The relationship between Raiden Mei and Evan had long reached its peak. It was only because Evan couldn't be sure of Herrscher Mei's mindset that he had hesitated to move forward. Now that he understood Herrscher Mei's attitude, it was only natural to take things a step further and let matters take their course.
They definitely couldn't go to Mei's residence. Kiana and the others were all there. If he took Mei back like this, entered the bedroom, and locked the door for several hours, even Kiana would be able to guess what Evan and Mei were doing.
Now, Evan was slightly thankful. When he first arrived at St. Freya Academy, he wasn't assigned to Himeko Murata's residence but lived alone.
It was very convenient.
Except for the final moment when Herrscher Mei—perhaps due to shyness or some other reason—suddenly returned control of the body to Raiden Mei, there were no other twists and turns.
However, things were full of twists and turns for Himeko Murata.
"It's already 6:00 PM, and Mei still hasn't come back. Could it be that she was pushed down by Evan... That guy is impressive, pushing down a Herrscher. In a sense, he saved the world. Tsk, the world saved in this way might be secretly crying, you know? Besides, there are three people here still starving."
Although she was complaining, Himeko Murata had already arrived in front of the refrigerator, opening it to look for ingredients for dinner.
Himeko had been living alone for a long time, so naturally, she knew how to cook. However, her taste was vastly different from Raiden Mei's.
Back then, due to the successive deaths of her father and comrades, Himeko was in a state of extreme grief for a long time. She had no mind to hone her cooking skills and usually relied on bread and instant noodles to fill her stomach. Later, as time passed and her original grief was buried deep in her heart, Himeko, tortured by the artificial stigmata, only hid the numbness of a dying person under her casual appearance. Naturally, she wouldn't bother making anything delicious.
At this moment, forced by circumstances to prepare dinner, Himeko looked at the raw meat and vegetables in the refrigerator and instantly fell into despair.
"It seems we can only eat instant noodles for dinner."
None of the ingredients in the refrigerator were the type that could be processed simply. She could only make what she used to eat most often back then.
"If you are troubled, Bronya can cook."
Bronya, who had walked out of her room at some point, was radiating light called hope in Himeko's eyes.
Although Himeko had never seen Bronya cook since knowing her, considering Bronya's consistently reliable performance, Himeko felt she could still trust her.
Besides, even if things went to the worst possible state, there were still instant noodles. When it came to making instant noodles delicious, Himeko feared no one.
Her hesitation earlier was only because she worried the instant noodles she made wouldn't suit Kiana or Bronya's tastes. Himeko herself didn't have high requirements.
Standing aside, Himeko watched Bronya cut carrots, potatoes, and onions into small pieces and stew them in a pot with tomato paste. Then, Bronya suddenly turned and walked into the bedroom. Curious, Himeko followed.
Then Himeko saw Bronya crawl under the bed.
Squatting down, Himeko was shocked to discover that the space under Bronya's bed was like a storage warehouse, containing quite a few things.
"What is this?"
Himeko pointed to one of the large boxes.
"Canned beef."
"Uh, why do you keep so many cans under your bed?"
"As emergency food reserves."
Bronya's words made Himeko laugh and cry at the same time, but considering she really needed to use Bronya's food reserves now, Himeko had nothing to say.
Besides a large amount of canned beef and various other food reserves, Himeko discovered another thing—something that was definitely not a food reserve.
A wallet with a Homu logo.
Unexpectedly discovered Bronya's hidden treasury.
Himeko couldn't help but curl her lips. Then she stood up and watched Bronya, who had taken out the canned beef, return to the kitchen. Bronya cut the ready-to-eat beef into cubes and put them into the pot.
"Next, Bronya will standby for thirty minutes."
Meaning, it needs to stew for thirty minutes.
Himeko was already used to Bronya's special way of speaking sometimes. At this moment, she nodded in understanding. Finding that dinner should be quite delicious, Himeko returned to her room and began processing some documents.
As an A-rank Valkyrie and a teacher at St. Freya Academy, Himeko also had some work to do.
Bronya sat in the living room, waiting for time to pass.
The familiar aroma coming from the kitchen made Bronya gradually drift into a daze.
This was Beetroot Soup (Borsch), eaten with bread. Although Bronya now ate the food Raiden Mei made and had rice as a staple, the staple food of Bronya's childhood was bread—dry, tasteless bread. Beetroot Soup paired with it could make up for that shortcoming. It was a dish Bronya was relatively good at.
At the same time, it was also what Seele liked to eat.
Not just Seele, everyone in the orphanage liked it. Sometimes Sin Mal would even quarrel with others fighting for the Beetroot Soup.
Bronya recalled that period of time.
Back then, shortly after the 2nd Eruption broke out, many children lost their parents. Mama Cocolia established an orphanage specifically to adopt children left homeless by the Honkai.
There were too many children. Although Mama Cocolia had joined Anti-Entropy at the time, Anti-Entropy wasn't wealthy either and couldn't provide much financial support. This directly led to everyone in the orphanage being unable to eat good things usually; the distribution of many foods required careful calculation.
Later, the situation changed.
Young, weak children lacking aptitude couldn't resist the rising Honkai energy concentration in the air following the 2nd Eruption and died one by one.
This was also the reason Mama Cocolia frequently conducted human experiments. She wanted to sacrifice the few who accepted the experiments to save the majority of others in the orphanage.
And Bronya was originally the one to be sacrificed.
Later, it became Seele.
An accident occurred during the experiment, and Seele disappeared into the Sea of Quanta. To find Seele, Bronya, who volunteered to participate in the same experiment, lost her emotions, and her legs were replaced by prosthetics.
At the same time, Mama Cocolia still failed to save the children in the orphanage. Only those few with high Honkai adaptability survived.
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