathly silence. Everyone's movements froze.
"Pfft—" The first one to lose her composure was Lady Wifi. She pointed at Ladybug and, without ceremony, loudly mocked, "What… What is this?!
A dying confession recording?!
No… that voice… it sounds like… Marinette's, right?"
"It is Marinette's voice!" Chloé on the sofa immediately chimed in. She scrutinized Ladybug with an expression full of disdain and contempt, "I say, Ladybug, your Lucky Charm, it couldn't possibly record people's dreams, could it?
That's… so lame!"
And Ladybug, the "heroine" of the incident, standing between them, felt like she could truly dig a Barbie Dream Castle with her toes into the priceless Persian rug beneath her feet!
Social death… This was practically… a public execution!
She let out a silent, pained wail in her heart.
Fortunately… fortunately, they didn't know that I was Marinette… otherwise… But then, a huge confusion surged into her heart.
That's not right… I… when did I ever say such… such embarrassing things?!
Could it be… in my sleep?!
And the "Mr. Information" standing opposite her, who had always maintained his elegance and calm, felt… something was wrong the moment he heard that voice.
The voice from the recorder continued.
"…Why did you leave me…?"
"…Why did you… abandon me…?"
The voice was no longer the infatuated, dreamy murmur from before.
Instead, it was a heart-wrenching, desperate, and sorrowful question!
That pain was so real, so… heartbreaking, as if it could pierce through time and directly into the depths of every listener's soul!
"What… What kind of messed-up recording is this?!"
Lady Wifi frowned. As Marinette's best friend, she could swear that ever since she met Jaden, she had never, ever heard Marinette say such things!
Nor had she ever seen her show such… desperate emotions, as if she had been abandoned by the whole world!
She was about to say something more to mock Ladybug's inexplicable "Lucky Charm."
But when she looked up, she found that the faces of the two people opposite had become… somewhat off.
Chloé, the always proud, always arrogant Chloé, had now actually put away her expression of watching a good show.
Her face even showed… worry?
Alya turned her head in confusion to look at the "Mister" beside her, whom she revered as a god.
Then, she saw a scene that made her heart skip a beat.
Mr. Information, the man who was always so calm, so elegant, so seemingly in control of everything, had now… raised a hand and, somewhat painfully, held his forehead!
His warm and strong hand, which had always held hers tightly, also weakly released its grip.
"Mister?!" Alya's heart suddenly clenched! She anxiously supported his slightly swaying body, "You… What's wrong with you?!"
"I… I don't know…" Mr. Information's voice, for the first time, carried a weak, confused quality that he himself couldn't understand.
A sudden, inexplicable, overwhelming, and intense headache, like a surging tide, attacked him without warning!
Countless fragmented, chaotic, and unfamiliar memory shards, like sharp glass shards swept up by a storm, wildly and uncontrollably tumbled in his mind, cutting into his consciousness!
The first fragment was so clear, so… cold. Before the transmigration, he was walking alone on a bustling city street, filled with traffic.
The sky was gray.
He had just seen off the last two relatives he had in this world.
He was truly alone. He felt as if the entire world was a huge, cold cage that was at odds with him.
Just as he stepped onto the crosswalk in a daze, a piercing, urgent horn, and a dazzling, death-scythe-like high beam… The second fragment became blurry, filled with pain and struggle.
His whole body ached… His bones felt like they had been crushed… It was so cold… The cold, rough asphalt road was mercilessly drawing away the last trace of warmth from his body… He felt his life rapidly draining away… Just when he thought he was going to die so lonely and miserably, at that last moment… A blurred figure appeared before him… That figure seemed to say something to him… That voice was so familiar… so… comforting… But… who was she?!
Her name… her appearance… Why… why couldn't he remember anything?!
The third fragment was even more… bizarre. He suddenly appeared in an unfamiliar house, full of signs of life.
Outside the window were the iconic, beautiful architectural outlines of Paris.
These memories were so chaotic, so… contradictory, like a virus, raging wildly in his mind!
"Ugh…" An uncontrollable, low cry of pain escaped from the depths of his throat.
He tried to use his powerful abilities, those of "Mr. Information," to analyze, organize, and even… drive away these damned, alien memory fragments!
But it was useless! Those fragments seemed to have a life of their own, rooting themselves deep in his consciousness!
"Mister! What exactly is wrong with you?!" Alya's voice was already tearful!
Looking at this man, who had suddenly become so vulnerable, she felt her heart breaking!
"I… My head… It's too chaotic… too… confused…"
"No way… This… This can happen?!" Chloé on the sofa, watching this melodramatic development, was completely at a loss as to what expression to wear.
And Ladybug, standing opposite them, looking at this scene, her heart was also filled with all sorts of complex thoughts that she herself couldn't sort out.
There was worry, confusion, and even… a hint of small, secret joy that she hadn't even noticed herself.
"Don't mind him! Lady Wifi!" Hawk Moth's anxious and angry voice roared wildly in Alya's mind! "First, pick up the phone you threw on the ground!
Quick! Absolutely! Absolutely do not let Ladybug get it!!"
However, at this moment, Alya was in no state to listen to him!
"I don't care about any of that!" She shouted angrily and unequivocally at Hawk Moth in her mind, "Mister! Are… are you alright?!
Look at me!" Her world now contained only this man, who was struggling in pain.
Meanwhile, Ladybug finally snapped out of the complex personal emotions belonging to Marinette!
The moment her beautiful blue eyes saw Alya's phone, which was lying on the ground as the Akuma Butterfly's host object, the resolute light of a superhero reignited!
She no longer hesitated for a moment! Seizing this once-in-a-lifetime, fleeting opportunity, while everyone's attention was focused on Mr. Information!
She darted forward! She bent down and precisely picked up the black phone!
Then, without hesitation, she used all her strength to smash it fiercely onto the hard, marble-tiled floor!
"Bang—!" A crisp, shattering sound! The phone instantly shattered into pieces! A tired Akuma Butterfly, full of reluctance, flew out from it!
And the moment the Akuma Butterfly detached from its host object! The Akumatization energy that enveloped Jaden and Alya instantly dissolved!
"Ah…" Jaden's pained expression slowly returned to calm.
His cold eyes, which seemed to contain the entire starry sky, also reverted to their pure black, always with a hint of laziness and gentleness.
He blinked a few times in a daze, feeling as if he had a very long, very chaotic dream.
"Purify!"
Ladybug swung her yo-yo, completely transforming the Akuma Butterfly back into its pure white, harmless form.
"Goodbye, little butterfly."
"Miraculous Restoration!"
Countless pink ladybugs, full of creation and hope, miraculously filled the entire room, instantly repairing all the damage caused by the battle, restoring everything to its original state.
Including the phone that had been smashed to pieces.
In his distant lair, Hawk Moth watched the frustrating scene of his efforts coming to naught, letting out a roar of unwilling, angry impotence: "No—!!!
It was… it was so close!!"
In the presidential suite.
Jaden and Alya still maintained their previous posture of supporting each other.
They exchanged a bewildered glance, then looked at their familiar, luxurious surroundings, and at the two uninvited guests who were watching them with complex, scrutinizing expressions.
"Wha… What happened?"
Jaden rubbed his still somewhat swollen, faintly aching temples, his face filled with innocence and bewilderment, "I… I was just now, wasn't I… by the Seine River?
I… I was comforting Alya…"
"Yes… yes…" Alya also looked bewildered. She completely couldn't remember how she had gotten from the river to this place.
Her memory remained at the warm and touching moment when Jaden went to buy her ice cream.
The two of them were like two innocent victims who had just woken from a dream, completely out of the loop.