"Tell me, what do you two want?" Li Mingxue sat on the sofa with her cheek propped on one hand, looking at the two dejected girls below her as she spoke in an even tone. Yet the more normal she acted, the more uneasy Chu Lian and Yaya became.
"Um... could the punishment be a little lighter?" Chu Lian certainly did not think that being Li Mingxue's most doted-upon daughter meant she could escape punishment. If Li Mingxue wanted to punish her, then she absolutely would, regardless of who she was.
Who told her to do something so stupid just now? She could obviously have driven the car inside herself or called for Mom, yet because of a single remark from Yaya, she had gotten so angry that she actually ordered her to carry the car in.
"Whatever punishment Chu Lian gets, Yaya gets the same." Yaya wore an aggrieved expression. She had only followed Chu Lian's instructions. Still, now that they had been caught, whatever punishment Chu Lian received, she wanted the same one.
"Then, today you two... Mm, tomorrow. Come to me tomorrow. I have something for you to do." Li Mingxue's eyes shifted slightly, and she immediately thought of a very good idea. Since the two of them wanted to accept punishment, then punishment it would be.
"Your command is my will, my dearest mother." Chu Lian brought her legs together and gave a military salute. She was blatantly flattering Li Mingxue, and doing so in a way Li Mingxue found quite pleasing.
"Yaya... Yaya obeys!" Seeing Chu Lian do that, Yaya hurriedly copied her. Of course, compared to her shameless master, Yaya still had some integrity. Probably...
"All right, all right, you two can go. Don't let me catch you doing something that stupid again, or you'll see what happens." Li Mingxue was not truly angry just because she had seen Chu Lian do something so foolish. She was merely taking advantage of the opportunity to make trouble for her.
She knew perfectly well how unreliable this daughter of hers could be. Tomorrow was Children's Day. Mm, if she did not find an excuse, Chu Lian definitely would not agree to do that sort of thing. Now that Li Mingxue had caught her red-handed, she could only behave obediently.
"What a headache..." Falling back onto her bed, Chu Lian saw Yaya lie down beside her and muttered with a pout. It really was frustrating. What had possibly been going through her mind when she decided to do something that stupid?
It definitely wasn't because I got angry after hearing Yaya talk about our chest sizes. Why would I possibly care about something like that? Even if I did care, there's absolutely no way it'd make me angry. Mm, that's right.
"Chu Lian, I'm hungry..." After lying there for a while, Yaya quietly scooted closer, climbed on top of Chu Lian, and stared at her with pleading eyes.
How is that hunger? You're obviously lusting after me! Why are girls with loli bodies always so lewd? Not only are their chests huge, they're ridiculously seductive too. This is outrageous!
Chu Lian complained inwardly, but she also knew this was simply Yaya's natural personality. Compared to Raishin, who had needed to win her over, this summoned Yaya had started with her affection for Chu Lian already maxed out...
Wait. Yaya...
"How did I forget about that?!" Only now did she remember Kurumi Tokisaki, whom she had captured and then handed over to Li Mingxue. She had no idea where Kurumi was now.
"Mom, where's the girl I brought back?" Chu Lian quickly climbed out of bed and left her room, asking as she hurried toward the living room.
"You mean her? I put her in the last room on the second floor. She's harmless now, but you should still be careful." Li Mingxue shifted her gaze away from the television, looked at Chu Lian, and pointed toward the second floor.
"According to the information currently received by this station, an increasing number of monsters appear to have emerged recently. Their origins and the reason for their appearance remain unknown. Some monsters remain quietly where they first appear, neither harming nor killing anyone, and show no reaction even after being subdued. Some monsters actively attack people. Most of those have already been killed, while the remainder have been contained. Other monsters only attack defensively. As long as humans do not approach them too closely or attempt to harm them, they are harmless."
"The harmless monsters currently known are primarily the following types... Harmful monsters include these... Monsters that attack only when provoked include these species... Therefore, if you encounter harmless monsters or those that attack only in self-defense, simply refrain from harming them and there should be no problem. As for monsters that actively attack people, exercise caution and avoid letting them notice you."
"Most of these monsters can be dealt with using firearms, while some can also be killed with cold weapons. The government is currently considering whether to ease restrictions on cold weapons so that citizens can carry weapons for self-defense. In this era where a mysterious new world seems to be opening before us, perhaps new systems will be needed to adapt?"
"What does everyone think about the proposal to loosen restrictions on cold weapons? Scan the QR code at the bottom of the screen to visit the dedicated page and leave your comments..."
The female news anchor's report on television drew Chu Lian's attention. Only after watching the entire segment did her tightly knitted brows relax. It seemed the changes were not particularly severe yet, at least not enough to fundamentally transform the world.
"Don't worry. There won't be any major changes for at least another half a year." Li Mingxue seemed to understand what Chu Lian was thinking. She glanced at her and spoke.
"Mm." After giving a brief response, Chu Lian turned and headed upstairs again. For now, she still needed to figure out what to do with Kurumi Tokisaki.
Creak. The partly closed door opened, and Chu Lian walked inside alone, leaving Yaya, who had run over to see what she intended to do, puffing her cheeks outside in annoyance.
"My, my. You actually dare come face me alone. It seems you're not afraid of dying at all?" Someone appeared behind her, pressing a gun against her head. Kurumi Tokisaki's voice was sweet and coquettish, as though she found it quite surprising that Chu Lian would dare come alone.
"Why wouldn't I?" Chu Lian smiled faintly. She was not afraid of the person behind her, even though Kurumi's restraints had already been removed.
"You know I can't summon Zafkiel here?" Kurumi lowered the gun and looked at Chu Lian in mild surprise. This girl seemed even more mysterious than the first time they had met.
Chu Lian shrugged, turned around, and looked at Kurumi, who was still wearing her Astral Dress. Tilting her head, she said, "The whole reason I handed you over to my mother was to make sure you couldn't resist. And the best way to stop you from resisting was to seal Zafkiel. Without Zafkiel, your strength is reduced by at least half. You can't even break through my Undying Body with your attacks, so why should I be afraid of you?"
"So everything I might try was already within your expectations? What an unpleasant feeling." Shaking her head, Kurumi sat down on the bed. Her Astral Dress vanished in a flash of light, replaced once again by her school uniform.
"Hm? What's so unpleasant about it? Even if I know a few things, that doesn't stop you from killing me, does it? Though I still don't know why you want to kill me." Looking at the girl, who now seemed much softer and more vulnerable, Chu Lian did not press her aggressively. Instead, she sat beside her, turned toward Kurumi, who was a head taller than her, and asked, "If it's convenient, can you tell me?"
"My, my, I'm afraid not. Once we accept a mission, the identity of whoever issued it can't be revealed to anyone who wasn't present at the time. Otherwise, we'd be violating the contract. I don't actually know who that person was either, but I still can't tell you." Kurumi shook a finger, making her position perfectly clear and signaling that Chu Lian should not continue questioning her about it.
"All right, then I'll change the subject. Why did you become an assassin? Could it be that your world was destroyed too?" Chu Lian already had someone by her side whose world had been destroyed and who had wandered here afterward. Naturally, she understood that when a world was destroyed, characters protected by something resembling a protagonist's fortune had a very real possibility of surviving.
Kurumi blinked several times, hesitating over whether she should tell Chu Lian the truth. It was not something she was forbidden from discussing. The only question was whether she wanted to.
"Let me put it this way. There's someone beside me whose world was destroyed. For certain reasons, she didn't die. Instead, she wandered through the dimensional universe until she eventually reached my world. Do you understand what I mean?" Chu Lian was referring to Inori, though Kurumi had no way of knowing that yet.
Kurumi turned her eyes toward her, trying to judge whether she was telling the truth. After all, encountering something like that even once would already count as a miracle. Could Chu Lian really have encountered someone like her as well? She could not help feeling suspicious.
"Mm, let me be a little more specific. Do you know about Spacetime Traveling Merchants? Some people also call them planar merchants." Chu Lian approached the subject from a different angle.
"I do." This time, Kurumi finally gave a direct answer.
"Her world was destroyed because someone connected to the world's consciousness wanted to create a so-called new world and made a trade with one of the highest-ranking planar merchants. The price was the complete destruction of the old world, with all its resources falling into that merchant's hands.
"In return, the person who made the deal received the so-called new world, a world that began operating anew. Those favored by the destroyed world didn't die because of certain special circumstances. Instead, they wandered through the dimensional universe for a very, very long time. It wasn't until a little over a month ago that they finally arrived in my world and met me."
"Oh? So those people can actually be that powerful?" The capabilities of planar merchants as described by Chu Lian were worlds apart from the ones Kurumi had encountered.
"Every profession has its weak and strong members. The planar merchants you met before were probably only ordinary ones. It's perfectly normal that you never saw how terrifying this profession can truly become." Chu Lian herself was currently only a low-ranking planar merchant, so she knew quite clearly what she could and could not accomplish. By using her own capabilities as a reference and extrapolating upward, she could roughly estimate what other Spacetime Traveling Merchants might be capable of.
"Unfortunately, telling me all that doesn't help. That's not what turned me into what I am." Yet even after Chu Lian explained everything so clearly, Kurumi still shook her head. Her own experience was completely different from what Chu Lian had described, so it proved nothing.
"Then let me guess. Your world was destroyed because Judgement invaded it, wasn't it?" Seeing her reaction, Chu Lian already understood what the real answer had to be.
Sure enough, the moment she said those words, Kurumi Tokisaki's gaze sharpened. She stared at Chu Lian with eyes filled with scrutiny.
After a long while, she finally sighed and began explaining why she had become an assassin...