At that very moment, Lunelle was completely unaware as her consciousness sank into darkness.
In the mere five minutes she was out cold, her beloved Dark Seele—her number one wife—and her not-yet-mature third wife, Duckie, had actually gone behind her back, the true husband, and played out an absurdly twisted scene straight out of a drama.
Meanwhile, Mei, who had rushed off to fetch the Buddha...ahem, to fetch Class Monitor Fu Hua, arrived at the scene just a tad too late.
But after carefully examining the traces left behind, Mei and Fu Hua—an A-rank Valkyrie serving as class monitor—quickly discovered the remains of Welt One, who had been cleanly sliced in two vertically by Dark Seele.
Just the sight of it was gruesome and terrifying.
For Mei, whose heart still held a touch of naivety at this stage, witnessing such a brutal and violent scene for the first time was utterly shocking.
In the end, the remnants of this so-called First Herrscher were collected and disposed of by the battle-hardened Fu Hua.
However, Fu Hua, who had lost most of her past memories, inexplicably felt a faint sense of familiarity from the residual Honkai Energy lingering on the corpse's clean incision.
Yet, the memories she retained were overwhelmingly combat-related; the rest had been practically wiped clean during that past betrayal and the desperate struggle against the Six-Core Herrscher of Void during the Second Eruption.
So, at this stage, hoping to recall specific people or events from her past based on this vague feeling alone was rather unrealistic for Fu Hua.
Aside from the alleged First Herrscher's remains, the others left at the scene were naturally Lunelle—covered in blood and collapsed before Bronya—and Bronya herself, severely injured and seemingly soul-stricken.
Upon first seeing Lunelle lying on the ground, her clothes stained with blood, and recalling how she had been violently thrown against the wall by the enemy, Mei initially feared that little Lunelle had sustained critical injuries, hence all the blood!
But when the two injured girls were urgently taken to St. Freya's affiliated hospital for treatment, Mei discovered something odd from their injury reports.
Little Lunelle, despite appearing to have lost a massive amount of blood, only had a few relatively minor bone fractures and no serious conditions.
On the other hand, little Duckie, who seemed like she should have been less injured, was found to have multiple fractures all over her body and even internal bleeding in more than one organ, among various other issues.
Since that brute Welt One had been decisively eliminated by Dark Seele, Kiana—who had been dragged off by Theresa for special training—missed a golden opportunity to play the hero and save the day.
Furthermore, a certain Anti-Entropy leader lurking within St. Freya Academy, Mr. "Yang Lie-on-his-back-and-do-sit-ups," no longer needed to risk exposure by going to clean up the mess and finish off the enemy.
Thus, this fierce Anti-Entropy assault came to an abrupt and rather anticlimactic end.
Later, based on the account of the only eyewitness present, little Duckie, this invading First Herrscher from Anti-Entropy seemed to possess a special authority similar to gravity control.
Yet, this seemingly formidable foe, who had held the absolute upper hand just moments before, was instantly sliced down by Lunelle in a single encounter after she suddenly erupted with unprecedented power and produced an enormous scythe from seemingly nowhere.
Logically, Lunelle's sudden outburst, which took down an opponent at least comparable to an S-rank Valkyrie, should have immediately drawn the attention of Schicksal's higher-ups.
However, due to Fu Hua's slightly delayed arrival this time, throughout the entire Anti-Entropy invasion, the only ones who had actually engaged Welt One in combat seemed to be Bronya, Mei, and Lunelle—three little ones who might not even officially qualify as B-rank Valkyries!
Now, if one really scrutinized the main trio's strength, even Duckie, whose "cheats" were the least effective, could conservatively be considered a genius capable of sparring with an A-rank Valkyrie.
But without the "acting" of the ostensibly A-rank veteran Valkyrie, Fu Hua, deliberately holding back and taking a fall as in the original storyline, there was no way to highlight the terrifying strength of the invading enemy.
Therefore, this assault by Welt One, who should have possessed S-rank Valkyrie strength, was rather absurdly classified by Schicksal headquarters as a "routine incident" that could be easily handled by dispatching an A-rank Valkyrie.
As for having her own achievements downplayed and buried, Lunelle, who knew full well that drawing attention brought her no real benefit, was perfectly happy with the situation.
After all, what could be better than lazing around at home, skiving off work, and snuggling with her wives, compared to fighting bravely on the battlefield?
But these thoughts weren't entirely honest.
The main reason was that Lunelle, broke as she was, was genuinely afraid that Schicksal might hold her responsible for compensating the damaged public property!
Upon reflection later, Lunelle realized that if one replayed the entire invasion, it would show that while Welt Clone One theoretically possessed strength comparable to an S-rank Valkyrie, he had been instantly wrecked by the substitute fighter she summoned.
So, that jerk's only real actions were using his ability to throw Lunelle and Bronya against a wall, smashing a concrete wall in the process.
As for the truly severe damage at the scene... well, darn it, it seemed like it was all caused by that sudden rampage of hers, when she punched the heck out of everything!
So, this whole situation was pretty awkward, to say the least.
Although Theresa, the somewhat naive and sweet academy director, probably wouldn't actually make a kind and lovely student like her shoulder an astronomical compensation bill, judging by St. Freya's consistently tight budget, Lunelle could guess that any potential reward wouldn't be substantial.
Moreover, she'd risk drawing the attention of various powerful figures.
The potential cost clearly outweighed the meager gains she might receive.
However, the reason the Far East Branch was always in such financial straits wasn't actually because Otto, as a grandfather, wanted his mischievous granddaughter Theresa to back down from the challenge and intentionally reduced their funding.
On the contrary, Grandpa Otto had always been quite supportive of Theresa.
The budget allocated to the Far East Branch had always been the highest standard since Theresa took charge there.
Worried that Theresa might not have enough, Grandpa Otto would even slip her some extra pocket money on the side.
Yet, even though Otto gave plenty, it never seemed to be enough.
However, Theresa always played it painfully straight, dumping almost the entire budget directly into improving the welfare of St. Freya's students.
You could say that if anyone with a knack for skimming off the top, or even someone just a bit more self-serving, had been sitting in Theresa's position, they'd have made an absolute fortune in no time.
But then, who could expect anything less from Theresa, the somewhat idealistic head of Schicksal's Far East Branch?
Then again, perhaps it was precisely because of such an idealistic, even naive, leader that St. Freya Academy could produce Valkyries who were cut from the same cloth—equally touched by that idealism.
Although Welt Joyce's demise didn't set off major alarm bells within Schicksal's upper echelons, Anti-Entropy—who knew exactly what Joyce was capable of—was perfectly aware that whoever took him down was no ordinary opponent!
After all, they had deliberately drawn away Theresa, the only S-rank Valkyrie combatant the Far East Branch could field at the time.
Furthermore, the branch's ace A-rank Valkyrie, Murata Himeko, who might have stood a chance against an S-rank for a few rounds, was hospitalized with serious injuries.
Given such a golden opportunity, failure should have been impossible.
Yet, Joyce's death ended up being a slap in the face to Anti-Entropy's radical faction, led by Cocolia.
Unfortunately, even after combing through nearly all the active Valkyrie records from the Far East Branch, Anti-Entropy still couldn't definitively identify who had the capability to defeat—or outright kill—Welt Joyce that night.
Considering all possible variables, they eventually settled on Fu Hua, the A-rank Valkyrie who had stood in for the hospitalized Himeko, as the prime suspect in Joyce's death.
A meticulous review of Fu Hua's records made one thing clear to Anti-Entropy: this A-rank Valkyrie seemed... just a 'tad' unusual!
The information available on her didn't paint the picture of a typical A-rank Valkyrie.
This wasn't because her data seemed obviously fabricated, but rather because her publicly listed mission completion rate was, compared to her A-rank peers, absurdly, almost unbelievably flawless.
Digging into each mission revealed traces of evidence, suggesting she had genuinely accomplished these incredibly difficult tasks.
The kicker? The mission reports available in her file were all filled with utterly unhelpful, borderline 'humble-brag' comments like, "Performance on this mission was not yet perfect!"—the sort of infuriatingly vague, unsubstantial nonsense that reeked of either top-level secrecy or perhaps... the influence of a certain lazy, pink-haired fairy?
Regardless, recognizing Fu Hua's exceptional nature, Anti-Entropy promptly elevated her threat assessment, placing her squarely within the danger bracket of an S-rank Valkyrie.
Unbeknownst to them, this cautious maneuver, while missing the mark on the real culprit, had accidentally identified a genuine S-rank-level threat.
Meanwhile, Lunelle—still listed among St. Freya's support staff—remained blissfully unaware that the 'Great Immortal' had mysteriously taken the fall for her kill.
She had no idea Fu Hua was now marked by Anti-Entropy as a key person of interest.
Still, in the end, Lunelle had navigated through this early-stage plot point, arguably the most dangerous one for her, without major disaster.
Most importantly, her beloved 'wives' hadn't been insulted or taken advantage of by that scumbag Welt Joyce.
So, despite lying injured in a hospital bed, Lunelle felt her desperate struggle had been worth it!
However, while the real Lunelle entered another period of convalescence, the accelerated simulation storyline hurled another special twist her way.
In the current simulation plot, having inadvertently assisted Fire Moth in forging the Divine Key Black Abyss White Flower, and with her detectable Honkai Energy levels dropping to an extremely low point, Lunelle's internal threat rating within Fire Moth plummeted several levels.
Consequently, she was soon officially appointed by Mobius as the chief research assistant of her institute, finally stepping beyond the confines of Mobius's lab.
With an official identity within Fire Moth, Lunelle gained a sliver of freedom and a tiny bit of 'human rights,' hard-won for her by Mobius and Elysia.
Previously, deemed too dangerous—practically a walking nuclear bomb—almost no one in Fire Moth dared approach her.
Aside from her 'snake-wife' Mobius and the overworked, perpetually exhausted Klein, who risked contact, the only others seeking her out were likely would-be assassins.
Now, with this sliver of recognition, the previously isolated Lunelle could finally access some of the surface-level information about the Previous Era permitted for internal circulation within Fire Moth.
Perhaps deliberately to keep her from learning her own Herrscher identity, Lunelle discovered, somewhat unsurprisingly, that Fire Moth's internal databases seemed to have completely omitted any record of her as the Sixth Herrscher.
The available Herrscher intelligence stopped at the Fifth, the Herrscher of Ice.
Thinking it over, her incident as the human-like Herrscher of Death—essentially an 'excessive act of self-defense' that 'accidentally' wiped out a bunch of societal scum—was probably easy enough for an organization like Fire Moth to suppress.
Just as Lunelle began to believe she could lie low in her snake-wife's institute, grinding her stats in peace until the end of days, reality shattered that naive dream the very next day.
An official special appointment notice from Fire Moth headquarters arrived.
"What?! They're transferring my Seele to Fire Moth's Australia Branch?!"
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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.