Luckily, within the Anti-Entropy orphanage circle, aside from her main wife Seele, the only one Lunelle truly saw as wife material was the promising little duckling with a future full of "wife potential."
Although Cocolia's figure was up to par, her status as a mother-in-law-level elder was, after all, set in stone.
As for the twins who had some presence in the main storyline, they were still a bit too childish—plus, those twins were genuinely "little" in every sense of the word!
Nothing like her main wife Seele, who even at a tender age seemed to have absorbed all the nutrients from the entire orphanage.
It's just a shame that in the original world setting, Seele's growth and development seemed to be permanently anchored at age fourteen due to her body being quantized!
Otherwise, considering she'd already reached a jaw-dropping C+ cup size by fourteen, Lunelle could hardly imagine what four more years of development would do for her main wife Seele—just how explosively, earth-shatteringly spectacular her figure would become!
She figured even the most conservative estimate would probably leave the big duckling in the dust, right?
After learning about everyone's experiences in the Chiyou Ruins through her promising little duckling wife, Fu Hua, the A-rank Valkyrie who was standing in for Himeko to "watch over" the Herrscher of Thunder during her recovery, naturally moved into Himeko's home.
To be honest, it was a bit embarrassing—as the mole Otto planted in the Far East Branch, Fu Hua had been trying her best to hold back and hide her true strength.
Yet even while hiding her power, she still managed to become the second strongest A-rank Valkyrie in the Far East Branch, right behind the ace Himeko.
Talk about a classic case of going undercover in an organization and accidentally climbing your way up to nearly becoming its leader.
With Class President Fu Hua now also staying at Himeko's place, Lunelle had a pretty good idea that the "Anti-Entropy Invasion Arc"—one of the biggest early crises for the main cast in the original comic—was likely to kick off in the next few days.
Although that clone of Welt who attacked the girls' dorm couldn't really be considered the true first Herrscher, even if it wasn't on par with a real Herrscher,
If Fu Hua the immortal still slacked off and goofed around like in the original story, this story arc would be a real pain to deal with for a mere mortal like Lunelle, who'd just get caught in the crossfire of a clash between titans!
Still, judging from the comic's plot, the day Anti-Entropy decided to make their move was also the day Himeko was out of danger, Kiana felt utterly powerless, and Theresa dragged her off for hellish special training.
What Lunelle couldn't figure out was why, during an Anti-Entropy meeting, a certain Lobster Doctor ended up making a weird face—as if she'd been utterly broken—because of gravity suppression?
Even though Himeko would likely recover faster than in the original storyline thanks to her special serum, things couldn't be viewed entirely optimistically.
At the very least, before Anti-Entropy officially came knocking, Lunelle urgently needed a power boost.
But Lunelle's main way of getting stronger through simulations was still by winning over her simulation wives and rewriting the fates of story characters.
Thinking it over carefully, the only truly rewarding settlement Lunelle had received so far in the simulations was when she changed the fate of her main wife Seele from the Previous Era in a simulation.
Since then, however, being monitored and confined by Fire Moth had left her little opportunity to interact with many people.
The only potential conquest she could reach was her snake wife—but she was a tough nut to crack, a total workaholic.
Although recently, by showcasing her impressive work abilities, Lunelle had managed to catch her eye a bit, and her favorability was visibly rising, fully conquering and winning over her snake wife in a short time still felt somewhat unrealistic.
What's more, the current snake wife was still just a simple researcher, not yet the MANTIS who could actively trigger an artificial Herrscher transformation later on!
Even if Lunelle managed to completely win over her snake wife's heart and body right now, the talent she could probably extract from her would most likely lean toward scientific knowledge and research.
So, to achieve a new breakthrough before the approaching crisis, Lunelle had no choice but to set her sights on a wife with sufficiently high combat power, hoping to extract a talent that could solve the imminent threat.
Considering her current situation in the simulation, Lunelle quickly reached a decision.
After all, the wives she could currently interact with in the simulation who had combat power high enough to meet the requirements were pretty much just her wife Elysia and her tsundere wife, Dark Seele.
Although Elysia gave off the vibe of being easy to win over, considering her seemingly special interest in every beautiful girl, Lunelle ultimately decided to keep shearing wool from her Dark Seele wife!
However, for Lunelle—who was used to relying on her "succubus" passive to let her wives take the initiative—actively confessing to them was still a rather embarrassing prospect.
Last time, even confessing to Dark Seele while in the guise of her main wife Seele felt like a do-or-die, no-fear moment.
But the thought of having to reveal to Dark Seele that she wasn't the original Seele plunged Lunelle into unprecedented hesitation.
She was truly afraid that once she came clean to Dark Seele about not being Seele...the wife who had been so inseparable and affectionate might snap on the spot, turn hostile, and even obliterate her—an outsider who wasn't really Seele—right then and there.
Lunelle had reasons for such a pessimistic outlook.
After all, after ten months of day-in, day-out interaction in the simulation, she fully understood that for Dark Seele, the original Seele was the meaning of her existence, her whole life.
So back then, when "Seele" personally admitted needing her, Dark Seele acted so shy, even breaking her tsundere nature for the first time and very "reluctantly" admitting just how important "Seele's approval" was to her!
And now, Lunelle wanted to cruelly shatter her wife Dark Seele's beautiful vision out of her own selfish desire to grow stronger.
She even had the shameless hope that Dark Seele would transfer her affection for Seele onto her—someone who wasn't truly "Seele"...
Such brazen behavior made Lunelle feel too ashamed to even face her wife Dark Seele, just thinking about it.
This intense inner conflict, combined with the deep-seated fear that her true self would be rejected by Dark Seele, led her that night—after the simulation cooldown refreshed—to swallow her embarrassment and enter the simulation once again...
But the carefully laid plan to come clean with her beloved Dark Seele fell apart the moment Lunelle actually laid eyes on her wife.
After all, compared to the risk of Dark Seele despising her, it felt like it'd be better to just die on the spot.
It wasn't like Anti-Entropy was knocking down their door yet, right?
So… so if she could just stretch out these precious moments of closeness with her Dark Seele a little longer, that'd be perfect~.
Here she was, hiding behind the guise of her sweet wife Seele, yet terrified of revealing her true self.
Sigh… I really am too greedy.
Driven by that instinct to duck into a toy box and hide whenever she faced something unbearable, the simulated Lunelle opted to play the ostrich, burying her head in the sand.
But running away never solves anything.
Though Dark Seele was the queen of tsunderes, always stubbornly insisting, "Don't flatter yourself! I couldn't care less about a big dummy like you who can't do anything right!", the truth was, her beloved wife was practically monitoring "Seele's" every move around the clock.
So it was no surprise that Lunelle's visibly troubled demeanor quickly caught Dark Seele's attention.
As for how her wife figured it out…
'That dummy Seele—normally, the second she has a free moment, she's begging to chat within a minute! But today she made me wait a whole minute and several seconds before finally remembering to contact me? Something's off! That dummy's definitely hiding something from me!'
Little did Lunelle know, while she thought she'd hidden her worries perfectly, that mere few seconds' delay in reaching out—born from timid fear—was all it took for her ever-watchful wife to zero in on the anomaly.
Truly, what else would you expect from the world's number one Seele fanatic?
Her devotion to "Seele" had reached frankly unhinged levels.
'Hmph! That dummy's as clueless as ever! Always bottling things up. Well, let's see how long it takes for this good-for-nothing to come begging to me! Hmph! Dummy Seele.'
'But this time, my help won't come cheap! Hehehe~'
Yet, held back by her own tsundere pride, Dark Seele was also waiting for Lunelle to come asking.
Offering help outright? That'd make it seem like she cared too much about this dummy, wouldn't it?
So there they were: Lunelle, afraid her true self would be rejected, and Dark Seele, too proud to make the first move.
Thus, despite both being anxious wrecks internally, the two wives found themselves stuck in an awkward stalemate, neither willing to break the ice.
But Lunelle's constant distracted state wasn't something only Dark Seele noticed.
Even if she couldn't swallow her pride to mention it, there was definitely a third party growing impatient.
"My darling Seele, you seem a bit off your game today. Run into some trouble you can't handle right now?"
Ever since discovering that her little test subject Seele had the skill to handle the bulk of her work, Dr. Mobius had happily offloaded most of her tasks onto her two handy "tools."
After all, when a boss is keen on squeezing every ounce of value from their employee, even the slightest lapse in concentration gets noticed instantly.
As Lunelle's current "boss" in the simulation, the serpentine doctor was quick to pick up on her dip in work efficiency.
The funny thing was, this boss not only didn't pay wages but also barely offered any wifely affection—just shamelessly exploiting sweet, soft little Lunelle because she was easy to bully.
So really, where did this wife get the nerve to so pointedly call out Lunelle's minor slip in focus?
Thankfully, her soft-looking Seele still had the constitution of a Herrscher, and her main goal was just to survive long enough.
If a normal person were put through the wringer like Mobius was doing to Lunelle, they wouldn't last long, no matter how many lives they had!
"Eek! D-Dr. Mobius! I-I was just… thinking about something important. I'm not sure if I should come clean to someone very important to me… I'm just scared she'll hate me for it…"
Caught off guard by her wife Mobius seeing right through her, Lunelle, who couldn't bring herself to speak up in front of Dark Seele, ended up spilling a bit of her inner turmoil to the doctor instead.
While Lunelle's tangled, hesitant words were meant for the tsundere wife in her mind, since she didn't specify who, the listening serpent completely twisted their meaning.
Especially when Mobius remembered that before coming to her, little Seele had spent over a month alone with that pink-haired menace, Elysia.
A dangerously sweet smile spread across Mobius's lips as her suspicion solidified.
Could it be? Even after nine months, her adorable Seele was still pining for that Elysia—a woman who turns into a lovestruck puppy at the sight of a cute girl?!
And Seele's unusually strong fixation on Elysia only fueled Mobius's paranoid belief that something far too intimate must have happened during that month alone together.
'That wretched Elysia! Did she do something improper to my precious Seele in that month?'
"Oh? My dear Seele, since you're so uninterested in work today, then…"
The thought that her little Seele—already claimed as her own—might have been snatched away by that pink-haired vixen first… It stirred something in Mobius.
With her workload lighter lately, she'd found room for thoughts beyond work.
Her gaze lingered on the increasingly sweet and delectable Seele before her.
Then, despite wearing a conservative lab coat, the doctor whose figure was sinfully alluring slowly reached out and tilted her adorable Seele's chin up.
A seductive glance brushed over those captivating cherry-pink lips, and Mobius's eyes turned positively predatory!
"Huh? Dr. Mobius… you… why…?"
Sensing the once-normal work atmosphere tilting dangerously toward the strange, even as her exquisitely cute face was held in place and her serpent wife leaned in closer, Lunelle's senses remained dulled by the long, numbing routine of being a "tool."
Stuck in her rigid impression of Mobius as work-obsessed, she couldn't imagine her wife would try anything with her.
That is, until Mobius, driven by a pang of jealousy toward Elysia, physically stripped away Lunelle's ability to breathe in that very moment.
"Mmmph!!!!"
Only then, blinded until now by the image of Mobius as a workaholic taskmaster, did Lunelle grasp the severity of the situation!
But all she did was zone out a little during overtime! Was that really reason enough for her snake wife to start getting handsy?
--+--
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.