"Hi hi, I feel like you've changed a lot since I last saw you??"
Sitting in the transport plane's cockpit, Raven looked at Raiden Mei in the copilot's seat, who seemed to have just had an epiphany, feeling completely bewildered for a moment.
"It's nothing, just thinking it through."
"Thinking it through??? Then you thought it through pretty fast. You were throwing a fit in the lobby just now."
Cioara, piloting the transport plane to its autopilot altitude, handed over control to the on-board AI. She stared at Raiden Mei beside her as if looking at some kind of rare species.
"So what exactly is the relationship between you and that Kiana??! You almost choked the life out of me in the lobby just now..."
Seeing Raiden Mei's cold reply followed by immediate silence, Cioara actively brought up the topic to pass the long journey on the flight route:
"Speaking of which, I've actually seen that Herrscher named Kiana a few times in Arc City."
Seeing Raiden Mei completely ignoring her, Cioara decided to drop a bombshell.
"What! You've seen Kiana!"
The bait Cioara threw was so obvious that it was like a hook with a fish already on it, yet someone was still willing to take it.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down! This is the main cockpit, don't lunge at me and touch things randomly!! And don't go discharging electricity everywhere! This is a plane, not my coffin!"
Immediately after, Cioara regretted her recent fishing attempt.
"Sorry... So, how is Kiana?"
Realizing she had lost her composure, Raiden Mei immediately reined in her previously agitated expression, restoring her somewhat expressionless look.
"Phew... Next time I bring up that white-haired girl on a vehicle, I'm not Raven, but a walking chicken!"
Flipping several switches on the wrong side back to their original positions, Cioara let out a long sigh of relief and looked again at Her Excellency, the Lightning Queen, who was now sitting obediently in the copilot's seat.
"Let's get this straight: I only have some knowledge about that White-Haired Knight. If you want to ask me everything, I can't answer."
"No, I only want to know one thing... Raven, how is the Kiana you saw doing?"
"How is she doing? That's a really tough question to answer. Never mind... in my understanding as a mercenary... she's doing pretty well?"
"She has a lively character beside her as a jester, and a dragon acting as her maid. She eats well, sleeps well... I can only say her little life is going quite well? Aside from being a bit busy rushing to various sets or something."
Cioara, in the main cockpit seat, shrugged.
"That's good..."
Raiden Mei nodded, appearing to breathe a sigh of relief...
"Strange person, in the end, you only care about this?... So that Knight Miss is truly this Lightning Queen's Sweetheart?"
"Sweetheart...?! What! No..."
Raiden Mei froze for a moment, blurting out a denial.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm, I get it, I get it—"
Raven nodded, wearing an expression that said, I know.
"...Hmph, think whatever you want."
Thinking about her previous behavior and feeling that explaining would be futile, Raiden Mei could only huff in the end, trying to save some face.
After a long silence, Raiden Mei looked at the few scattered crates of supplies in the cabin and raised her question.
"So, why are we bringing so little stuff??? Nagazora City should have been rebuilt a year ago with the help of Anti-Entropy and Schicksal, and even for transporting supplies, this is too little, right?"
"...???"
Mei's question instead left Raven stunned.
"You really just followed along after hearing news about that Knight Miss... We aren't going to New Nagazora City, but Old Nagazora City, the ruins born from the Third Honkai Eruption."
"I've adopted several orphans born from the Third Honkai Eruption there, so I need to bring so many supplies to them."
"Orphans? If I remember correctly, the Old Town is already a dead city, and there are Honkai Beasts and Zombies roaming around. Why would you keep orphans there..."
"Do you think I want to? Those children are different from other Honkai survivors. There are only two types of people who can survive the Great Honkai Eruption: one is a Herrscher like you, and the other is an Awakened One of the Stigmata."
"In this era, people all carry Stigmata factors in their bodies. As long as they receive enough external stimulation, they can become dominant Stigmata carriers. However, the children I adopted seem to have only partially awakened their Stigmata, perhaps because they were already living on the fringes of the city..."
Cioara sighed and continued to explain:
"And these partially awakened Stigmata are a completely different matter from fully awakened ones. Fully awakened Stigmata carriers can travel freely between Honkai and non-Honkai areas. Although partially awakened carriers also gain resistance to the Honkai, they cannot freely move back and forth between the two regions."
"Once they leave the non-Honkai zone, those children's bodies will suffer severe withdrawal symptoms."
"This... Is there really no other way?"
"There is, and that's why we're transporting these supplies. This is the medicine I commissioned Jackal to develop. It can guide the children to gradually and fully awaken their Stigmata. This is already the final few courses of treatment."
Cioara pointed to the several boxes behind her.
"I didn't fly in such a large transport plane just to deliver this small amount of medicine. I also need to take the children out. Jackal already told me not long ago that after one more course of treatment, these children's withdrawal symptoms will disappear. So I will stay here for a week to care for these children as they go through this most critical treatment."
"As for you, Miss Raiden Mei, you can stay here for a maximum of one week. After all, both of you are Herrschers, so you should have some kind of mutual sensing ability, right?"
Cioara looked at her companion beside her to confirm.
"Mutual sensing ability...? I suppose so..."
The Lightning Queen, who had never received any instruction on how to use the Herrscher Core nor had anyone taught her, replied somewhat uncertainly.
"Anyway, good luck. Remember, we only have one week. If you refuse to go back at the end, I certainly won't be able to do anything to you... but the Sire and the others will definitely take it out on me."
"Just consider it an act of kindness, Lady Lightning Queen, and save my life."
".....Fine, but you can't interfere with my actions during these seven days."
After a moment of silence, Mei looked at the marks on Cioara's neck that she had strangled earlier, and couldn't help but feel a slight sense of guilt...
"That's easy to agree to. I'm only here to see the children. As long as you don't endanger them, I won't interfere with your actions."
"Of course. I didn't realize you were so compassionate."
Mei nodded to Cioara.
"A deal then?"
"A deal."