Eden naturally wasn't about to go tell Durandal and Elysia to tone things down. She hadn't even hinted at it.
After thinking about it, she realized Pardofelis hadn't been the only person sleeping in that bed last night. Eden had been exhausted, sure, but there was no way she'd have missed any noise coming from the room next door.
Young people like Durandal and Elysia were full of energy. Whenever the two of them stayed together, there was no reason to think they'd simply spend the whole night behaving themselves.
Yet whether back at their home in Nagazora City or here at the inn, Eden had never heard a thing. That meant the two of them had always shown plenty of restraint. If Pardofelis could hear them, it was probably because the little rascal had unusually sharp hearing.
In that case, Eden only needed to be more careful in the future and avoid putting Pardofelis in the room next door.
With that settled, Eden and Pardofelis finished washing up, left their room, and knocked on the neighboring door.
Elysia opened it, already fully dressed.
"Eden, and Pardo too? Oh, I know what you're here for. Come in~?"
Elysia was quick-witted, so she naturally understood why Eden had brought Pardofelis over. They were probably here so Pardo could thank Durandal in person for saving her life yesterday.
Before coming over, Eden had already described Elysia and Durandal's appearances to Pardofelis. She didn't want the girl thanking the wrong person and embarrassing herself.
Sure enough, the moment Pardofelis entered, she immediately fixed her eyes on the cold-faced blonde beauty and bowed deeply.
"Thank you for saving me yesterday, Lady Durandal!"
"You don't need to call me 'Lady.' Just stick with what comes naturally."
Durandal had been on a remote video call with Connie earlier.
She might've come to Sundown Alley in person, but that didn't mean she could abandon everything in Nagazora City. She still had to hear Connie's reports every day.
Just now, she'd received a very important piece of information.
Kosma had been found.
Finding Kosma meant they'd confirmed where the Fourth Honkai Eruption would occur. Durandal wished she could rush there at once and begin making preparations.
The problem was that she couldn't be sure Kosma would remain in one place for long. If she went there now and disturbed whatever he was doing, what if that somehow stopped him from appearing at the site of the Fourth Honkai Eruption?
So Durandal could only tell Connie to keep watching Kosma. Once large numbers of signs pointing to an imminent Honkai eruption began appearing around him, they could decide what to do next.
That was why Elysia had been the one to answer the door.
Now that the call with Connie was over, Durandal had time to take a proper look at Pardofelis.
In truth, Pardo looked very different from the version Durandal remembered after she'd joined Fire Moth.
For one thing, Pardofelis had gained a pair of cat ears and a cat tail after joining Fire Moth. Right now, though, she had neither.
After becoming a MANTIS, she'd also had heterochromia, with a blue left eye and a green right eye. The current Pardofelis didn't. Both her eyes were a clear emerald green, bright and pure as jade.
"Um... did I interrupt you, Sister Dudu?"
Pardofelis had noticed Durandal using a laptop earlier. The video-call window had only disappeared after she'd entered.
Eden had already told her that Durandal was the big boss behind Eden herself. Naturally, that filled Pardofelis with a mix of awe and fear.
Her imagination was already running wild, telling her that every minute of Durandal's time was worth millions.
"No. I'm finished with it."
Durandal closed the laptop. Her eyes then moved to Pardofelis, who was still wearing yesterday's clothes. They'd been washed and dried, of course, but the bullet hole in the chest was still far too obvious.
"Eden, take Pardo out and buy her some new clothes."
Durandal knew Eden wanted to recruit Pardofelis, so she used this as an excuse to give them some time alone.
"N-No need to trouble yourself, Sister Eden. I've got plenty of clothes back home. I can just go back and change. Besides..."
Pardofelis looked down at the tiny bullet hole.
"I can patch a little hole like this when I get home. I'll sew a cat-paw design over it, and it'll still last me for years!"
"Those clothes probably won't fit you for much longer. Eden, take her."
Durandal glanced at Pardofelis's currently unremarkable figure. Later on, while she couldn't exactly be called exceptionally well-endowed, she certainly wouldn't be lacking either.
Obviously, as Pardofelis grew older and became more capable, her meals had gradually improved, and her body had developed along with them.
Come to think of it, comparing Pardofelis's current flat figure to how she'd look later gave Durandal a strange feeling.
Not because of Pardo herself.
She'd suddenly thought of Hua.
In the original course of events, Hua had joined Fire Moth around the time of the Third Honkai Eruption. She'd only been fourteen then, just as she was now, and hadn't really begun developing yet.
However, Hua hadn't undergone the MANTIS surgery and Divine Key-related procedures until at least after the Tenth Honkai Eruption. After all, she'd already been carrying the Tenth Divine Key at the time.
If the Previous Era suffered one Honkai eruption per year, wouldn't Hua have been at least twenty by the time she became a MANTIS?
Even if one happened every six months, Hua would've been around seventeen. Yet her figure had remained just as unremarkable...
That meant it probably hadn't been the MANTIS surgery or any related technology stopping her body's development.
After all, by seventeen, a girl's face might still have some maturing left to do, but her body would usually be close to fully grown. And Hua had spent the most important years of her development inside Fire Moth, where there was no reason she'd have lacked proper nutrition.
Could the period between the Third and Tenth Honkai Eruptions have lasted only a single year?
Judging by what happened fifty thousand years later, it wasn't impossible.
Still, the Previous Era had one very clear point in its timeline. Kevin and Su had lost contact after the Third Honkai Eruption, then reunited during the Eighth. Five full years had passed between those two events.
By that logic, Hua should've already been nineteen when the Eighth Honkai Eruption happened.
By the Tenth Honkai Eruption, saying she was only twenty might've been an underestimate.
Of course, there was another possibility. Maybe everyone who joined Fire Moth underwent some degree of bodily modification right from the start.
At least from everything Durandal currently knew, though, Fire Moth hadn't possessed that kind of technology.
In the end, Durandal's entire train of thought really came down to one conclusion...
Some people were simply born flat.
After Eden left with Pardofelis, Elysia smoothly walked over to Durandal, made herself comfortable on Durandal's lap as though it were a chair, and asked,
"What did Connie tell you just now?"
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL