"Sir, how are you feeling? Could it be that you were attacked by a [Nightmare]? No, you don't appear to show any signs of [Nightmare] corruption."
"..."
Before his consciousness had fully cleared, the first thing Elias heard was a concerned voice calling out to him. Then, even before his vision returned, his nose caught the pleasant fragrance of flowers.
It was the scent of rosemary, refreshing and invigorating, distant yet tinged with mystery. It quickly cleared Elias' previously muddled mind.
Elias rose unsteadily from the cracked earth. His mismatched blue-and-gold eyes turned toward the source of the voice, and the moment he saw the other person clearly, his eyes widened as he sucked in a sharp breath.
"R-Rita?!"
Ash-blonde hair covered her left eye, while her wine-red iris resembled a precious gemstone. A small beauty mark rested beneath the outer corner of her right eye.
She appeared so mysterious and noble that anyone who saw her would instinctively want to reach out and brush aside her long bangs, just to discover what breathtaking beauty lay hidden beneath them.
However, Elias was not curious, because he had already seen it countless times. And not only the left eye hidden behind her hair. He had also seen even more secret parts of Rita Rossweisse.
The reason Elias was so startled at this moment was that he had never expected his maid to find him even after he had fled into the Sea of Quanta.
(I'm finished now~)
(She's going to drag me back and make me continue those endless dates~)
"Hm? How do you know Rita's name, sir? This should be our first time meeting. Could it be... that you are a stalker who has been targeting Rita?"
"Huh?"
Elias froze again. As he looked at the beautiful young woman staring at him warily, he sensed something strange. After examining this Rita from head to toe, he immediately noticed what was wrong.
(Oh, I got it wrong! This Rita isn't my Rita!)
His maid had short hair, while the Rita standing before him possessed long, silky ash-blonde hair.
She wore a magnificent dark purple-and-black formal dress. Pale violet rose patterns adorned the area beneath her left collarbone and her right leg. She carried a lantern in her left hand and held a scythe in her right.
While Elias' Rita was a perfect, capable, and deviously cunning maid, the Rita before him was mysterious and elegant, like a witch who had emerged from a dream.
"Uh, sorry. I mistook you for someone else. You're not my Rita. You just... look exactly like her?"
"...Sir, are you certain that you're conscious?"
Rita gave Elias a peculiar look.
I really did pick up a strange person.
She had been searching the surrounding area for traces of [Nightmares] today when she suddenly saw a white meteor fall from the sky.
Only after Rita approached did she realize that it was not a meteor, but a person. Although he was unbelievably handsome, his mind did not seem particularly clear.
(Did the fall damage something?)
However, she suddenly thought of something. Rita tightened her grip slightly around the lantern in her hand before correcting herself.
"My apologies. Rita misspoke just now. We truly do not live in a waking world. However... what you said earlier was still rather discourteous, sir."
"I'm willing to apologize if I made you uncomfortable, but before that, I would like to ask... who exactly are you? Where is this place? And what happened?"
Elias patted his head again while recalling what had happened not long ago.
He remembered that in the previous chapter, he had been eating instant noodles, drinking red wine, and piloting Hyperion. He had neither been speeding nor traveling against traffic, yet he was suddenly attacked by a Planet-class octopus Quantum Shadow.
Hyperion had defeated it with ease, but no one had expected the octopus to self-destruct. His Elysion Pedion had failed to stop it in time, so he hurriedly ordered Ai to initiate a jump and escape.
After all, Elias himself was not afraid of a Planet-class self-destruction. He had been in Deliverance Mode at the time, and merely breaking through his defenses would have been difficult. At worst, he would have suffered a few negligible injuries.
Furthermore, with the power of two Pseudo Gods, the Authority of the Herrscher of Good and Evil, and Shesha's Meta-Morph factor, Elias had truly reached the point where he could not die even if he wanted to. So what if a Planet-class Quantum Shadow self-destructed? He could take it directly to the face without a problem~
But Hyperion could not withstand a Planet-class self-destruction!
Elias: (I remember that our jump succeeded. But because I entered random coordinates, Hyperion jumped straight into a bubble world. Oh, so I'm currently inside that bubble world.)
"All right, I remember now. Beautiful lady, you don't need to answer. You're this bubble world's counterpart of Rita, this place is a bubble world, and my ship accidentally fell into it. Those are the answers to the questions I just asked."
"..."
The bubble world's Rita stared speechlessly at Elias, momentarily unsure what she should say.
At the same time, Elias noticed a very important problem. He and Hyperion had fallen into this bubble world together. He was fine, but what about Hyperion?
"Where's my ship? Where did my ship go? Ai is still aboard. She'd better be all right too! Miss Rita, did you see an enormous white battleship? Or a girl with a cabbage-shaped head?"
Elias anxiously looked around in search of them.
"Uh, please calm down first. I don't understand what you mean by a battleship, nor did I see the woman you described. However... there is indeed something nearby that fell from the sky just like you."
"What? Where?!"
"Directly behind you."
The bubble world's Rita pointed behind Elias, her eyes filled with astonishment and disbelief.
Elias immediately turned around, but the next instant, his eyes rolled back and he nearly fainted.
"M-My ship!!!"
Hyperion stood embedded in the earth.
The battleship's bow pointed downward, having plunged straight into Mother Earth's embrace. Its right engine was still burning, while numerous fragments of hull armor lay scattered across the ground.
Elias clutched his chest tightly and suddenly found it difficult to breathe. This was his brand-new ride, and he had only received it recently!
At that moment, Elias felt like someone in his previous life who had just purchased a Rolls-Royce Phantom, only to be rear-ended before even making it past the first traffic light.
"...You call this a ship?"
Rita raised an eyebrow, the corner of her beautiful eye twitching.
She stared at the colossal battleship, which measured a full thousand meters in length. It resembled a Sword of Damocles plunged into the earth. Even in its battle-damaged state, it remained magnificent and spectacular.
Elias said nothing and hurried back to the bridge. There, he found Ai lying unconscious on the floor with a large lump on her head.
"Her heart is still beating. There are no other injuries, and her mechanical body has no additional malfunctions. It looks like she merely shut down after hitting her head. Thank goodness. She'll be fine after some minor repairs."
After examining her and confirming that the problem was not serious, Elias immediately sighed in relief. The bubble world's Rita, who had followed him aboard, curiously looked around while asking a question.
"Repairs? How exactly do you intend to... Uh..."
Before Rita could finish, she froze. Elias had begun smacking Ai's head several times with loud bangs. Was this man's method of treatment?!
"Ahem! Back where we come from, whenever a machine breaks down, hitting it a few times like this often fixes it. See~? She's already fine."
Elias smiled and raised a thumb. The next instant, the artificial-intelligence girl in his arms slowly opened her eyes.
"Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing? Captain, are you all right? That giant octopus..."
"It's fine, it's fine. It was only a Planet-class self-destruction. I didn't lose even a sliver of health. After blowing itself up, that octopus should be completely dead. Also, we've jumped into an unknown bubble world, but Hyperion appears to be rather badly damaged."
"W-What? Let me inspect the situation immediately!"
The moment Ai heard that the battleship was severely damaged, she stopped clinging to Elias' embrace. Hyperion was not only extremely important to Elias, but even more so to her!
Although Ai also had a room in the Valkyrie dormitory...
Hyperion was her true home, the place where she belonged, and the location of her primary system. One could say that if Hyperion were destroyed, Ai Hyperion would perish along with it.
"Fortunately, only the bridge's navigation system is damaged. The left engine is on fire, while the reactor is unharmed for now. However, forty percent of the battleship's decks were damaged by that Quantum Shadow's self-destruction."
"That sounds rather serious..."
"It certainly is. However, Captain, don't forget that Hyperion is empowered by the Herrscher of Reason's ability to repair and reconstruct itself. Even if we leave damage of this degree unattended, it will be completely restored within two days."
After carefully inspecting everything, Ai sighed in relief. In truth, even if Hyperion had been blown into two halves, it could still repair itself automatically. Its title as the "Eternally Unsinkable Ship" was no joke.
"As long as there are no major problems, I can relax."
"Yes. Hm? Why is Miss Rita here?"
At the same time, Ai finally noticed the bubble world's Rita and immediately revealed a surprised expression.
"...It appears that the two of you truly do know someone with exactly the same appearance and name as me."
The bubble world's Rita narrowed her eyes slightly, curiously studying Elias and Ai. A woman's intuition told her that these two were extremely unusual. Moreover, there was also a certain feeling...
They seemed completely out of place in this world.
"Although I'm not entirely certain what the two of you encountered or who you are, it appears that you temporarily require somewhere to rest. In that case, why not come to Rita's home?"
"Is that really all right? Aren't you afraid that we might be bad people?"
"Hehe~ Rita is willing to trust the two of you. Besides... precisely because you might be bad people, I should keep you within my field of vision. Rita is rather confident in her own strength, after all."
As Rita spoke, she lightly swung the exquisite purple scythe in her hand, which was named Rosemary's Floriograph. As expected of Rita, no matter where she appeared, her weapon was always a battle scythe.
Ai, however, revealed a strange expression.
(Confident in her own strength?)
(Does Miss Rita believe she can defeat a Planet-class chimera? Or does she believe she can defeat a Pseudo God?)
(In front of Ai's captain, please possess at least enough power to destroy a planet before claiming confidence in your own strength.)
"Very well. Since Miss Rita has invited us, it would be rude to refuse. By the way, Ai, Hyperion's optical camouflage should still be functional, correct? It is far too conspicuous in its current state. Keep the battleship invisible while its automatic repairs are underway."
Elias accepted her invitation without hesitation while giving instructions to Ai beside him.
"Yes, Captain."
"Also, Miss Rita, could you tell us about this bubble world... or rather, this world?"
"Oh? About the world? The origins of you two are becoming increasingly mysterious. Very well. However, in exchange, would you tell Rita about yourselves afterward?"
"No problem. That is only fair."
Elias nodded. He did not intend to conceal anything. The important thing now was to earn this Rita's trust and understand the state of the bubble world, as several details concerned him.
After all, Rita herself had just said things such as, "This is not a waking world," and mentioned being "corrupted by nightmares."
This caused Elias to suspect that he and Ai might have jumped into a somewhat unusual bubble world.
Elias: (Not waking, nightmares... Could this be a bubble world constructed from dreams? Hehe~ Don't tell me I've jumped into the planet of festivities.)
Rita: "This is a world constructed from dreams. It is peaceful and harmonious. As long as one desires something, anything can be realized. Although... we have encountered a small problem recently."
Elias: "???"