---o---
Li Zihan generally didn't smoke. Regarding alcohol, like a certain fellow who'd get turned on by hands, he limited himself to just a taste.
But now, for some reason, he wanted a smoke.
The boy, naked from the waist up, sat on the edge of the bed, stroking the slightly disheveled, beautiful long hair and fair, delicate back of the girl beside him.
The girl, her face still flushed, slept on her husband's chest. The overlapping collar of her nightgown had loosened, and the two points of rosy plum blossoms on her snow-white chest were faintly visible at the intersection of the fabric.
An unusual scent permeated the air.
Recalling the girl's soft, glutinous voice, like a cat in heat, and her low moans that were incredibly pleasant to a man's ears, his expression was one of deep satisfaction.
Incarnation—The Youth.
One of Verethragna's Ten Incarnations.
Its effect is to make humans submit to oneself and to distribute one's power to others.
The Mop-Head's Holopsicon power had been on Li Zihan ever since she was hammered to pieces.
Faced with the choice of either using the System to materialize it as an ability card or passing it on via an Authority as a medium, Li Zihan obviously chose the latter.
And then—
Then his hands and feet became a little unruly.
Miss Stargazer was very uncomfortable at first, but she didn't say anything.
After all, Miss Stargazer had long since agreed to marry into this family, so naturally, she would tolerate some of her future husband's actions as much as possible.
And then—
Then they ended up in the bedroom.
And then, and then it was "I'm just going to hug you, I'm just going to touch you, I'm just going to rub against you..."
The final result was "I'll take responsibility."
The boy, who had clearly pushed Miss Stargazer down, ran his jade-like fingers along the girl's rounded, snow-white shoulders, down across her rounded, snow-white shoulders, down across her soft breasts through the clothes, and stroked the girl's slender waist and shapely legs.
This gentle touch, muted by fabric, made his caress even more arousing to the girl than direct skin contact more arousing to the girl.
However, these actions elicited no reaction from the girl beside him. She simply allowed her lover to touch her body; it seemed she was truly exhausted.
The boy, full of energy, looked a little disappointed. He had wanted another round.
But—Stargazer's constitution wasn't the best. If they kept going, it would start to take a toll on her.
Although he loved the feeling of filling his lover, of making her whimper like a kitten in his arms, the boy gently moved her off him and to the side. He withdrew his hand and pulled the quilt over his lover.
I'll take Stargazer to see fireworks tonight, he decided. The boy mused that he should spend more of his upcoming time with Miss Stargazer.
Stargazer loved lively atmospheres. She loved the feeling of people living and working in peace, the sight of a city bustling and prosperous. A fireworks festival would undoubtedly suit her tastes.
However, compared to the nations of other worlds, she would surely prefer to see her own country display such a flourishing side.
So, does that mean I still need to hurry up and smash the Sea of Quanta, to prevent the Empire of Huang from being digested? The boy, who had roughly figured out a strategy for taking down the consciousness of the multiverse, pondered.
Without a reward, he had little desire to save worlds. But Stargazer cared deeply for the Empire of Huang, so he couldn't just stand by and watch it fall. The same logic applied to the Moon and the main Honkai world.
"So my wives and children can live in peace, it's probably best if you just die soon, Landlord," the boy, who in essence belonged to the Imaginary Tree and corresponded to the Moon's First... or rather, Zeroeth, unnumbered Herrscher, muttered.
Although spending his days with his wives and children across different worlds was also a happy life. But—if they were to find out their homelands had perished, they would surely be heartbroken. So, he might as well play a big hand.
With golden eyes, the boy recalled the Authority held by Rama and the plan to strengthen that Authority.
As long as he could integrate himself with the Star Grail, a lot of things would be easy to handle afterward.
Integrating the Star Grail, which could become a "Seat," with himself, and then, like the Lord of the First Heaven, use the thing that dominates the world to complete a qualitative change. After that, using the Star Grail, which was integrated with himself, as an "unbreakable Seat," he would let the Reason formed by his desires cover the universe...
Therefore, he was determined to obtain Rama's Authority.
This was a very ambitious plan, with high requirements for the plan, and high requirements for the courage and adaptability of the plan's executor.
Li Zihan simply decided to do so, and seemed to have a not-low probability of success.
Clearly, this guy was preparing to chop down the Tree and fill the Sea.
Honestly, for the Imaginary Tree to find such a minion was the worst luck of eight lifetimes.
After all, the Imaginary Tree was actually quite good to a certain guy.
Harboring the thought of chopping down the Imaginary Tree and filling the Sea of Quanta as soon as possible, and then going back to a life of wives, children, and a warm bed, a certain someone quietly left the room and then chose to walk in another direction.
The street location he had agreed upon with Rama was a curry shop.
Although Rama's earliest origins were not in India, he was, after all, a hero worshiped by Hinduism, so Li Zihan set the gathering place at a curry shop.
Rama had no objections to this.
"Curry is much better than English stew and stargazy pie."
This was what the brave warrior said very seriously after finishing the curry.
He had traveled the world for who knew how many years. He had a ton of aliases. King Arthur, Jesus, and Heracles were all his aliases.
He had so many aliases that he had almost forgotten them himself.
However, he remembered very clearly what happened when he was Arthur.
That was said to be a grand gift made with materials that the people had scraped together to thank him for expelling the Roman general—a God-Slayer—who treated the British Isles as a playground and repeatedly launched massacres.
The materials were butter, flour, shrimp, mushrooms, cheese, white wine, and other things that were definitely high-end ingredients at the time.
But the thing they made...
According to Rama, his brother—Lakshmana—rolled his eyes back after eating it and almost became the first god in history to be poisoned to death by food.
I wonder if Rama himself had ever been felled by British cuisine.
Thinking this, Li Zihan strolled to the curry shop, which had a decent amount of business, and then walked in.
The blue-haired noble prince was sitting there.
He carried a platinum long sword on his back, and the shadow behind him similarly wielded an armament identical to the divine weapon in his hand.
He had already killed Verethragna, completing the covenant. Next, it was time for the other person to fulfill the covenant.
Prince Rama, waiting for an old friend, sat there quietly, awaiting his ally's arrival.
Then—
The boy with black hair and golden eyes pushed open the door of the curry shop and walked in.
"Long time no see, my friend."
The boy smiled gently at the Prince.