Chapter 251: A Pink Afternoon
"Whoa—it's that convenient?" Kiana looked at Irene's fingers. Irene's fingers were long, slender, and fine—at a glance, clearly the hands of someone skilled at the piano.
And of course, they'd doubtless be quite handy for other things too.
"I am the Herrscher of Death, after all—this much I can still manage." Irene gave Kiana's head a light tap, then showed off her fingers.
Irene's fingernails extended and retracted right before Kiana's eyes, finally returning to a perfectly fitted state: "Pulling something like this off isn't all that simple, you know."
"Sigh, it really is convenient in every sense of the word, huh." Kiana's gaze drifted a little—clearly her mind had wandered somewhere off-color. Then her eyes rolled, and she leaned in again with a mischievous grin.
"I haven't seen Auntie at all today—is Auntie still in bed?"
"Mm, she's probably holed up in the room slacking off?" Irene looked at Kiana. "Whatever you say, she's an S-Rank Valkyrie—she wouldn't collapse from exhaustion just over one round of cultivating water magic."
Although the two of them had indeed played a bit too wildly last night, a Herrscher and an S-Rank Valkyrie wouldn't suddenly run into any problems over it.
"'Cultivating water magic,' real smooth." Kiana naturally caught Irene's meaning. "Looks like Auntie had a rough night of it."
"All right, enough with all the questions—you'd be better off worrying about yourself." Having been grilled by Kiana, Irene looked at her with a smile too. "What's going on between you and Mei, hm?"
Hearing Irene's question, Kiana's expression stiffened slightly, and finally turned helpless: "Sister Irene, you have no idea—Mei's dad guards against me so strictly."
Then Kiana poured out all her woes before Irene. Ever since Raiden Ryoma came back, after he learned of a certain something, he'd been guarding against her especially tightly.
It had been ages since she'd gotten to be properly close with Mei—but the other party was, after all, Mei's dad, so she couldn't really say anything; she could only put up with it.
"Mm, that's pretty normal—after all, you dug into someone's tender little cabbage." Irene nodded, a smile on her face. "Even if it's cabbage rooting into cabbage, you still can't stop an old father from pointing fingers at you."
And if she remembered correctly, Raiden Ryoma was a thorough daughter-doter; in a situation like this, he'd naturally guard her with the utmost vigilance. Cabbage rooting into cabbage was, for an old father, still a bit hard to accept.
Of course, a pig rooting into the cabbage would be even harder to accept. At least for now it was only guarding—if it really were a pig rooting up the cabbage, Kiana would probably have even less peace.
"Sigh, just adjust to it." Irene's face was all smiles as she looked at the gloomy Kiana. "Mr. Raiden Ryoma should come around eventually."
"But I want to go hug Mei right now." Kiana's face was full of gloom. She really did look like she hadn't replenished her Mei energy in a long while—it was only because she'd been bonding with her own sister lately that it wasn't more obvious.
Irene propped up her chin, thought for a moment, then decisively began dishing out bad ideas: "If it really comes to it, just go straight to Mei. It's not like he can pull you apart right in front of Mei."
"You and Mei are, after all, well—mutually in love."
When Irene said this, she withdrew the smile from the corner of her mouth and put on a perfectly serious face, as if she were truly just offering advice. But the laughter in her eyes still showed that Irene was merely stirring up trouble.
But Kiana wore a thoughtful expression, seemingly genuinely tempted. Yet just as she was about to act, she still turned her head to look at Irene.
"Sister Irene, is it really okay?"
"Mm-hmm~" Irene nodded with utter seriousness, then egged her on, "Just go for it. If worse comes to worst, just shield Mei in front of you~"
"Mm, got it." Kiana nodded—clearly she'd already been talked into it by Irene—and stood up from the bedside, ready to head out.
Watching Kiana leave, Irene could no longer keep a straight face and broke into the smile of a successfully landed prank: "Oh my, looks like there's a show to watch."
At this moment, the [Irene] within Irene's consciousness seemed to take an interest too: "Speaking of which, my dear me, do you think this world will turn out Kiana-First or Mei-First?"
"Whoa, you're stirring the pot." Irene listened to [Irene]'s words, but even as she said that, she stroked her chin. "Looking at how things stand now, I think it ought to be Mei-First."
"Not necessarily, you know—maybe Kiana will pull off a reversal kill in the end." [Irene], unexpectedly, held a completely different view from Irene at this moment.
"Hm?!" Irene's brow gave a sudden twitch. "You do realize, Mei is Mei-First—she's someone born to be Number One. How could it possibly be Kiana-First?"
"But right now Mei hasn't inherited the Origin, so there's no way for her to be confidently singular." [Irene] rarely held a different opinion from Irene. "So Kiana-First holds true."
"Then let's go—we'll go see whether it's Kiana-First or Mei-First after all."
"All right, you'd better stop drinking." Siegfried looked at Raiden Ryoma beside him. "I'm a Schicksal Knight, you know—if you want to match drinking capacity with me, I'm afraid you're overestimating yourself."
"Yeah, Dad, you really should stop drinking." Mei, who'd clearly been dragged over against her will, looked at her own father somewhat speechlessly.
Ever since her father got out of prison and synced up with all the current information, he'd been in this state of disillusionment the whole time.
Probably he really couldn't accept the fact that his own daughter—or himself—had been rooted up by another head of cabbage. Especially since Raiden Ryoma and Siegfried's relationship had actually been pretty decent before.
Back when Siegfried was still helping out at Anti-Entropy, he'd had no shortage of exchanges with Raiden Ryoma—they could even count as drinking buddies.
But Raiden Ryoma probably really never imagined that his relationship with Siegfried would, after he got out of prison, leap from ordinary drinking buddies straight to in-laws.
It wasn't that Raiden Ryoma couldn't understand the Valkyries' way of settling things among their own kind—he'd heard about plenty of such things, and he could understand it too.
After all, for a Valkyrie to find a partner really did require going through a great many difficult rounds of selection—not for physiological reasons, since Valkyries hadn't evolved into a different species.
Rather, it was a purely physical barrier in the literal sense. Raiden Ryoma's Honkai Resistance and Adaptability could already be counted as one-in-a-hundred.
But so what? That only guaranteed he wouldn't drop dead on the spot in an ordinary Honkai disaster. Expecting him to use Honkai energy to strengthen his body—that was wishful thinking too.
So he understood all the better just how formidable the physical constitutions were of those Valkyries who truly could strengthen their bodies with Honkai energy. Which was why the Valkyries settling things among themselves really was understandable.
Even on the psychological level—what kind of bond could compare in degree to comrades who'd shared life and death, helping and saving each other on the Honkai battlefield, even pulling one another out of certain-death situations?
There was nothing better than such scenes for raising affection. Over time, the trend of Valkyries settling things among themselves really wasn't hard to understand.
But understanding was one thing—when it happened to his own family, Raiden Ryoma couldn't accept it, and likewise it was something he couldn't understand.
"Sigh..." Raiden Ryoma let out a deep sigh and finally set down his wine cup. Then he slumped onto the table, fixing Siegfried with nothing but a resentful, plaintive gaze.
Siegfried silently turned his face away. What could he do? This couldn't be pinned on him either—he had indeed taught Kiana a few things, but Kiana going after Mei was Kiana's own doing, and he wasn't even around at the time, right?
As for managing it—what right did he have to manage it? As he himself said, he wasn't around back then, completely absent—what standing did he have to interfere? He already owed Kiana far too much.
What could he do? He could only give his blessing. And besides, if they really wanted to hold a grandchild, then theoretically speaking, with current technology, it seemed it might, maybe, perhaps, possibly... not be entirely impossible?
He wasn't too clear on this area either, but as a rebellious lad himself, Siegfried didn't much care about this matter—as long as his own daughter was living well, that was enough.
Things like that were no big deal at all.
And at this moment, Kiana poked her head in over by the dining hall. Based on the aura-sensing between Herrschers, she quickly pinpointed where Mei was. Then she looked at the drunk Raiden Ryoma.
Then Kiana immediately scooted over to Mei's side: "Mei, Mei, is Uncle drunk?"
Hearing Kiana's voice, the previously groggy Raiden Ryoma suddenly sprang up, looked toward Kiana, and silently shifted his chair so that he was sitting right between the two of them.
Although he was already a step too late, he still resolutely sat between the two, strictly preventing the two heads of cabbage from rooting into each other. It seemed he'd still need some time before he could accept it.
Kiana, meanwhile, resolutely carried out Irene's plan, taking a step to the side to nestle up next to Mei and press against her. Mei's heart gave a start, but then, seeing the expression on Kiana's face, she somewhat helplessly patted the white-haired dumpling before her.
Seeing this scene, Raiden Ryoma's mouth twitched. He wanted to step forward, but having gotten drunk, he couldn't push himself up at all. And looking at the helpless yet accepting expression on Mei's face, he—an old father—seemed unable to stand up either.
Siegfried, off to the side, shook his head, leaned over, and directly used his strong, powerful arm to grab Raiden Ryoma's chair and haul him right over.
"Give up the resistance, Brother Ryoma." Siegfried said in a low voice to Raiden Ryoma. "Those two kids laid down their feelings for each other long ago, without us even knowing. If you butt in like this, you'll only stir up bad blood."
"You don't want your daughter to hate you down the line, do you."
Hearing Siegfried's murmur in his ear, Raiden Ryoma's movements instantly stiffened for a moment. For a daughter-doting fool like him, being hated by his daughter—it seemed he'd be better off dead.
But...
Raiden Ryoma turned back to look at the scene of the two pressed together—he still seemed unable to accept it.
And at the doorway, Irene poked her head out slightly, observing the situation inside: "Looks like things are going pretty smoothly. But getting Mr. Ryoma to accept it will probably still take some time."
[It should be only a matter of time.] [Irene] also spoke up inside Irene's mind. [After all, the Valkyries' customs being what they are, Mr. Ryoma, after agonizing over it for a while, should have no choice but to accept it, no?]
[In any case, a 'beating the mandarin ducks apart' kind of plot probably isn't likely to develop.]
The main thing was that Ryoma couldn't beat these two either. The premise of forcibly tearing the lovebirds apart is being able to do the beating in the first place—but the problem is, if Raiden Ryoma's combat strength were placed among ordinary people, as a kendo master holding full menkyo kaiden licensure, he'd definitely be extremely strong.
But the problem is, his daughter and Kiana were even more like cheaters—with both of them being Herrschers, what was Raiden Ryoma supposed to fight them with, his head? Was he going to rely on the dignity of a father and father-in-law? That might be of some use, perhaps.
So Raiden Ryoma was destined to be unable to stop the two of them; he could only stay awkward about it for a while now.
Hadn't he seen that even Siegfried beside him had already accepted it?
"Beautiful girls cuddling really is lovely to watch, isn't it?" All of a sudden, a sweet voice came from behind Irene. Irene's body gave a violent shudder, and she turned around to see Elysia, who had slipped behind her at some unknown point.
"Elysia, don't scare me like that." Irene looked at Elysia. "What are you doing sneaking up to stand behind me."
"Look!"
"Huh?!" Irene was first stunned, but then, seeing the prank-like expression on Elysia's face, she reached out and rapped Elysia on the head. "Where'd you learn that?"
After Elysia laughed, her gaze stayed fixed on Irene, her fingers trembling slightly, a smile still on her face. In truth, in Elysia's eyes, Irene had become more and more delectable.
Ever since Irene inherited the Origin, the compatibility between the two had grown higher and higher, and her allure to Elysia had grown greater and greater—in short, she was simply a perfect match.
Taking Elysia herself as an example, Irene's degree of compatibility with her had almost reached the point where a single glance could make Elysia unable to tear her eyes away.
Or rather, in Elysia's eyes, Irene had already become an exceedingly delectable dessert. The influence brought by Irene's extremely high Honkai Adaptability applied to far more than just Finality, you know.
It was just that Elysia hadn't found the chance before. But now that the dessert had been unsealed, Elysia felt she was a little unable to hold back.
Irene hadn't noticed the expression on Elysia's face; she was just beckoning her to come peek together. And Elysia very naturally pressed against Irene's back, poking her head out alongside her to watch some of the little delights unfolding inside.
"Oh my, beautiful girls cuddling really is fun, isn't it?" Elysia said again. Irene nodded, but given the current situation, it didn't seem possible to tell whether it'd be Kiana-First or Mei-First—she'd just have to leave it for later observation.
After all, right now there'd been no rooftop battle, and the two's relationship hadn't gone through any separation. With it just developing sweetly, gently, and peacefully like this, who knew which side would eventually bear fruit?
"So, Irene~" Elysia leaned close to Irene's ear and whispered softly, "I have something very interesting to show you, Irene."
"Hm?" Irene looked up at Elysia and tilted her head. "What's the matter? Did you find something interesting?"
"Come with me~" Elysia took Irene's hand and jogged along, pulling Irene all the way to the Golden Courtyard. Although Irene was a bit puzzled, out of her trust in Elysia she didn't say anything, just followed along.
Until Irene followed Elysia into a room, and just as she was wondering what Elysia wanted to show her, she heard a crisp sound of a lock falling shut behind her.
"Hm?!"
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