"Wha… What happened to me?" Yakumo Yukari held her head a little dizzily, feeling somewhat unclear.
Yakumo Yukari felt as if she had just gone through something extremely terrifying, but she simply could not figure out what had actually happened, so she was desperately trying to recall.
"Hey, A'Luo, wasn't I like this a couple of days ago too?" Venti looked at Yukari's all-too-familiar state, and a sudden flash of insight crossed his mind.
"You remembered?" Chen Luo tilted his head slightly.
"No…" Venti shook his head.
Venti truly couldn't remember anything.
"Boss, what kind of food is this? Do you know this food could kill someone?" After finally straightening out what had just happened to her, Yukari slapped the table with her palm.
"Sorry, sorry. Mm, maybe it doesn't quite suit your taste, but this is indeed our bar's most precious dish. Look, your friend is eating it with such joy." Chen Luo pointed at Yuyuko beside them.
"…" After glancing at Yuyuko, Yukari had to admit that Yuyuko really was eating it with great relish.
"In fact, it seems this recipe only tastes delicious to certain people. At first, I thought only those strong enough would find it tasty, and since both you and your friend fall into that category, I assumed you'd enjoy it. But now it seems not. Also, we're not some shady place—it was you who asked for it, and only then did we serve it. Besides, I thought Yuyuko had already told you that this dish can't be eaten casually." Chen Luo spoke calmly and firmly.
That's right, I did intend to trick you—what can you do about it?
Chen Luo really did want to test the upper limits of "Judgment Time," but from the looks of it, the ceiling of this dish was indeed quite high.
Anyway, it's not actually fatal, and it was ordered by the guest themselves—what does it have to do with me, Chen Luo?
Yukari looked once at the indescribable thing in front of her, then at Yuyuko opposite her, who was happily devouring her own indescribable portion, and her anger surged. She pulled Yuyuko's ear.
"Ow ow ow… Yukari, I'm sorry, I forgot, it's just that this stuff is too delicious." Yuyuko looked pitifully at Yukari after having her ear pulled.
"Hmph!" Yukari snorted coldly, then let go of Yuyuko's ear.
Yukari simply had no way to deal with Yuyuko.
"Sorry, miss, but this dish cannot be taken out." Chen Luo, after catching sight of a quietly opening gap, snapped his fingers, and the bar automatically sealed Yukari's gap ability.
With her ability sealed, Yukari's brows furrowed slightly.
From the moment she entered the bar, Yukari had sensed a special suppressive force that prevented her from harming others. At first, she thought that was all there was to it, but she hadn't expected that the bar's master could outright seal her ability—even without her having harmed anyone yet. That made Yukari more or less take notice.
This bar is no simple place.
"Oh? So dishes can't be taken to-go here?"
"No, Miss Yukari, it's only this particular dish that cannot be taken out. All the others can be." Chen Luo shook his head.
"Why?" Yukari asked.
"Because after multiple tests by different guests, it's been confirmed that this dish has special effects on those not designated for it. If eaten only inside the bar, the bar will automatically preserve your life so that the dish won't endanger you—at worst it'll just taste bad. But if you took it outside and someone accidentally ate it and their life was endangered, I couldn't take responsibility for that." Chen Luo spoke the truth.
Of course, part of the reason was that Chen Luo didn't want people using the dish to cause trouble—if something irreversible happened, it would disturb his business.
And another reason was to keep Yuyuko's appetite bound here.
Who is Yuyuko?
She's someone who brings Chen Luo at least 100 Primogems in revenue every single day!
If she could take the dish to-go, wouldn't that be a huge loss?
Yuyuko could only eat one serving of Judgment Time per meal—once she had one, she couldn't have another. So if it couldn't be packed, she'd have to order one by one.
But if it could be taken out, one order of Judgment Time was 100 Primogems, and two orders were still just 100 Primogems. Losing out on one extra 100 Primogems—that would pain Chen Luo deeply.
This was essentially a rule created just for one person.
So far, only Yuyuko had ever received such treatment.
Yuyuko—truly terrifying.
"Fine." Hearing Chen Luo's explanation, Yukari felt quite helpless.
The main thing was that she really was interested in this stuff. She had even thought of letting Yagokoro Eirin research it, and maybe also see what would happen if a Hourai immortal ate it.
But now it seemed this thing couldn't be taken away.
"Then help me dispose of this thing." Yukari turned her head toward Chen Luo.
"Alright." Chen Luo nodded.
"A'Luo, we're here." Just as Chen Luo tossed that heap of stuff into the kitchen, he heard a familiar voice.
"Oh, Kiana, what brings you here so late today?" Chen Luo greeted the newcomer.
"Ugh, don't mention it. Mei made me do remedial lessons today. Honestly, why is being a Valkyrie so hard? Not only do we have to train, we also have to study culture classes, history classes— it is completely meaningless, don't you think?" Kiana walked into the bar and immediately poured out her complaints to Chen Luo.
Perhaps because of the 20 favorability gained from the mission, Kiana's favorability toward Chen Luo wasn't low at all. They could already be considered good friends, so she often came to this "outsider" to complain about just how unreliable and downright insane St. Freya Academy's curriculum was.
Because this was something she couldn't talk about with others—whether it was Theresa, Bronya, or Raiden Mei—any time they heard Kiana's complaints, they would absolutely start lecturing her.
But in Kiana's view, Chen Luo was different. Chen Luo was both a good friend and someone who had never been to St. Freya Academy, making him the perfect target to vent to.
Only, Kiana probably didn't know that Chen Luo actually had staff certification from St. Freya Academy. After completing a certain mission in a few days, he would officially become a teacher at St. Freya. Although Chen Luo was only 17 years old, and some Valkyries might be older than him, that didn't stop him from becoming a teacher.
After all, this was also a mission reward.
Recently, Chen Luo had been collecting recordings of Kiana's complaints, planning that after he became a teacher, he would play them back to her one by one—
So she'd understand what it meant that "the law is not passed down to a sixth ear."[1]
"In my opinion, isn't it enough for a Valkyrie to just learn how to fight Honkai beasts? Why do we have to study the history of Honkai too?" Kiana said, utterly puzzled.
Actually, Kiana wasn't dumb—in fact, she was quite clever. After all, someone truly stupid couldn't have mastered Edge of Taixuan in such a short time, and even executed a Eminence strike with Fu Hua's assistance.
It was just that when Kiana had no interest in something, her learning speed slowed to a crawl.
"And where are Mei and the others?" Chen Luo asked.
"They're still behind. They're washing dishes—I ran ahead."
"You skipped out on washing dishes and ran off?"
"What do you mean skipped? We played rock-paper-scissors and they lost, so they had to wash dishes. I'm just super lucky." Kiana said proudly.
"Mm, I think I just heard something interesting. Little girl, does your world also have Honkai energy?" A voice unfamiliar to Kiana suddenly spoke.
"Hm?" Kiana turned her head and saw a green-haired woman in a white lab coat—someone who, in her mind, fit the stereotype of a researcher—walk over.
"Who are you?" Kiana asked curiously.
Kiana wasn't afraid of this person who gave off a slightly dangerous feeling, because in the bar no one could harm anyone else—unless Chen Luo lifted the restriction. But Kiana trusted Chen Luo completely, so inside this bar she was fearless.
"Me? I'm Mobius, a researcher." Mobius smiled.
"Oh, then that means you've heard of Honkai energy too?" Kiana looked at Mobius with curiosity.
Kiana also knew that Chen Luo's bar connected countless strange worlds, and its patrons were from many other realms. To hear the words "Honkai energy" from someone of another world—that naturally stirred Kiana's curiosity. So other worlds had Honkai energy too?
"Of course I've heard of it, though I don't know much about it." Mobius replied modestly.
"I see. Our world has Honkai energy too, and it's been around for quite a long time." Kiana nodded thoughtfully.
As for what Kiana was really thinking about… it was how to quickly end this conversation so she could eat ice cream.
Her aunt always said eating too much ice cream would upset her stomach. Well then, wouldn't drinking too much bitter melon juice upset hers? Honestly!
"It's been around for a long time? May I ask, does your world have historical records of Honkai energy?" Mobius asked, after scrutinizing Kiana up and down.
Mobius felt there was something oddly familiar about Kiana, but couldn't quite place it.
"Of course! Our school even has a history class about Honkai." Kiana nodded.
"Oh? Then how are your grades?" Mobius's eyes lit up.
Although Mobius already knew quite a bit about Honkai Impact 3rd, she didn't mind digging deeper.
"My grades… o-of course they're perfect scores!" Kiana declared proudly.
"…" Standing to the side, Chen Luo remained silent.
Sorry, but in Chen Luo's impression, the words "Kiana" and "perfect scores" had never once belonged together.
Kiana definitely had talent, but she never put effort into the humanities.
Especially history—if Chen Luo remembered correctly, in the manga, Kiana scored exactly zero on her history test.
That's right, Kiana's history grade was 0. Yet here she was, boasting to Mobius about her "perfect scores."
"Mm, I see… then may I ask you a question?" Mobius asked, pretending to be humble.
In Mobius's mind, there was no way someone would lie about something so trivial. Since that was the case, she should be able to get some useful information from her.
"Of course you can." Kiana nodded with confidence.
"What is Honkai?"
"Honkai is a kind of cyclical disaster phenomenon. It appears every few centuries. The forms it takes are unpredictable—war, plague, climate disasters, comet impacts, even the descent of divine giants—it could be any of these." Kiana explained fluently.
Although she had scored zero in history, this particular line she knew by heart. Because she always slept in class, the history teacher had punished her by making her copy it 100 times. How could she not remember it?
Unfortunately, this wasn't something the exams ever tested.
It was like how everyone knows Emperor Taizong of Tang was Li Shimin—but have you ever seen an exam ask "Who was Emperor Taizong of Tang?"[2]
So for Kiana, it was always: what she knew wasn't tested, and what was tested she didn't know.
"Mm-hm." Mobius nodded.
Hearing her recite it so smoothly, she must have some ability, right?
"And then?"
"There's no 'then.'"
"Hm?" Mobius frowned.
"T-that's all. People in our world only know that much about Honkai—nothing else." Kiana forced herself to say.
The bigger reason being, of course, that she hadn't memorized anything beyond that.
"I see…" Mobius's interest instantly deflated.
If, after centuries of Honkai's existence, that world's people still knew only this little, and if this girl was supposedly well-versed in history—then it meant their world's situation was completely different from her own, with no reference value whatsoever.
"Kiana really has reached a whole new level of ignorance. Did her history teacher's lessons all get fed to the dogs?" Kiana's little class rep, Little Senti, shouted inside Chen Luo's mind.
Little Senti was, in a sense, half Fu Hua—thus half Kiana's class monitor as well. Seeing Kiana being this hopeless, she was truly fuming.
"But then again, if Mobius someday learns the real truth, won't she be mad enough to claw her way out of her coffin just to beat Kiana up?" Little Senti also snarked.
In fact, people of this century already knew quite a lot about Honkai. If Mobius had gotten her hands on that data, it would have been a big help to her. But thanks to Kiana's bragging, that was now impossible.
In a way, Kiana had just handed the Will of Honkail the perfect assist.
As expected of you, Herrscher of Void—humanity's great enemy!
And seeing that Kiana knew only this much, Mobius lost interest in her.
Truth be told, Mobius was quite unlucky.
Of all the Honkai-world regulars at Chen Luo's bar, if she had asked literally anyone other than Kiana, it would have greatly benefited her.
But fate had it that she encountered only Kiana.
TL Note:
[1]: this means, important teachings or secrets should only be transmitted privately between master and disciple, never in the presence of a third person.
It implies confidentiality, secrecy, and exclusivity. If more than two people hear it, it's no longer a true secret.
[2]: This means who would ask such an obvious question.