Rama was one who had been given everything by the gods. His sword, Mandala, possessed the ability to call upon other divine instruments. When this divine sword was linked to the celestial armory, it could summon any weapon from the divine realm.
When a certain someone raised the Divine Sword Mandala, a torrent of divine instruments that had left indelible marks on mythology rained down as if they were free.
With just a cursory glance, Ling could see the Flame Sword from the Garden of Eden, Marduk's hand axe, Indra's lightning spear...
"So, what in the world are you doing?"
As if making a complaint, Miss Ling, who had played dead throughout the entire Re:Creators world incident, sounded utterly exasperated with a certain someone who was currently wielding the Divine Sword Mandala he'd gotten from Rama, rummaging through its arsenal.
"I'm looking for a suitable gift."
Quite directly, the youth raised the Divine Sword Mandala, invoking the Mandala Array and continuously summoning divine instruments, searching for what he wanted amidst the downpour of artifacts.
"What the hell."
Under Miss Ling's slightly bewildered gaze, the youth cursed in frustration.
"Is there seriously not a single piece of jewelry in the Divine Sword of Salvation?"
Huh?
Searching for jewelry in a celestial armory?
Although she had been cooped up in a Herrscher core, Miss Ling had been watching the outside world. Her expression was one of someone who had just seen a ghost.
The Divine Sword of Salvation was a divine object forged by fusing the armaments of gods from different pantheons. Every single one of its components was a notoriously deadly weapon.
To look for jewelry within the Divine Sword of Salvation...
Good heavens, you'd have to have rocks in your head to even attempt such a thing.
"Are you insane?"
Miss Ling, who had almost never been polite to a certain someone, spoke irritably to the guy whose actions were simply toxic.
"What's the difference between what you're doing and looking for perfume in a military arms factory?"
"There is a difference."
The youth, who was casually tossing aside weapons like Mjolnir, the Cauldron of the Dagda, and a "Curry Stick" as if they were junk, raised his head and argued righteously.
"I believe some goddesses would have slipped in some blessed jewelry."
"So, you're going through all this trouble, blindly searching for something... what for?"
Ling could roughly guess that a certain someone was trying to find something to please a girl, but she couldn't comprehend his methods at all. A strange, indescribable feeling welled up inside her.
"Fu Hua's pregnant. I was planning on finding some nice, interesting jewelry to make her happy."
The youth sighed. During the previous night, his senses had been amplified by Miss Fu Hua's Fenghuang Down, and he had been made to perform an unknown number of times. Afterward, he was treated like a personal buffet by the bed-sharing maid Fu Hua had found, nearly leaving him weak in the knees.
Thinking about it now, Fu Hua's pregnancy was quite normal.
After all, they had gone at it so many times during her fertile period, for several days in a row. It would have been strange if she hadn't gotten pregnant.
If Kirie Kagarino hadn't always insisted on changing positions to "feeding" at the very end, she probably would have conceived as well.
That eroge-born vampire truly lived up to her origins.
Her enthusiasm for post-coital feeding far surpassed her interest in mere blood-sucking, to the point where it seemed she would proclaim, "I'll just feed like this from now on and forget about drinking blood."
Honestly, when a vampire with such hobbies and Fu Hua, who was an expert at manipulating senses, got together, Li Zihan truly had it rough.
Having been managed by Fu Hua's榨取 (draining) for so long, Li Zihan, who had been completely emptied out at one point, let out a sigh.
The silver lining was that, before this, Mei had also become pregnant.
Li Zihan recalled the madness of that period during the Second Honkai Eruption. He had clearly not been idle in his "plowing."
Back then, he and Mei were so loud that it was common for Dull Goose next door to want to kill someone. It was only natural that something came of it.
Thank goodness something did. Otherwise, Mei would have absolutely exploded.
The youth felt a wave of relief. He knew very well that while Miss Mei could tolerate her husband being entangled with many other girls, she would absolutely not tolerate him getting another girl pregnant before her.
Although, in that regard, Miss Paramecium had been the first. But because Miss Paramecium herself felt guilty for stealing her best friend's husband, she had chosen to have a certain someone "stretch" her timeline, so it didn't seem like too much of an issue.
Right now, Miss Paramecium was probably with her other self, helping Mei prepare things while also picking out items for her own child, who had been inexplicably demoted from the eldest to the second child.
"Besides, I also have to get some trinkets for Sirin... um, the white-haired one, and Mei."
Clearly having considered how Miss Mei and Sirin would feel if he only gave Fu Hua a gift, Li Zihan diligently rummaged through the pile of divine weapons.
And then—
A golden apple fell into his line of sight.
Engraved upon it were the words written by the goddess of discord, Eris: "To the Fairest Goddess."
Emmm...
This thing, which was obviously designed to stir up trouble, was only suitable for a goddess of beauty like Ishtar, who had probably brought shame to all gods of love and beauty in the world.
Although that girl was a hopeless klutz, she was indeed the origin of all goddesses of beauty in various mythologies, a genuine manifestation of beauty itself.
Without hesitation, Li Zihan chose to toss the golden apple in his hand back into the pile.
"Actually... some things are just about the thought that counts."
Watching the guy who was constantly bustling about for other women, a trace of melancholy flashed in Ling's azure eyes.
To get closer to Stargazer, he first dangled the method of Eternal Destruction, then, worrying that she would be harmed by it, he immediately went to find the power of Holopsicon for her.
To make Sirin happy, he chose to establish Chaldeas and then travel back in time to the Second Honkai Eruption to retrieve her adoptive mother.
For Mei's sake, when he was still very weak, he still chose to make an enemy of Cocolia, the radical leader of Anti-Entropy who was backed by both Otto and World Serpent...
This guy... was really good at winning girls' hearts.
If she had accepted his confession back then, what would her situation be like now?
A hint of longing flashed in Ling's eyes.
But it was only for an instant. That longing vanished, replaced by a critical, lecturing tone.
"What girls want is the sentiment, the sentiment, not just jewelry."
"You bastard, you're digging through items that are highly valuable to others but not particularly precious to you to give as gifts. No matter how you look at it, it seems so perfunctory."
Ling, who saw a certain someone doting on his lovers every day, said with disdain.
But when she thought about how she had basically never received a gift and was always just considered a "worker" in this bastard's eyes, a sour note inexplicably crept into her voice.
"That makes sense."
A playful smile touched the corners of the youth's mouth as he vaguely picked up on something in Miss Ling's words.
"In that case, what kind of things do you think would be suitable as gifts?"