"So, this meeting wasn't an interrogation, and it certainly wasn't a negotiation..."
"It was a complete and utter act of vigilantism, wasn't it?"
"How could you say that, Mr. Aventurine? I simply wanted to know what insights you, as a passerby who happened to be at the scene of her death, might have gleaned. Nothing more."
[Aww, my precious Aventurine! Come to your sister's embrace, and I'll protect you!]
[As expected of Preservation! Dr. Ratio couldn't break your guard, Sparkle couldn't break your guard, and Sunday couldn't break your guard either. With shields like that, you know who to pull in Version 2.0 now, right?]
[Oh no, I'm starting to ship these three! My mind's already conjured up a whole love triangle script!]
[? Shipping everything will only hurt you.]
[No, no, no! Shipping everything will actually improve my health!]
In the game, as Sunday subjected Aventurine to various "punishments," a portion of the live stream audience began to mourn for him.
"Aventurine, Penacony's top Preservation character—truly deserving of the title." Ignoring the subsequent wild shipping comments, Little Bear expressed genuine admiration for Aventurine's shielding abilities.
If Aventurine in the game were Little Bear himself, anyone who dared to reopen his old wounds would have been met with a furious barrage of punches.
"Holy shit?!"
As the story progressed, Aventurine pushed open the door, revealing two figures that instantly made Little Bear and the live stream audience erupt into profanity.
The two figures were Lumina and Herta.
This combination wasn't unfamiliar to viewers. If they were shocked, it should have been by Herta's presence on Penacony.
But...
The Herta standing before them wore a pointed witch's hat—a Herta that Little Bear and the entire live stream audience had never seen before!
[Holy shit?!]
[Hiss... Who's this witch lady? Could it be Herta's main body?]
[I think we can drop the "could it be" and the question mark at the end... That's fucking Herta's main body!]
[You guys were all over me for shipping Aventurine, Dr. Ratio, and Sunday in a love triangle. Well, how about shipping Herta and Lumina? You can't call that crack shipping, can you?]
[Crack shipping? This is pure gold!]
[99%~ A rare find!]
"Star~Rail! You're going all out?!" After a moment of stunned silence, Little Bear snapped out of it, immediately closed the chat window, and began carefully scrutinizing the photo of Lumina and Herta standing together, looking like a married couple posing for a picture.
"They must get married! They must get married right now!"
Seeing the pair standing side-by-side, looking so perfectly matched, Little Bear charged headfirst into the fray.
[Black and White are together! What about March 7th?]
[Simple! March 7th can be with me!]
[White and Black should get married and then both marry me. Later, I'll marry March 7th too!]
[?]
[Why is someone dreaming in broad daylight? Oh~ right, this is Penacony. No wonder (covers mouth and giggles)]
"Ahem, back to the point—why is Herta even here?" Shaking off the shock of seeing Herta's main body on Penacony, Little Bear now felt utterly puzzled.
"Could Herta also be after that so-called 'Watchmaker's' legacy? No way... Herta wouldn't be interested in something like that, would she?"
Even though Acheron, another Emanator, seemed interested in the Watchmaker's legacy, Little Bear couldn't imagine Herta using her main body to come all the way to Penacony for the sake of a legendary figure from a mere story.
After all, the Space Station's Curios were so extraordinary that any one of them would be coveted by most of the Cosmos.
In Herta's eyes, even something like a Stellaron was just something she'd study for a bit before casually tossing it into the Space Station's "junk heap."
So Little Bear couldn't even imagine what treasure on Penacony could possibly be valuable enough to make Herta bring her main body all the way here...
[What if Herta isn't after something on Penacony, but someone located there?]
[Case closed! Herta came specifically to see Lumina! (Facepalm)]
[Waaah, poor Madam Herta! She's crying and throwing a tantrum because she can't see Lumina! Waaah, so pitiful~]
[Since we've gotten this far, there's nothing left to say. Wish 99!]
[Wish 99!]
In an instant, the entire live stream was flooded by the shipping crowd. The earlier comments lamenting Aventurine's fate and those shipping the love triangle were long since drowned out by the tidal wave of the shipping fandom...
-
"Are these people just making things up? It's utterly mortifying!"
"Herta and I are just ordinary friends, ordinary besties. There's nothing special between us! This is pure fabrication!"
After discussing the Divergent Universe with Sunday, Lumina and Herta left the Dewlight Pavilion and headed toward the Radiant Feldspar.
They started the journey chatting amiably, but the conversation gradually cooled as they walked.
To stave off boredom and see how the Players were reacting to Herta's main body, Lumina started playing Little Bear's Livestream on her screen as they walked.
Seeing the live stream flooded with "Black and White ship" fans, Lumina vehemently denied it, her face serious.
Herta and I have such an obvious platonic friendship! How did you people suddenly turn it into a "lip friendship" in your eyes?!
Fabrication! Fabrication! Purely fabricated history peddled by those History Fictionologists!
"What's wrong?" Herta asked, puzzled by Lumina's shifting expressions—a smile one moment, a resolute look the next, then a wistful one.
What madness is Lumina up to now?
"Nothing, nothing at all," Lumina replied, immediately shutting down the live stream. Her gaze fixed forward, her expression returning to normal, she said calmly:
"Just some rumors claiming we're married."
Herta: ?!