It took a while for Kurumi to process everything.

  “Fu… Hahaha..!”

  Aleph could tell that her ughs tained a hint of unbridled joy. Her gaze never left Aleph as she stood her upper body from the bed. Her gothic lolita dress became even more messy, threatening to reveal more than just her cleavage.

  “Hee… I thought we wouldn’t meet again, Ain.” She said with a smile. “I still haven’t returhe favor.”

  “You mean, that mirror? There’s o.” He replied. “I feel more relieved knowing it saved your life.”

  “No, no. Without it… I would have fallen for her schemes right from the start.”

  “Mio Takamiya…”

  From Kurumi, Aleph finally khe identity of the silver-haired woman he saw ba the past proje. She was her than the first spirit—sidered to be that world’s stro.

  The powers of all Spirits came from her; thus the ces of killing her with the said powers are even lower. If Kurumi hadn’t received aernal poh’s artifact—she wouldn’t have deviated from the first spirit’s careful calcutions.

  Kurumi’s gaze met his. A sudden thought came to her mind.

  “I have heard about the time gap.”

  “From Yoshino-san?”

  “Um.”

  Aleph doesn’t know what to say about it. After all…

  “So, will you now call me onee-san?”

  “Nope. Nope. Absolutely not.”

  Seeing this familiar move, Aleph knew she was about to pull off something akin to Mei’s as. This predi stemmed from his three years of friendship with her.

  He was right.

  “Isn’t it so, Aleph-kun?”

  “...”

  ‘Three years… No, it’s nearly thirty years.’

  The two were of simir ages. They also attehe same grade level in school. Only, due to the disrepair of Aleph’s mirror, the time gap between them widened. Four years had passed in his world, yet it was twe years for Kurumi’s world.

  However…

  ‘She’s still the Kurumi I know…’

  {Result: The subject “Tokisaki Kurumi” is exhibiting signs of nostalgia and the desire to know of you…}

  Be it elemental sight reat Sage, they pointed out the same answer. It startled Aleph.

  She hasn’t fotten about him. Not eve.

  That line of thought was enough for Aleph to feel plex emotions towards this friend of his.

  “Oh? It feels like you are thinking of something bad~?”

  …even her sharp intuition remaihe same.

  “I’m sorry. I… didn’t think you’d remain the same after all these years.”

  “Hee? Is that so?”

  Strangely enough, Kurumi’s smile became even brighter. Her gaze never left Aleph’s eyes all this time. She saw through some of his thoughts.

  ‘You are still the same as before… Fufu, how cute.’

  Simirly, Kurumi also had her thoughts. Aleph’s choice of venting out his frustrations made her realize that he was a frank person. He wouldn’t hide his thoughts. That was how he was with Mei, Mobius, Vill-V, and even Elysia.

  “What do you pn to do now?” He asked.

  “Mn.”

  Kurumi pced her right hand on her .

  “Will you take me in?”

  She dropped a huge yet somewhat expected bombshell.

  *****

  Aleph might’ve chosen to rest for a brief moment, but that wasn’t the case for nht after resolving Kurumi’s dilemma, he headed to the director’s office with a bck cat lying atop his head.

  “I sent over five ELFs with the dark reactor. The remaining hundred were equipped with the nuclear reactor. Finally, twenty ELFs with a honkai reactor not lower than 400 HW were sent to the frontlines.”

  Einstein finished briefing him of the events from his sleep.

  The so-called frames were created months ago. The main problem was the software—the soul—that runs them. It is also the reason why every ELF has their unique personality.

  With them, it became possible to increase bat efficy by serving as the soldiers’ support. That, or directly fighting against the honkai using the mechs brought with them.

  “I’ll ask Vill-V to prioritize creating more materials for it.” Aleph stated. “We should be able t in five dark reactors every day and around a hundred nuclear reactors. As for honkai reactors, maybe three or four of them if the other materials are sidered.”

  As one of its creators, Aleph khe current limits of the Truth Arsenal. The numbers he quoted was wheruth Arsenal’s produ was stretched to different materials. The future seems promising, but only Aleph khey were about to fa even bigger threat.

  ‘The sed and third should be dealt with soon.’

  Aleph already had an idea in mind when it es to the two Herrscher cores. The third Herrscher’s core would be ged depending ouation, but the sed Herrscher Core’s purpose was already fixed.

  Just theein asked a question:

  “You didn’t look like a cat person.”

  “Mn? Oh.”

  Even before he stepped out of his room, he already khat Kurumi’s state was no lohe same as before. For some reasons, her existence was clouded by an ‘information barrier’ of sorts.

  When she became scious, that fun was automatically disabled.

  “I adopted it. As for the regutiardis, I already took care of it.”

  Fire MOTH wasn’t as strict as to disallow even small pets in the researstitutes. In a way, these pets are stress relievers that could keep the staff going. It wasn’t rare to see a few birds, cats, or hamsters living along the dorm. Their only off-limit pces were the experimental zohe owners would take responsibility for their pets whehey break one of the rules, hence everyone was well-disciplined in this regard.

  “ I—”

  Before Einstein could even finish her words, the cat ‘woke up’ from her sleep and slipped right to Aleph’s shoulders.

  “...I see…”

  “Well…” Aleph didn’t know what to say.

  Who made their director’s reputation bad when it es to pets? Not only do cats and hamsters avoid her, even birds build a coop on her head whehey have a ce.

  “It doesn’t matter. Let’s talk more about your deployment…”