Meanwhile, backstage at Eden's concert...
Lunelle sat quietly in a private guest lounge within the wealthy superstar's concert venue. She was blissfully unaware that a massive world of trouble was about to land squarely on her head.
While Lunelle waited patiently for a staff member to tell her it was time to take the stage and perform alongside Eden, the electrical equipment—which had been running perfectly fine—suddenly decided to give her a front-row seat to a blackout.
"Huh? Everything was fine just a second ago. The lights are supposed to be new... why did they go out?"
As the lounge plunged into darkness, Lunelle's sharp intuition flared. She felt a sudden, heavy dread, as if something monumental and terrible had just happened.
Right then, her simulator acted up in a bizarre way, popping up a special notification that felt more than a little ill-timed.
[Congratulations! You have successfully romanced the target "Himeko." Would you like to proceed with the save file settlement?]
"What?? What is going on? I mean, Himeko did confess to me before, but there wasn't a peep from the system back then! Why is my status changing all of a sudden?"
"I haven't even done anything! Did Himeko just... figure things out on her own and complete her own romance arc in her head? Or does this confession have some kind of built-in delay?"
Lunelle felt like her brain was short-circuiting.
After all, just last night, Himeko had treated her like a human body pillow, pinning her in her arms and teasing her relentlessly until the early hours of the morning.
Naturally, Lunelle couldn't have realized that in the few hours she'd spent away from Himeko this morning, the Cocoon of Finality had "coincidentally" timed its move with surgical precision. It had struck while she was vulnerable.
In the span of mere seconds, the Cocoon had forcibly transformed Himeko—whose psychological defenses had crumbled—into the very Herrscher that Lunelle feared facing most.
At the moment she saw the settlement prompt, Lunelle's first instinct was to just hit "confirm" and get it over with.
After all, Himeko was one of the few genuine "powerhouses" among the wives Lunelle could claim in this simulation.
Since the talents earned from a settlement were based on the target's current state, Lunelle knew that if she locked in this save file now, she'd hit the jackpot.
Even if it didn't grant her a Herrscher's Authority—like the one she got from her first wife, Dark Seele—at the very least, it would provide the kind of combat prowess or battle experience she so desperately needed.
However, the timing of this "Success" prompt was just too eerie.
Combined with her intuition—which had saved her life more than once—screaming a frantic warning at her, she hesitated. It felt like confirming it would trigger something irreversible and catastrophic.
"Strange... This is too strange. The prompt and the power outage happened at the exact same time. Is there a connection?"
The sense of impending doom grew sharper by the second.
Realizing that waiting any longer would only allow her dark premonition to become a reality, Lunelle bolted out of the pitch-black lounge.
She checked her phone's GPS and sprinted toward the main stage where Eden was supposed to be.
This was Eden's concert. If something truly dangerous was going down, Lunelle had to grab the wealthy singer and get her out of there.
After all, Eden was the second "wife" to truly fall for her after Dark Seele. As a self-proclaimed devoted partner, Lunelle couldn't bear to see her loved ones get hurt, even if this was just a simulation.
As she neared the stage, however, she ran into a wall of terrified people fleeing in the opposite direction.
A literal human tide surged toward her.
If Lunelle really were the fragile little girl she appeared to be, she would have been swallowed by the crowd, crushed between panicked bodies, and swept away to who-knows-where.
Fortunately, while she looked soft and cute, Lunelle was no pushover. Even without Honkai Energy, she could handle ordinary humans easily as long as she wasn't trying to act weak.
But seeing the sheer scale of the panic made her heart sink. As she pushed closer to the stage, the temperature began to climb toward a level no normal human could endure.
Worst of all, the Honkai Energy in the air—previously thin and barely noticeable—was becoming thick and suffocating.
If not for the Honkai Suppressor she wore to limit her internal concentrations, her body—which had the potential of a Herrscher but currently lacked energy—would have started greedily absorbing the power from the air on its own.
Such a blatant shift, combined with what she knew of the original timeline...
"Damn it! Has the Herrscher of Fire already appeared?"
No matter how much she wanted to deny it, Lunelle realized the danger her intuition warned her about was likely the very Herrscher who, in the Previous Era, raised the bar of Honkai disasters to a level humanity couldn't overcome even with their combined might.
"Himeko... she's okay, right? She was fine last night... even if the timeline is the same, maybe... maybe it's someone else..."
Even though she knew a Herrscher had been born, she clung to a final, desperate sliver of hope that it wasn't Himeko.
But it was a flimsy hope, and Lunelle knew it. Despite her internal denials, her eyes betrayed her, welling up with tears as her emotions spiraled out of control.
Dammit! Dammit all!!
Everything was finally getting better for Himeko and the Australian Branch...
So why? Why is everything still falling into that same cursed destiny?!
Because she had long ago developed her own independent personality, Dark Seele—who lived within Lunelle's consciousness—could no longer read Lunelle's inner thoughts directly.
However, because she was constantly watching over Lunelle, she immediately sensed the sudden, crushing weight of her despair.
Wait? Who the hell dares to make my precious Seele cry?
Do they have a death wish?!
"Hey, dummy Seele? What happened? You're actually hiding in here crying like a baby? Did you run into a problem you can't solve and you're too embarrassed to ask for my help?"
As the "World's Number One Seele Fan," Dark Seele couldn't stand to see her sweet little Seele in tears.
Usually, she was far too tsundere to strike up a conversation first, but this time, she actually reached out to her "wife" of her own accord.
Of course, even though her heart wanted to help, the words came out sounding a bit biting. Some people just can't stop being stubborn, no matter the situation.
But the moment Dark Seele projected her senses out from the Herrscher Core and into the world, her lazy, casual expression vanished.
Her face turned incredibly grim as she sensed the Honkai Energy in the air.
This feeling... there was no mistaking it.
A Herrscher. And not just any Herrscher—one whose Honkai levels far exceeded her own current state!
"You idiot! Stop! Do you have any idea where you're running? There's a monster up ahead—a Herrscher with energy levels way beyond mine! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"
Sensing an amount of Honkai Energy that could easily crush her, Dark Seele shouted a warning, her voice heavy with genuine fear for her "stupid Seele."
Hearing the uncharacteristic panic in Dark Seele's voice, Lunelle's footsteps faltered.
The warning confirmed her worst fears.
This "Herrscher of Fire" was just like the one from the original history of the Previous Era—the one who kicked off the "super-powered" phase of the Honkai apocalypse.
The worst part was that Lunelle's only real trump card was the "cheat" of having Dark Seele act as a temporary combat pilot. If even Dark Seele admitted she couldn't win...
It meant that if Lunelle reached the stage and faced the Herrscher, not only would she likely die, but she would be dragging the person she cherished most down with her.
In the past, Lunelle didn't care about "dying" in the simulation. As long as she didn't save, death was just a reset button.
But since she and Dark Seele had officially started their relationship in this simulation, things were different.
She couldn't just throw away Dark Seele's life for her own selfish desires. In previous runs, her failures were usually caused by external forces or Dark Seele's own bloodlust leading them both to ruin.
Realizing this was the first time she was asking Dark Seele to take a real risk, Lunelle spoke hesitantly into her own mind.
"I know it's dangerous, Seele. But... I can't just stand by and watch everyone die! Can you... can you forgive my selfishness this one time?"
She was asking for permission, but Dark Seele knew her too well. She could hear the unshakable resolve beneath the soft, trembling plea.
Tch! You big dummy. Always putting yourself in danger for others. Can't you think about yourself for once?
Hearing that conviction, Dark Seele knew that no matter what she said, she couldn't stop her stubborn little wife from running toward her death.
She let out a helpless sigh.
Her wife was an idiot, but she was her idiot, and she was already head-over-heels in love.
"Whatever! If you want to go die, go ahead! I'm the one who's going to have to clean up your mess anyway!"
Dark Seele snapped, sounding like she was too annoyed to deal with her, and retreated back into the Herrscher Core.
But in the next heartbeat, the Honkai Energy that she usually kept tightly sealed inside the core began to pour out, flooding Lunelle's body.
Snap!
The Honkai Suppressor on Lunelle's wrist instantly overloaded and shattered.
"Thank you, Seele!"
Feeling her body finally return to the state of a true Herrscher, Lunelle knew the tsundere Dark Seele had given her silent approval to go save the others. Moved, Lunelle whispered her thanks to the girl in her heart.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon!
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.