Klee looked up at Himeko. This red-haired big sister sounded a lot like Acting Grand Master Jean, and she gave off the same kind of motherly feeling too. She had to be a very gentle person.
"Klee, you can call her Auntie Himeko," Koji said with a grin.
"Auntie Himeko?" Klee echoed without the slightest suspicion.
Himeko: "..."
The moment she heard herself called "auntie," she felt her fists tighten. Did she really look like an auntie right now?
But when she saw Klee's innocent, shining eyes, all her strength left her. She could only glare at Koji in annoyance.
What's so funny about a joke like that? Doesn't he know a woman's age is not something you casually bring up?
Stelle and the others held back their laughter. They absolutely could not let it out, or Himeko would never let them off.
The corner of Welt's mouth twitched. There were way too many familiar voices in this world.
Klee calling Himeko "Auntie Himeko" gave him the strange feeling of Theresa calling Himeko auntie. Wasn't that supposed to be the kind of thing only Kiana's twenty-seven little white-haired clones would say?
"Klee, call me Himeko-jie, or just Himeko," Himeko corrected her.
"Auntie Himeko" was out of the question. She had no intention of stepping into auntie territory when she was still a perfectly unmarried young woman.
"Himeko-jie..." Klee thought about it for a moment, then seemed to understand.
Lisa-jie is the same. She doesn't like being called auntie either. I see now.
Himeko went speechless. What exactly had that look in Klee's eyes made her understand?
"Elves are rare even across the cosmos," Stelle said.
An elf like Klee was her first time seeing one. The elves she had seen before were, frankly, hard on the eyes.
"Klee's mother has probably traveled through the wider universe before. She's known as a great adventurer across many worlds, and she's at least five hundred years old," Koji said with a nod.
"Wouldn't that make her an old lady?" Stelle blurted out.
After all, five hundred years really was a bit much.
Himeko and the others frowned. That was a little rude, especially with the woman's daughter still standing right there.
"Little one, who exactly are you calling an old lady~?"
Alice appeared out of nowhere, smiling without smiling as she looked at Stelle.
In her hand was a Jumpy Nuke. Very few women could ignore comments about their age, and she definitely was not one of them.
Once outsiders arrived, the Hexenzirkel would naturally know. Since this was Mondstadt, she was the one who had come to keep an eye on things.
And just so happened, she had heard Stelle call her an old lady.
Stelle looked at Alice's face, then at Klee's. Mother and daughter, no question. Her expression instantly froze.
I'm done for. The person herself heard me. How am I supposed to fix this?
Himeko and the others did not know whether to laugh or cry. Talking behind someone's back only for that person to show up on the spot really was absurdly dramatic.
Still, was that actually a nuke in her hand? Was that not a bit too outrageous? Was she not afraid of flattening Mondstadt?
"Can we make peace?" Stelle asked with a mournful face.
It had just slipped out, that was all.
There was no need to be this enthusiastic and bring a bomb over. One look told you it was dangerous. It was the kind of thing that could easily teach children the wrong lessons.
"At a moment like this, do you really think I'm joking?" Alice asked with a sweet smile, tossing the Jumpy Nuke up and down in her hand.
"Mom, I can make Jumpy Nukes too," Klee said, pulling out one of the exact same kind.
Stelle: "...Wow."
Right. There was no such thing as "teaching the kid bad habits" here. She clearly already had a partner in crime.
Himeko and the others broke out in cold sweat. The mother was bad enough, but the little one carried something that dangerous too.
"Klee is amazing." Alice casually put the nuke away and kissed Klee on the cheek.
"Scared you?" Koji asked with a smile.
"Who wouldn't jump when a nuke gets shoved in their face?" Stelle shot back, rolling her eyes.
What kind of normal person carried around a weapon of mass destruction like that? Even out in the wider cosmos, nukes might not rank among the absolute top-tier weapons, but they were still notoriously troublesome.
"Let me introduce her properly. Klee, the Spark Knight, Mondstadt's current strongest combatant. She has methods that can literally reshape the terrain," Koji said.
People who played with bombs did not really have cultivation bottlenecks in the usual sense. It all depended on their minds, on wild inspiration and strange ideas. As for just how terrifying Alice's bombs had become, probably only the gods had seen it firsthand.
Everyone turned to look at Klee. You really could not judge by appearances. This cute little girl actually possessed that kind of combat power. No one had expected it.
Klee did not really understand what "strongest combatant" meant, and she did not care much either.
"You know who we are?" Himeko looked at Alice in surprise.
For a world that had never properly connected with the wider cosmos, knowing about the Trailblaze faction was genuinely unexpected.
"I've heard of you, though this is my first time seeing you in person. The Astral Express hasn't traveled the Sea of Stars for many, many years," Alice said with a nod.
She had heard about it centuries ago. Even back then, the Astral Express had already vanished from the cosmos for quite a long time.
Himeko understood what Alice meant. Before she repaired the Astral Express by chance, the Nameless had been in a dormant state across the universe.
Alice had probably heard of the Nameless during that period.
Considering the lifespan of elves, that was easy enough to accept.
"But the Nameless actually took in someone this dangerous?" Alice said, looking at Stelle with a grave expression.
Even Celestia would not dare underestimate the power of a Stellaron.
If it were ever released, Teyvat would probably sink.
"Alice, there's no need to worry. The Stellaron inside her is very stable unless outside stimulation sets it off," Koji said.
The vessel prepared by the Stellaron Hunters was quite good. It could restrain the Stellaron very effectively.
"I can feel that," Alice said with a nod.
But in the end, Stelle was still a walking super-bomb.
"If I've got a Stellaron, does that mean I can just strut around Teyvat doing whatever I want from now on?" Stelle suddenly asked, having thought of a new idea.
"Hahaha, you really are interesting."
Alice could not help laughing. This Stellaron sprite was something else. Of all possible thoughts, that was what she came up with. She really was a fascinating person.
"Stelle!"
Himeko felt embarrassed on the spot. The Nameless were a respectable organization, not terrorists. Stelle really needed to stop tarnishing the Nameless' reputation.
If Stelle actually went and did that, there would be no saving their reputation afterward.
"Stelle, please act normal. You're scaring me."
March 7th forced out a smile. The moment she imagined Stelle threatening people with a Stellaron, the future of the Astral Express suddenly looked very dark.
Dan Heng stayed silent. This really was the sort of idea only Stelle could come up with.
The Nameless were not afraid of trouble coming to them, but they certainly were not the kind to go around creating trouble on purpose.
Koji gave her a thumbs-up. As expected of Stelle. If there were a Path of Pure Absurdity, she would definitely ascend on the spot. She was the kind of character who could do absolutely anything and still never feel out of character.
(End of Chapter)
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