"O~ All-Seeing~ Presence~"
"I~ ask~ you~ this~"
"What~ is~~~"
"Divinity~~~"
Herta: ...
After concluding the simulated audience with an Aeon, Herta withdrew from the experiment and returned to her consciousness. Before she could even move, a voice practically begging for a punch echoed in her ears.
It was the exact question she had posed to Nous, the Erudition, during the simulation.
"Hmph, Little Lumina, eavesdropping is hardly a good habit." Suppressing the urge to punch Lumina, Herta crossed her arms and snorted coldly, lecturing her like an older sister scolding a younger one.
"Of course I know eavesdropping isn't a good habit."
"But it's not like I have the habit, right?"
Lumina replied matter-of-factly to Herta's reprimand.
"I only eavesdrop once every few Amber Eras. You can't really call that a habit, can you?" Lumina retorted with a playful smile, her jade-green eyes brimming with amusement.
"Sigh, I'm so glad I made that decision earlier."
"If I hadn't chosen to eavesdrop, I would have completely missed such an amusing sight."
"Don't you agree, Little Herta?"
Before Herta could respond, Lumina mimicked Herta's pose from the simulated audience with the Aeon, raising her palm with an expression of complete control.
"O All-seeing..."
Bang!
Before Lumina could finish her imitation, Herta's hammer came crashing down, smashing the sofa Lumina had been sitting on to pieces.
"Little Herta, don't be so hasty. Even though I saw it, I also recorded it with an Image Stone."
Lumina had already teleported aside the moment Herta's hammer fell. Seeing Herta's face flush with anger and impatience, the smile on Lumina's face widened.
She held up an Image Stone and played its contents.
In a vast area shrouded in red mist, a colossal mechanical head glowed with crimson light.
Before the giant mechanical head, a witch-like woman hovered in the air.
She gazed at the massive mechanical head, raised her palm, and said, "O All-seeing..."
"Enough!"
As the Image Stone played, Herta finally lost her composure. She snapped, forcing Lumina to pause the playback.
"Name your price."
Knowing Lumina well, Herta understood the purpose of this whole charade. Lumina wanted to use this blackmail material to make Herta agree to one of her conditions.
A small condition would be fine. A medium one, she could grit her teeth and accept. But if it was a major condition, Herta would absolutely refuse.
Compared to a major condition, this so-called "embarrassing material" was nothing.
After all, it was just a simulation of her audience with the Aeon. With a little behind-the-scenes manipulation, she could easily spin the narrative into: "Madam Herta is unparalleled in the world! Madam Herta is supremely intelligent! Madam Herta is devastatingly beautiful!"
But that was only if Lumina didn't interfere.
If Lumina stayed out of it, this embarrassing material could indeed be spun into one of Madam Herta's highlight moments.
But Herta knew better than to believe Lumina would stay out of it.
"A maid outfit~"
"Don't worry, I'll just look. I won't touch you, and I won't use an Image Stone to record anything or threaten you with it."
Even though Herta had seen through her intentions, Lumina stated her condition without even bothering to act innocent.
It was as if she was obsessed with seeing Herta in a maid outfit.
"Are you fixated on this condition?" Herta lowered her gaze, her face a mask of exasperation at the familiar demand.
"Mhm," Lumina hummed, not denying it.
The thought of Madam Herta serving her in a maid outfit was a constant fantasy for Lumina.
"Don't even think about it. Go ahead and release the Image Stone if you want." Herta rolled her eyes, making it clear that the maid outfit was non-negotiable.
Just as she'd suspected: Lumina wanted her in a maid outfit, would then threaten her for a massage, and secretly record it all with an Image Stone to hold over her head.
Herta would not allow it. She would never let it happen.
"Alright, alright~"
"Fine, fine~"
Seeing Herta's unwavering resolve, Lumina temporarily shelved the idea.
"Then have your main body come over."
"For the experiment simulating an audience with an Aeon, you can use a puppet. But for the actual audience, you can't possibly use a puppet, can you?"
Crack—
After saying this, Lumina crushed the Image Stone in her hand right in front of Herta.
"Did you really think I was just bluffing before?" Herta raised an eyebrow, a thoughtful look flickering in her eyes as she watched Lumina's decisive action.
A moment later, the thoughtfulness was replaced by sudden realization. Herta crossed her arms, her voice as confident and proud as ever. "It's just meeting a big droid head. Hardly worth my main body's time."
"Having your main body appear should be a trivial matter, right?"
"Who says? How many people in the entire cosmos have seen Madam Herta's main body? Besides you, who would think seeing it is a trivial matter?"
"Well, I've already crushed the Image Stone. You can't let me waste it for nothing, can you?" Lumina said, feigning helplessness.
"Heh," Herta scoffed. "Dare you claim that was your only Image Stone?"
Based on Herta's understanding of Lumina, it was absolutely impossible for her to discard her "bargaining chip" before the "price" had been fully paid.
If such a possibility arose, it could only mean one thing: she had more than one "bargaining chip."
Given Lumina's penchant for ruthlessly manipulating beautiful girls, Herta guessed she carried at least seven or eight Image Stones for recording their "embarrassing material," if not a dozen or more.
And for the recording of Herta's simulated audience with the Aeon? Given how decisively Lumina had acted, Herta figured she must have made several recordings at the very least...
"Sigh, I really can't hide anything from Madam Herta," Lumina sighed, realizing Herta knew her too well. Seeing that her feigned retreat had been utterly useless, she waved her small hand. Instantly, twenty to thirty Image Stones materialized, floating in the air above her palm.
The intricate patterns on the stones' surfaces indicated they weren't blank; they were all fully recorded.
Herta: ?
Watching this scene unfold, the corner of Herta's mouth twitched.
Right, right. It seemed Herta didn't know Lumina well enough after all.
Herta had underestimated Lumina's determination to ruthlessly manipulate beautiful girls.
If she had twenty to thirty Image Stones just for recording my embarrassing material, Herta didn't even dare to imagine how many she carried in total...
"You're really something else..."
After her speechlessness came a wave of annoyance. It wasn't because Lumina had used so many Image Stones to record her embarrassing material, but because carrying so many implied a particularly high "demand."
Herta felt deeply irritated and unhappy about this.
But there was nothing she could do. She had no standing to stop Lumina's behavior...
Sigh...
Herta sighed inwardly. Suddenly, her body froze. The light in her eyes gradually dimmed, and the puppet transformed from a "person" into a lifeless automaton.
"Herta?" Lumina murmured in confusion, poking the puppet's cheek with her finger.
The Herta Puppet showed no reaction.
"?"
Just as Lumina was puzzling over this, a familiar presence suddenly entered her perception, bringing a joyful expression to her face.
"My pillow is here!"