Old Hag, What Are You Doing Here? (Continued)

"I'm sorry, Reanna, you must have had a tough day."

Having re-possessed the doll, Liu Bai smiled wryly at Reanna at the Sky Dome City Hotel.

Incidentally, this grand hotel has now been completely booked by World Serpent to house the people from Anti-Entropy.

As for the members of the Unfading Blade... well, they were quite panicked at first.

But later, Rita and Bianka came forward and said that the two sides would temporarily form an alliance... Whether the team members believed it or not, the matter was over.

After all, their own captain and vice-captain had said so, and the Anti-Entropy formation was indeed quite frightening, so the members of the Unfading Blade team have now calmed down.

—Isn't it just turning enemies into friends? This is probably what I meant by politics, right? Anyway, we ordinary soldiers just need to follow the captain and the others.

"I'm fine with it, but I always feel that your future, Lord Alliance Leader, might be... a bittersweet experience?"

"How come you're using such trendy language now?"

Liu Bai looked helplessly at the knight princess who was giving him a mocking look.

"It was just a spontaneous remark, after all, it comes from people around you..."

Reanna smiled and shrugged, then pointed to Shibao, who was scratching his head next to her.

Well... everyone has something important to do, except for Shibao.

Or to put it another way, the real business of Shibao is to "revolve around Teacher Liu".

"Don't stand there like a monkey."

Liu Bai looked at Shibao with a sense of exhaustion. "How about finding something to do?"

Shibao scratched her head; she really didn't have anything she wanted to do right now.

"How about... I make you a cup of tea, Teacher Liu?"

"I think it would be great if you could volunteer for Shiora. It seems she's changed her mind and is planning to buy a villa in the suburbs. I doubt one person can manage it."

"That dark-skinned guy..."

Shibao scratched her head. She wasn't very familiar with Shiora. She had only chatted with her for a while when she and Kiana were "catching someone cheating".

Okay, actually, Shibao isn't familiar with most people he's not interested in.

"Forget it, I kicked her door off last time. Although I replaced it with a new one, I doubt she wants to see me."

"..."

"? Teacher Liu, why are you looking at me with such concern? What did I do wrong?"

"... No, it's just that I think it's really not easy for Hua to be so self-aware."

"I understand, it's that feeling of 'your own child has finally grown up,' right?"

Reanna nodded repeatedly beside her.

"What's it to you!" Although Shibao didn't understand the situation, her intuition told her that she felt insulted. "I'm older than you, aren't I?"

Reanna shrugged, not refuting the Shibao.

"But speaking of which, it seems like a few people didn't show up this morning?" Liu Bai changed the subject.

"Besides Welt and his son, the only other people who weren't there were Theresa and Cocolia."

Reanna thought for a moment, "Theresa did stand outside the door for a while, but seeing everyone crying, she wiped her eyes and left without going in. As for Cocolia..."

"What happened to Cocolia?"

"What do you think of Cocolia?" Reanna suddenly changed the subject.

"... Your question is giving me a bit of PTSD, you know?"

Liu Bai couldn't help but raise his dead fish eyes.

Seeing Liu Bai's expression, Reanna couldn't help but smile, "After Cocolia is not young anymore. When I met her and Alexandra in Siberia, she was already in her twenties. Now she's over forty. It's time for her to find someone new."

"Then you'll just stuff it over my side?"

"Because you don't need her for a title, and you're quite familiar with her."

If Liu Bai only had one woman by his side, Reanna definitely wouldn't have told Liu Bai about this. But since you, the Alliance Leader, have more than twenty women around you now, it wouldn't make a difference if you added Cocolia to your list of relationships.

Moreover, although Cocolia is forty years old, Reanna thinks that Cocolia is not bad in any way, and she is also quite family-oriented.

Although Cocolia's military background has made her style rather tough, Liu Bai is her superior, and with this pressure, Cocolia might actually become the kind of woman who is a good helpmate.

"Just stuff yourself in! Do you think Teacher Liu is a trash can?" Shibao, who seemed to understand what was going on, got a little angry and glared at Reanna. "Why don't you just stuff yourself in?"

Upon hearing this, Reanna gave Shibao a puzzling look.

"..."

Shibao realized something again.

"Speaking of which, Cocolia back then was a bit like Bianka, a reckless girl."

Ignoring Shibao, Reanna's face showed a look of reminiscence.

"When I first saw her, she was guarding a car carrying a pregnant woman and shooting at the Honkai Beast that were closing in."

"That pregnant woman must be Bronya's mother, right?"

"Yes."

Reanna nodded.

"Back then Cocolia was falsely accused and imprisoned for reporting her superior— Bronya's father—for corruption. However, during the Second Honkai, the Honkai Beast happened to destroy the prison facilities, and Bronya's father also perished as a result, which allowed Cocolia to escape."

Reanna smiled as she said this.

"Afterwards Cocolia took Alexandra hostage and fled by car—well, actually, I don't think it counts as hostage-taking, since Cocolia had no need to take a pregnant woman who was a burden, especially since she was the wife of her enemy—that's why I took her in after the Second Honkai."

"Ha..." Shibao made an annoyed sound, "Saving the wife of your enemy? If it were me, I would have killed her long ago."

Reanna smiled at Shibao, but didn't correct her.

"At that time, I was drawn to this girl's integrity—she did not abandon the weak during the disaster, nor did she take her anger out on others."

Liu Bai nodded.

If Liu Bai were to comment on the situation where someone just got out of prison and immediately encountered the wife of their enemy, stealing the car and leaving Alexandra to fend for herself wouldn't necessarily be considered morally reprehensible.

After all, the resentment caused by being falsely accused cannot be simply explained away with the phrase "the sins of the family should not be visited upon the innocent."

Furthermore, during their subsequent escape, Cocolia tried her best to comfort Alexandra instead of throwing her out to distract the Honkai Beast.

Disasters are the time when we witness the limits of humanity, and in this moment, Cocolia demonstrates the limits of humanity.

"Although it may be a bit presumptuous of you to say this, Alliance Leader, you do have some issues with Cocolia, don't you?" Reanna said, looking at Liu Bai.

"Well... I can't deny that my impression of her isn't bad, but my evaluation of her isn't very high."

Liu Bai did not deny what Reanna said.

"In my opinion, Cocolia is too second-rate... a second-rate mother, a second-rate soldier—well, that might be my stereotype."

Now, due to Anti-Entropy extreme integration of anti-entropy, Cocolia has no chance to be a double agent. She is beyond reproach as a soldier, and Liu Bai has also helped her in being a mother.

From today's perspective, Cocolia actually seems like a very good woman.

"And with Cocolia around, she can help you keep those little girls in check, or help you take care of your children in the future."

"I'll use her to take care of the child."

Liu Bai couldn't help but complain, "Reanna, why are you getting involved in this kind of thing too?"

"I just want to help Cocolia find a home." Reanna smiled, ignoring Shibao, who was baring his teeth and threatening her beside her. "Just consider it using our relationship to put her name on the register."

While titles and status may not always be useful, they can be invaluable in situations like this.

With a formal title, Cocolia will definitely gravitate towards Liu Bai. Moreover, Reanna reckons that girls like Bronya, if they have children in the future, might need to learn from Cocolia, who is also a mother—you can't expect Liu Bai to take care of a group of children by himself, can you?

Furthermore, Reanna seriously doubted how much time her Alliance Leader would actually have available to take care of the child by then; it was impossible for everyone to get pregnant at the same time...

Seeing others with kids to play with, it would be strange if everyone else wasn't filled with envy and competitive spirit...

So when things get to that point, the two of them can be considered to be getting closer to each other, and over time, their nominal relationship might turn into a real relationship.

More importantly, Cocolia is indeed not very ambitious, she is a family person, and she won't cause trouble.

Reanna would never betray Liu Bai on such a major life event—although Reanna wondered if something her Alliance Leader might hold more than twenty times could really be considered a major life event.

... Or perhaps it could be considered a once-in-a-lifetime event if everyone participated together?

... No, that's impossible; there are just too many people.

Cocolia's only flaw is her seniority... But Reanna noticed that her own Alliance Leader asked about everything except seniority, and neither did the Shibao next to her.

... They might genuinely not care about seniority when it comes to Anti-Entropy.

Besides, their own Alliance Leader's seniority is already at a heavenly level.

To put it bluntly, all those girls, including myself, were marrying above my station.

Furthermore, if we were to seriously consider seniority, people like Dr. Mei, the one next to her Shibao, and the original owner Fu Hua —who are clearly disciples—would all be dismissed without a second thought.

So let's just stop talking about seniority, it's pointless.

"Hey, isn't this Theresa? What brings you here?"

After realizing that baring his teeth wouldn't intimidate Reanna, Shibao started looking around and eventually caught Theresa sneaking upstairs.

"Not even a greeting? Are you no longer a friend?"

"You're the only one I'm not friends with" —Theresa wanted to say this, but because of Shibao's status, everyone had already been informed.

Theresa wouldn't fail at this point.

"Um... I saw you guys chatting so happily, didn't I?"

Okay, to be honest, we're not really that familiar with each other, and Theresa doesn't want to get involved in that topic either.

Of the people at the morning gathering, Theresa was only one she didn't really know well—Mei, Liu Bai, and the Herrscher of Sentience standing before her.

—Yes, Theresa and Liu Bai are really not familiar with each other.

Although they later learned that Liu Bai was by Himeko's side back then, the two of them didn't know each other at all at the time. It was only after she betrayed Ji Zi last year that she learned about Liu Bai.

"I feel like Theresa, you're becoming less and less interesting."

Shibao crossed his arms and shook his head.

"So, what are you doing upstairs?"

"I'm going to check my room..."

Theresa sighed.

"And I always have a faint sense of crisis."

"A sense of crisis?"

"Hmm... I can't quite explain it, but my gut feeling tells me that it's best to find somewhere to hide right now." Theresa frowned, trying to break free from Shibao.

"You haven't caught the eye of that lolicon Rita, have you?"

While letting go, Shibao teased Theresa and also made a sarcastic remark about Rita.

"She doesn't have time to care about me."

Theresa had just waved her hand when Rita's voice came from outside the door.

"Miss Vera, this is the hotel we are staying at now, but it has been booked by our tour group. However, if you don't have a place to stay, I can talk to them about it."

Rita spoke to the blonde woman beside her with a polite smile, while subconsciously glancing at Theresa and Shibao, who were blocking the stairwell.

Hmm... this looks familiar.

Wait, does this look familiar?

Rita had just reached the door, stopped abruptly. The smile on her face gradually disappeared as she silently looked at "Lisa," who was walking at the back with her head down, following Li Sushang.

"Miss Lisa, could you please lift your head for a moment?"

Rita held back "Vera" who was trying to enter the room, while looking expressionlessly at the silver-haired girl behind her with her head down.

I've been thinking about men so much these past few days that I can't even remember what Theresa looks like anymore.

The woman behind her, "Miss Lisa," doesn't look exactly like Theresa, but she's at least nine-tenths similar!