Honkai: You're telling me this difficulty is from Honkai Impact 3?!

"Really not hungry?" Kiana asked, shocked. She couldn't believe there was someone in this world who could sleep for twelve hours and still claim not to be hungry!

"Really not hungry," Shu confirmed, casually picking up a piece of food with his chopsticks and putting it in his mouth.

"Is something wrong with your appetite? Or are you not feeling well somewhere?" For once, Kiana didn't immediately start eating, but asked another question.

"I'm really fine." Shu picked up another mouthful of rice with his chopsticks. No matter how many times she saw it, Schrödinger had to marvel at the refined manner in which Shu ate.

It was the first time she had seen such elegance... and intense reservation... in someone eating a simple home-cooked Chinese meal.

Did he have some kind of celebrity complex?

Although Kiana still hadn't started eating, her hand had already automatically picked up her chopsticks.

Mei looked up and suddenly saw a secret, mischievous grin on Kiana's lips.

"It's not really because of some 'As a human, I'm so sor—'"

"Stop!" Shu's hand froze. He turned to glare at Kiana. Kiana shrank back, her expression a mix of a sheepish grin and triumph, before she giggled and joined the fray at the table.

"It's been so many days, how do you still remember that?" Shu sighed helplessly, his face a mixture of resignation and gloom.

"It made too deep of an impression. Bronya can't forget it either," Bronya chimed in silently, quickly stating her opinion before diving back into her meal.

This was a rare occasion where Kiana was a couple of seconds late to the battle. She might be able to get a few extra bites of her favorite dishes!

Shu didn't have such worries. He turned to look at Mei, only to be met with an embarrassed smile.

Even Sirin guiltily avoided his gaze, the corners of her mouth twitching with a suppressed laugh.

He understood. His heart turned to ash.

The state he had entered to defeat the Herrscher of the Dream was incredibly powerful, almost unbelievably so.

It was a state born from the fusion and supplementation of his two authorities. Normally, the two powers existed independently, never interfering with each other, and thus couldn't produce such an effect.

Shu could merge the two authorities at any time, but before that, he had to activate his Herrscher state.

And the side effects after exiting that state were just...

Never mind, let's not talk about it.

[Key of Remembrance Log—

Shu: "I'm sorry. It must be so hard for you all to be on the same train as me, to have a piece of societal trash like me as your colleague..."

Kiana: "?"

Mei: "?"

Bronya: "?"]

Kiana: "Shu... have you finally gone crazy?"]

That state had lasted for a full day. And it just had to be when Joachim and the others were still around. Joachim had begun to suspect that Shu was one of those people who were completely different in reality versus in [Project: STIGMA].

And he was right, to an extent. In his Herrscher state, Shu was arrogant and domineering. He held back a little when facing his own people, just appearing more confident.

But when fighting the Demon King, he had looked like he wanted to stomp on its face a few times and then spit on it!

It was only after the new authority fused with his old one that Shu managed to control his arrogant emotions.

And then the side effects kicked in. Shu became completely emo, unable to look people in the eye, unable to initiate conversations, and even stammering when answering questions.

Kiana had thought he had been traumatized into insanity.

She herself felt a little guilty, to say the least.

Shu's gaze circled the room before finally landing back on Kiana. He watched her silently for a moment, then sighed in resignation, adjusted his glasses, and said nothing.

He had confiscated the Key of Genesis again. This time, Kiana hadn't dared to stop him, because all her allies had sided with Shu. They looked ready to drag her to the execution platform for a three-day public shaming.

"Is this what you call 'proper use'?" A rhetorical question that made Kiana feel guilty.

"Kiana is an idiot. A big idiot. A super big idiot." A progressive statement that made Kiana feel ashamed.

"Kiana... please don't do this again, okay?" A sincere request. Kiana whistled, not daring to even look at Mei as she agreed.

Now, if you looked closely at Kiana's body, you could see a dense network of tiny cracks. They became even clearer under strong light.

Standing in the sun, Kiana looked like she was about to shatter, a sight that gave Shu a heart attack, pained Mei, and weighed heavily on Bronya's heart.

"Eat up, drink up," Darwin had said with a grave tone after examining Kiana, making the three of them feel like their hearts had stopped.

"Mei! I want cake!!" But the person in question had raised her hands, her eyes shining, and shouted with gusto. Though she meant it lightheartedly, to everyone else, it sounded like she was giving up in despair.

"I've never seen such a skinny Kaslana," Darwin said sincerely, just as Shu was about to ask for a solution, revealing Kiana's serious condition.

Malnutrition... There was a reason why Kaslanas would starve to death if they missed a single meal. This was the apocalypse. For the first month, Kiana had been starving, never eating her fill. It took her over two months of adjustment to barely recover.

Her nutritional intake was barely balanced to begin with. Add to that the huge amount of energy the Key of Genesis's full power had drawn from her body, and it was no wonder she was now malnourished.

And so, Joachim had a flash of inspiration. He switched the liaison from Van Gogh to Schrödinger, reasoning that she was good at... raising things.

"I am not a pig!"

"I raise cats! Cats!!"

Both of them protested at the same time.

Right, the famous Moonsea Fish-Fish Cat, Bronya thought to herself. Out of respect for the patient, she chose not to say anything.

But Nobel, who had been fattened up and couldn't lose the weight, wasn't so tactful.

"That's right, Little Hei is already eleven kilograms," Nobel's voice sounded particularly sharp in Schrödinger's ears. "It's only a medium-sized cat, but it's heavier than most large cats."

"That's Little Bai!" was Schrödinger's last stand.

Schrödinger was, of course, willing to stay. She believed everyone was envious of her opportunity to spend an extended period of time near [Hope]... that is, near Shu.

Especially after Darwin had gravely pointed out that Shu's physical condition needed even more care than Kiana's, Schrödinger had reluctantly admitted that she had a mystical constitution for raising people.

"Pah! Shameless!" Nobel spat.

"Ewww~ So thick-skinned," Watt drawled.

"A world-famous painting," Cézanne chuckled.

"Abstract," Picasso commented sharply.

"..." Van Gogh said nothing, but everyone understood her curses were probably quite colorful.

That was supposed to have been her chance... She had already planned what she would paint with Shu as her model. She had a premonition it would be a timeless masterpiece.

Gone... all because she wasn't good at raising pigs...

Indeed... raising pigs is also a profound art...

"I told you, I'm not a pig!!"