"Hmm... it's quite delicious."
After they placed their order, three cups of Immortal's Delight were quickly brought to their table. Lumina picked one up and took a small, elegant sip.
The first sensation to bloom on her taste buds was a cool, creamy milkiness, followed by tiny, chewy pearls.
After that simple sip, Lumina fought the urge to take a massive gulp and set the Immortal's Delight back down.
She offered her assessment: "It's not junk food, but drinking too much of it definitely isn't good."
"Having it once every few days should be fine. But drinking it daily, or several cups a day, is definitely a bad idea."
Lumina's words were a string of seemingly obvious statements, yet Guinaifen and Huohuo nodded in agreement, clearly taking her advice to heart.
Once Lumina had finished, Guinaifen and Huohuo picked up their own Immortal's Delight and began to drink. Their faces immediately melted into expressions of pure bliss. To an uninformed observer, it would have looked as if they'd just been poisoned.
"Ah! This Immortal's Delight is truly worthy of its name! Just one sip has lifted my spirits so much."
"I feel like I could smash a few more boulders on my chest without any problem!"
Guinaifen took a massive gulp, then set down her Immortal's Delight and patted her arm, her face glowing with excitement.
"Delicious..." Compared to Guinaifen's over-the-top praise, Huohuo was much more composed. She held her Immortal's Delight with both hands, like a well-behaved child, and whispered her assessment.
"Hmm? Lumina?" Just as Lumina was enjoying Guinaifen and Huohuo's reactions, a very familiar voice sounded in her ear.
Lumina turned and saw a small figure.
"Yunli?"
"Come, come, sit, sit!"
The moment Lumina saw Yunli, there was no hesitation, no confusion—her eyes lit up instantly. She patted the seat beside her, inviting Yunli to join them.
"Eh? Is it okay?" Yunli didn't rush to sit down. Instead, she glanced at Guinaifen and Huohuo, seeking their approval.
"Are you Sister Lumina's friend?"
"Sit, sit, don't be shy! Whatever you want to eat, it's on me!"
Seeing this, Guinaifen quickly stood up to welcome Yunli, generously patting her own chest.
That [Magical Girl] had spent ten billion Credit Points on her. Even though she might not even receive a tenth of it in the end, it was still enough to let her make the kind of bold declarations she could never have afforded before.
"Well then, I won't be shy," Yunli said. Since Guinaifen had insisted, and Yunli wasn't one for false modesty, she nodded and plopped down beside Lumina.
"Want some Immortal's Delight?" Guinaifen asked, shaking the drink in her hand toward Yunli.
"Uh..." Yunli hesitated, as if wrestling with a decision, but finally nodded.
"I'll order it then." Noticing Yunli's hesitation but not dwelling on it, Guinaifen grabbed the menu and ordered another Immortal's Delight.
A moment later, the drink arrived and was placed in front of Yunli.
Yunli picked up the Immortal's Delight and took a massive gulp, her face immediately contorting into an expression of pure bliss. This made Lumina deeply suspicious.
Is my Immortal's Delight different from theirs?
To investigate, Lumina even extended her perception to scan the drinks. She found no differences whatsoever. The only distinction was in how Guinaifen, Huohuo, and Yunli reacted to the Immortal's Delight.
Hmm... now that I think about it, that makes sense. Neither Huohuo nor Yunli seem like the type of people who would normally get to drink this kind of thing.
Huohuo has Mr. Tail watching over her. The moment she even thinks about wanting a drink like this, Mr. Tail would probably shut the idea down.
As for Yunli, it's even more obvious. She's most likely under Huaiyan's strict supervision and has probably never even encountered this kind of drink before.
And now, the moment she arrives on the Luofu, she's already hooked.
Yunli's earlier hesitation... to an outsider, it might have just looked like normal indecision. But to the worldly-wise Lumina, it was clearly the hesitation of someone who's already had too much and is debating whether to have another.
As for Guinaifen... well, Lumina had no idea.
Maybe that's just her personality.
Lumina, on the other hand, had consumed so much junk food that she was long immune to this kind of flavor. That's why she didn't show the same blissful expression.
"This is Yunli. She's from the Xianzhou Zhuming," Lumina said, introducing her to Guinaifen and Huohuo once Yunli's blissful expression had faded.
"And this is Guinaifen, and this is Huohuo," she added, introducing them to Yunli.
"Hello," Yunli said with a nod.
"Hey, nice to meet you!"
"H-Hello..."
Huohuo was a bit shy around strangers, but Yunli's somewhat indifferent demeanor actually put her at ease.
"Hmm... Miss Yunli, why do I feel like you look a little familiar?" Guinaifen stared at the Cloud Knight, feeling an increasing sense of déjà vu. She was sure she'd seen her somewhere before.
"If you've been to the Xianzhou Zhuming, you probably have."
"Hmm, if not, you've likely seen me online," Yunli added, taking another long slurp of her Immortal's Delight.
"Online... Zhuming... Great Sword..."
"You're apart of the Flamewheel Octet!"
As if she'd just remembered something, Guinaifen stared at Yunli, her face a mask of pure shock.
But just as quickly, she composed herself, her stunned expression vanishing.
She realized that compared to the person standing beside Yunli, even the Flamewheel Octet seemed like nothing more than a commoner...