"I seem to have interrupted your enjoyment."
The breeze was gentle. Lin had heard that those in the service industry must provide guests with a warmth as meticulous as being at home.
The maid before him had a smile that looked like it was clipped out of a textbook for world-standard smiles. Her words were indeed generous and appropriate, and her movements were pleasing to the eye, but he didn't feel any home-like warmth—rather, he felt the chill of a slaughterhouse.
Was it because of Yama that he was being overly wary of people he met in the Sea of Quanta?
"No." Lin gestured for her to sit. "Would you like a drink?"
"Inviting someone for a drink the moment you meet... Mr. Lin, you are quite an informal person." Rita magnificent ruby eyes circled between Lin and Einstein. "Aren't you going to ask about other things first? For example... what is the 'ship' I mentioned?"
Lin raised an eyebrow. "We can talk while we drink."
"But unfortunately, it seems the wine is gone." Rita smiled, looking at the empty bottle.
"Then I'll go get more wine. You two chat."
Einstein understood the signal Lin gave her with his eyes. She picked up the still-snoring No. 3 and headed toward the base, leaving Lin and Rita standing alone.
The evening breeze blew through Rita long hair. Her beautiful face was half-hidden by her bangs, and her smile was filled with a poetic, cozy warmth.
Lin closed the Oath of Judah and sat back down.
Behind her hair, the maid's eyes thoughtfully watched the closed Oath of Judah. Even though Lin had disarmed, that imposing cross was placed not far from him; he only needed to reach out to grab it.
Something flashed in her eyes hidden by her hair as she primly pressed her skirt and sat opposite Lin.
"Well then, if you have anything you wish to ask, please proceed."
Lin didn't waste words. "Do you have business with us?"
"Hmm... what do you mean by that?" Rita asked back, sounding slightly troubled.
"You happened to fall into this world bubble and happened to land at our location, and then you began to converse with us normally." Lin listed the suspicious points. "I believe you sought us out on purpose."
Rita eyes crinkled into a smile. "Because you caught me just now, Mr. Lin, and didn't let my skirt touch the mud. That was a gentlemanly act. So, I thought I could answer your questions as a reward."
"..."
There seemed to be no issue. Lin nodded, accepting this explanation. Since the precondition was confirmed, the formal questions were next.
"What is the 'ship'? Why can you come into a world bubble from the outside? And how did you see that we don't belong to this world bubble?"
Lin questions weren't so much tricky as they were sharp. There was no beating around the bush; he used the tone of an interrogation.
"One at a time."
Rita sat with her black-stockinged legs tucked under her. Her slender fingers lightly tapped her nails on the table as she spoke in a soft, gentle voice. "The 'ship' is the vessel I use to travel through the Sea of Quanta. My ability to enter and exit world bubbles is also thanks to the ship's capabilities. However, it has broken down now; the silhouette you see in the rift is the ship."
That battleship was her property?
Being able to traverse the Sea of Quanta... had someone else besides Yama already achieved such a thing?
"The reason I can tell you don't belong to this world bubble is that you don't have that 'trait' on you."
"Trait?"
"Mr. Lin, you should know that oil and water don't mix. People who don't belong to a world bubble are like oil, while the world bubble is like water. Even if you can temporarily float on the surface, you will ultimately never dissolve into it."
A very concrete metaphor, but she didn't explain how she distinguished between oil and water.
Or rather, in her eyes, distinguishing between people of the world bubble and those from outside was as simple as identifying oil on water?
"Is there anything else you want to ask?" Rita smiled.
"...You said you are a maid. Who do you serve?"
Since she was a maid, she should serve a master. The owner of that battleship should be someone else.
Yet the maid was present while the master was nowhere to be seen. This was something that required reflection.
After this question was asked, Rita smile remained unchanged, but she stared at Lin in silence.
"What's wrong? Is it inconvenient to say?"
Rita tone shifted slightly. "Not necessarily. I did once serve someone... to be accurate, we should have been companions, but I identified as a maid. However, some things happened later, and we parted ways. The 'ship' has belonged to me since then."
"..."
"Your companion is back. It seems I will be able to have a sip of 'fine wine' that I haven't tasted in a long time."
Lin turned to see Einstein and two other ELF walking over, each holding a bottle of red wine. Under the pale moonlight—fine wine, a beautiful woman, and a bizarre rift—it had a certain unique flair.
Besides the wine, Einstein had brought ELF. Some were quietly positioned in the shadows; even without weapons, they could provide some help if a fight broke out.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Miss Rita, are you thirsty?" Einstein gave Lin a look, then placed the wine on the table with a smile.
"It's quite alright. Mr. Lin is like a bottle of aged wine himself; chatting with him is quite thirst-quenching."
Rita playful words were like a drop of sugar in plain water.
"..." Einstein looked at Lin in surprise.
"Hey, did you hear that? What a scumbag... in such a short time, another girl appears, and she's even wearing a maid outfit. How lewd..."
"We can't let the Doctor get any closer to him..."
The ELF Einstein brought with her whispered among themselves. They looked disdainfully at the silent Lin and the elegant maid Rita, unanimously agreeing that Lin was far too dangerous.
Lin didn't pay them any mind. He gazed at the smiling Rita. "Miss Rita, since your ship can be used for navigating the Sea of Quanta, could you please do us a favor?"
"Send you home, correct?"
"Yes."
"Regrettably, I cannot do that right now. As you can see, the ship has broken down in the rift. Restarting it will take quite a bit of time. Furthermore, sending you back to your own world is no simple task. It requires an anchor."
"Wait a moment, may I ask what technology your ship uses?" Einstein was incredibly curious. As a scientist, it was impossible not to be interested in a battleship that could travel freely through the Sea of Quanta.
Rita pointed to something. "A technology similar to that."
That thing was the Oath of Judah.