"AAAAAH—! Liesel, please, stop talking!"
"Dr. Einstein, who has neither breasts nor a butt, is not a vindictive person." Einstein wore a warm smile. "It's just that Dr. Tesla was really adorable last night. Like how she tried so hard to prove she wasn't a loser. I'm sure Miss Nancy would be very interested..."
"I was wrong! Stop talking!"
"And there was also the wine, the feasting, and playing all night long."
"I was really wrong! Liesel! I'll never do it again!"
"Really?"
Einstein smiled as she looked at Tesla, whose face had turned so red it seemed ready to bleed.
"Truer than true gold!"
"Then I'll let Dr. Tesla off this time."
Einstein nodded in satisfaction.
"Then Dr. Tesla can stay behind and watch the house today. Liu Bai and I are going out to buy some things."
"I'm coming too!" At that, Tesla instantly perked up. "I-I can drive you!"
Apologizing was one thing, but there was no way she was letting them sneak off!
"Dr. Einstein doesn't want to get arrested for drunk driving."
"Who's going to drive drunk—?! I'm perfectly sober now!"
"Well, let's hope so." Einstein nodded noncommittally, then looked at Welt. "What about you, Welt? Do you want to stay behind or come out with us?"
"I'd better stay behind..."
Welt felt that if he followed them now, he would just be a third wheel.
So he should probably forget it.
"Then the lab is in your hands."
"So, what are we buying?"
"I don't know."
—That was how the expressionless Dr. Einstein answered Liu Bai's question.
"Liesel was just looking for an excuse."
Tesla, seated in the driver's seat, pursed her lips.
"I want to feed the cats."
"If we're talking about feeding cats, there's only one place, right?"
"That's right. It's quiet, and there are lots of cats."
"Ah... Highgate Cemetery?"
Listening to their cryptic exchange, Liu Bai immediately guessed the destination.
"You really dare to go somewhere like that."
"I dare to keep a ghost by my side. What's so scary about visiting a cemetery?" Tesla pursed her lips. "We're not afraid of the ones that float around. What can the ones lying down do?"
"...Fair enough."
There was no arguing with that...
With Tesla speeding at full throttle, they soon arrived at Highgate Cemetery.
Tesla and Einstein each took a bag of cat food and split up.
Einstein also gave Liu Bai some cat food. After all, Liu Bai could pet cats too.
Karl Marx, Herbert Spencer, Michael Faraday...
The names on the gravestones did not feel eerie at all. Instead, they somehow gave people a sense of security.
"Coming here once in a while is actually pretty nice."
Liu Bai sighed sincerely. Then he spotted a familiar blonde beauty ahead on the stone path.
She looked over as well—but she was not looking at him. She was looking at Einstein.
"What a coincidence, Dr. Einstein."
The blonde beauty, Reanna, the strongest Valkyrie of Schicksal, greeted Einstein with a smile.
Reanna was not wearing the bodyguard-like suit from before. Instead, she wore a black top and white skirt with the air of a countess from a story, along with a top hat.
"You are...?"
Einstein had clearly not remembered her.
But Reanna did not look annoyed. She merely introduced herself with a smile. "My name is Reanna Brigantia, a Valkyrie directly under Schicksal Headquarters. We met Dr. Einstein at the airport before."
Since the information on Schicksal's S-rank Valkyries was highly confidential, Reanna simply gave her name.
"Is that so?"
Einstein scratched her head and put on a thoughtful expression.
"It's fine if you don't remember. Right now, just like you, I'm only an ordinary person here to pay my respects."
Reanna could not help but laugh softly at Einstein's contemplative look.
It had to be said that both Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie of this generation and the next were broad-minded and upright people.
"No, we came to feed cats." Einstein had absolutely no sense of atmosphere.
"Pfft... You came to a cemetery to feed cats?" The words seemed to hit Reanna's funny bone, but then she saw the cats lying lazily atop the gravestones, basking in the sun.
It did not feel out of place at all. Instead, it gave off a tranquility unique to a cemetery.
"Can you spare me some cat food? I'm off today anyway."
"...Then let us pay our respects too." Einstein confirmed that the Valkyrie before them bore them no ill will. "Was she your comrade?"
"Yes."
Reanna accepted the cat food.
"Martha was a good child. She wouldn't dislike you."
"Martha...?"
The name seemed to remind Einstein of something.
"Martha Jacobs, the only Valkyrie who died in the Berlin Honkai Outbreak but was not buried in the military cemetery," Reanna explained softly.
"Berlin..." Einstein clicked her tongue faintly.
The Berlin Honkai Outbreak—that was when Welt had been born.
Ghosts and Revisions
"During the operation to eliminate the Emperor-Class Honkai Beast, the Night Moth Squad she led was almost completely wiped out. As the sole survivor, that child endured psychological pressure beyond anything we could imagine."
A nostalgic expression appeared on Reanna's face.
"Although we promptly transferred her away from the front lines and gave her counseling, during the New Year this year, she... hanged herself in her own home."
"Because of military discipline... she couldn't be buried with the others?"
Einstein asked softly.
"There was no helping it. Military discipline is like that." No sorrow showed on Reanna's face. "The military... is a machine that cannot tolerate even a single screw malfunctioning. Its Valhalla only accepts those who fulfilled their responsibilities to the very end."
"Her life may have been a tragedy, but the responsibility for that tragedy did not lie with her... It was simply unavoidable."
"..."
With Einstein's silence, the subject came to an end.
The stars gradually emerged, and the bags of food gradually emptied.
The kittens were very happy, but for the people present...
"This is the last feeding spot, right?" Reanna stood up. "Sorry for making the mood so heavy."
"No, it's fine. For me... this counts as experience too."
"..."
Reanna did not answer. She merely stared fixedly at the forest beneath the night sky.
"Careful!"
With lightning speed, Reanna dragged Einstein into the bushes beside them.
In a direction Einstein had not noticed, a mysterious floating object appeared in the darkness.
"...A bedsheet?"
A floating thing that looked like it was draped in a bedsheet, with something like ghostly flames hovering around it.
"No, it looks like a ghost?"
Einstein watched the drifting thing with curious eyes.
"A visible ghost... Miss Reanna, can we catch it and study it?"
"..." Reanna did not know how to respond to that, while Liu Bai silently wiped away some sweat.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"
"Cthulhu fhtagn!"
"This thing is muttering something." Reanna wore a strange expression. "And I feel like I've heard that before?"
"...It's an incantation from The Call of Cthulhu."
Einstein sounded as though she knew everything.
"Good lord, Old Cthulhu is handing out candy... What kind of ghost is this?" Liu Bai chimed in with a complaint.
Reanna's lips twitched slightly as she picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it.
Ping—!
A crisp metallic sound rang out.
Hiss—!
A jet of air suddenly sprayed from behind the "ghost," which was clearly trying to escape.
"V-23 requesting emergency support! Unidentified flying object spotted! Immediately deliver weapons to my location under Plan Eight! Mobile unit, stand by!"
At some point, Reanna had pulled out a miniature radio.
"I repeat! Deliver weapons to my location! Mobile unit, stand by!"
Outside the cemetery, a redhead was quietly talking to a child.
Just then, a figure leaped out from the dark woods.
"Move! Redhead!"
"Huh? Who are you calling red—"
Boom—!
Before Tesla could finish speaking, a mechanical explosion rang out beside her ear.
"...Plan Eight was a complete success. The unidentified flying object has been dismantled."
The blonde Valkyrie holding the Abyss White Flower replied through her radio.
"I will personally return the Abyss White Flower according to the plan. Communications terminated."
Then Reanna looked up at Tesla with concern. "Are you two all right?"
Before you continue