"Ugh..."
Hearing Herta's words, Lumina's movements immediately stiffened, and a hint of regret surfaced in her heart.
It wasn't that she regretted quitting the game in Version 3.0 and missing out on pulling The Herta. She simply regretted why she had to open the Archive's character interface.
If she had just opened the character interface directly without going through the Archive, Herta wouldn't have discovered "The Herta" as a character.
Naturally, she wouldn't have expressed such a doubt.
"Hmm... You wouldn't happen to not have her, would you?" Her tone was extremely calm, showing no trace of any ripple over this matter.
Herta was no fool. After a simple observation, she had reached this conclusion.
This was a game. Since it was a game, it definitely had a core gameplay mechanic.
Some of the characters Lumina had were lit up, while others were not. This was very obvious. It was clearly a matter of having the character or not having them.
Obviously, the lit-up characters were those she possessed, and the unlit characters were those she didn't.
Herta didn't care whether Lumina had the other characters or not. All she cared about was why Lumina didn't have "The Herta."
This was a game. Since it was a game, it definitely had a top-up system.
Lumina wasn't short on money.
In that case, why did she, while possessing most of the characters, still not spend money to pull this character named "The Herta"?
Is she targeting me?
Although Aglaea and Tribbie were also missing, Herta didn't care about that.
Herta only knew that Lumina didn't have "The Herta." She was targeting her, ostracizing her, and bullying her!
Herta swore she would get an explanation from Lumina, otherwise... otherwise Herta would take advantage of Lumina sleeping at night to launch a surprise attack, making it impossible for her to even get out of bed the next day!
Herta's heart was filled with another surge of bravado.
But Lumina obviously didn't know Herta's thoughts at this moment. Hearing her words, Lumina shrugged: "This is a gacha game. Each character enters the gacha for a limited time. If you miss it, you can only wait a hundred or two hundred days for a rerun."
"Unfortunately, I had quit the game at that time, so I didn't pull The Herta."
Sincerity is the ultimate weapon, and Lumina understood this truth all too well.
Although Lumina had ten thousand ways to deceive Herta, a "newbie" who had never played the game Honkai: Star Rail.
And she could even make Herta believe her lies without question.
After all, there was absolutely no legitimate way to download this game.
At least in the entire Galaxy, the only way to download this game was to find Lumina.
"Dead men tell no tales," the perfect environment for a scam.
But after thinking it over, Lumina still dismissed this idea.
It was too much effort.
What was her relationship with Herta now? Why would she need to resort to deception to improve their intimacy?
If Herta were any other beautiful girl, Lumina would have truly deceived her mercilessly.
But for Herta, she'd let it go.
"Just a coincidence? You happened to miss my gacha banner?"
Herta was currently too lazy to dwell on why her image appeared in a game.
She felt extremely distrustful of Lumina's words.
Just happened to miss my gacha banner? This "just happened" was simply too coincidental!
Do I look like that pink-haired girl from the Astral Express to you?
Do you think I'm that easy to fool?
Herta completely rejected Lumina's explanation.
"Uh..." Lumina felt a wave of frustration from Herta and couldn't help but sigh.
These days, no one ever believes the truth.
You have to deceive them, lie, and say what they want to hear to get them to believe you.
Simply put, she wasn't looking for the real answer.
She was looking for the answer she wanted to hear, one that would make her happy.
"This is really how it happened. Although I enjoy messing with people, I've never actually lied," Lumina smiled helplessly, refusing to give in to Herta's desire for a satisfying answer and sticking to the truth.
If I just said what she wanted to hear, I'd be losing my pride as the great Lumina!
She huffed a silent, tsundere protest in her mind.
Without another word, she returned to the game and continued controlling her character through the story.
To be honest, this story was seriously long.
Lumina's progress in the game's story had only just reached Okhema.
"...Then remember to pull for me later." Seeing that Lumina was ignoring her, a nameless fire ignited in Herta's heart.
Though there were already countless such nameless fires burning within Herta...
Normally, a nameless fire should be released the moment it is born.
But, but this nameless fire in Herta was born because of Lumina.
And as for Lumina... Herta had no way to release this nameless fire on her.
Although she could see, and occasionally catch glimpses of the "fan service" Lumina's body emitted.
These "fan services" might whet her appetite, but they certainly couldn't extinguish the fire.
Did Madam Herta look like the kind of person who would be satisfied just by looking?
Hmm...
Thinking about this, Herta's mind immediately fell into a state of contemplation.
Then she looked at Lumina's jade feet now exposed to the air, and the contours drawn by her clothes clinging to her body as she lay on the sofa.
Hmm... Indeed, that was the case.
Herta's face flushed red as she quickly averted her gaze, tacitly admitting she was someone who could be satisfied just by looking.
But satisfaction was one thing, and extinguishing the fire was another.
Satisfaction did not equal extinguishing the fire.
To extinguish the flames born in her heart because of Lumina, she had to solve it on Lumina's body.
To put it in simpler terms, she needed to reach out and touch Lumina's body, bullying her thoroughly, before the nameless fires in her heart could disperse.
This was what was meant by bullying, bullying in the truest sense.
A complete, thorough bullying from start to finish.
If she only bullied her at the beginning, or stopped halfway through, not only would she fail to extinguish the nameless fires in her heart, but they would instead burn even more fiercely...
"Hah..."
Taking a deep breath, she suppressed all the thoughts born from Lumina's actions.
Herta slowly sat down beside Lumina.
The sofa was large, and even with Lumina lying flat on it, she couldn't occupy all the space.
Just enough room was left for Herta to sit down, and it wasn't crowded at all, nor did their bodies touch, which left Herta feeling somewhat disappointed.
"What are you disappointed about?"
Sensing the aura emanating from Herta as she sat beside her, Lumina could clearly perceive her slight disappointment.
Lumina teased Herta while playing through the story.
How could Lumina not know why Herta felt disappointed?
Trying to take advantage of me?
You can keep dreaming.
"I'm disappointed that you're so focused on a game that you're ignoring a beautiful girl like me," Herta's voice carried a hint of slight resentment.
It was like the emotion a wife would feel when temporarily abandoned by her husband.
A husband abandoning his wife to go fishing, play games, or hang out with his buddies... it was exactly that kind of feeling.
If it were Castorice or Hyacine, Lumina probably wouldn't have just left them aside and played the game by herself, right?
Herta couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
She had no idea what she had done to upset Lumina, making her treat her with a completely different attitude compared to the other beautiful girls...
Although being treated specially and distinctly from the other beautiful girls still made Herta quite happy.
But if it was something negative, then she'd rather not.
Herta would rather be treated the same as the other beautiful girls than be singled out by Lumina for exclusion.
At this moment, under Lumina's "cold violence," Herta was already considering the idea of compromising.
After all, the other beautiful girls were treated the same, so she wouldn't be losing out in any way.
Besides, Herta was completely different from Castorice, Hyacine, and the others.
She was an Emanator, so there would be no such thing as never seeing Lumina again for the rest of her life after Lumina left.
If Herta wanted to find Lumina, she could just take a starship to find her.
So even if she enjoyed the same treatment as the other beautiful girls, Herta was naturally one step above them!
She could be cuddled by Lumina, and she could also go cuddle Lumina.
This was something others simply couldn't do.
In addition, she had nothing to do besides her research, so as long as Lumina agreed, she could stay by Lumina's side all the time.
And as for this so-called research...
Research, naturally, there is research.
[On How Aeons Are Born]
This is the topic Herta is currently researching!
And without a doubt, the protagonist of this topic is none other than Lumina.
"It's not that I want to stay by Lumina's side all the time, but in order to complete this topic, I must stay by Lumina's side for observation."
Herta gave herself a "pep talk" in her mind, and in just a few seconds, she successfully convinced herself.
Lumina: "?"
Although Lumina didn't know exactly what Herta was thinking, she could still sense her change.
Right now, Herta was acting like... well, like a wife who discovered her husband was having an affair outside, but was forced by circumstances to eventually accept this other woman.
However, even if she accepted it, she still held the suppressing power of a wife dealing with a mistress.
Well... this was just an analogy from Lumina.
She had seen a news story in a short video, and the protagonist of that news was quite similar to Herta's current mood, which is why Lumina developed such an idea about Herta.
As for whether it was actually true, Lumina felt it should be false.
This is Madam Herta, after all. Madam Herta!
How could she ever fall to such a state?
Impossible, impossible, no matter how she thought about it, it was impossible!
With a responsive reply, Lumina said nothing more and continued going through the story on her phone.