Chapter 246: Faded Irene
Watching Mobius's expression, Irene immediately felt something was off. Given Mobius's character, she definitely wouldn't let it drop so easily—after all, Irene had only just dredged up her shameful history.
If she wasn't preparing to deal with her, then she was after something else. In a moment, surely Mobius wouldn't assume it was Klein, or that the two sisters had been the ones to tattle?
No—given Klein's character, Mobius should know it wasn't Klein who'd spilled the beans, which meant…
Irene secretly drew a little cross over her chest. She was so sorry toward those two sisters; she'd have to watch out for them when the time came. After a moment of silent mourning, Irene looked at Mobius.
"Come to think of it, how come I haven't seen those two sisters and Klein? Aren't they coming to eat?"
Mobius cast Irene a sidelong glance: "The three of them are busy processing data. Although, Klein really has been working overtime for a long while, so it really is about time we let her relax a bit."
"Ah, hahaha." Hearing Mobius put it that way, Irene already understood in her heart—it seemed Mobius had already pinned this whole thing on those two sisters.
"Um… Dr. Mobius."
"What is it?" A faint smile now hung on Mobius's face. "Does our Irene have something more she wants to say? Go ahead and say it, I'm listening."
Looking at the smile on Mobius's face, Irene actually got a little cowed, and could only change the subject, asking: "I just wanted to ask—how's that Corruption I brought back doing?"
"Oh, you mean that one?" Mobius withdrew the smile from her face, and instead an expression Irene couldn't quite read appeared as she looked toward Elysia.
"Then you'd have to ask exactly how a certain pair of pinkettes raise people."
"Huh?" Irene glanced at Elysia in some confusion. "What's wrong? Don't tell me you've raised yet another pink piggy-kitty?"
"Aiya, it's just a little more—" Elysia was about to start explaining, then she registered one key word in what Irene had said, and looked at Irene rather indignantly.
"Hold on, Irene, that's too much—what do you mean, piggy-kitty?"
Mobius raised an eyebrow off to the side and decisively spoke up: "Whoever takes offense is the one being described, isn't that right, Elysia—oh, by the way, speaking of which, you do seem to have put on some weight lately."
"I have not." Looking at Mobius and Irene, Elysia got mad too. She'd clearly just not felt like moving around much lately—how could they say she'd gotten fat?
"All right, all right, it's the truth." Irene could only silently apologize to Elysia in her heart; in the current situation, the only thing to do was to divert Mobius's resentment.
After all, she'd just thrown the two sisters under the bus—and when they'd done nothing to her, at that—which was a bit unfair, so she could only make Elysia suffer a little.
She'd find a chance to make it up to Elysia later, that was all.
Some distance away, Theresa leaned against Cecilia, drinking the Bitter Melon Juice that Cecilia kept specially prepared for her, looking over toward Irene's side. Even though she was holding her very favorite drink, Theresa's face still looked somewhat glum.
"What's wrong, Theresa?" Cecilia stroked Theresa's head. "On such a happy occasion, you mustn't be so down in the dumps. Is it that work's too busy? Or~"
Cecilia raised her head to look at Theresa, then looked off in a certain direction: "In these few days of being alone together, didn't you do anything at all?"
"Where would I find the time? I can't even keep up with my work," Theresa replied with her head down, then suddenly lifted it to look at Cecilia. "Wait—Cecilia, what are you talking about?"
"Aiya, you already kissed on the deck last time~" Cecilia waved a hand, looking every bit like she'd seen through it all long ago. "If you've got feelings, then go for it. Siegfried and I were the same way back then."
"Cough cough—hold on, Theresa, you're in a relationship?" Siegfried, suddenly pinged, coughed a few times. Having been shut away in the Stigmata Space for so long, he still hadn't quite caught up to everyone's pace.
Like, for instance, Sirin becoming his daughter—and being acknowledged by Cecilia, no less. Although this wasn't his Cecilia, Siegfried also understood that if it really were Cecilia, she would surely have made the very same decision.
And theoretically speaking, this Sirin wasn't the former Second Herrscher either. The only grudge between the two of them was probably just his arm—but as for the arm issue, Irene had found time earlier to make him a new one.
So at this moment Siegfried hadn't actually lost his Arm of the Heavenly King, nor lost his Power.
So what else could be done? Cecilia had spoken, and the Sirin before him was also fighting for humanity, so Siegfried could only nod and accept it.
And now it was the same—he had absolutely no idea what was going on between Theresa and Irene.
"Siegfried, your tone makes it sound like I'm going to be single my whole life." Looking at Siegfried's expression—astonished as though he thought he were dreaming—Theresa suddenly felt anger welling up from all directions.
"Ugh, no, no." Siegfried hastily waved his hands; provoke her any further and Theresa might really start hitting people. "It's just a bit surprising, a bit surprising."
Wow, this was really something. Who'd have thought Theresa had fallen for someone—and from the looks of it, Theresa seemed to be the one who made the first move? Tsk tsk… how moving.
As for the fact that the person she'd fallen for was Irene, Siegfried indicated he didn't mind. In Schicksal, yuri was by far the most common; there was no helping it. Siegfried also understood that, apart from their Kaslana Family producing the occasional male with strong Honkai energy,
a male one naturally appearing was extremely difficult—one in ten thousand, you could say—and on top of that, the process of fighting the Honkai was undoubtedly a brush with death nine times out of ten, and feelings are best cultivated at the boundary between life and death.
So, it was perfectly normal for things to be resolved naturally among the Valkyries themselves. Cases like him and Cecilia were instead the rarest of the rare.
So Siegfried wasn't the least bit surprised; it was just that his gaze drifted back and forth between Theresa and Irene—wasn't the difference in height and age a bit large?
Miss Irene looked at most twenty-something. Although there was also a certain Celestial here who was tens of thousands of years old and didn't look the part, Irene shouldn't be that kind of old fogey.
And Theresa was nearly fifty, right? Plus that height difference. Aiya, there was a certain inexplicable sense of intensity to it.
By height, it'd be Irene on *; by age, it'd be Theresa as the old cow grazing on tender grass. And judging from what Cecilia had just said, it should be the latter. Tsk tsk…
"Siegfried, what was that look in your eyes just now supposed to mean?!" Theresa had naturally caught that completely unconcealed look in Siegfried's eyes just now, and she lightly clenched a dainty fist and stared straight at Siegfried.
Siegfried silently scooted aside a bit, hurriedly laughing it off: "It's nothing, it's nothing, that's great, that's great—but Theresa, you can't go on like this."
Siegfried had at least had some contact with Irene. Aside from the fact that she seemed a bit of a flake, Irene's personality was actually very good—plus there was the flattering filter Cecilia provided on her side.
Siegfried's impression of Irene was extremely high: not only good-natured, she absolutely qualified as beautiful and kind-hearted, top-tier in strength, and in looks all the more so.
"When you meet such a wonderful girl, you've got to cherish her." Siegfried gave Theresa a thumbs-up. "When it's time to make your move, make it—you absolutely mustn't hesitate."
Siegfried subtly pointed toward Irene, who was being surrounded over there. After observing for a bit, he noticed that the pink-haired girl had been clinging to Irene the whole time.
And as a top-tier warrior, Siegfried's hearing was beyond exceptional. The commotion over there wasn't concealed at all, so naturally he'd heard it.
If a girl minded another person's teasing that much—especially on the topic of having gotten fat—then that relationship probably wasn't anything great.
And to put it not so nicely, Theresa's hardware really did seem to fall short of that pink-haired girl's—but no matter, Theresa had her advantages too.
Siegfried raised his wine glass toward Theresa: "If you ask me, when you're doing your work you could totally pull Irene down to sit with you, no? It'd give you a height boost, and you could also use that tiny little frame of yours to curl up into Miss Irene's arms~"
"How per—"
Before Siegfried could finish, he saw an empty cup come hurtling toward him.
"Ow!"
Theresa's face flushed red as she looked at Siegfried: "What on earth are you talking about? How could I do that kind of thing? And besides, that's…"
"I was just saying it off the cuff." Siegfried looked at Theresa, laughed a couple of times, then put away his smile, glanced at Cecilia beside him, fell silent for a moment, and then looked back at Theresa.
"No matter what, if you have someone you like, you've got to cherish them properly. Fretting over gains and losses and dithering aren't for the likes of us."
Listening to Siegfried's words, Theresa fell silent for a moment, then turned her head to look at Irene, who was still chatting with Elysia. The red on her face not only didn't fade but instead grew redder and redder—or perhaps she'd simply made up her mind about something in her heart.
But at this moment Irene, chatting with Elysia, hadn't noticed the commotion over there, because the whole reception hall was a bit noisy, so that tiny little stir naturally didn't draw her attention.
Even if she had heard it, Irene would presumably have only given Siegfried a thumbs-up—after all, holding the fragrant, soft Grand Overseer Theresa, whether playing along or doing nothing, or moving her hands a little somewhere else—
and even how Theresa would react once someone showed up and saw such a scene—that would absolutely count as a delight.
Right now Irene was more interested in caring about other things, like just what state Elysia had raised that Corruption into, for it to make Mobius wear such an expression.
"So, about that." After glancing around, Elysia finally found Rin, who was nestled in her own sister's arms eating the grilled skewers that Sakura was feeding to her mouth.
Elysia took out her phone and sent Rin a message. Rin quickly looked up toward Elysia's direction, and Elysia pointed at Irene.
After thinking for a moment, Rin wore a look of comprehension, and after a little while, nodded toward Elysia—however, Irene saw a strange smile appear on Rin's face.
"Hm?" Irene tilted her head. How to put it—she felt that the look in Rin's eyes just now was like the look of someone getting ready to watch a show. Inexplicably, Irene suddenly felt something was off.
"All right, let's go." Elysia pointed toward outside the banquet hall. "Let's go find the Corruption. She's right here now, and we've got to be quick."
"Huh?" Bewildered, Irene was pulled away by Elysia, while Mobius and Eden beside them followed along too. The few of them swiftly passed through several corridors and arrived at the current Golden Courtyard of Haiyuan City.
Elysia tugged Irene along, made a shushing gesture, then, like a thief, tiptoed sneakily into the Golden Courtyard. Irene's head was now full of question marks.
She turned to look at Mobius and Eden again. Mobius and Eden also shrugged, pointed at Elysia, and then likewise reined in the aura about themselves.
"Huh?" There were now even more question marks over Irene's head. Weren't they just going to see a Corruption? What was with this whole act? Why couldn't she understand any of it?
Meanwhile, the [Irene] inside Irene's head, somewhat thoughtfully borrowing Irene's eyes, watched the situation outside: "Little Corruption and Elysia, mm… seems this is getting interesting."
Then, amid Irene's puzzled gaze, she too followed the two of them and swiftly arrived at a room in a corner of the top floor that looked newly built.
Elysia no longer concealed her aura at this point—at this distance it was already useless. Elysia simply stepped forward and knocked on the door: "Corruption~ I've brought Irene to see you."
Then Irene heard a very obvious sound of rummaging through drawers and cupboards coming from inside, followed by an extremely familiar-sounding, anxious reply.
"—! Wait wait wait, Elysia, hold on, I'll be right out."
But Elysia paid no mind to the voice coming from inside the room; she directly twisted the door handle and pushed it open, then pulled Irene over.
After that, Irene saw another self of sorts, as if rendered in pale tones—but at this moment she was hugging a heap of photo albums, and the wall on the other side was plastered all over with all kinds of photos.
The person in the photos was no stranger to Irene either, because she could see that face every day in the mirror—every single one in those photos was herself.
And behind the Corruption, some recordings were playing on a loop, looking like combat footage from back when Irene was still at St. Freya.
Even deeper on the wall, Irene also saw what looked like handmade clothing printed with her likeness, and on the bed off to the side were piled a bunch of dolls that looked like chibi versions of her, also apparently handmade.
"Uu…" The Corruption's face was flushed red at this moment as she silently hid the photo album in her hands behind her back, looking at Irene rather awkwardly. "Um… Sister Irene, let me explain."
"Hold on—don't say anything yet, let me have a moment of quiet." Irene looked like someone unable to accept reality. How to put it? She suddenly understood what the situation was now. And she also understood why Rin had looked at her with that watching-a-show expression. No—Elysia and Little Corruption, had they raised a peeping tom? No, a stalker fan—and a pink one of her, at that!
Irene looked at Elysia and, somewhat weakly, asked: "So, Elysia, hurry up and explain to me—what on earth is the deal with this Corruption?"
"Ah, hahaha, well, that's a bit of a long story." Elysia also wore an expression of someone who'd had no idea it would turn out this way, looking at Irene rather awkwardly.
"Anyway, Irene, hear me out."
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