Hearing Otto suddenly mention her, Raiden Mei blinked, a hint of confusion appearing on her face. But after hearing what Otto said next, she hurriedly withdrew her gaze from the two of them—
"You may have to stay at Gwen's place for the night.
Choukai lives to your left, and if someone is to move into the place on your right, it will still need some time to be cleaned up. Moving in tonight would be rather difficult."
"..."
Gwen, who had not expected Otto to bring this up the moment he appeared, glanced at Otto, only to receive a meaningful smile in return.
Though Gwen very much wanted to roll his eyes at Otto, considering that Raiden Mei was still present and that he did not want the girl, who was still in a sensitive state, to overthink things, he merely nodded calmly and looked at Raiden Mei in the distance.
"Mei, I still have several empty rooms at my place. If you don't mind, would you stay over at my place for the night?
Hmm... If you mind, Choukai's place... that is, my neighbor and superior's place, should have spare rooms too. She probably wouldn't mind letting you stay for the night."
"Ah, there's no need to go to so much trouble..."
Raiden Mei instinctively shook her head. Then, realizing that her reaction had seemed a little too strong, the girl's gaze drifted away as she said softly:
"If there's an empty room, then I'll stay at your house for the night, Gwen."
"This is just so I won't trouble Gwen. Just so I won't trouble Gwen..."
Repeating this to herself over and over, Raiden Mei finally suppressed the embarrassment in her heart, though her delicate earlobes were still faintly red.
"Hehe, you can discuss it among yourselves."
Otto, as an outsider, looked utterly unconcerned as he said with a smile:
"It's getting late today, so you should go rest first.
You've suddenly arrived on the other side of the planet, so you'll need to adjust your body clocks properly.
If nothing unexpected happens, Gwen, you shouldn't have any assignments tomorrow. I'll leave it to you to accompany Miss Raiden as she handles her onboarding procedures.
Of course, I'll have Amber accompany you throughout the process. You only need to stay by her side."
By the time Gwen and the others arrived at Schicksal Headquarters, it was already six in the evening local time. Now that everything had been discussed, it was past eight.
"Alright, then we'll be leaving first, Bishop Otto."
Gwen nodded and did not continue paying attention to Otto. He walked over to Mei and said with a smile:
"Alright, Mei, let's go."
"Mm."
Raiden Mei nodded gently. After nodding in acknowledgment to Otto, who was smiling at the two of them, she followed Gwen out of Otto's office.
After leaving Otto's office, there was no awkward silence between them on the way to Gwen's home—
Although Raiden Mei, as the young lady of ME Corp., had seen much more than ordinary people her age, Schicksal Headquarters was still Schicksal Headquarters. It housed many things that were extremely novel to outsiders.
Thus, Gwen occasionally introduced Raiden Mei to the unique things they passed along the way, making her feel as though they had returned to those days a few days ago when they had been pretending to be a couple—
Only, back then Raiden Mei had introduced the Far East to Gwen. Now, Gwen was introducing Schicksal Headquarters to Raiden Mei.
"This is my home."
Bringing Raiden Mei to his front door, Gwen conducted the identity verification as he spoke to her.
"It's just that I've been away for over a month, so it may need a little tidying up."
"Then I'll use tonight's work as payment for staying here tonight?"
Mei said with a smile as she followed Gwen into the living room.
Just as expected, a thin layer of dust covered every corner of the room, showing that no one had visited the house during this period.
"Looks like I'm about to lose a great opportunity to have Mei owe me a favor."
Responding to Mei, Gwen took cleaning supplies out of the bathroom.
Although Gwen's daily training included controlling his own energy, and the Gene Lock allowed him to control his energy far better than others—
Without a skill like a dust-repelling technique, asking Gwen to use energy to clear all the dust from the room was still asking a bit too much.
"Hehe..."
With a soft laugh, Raiden Mei took the tools Gwen handed her. After putting on the proper gear, she began cleaning the house that had been empty for nearly a month alongside Gwen—
Though she was a genuine young lady, thanks to the Far East's home economics classes, Raiden Mei was quite familiar with this sort of work. Sometimes, she even had to teach Gwen how to clean more efficiently.
And amid those simple yet warm interactions, Raiden Mei's heart, which had become tense and sensitive because of the sudden changes she had experienced, relaxed a little.
However, before Raiden Mei's thoughts could wander any further, the ringing of the doorbell broke the warm atmosphere between them.
"Hm? At this hour..."
After checking the time, Gwen vaguely guessed the identity of the visitor. He nodded slightly to Raiden Mei before opening the door, revealing the visitors before him—
"Rita, Yolandale, and Anna?
Why are you here?"
Gwen looked at the three girls with different hair colors outside the door in surprise and asked instinctively.
Raiden Mei: A Person Could, But They Shouldn't...
Though Gwen asked that, he already had the answer in his heart. He took half a step back and moved aside to let the three girls enter.
"Come in and have a seat first. It hasn't been fully cleaned up yet, but it's fine for sitting."
"Hehe, Mr. Gwen, what do you think we came here for?"
Rita, carrying some ingredients in her hands, asked with a smile before walking straight toward the kitchen.
"Alright, that was a stupid question."
Gwen lightly slapped his forehead, feigning helplessness, then said to Yolandale and Anna:
"It's been a long time, Yolandale, Anna."
"It's been a long time, Gwen." *2
Yolandale and Anna also greeted him with smiles. They found the spare aprons set aside nearby, put them on, picked up cleaning tools, and joined the cleaning crew—
When Gwen had first been discovered, Anna, already a B-rank Valkyrie, had been interning at the Southeast Asia branch.
But at the beginning of this year, Anna had completed her internship and returned to Headquarters.
Therefore, Gwen, who was familiar with Rita and Yolandale, was not unfamiliar with Anna, who was on good terms with the two of them. They could even be considered fairly close friends.
"Come, let me introduce you all. This young lady is Raiden Mei. She's from the Far East and has already decided to join Schicksal."
While cleaning, Gwen introduced everyone to one another.
"Mei, this is Anna Schariac, a B-rank Valkyrie and my friend.
This is Bianca Yolandale Atagina, an A-rank Valkyrie and my friend. She was also half of an instructor to me."
"Hello, Miss Mei." *2
"Hello, Miss Anna.
Hello, Miss Bianca."
The three girls exchanged greetings. Thanks to English being a common language, they had no major issues communicating.
By the time they had finished cleaning away the dust that had accumulated during Gwen's month away, the three strangers had already grown familiar with one another.
At that moment, a faint fragrance drifted out from the kitchen, followed by Rita's timely voice:
"Everyone, the meal is ready. Please wash your hands and prepare to eat."
"Thank you for your trouble, Rita."
After having Mei and the other two girls freshen up first, Gwen simply washed his hands and went to help Rita.
"You're too polite, Mr. Gwen."
As she spoke, the smile on Rita's face became less mysterious and gained a touch of youthful innocence suited to her age.
"We're friends, aren't we?"
"Hehe, indeed. We are friends."
After meeting Rita's wine-red eyes for a moment, Gwen's smile became even brighter.
"Gwen, we're done washing up. You should hurry and clean yourself up properly too."
At that moment, Raiden Mei, who had emerged from the bathroom, called out to him.
"Alright, coming!"
After replying, Gwen nodded to Rita and headed toward the bathroom.
From several meters away, Rita's gaze met that of Raiden Mei, who wore a reserved smile.
"..."
Instinctively, Rita and Mei both smiled and nodded.
However, beside Mei, Anna, who had just exchanged a few casual words with Gwen as he walked over, suddenly tensed up. Her gaze instinctively shifted toward Raiden Mei beside her, only to meet Mei's slightly puzzled eyes.
"What's wrong, Anna?"
"Nothing. Maybe I exercised a bit too much today?"
After thinking for a moment, Anna gave a rather unconvincing answer.
"Then you should eat more later. I can't afford to compensate you if you collapse from exhaustion."
Gwen joked with a smile before entering the bathroom.
And by the time Gwen finished washing up and returned to the living room, the four girls were already seated at the dining table, waiting for him.
By then, it was already nine in the evening.
Earlier, Gwen and Raiden Mei had already eaten dinner at the restaurant where Kiana worked in the evening. Yolandale and Anna, who were at Schicksal Headquarters, had also eaten dinner long ago, while Rita had eaten on the way to the Far East.
Therefore, Rita had not prepared too much food. The table was mostly filled with salads, fruit platters, and desserts.
"I really have to thank you for coming over to help. If it had only been Mei and me, we probably would have been busy for quite a while longer."
As sweet fruit juice flowed through his mouth, Gwen once again thanked the people who had come to help.
"This is what friends should do."
Yolandale waved her hand and said with a smile.
Originally, Yolandale and Anna, who happened to be off today, had just finished a day of training and were taking an after-dinner walk when they received Rita's message and learned that Gwen had returned to Headquarters.
At Rita's suggestion, the three bought some things that Gwen, who had been away for a month, might need, then came over together to help.
During their casual conversation, Raiden Mei's understanding of Schicksal rapidly increased. It was just that, because of a certain training fanatic, her understanding of Valkyries had become slightly skewed.
By the time Yolandale, Rita, and Anna said their farewells, Raiden Mei had gained three friends in Schicksal besides Gwen.
"Mei, come here. There are some things you might be curious about, and it's time I told you."
"Hm?
...Mm..."
Raiden Mei froze for a moment, then nodded and responded softly, following Gwen to sit on the sofa in the living room.
"Mei, you should still remember how Kiana looked a few hours ago, when I called her the Herrscher of the Void."
With his arms resting on his legs, Gwen looked directly into Raiden Mei's eyes and spoke slowly.
"Mm..."
Raiden Mei nodded, and the image of that figure—lofty, with golden eyes that looked down upon everything—appeared in her mind.
"So... Kiana... is the Herrscher of the Void?"
"You could understand it that way, but that wouldn't be entirely accurate—
At the very least, the Kiana we know now does not have the ability to use that Herrscher power...
Put simply, you can think of it as an extremely severe case of split personality, like in the movies—
The passionate, innocent, foolishly grinning, food-loving Kiana we know is real. The cold-eyed Herrscher of the Void in a formal gown from a few hours ago is real as well.
They are both continuations of Sirin, the Second Herrscher born during the Second Honkai Eruption over a decade ago. It only seems that one inherited Sirin's malice and her will to destroy the world, while the other inherited the remaining kindness in Sirin's heart."
"..."
Before you continue