Clearly, on the very first day she had forced little Seele to move in with her, Himeko had deliberately made such a huge scene by being so physically close to the girl.
She even intentionally left "careless" traces here and there, just obvious enough for others to notice.
Her goal was to show off to a certain pink-haired lady—who also had her eyes on little Seele—that she, Himeko, had full sovereignty to cling to Seele whenever and however she pleased!
What Himeko didn't realize at the time, however, was that the open trap she'd set for Elysia had accidentally ended up ensnaring Hua instead.
And to make things even more unexpected, the dense, blockheaded "crown prince" she'd been training had accidentally stumbled through the gates into a whole new world of sapphic romance.
So much so that later, after Himeko the "Emperor" met an untimely end mid-reign, Hua the "Crown Prince" ended up performing, in a certain sense, quite the classic act:
"After the captain's death, I shall care for the captain's wife myself. The captain need not worry!"
Of course, all that was still to come.
And so, this little farce—originally meant to make Elysia give up on Seele, but which instead pulled Hua headfirst into the brave new world of girl-love—came to a close.
Lunelle's daily life in the simulation shifted from being forced by her dear snake-wife to work nonstop, 24/7, at Fire Moth headquarters, to tinkering with research results in the Australian branch lab during the day, and then getting pulled into Himeko's arms to sleep as soon as she got home each night—all because the big sister couldn't keep her hands off her.
What's more, every night in the simulation, after Himeko made a habit of "tasting" little Seele's kisses as a midnight snack, she also found an opportunity to ask exactly how long it was until Seele officially came of age.
Clearly, by asking this, Himeko had already made up her mind: the moment little Seele was legally an adult, she would drag her straight to the registry office and get all the necessary certificates sorted, no questions asked.
After all, her little Seele wasn't just incredibly charming—she was also remarkably capable…
Even with her eyes closed, Himeko could foresee that in the future, there would be no shortage of people drooling over the girl.
Now that she was getting on in years, Himeko knew all too well that if she didn't seize the initiative while she still could, there might come a day when, in a moment of carelessness, the little Seele who belonged to her would be whisked away by someone else!
Especially that pink-haired lady who stuck so closely to Seele's side—her intentions were clearly more than a little dubious, and she gave Himeko a serious sense of crisis!
Though Himeko hated to admit it, objectively speaking, compared to Elysia—a beautiful girl who looked far younger and lovelier than herself—
Himeko might still hold Seele's attention for now with her mature, older-sister charm and alluring presence, but only so long as Elysia kept her distance.
But what if one day Elysia finally lost patience and decided to make a move?
What if she joined the fray, actively seeking Seele out and competing for ownership of the girl?
Himeko had zero confidence she could hold onto Seele then.
After all, Elysia was Fire Moth headquarters' famous "Anti-Herrscher" ace warrior!
A super-soldier like that, treated as the organization's secret weapon against Herrschers—if she really went all out to snatch Seele away, even Himeko, battle-hardened as she was, wouldn't stand a chance.
Trying to match strength with a monster who could go toe-to-toe with a Herrscher in human form… well, that was clearly more than just a little beyond her.
While cuddling with Seele day to day, Himeko also picked up bits and pieces through casual questioning: before being assigned to Australia, Seele had already had her goodwill pretty thoroughly worked on by none other than Elysia.
Even worse, back at Fire Moth headquarters, there was also a Dr. Mobius who had not only stolen Seele's first kiss, but clearly saw the girl as her own exclusive property—just like Himeko did!
According to Seele, this Dr. Mobius was so stubborn she'd rather die than admit how much she liked and cared for the girl.
But Himeko, now thoroughly smitten herself, quickly realized that this stubborn doctor was probably just like her—waiting for the day Seele came of age to make her move and claim the little cutie all for herself!
Every time she thought about how Seele had almost been snapped up early by that Dr. Mobius back at headquarters, Himeko felt a strange sense of relief that Seele was a Herrscher.
After all, if not for that, how would she have had the chance to essentially luck into meeting and growing closer to the adorable little Seele?
Besides, ever since Seele arrived at the Australian branch, the anti-Honkai serum that used to take up nearly half the branch's budget had—thanks to Seele's diligent research and improvements—been reduced to less than thirty percent of expenses, all while still meeting frontline demands.
And since Himeko made no attempt to hide or take credit for her little Seele's enormous contributions to the branch, Lunelle's soaring reputation meant that even when Himeko dropped hints about her special interest in Seele in front of her subordinates, the soldiers who respected Captain Himeko not only saw nothing wrong with their gorgeous superior setting her sights on the little Medic Fairy," but even started whispering among themselves about when their captain would finally make her relationship with the young doctor official.
By the way, during this period while Himeko was busy deepening her bond with Seele, a rumor started going around—no one knew where from—that Eden, the world's absolute top superstar, had decided to hold the final and most grand performance of her world tour right in the Australian region!
As the head of Fire Moth's Australian branch, even Himeko suspected this was fake news meant to mess with her when she first heard it.
After all, Himeko knew perfectly well that although her years of desperate fighting had succeeded in pushing the terrifying Honkai Beast tides outside Australian residential areas, the region was still the most badly ravaged mess left in Honkai's wake.
While Himeko's forces had temporarily solved the immediate threat to people's lives, restoring the destroyed social environment in a short time was clearly no easy task.
Given the extremely backward economic state of the area, calling it a giant "slum" wouldn't be far off!
Not to mention, Australia was still a dangerous zone with ongoing Honkai Beast attack risks.
So if Eden really chose to hold her final farewell concert there, it would be like peak-era MJ suddenly deciding to hold a show in the middle of the Sahara Desert—nothing but yellow sand for miles!
Just hearing it sounded utterly ridiculous!
After all, something like an Eden concert was a guaranteed moneymaker—any investment would be repaid with interest.
If it's their turn at all, it should be those more economically and security-developed regions taking priority first.
Unless this world-class superstar Eden was harboring some special purpose.
Or maybe Eden, that global idol, simply feels she has far too much money and, in a fit of "boundless charity," decided to come perform "philanthropy" in this destitute corner of Australia.
Otherwise, with her perfectly normal way of thinking, Himeko simply couldn't imagine how anyone could actually believe in such an obviously foolish move, one with clear disadvantages outweighing the advantages by a 'mere' hundred million percent!
In fact, Himeko was so confident she could slap her own ample chest—proudly outranking even Elysia's—and scoff outright:
"If Eden really dares to hold her concert in this dump of mine called Australia? You might as well tell me this world-class top star came all the way here just to chase a fan!"
But when Eden's professional team actually arrived in Australia and, without a second thought, prepared to spend a colossal sum building a stage from scratch...
Himeko: ??????
The very same Himeko who'd so confidently declared her stance was left utterly dumbfounded on the spot.
After all, although the Fire Moth Australian branch had improved considerably compared to before, the current budget could only be described as just enough to get by.
If she really had to provide resource support to Eden's technical team, Himeko would probably have to pull from the military budget!
Fortunately, Eden's team had clearly looked into Australia's dismal economic situation beforehand, so the visiting technicians were mentally prepared to start from zero from the get-go.
Thus, in the end, there was no scenario where Eden's technical team came to Himeko requesting resources, forcing her, as the branch's person in charge, into that kind of dilemma.
Although she couldn't offer material resources, with Himeko's prestige, mobilizing the branch's soldiers and civilians to provide manpower was more than enough.
But considering her branch's tight finances, the wages for the mobilized civilians' "manpower" were still covered by Eden's side.
Feeling rather embarrassed by this, Himeko could only order her soldiers to protect the lives of these visiting technicians even if it meant risking their own.
However, since Eden's budget was absolutely generous, even though an apologetic Himeko had suggested just symbolic payment at the minimum wage standard—enough so the helping hands wouldn't be working for free—the "minimum wage standard" in Miss Eden's eyes was clearly a 'tiny' bit different from the "minimum wage" in Himeko's!
In short, these soldiers and civilians, who initially had very low expectations and were basically forced to help by their highly respected commander, experienced a complete 180-degree change in attitude after enjoying the "minimum wage treatment" provided by "Eden."
Later on, Himeko hardly needed to force anyone; countless Australian soldiers and civilians rushed over one after another, eager to land this extremely cushy "safety net" job.
After all, Miss Eden was simply paying too much!
This kind of job—meals and lodging covered, doing some not-too-strenuous manual labor, easily earning wages equivalent to what we'd normally call a monthly ten-thousand or so—was the real deal.
You could move bricks without even counting pieces and still pull in over ten grand a month.
For anyone with a need for money, who could possibly resist?
So, paving the way with absolute wealth, Eden put on a real-world demonstration of "money makes the world go 'round."
In almost less than a month, the preparations for the concert were roughly seventy to eighty percent complete at an unimaginable speed.
Even large factories and companies of all kinds sprouted up across Australia like mushrooms after rain, riding the wave of Eden's concert and rapidly establishing themselves in the economically booming region.
Nearly all the local Australian soldiers and civilians involved in the concert construction work also earned substantial pay that could improve their livelihoods.
Even Himeko, the person in charge of the Australian branch, saw her own pockets begin to bulge a little for the first time in years.
After all, the residents living under the Australian branch were previously like the working poor whose wages didn't even meet tax thresholds.
So not only could Himeko not skim any profit from the area, most of the time she was actually using the already limited funds to subsidize it.
Now that she didn't have to subsidize the budget like before, she could finally fatten her own purse a bit~
And watching the Australian branch under her management develop in a positive direction also helped Himeko's own heart, which had grown increasingly shadowed due to malicious capitalist suppression, slowly change for the better.
One could say if Himeko could maintain the current situation in the simulation and successfully wait until the day the adorable little Seele came of age, then a Himeko who had completely lost her reason to turn dark would likely truly avoid her destined fate of becoming the Herrscher of Fire, and might even rise to become one of the most important wives to Lunelle in the simulation, second only to the great wife, Dark Seele.
But at this moment, Himeko remained completely unaware that a truly terrifying malice, enough to drive her utterly mad, was now about to come knocking!
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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.