The series of events happened all too suddenly. At one point, Mei was making her offeo Aleph. The moment, a random girl came out of nowhere and introduced herself as Aleph’s childhood friend.

  From the moment she heard the name “Kurumi”, it expined many things.

  ‘For so long…’

  Mei knew about Aleph’s childhood friend. They spent time together for three years before ‘drifting apart’, or so his own words tell. heless, she was exactly the reason h couldn’t rea answer.

  Their brief versation in the past came to her mind.

  “Do you have someone you like?”

  “Someone I like…”

  Instead of shifting the topic, Aleph proceeded to answer her question.

  “...Maybe.”

  Sihat day, Mei khere was someone who was signifit enough to be treated by him as a romantic partner. Even so, she never gave up.

  Be it Aleph’s small acts of tasting her lunch as well as giving her pointers, or the times when he lent her a hand when she …

  She is not willing to give them up either.

  Although things were still fusing to her, Mei knew what she had to do. Her fingers stopped pying Aleph’s hand as she stood up from the sofa. He was left sitting, anticipating what would happe.

  With both arms crossed, she returned Kurumi’s gaze with her own.

  “So it was you. Aleph told me a lot of things about you.”

  “Heee? Is that so?” Kurumi pyfully looked at Aleph. “I was not aware of it.”

  She strolled until she was in front of Mei. Her uwintails swayed as she did so. Simir to Mei, her arms were also crossed. These seemingly small as brought Aleph trouble—far more than what the fifth Herrscher did.

  Their huge assets were there to see. It was unfortuhat Mei was aire alphabet bigger than Kurumi.

  The other difference were their height. pared to Mei, Kurumi was far shorter. The former lies at 172 cm while the tter is only 157cm tall. It made it seem as if Kurumi was the younger one.

  These made Mei's domineering aura more promi.

  Aleph was sitting on the sofa iween of them. Now, he uood his bad foreboding feeling on the off-ce the two met.

  ‘The danger ing from them…’

  His elemental sight activated quietly. The two were having their silent showdown, giving him enough leeway to think of a solution to cool them down.

  As luck would have it…

  ‘Finally..!’

  “What is going on here..?”

  An ued Mobius joins the fray. Her presence broke the tensioween Mei and Kurumi.

  “Mobius… Well…”

  Aleph interrupted the three of them.

  “It’s time for my expnation.”

  *****

  ‘So it’s her…’

  Mobius looked at the girl ihic lolita dress.

  Since Aleph’s arrival with the bck cat, her intuiti out. There was something wrong with Aleph.

  After Aleph’s storytelling of the events, from Kurumi’s identity to her current situation, both she and Mei had a grasp on what truly happened.

  “Superpowers… You are luckier than I thought.”

  Mobius ented on Aleph’s absurd luck. Superpowers were supposed to be rare enough, yet Aleph entered more of them.

  “I suppose it is not just using shadows you are capable of, Miss Kurumi.”

  “Ara, ara. You are very sharp.” The twintailed girl replied with amusement. “But yes, I am not limited to that. As to whether I shall demonstrate it, you will see wheime es.”

  Currently, Kurumi was sitting to Aleph’s right. Mei sat on his left, leaving Mobius to sit across them. The tter’s pupils merely narrowed to the two of them before her gaze to normal.

  “It wouldn’t take that long, Mobius.”

  At this time, Aleph spoke.

  “You know about the sixth Herrscher… its ability to travel into the Sea of Quanta. Kurumi do the same.”

  ““...””

  The two women with him fell silent. They already heard about her story from Aleph, though there are some holes into it such as her sudden disappearance.

  Never had they expected it was due to her travel into another dimension.

  “It was a bumpy trip, but I mao e across them. There are worlds with varying situations. They were rather iing to see.”

  Kurumi did not lie. Before she arrived in this world, the mirrht her to the Sea of Quanta first. She nded across several ‘world bubbles’ that were limited in spad isoted from the outside world. Naturally, she did not stay for loher.

  “She will be able to help us deal with the sixth. Moreover…” Aleph paused before posing himself. “She did not e from this world.”

  Aleph dropped another bombshell. It was enough to silence Mei and Mobius once again. The significe of his words were no small matter.

  “You might have searched for her whereabouts, Mei. You wouldn’t find anything… because she came from another world. A world without honkai.”

  “..!”

  His words were enough to make them freeze.

  A world without honkai.

  Nobody could imagihe significe of this finding. In the game Aleph khe Previous Era sought for worlds without honkai, but to no avail. That was why they were pushed to implement drastic measures in the end.

  Knowing that a world without honkai exists…

  “...How was it?” Mei asked as she took a deep breath.

  It was Kurumi who answered her.

  “It was not bad, but not good either. Fufu, if you want to face a god-like being who could destroy the world as she willed, then be my guest.”

  She smiled at Mei as she said these words.

  “Ahem.” Aleph cleared his throat tain trol of the atmosphere. “Kurumi is very strong. She could handle a Herrscher alohe god she mentioned… it should be far strohan the Herrschers we faced.”

  His words served to put down the excitement brought by another world without honkai.

  Mobius, who wao ask Aleph something, decided not to.

  ‘To disclose a huge secret to us…’

  Aside from the shod excitement, she also felt something else.

  ‘Tsk. Just this time…’

  She did not want to admit it, but the level of trust Aleph gave her was enough to make her flicted.

  While Mobius reoccupied with her internal thoughts, Mei finished reanizing herself.

  “What are you pnning to do, Aleph? Now that your childhood friend is here…”

  Although Mei asked him with a smile, he knew she was feeliremely flicted about it. Her hands were pced on her p. Her pointy finger periodically tapped ohighs every now and then.

  Their two years of friendship weren’t for naught.

  ‘I like Kurumi… but I also like Mei…’

  His thought acceleration and parallel minds worked at full strength. Numerous possibilities came to his mind.

  His eyes met Mei’s.

  Simirly, he khat Kurumi’s gaze li the back of his head.

  It was then.

  ‘If I…’

  A ridiculous thought came to his mind.

  ‘...do just that…’

  Aleph did not hesitate anymore.