Honkai World, St. Freya Academy.
"Welcome back, Captain."
The voice of a certain scummy maid echoed through the office that rightfully belonged to a certain white-haired shorty.
"Yeah, I'm back."
The young man, whose eyes had unconsciously shifted to the color of the sun, was sitting in the shorty's chair. He returned the greeting of the maid who had now fully relocated to St. Freya Academy.
Due to the vastly improved intellect of an unnamed clergyman—a key figure in the Apocalypse scandal—this scummy maid had been assigned to the Siberia branch to inspect a potato planting project before she even had a chance to engage in any blackmail.
Her good friend, Durandal the Dull Goose, had argued her case vehemently (read: used force to persuade people), convincing Otto to retract the order and rewriting the scummy maid's fate of being exiled to Siberia.
However—
Although Miss Rita escaped the destiny of digging up potatoes, she didn't get off scot-free.
She lost her job.
The scummy maid who attempted to blackmail Otto with photos of him in women's clothing was unceremoniously fired.
Having been given the boot, Rita came straight to the Far East Branch.
She applied for the position of maid to the Captain of the Hyperion.
Yes, that meant becoming the maid to one Li Zihan, who, to this day, has never actually set foot on the Hyperion.
Incidentally, she would also be taking care of Lady Luna Kindred.
Yes, incidentally.
Li Zihan glanced at the little keychain hanging from Miss Rita's pocket—a trinket clearly modeled after Luna Kindred—and professed that he believed her...
The hell he did!
This woman initially said she was just applying to be a maid for the Hyperion! Suddenly declaring she wanted to be his personal maid? Who in their right mind would believe there wasn't something more to it?!
The young man, who had become Luna Kindred's new master by knocking out her previous one, Miss Ling, with a single Feather of Erosion, mentally flipped a table.
He hadn't seen this woman in just a few days, and she was already asking for a good fucking.
"But, speaking of which, is there a reason for your sudden return?"
Seemingly sensing the shift in his expression, Miss Rita—who had already established a good relationship with Luna and felt that with a bit more effort, she could progress to bathing and sleeping with her—deftly changed the subject.
Going to a hotel with the Captain, or getting down to business right here in the office, was certainly thrilling.
But that was, at the end of the day, merely physical comfort and gratification.
Though she appeared seductive, Miss Rita was not some kind of nymphomaniac; she clearly placed a higher value on spiritual fulfillment.
As a lolicon whose fetish level surpassed even Li Zihan's, she would much rather use the time spent in a hotel room to increase her affection points with Miss Luna and get all cuddly with her.
Of course, if the Captain was willing to revert to being around twelve years old, that would be another matter entirely.
Miss Rita, who was convinced that the young man before her must have been an absolutely adorable little boy, briefly imagined his childhood appearance, and her breathing couldn't help but grow heavier.
If I could just hug the Captain as a child and Lady Luna at the same time, that would be sheer paradise. No, wait. Paradise should also include Lady Durandal in her childhood.
Miss Rita, who seemed to be straying ever further down the path of perversion, thought to herself as she recalled the young Durandal's appearance.
"Snap out of it, Rita."
Perhaps because he himself was akin to a high-spec, gender-bent version of Rita, the young man could clearly see the perversion lurking beneath her graceful smile. His eye twitched. "Have some dignity."
"My apologies, Captain. I lost my composure for a moment." Possessing the discipline of a truly excellent maid, Miss Rita, upon being prompted, swiftly reined in the perverted intent behind her smile, restoring her usual flawless elegance.
This woman's level of perversion is almost catching up to Aoko's, he thought.
Watching the maid who seemed to be letting herself go more and more, the young man sighed. Was it his imagination? He felt like all the girls he knew were starting to deviate from their established character archetypes.
Sirin, with her paramecium-level intellect, kept showing flashes of her true emotional and mental intelligence despite constantly playing dumb. The gentle and pure Miss Ana was showing the potential for a dark side. The legendary peacemaker, the gentle and virtuous Miss Rice Cooker, had learned to employ some petty, albeit mostly useless, schemes. And now Rita, who according to her profile was a lolicon but could suppress her desires, had completely let loose and was plotting to get her hands on Luna Kindred all day long...
Character profiles are so unreliable, Li Zihan thought. Whatever. I should focus on planning my next move.
Having returned to the Honkai world ahead of schedule due to the System's glitch, he began to organize his thoughts.
The world of Re:Creators wasn't deeply connected to him, so he had no plans to visit it immediately. Instead, he had simply tossed the newly minted God-Slayer, Kevin Aotian, into that world to prevent the failing reality—which seemed to have been eroded by so many other worlds it resembled a sieve—from suddenly going 'GG'.
But the world of Fate/Grand Order was a different story.
Whether it was Reines's sudden appearance during the Black Grail War, or Kuro's brief visit to the Campione! world before she left, feeling useless—it all pointed to a close connection between his future self and the true Chaldeas.
If that world were to suddenly collapse... his only option would be to strengthen his Authority of Erosion, head to the Fifth Lostbelt, and see if he could seize control of the ultimate machine god, Chaos, a being whose essence was akin to a Dyson sphere. He would then force it to draw thermal energy from a star, convert it into magical power to fuel time travel, and rewind the clock to kill whoever was causing the trouble.
That would be an immense drain on his energy, so it was far better to resolve the problem before it escalated.
As for Re:Creators? If that world was destroyed, Li Zihan would only lose three transmigration slots. Considering the System's programming was on par with Bug Impact 3rd, finding thirty new bugs a day would be no problem at all if he just looked for them.
The young man, having decided to personally visit the Nasuverse, resolved to requisition a batch of Honkai energy crystals from Schicksal HQ to resupply.
But going alone didn't feel quite right.
He didn't think resolving the Incineration of the Human Order would be that difficult. He felt he could easily handle other matters while taking care of Goetia and Tiamat.
For instance, the matter of the real Kiana.
Recalling the face of the white-haired girl who so often held him at night, another name came to mind.
Sirin's older sister, younger sister, and mother.
—Kiana.
If she, whose very identity had been stolen by Sirin, were to be suddenly released, she would surely be hostile.
And that would break Sirin's heart.
"Can you help me contact the Overseer?" Having reached a decision, the young man narrowed his eyes and posed the question to Rita.
"Umm..." Miss Rita, who had just been fired by Otto, fiddled with her long hair, her gaze drifting away.
He'd almost forgotten. This woman had failed at blackmail and would probably be digging potatoes in Siberia if not for the Dull Goose's intervention.
"Never mind, I'll go myself."
Li Zihan stood up and pushed open the door.
And then—
He froze.
A girl with short hair, black on the outside and cyan on the inside, stood quietly outside the door. She wore a white scarf around her neck and a simple white dress.