Yanwei: "Whoa, Is London Really This Small?" / Raven: Why Does It Feel Like I'm the Only One Getting Fooled?

"You don't take me for an idiot, do you?" Anna wore an expression that said, Do you think I'm that stupid? "Durandal is still at headquarters, and Rita is there too. Forget punching Lord Bishop—you probably can't even get onto the floating island."

"Fine, then I'm actually here sightseeing."

"Who would believe that?!"

"Exactly." Flame Willow spread her hands. "You don't believe me when I say I have ulterior motives, and you don't believe me when I say I'm here sightseeing. So what would you believe?"

"R-Right..." Anna's CPU was running at high speed.

"Alright, alright, I'm done teasing you." Flame Willow handed over a visa. "Look, I really am here for fun. I'm only staying for a little over a month. What could I possibly do? It's not like I could infiltrate Schicksal as a spy."

"Huh?" Refusing to believe it, Anna took it and examined it over and over several times. "Is this real?"

"Of course it's real." Flame Willow nodded like a chick pecking at grain.

"O-Okay... I misunderstood you." Anna said somewhat sheepishly, "Then, to make up for suspecting you, is there anything you need help with?"

Huh? She believed that just like that?

Flame Willow suddenly felt like all the reasons she had prepared had gone to waste.

"Anna has at least some Kaslana family blood in her, though not much."

Xia Ling gave her blunt assessment over the channel. "If it were Dumb Goose, she probably would've believed it in the first round. No need to even drag it out."

"Anna struggled a little, at least. Anna > Durandal now."

Since that was the case... Flame Willow pretended to ponder for a moment before saying to Anna, "I need a guide..."

"Uh, that might not work..." Anna asked pitifully, "Can you change your request? I already booked my flight for the day after tomorrow."

"Sigh, I'm the one asking you for help, so why do you look so pitiful? You're going to get bullied easily like this." Flame Willow reached out and tugged on Anna's soft cheek.

"Then help me find somewhere to stay. I just got off the plane not long ago, I don't know my way around, and I haven't had time to find a hotel yet."

"That's easy." Anna sighed in relief. "Just stay at my family's hotel. My family's pretty well-off."

"Your... hotel?"

"Yeah. The Saniyat family has a very high annual income, and a large portion of it is used to purchase real estate in different places as benefits for when we're dispatched or stationed there."

"There are several hotels in London under our name. Only one of them is one I hold shares in, though. Of course, it's not like you can't stay at the others if you want."

"I see. I didn't expect that beneath that silly exterior, you were actually a hidden rich girl."

Flame Willow nodded theatrically and pondered. "How should I trick you into becoming mine...?"

"Who says that right to someone's face?!"

"So it's fine to think about it behind their back?"

"Of course not!"

Taking the umbrella from Anna and holding it over both of them, Flame Willow and Anna strolled through the streets of London.

"By the way, since you're here sightseeing, what places are you planning to visit?"

Anna asked as she led the way, turning sideways toward her.

"Of course... I have no idea." Flame Willow's tone took a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. "If I knew, I wouldn't be looking for a guide, okay? As for London attractions, apart from Big Ben, Oxford University, and the River Thames, I don't know anything else."

"Huh? Those are the only ones you know?"

"Does the Clock Tower count?"

"You've watched too much anime."

"Fine." Anna sighed. "Who asked you to be my lifesaver? My flight is the day after tomorrow, but I can still squeeze out half a day tomorrow."

"I'll personally show you around tomorrow."

"So, for this rare half-day guide service, where do you want me to take you?"

"Hmm... Let's wander along the River Thames." After thinking for a moment, Flame Willow suggested, "I heard this river runs through all of London. Walking along it would count as seeing the city while we're at it."

"Then we'd better get a small boat... We can't cover it all on foot." Anna seriously raised one finger. "But leave that to me. I'll arrange it later."

"Then I'll be counting on you, little rich girl."

"What kind of weird nickname is that?!"

That night, during the usual Xia Ling meeting.

"See? Easy." Flame Willow blinked. "Now do you understand what I'm worth?"

"I think that wasn't your worth. That was the Saniyat family's worth." Dusk, who had watched the entire affair because she had nothing better to do, said speechlessly.

"Schicksal's three great families are seriously absurd. The Kaslana family has stupidity passed down through the generations, the Saniyat family has giving themselves away for free passed down through the generations, and strictly speaking, the Apocalis family only has Otto left now."

"Back then, Cecilia was easily swept off her feet by Sigfried. In the original story, Anna and Chen Tianwu also progressed rapidly. Now that I think about it, damn, the truth is out. This entire family is full of sweet, naïve idiots."

"Anyway, now we have someone to show us around the River Thames. But the original plan was for Xia Ling and me to look for traces of Thousand Worlds Layered. Now..."

"It's fine, don't mind me." Xia Ling weakly raised a hand. "I shouldn't be on the boat. I should be under the boat. You two can enjoy your little world together. Just tie me beneath the boat when the time comes."

"Want some Sea Creature cells, then? Guaranteed to help you adapt to an underwater environment in no time." Highmore leaned over with a grin.

"Get lost!"

Flame Willow: "Damn, is London this small?"

"Ahem, back to business." Xia Ling cleared her throat.

"Since Anna will be traveling with you, we can alter the plan a little."

"Fortunately, I was prepared. Even in this situation, I have a backup plan."

As she spoke, Xia Ling directly exited the system space. A moment later, she reappeared, except this time she had a large, bulging bag in her hands.

"What's this?" The three of them gathered around curiously.

"I think I've seen this before. This should be Anti-Entropy's..."

"It's Anti-Entropy's miniature anti-interference spatial detector." Xia Ling completed the name for her.

"Haven't I been working part-time for Anti-Entropy, exploring the Sea of Quantum? To ensure safety, instruments that measure spatial stability are essential equipment."

"And because they only need to carry detection functions, these things are designed to be compact and convenient. They don't even have charging devices, so they're disposable."

Xia Ling took one out of the bag. It was a coin-sized device, with a small probe on the front and a gripping mechanism for securing it on the back.

"Because the manufacturing process is so simple, Welt gives me more than a hundred every time. But since the way I operate in the Sea of Quantum is somewhat different from what he imagined, I always have quite a few left over."

"Damn, there's something this useful?" Flame Willow took one and fiddled with it, clicking her tongue in amazement. "But how do we use it?"

"When you're on the boat tomorrow, just toss a few into the river whenever you have nothing to do. Let them detect things automatically."

Xia Ling took out an oddly shaped device. "I'll follow some distance behind you and use this to retrieve the detectors."

"But what if you miss some after throwing so many detectors into the river, and someone else picks them up?"

"Won't happen. Compared to those crude detectors, this retrieval device is far more sophisticated. I've already used it several times myself."

"So don't worry about that. I'm not the system—I'm very reliable." Xia Ling winked. "Scale Cloak plus spatial abilities: professional stalking."

The next day, Anna brought Flame Willow to a small boat by the river.

It was a small speedboat with a semi-open cabin. There were not many seats inside, enough for only two people.

"There. I just had someone bring it over. Someone in my family bought it at some point, then lost interest in speedboats and left it in a London warehouse after barely using it. As they say in Schicksal, female owner, ninety-nine percent new?"

"Where did you hear such a strange saying..." Flame Willow applied a little force under her feet and nodded. "Not bad. It seems pretty stable."

"Of course it's stable. Its previous owner was a Valkyrie, after all. The quality is guaranteed."

"Let's go. We can chat as we travel, and if we find somewhere with nice scenery, we can get off and take a look."

"Mm, then I'll leave it to you." Leaning against the railing, Flame Willow let several detectors appear in her hand from the system space, then silently dropped them into the river.

Some time later, after confirming that no one was around, a figure wearing a gray-black rain cape suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Looks like they've gone far enough... Scale Cloak is good in every way except for one problem: it can't make the effects of other equipment invisible too."

Xia Ling took a strange candy from her pocket and swallowed it. Soon after, faint scale-like patterns began to appear on her body.

"I can feel like I can breathe underwater already. Is this what Sea Creature cells are worth...?"

At the end of last night's discussion, since the retrieval work required prolonged diving, Highmore had still given Xia Ling a specially made Highmore-brand candy for transformation.

After all, Xia Ling was still human by race. She was neither like Flame Willow, who could remain underwater for a long time through Dracul's absurd physical constitution, nor like Highmore, who possessed the racial talents of Sea Creatures.

Of course, everyone who knew understood the true nature of this candy. It was Mizuki's handpicked selection, after all.

However, to let someone of Xia Ling's level transform into a Sea Creature quickly enough to adapt underwater, the Sea Creature cell content in this candy was at a lethal dose. After consuming it, she had to return to the system space within a day and have Highmore remove the Sea Creature cells, or there might be other side effects.

After confirming once more that no one was watching, Xia Ling slowly dove into the River Thames.

At the same time, the device in her hand began to light up, guiding her toward the nearest detector.

Time slowly passed in the damp riverside air, until...

"Huh?" Xia Ling poked her head out of the water. "Why has Flame Willow's location signal gone underwater?"

Before she could ask over the channel, Flame Willow's terrified voice rang out first.

"Damn, I think I saw Raven!"

"..."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" ×n

The channel instantly filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

"What kind of catching-a-cheater-on-the-spot plot is this?" Dusk laughed so hard in the system space that she slapped the table. "Quick, turn on shared senses. I want the gossip."

"Turn on my ass. I'm literally under the boat right now. Are you planning to turn on shared senses to watch little fish bare their teeth in the River Thames?" Flame Willow said irritably.

Three minutes earlier, Flame Willow and Anna had moored the small boat by the shore, preparing to go ashore and buy some desserts.

As everyone knew, British cuisine was rather worrying. With noon drawing near, neither Flame Willow nor Anna had any desire to sample the local specialties.

"Then why don't we buy some desserts?" Anna suggested. "For lunch, we can wait until we get back and have the hotel chef make something. Eating outside... it might not suit our tastes."

Flame Willow naturally agreed happily to Anna's suggestion, and the two began preparing to disembark and browse what looked like a food street by the shore.

However, just as Flame Willow was about to get off the boat, she suddenly spotted a familiar figure emerging from a bar at the entrance to an alley on that food street.

Her short black hair, close-fitting black combat suit, and curvy figure all reminded Flame Willow of someone familiar.

This black-haired beauty appeared to be speaking with someone on the phone. Wearing a somewhat furious expression, she paced back and forth in front of the bar. When she turned around, Flame Willow clearly caught sight of her face.

"Damn, it really is Raven!" Flame Willow immediately felt a headache coming on. She truly had not expected London to be this small. She had run into Anna on her first day here and Raven on her second. At this rate, would she run into a blond little boy on the third day?

Flame Willow had wanted to call Anna aboard and make a quick escape, but on second thought, speeding around in a boat within the city would probably draw even more attention. Remembering Xia Ling's joke from last night about hiding beneath the water, Flame Willow gritted her teeth and swiftly took action.

"Anna, I ran into someone I know and need to hide for a bit. Go buy the desserts yourself first, and remember to get me one too."

Without time to explain further, Flame Willow whispered this into Anna's ear, then used the cabin's blind spot to flip directly into the water.

Raven: Why does it feel like I'm the only one constantly being tricked?

"Huh??"

Flame Willow's sudden proximity startled Anna, but before she could react, Flame Willow vanished from where she stood, leaving Anna alone by the boat in a daze.

Confused, Anna looked left and right, but she could not figure out who Flame Willow's acquaintance was. With no other choice, she could only follow Flame Willow's earlier request and head to the snack street alone.

Meanwhile, after fiercely venting into the phone, Raven angrily hung up.

"That Jackal! I'm a World Serpent executive, and I'm even her equal in rank, yet she wants me to dig tunnels for her? Has she gotten too used to ordering Gray Serpent around?!"

Putting down her phone, Raven sighed helplessly.

Although she had never gotten along with Jackal and could not stand Jackal's methods, Jackal was still World Serpent's Chief Scientist. Just as Kevin had said later, she was useful—in other ways.

So no matter how much Raven disliked Jackal, she still had to cooperate with Jackal's orders as much as possible. She did not need to personally modify the traps Jackal mentioned, but with a little funding and some assistance from Gray Serpent... it was not a difficult matter to resolve.

As Raven considered her next move, she suddenly noticed that someone seemed to have been standing beside her for a while.

She glanced sideways without showing it. The other person was a girl with chestnut-colored long hair. She did not seem very old, but judging by her well-proportioned figure and the toned skin she had exposed, she apparently exercised regularly. At the moment, the girl held an ice cream cone in one hand, occasionally sticking out her little tongue to lick it. She looked perfectly normal.