Hearing the familiar footsteps behind her, Baiheng's body stiffened, like a cat whose Tail had been stepped on.
She slowly turned her head, saw Madam Herta's familiar figure, and immediately sprang to her feet like a coiled spring. Her hands were nervously clasped in front of her, her eyes darting around, and she carefully squeezed out a smile:
"Ma… Master… you… you're done with your business?"
Madam Herta: "…"
The corner of her mouth twitched imperceptibly.
She could clearly read several emotions in the fox-person maiden's azure eyes: intense curiosity, and… a trace of fear that, despite being diligently hidden, still lingered.
'She really misunderstood…'
Madam Herta pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
What in the world was going on!
She tried to make her tone sound gentler, explaining, "You're overthinking it."
However, the suspicion and fear in Baiheng's eyes did not diminish. Instead, Madam Herta's dry explanation seemed to make her even more certain of her suspicions.
(Inner thoughts: It's over, it's over, the Lady denied it! This usually means things are even more serious!)
Madam Herta looked at Baiheng's expression, which clearly said, "I understand, I understand everything, you don't need to explain," and felt a wave of powerlessness. 'This isn't something that can be explained in a few words…'
It seemed words were futile. Madam Herta decided to try a more direct approach.
She said no more and walked straight towards Baiheng.
Seeing Madam Herta approaching her, Baiheng's heart immediately leaped to her throat. She screamed internally: 'Here it comes, here it comes! It's my turn! Is she going to lock me up in that kind of place too? What should I do, what should I do?'
She subconsciously took half a step back, her body leaning slightly backward, in a stance ready to flee at any moment (though there was nowhere to flee).
Madam Herta took in Baiheng's obvious retreating movement, and the corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably again.
'…Are you serious with that half-step back? I'm hurt, you know!'
She suppressed the urge to retort, ignoring Baiheng's defensive behavior, and continued to walk in front of her with an expressionless face.
Seeing that there was no way to retreat, Baiheng despairingly closed her eyes. Her long, white eyelashes trembled violently from nervousness, and she shrank in on herself, as if waiting for the final judgment.
Madam Herta looked at the white Fox Girl in front of her, who was so scared she was almost curled into a ball. She felt both annoyed and amused, mixed with a touch of helplessness.
'Do I really look like a perverted abuser?'
She reached out her hand, not producing chains or doing anything terrifying as Baiheng had expected, but rather, with a comforting gesture, she placed it on Baiheng's fluffy, snow-white head.
"?!"
Baiheng suddenly opened her eyes, her azure eyes full of surprise.
Before she could react, a massive, filtered stream of information—mainly about Amphoreus, about the Golden Descendants, about Cyrene's connection with the Iron Tomb, about how those chains represented bound history and Remembrance rather than actual abuse—surged into her mind like a tide.
However, this information did not include anything about Stelle.
Baiheng instantly froze in place, her eyes losing focus. She entered a state of information overload-induced stupor, her small mouth slightly agape, looking a little Silly (silly).
Madam Herta withdrew her hand, no longer paying attention to Baiheng, who was standing still, processing the information. She turned and walked to the other side, elegantly floating down to sit, and once again summoned her black-purple system panel, beginning to browse other data, as if nothing had just happened.
Madam Herta's slender fingers rapidly slid across the black-purple system panel, browsing the gleaming names of the Golden Descendants, pondering who the next "persuasion" target should be.
Suddenly, her finger stopped on a name, and her movements instantly froze.
Her purplish-black eyes, which usually lacked highlights, widened slightly, and her elegant sitting posture even leaned forward slightly, indicating her inner turmoil.
She looked again with force—yes, it was those three characters!
"Wait…"
She pointed incredulously at the name on the panel, her tone filled with utter astonishment, "System, are you sure this is serious? I didn't misread it, did I? How… how is this guy here?"
On the panel, a completely different entity was prominently listed—Lygus.
[Responding to Madam Herta, the system confirms that this is a database entry for unit 'Lygus', authentic and valid. You may choose to attempt to summon this unit.]
Madam Herta's mouth twitched, feeling like she was about to lose her composure: "Is this a question of summoning or not? More accurately, is this even 'possible' to summon? Why is this guy also in the database?!"
Information about this "Genius Society's Chief" instantly flooded her mind: "Divine Rite Audience," walking the Path of knowledge, yet a ruthless individual who single-mindedly wished to create "Destruction" to eliminate his own creations!
The system panel scrolled up a brief introduction about Lygus at the opportune moment, which largely matched the information in Madam Herta's memory.
[…In summary, the unit's information is complete and meets the summoning conditions. Madam Herta, you may attempt to summon.]
"Summon him? Do I look like I'm tired of living?"
Madam Herta pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling utterly exhausted. "Only a Ghost would summon him! It's truly looking for trouble when there's nothing else to do!"
She didn't want to get involved with such a profound and scheming existence; just thinking about the potential chain reactions made her scalp tingle.
After decisively moving this dangerous name to the "permanently archived, never to be touched" list, Madam Herta shook her head, pulling her attention back to practical matters.
She remembered the previous discussion about Herta and a question arose in her mind.
"System, regarding 'Herta'… has she completely fallen, or…"
She chose her words carefully, "is she… still around in some form?"
[Insufficient permissions, unable to access this level of information.]
The system's answer was concise and direct.
Madam Herta was silent for a moment, not surprised by the result.
She simply shook her head, as if to cast away these complex problems: "Who cares, let's leave it at that."
The urgent matter at hand was to gather that damned 30% repair progress!
She was still 2% short of releasing Cyrene from the chains.
"System, besides the joy task of 'persuading' the Golden Descendants, are there any other ways to quickly get repair progress? Even a little bit would help!"
The panel flickered a few times and quickly presented a new task:
[Special Material Acquisition Task: Herta's 'Spare Parts']
[Task Requirement: Go to Herta Space Station and 'take' an idle Herta Puppet without triggering a large-scale alarm.]
[Task Reward: 2% Core Repair Progress.]
Madam Herta: "…"
The corner of her mouth twitched uncontrollably again.
What in the world was this?
The previous task was to make her "steal a person," and this one directly became "steal a puppet"?
'Forget it…'
She rubbed her temples. Although the task seemed absurd, 2% repair progress was real.
Weighing her options, she felt that compared to continuing to "persecute" the tearful Cyrene, going to the Space Station to steal a puppet seemed… a little less risky?
"Many lice don't itch, many debts don't worry. Let's do this task first, and let Cyrene below… also have a break."
Just as Madam Herta made up her mind and was about to plan how to infiltrate the Space Station to "borrow" a puppet, there was a rustling sound nearby.
She turned her head to see Baiheng finally recovering from the information overload.
But why did the fox-person maiden's gaze… become even stranger?