Lihua didn't know what kind of agreement Otto Apocalypse, Elysia, and the others had reached, but the result was clear: they were busier than ever before.
Previously, no matter how busy they were on weekdays, Otto, Kallen, Eleanor, and Elysia would rack their brains to squeeze out time to be near Lihua.
Now, they spent much less time at home. Looking at the system map, the time they spent heading to the labs of Dr. Mei, Vill-V, and Mobius had increased significantly.
However, although she didn't know exactly what they were planning, it didn't matter much to the current Lihua. After all, she was now... basically just coasting.
She had already done everything she needed to do. Anything remaining wouldn't be affected much by her efforts anyway.
Nowadays, she mostly just stayed home with nothing to do. Before Otto and the others arrived, she actually had quite a bit of work, but since Otto came, they had taken over everything.
The current Lihua had successfully evolved into a mascot. Even if she wanted to do something productive, there was nothing for her to handle; even tasks like going out to fight monsters and maintain public order had been completely taken care of.
"Kiana, you're back?"
Lihua, watching TV on the sofa, felt a spatial fluctuation and looked up. She saw Kiana awkwardly opening a portal, snatching her forgotten dual pistols from a nearby table.
"I left in too much of a hurry and forgot my weapons..."
"Can't you just fight with your Void Lances?" Lihua felt helpless looking at the scatterbrained Kiana. Neither Lee nor Kevin were exactly idiots, so why did the fused Kaslana bloodline seem to inhibit intelligence? (Lihua, you have same bloodline ...)
"Ah, fighting like that just doesn't have the right feel—ah, gotta go, the Antimatter Legion over here is waiting for a beating! Mei and the others are eating out tonight, so you don't need to make dinner for me, bye-bye!"
Kiana returned in a whirlwind and disappeared just as quickly, leaving Lihua alone in the large room once more.
Although Kiana and the others had been on Blue Earth for some time now, they weren't particularly anxious to return.
This was perhaps thanks to the recent success of Dr. Mei and the others' research, which determined that in the near future, the Honkai world would also merge with Blue Earth, just like the Chainsaw Man world had.
The space between Blue Earth and the Chainsaw Man world had mostly stabilized now, to the point where travel back and forth was possible at certain fixed locations, almost like using a dedicated channel. Therefore, once the Honkai world fused to a similar degree, returning would be very easy, so there was no rush—after all, rushing wouldn't help anyway.
"Busy, everyone's busy... Busy is good."
Lihua stood up and stretched. Although she could hang out with Theresa Apocalypse in the villa, their interests and aesthetics were truly quite different.
At least, Lihua really couldn't bring herself to happily sip bitter melon juice while obsessing over those strange Homu manga...
"Hmph, how pitiful. All alone in the house." A white-haired woman had, at some point, appeared lounging on the sofa with her legs crossed, pouting at Lihua.
"Those guys have been really busy lately. Too bad it's all behind your back; they have absolutely no intention of telling you what they're up to. If you ask me, they're definitely up to no good, probably planning something nasty for you."
"[Lee]..."
"Don't call me that... Tsk, it's just a name, who cares! If I'm not Lee, then I'm not Lee. I'm perfectly fine being myself!" The moment Lihua blurted out the name, the former [Lee] puffed up her cheeks in indignation.
"From now on, I'm the Herrscher of Sentience! A natural-born Herrscher, mind you—way more high-class than that artificial knockoff Lee!"
"Then I'll call you Little Senti." Seeing someone who looked exactly like her sitting on the sofa striking a classic tsundere pose gave Lihua a strangely impactful feeling. "They finally let you out?"
"Hmph, as if they could trap me! I just got a little serious, and bam, I escaped from the place they locked me up~" Speaking of this, Little Senti raised her eyebrows smugly. "There's nothing in this world that can stump me—uh, except Kevin, there's nothing that can stump me!"
As for how exactly she finished learning those damn 'One Hundred Ways for Herrschers and Humans to Coexist Peacefully' and completed the mountain-high pile of 'Self-Awareness Assessment Tests'... such minor details, Senti felt, needn't be shared with Lihua.
"I thought you'd ditched me and would have such a great time hanging out with those guys. Doesn't look like things are going that great now, huh." Senti turned her head to look around the empty room, chuckling happily.
"Let me tell you, they've been busy with something big lately. Although they wouldn't tell me what it is, it's definitely related to you. But they won't even tell you about something like this..."
"Get it now? Those guys you trust aren't reliable at all! Only I genuinely care about you... Hmph, see? You know you were wrong now, right?" Seeing the silent Lihua, Senti subtly averted her gaze. "Well, if you sincerely apologize to me now, I guess I could forgive you..."
Such a classic tsundere. Lihua had known from the start the girl across from her was one of those tsunderes, but she didn't expect her to blurt out such vintage, cliché lines straight out of an old anime.
Senti's eyes darted around, while Lihua finally just smiled faintly. "They surely have their own ideas. There must be a reason why they're not telling me."
"How come you're not surprised at all?" Senti was puzzled at first, then her eyes widened in realization. "Wait, don't tell me you knew from the beginning?!"
"I'm not an idiot. I can tell when everyone is hiding something from me... even avoiding me."
"Aren't you angry? Those guys doing something like this for no reason!"
"Senti, why are you even more worked up than I am..." Looking at the indignant and incredulous Senti, Lihua could only sigh helplessly and sit down beside her. "But some things... you just can't do anything about."
Senti fell silent, then very naturally lay down on the sofa, resting her head on Lihua's lap.
"My powers, you know them." Not looking directly into Lihua's eyes, Senti glanced around evasively and mumbled, "So I kinda overheard a little of what they were saying earlier..."
"It's just, um... if anyone bullies you, you can tell me..."
"...Senti, the only thing I can say is, I don't understand what you're talking about."