"What do you think of this one? ... How about this one?"

"Not quite right, this outfit doesn't really suit your style."

"Well... what about this? By the way, should I spray some perfume? I read that's what you're supposed to do."

"Perfume? Let me think."

Sublimation Furnace Core, employee housing area, Belli's room.

Aimou, like a life-sized doll, stood in front of the full-length mirror in her tight-fitting underwear, allowing Belli to dress her up.

In preparation for tonight's date, Aimou had gone all out, suppressing her initial reluctance and seeking help from her senior, leveraging Belli's authority as a department head to take some time off for preparation.

By now, Aimou had already tried on many outfits, which piled up on the bed, covering all seasons and styles like a blooming garden.

These clothes didn't belong to Aimou, but to Belli. During Aimou's time at work, she mostly focused on her job, and any personal time left was spent on reading and studying.

Even though she had an interest in beauty, Aimou channeled this into self-improvement, opting for colorful halo-like upgrades in a peculiar direction.

Until now, Aimou hadn't gone shopping much; most of her new clothes were bought by Belli. As for other common activities, Aimou mostly learned about them through books.

For a long time, Aimou didn't care about these things, much like a fish nestled in water wouldn't care about the experiences of a bird in flight. Aimou saw herself as that fish, now wanting to befriend a bird, thus naturally needing to explore the sky.

"Hold on, let me find something else."

Belli opened the wardrobe, rummaging through and pulling out a few more dresses, cheerfully helping Aimou into them.

"Pretty nice, fits quite well."

Belli looked at the full-length mirror from behind Aimou, repeatedly complimenting her fashion sense.

Previously, Belli had made several adjustments to Aimou's damaged body, improving Aimou's figure in each alteration.

During Aimou's self-upgrades, she made some slight adjustments according to her own preferences, but largely, the two remained quite similar. Most of Belli's clothes fit Aimou well.

"Hmm... this one's decent too, let's promote it to the next round of selection."

Belli said, taking the outfit off Aimou and throwing it back on the bed, while the ones on the floor were already eliminated from this dress-up game.

"How long do I have to keep trying?"

Aimou asked softly; she had been changing clothes for almost an hour and it seemed endless.

A pair of hands reached out from behind, pinching Aimou's face, forcing her to look at the full-length mirror.

"Little junior, you're really concerned about tonight's date, aren't you?" Belli whispered behind her ear, "Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to me."

Aimou kept a straight face; she knew her senior's nature well, staying silent to deprive Belli of feedback to dampen her interest.

"Sigh, you usually resist even a hug, but this time you're being so cooperative; it shows your sincerity."

Belli said as she squeezed Aimou's waist, resting her chin on Aimou's shoulder, whispering gently in her ear.

The shared past and complex emotions overlapped heavily, shaping Belli's current attitude towards Aimou. Belli liked Aimou very much, viewing her as one of her few family members.

Unfortunately, Belli's expression of affection was rather rough. Like seeing a cute kitten and, without considering its feelings, rubbing it excessively... most of the time, that's how Belli treated Aimou, leading to Aimou's strong resistance to Belli's initiations of physical affection.

Belli often complained, "Why is it okay when you hug me first, but not when I hug you first?"

Aimou had given up arguing with Belli; she could never win, so Aimou firmly said, "Then let's keep some distance."

That didn't always put Aimou at a disadvantage. As long as she said this, Belli would show a mischievous smile like Palmer's, circling Aimou endlessly until Aimou took the initiative to reconcile.

"Are you sure you're helping me pick out clothes?" Aimou was fed up, "Or are you just indulging your peculiar ideas?"

"More or less, more or less, this one's not bad either, note it down."

Belli dropped the pretense, put on a new outfit, and tossed it on the bed as well.

"Huh?"

Seeing Belli like this, Aimou realized she had been treated like a plaything for a while, her eyes reflecting glowing exclamation marks.

"Sigh, these things take time."

Just as Aimou was about to get angry, Belli sat down on the bed with her arms crossed, looking at Aimou with an expression as if judging a rookie.

Belli's posture as an expert extinguished half of Aimou's anger.

Belli sincerely said, "Think about it, Aimou, from Bologue's perspective, does he really see tonight as a date?"

Aimou thought for a while, considering her understanding of Bologue, and Bologue's current attitude towards her...

Aimou shook her head in despair.

"See, right? It's like a duel," Belli pulled Aimou close, "You go fully armed to the meeting, while the other person is in pajamas... the other person doesn't even realize it's a duel."

"That's awful."

"Right, it's awful."

"What you need to do now is change Bologue's perception of you," Belli advised Aimou, "Only when he sees you as an opponent in the duel will your full armored appearance have value in his eyes, otherwise he'll only think you are dressed in a flashy pair of pajamas like him."

Aimou nodded vigorously; Belli rarely said anything useful.

Belli added, "But perceptions are hard to change… at least in the short term, that's how it is."

Aimou let out a long sigh, helplessly collapsed into the blooming flowers on the bed, with large crosses in her eyes, like denying mistakes.

"That's why people say the first impression is important, of course, you might not quite understand these."

Belli lay down next to Aimou, staring at the ceiling, and after a moment of silence, Belli provocatively added, "But... by human lifespan calculations, you're still considered underaged..."

"Shut up!"

Aimou turned over, grabbed a piece of clothing, and covered Belli's head.

Belli couldn't stop laughing, and after laughing, she moved on to addressing Aimou's worries.

Belli asked, "Are you still hung up on what happened before?"

"Sort of," Aimou said, "Looking back now, it was still a completely wrong decision."

Sometimes Aimou still felt guilty about what happened then.

Belli said, "There's no way around it, you made the wrong decision to escape the predicament, it's like a paradox, if you could make the right decision, the predicament wouldn't exist."

"You've apologized to Bologue, and he's forgiven you… it's nothing, no one is bound by a mistake for life, and..."

Aimou interrupted Belli, she knew what she was going to say, "And I'm still a kid?"

Belli smiled, "Yes, sometimes a very willful little kid."

Aimou turned over, burying her head in the clothes, "Bologue sees everything this way too, right? In his perspective, I'm a child in need of saving."

Belli added, "Nope, already saved, now you're a child in need of healthy growth."

Aimou buried her head even deeper.

Suddenly, Belli lunged at her, wrapping her arms around Aimou, holding her tightly.

"More than all this... Aimou, do you really like Bologue?"

"If I didn't like him, would I be worried so much?"

"No, not that, I mean, truly like him," Belli continued, "The reason I say you're a kid is because sometimes kids can't understand their true feelings."

"Kids are like that, someone gives you a candy, and you might just follow them, but that's not real affection, just a fleeting... fondness?"

Belli kept talking, "You've read a lot of books, you probably understand the so-called imprinting complex, right? Bologue saved you, giving you a new life, if I were you, I think I'd definitely fall in love with Bologue too, but I'm different from you, Aimou, I'm an adult, but you're still a... child, you've experienced too little."

Aimou remained silent.

"Bologue is an expert, emotionally he might be quite slow, but morally, he's absolutely The Sober, doesn't he often invoke axioms and rules?"

Aimou retorted, "Are age and experience so important to humans?"

"Not really, it's just that human lifespan is limited and growth is slow, that's why people say so, we often need a long time to understand certain things, but when we do, it's all regretful."

The accumulation of age and experience leads to the growth of human wisdom, only then can we be considered truly adult, understanding what we want and what to do."

Belli pulled Aimou up, "If you want to change Bologue's perception of you, first become an adult."

"How do you become an adult? Just wait for time to pass?"

"There's no standard answer, some people look like children after living for decades, while some might become adults overnight."

Belli thought for a moment, then smiled, "Anyway, the one thing you and Bologue aren't lacking is time, don't rush."

Aimou seemed thoughtful, nodding as if understanding but not completely.

"It's a duel! Aimou," Belli exaggeratedly clenched her fist, but soon her voice softened again, "But experts won't duel with a kid, it's unfair, he knows that."

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