All business, just like that.
After saying what she needed to say, Phanes didn't even glance at the Archons. She tore open the space beside her and with a single step, returned to Celestia.
The Sustainer immediately hurried over to greet her.
She was just about to speak.
But then she saw the calm in Phanes's eyes.
And in that instant, she understood.
"Welcome back, my Lord."
"Mhm."
Phanes still held some regard for this, her only remaining Shade. She gave a slight nod, her attitude a touch different.
"Um…"
Asmoday hesitated for a moment, then asked timidly, "Has Lady Kiana... has she returned?"
"Mhm." Phanes nodded.
"Then… what do you think?" Asmoday's face and demeanor were calm, but her hesitation was palpable.
"About what?"
"About her having… so many wives in Teyvat…"
"Pay her no mind." Phanes said this as she walked forward.
Asmoday quickly stood up and followed behind, not daring to float, only walking step by step.
"Um…"
"Speak your mind."
"It's just… you seem to be one of her future wives as well. You're the first one."
"…"
Miss Phanes abruptly stopped walking. She paused, silent for a long while, before finally speaking in a low, measured tone. "I said, pay her no mind."
"Oh…"
--+--
Meanwhile, let's shift our focus.
Over in the main world.
"Good morning, Kiana~"
"Good morning, Elysia~"
Kiana woke up, staring blankly at the ceiling, only for a certain 'big cutie' to immediately invade her field of vision.
Elysia was right beside her.
Her head blocked the light.
She was mischievously trailing her soft, pink locks across Kiana's face, teasing her.
It provoked a sudden flutter in Kiana's heart. She simply reached out, pressed the back of Elysia's head, and pulled her close.
Mwah~
A gentle kiss.
Elysia instantly settled down.
"Mmmph~! Kiana! You've become such a bad girl…"
Elysia's face flushed a bright red. Seeing Kiana about to sit up, she quickly moved aside.
Kiana rolled her eyes. If I've become bad, you're the one who taught me!
If, at the very beginning, even holding hands was enough to make her shy…
Nowadays, things like kissing… sometimes she could be pretty calm about it.
Though, it was mainly the surprise attacks that were more fun, more playful—quick to come, quick to go, and indeed less embarrassing.
Otherwise!
If the mood was genuinely right, and they were being serious about it…both she and Elysia would still get terribly bashful. Even now, they couldn't quite handle that!
They were still in a phase of testing the waters, a state of slight playfulness.
That was all.
Slowly building up each other's tolerance.
It was then that Kiana remembered she'd fallen asleep with Elysia last night.
She wasn't particularly surprised.
She just started getting dressed.
With Elysia chattering away beside her like a little lark, she learned that Elysia had tried to use her Authority of Origin to connect with her, to see if she could hitch a ride along for the cross-world trip.
But the result?
Well, let's just say…
It was a success, but not a complete success.
Put simply, it went off course!
She didn't manage to reach the Genshin world where Kiana had been.
Instead, she accidentally ended up in the Honkai Impact 3rd Current Era world that Kiana had visited last time.
And what's more.
She had also taken over her counterpart in that world.
She'd booted the local Elysia offline.
It was the Elysia of the Elysian Realm.
Although she couldn't leave the Elysian Realm this time, she still had a lot of fun inside it.
Since she'd already learned about the Honkai Impact 3rd Current Era during the previous recap, even seeing the Flame-Chasers in the Realm didn't feel unfamiliar to her.
She didn't even bother hiding anything.
At first, she tried to play along after being found during hide-and-seek, but her disguise was seen through immediately.
So she just came clean openly, explaining everything to the Flame-Chasers.
"Logically, if you took over that Elysian Realm's Elysia, no one except Elysia herself should have been able to tell, right? Who was it? Who was that sharp?"
Kiana asked as she headed downstairs.
"Why, it was my dear Eden, of course~" Elysia sang out. Spotting Eden in the living room, she skipped over, linked arms with her, and nuzzled against her like an affectionate little wife.
Eden couldn't help but smile fondly.
At the same time.
Thanks to Elysia, the super loudspeaker, everyone learned that Kiana had gone sleepwalking off to another world again last night and spent some time there.
Being curious about the new world, they couldn't help but ask questions.
Hearing it was the Genshin world made them even more interested.
Kiana naturally didn't mind talking about it.
Afterwards.
About three to five months passed in the blink of an eye.
During these three to five months, the sky screen still didn't appear. This left quite a few people feeling bored.
Trending topics and hot searches still popped up daily, of course.
But! Many people just weren't interested anymore. It wasn't like before, when everyone enjoyed them.
Actually, shouldn't this be the normal state of affairs?
It's only natural.
Think about it.
The sky-screen exposures have been happening in the main world for quite some time now.
It might have felt fresh and exciting at first, making a fuss over everything, but by now, the novelty should have worn off, right?
Isn't that how it goes?
And without new content, it really was quite dull.
But you can't blame Kiana for that!
She knew that planning the content for her future self's birthday celebration might be a bit troublesome.
She just didn't expect it to be this difficult.
She might seem like she had nothing to do all day, but she'd actually been quite diligent.
And yet, she'd only managed to rough out a general framework so far.
"This time, I'll try it like this. If I change it again, I'll chop my hand off!"
But every single time, partway through, she'd get a new idea, thinking this would be better, or that might have a better effect.
She was really just making things harder for herself.
Right?
But then again.
There was no helping it.
Kiana wasn't a perfectionist with obsessive-compulsive tendencies but if inspiration struck, of course she wanted to incorporate it.
As long as it wasn't a huge hassle.
Besides, it's not like anyone was pressuring her to update immediately.
The initial purpose of broadcasting the videos had already been achieved. There wasn't such an urgent need anymore; she could just focus on having fun.
Although Kiana felt she'd always been pretty happy.
But… well, whatever works~
[Host.]
Today.
After Kiana's daily inquiry, the system responded calmly.
She immediately sat up straight.
[Large-scale deviations detected in the future worldlines. It is likely that a powerful variable has intervened, affecting the current balance.]
[Analyzing the cause of the issue…]
"Why is this happening?"
Kiana was a bit puzzled.
However, was this situation completely unexpected? Not really.
Because even though Kiana monitored all the future timelines daily and had the system correct minor deviations, it didn't mean the future was set in stone, following a single predetermined path.
The greater an existence's 'weight', the more karma they carried. Future timelines involving them were naturally more volatile and illusory.
Greater weight made it easier to trigger new possibilities; their every choice more easily altered the future.
So, when you thought about it that way, it made sense.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
20+ advanced chaps on my patreon.
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.