As soon as Kevyn had seen herself out, Durandal pulled Elysia upright from where she had been lounging playfully against her chest.
"Is your head just constantly spinning with these kinds of wicked schemes?" she asked, a hint of helplessness in her voice.
Elysia pouted immediately, clearly offended by the description.
"How can you call it a 'wicked scheme'? I'm sure you understood what Mei meant! She feels like Kevyn suppresses herself way too much; she just wants Kevyn to be more... herself when they're together. So, I told Kevyn to go practice with Mei. Isn't that just solving the problem at its source?"
"I know exactly what Mei meant, and I know exactly what you're up to," Durandal sighed. "That's precisely why I said you're full of schemes."
In truth, Elysia's suggestion was her signature way of cutting the Gordian knot—taking a messy, complex emotional knot and simply slicing through it.
It was just like how she had handled Durandal's own density in the past. Rather than waiting for Durandal to slowly realize her feelings, Elysia had stepped up and poked a hole right through the paper partition between them, sparing them both the agony of an endless, hesitant back-and-forth.
Now, Elysia was simply passing that experience on to Kevyn, albeit without the detailed explanation.
Without that push, given Kevyn's personality, the road between her and Mei would likely have been littered with far more twists and misunderstandings.
Leaning slightly to the side to reach past Elysia, Durandal printed a second document from her computer and tucked it into Elysia's hand.
Elysia glanced at it and saw it was identical to the one given to Kevyn, except this application was for Sakura.
After a moment's thought, Elysia caught onto Durandal's intent. "Durandal, you really have picked up my bad habits! You're actually using this to light a fire under Kevyn!"
"It's not 'lighting a fire,'" Durandal replied, her tone sounding remarkably righteous.
"Kevyn's talent is beyond reproach, but her personality lacks initiative and a sense of self. Back in school, she was always first in sports—even better than the boys—but that wasn't because she was competitive. It was simply because she reached heights others couldn't even dream of without trying."
"That kind of smooth sailing is actually a disadvantage. It'll do her some good to taste what it's like to come in second in her own field of expertise."
When it came to playing tricks on her own ancestor, Durandal was a true professional.
Elysia: "..."
After a brief silence, Elysia nodded. "Alright, I'll make the trip for you. But... how are you going to reward me?"
In response, Durandal reached out and pulled the girl closer by her slender waist, capturing those cherry-blossom lips in a firm kiss.
If the timing and location hadn't been so wrong, Durandal would have gladly finished what she started right then and there, showing no mercy!
Even so, by the time the heated kiss ended, Elysia's clothes were a rumpled mess.
She gave Durandal a mock-reproachful look, slid off her lap, and straightened her outfit. Only then did she pick up the file and head for the door.
As she reached the threshold, Elysia paused. Her expression shifted from playful to teasingly sweet as she looked back at Durandal, who had already resumed her "serious official" facade.
"I'm very satisfied with that reward. Mwah! [づ￣ 3￣]づ~"
Once her blown kiss and a playful wink had successfully "hit" their target, Elysia giggled and pulled the office door shut, heading toward the training rooms where Sakura was stationed.
Left behind, Durandal could only force down the stirrings of desire Elysia had ignited and bury herself in the urgent paperwork at hand.
Because Schicksal operated with a flat management structure and clear divisions between the Combat, Research, and Logistics departments, the amount of work on Durandal's desk could vary wildly.
If she wanted to micromanage every detail, she could easily stay in the office all day and become a total workaholic.
But if she chose to delegate and only handle the major decisions, she could finish everything in an hour.
Naturally, Durandal chose the latter.
As a result, the items currently on her desk were the ones that truly mattered.
When she picked up the report from Mobius's lab, Durandal's eyes sharpened, and a flicker of joy crossed her face.
"Anti-Honkai serum and vaccine samples have been successfully produced in the lab. Now we just need to design the industrial process for mass production," Durandal murmured, summarizing the report.
Without a doubt, this breakthrough from Mobius's lab had cleared away her final lingering worry.
Currently, as long as Durandal could lock onto the Herrscher hosts in advance, she could prune those threats before they bloomed.
However, the threat of the Honkai didn't just come from Herrschers. It came from the secondary disasters that followed a Honkai Eruption.
These could be plagues or so-called "natural" disasters. Furthermore, the massive influx of Honkai Beasts during an eruption was a major hurdle.
But the most critical issue was how ordinary humans could survive in an environment where Honkai energy concentrations were steadily rising.
It wouldn't matter if they turned every Herrscher into an ally or wiped out every Honkai Beast if humanity withered away because the air itself became toxic.
If only a handful of people with Honkai resistance survived, then Schicksal's efforts would be for nothing.
The serums and vaccines wouldn't work forever, but they would buy time.
And with enough time, they could use the Selene to convert excess Honkai energy, or use the Moon Ring to distribute the burden across the population.
Durandal could even command the Herrschers to open the Imaginary doors within their cores to vent the energy back, or even absorb and process the Honkai energy within her own body.
Any of these would provide a much-needed buffer.
In truth, for Durandal, she already had a strategy for almost every Honkai threat except for the Finality.
Even the Herrscher of Domination or the Herrscher of Binding were obstacles she knew how to navigate safely.
Now, her real concern lay within humanity itself—specifically, Schicksal's current allies.
"Fire Moth... what role will you play in this Honkai cycle?"
Durandal whispered to herself, "I hope you don't cross my line. Otherwise, I won't hesitate to point my lance at our own kind."
But now wasn't the time for those dark thoughts. She needed to finish Sakura's evaluation and then pay a visit to Mobius's lab.
Indeed, Durandal's method for making Sakura a Flame-Chaser before Kevyn was quite simple: just let Sakura take the test first.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.