[Lumina: Magical Girl, I'm broke. They're holding me at a Luofu restaurant. Could you transfer me some Credits? ]
[Herta: Magical Girl? A new woman you've found outside? ]
[Lumina: Exactly! Magical Girl is the love of my life. I'll cherish her forever, dedicating my entire life to her tender care. ]
[Herta: Oh, go ahead and cherish her then. ]
[Herta transferred ten billion Credit Points to you.]
[Herta has logged off.]
"How strange," Lumina muttered, staring at the ten billion Credit Points Herta had just transferred. "Shouldn't researchers like Herta have flat wallets?"
In a teahouse in the Exalting Sanctum on the Xianzhou Luofu, Lumina couldn't help but feel a mix of surprise and lingering doubt.
Earlier, Lumina had wondered if this was one of Herta's reasons for hesitating—her disbelief that Herta could casually swipe ten billion Credit Points for a gift.
In Lumina's mind, someone who needed constant funding for experiments couldn't possibly be that wealthy.
Moreover, since Asta and the IPC covered most of Herta's expenses, Lumina couldn't make an accurate judgment.
Watching Herta transfer ten billion Credit Points without a word, Lumina immediately understood:
This woman's personal stash is overflowing with Credit Points!
Since Herta's private funds were so abundant, Lumina didn't hesitate to help herself.
With a tap of her finger, ten billion Credit Points were hers.
Across the entire Cosmos, there probably aren't many people who earn Credit Points faster than me, right?
Hmm... well, okay, there probably are quite a few. After all, Guinaifen just made at least several billion Credit Points.
"Sister Lumina, Huohuo, what would you like?" Guinaifen asked, flipping through the menu in her hand.
"Umm... just something bitter will do," Huohuo replied.
"Huh? Huohuo likes bitter things?" Lumina asked curiously.
Normally, children prefer sweets, right? Bitter things are usually for adults... Wait, Huohuo is technically an adult, isn't she? Never mind then.
"N-no, it's not that I like them," Huohuo shook her head, explaining further. "I just thought if I eat the bitter things now, maybe I won't have to eat them later..."
"?"
"What's on your mind? All you ever think about is escaping, escaping, escaping! What good does that do?" Mr. Tail's voice, full of exasperation, erupted before Lumina could even respond to Huohuo's words.
There's a saying on the Xianzhou: If you're going to live like this your whole life, don't expect your children to become dragons or phoenixes.
But Mr. Tail was different from Huohuo. He was a dragon or phoenix, while Huohuo...?
"Escaping might be shameful... but, but it's useful," Huohuo mumbled in protest, shrinking under the weight of Mr. Tail's exasperated tone.
"If escaping were useful, why would anyone work?"
"Keep running away every day, lose your job, and you'll be begging on the streets!"
It was fortunate that Mr. Tail had a Heliobus Body and didn't possess saliva. Otherwise, Huohuo's small face would have been drenched and disheveled like a drowned rat.
"Begging... that doesn't sound so bad," Huohuo mused, perhaps misunderstanding the concept. To her, it seemed like a perfectly reasonable option.
Having spent some time with Guinaifen, Huohuo believed that begging involved standing on the street with a hammer, striking it down to receive generous "rewards"...
"Hey, let me tell you, that's called busking, not begging!" As if reading Huohuo's thoughts, Mr. Tail fell into a speechless silence, then his lips curled into a sardonic grin as he "kindly" described the harsh reality of begging.
"Begging means being covered in grime, rushing chaotically into the streets, enduring countless cold stares, and ending the day without even enough for a single steamed bun."
"Then you'd starve to death in some forgotten alley of the Luofu."
"Oh, wait, Huohuo, you're a bit different." Mr. Tail paused, sizing her up before bursting into laughter. "With your looks, you'd definitely get captured and become some powerful figure's plaything!"
"Uhm..." Though Huohuo didn't fully grasp the meaning, Mr. Tail's tone made it clear this was no good fate.
"Alright, Tail, stop scaring Huohuo," Lumina chuckled, observing their exchange. "If you're so timid, just work on your courage!"
From any angle, Tail seemed like Huohuo's overprotective father.
"Do you have Immortal's Delight?" Lumina asked, her gaze landing on the menu in Guinaifen's hand. "I'll take a cup of Immortal's Delight."
"Immortal's Delight?" Guinaifen's head snapped up, startled. "Sister Lumina, you know about Immortal's Delight? Have you tried it before?"
"Not yet. I've just heard it's quite famous on the Xianzhou, so I thought I'd give it a try."
"Um... Sister Lumina, while it's famous, it's not really tea..." Though it was none of her business what Lumina drank, Guinaifen felt compelled to warn her.
"It's actually a milk tea. The elders on the Xianzhou unanimously consider it unhealthy junk food, and drinking too much will definitely cause problems."
"But just one cup won't hurt you, Sister Lumina."
"It's fine. Just order it."
"Alright, I'll order it then." With Lumina's confirmation, Guinaifen tapped the menu with her small hand, completing the order for Immortal's Delight.
"I never imagined someone as important as Sister Lumina would indulge in junk food like this," Guinaifen murmured in surprise.
"Heh heh, I feel like I've gotten a lot closer to you now."
After ordering the Immortal's Delight, Guinaifen couldn't help but sigh in satisfaction.
In Guinaifen's eyes, Lumina was like a lofty, untouchable deity—so close yet impossibly distant. But now, just imagining Lumina's reaction to the Immortal's Delight, the distance instantly shrank to an arm's reach.
"Whether it's truly unhealthy junk food or not, I'll have to try it myself to know," Lumina nodded slightly, refusing to admit that she secretly ate such "junk food," as the elders called it, every day.
"As for the distance?"
"Aren't I right here in front of you? What do you mean by closer or farther?" Lumina feigned confusion, waving her small hand in front of Guinaifen's face to emphasize her presence. "I'm right here, not hiding in some obscure corner."
"It's not what you think," Guinaifen said with a smile, shaking her head. She kept her true feelings about Lumina to herself. To change the subject, she turned to Huohuo and asked, "Huohuo, what would you like to drink?"
"Hmm... I'll have an Immortal's Delight too," Huohuo replied, glancing at her tail as if conflicted. After a moment's hesitation, she decided to follow Mr. Tail's earlier advice—to listen to her own heart.
"Drink, drink, drink! Keep drinking like that and you'll get fat!" Mr. Tail grumbled.
"That won't happen," Huohuo countered. "If you freeze Immortal's Delight, it loses all its calories."
"I can't believe you! How can your stubbornness be so much stronger than your courage?!" Mr. Tail was starting to lose his patience.
"It's different..."
"How is it different?"
"I'm scared..."
"..."