The father, who had heard the whole story, could only describe it this way.
There was no denying it was a romantic story, but Raiden Ryoma was too rattled from beginning to end to get immersed in it.
His gaze toward Kiana grew increasingly unfriendly.
Completely oblivious, the girl proudly recounted how she had helped along the way.
So you were the root of all evil!
Sorry, Siegfried, I'm taking back my apology.
Your daughter had better fall for him—and fall hard.
Then Mei could see Jiang Cheng for who he really was and get out early. She could stay single for the rest of her life, too.
Cocolia was already finished, so taking back ME Corp would be fairly simple now. With her family business and the rights she was bound to inherit, Raiden Mei's future was limitless.
In that situation, throwing herself into a harem with a harem protagonist and getting caught up in palace intrigue with a bunch of pretty girls—
What a waste!
...She'd be better off learning to do research with me. I'd switched from being a swordsmanship master to a scientist halfway through, after all.
"So that's how it was. If there's something to say, you should always talk it through. You can't just disappear and regret it afterward, right?"
Kiana's mood suddenly dipped.
Raiden Ryoma watched her, about to say something, but recalled the instructions Siegfried had once given him and forced the words back down.
He was just about to step forward and offer a few words of comfort as an elder when Kiana suddenly raised her head.
"—Forget it!"
"I'll go talk to Jiang Cheng. That big dummy's the best at cheering people up! He promised he'd carry me, after all."
She patted her cheeks, forcing her sadness away, then turned and ran toward the three people who were clearly not in a good mood.
"You carried me once, so I'll carry you this time."
He could almost picture the way the boy named Jiang Cheng had reached out to Kiana beneath the sun.
At that moment, Jiang Cheng's eyes must have shone a million times brighter than the sun in Kiana's eyes. The wind stirred the clouds, scattering rosy light across the sky. Even that impossibly romantic sunset could only serve as a filter for him.
...They'd even made a promise like that?
Why did it feel like Mei's chances of winning were rather slim?
As an onlooker, Raiden Ryoma could clearly see Raiden Mei's body stiffen.
Of course, seeing the person you liked surrounded by another woman would make you jealous. The problem was that she was the only one here showing it.
Kiana maintained her carefree, buddy-like attitude. She ran over, slapped Jiang Cheng on the shoulder, then casually sidled up to him without a care in the world.
Cyrene had been nonchalant from the start, her eyes fixed only on Jiang Cheng. Even when she couldn't see him, she could imagine the world reflected in his eyes—as if no one else existed, as worthless as weeds and air.
The other two girls both managed to outdo Raiden Mei, whose feelings were spilling out so plainly.
She was the only one still brooding.
And Jiang Cheng was surrounded by a gentle, sweet little-mama type, a tsundere Northern European beauty, and an elegant, black-haired Far Eastern honors student—a swordsmanship master and beautiful, noble, graceful, considerate, obedient, gentle, talented, super-beautiful young lady, the heir to a top corporation and the future Shadow Emperor.
How did you get to have it so good?
Even Raiden Ryoma, an Anti-Entropy executive, felt like a rookie at this moment.
"Mei, there's something I need to make clear."
Without hesitation, he walked over, put on a father's air of authority, and called her name in a stern voice.
"About you and Jiang—"
"Hm? Dear Father, what were you going to say?"
"Ah... nothing."
In the end, he had no choice but to put up with all of it.
After all, their feelings for each other really were deep. The story of a hero rescuing a beauty had been a classic throughout the ages—
—not that it had anything to do with the sudden glare Mei shot him when he'd merely taken a few steps over and tried to say something.
That absolutely had not happened!
He—Raiden Ryoma—was still the same dignified father as ever.
After a long time, Raiden Ryoma finally emerged from the basement and faced the sunlight. That was what he thought.
Basking in the light once again. Even the evening sun was enough to lift his spirits; it felt as if his whole body had come alive again.
—As long as he didn't look at the group of four behind him.
"Anyway, since you were able to get here, you must have already driven Cocolia back, right?"
"She's already trapped with no way out."
Jiang Cheng calmly refuted him, then waved his hand and shared the screen he carried with him.
Raiden Ryoma got to see for himself the miserable state of Cocolia—the woman who had defeated him.
"Did you take care of all of them?"
He looked toward the harem protagonist, his feelings complicated.
"They were nothing but a few insignificant bugs." Jiang Cheng's tone was casual.
"Titan Mechs weren't even enough to tickle me. Even the First Herrscher's clone, with a hundredfold gravity that could be pushed past three hundredfold, couldn't even break my skin."
"I don't even know how strong I am now. The last time I attacked at full strength, I crossed three hundred kilometers, pierced through all the defenses she'd set up, and pinned Cocolia to the wall of her safe room."
Raiden Ryoma fell silent.
The person who had brought him to the brink of ruin, nearly costing him his home and his life, had been crushed like a bug.
He took a deep breath and turned his gaze to Raiden Mei, who was clinging to her sweetheart. His voice grew heavy.
"Mei... she's become a Herrscher, hasn't she?"
"It was simple." Jiang Cheng's voice remained calm, as if he were commenting on the nice weather. "I sent her outside the city, then the Honkai erupted. The barrier the Honkai had imposed on civilization was already broken at the cost of someone's sacrifice. Just like now, when three Herrschers have appeared, yet only one chose to fight humanity—more precisely, Schicksal—out of hatred. You don't actually need to view Herrschers as enemies. Think of them as terrorists who've been pushed to their limits by society and have started taking revenge on it."
"..."
Raiden Ryoma felt even more conflicted.
The Herrscher problem that had driven him to the brink of collapse, making him develop Plasma Kagehide and secretly resolve that, if the worst came to pass, he would deal with it himself...
It had just been brushed aside so casually.
Mei didn't even look any different now.
That look she'd given him earlier had been utterly insignificant—nothing compared with the destruction a Herrscher could cause.
But then Raiden Ryoma reconsidered.
According to Jiang Cheng, the miserable ruins visible on the screen had been entirely his doing.
He'd even attacked Cocolia on the other side of Nagazora from across the whole city, at a range rivaling that of an intercontinental ballistic missile...
Compared to some random person jumping out from the roadside to solve the problem, it made more sense for a powerful fighter beyond the level of an S-rank Valkyrie to show up and take care of it.
After all, he couldn't compare himself to an S-rank Valkyrie. Back during the Second Honkai Eruption, he hadn't even been qualified to watch from the sidelines.
As for the person who'd sacrificed themselves and the barrier of the Honkai, he didn't even feel like asking.
"Fine."
Raiden Ryoma let out a long sigh.
"After Cocolia took over ME Corp, she probably used my funds to build a large number of Titan Mechs. They..."
"They're all wiped out~!"
Cyrene's voice was light and cheerful. She clasped her hands gently before her chest, her eyes curving into crescents.
Her pride was plain to see.
"Ah-Cheng told me he crushed Welt in less than ten minutes and wiped out tens of thousands of Titan Mechs. Then he shot that annoying Cocolia into the wall with an arrow."
"Jiang Cheng really did get a lot stronger." Even Kiana thumped her chest and said it in her usual carefree manner.
"Cheng-kun really is amazing." Raiden Mei repeated, just as earnest as the other girls.
Ah...
Mei.
I can't take any more. Please make it stop.
Raiden Ryoma shut his eyes in anguish and rubbed them briefly. Then he opened them and looked at Jiang Cheng again.
"Is there anything you need to do next? Is there anything I can help with? Which organization do you belong to? If you need me, I'll do everything in my power."
"I don't belong to any organization. Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, even World Serpent lurking underground—they have nothing to do with me..."
Jiang Cheng shook his head again.
As for what to do next... He thought for a while, then held up one finger.
"Keep my information and Mei's hidden. Don't let Schicksal find out we exist. Make it look as if what happened was a contingency plan you'd put in place. I deliberately left Cocolia half-dead with my ability. If you can't manage it, notify me at once and I'll prepare another plan. Then set up a testing room for me. I want to test how strong Mei and I are now—in every respect. Mr. Ryoma, you can arrange that, right?"
"No need to be so formal. Just call me Ryoma... Uncle Ryoma." Raiden Ryoma forced an overly stiff smile. "The Far East is my territory. As long as we avoid internal conflict, nobody can easily invade. Cocolia defeated me because my mind wasn't on it at the time, and I had no support from the conservative faction."
"Besides that, I suggest you look into how Raiden Mei was treated during this time."
Jiang Cheng's tone turned cold.
It was the first time he'd shown such a frigid side, like someone who'd spent ten years gutting fish at a market.
"...What do you mean?"
Raiden Ryoma was stunned. His voice held a trace of hesitation, as if he couldn't believe it himself...
Or, more accurately, as if he didn't dare think about it.
"It was a hundred thousand times worse than you think."
Jiang Cheng punctured that fragile bubble without hesitation.
"If I didn't have to hide our information first to avoid drawing Otto's attention, I'd have turned them all into meat skewers by now. Don't think I'm being cruel. After you look into the records, you'll be even crueler than I am."
"What did they do?"
The joking, casual air vanished in an instant.
—The worn-out middle-aged man was gone.
Raiden Ryoma's gaze sharpened, his brow furrowing.
The Anti-Entropy executive, the head of the Far East's greatest financial conglomerate, had come on the scene. He stared intently at Jiang Cheng.
"I'm not the right person to tell you, and I can't tell you everything, either. It's best if you investigate it yourself. You have to investigate it yourself—"
No matter what we plan to do in the future, staying hidden first is absolutely the right choice.
Otto's control over the world wasn't actually all that strong. In the original story, Dr. Magi defected with his research materials. Countries existed in this world, along with neutral nations and the like, and they also had considerable power.
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