"Ah well... Having a clean room is a good thing anyway. It saves me the extra time I'd have spent cleaning. Captain Himeko probably didn't come back for some reason during these days I was at the front line, I guess!"
Considering how this unexpected tidiness clearly worked in her favor, Hua quickly let go of that little knot of worry in her heart.
But with the cleaning she'd planned to spend a big chunk of her time on suddenly unnecessary, Hua felt a bit like little Seele being dragged off by her 'Snake' wife for 24/7 non-stop overtime shifts, only to be suddenly transferred away from headquarters and left feeling oddly adrift with all this unexpected free time... It just didn't sit right.
"Whatever, an apron isn't strictly necessary for cooking... There's a risk of messing up my clothes, but I'll stick to the original plan and make dinner first."
"Since I've got this extra time now, I can head to the training room later and do an extra session of today's physical training, then set aside some time to cover more combat theory... After that, maybe I could also..."
Pulling up her pre-planned schedule, she deleted the cleaning task.
Then, as if rattling off a menu, Hua proceeded to fill the newly vacant slots in her timetable with one task after another, instantly transforming her unexpectedly gained leisure into an exceptionally "productive" stretch once more.
After all, if she ever found herself with nothing to do...
Hua was deeply afraid she might slip back into that dreadful state from her childhood, where being alive felt no different from being dead.
Back then, ever since the day Himeko rescued Hua from the battlefield and took her under her wing as a potential successor, Himeko had quickly noticed that the young girl, having witnessed Honkai take away far too much from her yet feeling powerless to change anything, would often unwittingly sink into a state of deep despondency, utterly lost about her future.
Unable to stand seeing someone with such good potential wallow in this self-destructive 'slacker' act right in front of her, Himeko had simply ordered Hua: whenever she felt lost or unsure of the path ahead, she was to follow her superior's instructions—go straight to the front lines and fight the Honkai Beasts, or complete all the assigned training tasks.
She wasn't to allow herself a single moment of idleness that could lead to such negativity.
Himeko's original intention was to keep Hua constantly occupied, to distract her and help her emerge from that heavy psychological shadow.
But perhaps because Hua's memory was unexpectedly sharp, even though so many years had passed, and even Himeko herself, as the responsible captain, had long since stopped seeing Hua fall into that frustrating state of contemplation and assumed the girl had solved her own problems, deep down, the psychological scar from Hua's childhood had never truly fully healed.
In fact, it had almost developed into a conditioned reflex: if she ever had too much free time, the old ailment might flare up.
And Hua's outwardly taciturn, inflexible demeanor was likely a lingering aftereffect of this perennial, unhealed psychological shadow.
After taking the ingredients she needed from the fridge, Hua headed straight for the kitchen. But as she got closer, her fairly keen hearing picked up some strange noises.
'Did Captain Himeko's house... get broken into?'
The sudden, odd sounds instantly put Hua, with her soldier's instincts, on high alert.
Worried that any loud movement might alert the intruder, she crept lightly toward the source of the noise—the kitchen door.
As she approached, she unexpectedly discovered that the seemingly closed door was actually deliberately left slightly ajar.
And as Hua gently neared the crack, she thought she caught a faint, familiar scent around it—a distinctly girly fragrance that her excellent memory vaguely recognized.
If Lunelle had smelled this, she'd have instantly realized it was the signature scent of her 'Elysia-wife.'
Clearly, before Hua arrived, a certain jealous, flower-like girl, though lacking the nerve to directly make a move on little Seele, had still been agonizingly lurking here, secretly watching the stimulating scenes of her adorable little Seele being cuddled and embraced by other pretty girls.
However, Elysia and Hua had only formally met once, back when Elysia brought little Seele to introduce her to Himeko.
Plus, the overwhelmingly sweet scent little Seele carried that day had done a great job covering for Elysia.
So, while Hua with her strong memory felt the scent of the previous peeper was familiar, she couldn't quite pin it on Elysia just based on this tiny clue.
But gazing at this mysteriously glowing door crack, curiosity got the better of her, and Hua slowly leaned her head closer.
After all, she was also curious about what audacious intruder dared to run amok in Captain Himeko's house!
And the moment Hua peered through the crack and saw what was inside...
!!!!!!
The usually dull-witted Hua's pupils suddenly contracted, her entire face flooding with an unnatural blush.
She had considered that perhaps some petty thief was inside, engaged in some shady act of theft.
But she never, ever imagined that her own somewhat disgraceful peeping would stumble upon such an enormous, shocking secret!
Through the crack, Hua finally saw a cute figure wearing what she thought was her own lost apron, being intimately pressed against the dining table by none other than the highly respected Captain Himeko!
Watching the usually stern Captain Himeko now acting like some lecherous fiend, seemingly intent on devouring the adorable little Seele as her dinner...
This... this was just... just too shameless!!!
Having never imagined such a relationship could exist between girls, Hua, faced with this overwhelmingly impactful scene, suddenly felt as if she had accidentally opened a door to some forbidden new world!
If even Captain Himeko—someone who could be considered the leader of the entire Australia Branch—could so brazenly indulge in cuddling cute girls...
Hua now desperately tried, through "overthinking idolization," to forcibly whitewash and rationalize her captain's behavior of "bullying an adorable beauty."
After all, Hua, being the thick-headed girl she was, was famously known for looking up to Captain Himeko as her role model!
So, seeing her respected Captain Himeko so clearly enjoying this act that seemed just a 'tiny' bit beastly, there must be some profound, special meaning behind it!
Could it be...
'Could it be that this kind of intimate contact between cute girls is also part of training to strengthen one's capabilities?'
Hua, even more clueless about emotions than Himeko, thought it over and finally linked Himeko's behavior to 'enhancing strength.'
Thus, clinging to the "legitimate excuse" of humbly learning "how to strengthen her abilities," Hua—unconsciously watching with just a "tiny" bit too much fascination, her cheeks flushed—found herself boldly peering through the crack in the door.
After all, if strengthening one's power required cuddling up to an adorable beauty… well, that seemed… somewhat understandable, right?
Meanwhile, little Seele, currently pinned to the kitchen table and being thoroughly "enjoyed" as Himeko's "dinner," was experiencing firsthand—painfully yet blissfully—just how "terrifying" a nearly thirty-year-old mature, senior woman could be once she awakened certain… ahem… inclinations, especially toward a helpless junior cutie like herself who couldn't resist or turn the tables in such a situation!
Poor Lunelle had first been unceremoniously dragged out of her single dorm by Himeko and promptly relocated into Himeko's own home—which happened to be just a "tiny" bit untidy.
And after that, on countless occasions—whether it was when Lunelle couldn't stand the mess and was cleaning, when Himeko pulled her into a nap, or even when she went to the kitchen thinking she'd help cook...
Himeko practically seized any time, any place.
Whenever she suddenly felt her interest stirred by the adorable little Seele, she'd immediately grab the cute girl for a session of affectionate cuddles, hugs, and kisses.
After all, Big Sister Himeko wasn't like a certain pink-haired maiden who, despite having made no real progress in getting close, was already dwelling on her inevitable future sacrifice and thus dared not get too close to Lunelle.
Though Himeko rarely mentioned it to others, she knew in her heart that she was, after all, a woman in her late twenties.
There's that saying about women hitting their prime in their thirties and forties, but once you truly reach your thirties, the peak looks and charm of youth inevitably start to decline.
No matter how much of a 'well-preserved' beauty you are, it just means the decline is slower.
And her own temporarily peak looks and charm would likely suffer a significant drop before little Seele even reached adulthood, for various reasons...
And once her looks and charm deteriorated to the point where even initiating affectionate cuddles could no longer make the little cutie blush and's heart race like it did now—too intimidated even to meet her gaze—then, even if little Seele didn't disdain her at that point, Himeko herself would probably be too ashamed to maintain such an intimate relationship with the adorable girl.
Although, because the adorable little Seele hadn't yet reached the age for "harvesting," Himeko had to strictly uphold that final bottom line, yet utterly captivated by little Seele's terrifying charm, Himeko naturally wanted to seize the fleeting window of her own relative youth to grab every opportunity to cuddle "just a tiny bit" more with the little cutie—while it still counted!
However, while Himeko's 'seize the day' behavior was comfortable for her,
It clearly tormented Elysia—a beautiful young woman who also harbored "a tiny bit" of feelings for little Seele—but for the sake of "the future of human civilization," she had to repeatedly suppress the desire within her heart that could spiral out of control at any moment.
It just hurt! It hurt so much!
And after about ten minutes of "observational study"…
"Huh? Is the captain... done already?"
For some reason feeling she hadn't seen enough, Hua suddenly noticed that Captain Himeko seemed to have finished "enjoying" her special "dinner."
She was now affectionately holding the adorable little Seele in a princess carry, gently setting the girl—who'd been cuddled so thoroughly she could barely stand—back on her feet.
Worried she might be caught red-handed by the captain, Hua panicked and hastily fled the scene.
After all, she had accidentally spied on Captain Himeko's secret moment—and worse, had even become completely absorbed in it…
If the captain ever discovered such lewd behavior, Hua probably wouldn't live to see tomorrow's sunrise, right?
But because she left in such a hurry, even though Hua was careful to minimize noise, Himeko still clearly caught a faint trace of movement.
Especially when Himeko noticed the door crack had been secretly closed by someone.
"Oh? The door was quietly closed."
"It seems my act of declaring ownership over little Seele must have been seen by someone lurking in the shadows—green with envy, hmm?"
Seeing this, Himeko couldn't help but reveal a smug, knowing smile.
'Heh... I think the things I wanted that sneaky someone to see... were all seen, weren't they?'
--+--
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.