Chapter 7: Just a Mere Ordinary Person
"Achoo!"
In the resting area of the training grounds, the pink-haired girl wearing a tight training vest suddenly sneezed.
She had the feeling that someone was talking about her.
Not far away, Ato, with a slightly bruised left eye and bandages wrapped around his body, couldn't help but complain:
"You really hit hard, Elysia."
It was obvious that the injuries he had were the handiwork of Elysia, or rather, Jiang Qiao.
According to the examination results he got from the doctor, apart from some bruises, his ribs had nearly broken.
"Ah... haha, I didn't hold back."
Feeling the resentful gaze on him, Jiang Qiao smiled awkwardly.
It had been years since he last fought, and the skills he had learned before were a bit rusty. Plus, Elysia's physical ability was terrifying, which was why he had trouble controlling his strength.
Ato sighed, and then asked strangely:
"Well, it's my own fault for challenging you. But, Elysia, your fighting style today was quite different from before."
He had fought with Elysia before, and even in close-quarters combat, her fighting style was mostly focused on entanglement and dodging. She was like a nimble fairy, hard to catch.
But today, Elysia's fighting style was a little… aggressive. It was the kind where she went all out on the offensive. This made Ato suspect if there was some special occasion he had missed.
Jiang Qiao was a bit embarrassed. How could he know how Elysia fought?
He was already lucky to have been able to defeat Ato relying on his old training and Elysia's strong physique.
"Hmm… I'm trying out a new fighting style?"
Fortunately, Ato seemed to believe the excuse and nodded, commenting:
"A new fighting style, huh? Impressive. No wonder you're the fastest-progressing newcomer in the organization."
After all, with the Shenzhou martial arts demonstration as a backup, trying out a new fighting style fit Elysia's character.
"Teach me sometime. It looks really cool. I've only seen Shenzhou martial arts in documentaries."
"Yeah, some other time."
Jiang Qiao casually agreed, not really paying any mind to it.
The two quickly separated, and he started to pay attention to the chat group in his mind.
Jiang Qiao: How's it going?
Elysia: Ehe~ I'm already inside Raiden Mei's house~
Seeing the reply, Jiang Qiao sighed in relief.
It seemed like they were still on time.
However, the Elysian Realm lesbians were truly something else. How long had it been, and she had already infiltrated the cook's home?
—Although, in fact, it was true, Elysia's method of infiltrating the cook's house was quite different from what Jiang Qiao had imagined.
The Raiden Residence.
Although most of the Raiden family's assets had been frozen due to Raiden Ryoma's imprisonment, at least Mei's house was still fine.
However, there was only her left in the vast house.
Of course, now there was a strange man too.
Several plates of home-style dishes with a Far East flavor were laid out on the dining table. They looked quite appetizing.
"Wow~ I didn't expect Mei to be so beautiful and such a good cook~ I can't wait to dig in~"
The hungry Elysia's eyes lit up as she looked at the dishes, but with Jiang Qiao's appearance, it looked somewhat strange.
However, the moment Elysia put a spoonful of bell pepper curry in her mouth, her expression froze.
It was so salty!
"What's wrong? Is the taste off?"
Seeing this reaction, Mei looked puzzled, and also tried a spoonful herself, and then fell into silence.
She lowered her head apologetically:
"Sorry, I'm not very good at cooking. I messed up the seasoning."
"Uh… no, it's delicious, I like my food salty!"
Seeing Raiden Mei's downcast mood, Elysia quickly comforted her and began to eat with gusto.
—The result was that she drank a lot of water afterward.
She also expressed her dissatisfaction in the chat group.
Elysia: You lied, Mei can't cook at all!
When they were talking about Raiden Mei earlier, Jiang Qiao mentioned that Raiden Mei's cooking was very good. The fairy had been very excited to try the dishes made by Mei.
But, she had been cruelly deceived.
Jiang Qiao: ?
Seeing this line, Jiang Qiao's mind was filled with question marks.
You probably encountered a fake cook. Do you know where her nickname comes from? Even the self-reliant white-haired girl has been turned into someone who can't live without her!
Wait—
Jiang Qiao suddenly remembered something.
It seemed that the cook's cooking skills weren't very good in the beginning. After all, with her privileged background, she had no need to cook herself. She could cook thanks to the Far East region's domestic science classes, but it was definitely not something you would call "good".
Her rapid improvement in cooking skills seemed to have begun after she started taking care of that Tuna.
A small detail caused Elysia to suffer a wave of unnecessary hardship.
Luckily, she didn't really mind it. After all, the pink fatty was quite easy to take care of.
The Elysia who had traveled around the world in her childhood could handle food with high alkali content without a problem!
"Glug, glug…"
After drinking a bellyful of water, Elysia put down her glass, looking refreshed. "Ah, I'm alive again~"
The feeling of being full was so great!
"Now then, it's time to talk about business!"
Facing Elysia's serious face, Mei suddenly felt a little nervous.
…
Masssive Electric—or ME Corp for short. On the surface, this was a leading electronic and mechanical enterprise led by Raiden Ryoma. But in reality, it hid a secret.
Behind it was Anti-Entropy, one of the two major organizations in the world that fought against the Honkai.
And beneath the ME Corp building was a massive mechanical factory, which was also a secret base.
However, the control of the base had changed hands with the imprisonment of ME Corp's president, Raiden Ryoma.
Standing in front of the display screen, the blonde woman in military uniform was none other than the culprit behind the Third Honkai Eruption—Cocolia, the executor of Anti-Entropy.
In front of her, the huge display screen showed the live situation of various areas in Nagazora City, along with a lot of data.
To achieve project-MEI, Cocolia needed to spread Honkai energy throughout Nagazora City. But to prevent the moderate faction of Anti-Entropy, or even Schicksal from noticing, this process had to be done slowly, over a long period of time.
Currently, the Honkai energy that had been spread had reached 37% of the planned amount. It was estimated that it would take another half a month to reach the critical point for triggering a Honkai eruption.
A girl with silver hair, trademark Roman curls, and a height of less than five feet, with these distinct features, came behind Cocolia and reported emotionlessly:
"Mother, there's a suspicious person near the subject."
"Who is it?"
Cocolia asked casually, her eyes fixed on the screen.
"Seems to be an ordinary person, with very low assessed threat level."
"An ordinary person, huh… Don't pay it any mind."
She sneered.
She had almost thought that the two idiots from the doves faction or even Schicksal had found out something. That would have made things very troublesome.
But since it was just an ordinary person, there was nothing to worry about.
Could some mere ordinary person possibly interfere with her plans?
"Bronya, just handle these small things yourself. You don't need to tell me."
"…Understood."