Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee

In an inner passage of the Temple, Sephiroth and Lilith walked one behind the other, half a step apart.

"Sephi... I think you're already very strong. Why do you still meditate?"

She had work to report, but it was hardly urgent, and some of the documents were still in the sitting room nearby.

Lilith had always sensed unease deep within Sephiroth, though she had almost never seen him show it.

In fact, Lilith had some idea of just how strong Sephiroth was now.

Certain tests unsuitable for conducting within the atmosphere had undergone live-fire impact testing at the Lunar Base. She had witnessed those absurdly powerful attacks herself.

Yet that sense of contradiction still lingered about Sephiroth. It finally prompted her to ask.

"No, I wouldn't call myself strong... Or rather, I lack mental resilience."

"Resilience..."

As someone approaching the level of a Grand Knight, Lilith had also received meditation training and even awakened both types of Haki through Memory Crystals, though they were very weak. She felt that meditation only strengthened Mantra a little.

"My strength is more a matter of having powerful weapons and knowing how to use them. Then I pretend that I'm powerful myself."

It wasn't merely because his Observation Haki had awakened under his Fruit's influence, or because he had cheated his way into learning Armament Haki with a Memory Crystal. Those were only surface symptoms.

Sephiroth wasn't being self-deprecating. He simply understood himself.

It wasn't as though he hadn't worked hard, either. He had spent over a decade studying all kinds of knowledge and technology. With that kind of perseverance in his previous life, he figured he could easily have earned a master's degree from a Project 985 university.

But even that so-called perseverance had been forced upon him by "fate" before he obtained the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

After he obtained it, that perseverance had been cultivated by a cheat like the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.

After all, the effort he put into research and learning produced visible results in his Fruit development, genuinely increasing his strength. It felt like playing a single-player game: effort brought tangible rewards. That was why he had managed to keep at it.

He hadn't worked hard on physical training, partly because he lacked the perseverance and partly because he couldn't see any "tangible rewards" from it.

Though he later learned that his physical potential topped out at roughly the eighty-million level, that was another matter.

"True strength contains neither smug superiority nor anxious fixation on gains and losses. Only quiet confidence and a vast humility."

He didn't believe he could reach that state. So while he wasn't weak, he was far from truly strong.

"And I'm a very results-driven person."

"No. To me, you are a strong person."

Lilith smiled brightly like a young girl, took Sephiroth's hand on her own initiative, and stepped forward. They looked like a young couple.

Sephiroth had little romantic experience in his previous life. In this one, having started out as a beautiful, rosy-cheeked boy and Holy Son, his supposed romantic experience was no useful reference at all.

Still, he wasn't going to say something as clueless as, "You're three years older than me. Why are you acting like a little girl today?"

As for Emotion Absorption, he generally didn't use it on his own people unless circumstances were unusual. The trouble was that Lilith had never been good at expressing her thoughts.

He simply sensed, instinctively, that Lilith was acting a little strange today.

After all, she was the low-offense, high-defense type and rarely took the initiative.

No... By now, this was gradually becoming less like innocent hand-holding and more like her draping herself against Sephiroth's side.

-and she was the one whose hands were wandering!

"It's already been ten years."

Ten years had passed since Lilith first met Sephiroth. She had thought her life would be miserable, until that Angel descended from the sky.

"Ah-so that's it. Were you planning to find an apple tree today and recreate that scene in the sunset? Though as things stand, finding an old nun who dares provoke you won't be easy."

He wasn't completely clueless, but he still had a touch of it. Yet part of his response made Lilith happy: Sephiroth actually remembered it in considerable detail.

"We count as childhood sweethearts too, don't we?"

"Hmm... Strictly speaking, Isabella and I are childhood sweethearts. You're the girl who came out of nowhere."

After all, Sephiroth had known Isabella since he was five. Their friendship went back thirteen years. They had even spent eight years digging through scripture together. Their bond hardly needed explaining.

"..."

Lilith looked up and gave Sephiroth a "vicious" glare, then rose onto her toes to attack his chin with the top of her head.

Sephiroth smoothly pulled her into an embrace instead, cradling her head against his chest and gently breathing in her scent...

"Tonight, I'll wear a sleeveless top and shorts, with an apron over them."

As if counterattacking, Lilith turned her head and softly whispered something very dangerous into Sephiroth's ear.

Attacked by both her breath and her words, Sephiroth shuddered all over.

In terms of stamina, Lilith was only stronger than Conis. The problem was that her technique was the best, making her overall combat prowess about equal to Isabella's, who had reached the Holy Knight level.

Fortunately, thanks to his deep understanding of human medicine and bioelectric fields, Sephiroth could control his body with extraordinary precision. By using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to manipulate bioelectricity, he had achieved an effect similar to "Rokushiki Ogi: Life Return."

His combat prowess in that department had therefore improved by leaps and bounds.

They had just reached the sitting room, but before Sephiroth could do anything, Lilith ducked out of his embrace.

"Lord Sephi, we've strayed off topic. I have business to report to you today."

-Hard. My fists are getting hard!

Sephiroth sat down on the sofa and decided that if Lilith's business wasn't important this time, he would deal with her right there.

Unhurried, Lilith brought out some refreshments: little russet-gold biscuits and coffee, with jars of jam alongside them.

The perfectly baked biscuits gave off a fragrance that mingled with the aroma rising from the beautiful, clear coffee. The colorful jams were sweet and lovely, too.

A beautiful, comforting meal, made by Lilith herself.

After all, two years ago, she had been the one known as his "personal attendant."

"I love it. Thank you, Lilith."

Sephiroth genuinely thought things like, You don't have to do these things anymore, and, You should get some proper rest when you're free. But he didn't say them. In the end, only straightforward thanks left his lips.

"All right, all right~ Dig in~!"

After wiping his hands with a towel, Sephiroth ate while listening to Lilith's report.

"According to our investigation, the 'purists' currently within Babylon are being supported by certain bishops from Birka..."

The so-called purists weren't a particular faction. They were... more of a school of thought. Their central belief was that Skypieans should come first, and they were somewhat dissatisfied with the considerable spending on helping Blue Sea People in recent years.

"...Have any problems arisen with our social security programs or welfare benefits?"

"No. Servo Angels don't know how to embezzle or accept bribes."

...If helping others had lowered the Skypieans' quality of life and caused their dissatisfaction, that would at least have been understandable.

"Do we have a list of their backers?"

"Yes, thanks to the committee's hard work. Especially that child, Aisa."

The committee, whose full name was the "Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee," was effectively Babylon's secret police force, under Lilith's command.

"...Looks like they want a trip to Siberia."

Taking the list, Sephiroth discovered that most of the names belonged to Birka's old guard. There were quite a few priests and several bishops.

"...?"

Lilith looked at Sephiroth in confusion.

"Ahem. I mean exile them to the moon to work on infrastructure."

After all, the lunar city still had a considerable way to go before its functions could be fully restored.

The main problem was that many things weren't something Sephiroth could understand with a single scan.

It was like sending a completed sixth-generation fighter jet, a full production line, and twenty percent of its blueprints to the Celestial Empire of thirty years ago.

Moreover, the missing blueprints all concerned key technologies, while forty percent of the material that remained had been padded and obscured with religious language.

Even if the government of the Celestial Empire thirty years ago had mobilized the entire country's resources, how long would it have taken to understand a sixth-generation fighter?

Although Sephiroth had studied theory for over a decade, he had only spent two years handling actual examples of lunar technology.

Just getting these things running through WAAAGH was difficult enough.

"If they don't want to go, that's fine. But they'll have to surrender their authority and positions, take a one-grade reduction in benefits, and retire."

"...Then what about the vacant positions?"

"Select the best candidates from the younger generation."

The two went through the various documents on the table. With explanations from Lilith, the head of the secret police, some people were about to have a very rough time.

As Sephiroth issued instructions on the various secret reports, Lilith took notes while watching his furrowed brow.

She gently touched the space between Sephiroth's eyebrows.

"Hmm?"

"You could settle everything with a word. Why go to all this trouble?"

Lilith's reaction was normal for this world, where immense power resided in individuals.

"...You're being a little extreme."

Sephiroth didn't see it that way, though it wasn't a matter of morality. He didn't think he was qualified to discuss morality yet.

"I don't really understand. After all, that's how it's always been. But I'm sure you're right, Sephi."

"..."

This is bad. If Isabella was adorably goofy, then Lilith was gentle, lovely, and sweetly obedient.

Sephiroth wanted to push Lilith down onto the sofa.

-It's still work hours. Calm down.

"Does something being that way forever make it right?"

From a purely pragmatic perspective, which group could create more value and a more prosperous civilization: slaves with absolutely no ability to resist, or citizens with a certain degree of autonomy?

"I just think status can be determined by ability... or even birth."

In a world where bloodline truly determined so much, that was unavoidable.

"But each person's individuality and dignity also deserve basic respect. At the very least, we should give them even a little room to maneuver."

So even though he could settle everything with a word, he only used that method in emergencies.

"...Hmm? What are you looking at... Holy shit-"

Lilith pounced on Sephiroth and pushed him down...