Because of his proficiency in a particular sport, Welt suffered a serious injury, but aside from the damage to his body caused by the Herrscher of Reason's core, he was otherwise unharmed.
He took the time to meet Bronya, the girl Einstein had said would become his future heir.
The initial impression was favorable, but further observation was needed to determine the specifics.
Although Yang trusted Einstein's words, he knew he must exercise caution when it came to the inheritance of the Herrscher of Reason's power.
As for Wendy's future plans, she would naturally remain with Anti-Entropy. Einstein and Tesla would conduct further treatment and research on her.
The goal was to cure Wendy's legs while also allowing her to control the power of the Gem of Desire, thus providing them with additional support—Herrscher-level combat power.
Mei handed the Wind Scroll to Einstein, which made her raise an eyebrow.
According to the original plan, Mei was supposed to study the Wind Stigmata within it first, perfecting and strengthening the missing Hannah Stigmata before it could be put to use.
And now…
After carefully counting the days since leaving the Q&A Space, Einstein was stunned and asked, "Have you figured out anything yet?"
"Hmm," Mei nodded noncommittally. Then, meeting the curious gaze, she glanced at the scroll and curled her lips. "That stigmata is quite powerful."
"But perhaps because it's a Herrscher's Stigmata, it barely has the ability to enhance the Brander's Honkai Impact resistance."
"I learned from that Tai before... I extracted a portion of the Stigmata of Les, supplemented the missing portion, and then, drawing upon the power within, amplified Hannah's stigmata."
Mei had mentioned the existence of Hannah's stigmata during their casual conversation, so Einstein could understand.
However...
"Completing the stigmata... and amplifying the original..."
Although not particularly involved in biotechnology, Einstein could already imagine the sheer scale of this operation from the records of stigmata left from previous eras.
To achieve such results in such a short period of time, even Mei, who had previously claimed she wasn't skilled in biotechnology, couldn't help but exclaim in admiration:
"You truly are a genius!"
"You're too kind!"
Mei was unworthy of the title of genius. I don't deserve it. After all, I've only gotten this far thanks to these glasses. Without them, I'd probably only be able to cook.
Without any sense of self-preservation, Mei mercilessly criticized herself for only being able to cook.
She's become so adept at this task lately. If she hadn't clearly understood that there was nothing wrong with her, Mei would have thought she was going schizophrenic.
Before getting glasses, I despised how boring they made me feel, but I had to wear them because studying made me happy.
After getting them, I became quite disgusted with myself, the one who was usually good at cooking and spent the rest of my time playing games with Kiana.
Mei herself couldn't understand why. We were the same person, with no difference in our thoughts or memories. Wearing and removing glasses creates two completely different looks, and they dislike each other.
Mei remembered something and casually said,
"Oh, by the way, I extracted some data about the Herrscher of Wind from this stigmata. I think it might be helpful for my future research on Wendy."
That's not surprising. After all, the core function of stigmata is to engrave information. Since it's the Herrscher of Wind, it's not surprising that it contains some information about the Herrscher of Wind.
Einstein, unsurprised by this, glanced at the file containing the Herrscher of Wind stigmata that Mei had sent on his personal terminal.
"This..." Einstein's expression froze as he saw what looked like a string of measurements.
Mei immediately understood what was going on and couldn't help but laugh.
When he saw this thing, he also... was completely stumped. He was wondering what the Herrscher of Wind had carved into the stigmata.
Besides the measurements of the grass, the rest of the information was quite useful.
"We'll take our time later. Wendy's in your care, Dr. Einstein."
They'd been here for quite some time. Although Fu Hua was there to protect St. Freya's Academy, their absence wouldn't be noticed.
But to be on the safe side, it was better to return early.
Mei said goodbye to Raiden Ryoma.
Kiana said goodbye to Siegfried.
Bronya said goodbye to Wendy.
...the two of them were tearful, reluctant to part. It was a good thing Seele was still in the Quantum Sea, otherwise she'd burst into tears after seeing this.
Under Anti-Entropy's arrangement, they boarded a small aircraft. The St. Freya Academy personnel were quietly sent back.
…
Information regarding the recent Anti-Entropy invasion of the Oceania branch and the abduction of Wendy, the Gem of Desire experiment subject, was compiled into a report and presented to Otto's desk.
The unfolded page showed that he had already flipped through it.
"Going to such great lengths for a single Gem of Desire isn't typical of those guys."
A super-sized Titan, several Titan units, and the First Herrscher.
Mobilizing so many forces just to steal a single Gem of Desire—Otto couldn't believe there was no nonsense involved.
As the core of a Herrscher, the Gem of Desire was indeed extremely valuable.
But it was in the hands of Schicksal.
Going to such great lengths to snatch this object from Schicksal's hands wasn't impossible, but it was... it was somewhat unwise.
Those Anti-Entropy rats couldn't possibly be unaware of the consequences of provoking Schicksal.
Otto glanced at the photo of Theresa and himself on the table.
He didn't believe there was anything fishy going on between his granddaughter's impulsive greeting and the Anti-Entropy invasion.
Of course, it was also possible that Theresa's greeting was a ploy, intended to trick him into suspecting her.
Otto could probably guess that this was definitely related to his lovely granddaughter.
But he felt that this distraction and frame-up was orchestrated by Anti-Entropy.
Although it was a bit superficial, Anti-Entropy's presence could still hint at some kind of calculation.
And if Theresa were to come... wouldn't that be a complete cover-up?
"It's not a good thing if the rats run rampant."
Without further thought, Otto raised his brow and made a decision.
Since Anti-Entropy was so reckless, even if it was simply to maintain the dignity of Schicksal, he had to keep those Anti-Entropy rats in check, otherwise Schicksal's reputation would completely shatter.