A faint fragrance of tea wafted through the Director's office in Chaldeas.
The girl brought out a bag of tea leaves, opened it, and pinched a small handful of the verdant leaves, placing them in a cup.
She then raised the teapot, holding the lid down with one hand as she aimed for the cup. Water streamed into the ceramic with a rushing sound, forming a straight, thin line. At that moment, some of the tea leaves floated up like tiny, overturned boats, only to slowly sink before bobbing up to the surface once more.
To be honest, her tea-making technique was quite crude.
Forget comparing her to prodigies like the perfectly graceful pervert Rita or the all-around genius Bronya; she couldn't even measure up to the Rice Cooker, Mei. At best, she was on par with Seele.
Afterward, the rather clumsy girl pushed the teacup in front of her lover. Her pink eyes gazed intently at the young man's face.
"For you, Director."
Her gaze was filled with anticipation.
So she's not here to settle accounts, just to have a cup of tea? That's actually great.
It made sense. Although Ana had yandere potential, she was the type to permit him to hook up with any girl, provided they fell within the "Herrscher" category.
Mei, after all, was an artificial Herrscher from the same batch as her.
Even if Ana felt jealous, she would only express her displeasure by ignoring him for a while, pinching his waist, or adding a little something extra to his tea.
Li Zihan cheerfully took the cup, which contained a Huanglian Shangqing tablet broken in half at the bottom, and took small sips.
"It tastes good," said the young man, whose tolerance for bitterness hadn't yet fallen to the point of being defeated by an herbal tablet. He looked at the clearly unhappy girl and added, "It would be even better if it wasn't Huanglian green tea, though."
Miss Ana, who had secretly doctored her lover's tea, huffed. She snuck a glance at him, looking for any sign of agony on his face.
Upon confirming his perfectly composed expression, she snorted coldly.
"Serves you right."
To be inexplicably invited by another woman to choose a bridesmaid's dress for the wedding of the man she loved—even the mild-tempered Miss Ana was a little fired up about that.
"This can't be helped."
Perhaps because Ana, despite her potential to snap, was surprisingly easy to deal with, Li Zihan's mood was quite relaxed.
Ana permitted Li Zihan to have a harem.
Her permission, however, was limited to "artificial Herrschers."
As long as he managed to turn girls like Aoko and Alice into Herrschers or Pseudo-Herrschers—by implanting a Herrscher Core, a Herrscher Gem, or through Herrscher possession—before Ana met them, he would pass her inspection.
"I have a responsibility and an obligation to be accountable for all the artificial Herrschers whom I love and who love me," the young man, whose repertoire of saucy lines had grown exponentially since meeting the Scummy Maid, said with utmost sincerity to the girl who was a member of that very group.
Feeling his gaze upon her, the girl's cheeks flushed a pale red.
She then rounded the desk and walked over to her lover's side.
And then—
She viciously twisted the flesh on his waist.
"Is this your reason for proposing to another girl and asking me to be her bridesmaid?"
When a girl is angry, she's truly unreasonable.
The young man mused, having just been pinched for no apparent reason.
The invitation for Ana to be a bridesmaid was undoubtedly a petty act of revenge from Miss Mei, who had been wearing a green hat for so long. It had absolutely nothing to do with him...
Well, actually, it did.
If he hadn't placed so many hats upon Mei's head, Miss Mei would have been the very picture of gentleness and consideration; she would never have pulled a stunt like this.
It really was his own damn fault.
Li Zihan sighed inwardly before putting on a pained expression.
Noticing the look of pain on her lover's face, Miss Ana's hand loosened its grip on his waist.
Li Zihan reached out, his arm encircling the girl's slender waist. Miss Ana took the cue and settled onto his lap.
"This is only the first wedding."
"I will continue to search for other worlds, and I will offer you a grand and unique wedding of your own," said the young man, who had promised before they even started dating that he would take responsibility for all the artificial Herrschers and hold a wedding for each one. He spoke while taking in the soft warmth of her body and her faint, clean scent.
"A wedding in another world?"
Drawn in by the promise of a "grand and unique wedding," a light of longing flickered in the girl's pink eyes.
"Will it be like that other world we went to before?"
"That's not certain yet," the young man chuckled, completely sure that Ana wasn't truly angry anymore.
"When the time comes, we can travel through different worlds together, and from the places we've visited, you can choose the one you want for our wedding."
Choosing a wedding venue while traveling?
Such a profoundly romantic notion clearly struck a chord in Miss Ana's girlish heart.
"But speaking of which, you went to another world before, didn't you, Director? What was it like?" Miss Ana asked her lover, like a curious child.
Does "it was teeming with beautiful girls" count as an answer?
Li Zihan, who had completely unleashed his Chaotic Impulse in the FGO worldline and chased after every girl in sight, thought to himself before speaking aloud.
"I took a trip to the Mesopotamian plains in the 26th century BC and dealt with a demonic beast."
"That's all."
"That's all?"
Hearing this, Miss Ana looked a little disappointed. She had been expecting a much more epic and thrilling tale.
"Compared to digging into that, what comes next is more important," said the young man, who knew he would have to reactivate Chaldeas sooner or later, as he still hadn't resolved the issues in Herrscher Sirin's heart nor retrieved Cecilia's soul.
"I estimate there will be one more trip through time, and that matter is far more important than discussing the demonic beast, Goetia."
"Time travel?"
The girl, who desperately wanted to join him on a journey through time but lacked the required spiritron transfer adaptability, drooped her head in disappointment.
"In that case, I won't disturb you any longer, Director."
Understanding that Li Zihan had important work ahead, Ana turned to leave. As a proper Valkyrie who took her duties and responsibilities seriously, she would never interfere with his work and prepared to stand up.
And then—
She didn't get up.
A certain someone's arm was still wrapped firmly around her waist.
As if a thought had just occurred to her, a blush crept onto the girl's lovely cheeks.
Very naturally, the young man leaned his head forward and gently planted a kiss on her cute cheek.
"After being apart for so long, shouldn't we get intimate?"