That was practically the tone one used to order around a maid.
Yet hearing those words, Kiana became excited instead!
He had not answered her question, but he had accepted her attempt to curry favor. There was still hope for this relationship.
"Leave it to me. Brother, just like my dad, your cervical spine isn't in great shape."
With a fawning smile, the girl obeyed Russell's orders and carefully helped him relax his neck.
She was so attentive that her father Siegfried would have wept—he had never received such treatment.
Did Siegfried even know his own neck was bad?
Still, Kiana's skills were quite good.
After all, she was the Kaslana family's daughter. Her control over her strength was truly maxed out.
Mmm...
Russell narrowed his eyes, looking as content as a cat having its chin scratched.
Mei, watch closely. This is how you use Kiana!
Russell woke up in the guest room and rubbed his eyes.
As a mere tourist,
he should have returned to his own territory after handing his bank card over to Kiana.
But—
Russell got up, pushed open the door, and walked to the washroom.
There was a brand-new toothbrush and rinsing cup, with toothpaste thoughtfully applied to the toothbrush.
After brushing his teeth and leaving the room, he found milk and slightly burnt sandwiches already laid out on the dining table.
The side dishes were a soft-boiled egg and a fried egg.
The whole house had also been cleaned spotlessly. The floor was so shiny it practically reflected light.
As Russell ate the breakfast Kiana had prepared for him, he noticed a small note beside it.
The note said he did not need to go out to buy lunch. She would return at eleven to cook.
In the story, Kiana had been entirely like Mei's daughter.
But after Russell pretended to be her elder brother-in-law, that little grasshopper displayed astonishing domestic skills.
Kiana & Raikou Mei.
Of the two, Kiana might actually have been better at taking care of people.
The reason she acted so useless was probably just because she enjoyed being taken care of.
Is that why you stayed here overnight and are even planning not to go back for now?
The Prompt Device's text was one size larger than usual.
"What's wrong with being useless here?"
"The rooms are super soft, the central air conditioning keeps the temperature just right, and a beautiful girl with a bit of a tea-like vibe handles all three meals. Mm, she even helps relax my muscles and cervical spine."
"I'm living so comfortably here. Why would I go freeze in Ursus?!"
Russell ate breakfast with a perfectly justified expression.
"This place is paradise. I don't miss Terra."
Even the Prompt Device was shocked by how quickly Russell had fallen.
It was normal to lose one's fighting spirit in a greenhouse, but wasn't this way too fast?! It had only been one day!!!
This was not falling. This was fucking free fall, with acceleration included!!
Under the erosion of urban civilization and Kiana's care, Russell displayed astonishingly impressive uselessness.
All your assets are still out in the wilderness of Ursus! Before you fall apart, fucking sell them off first!!
The Prompt Device felt its skull aching.
"Tch, I was just messing with you. Why did you take it seriously?"
Russell stretched lazily, then looked at the talisman in his hand and logged into the group chat.
The group chat was rather quiet.
That was easy enough to understand.
Naruto had spent the entire day hauling ash and was exhausted.
Huihui was still busy with the Shadowkhan masks and the Holy Lord.
Valmont had just escaped the Holy Lord. Like a husky off its leash, he was probably somewhere robbing a bank.
At a glance, only Raikou Mei and Happy Miss Orca were online.
Including himself, only half the group was active.
Mm, though the reason the other half could not be active had something to do with him.
"My breakfast."
Russell casually snapped a photo and sent it to the group.
Whether intentionally or not, Kiana's sticky note on the table had also been captured in the photo.
"It looks quite nice."
That was Happy Miss Orca's assessment.
Before her homeland had been smashed apart by the Sea Born, it had been as advanced as a future world, so she would not be surprised by a relatively modern setting.
Raikou Mei stood in stark contrast to Miss Orca.
"?!"
Her reply consisted of only two symbols.
Yet the emotions contained within those two symbols were shockingly abundant.
Looking at the house, which was far cleaner than anything she had ever cleaned, and at the exceptionally standard breakfast, the beautiful girl felt as if she had crossed into another timeline.
After a long while, the girl finally recovered and asked uncertainly.
"Are you sure Kiana made this?"
"Ask a hundred times, and the answer will still be yes."
Russell's answer once again shook Raikou Mei to her core.
"...Kiana is even more outstanding than I imagined."
There was a sense of melancholy between the lines.
Tragic.
The Cook had discovered that she was not actually the best at cooking.
Russell thought.
"Aren't you coming back?"
Raikou Mei, filled with a sense of loss, said to Russell.
I won't get captured by Cocolia and turned into an experiment just because I stay in Changkong City.
Why should I hurry back to Siberia to freeze in the cold wind?
Russell rolled his eyes inwardly.
Still...
Russell walked to the balcony and gazed into the distance.
Perhaps because this was an upscale residential area,
looking to the left revealed dense forests. Clear rivers surrounded the district, and when he looked up, he could faintly see ancient mountains in the distance.
It was truly a pity for such a beautiful place to become an experimental site.
What beautiful scenery.
He took a picture and sent it to the group to share with everyone.
"...Russell, you seem to really like the scenery there."
Skadi's instincts were remarkably sharp.
She felt that Russell currently carried the air of the Later Lord of Shu Han.
"Yes. It's a shame that such a beautiful place will ultimately become an experimental site."
The boy spoke with regret in his voice.
His words plunged Raikou Mei into a long silence.
Russell had told her about the organization her father belonged to.
In 1955, Schicksal Bishop Otto dueled the First Herrscher over their conflicting ideals. After losing, he fired a Honkai Fission Bomb at New York.
The First Herrscher, Welt Joyce, died protecting New York.
Those who inherited Joyce's ideals defected from Schicksal and established Anti-Entropy.
As an organization, Anti-Entropy had developed too rapidly, making it unsuitable to continue using the management system from its days as a Schicksal branch. Moreover, Anti-Entropy's elders were mostly researchers who lacked the ability to command armies or run businesses, which was why the Executor system emerged, allowing each of them to oversee the fields they excelled in.
This gave ambitious people tremendous room to maneuver.
Fortunately, the Alliance Leader was a Herrscher, an existence capable of molding nuclear bombs with bare hands, and could therefore suppress the ambitious ones.
But with the Alliance Leader's disappearance, those ambitious people lost their restraints.
Cocolia, an aggressive ambitious woman.
That woman had plotted against her father and seized Anti-Entropy's industrial core—ME Corp.
Then, using the Raikou family's foundation, she continuously manufactured mechs and completely sealed off Changkong City.
An outsider had seized her family's foundation, then traded that foundation for military strength and turned her hometown into an experimental site. Such humiliation...
By the fireplace, the girl looked at her hands.
They were fair and delicate, without even calluses from housework or kendo.
Raikou Mei was, after all, a Stigma bearer. Even though her Stigma had been sealed, it still granted this body a certain degree of enhancement.
These hands were strong.
Raikou Mei understood that.
As long as she held a sword, even dozens of people would find it difficult to approach her.
But against those monsters who intended to turn Changkong City into a calamity, she was simply far too powerless.
Her hometown had become Cocolia's toy...
And she could do nothing?
Raikou Mei's heart twitched faintly.
All she could do now was hide in Russell's residence and hope Cocolia would abandon her experiment in Changkong City due to a lack of test subjects.
She was placing all her chips on that possibility.
How incompetent and cowardly.
The girl by the fireplace bit her lip, and there seemed to be a faint taste of blood between her teeth.
Cocolia? Report her!
The rich young lady was about to fall into depression. Shouldn't you go comfort her?
A notification from the Prompt Device appeared in Russell's vision.
Before you continue