By the time Flandre woke up, it was already the next morning.
She let out a long, slow yawn and walked sleepily over to the heavy door of her quarters, peering outside to see uniform-clad personnel coming and going along the structural metal gangways. It took her a few seconds of rubbing her eyes to fully realize that this wasn't the crowded, neon-lit skyline of Lungmen anymore, but rather the sprawling industrial grid of the Reunion Movement's mobile fortress.
"Second Miss, your morning pudding is ready. Would you like to eat it right now?"
Sakuya Izayoi's elegant, perfectly timed voice echoed out from directly behind her.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Flandre's ruby eyes instantly lit up with pure, unbridled excitement.
Ever since their deployment left the borders of Lungmen, she hadn't been able to taste a single bite of authentic pudding for a very long time.
"The serving has been placed on the long table in the dining room downstairs..."
Before Sakuya could even finish her structural sentence, Flandre lept down directly from the upper floor railing in a blur of motion, her colorful crystal wings jingling wildly as she rushed like a tiny hurricane straight toward the communal dining hall.
The exact moment she skidded across the threshold of the dining room, her eyes locked onto Remilia, whose pale hand was actively reaching out across the tabletop, perfectly targeting that absolute last, pristine serving of chilled pudding.
"Wah! Don't you dare steal my pudding!"
Flandre launched herself forward across the floorboards like a rocket-powered headbutt, her small hands extending to snatch the dessert.
Seeing the explosive arrival of her younger sister, Remilia instantly knew her covert plan to sneakily consume Flandre's designated pudding before she woke up had officially failed. Yet, entirely undeterred, the Eldest Miss swept her left hand through the air with aristocratic grace, and a condensed red spear manifested instantly, blocking Flandre's direct charge path. At the exact same time, her other hand aggressively grabbed toward the porcelain dish.
Seeing this blatant tactical theft, Flandre absolutely refused to be outdone in a duel of speed. With a violent wave of both her hands, a Giant Flaming Sword erupted instantly from the floorboards, its scorching heat slashing aggressively toward the space directly above the pudding—showing a terrifying, absolute determination that if she couldn't eat it, no one in this room would.
Faced with the genuine threat of her favorite dessert being incinerated into charcoal, Remilia had no choice but to regretfully and swiftly withdraw her hand.
In the very next second, Flandre instantly hugged the pudding dish tightly against her chest, rolled gracefully several times in mid-air to dissipate her momentum, and touched down safely at the far, defensive end of the room.
"Sister's a thief! Sister's mean!" Flandre pouted, clutching the pudding securely to her torso as she stared across the room at Remilia in deep annoyance.
Remilia casually picked up a white cloth napkin, wiping the corner of her mouth with an air of absolute, unbothered elegance before speaking in a lofty tone.
"Oh, my foolish little sister, I have explicitly instructed you many times in the past that the early bird gets the worm. If you truly wish to secure your favorite morning pudding, do not choose to sleep in so late. That is basic common sense!"
"Alright, alright. Remi, you are supposed to be the grown-up head of the household, so stop constantly fighting Flandre over a simple dessert..."
It was Patchouli Knowledge who spoke up from a nearby armchair. She was sitting comfortably with a massive tome resting on her lap, and the violent, high-speed magical clash that had just transpired a few inches from her face hadn't affected her focus or her hair in the absolute slightest.
"Hmph, I was merely testing her reflexes to see if my little sister has become unacceptably lazy lately," Remilia huffed softly, standing up leisurely from her seat and smoothing down her dress, preparing to head out for her morning meetings.
After watching her older sister finally leave the room, Flandre carefully took the pudding from her chest, holding the spoon delicately as she began to consume it in tiny, deliberate bites.
"So delicious!" Flandre's face carried a look of pure, unadulterated satisfaction.
After thoroughly finishing her breakfast, Flandre walked out through the main gates of the residential module, planning to wander around the territory to see what new things were happening. After taking only a few steps down the gangway, she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at Hong Meiling, who was following closely at her heels like an oversized shadow.
"Why are you constantly following right behind me today?"
Hong Meiling shrugged her shoulders, gesturing helplessly to indicate that this was a mandatory guard task explicitly assigned by the Eldest Miss; she was held strictly responsible for staying by her side at all times to ensure her absolute safety. Of course, in Hong Meiling's own private view, there didn't seem to be a single physical entity or weapon within this entire fortress that could pose a threat to Flandre. But a direct command from the boss was a rigid rule she had to execute.
Seeing her guard's plight, Flandre smiled and indicated that it didn't matter at all, since she was merely wandering around to play anyway.
"Second Miss, where exactly are we heading right now?" Hong Meiling asked curiously as they walked past a rows of standard military barracks.
"I don't know!" Flandre replied instantly.
"Huh?" Hong Meiling's face filled with a wall of questions.
"Since the main goal of our walk is just to play, why must we set a rigid destination beforehand?" Flandre stated, as if it were the most natural, logical law of the universe.
At that exact moment, Hong Meiling blinked, genuinely feeling that the little girl's carefree philosophy made a profound amount of sense.
Just then, a sudden, frantic cry for emergency help echoed from a short distance away near the base of the structural module. As an enthusiastic, naturally curious child, Flandre immediately took off into a sprint, running over to see what the commotion was about.
Upon arriving at the scene, she found a thoroughly shivering, soaking wet man standing by the edge of a deep natural pool formed at the rocky foot of the mountain terrain. Several patrolling security guards from the Reunion Movement were standing nearby, gesturing anxiously.
Upon prompt inquiry, Flandre learned that this specific man was named Charlie. He and two of his engineering companions had recently discovered that this mountain pool was exceptionally deep. Relying far too heavily on their personal swimming skills, the trio had boldly and recklessly decided to dive into the depths to explore the underwater topography.
According to his stammering explanation, he had swum blindly through the subterranean darkness for over a full minute without ever striking the bottom. Seeing the underwater cave growing increasingly dark and suffocating, he had grown terrified and chosen to surface immediately. But several long minutes had passed since he came up for air, and not a single one of the two companions who had gone down with him had emerged from the water. Only then did he descend into a total panic, screaming wildly for assistance.
However, when the nearby Reunion Movement patrol squad arrived and looked down at the dark, roiling water of the pool, they found themselves completely helpless. After all, being able to swim a standard lap was one thing, but risking one's life to dive blindly into a pitch-black, pressurized subterranean cavern to extract missing people was another matter entirely.
The moment the patrolmen noticed Flandre's arrival, their eyes instantly turned toward the "omnipotent" young vampire, looking to her for a supernatural solution.
Yet, after thoroughly hearing the chronological story, Flandre wrinkled her nose, expressing a rare look of complete helplessness. If it were any other type of land-based terrain or a collapsing structural tunnel, she could easily use her magic to blast or dig them out. But in the water...
As everyone back in the mansion knew, the Scarlet sisters both fundamentally hated dealing with water.
Hong Meiling, standing silently aside, was also deeply aware of this specific vampiric weakness. Normally, the gatekeeper probably wouldn't bother to intervene in such a scenario; after all, those who actively seek out lethal danger usually find exactly what they are looking for. Since those reckless workers dared to dive into an uncharted, dark cave of unknown depth without proper safety equipment, they had to be prepared to face the consequence of drowning inside.
However, her sharp martial senses suddenly noticed that this specific mountain pool was directly connected to a major, nearby river branch. And not far downstream from this coordinate sat a massive, industrial water filtration pump; the entirety of the domestic drinking and cooking water for the Reunion Movement's mobile modules was actively pumped up from this exact source.
In other words, if those bodies couldn't be pulled out of the cavern system immediately, the entire mobile city would essentially be forced to drink corpse-contaminated water for the next few weeks. Although the technical chances of anyone catching a severe disease after filtration were relatively low, the pure psychological thought of it was thoroughly disgusting.
So, after quietly leaning down to seek Flandre's direct permission, Meiling stepped forward and calmly announced to the guards that she could easily go down into the depths to fish the missing men out.
"The water down there is practically bottomless, and the exact structural layout of that flooded cave is entirely unclear! Going down blindly like this is far too dangerous, so let's just forget it and wait for specialized gear!"
Red, who had just rushed over to the scene from the command center after hearing the alert, interjected with deep concern. To his perspective as an officer, maintaining the absolute safety of Flandre and her personal companion was clearly a million times more critical than risking lives for two reckless individuals who had bypassed safety protocols and were now most likely already drowned.
Hong Meiling merely offered a confident smile, indicating that a pool of this low level wasn't a big deal to her system at all. Even if the underwater cave proved to be an intricate labyrinth and she couldn't find the correct path back, she could easily use her raw martial strength to smash a brand-new exit straight through the bedrock.
Flandre thought about the logistics for a brief moment, and then clapped her hands together, utilizing her Magic to weave a thick, heavy rope that glowed with a brilliant, golden light. This specific rope possessed the unique property to extend its length infinitely on command, and because it was forged directly from high-density mana, it was incredibly tough and fundamentally wouldn't snap under pressure.
With Hong Meiling taking one end of this magical rope down into the depths, no matter how complex or dark the flooded cavern system proved to be, she could effortlessly follow the golden lifeline to find her exact way back to the surface.
Hong Meiling gave Flandre a cheerful thumbs-up. "The Second Miss is truly so smart! Well then, I'm heading down now!"
With that parting phrase, she didn't even wait for Red to voice any further military objections. She firmly grabbed the glowing end of the rope and jumped into the water with a clean, explosive splash.
"How exactly are Miss Hong Meiling's professional swimming skills? What if something unexpected happens to her down in the dark?" Red asked, his brow furrowing with genuine anxiety as the golden rope rapidly uncoiled into the black water.
Flandre scratched her head, her wings jingling softly as she realized she didn't actually know the exact extent of Hong Meiling's swimming training. But she distinctly recalled from her library readings that the gatekeeper's true nature seemed to have a deep, spiritual connection with 'Dragons.'
If her physical essence was related to dragons, a tiny, stagnant pool like this shouldn't pose a single threat to her survival.
Sure enough, before much time had passed, the surface of the pool rippled violently, and Hong Meiling emerged from the water, her arms smoothly dragging two completely limp, dripping bodies onto the rocky shore.
"Their hearts had already completely stopped beating by the time I located them in the rear chamber. They are likely far beyond any medical saving," Hong Meiling stated calmly. She stepped onto the dry grass, casually shaking the excess water off her long green hair and clothes after placing the two silent forms on the ground.
Seeing the frozen, blue faces of his dead companions, Charlie instantly fell to his knees and burst into a fit of loud, agonizing tears. If he hadn't foolishly discovered that hidden cave under the pond and whimsically invited his friends to explore it for a thrill, perhaps the two of them wouldn't have died so needlessly in the dark.