"I'm going to find Kiana with you right now!!!"
Inside World Serpent's underground base, a certain female soprano from St. Freya Academy was piercing everyone's eardrums.
The World Serpent cadres, led by Imhotep, covered their ears with their fingers, looking as if they couldn't hear anything she was saying, which made the Third Herrscher furious.
"You bunch of jerks!!! I'm going with you to Nagazora City right now!!! Do you understand?!"
Furious at being blatantly ignored, Raiden Mei grabbed Cioara by the collar and shook her violently, causing her chest to bounce wildly.
Not long ago, Gray Serpent had brought news of Kiana's appearance in Nagazora City. And in response, besides Raven Cioara, who was heading to the Nest in Nagazora City to care for and resupply the children, there was also Miss Third Herrscher, who was about to enter the Elysian Realm for training.
"Boss?!"
Grabbed by Raiden Mei and continuously subjected to the latter's sonic attacks while acting as World Serpent's tank, Cioara had never encountered such a situation. She immediately drowned out the noise with an even louder voice, calling out to Imhotep.
"What are you looking for Kiana for now... are you going to cause her trouble?!"
Looking at the two women beside her, whose voices were getting louder and louder, Imhotep's face twisted into a grimace...
"I... I just want to see her!"
Knowing full well that she had little ground to stand on, and might even skip a certain Trial of the Heresy World, Raiden Mei's voice didn't yield in the slightest, perfectly demonstrating the classic argument that whoever shouts louder is in the right.
"So? What after seeing her—I just look but don't go in?"
However, Imhotep, sitting at the center, was not buying any of it. The young woman kept her head down, reviewing the plan's progress report sent by Jackal, and nodded in satisfaction.
"Gray Serpent, tell Jackal to keep proceeding at this current pace..."
The masked man nodded and fled the scene.
"Why did you suddenly stop talking? After you see Kiana... what do you want to do?"
Imhotep, who had been buried in modifying the documents, finally looked up after receiving no response from Raiden Mei for a long time.
"..."
"Say something!"
The white-haired girl impatiently tapped the desk in front of her with the ballpoint pen in her hand.
"You want to see but not go in, right?!"
"Yes, I just want to see but not go in!"
Before Imhotep's words had even finished falling, Raiden Mei's response drifted over, taking the bait and running with it...
"????"
A stunned Imhotep looked at Raiden Mei in front of her and asked the question from her very soul:
"When you said that... did you believe it yourself?"
"Of course I don't believe it—"
The extremely straightforward reply exceeded everyone's original expectations on the field...
"...So you—?!"
"But just because I don't believe it doesn't mean you can't!"
"What kind of rogue logic is that?!"
Cioara, being held by her collar by Raiden Mei, stared at the Herrscher of Thunder with a face full of question marks.
"You two! This month, World Serpent's budget has only two paths: one is everyone eats and drinks well, and nothing happens!"
"The other is the entire base's circuitry and equipment short-circuiting for maintenance! Everyone here will have to eat the wind for the rest of the month!"
"..."
"Is that all? Then tear the house down!"
Imhotep wore a contemptuous expression, shrugging her shoulders with indifference.
"Remember to go grind for points in the Realm after you're done tearing it down."
She then lowered her head and continued to be lost in her approval documents... until Owl, who seemed to have thought of something, nudged her with her elbow...
"Lord... our budget for this month is hardly generous... it's even a bit tight."
"What about the huge sum of money transferred from Swiss Bank a few months ago?"
Imhotep, who had little concept of the organization's property expenditures and income, raised her eyebrows and glared at Owl for reminding her.
"Um... Lord, the 'Divine Blood' reagent project you had Jackal implement globally... the funds spent on it were no small amount..."
"Although the results were excellent... the rate at which it burned through money can only be described as literally 'burning' money."
Owl wiped away cold sweat, looked down at Raiden Mei, who wore a triumphant expression, and then turned to look at Imhotep, whose expression was unreadable. He began to silently pray that World Serpent's activity funds for this month would survive.
"Tsk, there won't be a next time, Raiden Mei."
Imhotep pursed her lips but finally gave a nod... However, before the Third Herrscher could even show a victorious smile, the former also threw a certain kind of trouble her way...
"But, you'll have to explain it to Mr. Su and Miss Murata Himeko yourself. Those two are the true Guides and companions for your Trial this time."
"The two of them are probably ready now."
Sitting behind the desk, Imhotep wore an expression that said You're still too green to fight me, ignoring the shocked Raiden Mei below.
"Teacher Himeko?! Why is she in your World Serpent base?"
-
"Hey, hey, hey! Let's go! So what if I flaked on those two for a few days? They're both pretty easy to talk to, just explain it clearly and it'll be fine... Also, when are you going to let go of me?! I still need to prepare supplies and gifts for the kids!"
Cioara tapped Raiden Mei's hand that was grabbing her, signaling for her to hurry up and let go so she wouldn't delay her important business.
"Ah... okay—no, wait! Himeko, she's..."
"What's that red-haired, alcoholic, older single woman?"
Cioara, who had just returned to her feet and was smoothing out her clothes, subconsciously asked in response to Raiden Mei's muttering.
"Himeko is my teacher???"
"Oh—then good luck to you. Just tell her in class that you skipped because you were going to look for a girlfriend... Anyway, just figure it out yourself!"
"Also, the transport plane is at one o'clock this afternoon, so there's about an hour left. You'd better hurry up and convince your teacher to give you a leave slip to go out and flirt with girls—"
Cioara waved to Mei, who stood there in a daze, and then vanished around a corner in the hall... leaving Miss Third Herrscher alone with her conflicted thoughts.
"Whatever... I just hope Mr. Su is an easy person to talk to... As for Teacher Himeko—bringing up Kiana should make it easy to get through, right? After all, Teacher has always cared about Kiana... probably?"
Having made her decision, Raiden Mei headed toward the Elysian Realm, intending to greet the two people Imhotep had mentioned...