When I woke up again, I was back in the Fire-Moth headquarters, lying on an infirmary bed. Looking around, the first thing I noticed was the person sitting beside me, or, to be more precise, sleeping while holding my hand. It was the girl whom I saved from the flames in the opera, someone whose name I don't even know.
My movement must have stirred her awake, as she raised her head, looking somewhat adorable in her dazed state. A moment later, she collected herself and noticed me.
-"Dr. Eno. You are finally awake."
-"Yes. You are?"
-"Sorry. I'm Hua. You might not remember, but you saved me back in Nagazora and in Australia."
-"You are that girl with a broken arm?"-I was surprised.
-"Yes, that was me."-She confirmed, though I could see that she was somewhat ashamed of being remembered like that.
-"Why are you here, Miss Hua?"
-"Please just call me Hua. I'm here because I was appointed as your guard and assistant."
-"Guard? Isn't that Sakura's role?"
-"Miss Sakura was punished for her negligence leading to your collapse. She was relieved of her duty as your guard, and instead was ordered to take command of a special unit under Dr. Mei's arrangement."
-"I see. Please take care of me, Hua."
-"That's my duty."-She smiled as she said that.
-"Can you tell me how long I was out?"
-"Dr. Eno was unconscious for five days. Dr. Su said it was due to exhaustion and blood loss, prescribing some medicine and enough rest to fully recover."
-"I see. When can I be discharged?"
-"On orders of Dr. Mei, only she can allow that, so Dr. Eno will have to stay here for a while longer."
-"Sigh, so be it. Can you tell me what happened to Misteln?"
-"Miss Misteln is healthy and safe; she is now accompanying Griseo."
-"What about Aponia and Kalpas?"
-"Miss Aponia was brought to the Deepest Place; her punishment isn't yet decided. As for Mr. Kalpas, he was at first only kept under observation, but after attacking a guard, he also ended up in the Deepest Place."
-"That was to be expected."
-"Oh, I was to tell Dr. Eno that everyone worries about you, so you should reflect on yourself properly."
-"Right, I get it."-I lay back, closing my eyes to rest.
When I woke up next time, Eden and Mei were talking quietly nearby. Noticing me wake up, they turned their attention to me.
-"Eno, how are you?"
-"Good. I just hope to get back to work."
-"Heh, dream on."-Mei rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.-"Stay here for at least two more days. I already know what you did, so don't even think of escaping."
-"She is right, my dear. Get some rest while you can."-Eden looked at me with worry.
-"I understand. Just give me something to not bore myself here."
-"Sure. Here, those are detailed reports about my latest experiments involving Imaginary Energy. Mobius also did a checkup on that girl, Misteln; those are the details. I guess your Project Divine Blood can be considered half done."
-"Yes. With all that I now know, it should be possible to create a lineage possessing my diluted blood."
-"I'm afraid that this plan won't have enough time to come to fruition."
-"I'm aware, but I'm creating it just in case."
-"A legacy?"-Mei nodded as if agreeing with my approach.-"Indeed, we should prepare some plans for such a situation."
-"Ehem."-Eden interrupted us.-"No work here."
-"Right. There are two more issues that I wanted to bring to your attention. First is that the Honkai concentration is rising globally. The second is that in two weeks there will be a party for the Fire-Moth, and I hope you can be present there."
-"Party?"
-"Elysia insisted, but we also believe that we need some relaxing and team-building activities."
-"I'll be there."-I agreed, as I had nothing against it.-"As for Honkai concentration, we can't do much about it."
-"That's what worries me. If the current trend continues, in five years only those with High Resistance or above will be able to live."
-"So that's our deadline?"
-"No more than 5% of the population possesses such resistance, so yes, this is the deadline for this civilization's survival."-Mei nodded with a grave expression.-"Prometheus made some predictions, and assuming our current understanding of Honkai is not too far from the truth, we should expect twelve Herrschers in total, meaning…"
-"Five more to go."
-"We are halfway done."-Eden tried to lighten the atmosphere.
-"The question that remains: what is after that? Will Honkai disappear, or is it just a pause, a brief peace?"
-"Here, I finally have good news. We can confirm with almost full certainty that the Honkai will disappear for a long time after that: tens of thousands of years. We only need to survive those five years."
-"That's good indeed."-I smiled at that.
-"Ok, you rest, and I'll see you later."-Mei waved and left the room.
-"I'll also be going. Take care of yourself."-Eden leaned in and kissed me briefly before leaving as well.
The next week I spent in bed, talking with Hua or reading what I could to pass the time. Everyone would visit me regularly; even Kevin came and apologized for his attitude, my actions impressing him enough to earn his respect. At first I thought I would be bored out of my mind, but the more I talked with Hua, the more I found myself surprised by the hidden gem she was.
While admittedly she wasn't a genius in science or a warrior without equal like Kevin or Sakura, she possesses talent in martial arts and Honkai control, giving her a unique perspective on Honkai Energy. She had already adapted her martial style to include Honkai, causing her attacks to be much stronger than those of other people; she also came up with an idea for controlling the internal Honkai energy in a way that could increase its strength.
While sounding slightly suicidal, it was a blind spot that offered many possibilities for development. So while I was lying in bed, I would discuss this 'internal cultivation' with her, combining her talent and experience with my scientific knowledge and mastery of my own martial arts.
In a week, we developed a basic concept and presented it to Mei, who scolded us for not resting properly but agreed that it had great potential and allocated more resources to develop it. And so, when I was finally let out of the infirmary, I dragged Hua to my lab where we got to work.
Before I even noticed how much time had passed, I was the one being dragged from my lab by Elysia and Eden, both wanting to prep me for a party. So I became a living clothes hanger, trying everything from classic suits to some culture-specific outfits such as zhupans, kimonos, or jodhpuri. For some reason, I was even handed a toga.
In the end, my patience finally snapped, and I forced Eden to prepare an outfit from my memory, but as Lateran formal wear was not exactly appropriate for the occasion, I decided to settle on a military royal uniform my Knights would wear off duty, male version, of course. Eden liked this design so much that she quickly prepared it and even chose her own dress to match my outfit.
This was why two of us entered the party arm in arm, looking like a knight escorting a princess, or rather a queen, as Eden exuded an aura of charm and maturity. As for Elysia, she chose a pink maid dress, looking both cute and beautiful, though she decided to add fun by role-playing a real maid for Eden and me, and even learned some maid etiquette, which resulted in me getting many envious gazes, mostly from Elysia's cult.
On that subject, the Church of Elysia was something I was aware of for some time, but lately, I was starting to get worried as its followers started to get a little too fanatical. I even warned Elysia about it, but she told me that they were good children and she'd take care of everything. Since then, they had indeed calmed down somewhat, but I started hearing about another cult that appeared not long ago, celebrating some kind of Saint, but just because of that title, I decided to keep far away from it.
-"Eno."-Kevin's voice brought me back to reality.
-"Kevin. Happy birthday."-I greeted him back.
His birthday was the official reason for this party; as he was the Hero of Fire-Moth, this was indeed good cause to gather and celebrate.
-"Thank you."-He nodded, though his face didn't show any emotion.-"Can you spare me a moment?"
-"I'll go and greet everyone; take your time, Eno."-Eden let me go and stepped away.
-"Let's go."-I nodded to Kevin, who took me to a side of the room.-"What's the matter?"
-"It's about Mei. I want to know if she can also become MANTIS."
-"Theoretically, it is possible, but the chances are too low due to her comparatively low Honkai Resistance. If we were to choose this path, she has at most a 10% chance of survival."-I shook my head.
-"I see. Then…"-His eyes visibly dimmed.
-"There are other ways to prolong her life and give her better Resistance to Honkai, but most are even more dangerous. If I were forced to make a decision now, her becoming a Stigmata to live in another form would be the most appropriate method at the moment. That's why we need to approach this subject calmly and try to find a better approach."
-"Eno, I hope you won't let her down."
-"I don't have a habit of disappointing those close to me."
-"I'll leave her in your hands."
I nodded and watched him walk away, a little conflicted about this pure young man. But his words were right; everyone around me was already a MANTIS or scheduled to become one, while I myself was immortal, so only Mei was left as a 'normal' human.
The problem was that the universe decided to be balanced for once and made Mei a generational genius, but caused her constitution to be rather poor. Any method we invented couldn't be applied to her for this reason, making not only me and Kevin, but even Mobius worry for her.
But a party wasn't a place to worry about that; as such, I returned to Eden's side to mingle with other party guests. As everyone here was at least acquainted with each other, the whole party was rather relaxed, not like those boring political fundraisers or aristocratic meetings; even I had found it quite pleasant. And as this was a party, it quickly arrived at one of the most important parts of the evening: dancing.
I was here with Eden as my partner; I invited her for a first dance, utilizing all those etiquette lessons I was forced to attend since I could remember back in Laterano. Eden was even more well-trained and natural in her dance, so we, without noticing, became the center of attention, with many others treating our dance as if it were Eden's performance.
We danced together for three songs before Eden appeared a little tired, so I took her off the stage, where I was instantly surrounded by Mei, Mobius, and Sakura. Even though neither Mei nor Mobius were fans of dancing, the latter didn't even want to appear at all, but she appeared here after hearing that I was taken here by Eden; they demanded my fairness, so for the next hour I danced with not only them but also Hua, Vill-V, and many others.
It was only when the time for cake and presents arrived that I was finally allowed to step away from the dance floor. Everyone handed Kevin their gifts, and I was no different. At first, I was troubled about what to gift him, but I finally settled on gifting him some self-made sweets, so I prepared the cake that we were about to cut.
As it needed to be big enough for everyone, I approached it as if I were making a cake for Sankta's party, meaning it was at least twice the size of a standard party cake for such an occasion as a wedding. It was sweet, this time not the Sankta standard sweet but a normal sweet, but still, it was sweet; sweet enough that even Kevin's frozen taste buds could feel it, while not being sickeningly sweet and overpowering more subtle tastes.
One could say I used all my Sankta soul into making this cake. And it quickly became a hit, causing many guests to ask about its origin. When they heard this was my gift, the most shocked were those close to me, except for Elysia, who knew about this talent of mine.
-"Impossible."-Mei looked as if she saw a ghost, shaking her head in disbelief.-"Aren't you a 'kitchen idiot' ? How can you make something so good?"
-"It's truly baffling."-Mobius nodded in agreement.
-"Why do I always find out things about you during such strange occasions?"-Eden commented while eating her third slice.
-"Even Flavorful couldn't make such a good cake!"-Vill-V observed my creation as if it were an anomalous item worth studying.
-"Mhmm. It's good."-Kevin nodded, though I could still see confusion in his eyes.
-"Eno, can you make me cookies later?"-Griseo asked me with a pleading look.
-"Please, brother~!"-Misteln also joined her.
-"First, rude."-I gave the adults here a disappointed look.-"I might not be able to cook well, but baking is different. I can forget everything about me, but I'll never forget how to bake; it's more than genetic, it's my soul."-Then I turned to the children looking at me.-"Sure, I'll make some later; just come to my lab tomorrow."
-"Thank you!"x2-They high-fived to celebrate.
And that's how my lab became the opposite of Mobius's. Whenever someone had some free time, they would drop by to taste the sweets I would make, causing my doors to be more open than closed. It soon reached the level where Mei had to create a separate set of rules and regulations focused solely on my baking.
From some normal rules, such as one per person, or not disrupting my work when visiting, to somewhat strange about not creating shrines and sending offerings to the 'sweets Saint' and maintaining public decency.
But all that didn't matter much to me. I only treated baking as a method to relax, and seeing my mood getting better while doing so, Mei even added a personal and fully stocked baking room to my lab, allowing me to do so in the peace of my own lab. From time to time, I would get some orders for cakes, and if I was free, I would accept them, taking only baking supplies as payment.
This was how my popularity in Fire-Moth exploded. If before I was a respected scientist and a core member of the command, now I was the same kind of mascot as Elysia, liked by everyone around and treated with adoration. I was surprised by such a drastic change in my reputation, so I asked Eden. She explained that the sweets were only a catalyst; the real cause was the stories about me disseminated around by Elysia, Griseo, and Misteln. While they didn't spread lies, only slightly embellished things I did, I still asked them to not go overboard.
Despite all that, my daily life didn't change much; at most, I found myself more relaxed. But time didn't stop, and soon, we had our hands full because of the mess caused by Honkai.