Sorry, Miss Kiana, I Already Have Someone I Love (Part Two)

"The Raven's newly built 'nest' is right here..."

"Achoo... I suddenly feel a chill down my spine."

"Please drive carefully, I don't want to cause a traffic accident."

"You're overthinking it. Even a fully loaded truck might not be able to run over Valkyrie like you."

"Excuse me, please note that there is someone here who is not Valkyrie."

Mei, who could theoretically be considered the first Valkyrie, raised her hand.

"Speaking of the eerie winds... I think I have that strange feeling too."

Chapter 172 I'm sorry, Miss Kiana, I already have a lover.

"... Damn it, we're stuck in traffic."

Raven stared at the long convoy ahead with a mixture of displeasure and road rage.

"That's the downside of big cities; there are traffic jams every morning, noon, and afternoon."

However, none of the people around him paid any attention to Raven's complaints.

"... I'm increasingly doubting that letting you guys come along was a mistake."

Raven gave the others a very disgruntled look as they went about their own business.

There were exactly four people in the car, excluding Liu Bai and herself, filling the four-seater supercar to the brim... It's quite rare to see my car so full.

"Can you give me some kind of response?"

"What kind of reaction do you want, Miss Shiora?" Rita, sitting in the passenger seat, glanced at Raven. "Do you want us to complain about the traffic jam with you? Or do you want us to figure out a way to solve the traffic jam?"

If traffic jams could be easily solved, there wouldn't be any traffic jams at all.

"Or should I call over the transport ship of Schicksal?"

"... Fine, I can't afford to ride on your Schicksal's transport ships."

The Raven, feeling it had gotten itself into a frustrating situation, turned its gaze back, but just then, the traffic ahead began to move slowly.

"Fortunately, I had good luck today."

"We've arrived, get off the bus."

The Raven chased the group away with a look of disgust.

"I'll open the door for you in a bit."

"Hmm... if Miss Shiora means open the door... then maybe we won't need to."

Mei got out of the car from the back, knocked on Raven's car door and then pointed to the half-collapsed gate of the bungalow in front of her.

Did the children run away on their own?

"... Does your child take the door off when they go out?"

Raven immediately turned off the engine and got out of the car, his face looking rather grim.

"Someone has broken in... two people."

The Raven spotted footprints on the sandy path.

"Hmm... this footprint is..." Rita naturally noticed the footprint that Raven could find, and her expression became a little strange.

"Fu Hua —or rather, the Herrscher of Sentience, and Kiana."

Mei adjusted her glasses and revealed the identity of the visitor.

"I recognized Hua Shijie's footprints from the Previous Era, and I noted down Kiana's footprints when I was looking at the data yesterday."

"Yes, it is indeed the two of them." Rita nodded.

"Them...?" Raven's expression softened slightly, but it was replaced by a somewhat bewildered look. "What are they doing here? No, how do they know about this place?"

Who knows?

Rita shrugged. She hadn't even paid attention to this place.

"But speaking of which... Miss Raven, are you really sure it's okay for the children to live in a house like this?"

Rita looked at the "rustic" house in front of her with a subtle expression.

"Can't you just rent a place?"

"I don't feel safe." Raven glanced at Rita. "Besides, I'm really short on cash lately—don't talk to me about the car, I bought it when I was at my richest, along with the island... well, it's sunk, so I'm actually a real pauper now."

"... That sounds pretty tragic."

"So theoretically, Kiana owes me nearly ten million."

The Raven told a lame joke... or rather, a lame joke, right?

It's really thanks to Miss Shiora's good temper that these two didn't fight... Mei couldn't help but think.

"No, actually I really wanted to shove the Purging Thunder into that white-haired girl's mouth and shoot her—but there's really no point in doing that."

Raven seemed to notice the expression on Mei's face and corrected her.

"So, Mei, are you going to pay off your friend's debt?"

"I don't have any money either. Our Valkyrie in the Far East aren't under the jurisdiction of Schicksal Headquarters. I was still a student last year, okay?" Mei spread her hands.

"I'm talking about ME Corp. Don't young ladies like you receive gifts from several small companies every year on their birthdays?"

"... Where did this high school student's misunderstanding come from?" Mei's lips twitched. "If it's ME Corp's money, Miss Raven, you should talk to Edison. In the last century, Edison could spend 13 billion to buy the North American Branch Schicksal. Now, let alone nearly 10 million, even tens of millions is not a problem at all."

"... I know, the European Recovery Program, right? If you factor in inflation, the actual value of that contract is more than ten times that."

Raven curled his lip. "Forget it, I think I'd better not deal with this old fox."

The idea of paying back the money was just a joke; Raven didn't really expect anyone to actually do it—after all, they weren't running a charity.

"Hmm... if that's it, I might be willing to give it a try?"

Liu Bai spoke up.

"If you can buy Raven for around ten million, and you can put aside your prejudice against Kiana, I think it's quite worth it."

"... Really?" Raven suddenly felt like he'd been hit by a pie.

"While this might sound like taking credit for someone else's success, don't underestimate Nancy's capabilities... Let's put it this way: in an emergency, the first person in command in the US is the President, the second is Nancy, and the third is Planck..."

Speaking of this, Liu Bai's expression was actually a bit strange. If it weren't for the existence of the Honkai Organization, Nancy's character would be a perfect boss template.

"So, in Nancy's eyes, your 'nearly ten million' is just the amount you would normally spend on a bottle of mineral water."

Liu Bai scratched his face. "Although I am the Alliance Leader the mascot alliance, I think I can still make decisions on this level."

"..."

Raven wanted to emphasize that the nearly ten million he mentioned was in euros, but then he realized that the other party seemed to be referring to US dollars as well.

Looking at it this way, all my hard work over the years feels so empty...

"... Tsk, I suddenly have the urge to rob the rich to help the poor."

"Just tell me if you want it or not."

"...want."

Suppressing his joy at being hit by a pie, the Raven immediately nodded.

"Mei, can I borrow your phone?"

"Here you go, Brother Liu Bai."

Mei handed the phone to Liu Bai, and then Liu Bai quickly dialed Nancy's number.

"Yes, it's me, Liu Bai... Yes, I'm back... I won't leave again... Yes, I went to see Einstein first... I have something to tell you, it's..."

As Liu Bai spoke, he reached out his hand to the Raven.

Raven immediately understood and took out his bank card from his bag and handed it over.

"Yes, I need some money... My account number is... Um, I'll be back as soon as possible..."

A short while later, Raven's phone beeped.

"Ding-dong~"

Raven took a deep breath and shakily reached out to turn on her phone.

"Payment received... payment received... one... one hundred million?"

Wait, wait, wait? These... these few zeros?

1, 2, 3, 4... 7, 8... eight zeros, each preceded by a 1.

That's right, it's one hundred million.

Unit... Unit... USD.

"Miss Shiora?"

Mei quickly caught the Raven, which was about to fall to the ground.

"... I'm fine."

Raven grabbed Mei's arm and stood up.

... Is this what it feels like to be kept?

She finally understood why some people would willingly degrade themselves to be kept by someone else.

It might be a bit inappropriate to say this, but it really... really felt so good.

It turns out I wasn't being aloof before; it's just that no one was willing to be so generous as to throw things at me like that...

As long as you find a good boss, making money is that easy?

Back then, in order to make money, she even created a new account and took the top two spots on Charon Registry of mercenaries—that is, assassins. In addition, the World Serpent itself had a decent salary. Even after working herself to the bone for several years, she only made around ten million. In the meantime, she even had a confrontation with someone as dangerous as Otto.

However, with a good boss, you can get a hundred million with just a few words?

"I feel like Miss Shiora is starting to exude an aura of decadence..." Mei looked at Raven, who had stood up and was now crouching in the corner, with a strange expression.

"She's just temporarily overwhelmed by the money. I was in a similar situation when I was working on large-scale experiments and faced with all those dazzling materials and huge sums of money—but that feeling didn't last long." Mei pushed up her glasses.

"Because you have an extraordinary temperament?" Rita asked tentatively.

"While that was part of the reason, the main reason was that—not long after, I was approving my own funding and materials."

Damn it, it's been turned into Versailles.

Rita turned her head, but after hearing what he said Rita understood.

This is probably similar to a normal person winning the lottery, right?

Fortunately, she was a woman with hundreds of millions in savings, so she wouldn't be as humiliated as the man in front of her.

Soon, the Raven regained some semblance of reason.

"Um... sir, why is it one hundred million? Did some Miss Edison accidentally add an extra zero?"

"...No." Liu Bai's expression was also somewhat subtle. "In Nancy's words, 'It's too petty to use ten million to win over the hearts of people with combat power comparable to S-Rank Valkyrie. I'll give you ten times that, and if that's not enough, you can ask for more.'"

"So that's how it is..."

The Raven breathed a sigh of relief; at least it hadn't been a miscount.

Moreover... isn't the phrase "I want more if it's not enough" a bit too arrogant?

I've decided, I'll block Gray Serpent in a bit.

Gray Serpent, please stop looking for me. I'm afraid Lord Liu Bai will misunderstand.

Comparisons are odious...

As for Edison... although Raven was eager to meet this magnanimous inventor, she also knew that she was able to get this money largely because of Liu Bai's influence.

Raven can distinguish between these things.