Call Me Her Majesty the Queen!

Despair—despair beyond words spread through Ishiu's heart.

"Mom..." Ishiu tugged at the corner of his mouth, forcing out a smile uglier than crying. Looking at Cocolia's evasive gaze, he asked word by word, "Why did you do this?"

His voice was soft, so soft that it was as if the question did not matter at all.

In the end, Ishiu could not hold it in any longer. He wanted to know why Cocolia had done this—what her purpose had been.

This was not an accusation. He simply truly did not understand.

"Ishiu..." The moment Ishiu said those words, Cocolia knew her plan had been exposed. She sighed, no longer avoiding his gaze, and looked him straight in the eye. "You have to trust Mom. Mom would never do anything to hurt you children. There was a reason Mom did this."

Ishiu said nothing.

Cocolia took a deep breath. Since things had reached this point, she no longer hid anything. Besides, she could not have kept it hidden for much longer anyway.

"All right. Since you want to know, I'll tell you. I did all this for the Herrscher Core. I need its power to save Seele."

"See... le?" Ishiu's expression froze. He had considered all kinds of possibilities, but never this one.

What did the Herrscher Core have to do with Seele?

"Looks like Bronya never told you." Cocolia glanced at Ishiu, her tone grave. "Four months ago, after you disappeared while saving Seele, Seele asked for the experiment to be activated again. She wanted to bring you back. I refused at first, but that child may look fragile—once she makes up her mind, though, she becomes incredibly strong. She threatened me with her life. If I refused to start the experiment, she would have died in front of me without hesitation."

"I had no choice but to agree. But to ensure her safety, I only allowed the experiment to last five minutes this time. Yet after five minutes passed and Seele found nothing, she actually took the initiative to make contact with Quantum Assimilation, wanting to enter the Sea of Quantum."

"In the end, I still stopped the experiment and did not let her disappear like you did. But because she had voluntarily come into contact with quantum entanglement, she seemed to have gone to a very mysterious place. She brought Heavy-duty Bunny back from there and gave it to Bronya. And because she had become entangled with quantum energy too deeply, her body underwent some abnormalities..."

At this point, Cocolia's expression became extremely downcast, and her voice grew ever more sorrowful.

"Seele periodically enters uncontrollable quantumization. It could happen while she is eating, sleeping, or talking to someone. Once she enters quantumization, she disappears from this world and becomes a Wraith drifting between this world and the quantum barrier. In that world, she is all alone... Can you imagine what that feels like?"

"I want her to return to a normal life. For that, I need this Herrscher Core."

"Then why Mei?"

"Because, like Seele, she possesses a natural Stigmata."

"..." Ishiu lowered his head in silence.

"So, Ishiu, can you understand Mom? Mom had no choice..."

"Mom, I have two final questions." Ishiu interrupted Cocolia. His voice had returned to calm, but beneath that calmness lurked an undercurrent like the sea beneath a placid surface, ready to erupt at any moment.

"Ask." Cocolia could not tell what Ishiu was thinking now, so she could only follow his lead. She truly did not want this matter to shatter their relationship.

"First, will removing the Herrscher Core endanger Mei's life?" Ishiu looked at Cocolia and raised one finger.

"...It will." Cocolia nodded. This was a fact she had already admitted before, and she had no way to deny it.

But the meaning behind Ishiu's question was different now. Before, Cocolia had stood as someone trying to help. This time, she stood as the perpetrator.

"Second, do you think Seele would be happy if she learned that the Herrscher Core was obtained by casually manipulating others' lives, causing all of Changkong City to fall and countless people to die in this disaster?"

"..." Cocolia opened her mouth, yet no words would come out.

Because both she and Ishiu knew the answer. With Seele's gentle and kind nature, she would never be able to accept it.

"...As long as she never finds out." After a long silence, Cocolia spoke in a muffled voice, but there was little conviction behind it.

"Ha... Like what you did to me?" Ishiu gave a bitter laugh.

"Ishiu..."

Ishiu closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. The words Raiden Mei had said to him before they parted surfaced in his mind—

Ishiu, I believe in you.

How ridiculous. She had trusted him so much, yet he had personally pushed her into the fire. Even this situation she was in had been orchestrated by his own mother...

He had failed Raiden Mei!

Call Me Your Majesty!

Clang—

A crisp blade cry suddenly rang out in the small laboratory.

A flash of steel swept past, and the specially reinforced glass wall was cut into a huge cross as easily as tofu.

Ishiu walked over and casually kicked it, shattering the glass into pieces.

"Ishiu! What are you doing?!" Cocolia cried out urgently.

"...I'm taking her away."

Ishiu entered the laboratory. With another flash of his blade, the mechanical arms were severed at the waist. He caught the Queen of Raiden as she fell and held her in his arms.

"Ishiu!" Cocolia's voice grew harsher, tinged with anxiety. "You can't do this!"

"Mom, you've already made a mistake. Look at Changkong City beneath your feet. Don't you feel even a little regret?" Ishiu looked at Cocolia with disappointment.

He did not deny Cocolia's determination to save Seele, because he felt the same. But everything had to have a bottom line. Once someone crossed it, they were no longer human.

"I did this all for Seele. Don't you want Seele to return to normal?"

"Of course I do, but I won't use this method." Ishiu's voice was low.

"Ishiu, I won't let you take her away. She has already become a Herrscher. If her Herrscher Core is not removed, then once she recovers, she will bring an unprecedented disaster upon this world." Cocolia spoke sternly.

"Heh..." Ishiu suddenly found it somewhat amusing. Those righteous words would have been fine before the disaster in Changkong City happened, but now they sounded nothing but ironic.

He lowered his head and looked at the Queen of Raiden in his arms. She was looking at him too, but the coldness in her eyes was gone, replaced by something else.

"Will you destroy humanity?" Ishiu asked softly.

"...Depends on my mood. But if those annoying fools come looking to die, I won't show mercy." The Queen of Raiden disdained lying. Though saying she would not destroy humanity would clearly earn Ishiu's help, her pride would not allow her to lie just to survive.

Especially not before the only man she had ever acknowledged.

"Good. As long as you have no subjective desire to destroy humanity." Ishiu nodded.

"Ishiu, don't believe her. She is a Herrscher, a born enemy of human civilization. She's lying to you!" Cocolia said anxiously.

"I believe her." Ishiu looked at Cocolia, his voice calm.

"You're jumping into a pit of fire!" Cocolia said angrily. "You have no idea how terrifying a Herrscher is. If she absorbs all the Honkai Energy in Changkong City, she could easily slaughter cities and destroy nations!"

"Mm, I truly don't know how terrifying a Herrscher is. But I do know that whether it is a pit of fire can only be known after jumping in. If you decide it is one without ever jumping in, that only means you never wanted to trust others in the first place."

Ishiu decided to trust the Queen of Raiden, firstly because of Raiden Mei, and secondly because of guilt. The Queen of Raiden's appearance had been caused by his mother. Whether it was the disaster in Changkong City or removing the Herrscher Core, at least from what Ishiu had seen, the Queen of Raiden had never actively shown any intention of destroying humanity. Since that was the case, he was willing to trust her.

Ishiu's exceptionally calm words struck the Queen of Raiden like thunder. She was stunned for a long while before biting her lip and asking softly,

"You... You said you were willing to trust me, not because of 'her'?"

"You are you. Mei is Mei. You are not the same."

"..."

The Queen of Raiden said nothing more, but she raised her arms and wrapped them around Ishiu's neck.

Ever since she had been born, the voice in her mind had constantly filled her with humanity's dark side and base nature. What she saw around Raiden Mei had only confirmed it, so she actually hated humans.

But there was one exception: Ishiu.

He was the first human the Queen of Raiden had acknowledged. In him, she seemed unable to find the things she hated. Instead, she found everything about him quite interesting.

More importantly, he acknowledged her too. He was willing to trust her. Did that mean he viewed her as a person as well?

Ishiu carried the Queen of Raiden out of the laboratory. The researchers present all tensed up, but none dared stop him.

After all, Ishiu had kicked open an aluminum alloy door and shattered reinforced glass with a single slash. He clearly was not someone they could stop.

"Ishiu, are you going to become my enemy?" Cocolia's voice trembled when she spoke, though even she did not notice it.

But Ishiu merely shook his head gently and put Wolf Fang back inside his clothes.

"Mom, I won't become your enemy. Never. You're my mother. No matter what mistakes you make, our relationship won't change. But... I'm taking Mei with me. And I will never agree with your beliefs."

Cocolia's expression shifted repeatedly. Her hand gripped the edge of the table tightly. She wanted to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

Ishiu began walking toward the exit. He did not walk quickly, but the distance to the door was short. Before long, he had already crossed nearly half of it.

Bang—!

A sudden gunshot rang out, painfully sharp in the deathly silent room.

Blood immediately sprayed from Ishiu's left shoulder. A bullet had sunk deep into his shoulder blade. He let out a muffled groan and nearly fell.

"Who fired that shot?!" The moment Cocolia saw this, her eyes turned red. Her rage instantly surged to its peak as she looked toward the source of the gunshot. It was a researcher wearing a white lab coat.

"L-Lady Cocolia, we can't let him take the Herrscher away! We've already spent so much money and effort on this experiment..."

The man wanted to explain further, but Cocolia, whose rage had exploded, did not care what he had to say. She pulled out her gun and shot him straight in the head.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out. The researcher who had deliberately tried to make a show of himself had his head blown apart. He collapsed to the floor, dying with his eyes wide open.

Clearly, he had not understood who held greater weight in Cocolia's heart—Ishiu or the Herrscher.

"Ishiu, are you all right?" Cocolia tossed the gun aside and ignored the terrified looks of the other researchers. She hurried to Ishiu's side, wanting to inspect his injury.

"I'm fine." Enduring the intense pain, Ishiu stood back up and continued walking out.

In truth, with his skills, he could have dodged that bullet. But he had not.

As a child, if he could not fulfill his filial duty, then suffering a little physical pain was only right.

No matter what, Cocolia was still his mother. She had done wrong, but toward him, she had always been beyond reproach.

So, he could only use this method to lessen his guilt as much as possible.

"Ishiu..." Watching Ishiu's trembling back as he walked away, Cocolia clenched her hand before finally loosening it again, releasing an exhausted sigh.

Perhaps... she truly had been wrong...

"Human, are you... all right?" Once they had left the door behind, the Queen of Raiden looked at the arm still holding her despite bleeding nonstop. For the first time in her life, she felt worry.

"How could I possibly be all right? It hurts like hell... By the way, can you walk now? If you can, get off me already." Once they were out of the laboratory, Ishiu stopped pretending. He came clean—it hurt like hell! If someone could take a bullet in the shoulder and actually be fine, then they would be a real immortal.

"I can." As time passed, the Queen of Raiden could feel a slight stir of Honkai Energy within her body. She could not be called powerful yet, but walking was no problem.

So Ishiu briefly stopped the bleeding. For the rest of the way, it was the Queen of Raiden who supported Ishiu.

"Ishiu? What happened to your arm?" Bronya, who had been waiting at the battleship entrance for a long time, saw the Queen of Raiden helping Ishiu out and noticed all the blood on his arm. She immediately panicked, rushed over, forcibly wedged herself between them, and squeezed the Queen of Raiden aside.

She had not followed Ishiu inside because she knew Ishiu and Cocolia would definitely clash. Her position would have been too awkward then. It would not be easy to take either side. What if Cocolia ordered her to deal with Ishiu? What would she do?

So she simply stayed outside, thinking Ishiu and Cocolia would not truly come to blows. Yet she had not expected Ishiu to be injured anyway.

"Who did this?!" Bronya asked furiously. She knew Cocolia had not done it. With how much Cocolia doted on her children, let alone shooting him, she probably could not even bear to hit him. Otherwise, why had no one chased after Ishiu when he took the Queen of Raiden away?

"Don't ask. That unlucky bastard already had his head blown off by Mom. If you want to settle the score with him, you can probably only whip his corpse." Ishiu said, "Forget it. This isn't the place to talk. Let's leave first. Oh, contact Kiana and tell her not to come aboard the battleship."

"Okay."

The three of them left the battleship and found a pharmacy nearby. Using the medical supplies there, Bronya gave Ishiu emergency treatment.

Little Pudding truly had grown up on the battlefield. Treating a gunshot wound was like child's play to her. With a pair of forceps, she easily removed the bullet without causing Ishiu too much pain.

Throughout the process, the Queen of Raiden remained surprisingly calm. She rarely spoke, and her gaze never left Ishiu.

"Ishiu, what are you planning to do now?" After treating his wound, Bronya hesitated before asking him.

"I... want to go see Seele first."

He rubbed his face, his expression filled with exhaustion. Honestly, what had happened in less than an hour was even more intense than last night.

He had never imagined that Raiden Mei's Herrscher transformation had been planned by his own mother. Even Changkong City ending up in its current state was because of her.

It gave him the feeling of an ordinary male high school student suddenly discovering one day that his mother was actually the mastermind behind a terrorist incident...

"Human, I don't want to see you looking like this." The Queen of Raiden stood before Ishiu with her arms crossed, looking down at him from above. But there was not much arrogance in her eyes. Instead... they held a little more humanity. "You shouldn't be like this."

"I don't want to be either..." Ishiu gave a bitter smile.

Shaking his head, he looked at the Queen of Raiden. After hesitating, he still asked, "Um... Mei... Is she still there?"

"Of course she is. We are one body with two souls. What she sees, I can see. What I hear, she can hear."

"...I'm sorry, Mei." Ishiu let out a deep sigh, his face filled with guilt and shame. "I apologize to her on Mom's behalf... Though apologizing is probably useless anyway."

In this matter, Raiden Mei was undoubtedly a victim as well. Honestly, Ishiu did not even know how he was supposed to face Miss Mei now.