[Divination Commission]
"General, the man has been brought here!"
"Mm. You may leave."
"..."
The Cloud Knight respectfully withdrew from the room.
Mr. Yang lowered the gaze he had been using to size up his surroundings, rubbed his reddened wrists, and spoke to the owner of the room.
"I wonder what business General Jing Yuan has with a prisoner like me?"
He admitted to being a prisoner.
And the truth was, that was exactly what he was.
If Levi hadn't stepped in to stop him at the time, a great many people probably would have died because of him.
"I'm merely curious. Not long ago, I agreed to let several of you assist in handling the Stellaron crisis. So why were you arrested by Lady Fu immediately afterward?"
Jing Yuan sat cross-legged at the table, one hand supporting his chin as he looked toward one of the key figures aboard the Astral Express.
Welt Yang.
Recalling the information he had read, Jing Yuan's eyes carried a trace of curiosity.
"Judging by the way you usually conduct yourself, you're not the type to make such a reckless move as you did today."
As one of the veterans of the Astral Express, Welt Yang was known for being calm and steady.
He was the kind of person who always planned before acting. Someone who would never normally do something as rash as what happened today.
"So let me make a bold guess."
"You and Levi... know each other."
He stared closely at Mr. Yang, trying to read something from his expression.
Unfortunately, Mr. Yang gave him nothing.
His face remained exactly the same as when he first entered the room.
"You flatter me, General. Levi and I do not know each other."
Even though Levi kept insisting they knew each other, Mr. Yang had searched through every one of his memories.
And nowhere did he find any trace of Levi.
More importantly, he was certain there was nothing wrong with his memories.
Which meant one thing.
Either Levi was lying. Or the "Welt Yang" Levi spoke of wasn't him.
Levi was very likely a being from some bubble universe.
If that were the case, then everything he talked about had happened in Levi's own world.
It had nothing to do with him.
But none of that was important.
The only thing Mr. Yang truly cared about was Levi's identity as a Herrscher.
Mr. Yang adjusted his glasses and, under Jing Yuan's gaze, slowly began telling the story of the Honkai, and of another world.
After listening, Jing Yuan finally gained a rough understanding of the monsters that had appeared on the Scalegorge Waterscape, as well as Levi's identity.
"So what you're saying is, your actions in Central Starskiff Haven were meant to eliminate Levi, this Herrscher capable of destroying worlds?"
"No."
Mr. Yang gently shook his head, feeling his heart continue to pound inside his chest.
"The biggest reason was..."
He slowly uttered two words.
"Fear."
Jing Yuan froze for a moment.
The Honkai grew stronger alongside civilization, and the Herrschers born from it followed the same rule.
Herrschers born in that original civilization, one that had never even left its own planet, were already unimaginably powerful.
So if one were born within a civilization like the Luofu, which had traveled the cosmos for tens of thousands of years...
How terrifying would its power become?
Mr. Yang had already experienced a glimpse of that answer firsthand.
That light which once ignited an entire planet still replayed itself in his mind from time to time.
Still repeated endlessly in his dreams.
Facing an enemy on that level, claiming he felt no tension would have been a lie.
And on top of that, Levi had been attacking Stelle at the time.
So Mr. Yang activated his ultimate attack without hesitation, attempting to kill him instantly with the Star of Eden.
Only for Levi to casually neutralize it.
And Mr. Yang himself ended up arrested instead.
After hearing the entire account from Mr. Yang, Jing Yuan fell into thought.
"So according to you, Levi will destroy the Luofu? He's the enemy of all life?"
"No!"
Jing Yuan looked puzzled.
Just moments ago, Mr. Yang had been emphasizing how terrifying and powerful Herrschers and the Honkai were.
So why suddenly say this now?
Shouldn't he be agreeing and continuing to stress how dangerous Levi was?
"He's friendly toward life... or at least toward humanity."
Once the haze of Herrschers and the Honkai cleared from his thoughts, and Mr. Yang returned to his usual state of mind...
He carefully reconsidered every detail of his encounters with Levi.
Without the filter of fear clouding his judgment.
His preliminary conclusion was:
Levi was friendly.
"..."
Inside the hospital room, March 7th sat beside Stelle's bed, yawning nonstop.
Seeing Stelle's excited expression, she honestly couldn't understand how someone could still be this energetic at a time like this.
March 7th felt like she and Stelle weren't even the same species.
Feeling drowsy, she had only just closed her eyes for a moment when she suddenly heard Stelle call out to her.
"What?"
"Didn't Levi agree to help us... no, help you capture Kafka?"
Grinning, Stelle stuffed a disposable paper cup into March 7th's hand.
"Try giving this to Levi as payment."
There wasn't any water inside the cup. And Stelle had crumpled it into a wrinkled mess.
March 7th looked at her like she was insane.
"Who would use this thing as payment?"
And even if someone did use it as payment... Who would actually accept it?
Although she had no idea what kind of nonsense Stelle was up to, judging from the mysterious look on her face, there was obviously some meaning behind it.
Under Stelle's urging, March 7th's eyes shifted around before the corners of her mouth curled upward.
"Stelle, let me tell you something..."
———
[The Next Day]
The Luofu's sun rose as usual, sunlight streaming through the window onto Levi's face.
As though some switch had been activated, Levi sat up from the bed and threw off the blanket before getting up.
"Mmm..."
A certain unidentified lifeform on the bed let out a groan of unwillingness to wake up.
After getting out of bed, Levi's eyes remained closed, yet that somehow didn't stop him from washing up or from dragging Qingque out of bed as well.
Qingque didn't even notice Levi had kept his eyes shut the entire time until she left the room to report to the Divination Commission.
Once Qingque left, Levi climbed right back into bed.
The Jizo Mitama placed in the corner had dimmed somewhat.
[Ding-dong!]
[Elysia: Anyone still not out of bed right now is a lazy dog!]
[Elysia: @Kiana @Levi @Asta @Stelle @Lumine]
Hearing the notification sound, Levi twitched slightly.
[Kiana: This young lady's been up ages ago, okay?!]
The instant she sent that message, violent knocking erupted from outside her room.
"Kiana!"
"Get up already! Get up already!"
"Seriously! This is the third time already. If you don't get up now, you won't get breakfast."
Raiden Mei's complaining voice rang out from outside.
[Asta: Preparing for work!]
[Stelle: ...]
[Lumine: ...]
The two weakly appeared in the group chat to indicate they were already awake.
And definitely not the "lazy dogs" Elysia was talking about.
Elysia called them out one by one, only to discover there was still one person missing.
[Elysia: @Levi]
[Levi: Dead. Do not poke.]
[Kiana: Suggest changing it to: Cremated.]
[Kiana: Technology's advanced these days. Dead people can still suddenly revive.]
[Elysia: With a beautiful girl like me calling you and you still won't get up? How could you possibly deserve...]
[Elysia: Wait!]
Just as she was about to @Levi again, she suddenly noticed something.
[Elysia: @VeteranGameProducer Who's this?]
[Kiana: ?]
[Stelle: ?]
[Lumine: ?]
[Asta: ? A newcomer?]
Looks like she finally counted as one of the veterans in the group now.
Some people wanted to become veterans.
Others wanted to become newcomers.
[Levi: @VeteranGameProducer Sob sob sob, newbie here begging for guidance.]