Moon World Girlfriend Comes Knocking

Lan Ze paused for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Let's skip it this time. I want to go home first, but definitely next time."

Mashu was clearly a bit disappointed, but did not show it. Holding the Holy Grail in her hands, she lowered her head slightly once more. "Thank you for all your trouble this time."

"It's thanks to you guys as well. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to safely reach the Sea of Life and bring Mother back," Lan Ze said with a shake of his head and a smile.

After chatting a bit more with Mashu and Jeanne d'Arc, Lan Ze returned to the room he had stayed in last night.

Considering the time, the two people inside should both be awake by now. If he didn't go back and check on them, Lan Ze was slightly worried another crisis of Humanity's Order would erupt.

Opening the door, the two people inside were indeed both awake, but there was no quarrelling or anything of the sort as Lan Ze had imagined. Tiamat sat on a nearby chair brushing her hair, while Sajyou Manaka sat on the edge of the bed swinging her legs, looking rather bored.

Catching sight of Lan Ze, she hopped lightly down from the edge of the bed, came up to him with her hands behind her back, and smiled with narrowed eyes. "Where did you go?"

"Dealing with a few things. Gilglassh wanted to see me this morning," Lan Ze explained, then looked with lingering doubt at the princess-like, elegant smile on Sajyou Manaka's face.

"You seem to be in a very good mood... smiling so happily?" he asked.

"Huh... is that so?" Sajyou Manaka touched her tender, smooth cheeks, then patted them gently, looking up with a smile. "Mm, my mood really is quite nice. After all, the weather is good today."

There was naturally a reason why Sajyou Manaka was in such a good mood.

Seeing how affectionate Lan Ze and Tiamat had been with each other last night had actually made her quite angry.

But now... it no longer mattered.

Anyway, after today, the only girl by Lan Ze's side would be her again.

Being a little happy now was entirely normal.

"When are you planning to leave?" Lan Ze asked next.

Sajyou Manaka blinked, pressed her index finger to her lips, thought for a moment, and asked, "What about you?"

"I can go back whenever," Lan Ze said, hesitating slightly when he saw the girl's brilliant smile.

Should I make things clear to Aika right now... about my plan to bring Mother back.

Just as Lan Ze was still hesitating, Sajyou Manaka gave a light clap of her hands with a look of sudden realization. "Oh, that's right! You just need to log out of the game to return to the real world, right? In that case, I need to get back as soon as possible, or I'll miss today's lunchtime cooking."

With that, she glanced back at Tiamat, who sat upright behind her after finishing brushing her hair, gazing toward them. Previously, her unadorned hair hanging loose naturally was already very beautiful, but styling that long, smooth, cyan hair into twin tails tied at the back of her head like today made her equally adorable.

Dignified, striking, yet radiating youth, she looked somewhat like a high school girl from a school, making one's eyes light up... though high school girls basically didn't have such a huge chest.

Tiamat obviously knew she was preparing to set out into the city today, and that from now on she could accompany her child every day. Thus, waking up today and not seeing Lan Ze hadn't panicked her in the least, because she knew her child would not abandon her.

"Mm... very pretty," Sajyou Manaka offered her praise without stint, nodding slightly.

"But I have to go back and prepare lunch, bye-bye~"

She waved at Tiamat, and as if to flaunt her victory, she raised a hand and snapped her fingers, causing a brilliant firework to burst above Tiamat's head.

This was Divine Era Magic, imbued with the aura of the Root, yet she was using it now as a means to celebrate her victory.

Since today was already Tiamat's last day anyway, what harm was there in her being a little generous?

Having said that, she glanced at Lan Ze. "Come back early."

Afterward, this Princess of the Root left the room at a leisurely pace with her hands behind her back.

Lan Ze opened his mouth several times to state the truth, yet Sajyou Manaka gave him zero opportunity to speak.

"Forget it... I'll make things clear to her after we get back," Lan Ze sighed helplessly.

At that moment, a box popped up before his eyes:

[Teach Tiamat the method to log out of the game, and assist her in logging out smoothly.]

"Aaa?"

When Lan Ze walked around behind Tiamat, the woman had just finished brushing her hair. She turned back to look at Lan Ze and asked a question in puzzlement.

"Things are all wrapped up here, and now I'm going to teach you the way to leave this place," Lan Ze explained.

"How to do it?" Tiamat tilted her head and asked.

"It's very simple... try to see if you can open the system interface right now," Lan Ze said.

In truth, he didn't have much confidence either. According to the system's implication just now, the current Mother of All should also have the permission to leave this place.

Yet he didn't know how Ereshkigal had actually logged out last time; even now, he was still exploring it himself.

"System interface?" Tiamat's gaze was filled with confusion.

"...Copy my movements, raise your hand like this and try." Lan Ze raised his hand, signaling Tiamat to imitate his motion.

"Raise hand..." Tiamat muttered to herself as she raised her hand in accordance with Lan Ze's words.

The moment she raised her hand, a system interface popped up right before her eyes.

"Very good, very good... Next, look and see if you can find the button to log out of the game." Lan Ze patted Tiamat's head to encourage her.

After Tiamat swept her gaze across the system interface for a moment, she turned her head to look at Lan Ze, grievance in her eyes as she said uncomprehendingly, "Aaa (Can't read)."

Lan Ze: "..."

"Didn't you understand the general meaning when you watched the animation last time?"

Tiamat shook her head gently: "Just, roughly knew the plot."

Only then did Lan Ze realize that although Mother of All had understood the plot when watching animations previously, she actually still couldn't recognize most of the text... Her learning capability was unquestionably strong, but it also required a certain amount of study time.

At this thought, Lan Ze couldn't help taking an extra look at Tiamat. The woman had her hands lightly clasped together, her head lowered as she looked at the system interface, appearing quite aggrieved.

"Jeanne d'Arc would probably have a lot to talk about if she met you." Sympathetic though he was, Lan Ze couldn't help laughing out loud.

Tiamat cast a glance at Lan Ze, her fine brows knitting slightly together as she pouted in extreme displeasure and lightly pinched Lan Ze's face.

Though she couldn't understand what Lan Ze meant, she felt it wasn't anything nice.

"Sorry... my bad, I was just making a joke, I won't joke with you anymore in the future." Lan Ze apologized hastily, his speech muffled because his mouth was being pinched.

Only then did Tiamat release her grip, returning her gaze to stare blankly at the system interface.

Lan Ze walked up beside her and glanced at the system interface before them.

"Right here, click this and you'll be able to leave this place." He pointed to a certain "Log Out" button on the system interface.

Tiamat looked at Lan Ze, then looked back at the "Log Out" button.

She tapped log out of the game, and saw options for a checkmark and an X.

Just as she was about to press the checkmark option, Lan Ze suddenly remembered something. "Right, wait a second, let's agree on a meeting place after logging out—"

He suddenly recalled that the last time Ereshkigal logged herself out, she had appeared in a certain district of Tokyo, and it was only because of news reports that he had found out about it.

If Tiamat logged out of the game right now, where would she appear?

If she appeared in some corner of the world, how was he going to find Tiamat?

However, the moment Lan Ze uttered those words, Tiamat had already pressed the log out button.

And the next instant, the woman vanished from his field of vision.

"What the..."

Lan Ze's heart skipped a beat, and he muttered, "We're done for..."

Mother of All had just left the game like that; where was he supposed to go look for her?

Still, thinking about it carefully, even if they had agreed things through with Tiamat in the game, it would have been useless. Tiamat didn't know those locations in the real world; even if he gave her a detailed address, she wouldn't be able to find it.

"At a time like this, I can only rely on the almighty Miss Aika..."

Lan Ze muttered to himself, yet the moment he thought of the reaction the girl would have upon learning about this matter, he rubbed his brow with a slight headache.

Anyway, he should log out of the game early first.

Located in a relatively quiet apartment in Tokyo, Lan Ze slowly opened his eyes.

After taking off the VR Glasses, he saw the familiar ceiling.

Rubbing his eyes, Lan Ze moved his body slightly and felt strength beyond compare.

This was quite abnormal; ever since high school, Lan Ze's physical strength had been very poor, and waking up every day felt as though he had been hit with a weakness buff.

Yet now he felt his physical constitution was quite formidable, with a feeling that he could smash the wall next to him with a single punch.

Lan Ze got up and stepped off the bed, his slippers pattering as he walked out of the room.

The sound of cooking drifted faintly from the kitchen, and the aroma of food made Lan Ze swallow instinctively as he stepped into the kitchen.

A petite, large loli was cooking in front of the kitchen counter. She glanced back at Lan Ze and smiled:

"You're awake? Wait just a moment, lunch will be ready right away."

Seemingly due to being in quite a good mood, Sajyou Manaka hummed a tune while stir-frying. After a moment, she carried a dish that made one's mouth water over to the table.

"Let me help."

Lan Ze said, reaching out to help pick up a dish and walking over to the dining area.

"Thank you." Sajyou Manaka smiled politely.

"No thanks..." Lan Ze thought to himself, Well, I still have a favor to ask you later after all...

"Is there anything else you need my help with?" Lan Ze asked.

"No need. You're the savior of Humanity's Order after all; let's just treat this as me making a sumptuous lunch to reward you," Sajyou Manaka shook her head with a smile.

"It's fine, I want to help, let me help..."

"Mm... alright then, cut up that cabbage over there." Sajyou Manaka pointed to the Chinese cabbage on the side and said.

"Okay..."

Thud, thud, thud...

Lan Ze expertly chopped the vegetables, then turned his head and continued asking, "Is there anything else you need me to help with?"

"Nothing... Speaking of which, why are you so enthusiastic today?" Sajyou Manaka stared suspiciously at Lan Ze. "You never used to volunteer to help before, did you?"

She clearly remembered Lan Ze previously saying something along the lines of "when it comes to cooking I lose," yet now he was being so proactive, which was truly baffling.

"I just felt like you worked too hard before, so I wanted to help out," Lan Ze said with a smile and a shake of his head.

"Mmm... really suspicious." Sajyou Manaka didn't believe it, staring at Lan Ze's smile.

After watching for a long time, she muttered "forget it" to herself, and then pointed at the beef bought earlier: "Help prepare that too."

She was probably just being overly suspicious; wasn't it a good thing that Lan Ze was willing to help?

At this thought, Sajyou Manaka cheerfully cooked her dishes while narrowing her eyes to gaze into the azure sky outside the window.

The weather is really nice today~ she thought with a pleasant mood.

When the dining table was laden with all sorts of lunch dishes, Sajyou Manaka sat down in the chair opposite Lan Ze, humming a happy tune in her mouth.

Noticing that Lan Ze's gaze was fixed entirely on her, she asked in puzzlement, "What is it? You've been staring at me."

"No... it just feels like you're in a really good mood," Lan Ze said. "Did something good happen?"

"Is that so?" Sajyou Manaka tilted her head and smiled innocently. "I don't know either, I'm just in a good mood anyway."

"It's you, though. You feel so strange today, what are you staring at me for?" She noticed that Lan Ze's gaze still hadn't shifted away from her.

"No matter how appetizing a girl looks, she can't possibly compare to actual food, you know," she said in a soft voice.

"Um... Aika, there's something I need to tell you." After hesitating for a moment, Lan Ze finally made up his mind.

"What is it?" Sajyou Manaka raised her head, her face full of smiles.

"Tiamat... that is, the Beast you saw last time, wants to live at my place."

"..."

Following a brief period of blankness, Sajyou Manaka revealed her smile once more: "What?"

She wore the expression of someone utterly refusing to acknowledge reality.

"She is the Mother of Creation, the Beast of Regression. She should be counting her blessings for not returning to the Imaginary Number World, how could she run all the way from Uruk to modern Tokyo like us?"