While the real world had settled into a rare period of calm, Lunelle soon faced new twists and turns within the simulation.
After all, once the simulation switched to daily mode, a single day in reality was roughly equivalent to a week passing in the simulated world.
And the Fire Moth organization within the simulation had only been observing Lunelle to assess her danger level—they couldn't possibly let her and Elysia indulge endlessly in their wild escapades forever!
So after keeping Lunelle under observation for about a month, Fire Moth finally gave Elysia the order to bring Lunelle back to headquarters.
Thus, Lunelle's simulated "honeymoon trip" with Elysia came to a definitive end.
From then on, it was time to officially become a "dangerous individual" placed under Fire Moth's custody and supervision.
During that month of alone time together, Lunelle had repeatedly been teased and flustered by her "smooth-talking" second wife Elysia.
After all, when it came to the art of charming girls, Elysia really knew her stuff!
It's just a shame that although Lunelle was indeed flustered more than once by Elysia's masterful tactics for winning over beautiful girls…
Elysia, while actively drawing closer to Lunelle, always maintained a rather obvious and deliberate "safe distance" between them.
For instance, when they first met, Elysia had naturally taken Lunelle's hand without knowing much about her at all, even secretly tickling her palm.
But during this month-long "honeymoon trip," the most intimate gesture Elysia made was probably shyly wrapping an arm around Lunelle's slender waist, or "accidentally" brushing against her earlobe while whispering—nothing more intimate than that.
If Lunelle had truly been an innocent, pure-hearted beauty, she might have been fooled by Elysia's blatant "just-the-tip" behavior.
But as someone who already saw Elysia as her second wife in her heart, merely this level of interaction was far from enough to satisfy the little pervert within Lunelle without getting a real taste of the "main course"!
'My dear Elysia, is this all? I want more… more intimate closeness!'
But each time Lunelle was stirred up by Elysia and mustered the courage to try getting closer…
She would surprisingly notice that the knowing, playful look on Elysia's face would crack slightly, showing signs of being flustered by Lunelle's advance.
It was as if…
Elysia wanted to build a good relationship with her, but for some reason was also afraid of getting too close.
It was unrealistic to say this didn't upset Lunelle.
After all, she had initially thought that faced with an ultra-exquisite beauty like herself, Elysia wouldn't be able to resist more intimate snuggling!
Could it be that the charm of her own incredibly, unbelievably lovable "main wife" would one day fail?
Before Lunelle could figure out why Elysia seemed intimidated by her, she arrived at Fire Moth headquarters and was quickly settled into a pink suite with a surprisingly "girly" decor.
Soon after entering the room, Lunelle felt an intense, eerie sensation of being watched.
Clearly, this seemingly cozy room had been pre-installed with countless cameras to monitor her every move.
Lunelle wasn't particularly surprised to be placed under surveillance immediately upon arrival.
After all, even though she had passed the observation period for now, she was still essentially a seemingly stable live Herrscher specimen—a walking disaster with the potential to erupt at any moment.
In fact, it would be strange if Fire Moth dared to let a dangerous entity like her roam freely around their headquarters!
Fortunately, Fire Moth's surveillance wasn't too overt.
Presumably, the higher-ups worried that being too obvious might agitate her and lead to undesirable consequences.
For Lunelle, perhaps the only silver lining was that her dear Elysia was actually her roommate!
And if you rounded things up, didn't that basically mean she and Elysia were already living together?
'Woohoo! Elysia, my Elysia, all hail Elysia!!!'
Lunelle understood that Elysia being assigned as her roommate was likely on Fire Moth's orders to keep a close watch on the Herrscher.
But being able to greet Elysia every day and see her up close was already an exhilarating, sky-high benefit for Lunelle!
Just as she was lost in rosy fantasies of cohabiting with Elysia, however, an unexpected visitor suddenly arrived!
"BAM!!!"
A loud slam of the door erupted, startling the timid Lunelle almost instinctively.
Like a frightened little bunny, Lunelle immediately ducked behind the nearest bed, hiding most of her body and peering out with wide, nervous eyes, staring fearfully toward the source of the commotion.
'What the—who the **** dares to scare me…!!!!!'
While outwardly trembling like a scared little cutie, Lunelle was internally unleashing a storm of profanity in every sense of the word.
But her inner cursing came to an abrupt halt when she saw who had barged into the maiden's chamber.
Because this sudden intruder was none other than Lunelle's also-absolutely-adored fifth wife, Dr. Mobius!
"My, my~ Look who's here?"
"Dr. Mobius, I believe I've mentioned that you should knock before entering a young lady's room, right~?"
Seeing Lunelle's adorable, instinctive reaction, Elysia quickly restrained the sinful urge to reach out and touch her.
Then, with her signature charming smile, she shifted her focus to the clearly hostile Dr. Mobius, barely suppressing the nearly runaway impulse inside.
"Hmph! You think I'd give you a pleasant look after you made decisions on my behalf without my consent? E! ly! si! a!!!"
The thought that Elysia had the gall to smile in her face after acting without authorization on her behalf made the currently gloomy, mature-form Mobius want to punch Elysia right then and there.
But considering the absolute gap in their combat abilities…
Mobius could easily imagine throwing a punch—not only would she fail to hit Elysia, the top charmer of them all…
It would be like offering meat to a dog—a completely losing deal for Mobius.
It might even give Elysia a legitimate excuse to take advantage of the situation if Mobius threw the first punch!
Unable to think of a good way to challenge Elysia just yet, Dr. Mobius suddenly noticed the little cutie Lunelle, who was peeking out with half her face, clearly watching the drama unfold.
Recalling Elysia's recent missions, Mobius quickly grasped just who this Lunelle was, the one intensely watching from the sidelines.
At the same time, a brilliant idea for getting a handle on Elysia popped into her head.
So, the previously furious Dr. Mobius underwent a dramatic shift.
In an instant, the gloom and irritation vanished from her face, replaced by a bewitching, alluring smile as she fixed her gaze directly on Lunelle—who had been watching their argument from the side, not daring to utter a single word.
'Huh? This... this isn't right, is it?? Wh-why... why is she... looking at me?
But all I did was sneak a few extra glances at Snakey's body... it can't be she's holding a grudge just for that, can it?'
Pinned under Snakey's dangerous yet exceptionally gorgeous stare, Lunelle felt a sudden sense of foreboding.
Her expression, a mix of shyness and timidity, grew even more vivid and palpable.
"Oh? So you're the little one Elysia brought back?"
"Eek!"
Mobius slowly stepped forward and plucked out the instinctively terrified Lunelle.
"Hiss... well now... aren't you adorable! Just like a little white mouse trembling on the experiment table..."
And upon clearly seeing Lunelle's fiercely exquisite, flawlessly adorable face, even Dr. Mobius, who had initially just wanted to use the girl to tease Elysia a bit, found herself momentarily stunned speechless by this heaven-defying cuteness.
For no particular reason, Mobius recalled a phrase that Elysia, that supremely narcissistic top-tier beauty, loved to say to her reflection in the mirror.
'Wow! Look who it is! Isn't she just too cute~!'
Though hearing that shameless woman Elysia boast like that had always made Mobius scoff with disdain in the past.
But hearing those words applied to Lunelle here made Mobius feel, for the first time, that Elysia's narcissistic nonsense actually held an unexpected grain of truth.
Even though Dr. Mobius knew full well the little creature before her was a terrifying Herrscher... the girl was just so darn cute!
As a researcher, she couldn't possibly let the Herrscher identity make her deny such an objective fact overflowing with confidence, right?
But the thought that such an exquisitely flawless little cutie had been by Elysia's side, that top-tier beauty, for over a month...
For some reason, Mobius suddenly felt a sour, prickling sensation in her heart!
"Little Seele, you're so adorable. Has that lecherous Elysia, who loves clinging to girls, already tried to corru— Mmph!!!"
Perhaps because the bitterness in her heart was too strong, the words that spilled from Mobius's mouth were so outrageous that even Elysia, who usually never laid a hand on beautiful girls, broke her own rule for the first time, stepping forward to clamp a hand over Mobius's mouth, preventing the heaven-defying statement from escaping.
Although Mobius's words were just malicious speculation about the bad things Elysia might do, if Dr. Mobius actually laid such shameless talk out in the open...
"Dr. Mo-bi-us! Are you trying to corrupt our adorable little Seele~?"
Though Elysia still wore her trademark gentle smile and her tone remained as playful as ever, perhaps due to the lighting angle, strange shadows seemed to suddenly fall across her face in Mobius's eyes.
Elysia's uncharacteristic move to stop Mobius mid-sentence was actually because... in private, she had indeed had similar thoughts! More than once!
'After all... when you see a beautiful girl with such heaven-defyingly cute, pretty looks and such a pure, flawless aura like little See-chan…'
'Isn't it perfectly normal to accidentally nurture the idea in your heart of whisking the little one away and then nurturing her into an exclusive little cutie who can't live without your affection~?'
Though in her heart, Elysia felt unexpectedly justified.
But once Mobius steered the conversation in this direction, Elysia, who hated lying... really couldn't find it in herself to refute it with a clear conscience!
After all, if she admitted to having such dirty, filthy "normal" thoughts, wouldn't her image in adorable little Seele's mind completely crumble?
But poor Snakey, having her mouth abruptly covered, was now getting seriously ruffled!
'Huh??? I haven't even finished speaking! On what grounds can you, Elysia, accuse me of corrupting her?
If you're truly so upright and fearless, Elysia, just let me finish my sentence before you refute and explain, can't you?'
However, faced with the unusually intimidating Elysia at the moment, though Snakey was seething with indignation in every sense, looking like she desperately wanted to throw down with Elysia right then and there...
Now that Elysia had her physically restrained, Snakey could only nod unwillingly, indicating she wouldn't continue with what she was about to say.
Seeing this, Elysia, whose face seemed oddly shadowed, finally released Mobius.
"Hmph! You... you're the one who clings to any cute girl you see like a love-starved puppy! Can't anyone even mention it?"
Though constrained by Elysia's... influence, preventing Mobius from continuing the previous topic...
The moment she regained her voice, the resentment of being subdued by Elysia made Mobius unable to resist taking another jab at her.
Though, as an educated person, Mobius ultimately couldn't muster any truly damaging insults.
"Alright then, Dr. Mobius, Getting angry like this all the time will give you wrinkles early, you know~"
"And for a busy person like you, if you came all this way just to scold me a few words, that seems a bit much, doesn't it?~"
Naturally, Elysia could afford to be magnanimous and ignore such easily dismissible barbs from Mobius. She then subtly straightened her expression, steering the conversation toward the real matter at hand.
"Tch. Looks like you haven't completely wasted this past month... Fine, I won't beat around the bush with you."
"Those big shots up top, who talk without feeling the strain, have already decreed. Since the little one has been brought back, the 'individual' who supported this proposal must take on the responsibility of oversight. Furthermore, she must create sufficient value!"
"And within the entire Fire Moth organization, the only researchers bold enough to handle this matter are me, the 'true madwoman,' and my protégé, the 'little madwoman,' MEI. I think you understand what that means, don't you? E-ly-sia?!"
Considering the innocent, adorable Seele was still present, even the usually tactless Mobius made a rare effort to carefully weigh her words, thus avoiding directly exposing some of Fire Moth's ugliness in front of Lunelle.
However, her phrasing was dripping with resentment at being inexplicably dragged into this mess.
After all, Mobius had just been tirelessly working on her own research projects day and night.
Who could have imagined trouble would fall from the sky while she was minding her own business at home?!
She was completely engrossed in her research when she suddenly received a message from Klein's feedback.
Then, Mobius was inexplicably informed that this troublemaker Elysia had publicly, on her behalf, dragged her into some super-dangerous enterprise where she could easily lose her life!
Are you, Elysia, blatantly treating the lives of us in the First Research Institute as worthless?
Anyone in such a situation would find it impossible to calmly agree to such a life-threatening matter without a fuss.
Though Mobius had stormed over here to demand answers with great fury...
Her actions were limited to verbal questioning; she didn't openly refute Elysia's act of taking matters into her own hands on her behalf.
This actually revealed what Mobius's true stance was.
But right now, Mobius simply couldn't understand.
For what reason would Elysia risk such enormous danger to her reputation, for the sake of some Herrscher she'd never even met, by committing such an impulsive, utterly foolish act?
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.