"Come on, open wide." Ana forked a piece of small cake and fed it into Shun's mouth. "Relax. For most people in this world, getting to meet His Grace the Bishop is a rare honor. It's normal to be nervous."
But baby, I'm not nervous because I worship him. My nervousness is completely different from a little fan's like yours.
But Ana wasn't Shun, so how could she understand Shun's feelings? To dispel his tension, she continued,
"When I first met His Grace, I was even more nervous than you are now. But His Grace is actually a very kind elder, even though he looks just like a young person."
Realizing her eloquence wasn't great, Ana stuck out her tongue, trying to gloss over it.
"It's fine, Ana. I'm really not nervous anymore." Shun was somewhat amused and exasperated. As an old Captain, it was normal to feel tense about meeting Otto, but not to the point of being unable to function.
At that moment, a somewhat familiar voice interrupted Shun's thoughts.
"Eh, it's Lady Ana. Long time no see." A voice as refreshing as spring breeze entered their little world.
It's you! Lumine! Oh wait, wrong game it's you, Schicksal's legendary flop queen, Rita (same Jp Va).
"Is it Ana? Long time no see." Another valiant and heroic voice reached their ears.
Good grief, this isn't running into both of them at once, is it? Shun already knew who the owners of the two voices coming from behind him were.
Ana, who was sitting in front of Shun, quickly stood up, waved toward his back, and said with pleasant surprise,
"Rita and Bianca, long time no see."
Yes, Ana and Bianca were friends that was already shown in the plot. But Shun hadn't known Ana also knew Rita.
Though it was probably just a nodding acquaintance. After all, in Ana's storyline, they hadn't held back when fighting each other.
While Shun was momentarily dazed, Durandal and Rita had already arrived at their table.
"Lady Ana, who is this gentleman? Aren't you going to introduce him to us?" Rita came up to them, habitually bowed, and said.
"I almost forgot this is my boy… um, fiancé, I guess. His name is Shun." Ana had almost said boyfriend but thought better of it. After all, their marriage had already been approved by His Grace the Bishop.
In the secular world, the power of Schicksal's Archbishop was limitless saying "his word is law" wasn't an exaggeration.
Clearly, both Rita and Bianca were very surprised. As people of the same age, they hadn't even dated (who dates when you're into girls?), yet Ana suddenly had a fiancé.
"Mr. Shun, hello. I am Lady Bianca's maid, Rita Rossweisse."
What do you mean subtle this is blatant! Shun calmly shook hands with Rita and said,
"Hello, Miss Rita."
"Hello, Mr. Shun. I am Bianca Durandal Ataegina. You can call me Bianca, just like Ana does. And don't listen to Rita she's just messing around. Rita is my friend; being a maid is just her hobby."
Hm, isn't this Miss Bianca Durandal Schariac Ataegina Kaslana? We didn't see so many people here.
Shun also shook hands with Durandal. Good grief, completely different from Rita's soft, boneless hand this was a real warrior. Just one touch felt powerful, the kind that could kill him with one punch.
To be honest, Shun's current real combat power was roughly a strengthened version of Rita, and Rita and Durandal were in a 1-9 split Durandal could stab nine holes in Rita in one second.
If Shun fought Durandal without the Cosmic Juggernaut right now, it'd probably be a 3-7 split at best three seconds for Durandal to land seven punches on him.
In the 14-year version, Durandal the stat monster was truly a dimensional suppression.
"Miss Bianca, I've long admired you."
Seeing that the three had more or less gotten acquainted, Ana joined the conversation and asked,
"I haven't asked yet what are you two doing here? Isn't Immortal Blades always super busy?"
As Schicksal's current face, the Immortal Blades squad was always extremely busy. As captain, Durandal was a workaholic. It was rare for the vice-captain and captain to both have free time to stroll around like this.
"We're not entirely sure either. Perhaps His Grace was in a good mood today and gave Lady Bianca and me a day off." Rita explained it this way.
Although Rita and Durandal didn't say it, Shun had more or less guessed the reason. With the current Honkai intensity not ramping up yet, and Honkai generally maintaining dynamic equilibrium worldwide,
After a Judgment-class Honkai Beast just appeared yesterday, it would probably be a long while before another major Honkai event.
But Shun didn't believe top-tier Schicksal personnel like Rita and Durandal didn't know the reason they were probably just being considerate of Ana.
Since they didn't mention it, Shun wouldn't bring it up either. Though the incident was over, the damage left in Ana's heart was real and probably wouldn't heal so easily.
"As for why Lady Bianca and I came here probably because Lady Bianca likes cats." Durandal's love for cats was pretty much common knowledge in Schicksal.
Durandal hadn't adopted Sünden yet, so she couldn't pet cats at home.
"That makes sense. After all, Bianca, you're the type who sees a stray cat on the roadside and wants to go pet it." Ana suddenly realized. Because they hadn't seen each other in so long, she'd forgotten Durandal was a hardcore cat addict.
"N-no, it's not that exaggerated." Durandal's old face turned red at being called out, and she turned her head away. Though she had zero resistance to cats, it wasn't that bad.
She still prioritized missions first during operations, okay.
But as soon as she turned her head, she spotted "Qi Cat" lying sideways on the table. The hardcore cat addict's inner self instantly awakened.
Durandal cautiously reached out to test. Fortunately, Qi Cat was the type that wasn't afraid of strangers. Under everyone's gaze, Durandal began mindlessly cat-sucking.
See? She really can't walk when she sees a cat. Seeing Durandal completely addicted, the other three started a new conversation at the table.
"I wonder what Lady Shun and Lady Ana plan to do next?"
"For us, we're probably heading back to the Schariac estate to meet my mom and dad. Actually, Shun hasn't met my parents yet."
"I see. Looks like Lady Ana really has a free-spirited heart chasing love." Rita was a bit surprised she hadn't expected a good girl like Ana to privately decide on a lifelong commitment.
But this was a misunderstanding of Ana. If it weren't for Shun's suggestion, Ana would probably still be in the ambiguous phase with him.
Shun felt that, as a man, he should step up and clarify at this point.
"Ahem, actually, I was the one who was too impatient…" Shun still had some self-awareness. After all, he'd skipped straight past dating and gone directly to marriage.
After that, they chatted about many things mostly Ana and Rita catching up. Looks like Shun's guess was wrong; the two of them actually had a pretty good relationship.
After finishing a cup of coffee, Rita dragged Durandal who was still clinging to Qi Cat and refusing to let go away. Catching up had its limits, and besides, Rita left an invitation for dinner at their place in a day.
The upcoming itinerary had already been hinted at during Ana's chat with Rita.
"Meeting the parents first time in two lifetimes." For some reason, at this moment, Shun felt even more nervous than when he learned he was going to meet Otto.