"What—what—what is going on?!!!"
Inside the Valkyrie dorms, in Elias' bedroom.
Having just finished washing herself squeaky clean, Elysia stared in utter shock at the small red booklet in Mei's hand.
At this moment, she truly understood what it meant by thirty years east of the river, thirty years west—the cycle of heaven spares no one.
(But isn't this way, way, way too fast?! Mei, isn't your revenge efficiency a bit absurd? I only took a one-hour bath, and you already got the certificate?!)
Elysia wore a look as if her entire worldview had collapsed, feeling like fate had just played a massive joke on her.
After finishing her bath, she realized Elias wasn't in the room. She worried for a second that he'd been abducted by aliens, then casually played with a snake while waiting.
Fortunately, Elias returned in less than half an hour. Otherwise, Elysia would've woken up the entire dorm to search for him.
But!
Mei came back with him.
And without a word, the Thunder Queen directly showed off the freshly issued marriage certificate between her and Elias!
Elysia instantly felt as if she'd been struck by lightning. Her entire body froze, then metaphorically shattered.
"Hah... accept reality, Elysia. I... I'm also Elias' w-wife now!"
Mei couldn't stop the upward curve of her lips. Even as a queen, she still felt shy. Before today, she had always thought marriage was something far in the future.
Yet now, she had suddenly gotten married—and the person she married was the one she loved most, most, most in the world.
So next, what she needed to consider...
Was probably how many children to have.
"Waaah! Mei, you cheated! You ambushed me! That's not fair! This doesn't count—I demand a redo!"
Elysia completely broke down. She rolled around on Elias' bed, crying and throwing a tantrum, sob sob sob—truly pitiful.
"Alright, Ely. At this point, no matter how much you struggle, you can't change reality."
Elias reached out and gently patted his pink elf's head in comfort. The rice was already cooked—she might as well accept it.
"Change reality? Right! I'll go find the Herrscher of Finality and make her rewind time—or I'll just charge straight at the Imaginary Tree! I haven't sat enough on the throne of being your only wife!"
Elysia's eyes turned hollow as she muttered to herself. At this moment, she seemed on the verge of reverting back into that darkened fairy version of herself.
Elias quickly wrapped an arm around her slender waist, pulling her into his embrace to restrain her. At the same time, he couldn't help but think—something as grand as reversing time was being used in increasingly... questionable ways lately.
Not long ago, Kiana hadn't finished her homework and actually begged the Herrscher of Finality to stop time so she could catch up—or even rewind time back to the start of the holidays.
As for the result, she was naturally rejected.
Meanwhile, Mei and Rita had asked Finality to accelerate cooking—basically hitting the skip button on dishes that normally took a long time. Honestly, it was an extremely down-to-earth use of power...
And interestingly, the Herrscher of Finality hadn't refused that request. The reason was that the Goddess of Honkai had recently awakened a very human hobby—enjoying good food.
"Eli... I'm angry. The kind that can't be comforted."
Elysia's eyes brimmed with tears as she lightly punched Elias' chest with her small fists.
But at that moment...
"Mmfff! Mmff?!"
Suddenly, a green snake rolled out from under the bed—literally rolled out. Mobius made a bizarre entrance under the stunned gazes of Elias and Mei.
"W-what the...? Snake, why are you here?!"
"Uh... is this some kind of special Previous Era play...?"
"Ptooey!"
Mobius spat out the white silk stocking stuffed in her mouth—now soaked in saliva—directly toward Elysia, glaring at her furiously.
Earlier, she had finally managed to bite through the apple gag, only for Elysia to roll up a stocking into a ball and shove it into her mouth. It had no flavor, but the humiliation was off the charts!
(Isn't that supposed to be a reward...)
She really wanted to explode at Elysia right then and there.
But...
"What's going on? What happened? Who the hell got married to my little white mouse again?! Did I approve this?!"
Mobius, now resembling a frantic monkey king, stared at the red booklet in Mei's hand, completely panicking.
She had thought Elysia was already unbeatable. Who would've guessed someone could be even more ferocious than this pink menace?
Originally, she had looked down a bit on the Current Era group, thinking Mei and the others were still too naive, having never been tempered by real 'war.'
But now, that disdain had completely vanished.
(Hiss! This girl actually counterattacked and crushed that pink menace Elysia? So decisive, so efficient? That's insane... another major enemy...!)
Mobius stared at Mei in shock, genuinely shaken. She had never expected that a junior from fifty thousand years later could possess such strength.
Making Elysia suffer such a huge setback—this was an achievement they hadn't even managed during the Previous Era.
But the snake still refused to admit defeat.
"Y-you got the certificate pretty fast, huh? But what about the process? With that kind of speed, it must've been sloppy. Even if the result succeeded, a bad process still deserves a huge deduction!"
"Uh, Snake... even if your expression is serious right now, being tied up like that really kills any sense of authority."
Elias couldn't help but laugh. Mobius had been bound by Elysia into something resembling a worm, unable to even stand—she could only lie there and talk. The scene was honestly hilarious.
On the other side, Mei's lips curled upward. Seeing Mobius launch a stubborn attack, she immediately played her counter card.
"You want the process? No problem."
"W-what?"
"You two—watch the VCR."
"Mei / You actually recorded it?!" ×3
The three of them stared in disbelief as Mei somehow produced a small drone.
After a bit of tinkering, the Thunder Queen played back the scene from earlier—under the beautiful aurora—where she and Elias had proposed to each other.
Mei: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime proposal scene. Of course it's only natural to record it properly."
Elysia: "...Eli, can you propose to me again another day? Damn it, I actually forgot to record it back then!"
Miss Pink Elf grabbed her silky pink hair in deep regret. Back in the Eternal Castle of the Elysian Realm, Elias had proposed to her in the most romantic way possible.
Although Elysia still remembered every single moment vividly and had taken plenty of photos, her long-standing habit of using instant cameras to record life meant she had completely forgotten to film it.
After that, the pink elf and the green snake watched the recording of Elias and Mei's (mutual) proposal through the VCR.
Both of them were utterly shocked—their horizons completely expanded.
The Thunder Queen was simply too awesome!
Neither of them had expected such a move to even be possible.
Subconsciously, they had always thought about making Elias propose to them. But now Mei had taught them a lesson—hesitation leads to defeat. Girls could also be the ones to propose.
Not only was it more efficient, but since the affection level was already high enough, Elias would absolutely not refuse!
"!!!"
Mobius' snake pupils instantly dilated.
He wouldn't refuse... right! As long as she proposed herself, wouldn't that solve everything?!
I've found it—the key point!
"My little white mouse, I—ghk!!"
Just as Mobius was about to immediately apply what she had learned and propose on the spot, before she could finish her sentence, she felt a violent impact to her abdomen—and a cold, sharp sensation at her neck.
Two attacks instantly cut off her proposal declaration.
Turning her head, she saw Elysia, surrounded by dark energy and on the verge of going full blackened fairy, driving her fist into Mobius' stomach. At the same time, Mei—eyes glowing red—pressed her katana against Mobius' neck.
(Try that and you're dead.) ×2
The two women silently mouthed their threats.
Mobius: "..."
The sheer oppressive aura released by Mei and Elysia was so terrifying that even Mobius, the immortal serpent, felt a rare urge to back down.
Although Mei and Elysia—having just reached the finish line—might still be rivals for now, when it came to stopping others from reaching that same finish line...
Their stance was perfectly aligned.
Mobius: "Damn it!"
Elysia: "Ah~ I really need to be more careful from now on. I never expected Mei to be this amazing... no, this is downright terrifying! Even the invincible Miss Pink Elf has a day where she gets countered and defeated. What a complete failure."
Mobius: "Looks like you're not that impressive after all, Elysia. Just wait—now that I know there's an easy way to clear this, it's my turn next!"
Elysia: "..."
A large vein mark popped on Elysia's forehead as she turned to Mobius with a disturbingly gentle smile.
"Elysia, what are you trying to do?!"
Mobius immediately paid the price for her stubborn provocation.
Elysia grabbed Mobius by the ankle, opened the window of Elias' bedroom, and flung the snake outside—perfectly landing her into a distant trash can.
"I hope the garbage truck takes Mobius away tomorrow. As for classification..."
"I suggest non-recyclable waste."
"Wah~ Mei, you think the same as me! We really are kindred spirits, such good sisters~ Come on, call me big sister Elysia. Oh right, can I touch your horns?"
Elysia raised both hands toward the red oni horns atop Mei's head. She understood that at this point, she likely had no way to turn things around.
Since that was the case, the only option left was to "get along harmoniously." As the main wife, she had to be generous and magnanimous.
And to be fair, Elysia realized she actually quite liked girls like Mei—cool and domineering, yet gentle at the same time.
Most importantly, the horns were a huge bonus!
(Somehow, Mei feels incredibly similar to my Eli in every way... wait, does that mean I can use Mei as a substitute? Yay!)
However, while Elysia might have reluctantly accepted things, Mei clearly hadn't!
"Big sister? Elysia, I think you've got it wrong. I'm Elias' first love. I was the first one to be with him. So... that title should be yours to call me."
Mei narrowed her eyes, her queenly aura fully unleashed.
If her opponent weren't Elysia, no one would be able to withstand the Thunder Queen's overwhelming presence.
"No, no, no. No matter how you look at it, Mei is the younger one. After all, I'm the one who married him first. And... if we're being strict about it, I was with Eli fifty thousand years ago. From a timeline perspective, I'm the first."
"Hmph~ That doesn't count! That's only because of Elias' time travel. Sometimes time doesn't represent everything. Elysia, you came later—don't try to twist the facts."
Between the queen's violet eyes and the elf's blue gaze, sparks seemed to crackle. The atmosphere had completely turned into a battlefield.
"Uh... I think that's enough..."
Elias spoke weakly. For some reason, even though both girls were far weaker than him, he found it incredibly difficult to intervene—even saying a single sentence like this felt hard.
"Eli, don't speak. This is a war between women."
"That's right. I was just planning to get revenge for earlier anyway."
"Calm down! Calm down! Peace first!"
Elias hurriedly stepped between the two, cold sweat pouring down his back. He couldn't help but wonder—what was the point of having all this power if he couldn't solve the problem right in front of him?
But as a man, he couldn't back down here.
Since he was the core of the problem...
Then he had to be the one to resolve everything!
Elias' mind raced frantically as he looked at the two girls he loved to the extreme.
He knew this was the moment he would be tested.
Today, he had to balance the scales perfectly!
Otherwise, something very bad would happen.
To prevent the two from fighting, Elias wrapped one arm around each of them. Though it looked enviable from the outside—holding two beauties at once—in reality...
(Heavens above... why does this feel harder than saving the world? Can Honkai do me a favor—maybe trigger a Honkai Eruption to distract them or something?)
Inside, Elias was crying out in despair. He couldn't help but sigh at how sinful a man he truly was.
After all, in the original storyline, the relationship between Mei and Elysia had been so good it almost threatened the main Kiana–Mei pairing.
But now...
The two of them were competing over him, completely incompatible.
Elias: "As a man, I have to take responsibility for my own battlefield... sigh."
After racking his brain, Elias finally, miraculously, came up with a way to balance everything.
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