"Dammit! Please unhand Lord Fuli at once! No, wait! Lord Fuli, please unhand Lady Durandal and Lady Theresa! If you're going to do something to them, do it to me instead!"
The flawless maid, normally renowned for her elegant composure, was currently kneeling on the garden lawn without a shred of dignity. Her pristine, exquisite face was flushed beet-red from a potent cocktail of extreme envy, jealousy, and anxiety. Even her meticulously styled grey-blonde hair had become disheveled.
The visual broadcasted over the holographic screen had burned itself into Rita's mind like the cruelest form of torture.
She was so envious her heart felt like it was being scratched by claws. She desperately wished she could activate a spatial teleporter and warp straight to the Luofu! Even if she could only swap places with one of the people on screen—Theresa or Durandal—she'd take it. Hell, if they let her join in and made it a foursome, she wouldn't complain at all! Truly!
But the torment didn't end there. The cruelest execution was yet to come.
Seeing that "Big Sis Rita's" emotions had been pushed to their absolute boiling point, the mastermind behind the stunt, Fuli, flashed a wicked grin.
He raised his hand and, without an ounce of hesitation, cut the feed!
This kind of behavior was nothing short of psychological edging. It was the emotional equivalent of "doing a solo tribute" to a highly anticipated "educational" video, only for your phone to die right at the absolute climax.
The resulting psychological whiplash and crushing emptiness froze the maid dead in her tracks.
When she finally snapped out of it a moment later, she began pacing frantically, rolling on the grass, bursting into tears, and throwing a massive tantrum. Finally, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she literally passed out from sheer indignation.
"Vice-Captain! Vice-Captain, what's wrong?! Is it your old injuries?!"
Alvitr, who had been standing by, was scared out of her wits by the sudden meltdown. Assuming Rita was suffering from Stigma rejection syndrome, the adjutant frantically called for the medics. In a chaotic flurry, they rushed Rita back to her hospital room for emergency examinations.
After a flurry of activity, Rita lay on her hospital bed. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly opened her shimmering, crimson eyes.
"Sigh..."
Staring at the pristine white ceiling, she remained silent for a long time before letting out a soft sigh filled with endless, complicated emotions.
Having successfully transplanted the natural Stigma Fallen Rosemary, she was finally able to live up to the title of one of Schicksal's three great S-Rank Valkyries in her own right. She no longer had to rely on the Argent Knight: Artemis battlesuit just to barely scrape past the S-Rank threshold.
However, this immense new power brought a new challenge. Rita's original fighting style, the Ice Moon Dance, was a fusion of Eastern swordplay and ancient Celtic ritualistic dances. It was gorgeous yet lethal, specifically developed to perfectly synchronize with her artificial ice-element Stigma.
Fallen Rosemary, on the other hand, was a conceptual-interference Stigma that combined illusions, the underworld, withering, and lightning. It was practically the physical manifestation of the concept of a "Witch."
Currently, Rita could fluently command both styles separately. At times, she was the elegant, pristine Sovereign of Frost; at other times, the eerie, mysterious Witch of the Underworld.
But combining the two powers didn't result in a simple 1+1>2 buff. Instead, it created an incredibly unstable, unpredictable state.
This might have been an insurmountable hurdle for others, but for Rita—who had been recommended to Schicksal HQ by Ragna in 2008 and became an S-Rank Valkyrie in just six short years—she was confident she could perfect the fusion with just a little more time.
No, the real reason she was sighing had nothing to do with her Stigma. It was her current reality: she was effectively under soft house arrest at Schicksal Headquarters.
Her transplant surgery had been completed a while ago, and with Aila—the female, parallel-universe counterpart to Otto—performing the operation, Rita's body had been fully healed for some time.
Knowing she was in perfect health, she had submitted several discharge applications. Her initial expectation slowly morphed into a creeping realization that something was very wrong.
The unfathomable Overseer kept rejecting her applications using a variety of seemingly reasonable, yet entirely flimsy excuses. In essence, he had trapped her at HQ.
The maid couldn't figure out why.
She understood that Otto might be worried she would inform Fuli that Durandal was the real Kiana, introducing an unpredictable variable into his grand plan.
But the problem was, for a very long time before this, Otto hadn't cared at all about Rita's interactions with Fuli. He knew perfectly well that Rita was a smart woman who knew what not to say.
Furthermore, right after the Arc City incident, her parents had been "invited" to Schicksal's floating islands to "enjoy their twilight years," complete with 24/7 "care" (read: they were hostages).
Under these circumstances, there was zero chance the maid would prematurely leak classified information.
In other words, some recent, unforeseen variable must have forced Overseer Otto to enact such extreme quarantine measures against her.
Does this have something to do with that mysterious Mr. Su?
Gazing at the azure sky and drifting white clouds outside her window, Rita murmured to herself.
Recently, faint rumors had been circulating within Schicksal. They spoke of a remarkably handsome, silver-haired man with an extraordinary aura who frequently appeared by the Overseer's side.
The two were supposedly incredibly close, practically inseparable at various events. It had reached the point where people were genuinely starting to wonder if they were romantically involved.
A few brave souls had tried to pry information out of Amber, but Schicksal's stoic secretary merely shook her head and refused to say a word.
A few days later, those unfortunate snoops found themselves reassigned to the most desolate, middle-of-nowhere outposts imaginable. Some were even split into five different squads to fight the Honkai on the absolute fringes of civilization. That effectively shut everyone else up.
"Sigh..."
Thinking of this, Rita let out another soft sigh.
She originally thought that reaching true S-Rank status would finally grant her a seat at the table in these higher-level games. She had even risked her life to transplant a natural Stigma.
Yet, in the eyes of these grand players, she remained nothing more than a chess piece to be placed wherever they saw fit.
But Lord Fuli isn't even an S-Rank!
He was technically weaker than she was, so why was he being so heavily valued and manipulated?
Rita unconsciously gripped her bedsheets tightly. Her expression carried a trace of frustration, but mostly, it was filled with deep concern for the boy's fate.
Meanwhile, on the Xianzhou Luofu, inside the Schicksal compound's reception room—
"Achoo! Achoo!"
Fuli sneezed loudly, twice in a row.
"Little Li, are you coming down with a cold?" Smol-randal asked with genuine concern, while Theresa pretended not to care but secretly peeked at him from the corner of her eye.
Fuli waved it off casually. "There's an old saying: one sneeze means someone misses you, two means someone's cursing you. Sneezing twice in a row definitely means Big Sis Rita is grinding her teeth and sending me her 'warmest regards' right now~"
"Hmph, I'd curse you too," Theresa pouted.
Showing someone a scene like that and immediately cutting the feed—what kind of twisted mind comes up with such a wicked prank?
"Never mind whether she's cursing me or not. Just admit it, it felt great to watch, didn't it?" Fuli wagged his finger knowingly.
"Tch." Theresa turned her head away, but the upward twitch of her lips gave her true feelings away.
Great? Of course it felt great!
The Principal had been harboring a massive grudge against that wicked maid, who took far too much pleasure in "caring for" cute little girls. Finally seeing her get a taste of her own medicine felt like eating a massive bite of ice-cold watermelon on a scorching summer day—a refreshing thrill that shot straight from her toes to the top of her skull!
This time, even Durandal didn't speak up to defend Rita.
Sure, the "Smol-randal" form was a recent development, but she and Rita were genuine childhood friends! She had grown up being constantly teased and practically harassed by that wicked older sister maid!
A history written in blood and tears, too vast to record!
"Speaking of which, I've recently been doing targeted training to control the world bubble inside my body," Durandal suddenly changed the subject. She sat on the edge of the desk, her slender legs wrapped in pure white pantyhose swinging back and forth. "Once I can completely master that power—called the Dea Anchora—my strength should firmly stabilize at the S-Rank Limit-Breaker level."
This was classified as top secret even among Schicksal's highest echelon. But since it was Little Li, she saw no reason to hide it.
"Dea Anchora? Already?" Fuli looked genuinely surprised.
According to his memories of the previous timeline (straight from the source's mouth), Durandal shouldn't have gained basic control over that Earth-sized super world bubble for another two years.
But then again, he was a Regressor who had actively derailed countless events. It was perfectly normal for the butterfly effect to shift timelines.
Curious, he asked, "So how did you manage to anchor it?"
"It was Overseer Otto," the little goose answered honestly. "A few days ago, he called me down to Central Dogma acting all mysterious. He gave me an item called the Seed of Sumeru."
"When it merged with my body, it resonated with Little You—the Holy Sword Durandal. It helped me perfectly anchor and stabilize the inversion process of the world bubble."
"Must be nice..." Fuli said, practically green with envy.
He had fought tooth and nail for half a year, nearly dying multiple times, just to barely scrape the Critical Class for a short duration by relying on his Yuan-Shen Mode. Bianka, on the other hand, had ultra-rare legendary upgrade items delivered straight to her front door by the final boss himself.
An S-Rank Limit-Breaker. The number of known beings at that level was even smaller than the active Sequence Leaders.
Master Jingliu was at that exact level. That was how she was able to slip past the Hyperion's security every other night, sneak into his room, and "cross swords" with him—sheathing and unsheathing her blade over and over until the break of dawn.
"Is this the difference between starting your own startup and working for a massive corporation? I have to do all the heavy lifting myself, and worry about leveling up my subordinates."
Thinking of Mei, his personal "energy-devouring" black hole, Fuli let out a dramatic sigh and slumped tiredly onto the desk.
"Sometimes I really wish I could just become a sugar baby. Sure, I'd lose my freedom, but I'd gain a lifetime of lazy happiness."
"You say that, but when I actually offered to fund you, you refused!" Theresa grumbled unhappily.
How many times had she explicitly and implicitly offered to fully absorb the Hyperion under St. Freya's umbrella? This guy had made every excuse in the book to decline, actively choosing to eat bitterness!
Are the Future Overseer's white tights not enticing enough?!
Wait! she thought, a dark realization dawning. This guy is a massive boob-man, isn't he?! Don't tell me THAT'S the reason he rejected the Principal?!
Theresa instinctively placed a hand over her flat chest, grinding her teeth in sudden fury.
Durandal, however, didn't bite. She knew Fuli was just joking.
They had a pact: once the Hyperion surpassed Schicksal in the future, she would jump ship and join his crew. The girl had kept that promise close to her heart, fully believing Little Li would never forget it either.
"Ah, it's too late for that now," Fuli rolled over, reaching out to playfully tug at Theresa's side-ponytail. "The sunk cost is way too high. Plus, the Hyperion crew is tied together too deeply now. If we joined you en masse, Schicksal's higher-ups would treat us with the exact same intense paranoia Liu Biao had for Liu Bei's brotherhood—fearing the guests might usurp the host."
"That's just human nature," Theresa nodded sagely. Her expression quickly turned teasing. "By the way, I never got to hear your detailed thoughts on fighting Hoolay, the S-Rank Borisin Broodlord. How was it? An S-Rank enemy... it must have been a brutally difficult battle, right?"
"It wasn't my first time," the boy said with a casual shrug.
"Oh, right..."
The white-haired principal choked on her words. She suddenly realized that this seemingly harmless boy sitting in front of her had officially slain more S-Ranks than she had.
"It's only been a little over six months since you officially stepped into this side of the world, right?" she muttered. "And you spend the vast majority of that time cooped up on the Hyperion avoiding conflict. Why do you constantly run headfirst into these bizarre, world-ending events? Don't tell me you're actually a magnet for disast—"
"Shut up!"
Fuli suddenly remembered Castorice's comment: "Your Excellency, they say one in every four people is a walking disaster..." He sprang up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"It's definitely Kiana's fault!" he argued with absolute seriousness. "That idiot's luck is so absurdly good in daily life that, according to the law of conservation of energy, she occasionally attracts terrifying enemies to balance it out!"
What? The Kiana in the previous timeline spent two whole years at St. Freya without incident?
He didn't care. Neither of the two girls in front of him were Regressors; there was no way they'd know that.
"Look at him, Bianka. He's shamelessly shifting the blame," Theresa pointed accusingly.
"Actually, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, I envy Little Li's constitution," Durandal shook her head. A pure, unwavering light—like a clear summer sky—flowed through her eyes. "Running into more trouble just means you have more opportunities to help people who are suffering and in danger."
The moment the words left her mouth, it felt as though all the sunlight outside the window converged upon her.
Her brilliant blonde hair practically glowed. Her unshakeable conviction banished all shadows, making the little girl look like a miniature, warming sun.
S-so blinding!
Fuli and Theresa immediately shielded their eyes. For the first time in their lives, they felt like they were experiencing the daily life of a North Korean citizen bathed in the blindingly pure, walking propaganda of the Supreme Leader's ultimate "Grace."
"But speaking of S-Ranks," Theresa said after they settled down, recalling some recent bulletins she'd read. "I heard a bunch of Wardance teams filed joint complaints. They're demanding that all the S-Rank powerhouses who 'snuck' into the tournament be disqualified."
"Hmm?" Fuli instantly grew alert, given that his team currently housed Yunli. "Is it serious?"
"Basically, any team without an S-Rank has filed a complaint. The committee is already discussing countermeasures," Theresa spread her hands. "It's understandable, really. The registration rules clearly stated the cap was the Critical Class; S-Ranks and above were strictly forbidden. Plus, since the organizers deliberately spread out the strongest fighters during the team draft, people didn't complain initially."
"The problem is, the S-Rank Restriction Treaty was recently abolished," Durandal picked up the explanation. "Powerhouses like Yanqing, the Sword Champion of the Luofu, instantly advanced to S-Rank. Even if it's just a nominal promotion, the psychological and physical pressure it puts on the other competitors is incredibly real."
After all, a baseline S-Rank could theoretically fight eight Critical Class fighters simultaneously without losing ground. The gap between Critical and S-Rank was vastly larger than the gap between A-Rank and Critical.
"Honestly, a lot of people are just green with envy seeing the S-Rank teams rack up points so fast. They're getting desperate," Theresa said, leaning back with her hands behind her head, sounding like someone enjoying the drama.
"To effectively suppress World Serpent's outer factions, the Luofu made the rewards for the top 100 teams insanely generous. The prize tiers drop off a cliff every ten ranks. Thanks to the Living Planet battle and other incidents, there are only about 120 active teams left. If they can force the S-Rank teams out, their own rankings naturally go up."
"Has the Luofu made an official statement yet?" Fuli asked, genuinely concerned.
"The preliminary intent is to have the S-Rank competitors withdraw. The original rules clearly stated the cap was Critical Class, and they have to honor their word," Durandal shrugged. "That list... probably includes me."
"Your identity was exposed?"
"Mhm. By our old rivals at Anti-Entropy."
The little goose sounded slightly regretful. The exposure likely happened when she deployed her full strength during the Living Planet operation.
But there was no need to tell Little Li the exact details; it would only make him feel guilty.
Theresa added, "As for compensation, the current proposal is that after an S-Rank withdraws, their team can freely select a substitute member—provided their strength doesn't exceed the Critical Class. Furthermore, all the total points the team has accumulated so far will remain untouched."
"Which means..."
Fuli frowned, realizing what was about to happen.
That evening, Luofu Xianzhou, Twilight Courtyard compound—
The setting sun coated the artificial rock garden in a layer of gold. Hyacine, Castorice, and Fuli were gathered together, discussing their next move.
Right on cue, Yunli appeared at the entrance.
"I'm here to quit Team Crychic," she said bluntly, facing her three teammates.