Answer Me, Elysia!

But what wasn't normal was that she could sense traces of Honkai Energy use on the other person's body as well.

Could Destiny have discovered my trail? But I haven't even started anything yet... Should I test her?

Raven pretended to casually pass by her, then suddenly reminded her, "Little sister, the ice cream cone in your hand is about to melt."

"Ah... huh?" Anna had been spacing out, her eyes unfocused. Hearing Raven's voice, she hurriedly looked down. Sure enough, the firm ice cream was already showing signs of softening.

"How is it already melting after such a short time..." The girl's voice carried a hint of distress. She looked around, then simply stuffed the cone into Raven's hand. "Thanks for the reminder. As payment, you can just have this."

Looking at the cone the girl had handed her, Raven felt like her thoughts couldn't quite keep up. She was even beginning to wonder whether the other girl had poisoned the ice cream.

"Uh... thank you, but I'm lactose intolerant. I can't eat dairy products like this." Raven waved her hand and pushed the ice cream back.

"I see... then I'll just have to finish them all by myself. I'll buy Flame Willow's later." Anna muttered softly, then devoured the other cone at lightning speed.

Before Raven could even be surprised by the girl's speed at eating ice cream, she caught another name first.

"Flame Willow?"

The two of them were not far from the shore, and Flame Willow's enhanced physical abilities allowed her to easily hear their conversation.

And because of that, she was already breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Yes, she's my companion. She has something to do right now, so she told me to wait for her a bit."

Anna answered directly, without the slightest guard up.

"What an irresponsible person, leaving such a pretty companion by the roadside."

Following up on that, Raven naturally continued, "What does your companion look like? I'll keep an eye out and see when she comes back."

Flame Willow: !!!∑(°Д°ノ)ノ

But Anna still had some vigilance when it came to this sort of thing. Or rather, perhaps it was the intuition of a love-struck girl.

Anna immediately realized something was wrong. She clearly remembered that Flame Willow had vanished because she had run into an acquaintance.

Could I have happened to run into her?

Anna pondered it, but her answer never stopped.

"My companion... she's probably a little over one and a half meters tall, with white hair and red eyes. To put it in a way that's a little unfair to her, she's probably a flat-chested little shrimp."

Hearing that description, which had almost nothing to do with herself, Flame Willow breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Anna had already realized that Raven was the person she was hiding from.

"Wuwuwu, I'm so touched, Anna. I'll never trick you by treating you like some dumb sweet girl again, qwq."

Flame Willow sincerely repented beneath the water.

"Ah... is that so?" Not hearing the answer she wanted, Raven couldn't tell whether she felt disappointed or relieved. "If her features are that obvious, then I probably won't be needed. I still have some things to do, so I hope you find your friend soon."

After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Anna, Raven swiftly ended this one-sided attempt at striking up a conversation.

Although Raven appeared to have left, Anna still maintained an unhurried manner. She first strolled around the food street, then bought another ice cream cone for Flame Willow and one for herself. Finally, after making sure no one was watching her, she came to the side of the boat and stared at a patch of water.

Not long after, a head of golden hair emerged from beneath the water. After looking around and seeing no one nearby, she quickly climbed out.

At the same time, waves of heat bordering on high temperature radiated from her body, rapidly evaporating the moisture on her clothes before she lunged straight at Anna.

"Wuwuwuwu, my dear Anna, I love you to death! I'll never call you dumb again!"

"E-E-E-Eh?" Flame Willow's sudden move made Anna's mind crash completely. Her face instantly turned bright red, as though she had become a steam princess.

"Y-you... let go of me first!" Anna could barely get her words out.

Once Flame Willow finally released her, Anna hurriedly shoved the ice cream cone into her hand to stop her from hugging her again. "You still haven't explained it clearly! Who exactly was that person just now?!"

Elsewhere, Raven had already arrived at one of World Serpent's secret bases, yet she was still deep in thought.

"That Flame Willow from earlier... I'm still concerned about her. White hair, red eyes, flat chest, little girl... isn't that image a little too... stereotyped? Like she made it up on the spot without thinking."

After pondering it for a while, Raven finally took out her phone.

"Hello? Little Kong."

"Ah, Teacher!" Little Kong picked up the call. The moment she heard Raven's voice, she became excited.

"Yes, it's me. Little Kong, have you all been doing well lately?"

"Of course, Teacher. Sister Flame Willow has been taking great care of us, just like usual." Little Kong answered without hesitation. "And Teacher, you haven't been gone for very long, have you? Things are basically the same as before you left."

"Oh, that's good... by the way, where's your Sister Flame Willow? Why can't I hear her?" Raven asked casually.

"Sister Flame Willow? She went out just now. It seems there's another powerful Honkai Beast nearby." Little Kong's answer was flawless. "Since they haven't confirmed its location, only witnesses have verified that it's real, so it might take a long time to find. But Sister Flame Willow made us a whole table of food before she left."

"Really? That was quite thoughtful of her. What did you eat?"

"Sweet and sour pork, fish-fragrant shredded pork, and lots of dishes whose names I don't know!"

As she spoke, a picture was sent to Raven's phone.

Looking at the lavish feast in the photo, along with Flame Willow in an apron beside the children, Raven finally relaxed. After chatting with Little Kong for a while about their usual lives, Raven ended the call.

"Sigh, I really was being too suspicious. How could Flame Willow possibly come here at a time like this to go on a date with someone from Destiny?"

Feeling somewhat amused by her own ridiculous thought, Raven stopped dwelling on the matter and began focusing on her work.

On the other end, Little Kong also put down the phone and sighed helplessly.

"How could Sister Flame Willow be so careless... Teacher got suspicious so quickly. Good thing I still had that photo of Sister Flame Willow cooking before she left."

"I hope both Teacher and Sister Flame Willow will be alright..."

Answer Me, Elysia!

"So, is she your enemy? Colleague? Or friend?" Seeing that Flame Willow had started eating her ice cream, Anna cautiously leaned closer, gossip gleaming in her eyes.

"None of those are quite right... My relationship with her is pretty complicated. It can't be summed up in just a few sentences."

Flame Willow sounded somewhat helpless, but she still did her best to explain to Anna. "Basically, she thinks I'm working hard and taking care of children, but I actually snuck out to have fun. So it'll be troublesome if she finds out."

"Y-you already have children?" Anna's pupils shook.

"?"

Flame Willow nearly lost her footing and fell over. "No, I don't look much older than you, do I? Girl, isn't your thinking a little..."

"But Lord Theresa looks very young too..."

"That's why I said children from an orphanage!" Flame Willow knocked Anna on the head. "No lewd thoughts!"

"So you're the type who really likes children." Anna wore an expression of sudden understanding. "No wonder you were trying to save that child the first time we met."

"Hey, hey, I would save anyone, alright..."

That night, during Xia Ling's routine meeting.

"Hello there, playgirl who nearly got caught cheating on the spot."

The moment Flame Willow appeared in the system space, teasing from her other selves came flooding in.

"More accurately, she should be a playgirl hiding in a river."

"In this river? This is really getting out of the Thames."

"Hey, hey, enough already! Who would've thought that in a place as big as London, I'd run into two acquaintances in two days?!"

Flame Willow was quite helpless about it as well.

"Besides, it would've been the same no matter which of you came. I just had bad luck and happened to be the one who ran into them."

"Can't be helped. Seeing you unable to escape the fate of going into the sea—oh, no, I should say going into the river—makes me incredibly happy."

Xia Ling, whose ears had already sprouted coral-like ornaments similar to Highmore's, gloated.

"You're still laughing? Once you fully turn into a Sea Creature, I'll make you into braised fish!"

The group immediately began bickering. After a while, Highmore finally asked.

"Xia Ling, did your detection yield any results? If you still need to go underwater tomorrow, I'll suppress the Sea Creature cells in your body for now instead of removing them directly."

"No need, just remove them. I already have a rough result today."

"Alright, then we'll do as you say."

Highmore shrugged and placed her hand on Xia Ling's chest.

A moment later, Xia Ling, whose Sea Creature traits had completely disappeared, took out a map.

"Look. The Second Divine Key is probably located here."

Near the outskirts of the city, Xia Ling drew a circle with her pen.

"So remote." Flame Willow, who already had a preliminary understanding of London's layout, frowned.

"That's normal. Hiding a Divine Key isn't a small undertaking, and Jackal has to consider how to avoid attracting attention," Dusk analyzed while looking at the map.

"Actually, that's good. Remote is relative. At least it'll make it easier for us to come and go freely."

"Then, since we've found the location of the Second Divine Key, does that mean we can..." A trace of excitement had already entered Flame Willow's voice.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. You can't use Cipher Plates inside the system."

Xia Ling shook her head. "No matter what, we have to wait until Anna leaves at noon tomorrow."

"Also, the hotel room will work for the location. I went around and checked while you weren't back. Unless they're using surveillance equipment far superior to Anti-Entropy's, there shouldn't be any cameras or recording devices in the room."

"That's why I said Anna really is a good person."

The next day, Anna, who had unknowingly received a good person card, headed to the airport on schedule.

"I've already spoken to the front desk. You can stay in this suite as you please for a month. If you stay longer than that, just give the front desk my name, and they'll handle it."

Before leaving, Anna reminded Flame Willow of a few things and left her a thick travel guide.

"I didn't make this. Rita did, and it's highly entertaining and useful as a reference."

"So this silly girl really thinks I'm here on vacation."

Standing before the suite's floor-to-ceiling window, Flame Willow could not help sighing. "How did she grow up this much without getting scammed away?"

"Is there a possibility that you're the one scamming her?" Accompanied by a ripple of distorted space, Xia Ling suddenly appeared beside Flame Willow.

"How can you so naturally remove yourself from this? Commander Xia Ling, who fooled Anna together with me back then, are you trying to distance yourself from it?" Flame Willow looked speechless.

"Alright, we can talk about Anna later. We exchanged contact information this time anyway."

Xia Ling swept her finger through the air, clearing out a massive space in the suite's living room.

"Now, it's time to handle serious business."

Ahem. Although the host already knows this, I must still offer a reminder here.

The random recruitment provided by the Cipher Plate cannot absolutely lock onto the character the host wishes to summon, even with my assistance.

So, Host, have you prepared an anchor to locate Elysia?

"Why are you making this sound like summoning a Heroic Spirit? Do we need a Holy Relic too?" Xia Ling complained. "Good thing I prepared one long ago."

As she spoke, Xia Ling took out a well-preserved red envelope from the system space.

"So it's this. That really is quite an old memory." Understanding flashed through Flame Willow's eyes when she saw the red envelope. "I got this from Elysia during the trial back then."

"That's right. Using this as an anchor should be enough."

Next, Xia Ling took out a tightly wrapped stone slab.

"I saved up for so long and only pulled two Angers in total. The drop rate really is low enough."

"To be safe, in case that red envelope isn't effective enough, let's use this to increase the precision of the anchor."

As she spoke, Flame Willow took another tricolor Cipher Plate out of the system space.

The Cipher Plate in Flame Willow's hand was called Arrival. In the game, Arrival could select any node and trigger the cipher phrase of any Cipher Plate. In reality, aside from converting one node into three days of summoning time, the cipher itself also possessed a certain targeting effect.

"Then..."

Flame Willow and Xia Ling exchanged a glance and pressed their Cipher Plates together. In an instant, along with the red envelope Xia Ling had placed atop the Cipher Plates, a dazzling white light suddenly erupted between them.

"Answer me, Elysia!"