Alicia is the True Golden Finger in Honkai!

Raiden Mei blinked when Otto mentioned her name, a hint of confusion on her face. After hearing Otto's words, she quickly averted her gaze from the two of them—

"I might need to stay at your place tonight.

Choukai is on your left. If you need someone to stay on your right, it will take some time to clean up. It's going to be difficult to move in tonight."

"……"

Gwen, who hadn't expected Otto to bring this up the moment he appeared, glanced at Otto and received a knowing smile in return.

While he really wanted to roll his eyes at Otto, Gwen decided against it, considering Raiden Mei was present and he didn't want the sensitive girl to overthink things. He simply nodded calmly and looked at Raiden Mei, who was not far away.

"Mei, I have a few spare rooms. If you don't mind, would you like to stay at my place for the night?

Hmm… If you'd rather not, Choukai… my neighbor and superior, should also have a spare room. She probably wouldn't mind letting you stay over."

"Ah, there's no need to go to such trouble…"

Upon hearing this, Raiden Mei instinctively shook her head. Then, realizing her reaction might have been too strong, the girl's gaze flickered, and she said in a low voice:

"If you have a spare room, I'll stay at your place, Gwen."

This is just to avoid troubling Gwen, just to avoid troubling Gwen…

Constantly reminding herself of this in her heart, Raiden Mei managed to suppress her shyness, though the delicate lobes of her ears still flushed slightly red.

"Heh, you two can discuss it amongst yourselves."

Otto, as an outsider, acted as if it were none of his business, saying with a smile:

"It's getting late today, you should go rest.

Arriving on the other side of the Earth so suddenly, you'll need to adjust your biological clock properly.

Tomorrow, if nothing unexpected comes up, Gwen, you shouldn't have any mission assignments. I'll trouble you to accompany Miss Raiden with her onboarding procedures.

Of course, I'll have Amber accompany you the entire time, you just need to be there for support."

By the time Gwen and his group set foot in Schicksal HQ, it was already 6 PM local time. After all the discussions, it was now past 8 PM.

"Alright, then we'll be leaving, Bishop Otto."

Gwen nodded and no longer paid attention to Otto. He walked over to Mei's side and said with a smile, "Alright, Mei, let's go."

"Mhm."

Raiden Mei nodded gently. After giving a nod to Otto, who was smiling at them, she followed Gwen out of Otto's office.

On the way from Otto's office to her home, the two of them didn't experience any awkward silence—

Although as the young lady of ME Corp., Raiden Mei's horizons were much broader than that of ordinary peers, Schicksal HQ was still Schicksal HQ, equipped with many things that were novel to outsiders.

Therefore, along the way, Gwen occasionally introduced Raiden Mei to the unique aspects of Schicksal HQ they passed, which made Raiden Mei feel as if they had returned to the time a few days ago when they were still pretending to be a couple—

However, back then, it was Raiden Mei introducing the Far East to Gwen, whereas now, it was Gwen introducing Schicksal HQ to Raiden Mei.

"This is my place."

Bringing Raiden Mei to his doorstep, Gwen said to her while performing identity verification, "It's just that I've been away for over a month, so I might need to tidy up a bit."

"Then I'll use tonight's labor as payment for tonight's lodging?"

Mei said with a smile and followed Gwen into the living room.

As expected, a thin layer of dust covered the entire room, indicating that no one had been in the house for some time.

"Then it seems I'm about to lose a good opportunity to owe Mei a favor."

Gwen replied to Mei and retrieved cleaning tools from the bathroom.

Although Gwen's daily training included control over his own energy, and the existence of the Gene Lock made his control over his own energy far superior to others, However, without skills like "Dust Repelling Technique," it was still a bit too much to ask Gwen to use his energy to clear the dust in the room.

"Heh heh…"

Letting out a soft chuckle, Raiden Mei accepted the tools Gwen handed over. After putting on her gear, she began to clean the house, which hadn't been lived in for nearly a month, along with Gwen—

Despite being a genuine young lady, thanks to the "Home Economics" class in the Far East, Raiden Mei was quite familiar with such tasks, even occasionally guiding Gwen on how to clean more efficiently.

And in this simple yet heartwarming interaction, Raiden Mei's tense and sensitive heart, which had become so due to a series of drastic changes, relaxed a little.

However, before Raiden Mei could let her thoughts wander further, the sound of a doorbell shattered the warm atmosphere between them.

"Hmm? At this hour…"

Glancing at the time, Gwen had a vague guess about the identity of the visitor. After nodding slightly to Raiden Mei, he opened the door, and the visitor's appearance appeared before Gwen—

"Rita, Yolandale, and Anna?

What brings you here?"

Looking at the three girls with different hair colors standing at the door in surprise, Gwen asked subconsciously.

However, even as Gwen asked, the answer had already formed in his mind. He took half a step back, sidestepped, and let the three of them enter.

"Come in and sit down. I haven't finished tidying up, but it's fine for guests."

"Heh heh, Mr. Gwen, what do you think we're here for?"

Rita, carrying some ingredients, asked with a smile before heading straight for the kitchen.

"Alright, I asked a stupid question."

Gwen lightly slapped his forehead, feigning helplessness. He then turned to Yolandale and Anna.

"It's been a while, Yolandale, Anna."

"It's been a while, Gwen."

Yolandale and Anna also greeted him with smiles. They found spare aprons placed to the side, put them on, picked up cleaning tools, and joined the cleaning effort—

Although Anna was an intern at the Southeast Asia branch when Gwen was discovered, and was already a B-class Valkyrie.

By the beginning of this year, Anna had finished her internship and returned to headquarters.

Therefore, Gwen, who was familiar with Rita and Yolandale, was not unfamiliar with Anna, who had a good relationship with the two of them. In fact, they could be considered quite familiar friends.

"Come, let me introduce you. This young lady's name is Raiden Mei. She's from the Far East and has been confirmed to join Schicksal."

While cleaning, Gwen also introduced them to each other.

"Mei, this is Anna Schariac, a B-class Valkyrie and my friend. This is Bianca Yolandale Atagina, an A-class Valkyrie, my friend, and also my half-instructor."

"Hello, Miss Mei."

"Hello, Miss Anna. Hello, Miss Bianca."

The three girls greeted each other. Thanks to English being a universal language, their communication had no major issues.

After they finished cleaning the dust that had accumulated during Gwen's month-long absence, the unfamiliar three had already become familiar with each other.

At this time, a faint fragrance wafted from the kitchen, and Rita's voice chimed in appropriately.

"Everyone, the meal is ready. Please wash your hands and prepare to eat."

"Thank you, Rita."

Gwen asked Mei and the other two to clean themselves up first. After simply washing his hands, Gwen helped Rita out.

"You're too kind, Mr. Gwen."

As Rita spoke, the smile on her face lost some of its mystery and gained a touch of youthful purity befitting her age.

"We're friends, aren't we?"

"Heh heh, indeed, we are friends."

After a moment of eye contact with Rita's wine-red eyes, Gwen's smile widened.

"Gwen, we're done washing. You should go wash up properly too."

At this moment, Raiden Mei, who had just come out of the restroom, called out.

"Okay, coming!"

Gwen replied, nodded at Rita, and headed to the restroom.

From a distance of several meters, Rita's gaze met Raiden Mei's, who wore a reserved smile.

"..."

Subconsciously, both Rita and Mei nodded with a smile.

However, beside Mei, Anna, who had just been chatting with Gwen as he walked over, suddenly tensed up. Her gaze instinctively shifted to Raiden Mei beside her, only to be met with Mei's somewhat confused look.

"What's wrong, Anna?"

"Nothing, maybe I just had too much physical activity today?"

Anna mused for a moment before giving a rather unconvincing answer.

"Then you'll have to eat more later. I can't afford to have you exhausted."

Gwen teased with a smile and entered the restroom.

When Gwen finished washing up and returned to the living room, the four girls were already seated at the dining table, waiting for him.

At this point, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.

Previously, Gwen and Raiden Mei had eaten dinner at the restaurant where Kiana worked in the evening. Yolandale and Anna at Schicksal headquarters had also long since eaten dinner, and Rita had eaten on her way to the Far East.

Therefore, Rita hadn't prepared too much food. The table was mostly laid out with salads, fruit platters, and desserts.

"I really have to thank you all for coming to help. Otherwise, if it were just Mei and me, we probably would have been busy for quite a while."

As the sweet fruit juice flowed into his mouth, Gwen once again thanked those who had come to help.

"It's what friends should do."

Yolandale waved her hand and said with a smile.

Originally, Yolandale and Anna, who were on vacation that day, received a message from Rita while taking a walk after a meal, informing them that Gwen had returned to headquarters.

At Rita's suggestion, the three of them bought some things Gwen might need after being away for a month and decided to come help as a group.

During their casual conversation, Raiden Mei's understanding of Schicksal rapidly increased. However, due to a certain training enthusiast, Raiden Mei's perception of Valkyries was slightly skewed.

When Yolandale, Rita, and Anna said their goodbyes, Raiden Mei had gained three friends in Schicksal besides Gwen.

"Mei, come here. There are some things you might be curious about, and I should tell you."

"Hm?

...Mm..."

Raiden Mei was taken aback for a moment, then nodded and softly agreed, sitting on the sofa in the living room with Gwen.

"Mei, you should still remember what Kiana looked like a few hours ago when I referred to her as the Herrscher of the Void."

Leaning forward with her arms on her knees, Gwen looked directly into Raiden Mei's eyes and said slowly.

"Mm..."

Nodding, Raiden Mei's mind conjured the image of that aloof figure with golden eyes that looked down on everything:

"So... Kiana is... the Herrscher of the Void?"

"You can understand it that way, but it's not entirely accurate—

At least, the Kiana we know now doesn't have the ability to use that power belonging to a Herrscher...

Simply put, you can think of it like extreme personality splitting, as depicted in movies—

The Kiana we know, who is enthusiastic, simple, and loves to laugh and eat, is real. And the Herrscher of the Void, clad in a formal dress with cold, golden eyes, who appeared a few hours ago, is also real.

They are both continuations of Sirin, the second Herrscher born during the Second Honkai War over a decade ago. It's just that one seems to have inherited Sirin's malice and will to destroy the world, while the other inherited the residual kindness in Sirin's heart."

"..."