Someone once said that love is like a tornado.
It is swift and violent, capable of turning a person's world upside down in an instant.
However, Li Zihan felt that in this world, some things arrived even faster than love.
Li Zihan looked up at the girl standing beside Rita.
She was an exceptionally beautiful girl. White hair, blue eyes, wearing the St. Freya Academy uniform, with facial features that were about fifty percent similar to Ana's.
Among all the people Li Zihan knew, only one person fit all three of these descriptions.
Kiana Kaslana, or rather, K423.
And now, this girl, who shouldn't have even known he was back, had stormed right in front of him.
Li Zihan glanced at the Scum Maid standing to the side, a flawless smile hanging on her face.
The case was solved.
Among the few people with the clearance to know about his return, the only one who would go out of her way to snitch on him and cause him trouble was this infuriating piece of work right here.
Thanks to her maneuvering, his shuraba had arrived ahead of schedule.
More suddenly than a tornado.
Should I hit her with Fenghuang Down later, then lock her in the basement and... do unspeakable things to her until she's a little fluff ball?
Having been thoroughly screwed over, Li Zihan fell into deep thought.
This woman was truly asking for a beating.
But his contemplation didn't last long, because someone spoke, interrupting his thoughts.
"Ah Li, could you perhaps explain to me if there's some kind of inside story behind you and Seele dating?"
The white-haired girl stared at the man who had confessed to her long ago, her blue eyes fixed on him as the corners of her mouth curled into a smile.
It was a fierce and aggressive smile.
Like a lioness who had just discovered her prey had been stolen.
Just a short while ago, the shared emergency rations she and Mei had were suddenly snatched away by the shorty's little sister. A green hat, seemingly symbolizing the House of Apocalypse, had been slapped right onto her head.
If she didn't make a move now, it would be game over.
Conveniently, at that very moment, someone with the ID "Irene Adler" had come knocking, providing her with Li Zihan's whereabouts and a map leading directly to the Director's office in Chaldeas.
Miss K423 had no idea why this "Irene Adler" person would send her Li Zihan's location and a map. But that didn't stop her from using it to find her way straight to his door.
Betrayed by an insider, Li Zihan was cornered before he even had a chance to watch a movie with Ana or Seele.
To be honest, Li Zihan was in a rather foul mood. He had just extracted the core of the First Divine Key and hadn't even had time to implant it before being thrown headfirst into a shuraba.
He looked up at the beautiful girl before him.
The K423 of this moment showed no trace of her usual Paramecium-like ditziness. Her expression still held a hint of a foolishly sweet smile, but there was no trace of idiocy about her.
If one were to change her out of her St. Freya uniform, undo those two rather plain-looking braids and let her hair fall freely, then pop a golden contact lens into her right eye, she would be a perfect image of the Void Drifter.
Clearly, the white-haired dango, having abandoned all thought, had picked her long-lost intelligence and observation skills back up.
Hey, hey, hey, you're breaking character, Paramecium! Weren't you supposed to operate without a brain in peaceful environments?
Li Zihan looked at the K423 who had obviously gotten serious, switching from "Paramecium Mode" to "Void Drifter Mode," and sighed inwardly.
Still, it wasn't hard to understand.
His sudden announcement of dating Seele was undoubtedly hard to accept for Kiana, who had always assumed he would choose between her and Mei. Under such a stimulus, it was only natural for her intelligence to return.
If she finds out I've already agreed to settle down in Siberia in two days, get a residence permit, and then prepare for a wedding, she'll probably go on a complete rampage.
Having already accepted Black Seele's marriage proposal, Li Zihan looked at the girl who was now in a state of high alert and, for a rare moment, had a clear grasp of just how screwed he was.
Or rather, by that point, every girl except Bronya would probably snap. He had to placate every single one of them before that happened. If he didn't resolve this shuraba quickly, his only option would be to stage a great escape with Seele and Bronya.
From that perspective, Rita leading Kiana here ahead of time was actually a form of help. After all, persuading the girls one by one was far simpler than being cornered by a whole group of them at once and having to win them all over in one go.
As he thought this, the boy tilted his head and saw the impeccably exquisite profile of the girl beside him.
"Of course there's an inside story."
Li Zihan, who had not only agreed to date Seele but had also promised Black Seele an early wedding, wore a remarkably frank expression.
"Is that so?"
The white-haired dango narrowed her beautiful blue eyes. She then plopped down cheerfully next to Li Zihan and wrapped an arm around his neck like a mischievous friend.
The posture was, in fact, incredibly intimate.
If the two of them, holding this pose, were to simply turn their heads, it could easily lead to a kiss.
However, the action was also incredibly dangerous.
The person with their arm around another's neck, if they possessed enough strength, could snap the neck of the one being held. And K423's genetic makeup was a combination of Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void, and the real Kiana.
With the blood of the Kaslana family and the power of a Herrscher flowing through her veins, if she truly went berserk, her strength would be no less than that of an Emperor-class Honkai Beast.
With that level of force, forget a neck—she could twist a special-grade alloy into scrap metal.
"Ah Li, can you tell me what the inside story is?" the white-haired dango asked, sounding as if she were gossiping. Her voice was light and casual, like two friends discussing what to eat and drink after a gaming session.
But Li Zihan knew full well that if the answer he gave was something she couldn't accept, she would probably try to knock him unconscious, induce amnesia, and attempt a complete reset.
So, how should he answer K423 at this moment?
Under Miss K423's intense gaze, Li Zihan sank into thought.
"Ah Li, are you making up an excuse on the spot?" Kiana narrowed her eyes, suspecting that Li Zihan had probably agreed to date the shorty's little sister simply because she was super cute.
If that was the case, it was truly infuriating.
"No, that's not it," Li Zihan said, his expression hesitant as if he were struggling with a difficult problem.
Seeing this look on the face of a man who almost always seemed as if nothing in the world could bother him, Kiana's heart began to ache a little.
"Then... what's the reason?"
But she pressed on, determined to get to the bottom of it.
"It's because Seele and I slept together. I have to take responsibility."
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Author's note:
ps: I'm so sleepy...
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Translator's note:
me too :<