Kiana, You Lazybones! / Dragon Ryoma, You Cowardly Lizard! I'll Set You Straight!

Where did this bunch of God-kin come from?

Are you guys some damn phantom thief crew? Why do you want to take anything the moment you see it?

This was the ace squad Raiden Mei had talked about, the one that could easily lock in victory even against a complete Herrscher and the strongest S-rank Valkyrie?

"I see. I understand now. Here, take this." Kiana pulled out a sleep mask and handed it to Himeko.

"Hm? What does that mean?" Himeko froze.

"If you put it on, Himeko, you won't be able to see anything. Then we won't be doing it right in front of you," Kiana said.

Himeko:?

A young girl—no, that wasn't right. She was no longer a young girl.

The auntie's blush outshone every love confession.

AIEEE! Even Himeko couldn't help closing her eyes at such a sight. Oh, Principal, could you see this hellish scene?

She felt her already limited lifespan get cut in half again. How was she supposed to carry out a mission properly with this bunch of God-kin?

Still, she decided to take the gentle approach. This time, she was the Captain, and the mission's success or failure determined whether they could obtain the Divine Key, the Xuanyuan Sword. There might very well be Ji Lin's Stigmata around that sword. If she could obtain it, her body could be healed, letting her live a few more years. Sigh, she would just have to suffer a little more.

Phew. Girls in student uniforms really were the best.

Watching Hiiragi Tina crouch in the corner reading manga, Himeko felt that this child was indeed a breath of fresh air, just like Mei. She was different from the other God-kin. Himeko prepared to go over and greet her, but as soon as she approached, she heard something strange.

"Obasan, obasan, obasan... Why does it have to be obasan? Absolutely no obasan Magical Girls."

Thinking there would be lots of youthful, lively, adorable Valkyries participating in the mission, Hiiragi Tina had happily skipped class to join. But upon seeing that the leading Valkyrie was an auntie, she immediately lost all motivation and ambition, turning into a little goldfish.

The moment Wutina saw that auntie approaching her, she was startled and blurted out, "Old auntie!"

Himeko: "..."

In an instant, Himeko lost all color and turned into pale white ash.

She felt her life burn out.

???

Using theft as an excuse, Qianyi and the others finally inspected the entire luxury cruise ship. After confirming that no mass-destruction weapons such as Honkai Energy fission bombs had been planted below, everyone headed to the theater to watch a movie without prior discussion.

As Talulah watched the story of "Saint Karin," she asked the companion beside her, "Qianyi, are we really going to deal with Chi You? I have a feeling it's a trap."

"How could it not be? Heavenly Mandate has so many Valkyries, yet they specifically threw this mission at St. Freya Academy. They're obviously testing Kiana's strength—or rather, testing our strength." After saying that, Qianyi grabbed a handful of popcorn and stuffed it into his mouth.

"And we're still going?" Kiana poked her head out.

"It's just a stopover. At this luxury cruise ship's speed, it will take at least three days to get from St. Freya Academy to Jiu You in the eastern sea of Shenzhou. With Ksitigarbha's abilities, Otto will continue believing we're all on the ship until he personally sends someone to inspect it. That gives us plenty of room to operate," Qianyi said.

"What kind of operation?" Seele asked.

"Heavenly Mandate isn't an organization that can be easily dealt with. We need to go all out, formulate a detailed battle strategy, and draw the tiger away from the mountain." Qianyi snapped his fingers. The "Saint Karin" film playing in the theater changed to footage of a beautiful woman in a maid outfit, apparently infiltrating somewhere to investigate. The mini-map in the lower-left corner even marked her current location: London, England.

"I remember this maid. She's rich, and her weapons are worth a lot too," Shoko suddenly said.

"That's right. And she has a very good relationship with Durandal. If she gets kidnapped, the first person to go rescue her will, with a ninety-nine percent chance, be Durandal. In other words, by kidnapping Rita, we can get Durandal to leave Heavenly Mandate headquarters and leave Heavenly Mandate without a single S-rank Valkyrie stationed inside." Qianyi paused. "Then we'll have the perfect chance to launch a blitzkrieg on Heavenly Mandate headquarters and take Otto's head."

"Do we really need to be this wary of my sister? I feel like it wouldn't be hard for us to beat her now," Kiana suddenly asked.

"Sure." Qianyi gave Kiana a thumbs-up and assigned her a mission. "D-rank Valkyrie Kiana, step forward. I order you to split off and attack Durandal."

Kiana fell silent.

Talking tough online was one thing, but she still vividly remembered being hung up and whipped by Durandal for two hours last time. She did not want to be whipped for another two hours.

She decided to obediently go beat up Rita instead.

The Herrscher of Lust, currently on a mission in London, inexplicably sensed malice from beyond the world.

Rita Rossweisse, You Lazy Bug!

Rita Rossweisse, one of Heavenly Mandate's three S-rank Valkyries, vice-captain of Blade of the Unbroken, Heavenly Mandate's strongest Valkyrie squad, and the direct adjutant of the strongest Valkyrie, that airheaded goose.

Among the named Valkyries of the Honkai world, Rita was one of the few without a bizarre background.

She wasn't an artificial human, her parents weren't dead, and she had none of that messy backstory. Perhaps that was precisely why her strength was so unremarkable.

You could call her S-rank, and she certainly was S-rank, but she was not nearly as outrageous as the other S-ranks. Even her hobby was simple and unadorned.

Her hobby was being a maid.

During her free time, she worked part-time as a maid at cafés. To her, being a maid was both a fun way to relieve stress and a method of gathering intelligence.

Her purpose in coming to London this time was to complete the task assigned by the Bishop: find clues regarding a Divine Key, locate it, and bring it back to Heavenly Mandate.

But before she could find the Divine Key, an accident arrived first.

A van suddenly stopped at the entrance of the alley Rita was about to enter. The door opened, and before anyone emerged, a cold glint flashed first. Then four people got out and blocked her path.

"My, my. Lady Mei, I recall that you were supposed to be heading to suppress Chi You. Why are you here?"

Through the eye not covered by her bangs, Rita saw Artoria, Raiden Mei, Bronya, and Toyokawa Shoko.

"Miss Rita, please surrender peacefully. I don't want to hurt you." Raiden Mei gripped her sword hilt. The blade slid an inch from its sheath, purple lightning spilling out as a frigid aura spread.

"Lady Mei, may I take that to mean that as long as you get serious, you can easily defeat me?" Rita could not help holding back a laugh.

It was obvious that this group had come for her.

However, she was not worried in the slightest. She had watched Raiden Mei's combat assessment when Mei joined St. Freya Academy. Mei was only at B-rank Valkyrie level. Without power like Kiana's, which had mastered Herrscher authority, Mei could never defeat her.

As for that Toyokawa Shoko, Rita remembered that she was just an ordinary person, a frail girl who would fall apart if Rita merely touched her.

Of the rest, only Artoria and Bronya posed some threat.

But as long as Rita remained careful of Artoria turning into light and unleashing the Sword of Promised Victory, her chances of winning were high.

A maid should remain elegant at all times.

"Lady Mei, confidence is a good thing, but isn't it a little wishful to think only four of you can take me down?" Rita said confidently.

"Huh?" Raiden Mei froze. After counting the people around her, she could not help retorting, "Look carefully. There are nine of us."

"?"

Rita froze. After lifting her bangs, she saw the other five people whom they had concealed from her view: Qianyi, Kiana, Talulah, Hiiragi Tina, and Seele.

You need this many people to fight me?!

Did you come to the wrong place? Lady Durandal isn't here!

Rita stared at the full lineup of nine generals blocking her in the alley, their backs to the sun, their figures darkened by the light and radiating immense pressure.

She could not even handle one Qianyi, someone who possessed both strength and skill as well as tactical finesse. Yet there were eight more people with just as much finesse as him.

This completely exceeded what she could handle.

It could be said that she could not imagine any possibility of victory.

I can't imagine myself defeating Prison Nine.

"Can I surrender?"

Rita silently transmitted a special signal, attempting to contact Heavenly Mandate headquarters and inform them of the situation. At the same time, she tried to build rapport through conversation. "Lady Kiana, and Lady Mei and Lady Bronya are also Valkyries of Heavenly Mandate. Isn't it rather inappropriate to target me, a fellow Valkyrie of Heavenly Mandate, like this?"

"I remember that when my sister beat me up before, Rita, you watched from the side and even helped hand my sister water and towels, right?" Kiana cracked her knuckles, clearly having planned this for a long time.

At those words, Rita's heart went cold. "Lady Kiana, isn't using public power for personal revenge a little inappropriate?"

"Hmph, Rita, I hold grudges. You think you can offend me and get away with it? No chance. Brothers, get her!"

The moment Kiana finished speaking, Rita had already summoned her scythe and used quantum technology to transfer her Valkyrie armor onto herself. Her gaze sharpened like a blade as she launched the first attack.

Even without Lady Durandal, even if I must hold up all of Heavenly Mandate with one hand, I am still an S-rank Valkyrie!

Then a Space Gate opened behind her head, and a Folding Stool poked out from within and viciously struck the back of her head.

Bang!

The invincible Folding Stool, hailed as the foremost of the ten hidden weapons, interrupted Rita's attack in one blow. It sent her staggering and left her wide open, then—

All-out attack!

Halfway through beating her up, Shoko suddenly thought of a question. "Um, wasn't our plan to kidnap her? Why did we suddenly start beating Rita up?"

"I don't know." Artoria shook her head.

"I don't know either." Hiiragi Tina shook her head as well.

"Since we don't know, let's just keep beating her," Seele said. "We've already started anyway."

"Seele is right." Bronya agreed.

After taking part in beating up Rita together, everyone's feelings seemed to have grown stronger??

Ten minutes later, Rita lay sprawled on the ground, her eyes vacant. Her beautiful face was covered by strands of hair, making it impossible to discern her current expression, though she probably did not look very peaceful.

"Mm, I've altered the message Rita sent to Heavenly Mandate. The message Heavenly Mandate receives now will say that Rita was ambushed by World Serpent in London and suffered a disastrous defeat. Once they receive that news, whether out of reason or emotion, they'll be able to lure Durandal here. As long as Durandal leaves Heavenly Mandate headquarters, the next step will be for us to seize the world." Qianyi sheathed Ksitigarbha. Although this was a serious and tense situation where not the slightest liveliness was allowed, his voice still carried a faint smile, as though everything were proceeding according to plan.

That was, if he had not asked the following question.

"Kiana, how did your contact with the Three Great Families go?"

"Huh? What Three Great Families?" Kiana froze.

"..." Qianyi's smile instantly vanished. Then he stared directly into Kiana's mismatched eyes and asked with a kindly expression, "I recall asking you to contact members of the Kaslana Family and the Sanyate Family."

Now that Durandal, the real Kiana, knew nothing about her own origins, Kiana's public identity was that of the heir to both the Kaslana and Sanyate Families. If Kiana ascended to become the Bishop of Heavenly Mandate, those two families would probably laugh themselves awake and definitely choose to help.

Even if they did not dare help due to the pressure Otto had exerted for five hundred years, they could at least be kept from siding with Otto in the coming operation.

"Uh... I dunno!" Kiana had completely forgotten about it, and besides, she did not have the chat accounts or phone numbers of the two family heads.

"Then what about Theresa?" Qianyi asked again. "You must have persuaded Theresa to resist Otto, right? That should have been the easiest one. You can see her every day."

"Uh... well..." Kiana's eyes darted away.

"Reporting to the Captain." Raiden Mei suddenly reported, "These past few days, Kiana has been reading manga and playing games all the time. She hasn't even been serious about class or training."

"Woc! Mei, you sold me out!" Kiana was shocked. She had not expected to be betrayed by the person closest to her. She could have accepted being betrayed by Bronya!

Mei, you really betrayed me!

The next moment, Qianyi's face was right up against Kiana's. Though he wore the same exceedingly kind smile as always, it made Kiana feel especially terrified.

"You lazy bug, all you do by living is make rice more expensive!"

Raiden Ryoma, You Cowardly Lizard! I'm Going to Correct You!

Kiana felt immense pressure. Qianyi's face was pressed right before hers, growing bigger and bigger, as if he wanted nothing more than to eat her.

This pressure was ten times—no, even nine times—more terrifying than being hung up and whipped by her sister for two hours!

No! I'm going to die!

Quick, Kiana, use your brain! Think of a way to survive!

A rabbit would jump a wall when cornered, let alone a husky!

Looking at Qianyi's face so close before her, Kiana understood that if she did not give him a good reason today, she might really be in serious trouble. With a ruthless resolve, she closed her eyes.

The next moment, a soft, sticky sensation rippled across her lips.

The sensation existed only briefly, yet it instantly froze the atmosphere.

Phew, this should fool him.

Thinking this, Kiana peeked at Qianyi's expression from the corner of her eye, only to find none of the joy or shock one would expect from suddenly being kissed by a beautiful girl. Instead, he wore a disgusted expression that said, Woc, I got bitten by a dog.

His fist clenched.

"Phew!"

Qianyi exhaled. He had wanted to pry open Kiana's head to see whether this Husky Qi's brain was full of water, but after thinking about how he had been bitten by Husky Qi, he could neither settle the score with her nor let it go.

So he simply decided to put the matter aside. "Calm down. Since things have come to this, we can only change the plan. We'll find Siegfried and Raiden Ryoma first. Siegfried's whereabouts are currently unknown, so we'll prioritize finding Raiden Ryoma and bring in Anti-Entropy's conservative faction. Anti-Entropy must have a way to contact Siegfried. Mei, I need your help with this. Mei? Mei, are you listening?"

"Huh?" Hearing herself being called, Mei looked flustered. Pointing at herself, she asked weakly, "Me?"

"Can you contact your father?"