Chapter 141: An Amusing Little Misunderstanding
"Ah, I overdid it."
Irene rubbed her temples and supported herself against the wall as she walked down the stairs. Yesterday, they had waged war against each other inside her mind.
The final collision didn't yield any results. After all, just like when Sirin utilized Kiana's CPU to construct scenes, Irene's construction of those scenes and various combat special effects also consumed her brain's CPU.
However, with the help of her skills and her own mental fortitude, coupled with the assistance of the Bodhi imprint, her CPU consumption was relatively small. Even so, she temporarily couldn't sustain the special effects of an all-out strike unleashed by two Herrschers.
The required calculations had exceeded the limit. Ever since that single all-out collision, her head had been throbbing with pain right up until now.
She even woke up much later than usual. Fortunately, it was a day off anyway, so it didn't really matter how early or late she got up.
She just hadn't expected to wake up even later than Theresa today. By the time she got up, she had no idea where Theresa had run off to.
[Should we just switch places today?]
[Irene]'s voice rang out in Irene's mind. Although switching to her wouldn't make the pain disappear, it would at least allow Irene to rest in her mind for a while.
[No need for now.]
Irene shook her head. Subsequently, she walked down the stairs and was just about to go get some water. As she was drinking, she noticed what felt like numerous gazes staring at her from the side.
"Hm?"
Irene looked over, spotting Himeko and the five little ones sitting on the sofa. Sitting to the side was Theresa, who seemed to have started drinking Bitter Melon Juice the moment she saw Irene come out.
"Good morning."
"Good morning, Sister Irene."
Kiana rubbed her head and greeted Irene. "Um, are you feeling a little unwell, Sister Irene?"
"I just didn't sleep very well, don't worry."
Irene shook her head, walked over to the water dispenser, and poured herself a cup of water. Finally, looking at Kiana—who had been clutching her head the entire time—she asked.
"What's wrong? Why are you holding your head? Did you fall out of bed again?"
"What do you mean 'again'?"
Upon hearing this, Kiana immediately voiced her discontent. Hadn't she only fallen off a few times? Why was it 'again' today?
"Because generally speaking, at your age, that kind of thing doesn't happen very often."
Irene set down her water cup. "But it doesn't seem like this is the first time either, is it?"
"That's not what happened this time."
Kiana pouted and turned her head to glance at Theresa. Theresa, as if sensing Kiana's gaze, glared back at her in return.
"Hm?"
Irene's gaze shifted back and forth between Theresa and Kiana. Finally, as if realizing something, she said, "Oh, so it's not that you fell out of bed again, but that you were asking for trouble again, right?"
Hearing Irene's words, Kiana's body instantly stiffened. "Sister Irene, how did you know? Were you already awake at that time?"
"No, I should have been sleeping soundly at that time."
Irene walked over to the sofa and sat down. "Anyway, the things that can make you clutch your head like that are nothing more than a few specific scenarios.
"You weren't looking at Himeko just now, which means you weren't hit by Himeko. Your recent grades have been pretty good, so it probably isn't that either. You weren't looking at Mei, which proves you weren't sneaking food earlier?
"Since it's neither of them, the only explanation left is that you provoked your Auntie again."
"Sister Irene, you see the smallest details clearly."
Kiana put on a look of admiration and cupped her hands toward Irene.
"Mm, not bad. Your language skills have improved recently."
After Irene nodded, she turned to look at Wendy. "Did you sleep well last night? Have you gotten used to living here these past few days?"
"I'm fine. I guess I slept pretty well last night?"
Wendy scratched her head. After the two rounds of special effects collided, she had been directly knocked out of the mental space.
After all, without Irene, she wouldn't have been able to project her consciousness out of her body to go to Irene's mental world. She just hadn't expected Sister Irene's full strength to be this powerful.
To think she could fight her other self to a draw. It should have been a draw, right? After all, she hadn't been able to see the final result. She had tiptoed out, preparing to find Irene and ask, only to discover that Principal Theresa was actually lying in Irene's room.
Seeing Principal Theresa sleeping so soundly, Wendy felt too embarrassed to disturb them. Furthermore, it seemed Miss Irene had no intention of waking up either.
Unable to figure out the situation, Wendy could only tiptoe back to her room. Fortunately, it was still 3 AM at the time, so she simply went back to sleep.
"Miss Irene, did you sleep well last night?"
Wendy looked at Irene. After all, the place where they were fighting last night was Irene's brain. Who knew if that final collision had any impact on Miss Irene?
"If I had slept well, I wouldn't be rubbing my head right now."
Irene shrugged. Finally, as if suddenly remembering something, she looked at Theresa, who had been staring at her the entire time.
"Right, did Theresa sleep well yesterday?"
"I slept fine, what about it?"
Theresa suddenly jumped down from the sofa. Holding her Bitter Melon Juice, she bounded up the stairs. Looking at her retreating back, it almost seemed as if she was fleeing in panic.
"Hm?"
Irene tilted her head, looking at the departing Theresa. "What's going on?"
"Well, Theresa is getting older, after all. It's completely normal for her emotions to fluctuate like this. Don't pay it any mind."
Himeko smiled, pulling a can of beer from under the table.
"As for right now..." Himeko tilted her head slightly to look at the stairs. "She's probably just feeling shy."
"Hm?"
Irene tilted her head. What was going on? Hadn't she just slept in a little bit? Why did she feel like she had missed something?
Unable to figure it out, she poked the others inside her consciousness space: [Do you guys know what happened?]
[Is there a possibility, my dear?]
[Irene] chimed in at this moment. [When you were unconscious, we couldn't hear a single thing. My dear, you didn't really think you just fell asleep from exhaustion, did you?]
[That was an all-out collision between two Herrschers, or even two emerged Herrschers. Even if it was only a simulation, the only thing providing the CPU was your precious little head.]
[With the special effects maxed out, it's roughly the equivalent of the computer exploding.]
Nuwa nodded within the consciousness space. At the time, after those two finished colliding, the entire consciousness space essentially underwent a complete blackout.
As the one providing all the CPU calculations, Irene had simply crashed on the spot. She didn't respond to any calls. Well, Irene did have to simulate both sides simultaneously, after all.
A CPU overload was unavoidable.
"Well, since it isn't anything particularly important, there's no need to care too much about it."
Himeko shrugged and downed a large gulp of beer, a smile on her face.
"Besides, I hope the relationship between you and Theresa develops a bit better."
"Um, what?"
As for what happened this morning, it was actually quite simple.
It was nothing more than Mei waking up in the morning, finishing breakfast, and asking someone to go call Irene and Theresa, who hadn't gotten up yet. As a result, when Himeko went to check Theresa's room, she found that Theresa wasn't inside at all.
Meanwhile, Kiana, who was responsible for calling Irene, let out an exclamation of surprise. Following that, under Himeko's curious gaze, Kiana was smacked squarely in the face by a pillow flying out of the room.
As for the person who came out from inside, there was no one else but Theresa. And then, everyone went "Oh~".
Kiana also knew she was in the wrong. She had disturbed someone, so what else could she say? A beating was just a beating. She was always asking for trouble normally anyway; she had done it so much that she didn't care about this level of punishment anymore.
"Oh, right, Irene, come with me for a moment. I have something to discuss with you too."
Just as Himeko was about to down some more beer, she suddenly remembered. She was still holding a little prisoner on the Hyperion.
She had originally planned to ask Theresa if they should contact the allied Anti-Entropy Conservative Faction and have them take her away.
But seeing Theresa's current state, it was best if she didn't go. She would ask Irene for her opinion instead. Anyway, if her guess was correct, telling either of them was the same.
"No problem."
Irene nodded, patting away the final bit of dizziness in her mind. Although her head still throbbed faintly, after resting for a while, it had reached an acceptable level.
Finally, she followed Himeko to the second floor. Himeko leaned against the balcony and turned to look at Irene. "What should we do about Sin Mal? We can't just let her stay on my ship forever, right?"
"According to the reports, that kid is not behaving at all. She's currently dismantling her room."
She hadn't even planned to ask if this kid knew any intel. It was clearly just a case of a mother missing her children, so she sent someone over to check the situation and see if she could snatch them back along the way.
Moreover, looking at the kid's berserker-like demeanor, she probably didn't know any important intel anyway. It was just that keeping her on the Hyperion constantly made Himeko genuinely worried the kid would punch straight through the hull.
"Let's wait another two days. After that, hand the matter over to Einstein and the others to handle."
Irene had guessed that Himeko wanted to ask about this.
However, she couldn't hand her over right now. She wanted to see if she could lure Cocolia and her forces over to St. Freya to put on a good show.
"Mm, that works too."
Himeko nodded, then looked down at the floor below. "By the way, should we let Seele and Bronya go see her?"
"They can go see her."
Irene stroked her chin. Bronya definitely wouldn't leave right now, and Seele followed Bronya. As for whether they could persuade Sin Mal to defect, Irene highly doubted it.
The possibility was quite small. Furthermore, given Sin Mal's personality, rather than surrender, she'd be more likely to kill herself. Trying to convince her to surrender would be extremely difficult—there was basically no need to even try.
It would be better to just toss her back to Cocolia. Otherwise, if it truly came to pass that Cocolia lost three daughters in a row, she would probably be furious beyond belief.
"Let them meet. It might placate her a bit and save her from tearing down the room, right?" Irene said, glancing back. "Anyway, even if the two of us disagree, those two little ones would probably go anyway."
Himeko turned her head and looked at the five little heads poking out from the top of the stairs. "You three, how come you're everywhere? Wait, no, Seele, Wendy, how did you two end up picking up their bad habits as well?"
"We were just curious, that's all!" Kiana immediately spoke up to defend herself. "I was really curious what Aunt Himeko would be talking to Sister Irene about at a time like this!"
Mei didn't dare say anything. However, as a woman, perhaps a love for gossip was an incurable habit. So, she merely tried to persuade Kiana, and upon seeing she wouldn't budge, decided to just tag along.
The others had roughly similar reasons. After all, once the morning's farce had passed, they truly didn't believe Himeko was preparing to tell Irene some military secret that wasn't suitable for them to hear.
"You kids... Being this curious about other people's affairs would be considered a violation in other Valkyrie squads." Himeko shook her head somewhat helplessly. "Forget it. Well, it's just as you heard."
After seeing Himeko nod, Kiana cracked her knuckles. "That person named Sin Mal, the little shorty we ran into at Chiyou last time, actually ran over to our place.
"No one beat her up last time... Hey, Mei, what are you doing?"
Before Kiana could finish her tough talk, Mei tugged on the hem of her clothes, pointing toward Bronya. After all, that person was from the same orphanage as Bronya; she had to give Bronya at least a little face.
After Bronya glanced at Kiana, she pulled Seele along and bounded up the stairs, arriving beside Irene and Himeko. "Did Sin Mal come because of Mama's orders?"
"That should be the case. Aside from her, there probably isn't anyone else who can order her around." Irene spread her hands, looking at Bronya and Seele. "How about it, do you want to go see her?
"If you two can get her to quiet down, that would be for the best."
"Bronya doesn't know, but Bronya is willing to try." Bronya held Seele's hand. "So, can Teacher Himeko let Bronya and Seele go see her?"
Seele's expression shifted slightly. She didn't really like Sin Mal. As for the reason, one only needed to look at Bronya's legs.
However, they were from the same orphanage no matter what, so she still had to see her. Furthermore, she also wanted to hear news about Mama Cocolia.
Moreover, since Sister Bronya said they should meet her, they might as well meet her. She would just stand to the side and not say anything.
"Since both of you have asked, how could I say no?" Himeko shrugged. "Just follow me later. It'd be best if you two can get her to quiet down."
"Kiana, you shouldn't go." Irene looked at Kiana. "It's best if you don't join in on this spectacle. If you end up lighting a fuse, it'll be hard to clean up the mess."
"..." Kiana, who had originally planned to go watch the spectacle, heard Irene's words.
"I wouldn't go light any fuses! Sister Irene, do you really not believe me that much?"
"I believe you, but I believe in your clumsiness with words even more." Irene rolled her eyes. "Just based on your attitude from a moment ago, I feel like you're not suited to go.
"Just be good and stay home to play games."
"Besides, even if they're discussing their own private orphanage affairs, why would you go?" Himeko chimed in, equally unconvinced that Kiana wouldn't light a fuse if she went.
"In short, just behave yourself. Don't go trying to join in on every single spectacle."
Being called out by both of them like this, Kiana couldn't bring herself to say anything else. She could only nod. "Alright..."
"Mm, that's right." Himeko nodded, then turned to look at Irene. "Hurry up. You should still rest a bit more today. You were probably genuinely exhausted yesterday."
"Ah?"
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