"Alright, since you got up so late, have some breakfast~ I made it myself."
Elysia brought a tray and placed it in front of Raven. The meal consisted of a steaming cup of milk and a bacon, egg, and toast combo, looking surprisingly simple yet refined.
Unlike the white-haired dumpling from the Kaslana family, who had terrible cooking skills, the Fat Woman, despite her lack of formal education, was quite adept at housework and cooking.
Back in the orphanage, she often helped Celia with the chores and prepared meals for the other children. Many adults in Vostok had praised her, saying that she would definitely become a very virtuous young lady when she grew up.
"My cooking is much better than Mei's. Come on, try it. Skipping breakfast isn't good for your health~"
Raven had braced herself for being inflated like a pufferfish, or at least being subjected to eighteen different positions, but instead, she had a good night's sleep and woke up to a delicious breakfast… Uh, what?
Looking at the meal in front of her, Raven felt like she was living in a dream.
…Could it be that she hadn't woken up yet?
"If you don't eat it quickly, it'll get cold~"
A magnetic voice urged her beside her ear, but Raven felt as if a beautiful girl was sitting opposite her.
Feeling the expectant gaze, she picked up her knife and fork, cut off a piece of the bacon, egg, and toast, and put it in her mouth.
The taste… was ordinary.
Of course, one couldn't expect Elysia's cooking to be exquisite. After all, the Fat Woman hadn't specifically studied culinary arts.
Compared to taste, she probably paid more attention to the appearance of the food.
Raven had eaten better food before, or rather, besides hastily eaten meals, she had enjoyed many finer dishes.
But none of them seemed to have this feeling.
Warm and comforting, this was something Raven had never experienced in her mercenary life.
"Mei and the others have already gone to school, and Bronya has disappeared somewhere… Hmm, how about we go shopping in the city later? I haven't had a good look around yet, and neither have you, right? It'll be fun~"
Jiang Qiao's role as Elysia was to act as a human-shaped vacuum cleaner. With the measures he had put in place, the Honkai energy Cocolia had spread throughout Nagazora City would slowly be neutralized, centered around the Fat Woman.
This process would take a considerable amount of time. Elysia, knowing this, also understood that in order to thoroughly and quickly save the city, she had to go out and about more.
It would be too lonely to go alone, so Elysia chose to invite Raven to accompany her.
"…Okay."
Raven subconsciously smiled and nodded. She had been to this city before.
But it was mostly for missions or just passing through. She had never properly explored this bustling metropolis.
…There's really nothing much to see here, right? But since Gray Serpent told her to comply with this pink-haired hooligan's wishes, all she could do was obey.
The Raiden residence was located in Nagazora City's residential area, a pretty good location in the city, befitting the mansion of ME Corp's president, Raiden Ryoma.
Nagazora City today wasn't as lively as it was on a rest day, but for this international metropolis, it was still bustling with people.
Now, Elysia had more time to appreciate everything this world had to offer.
However, while strolling through the mall, although her eyes would sparkle at the sight of appealing goods, she would reveal a slightly regretful expression the next moment.
Being broke was like that.
There was no helping it. "Jiang Qiao" was essentially undocumented in this world. Elysia could even say that she was richer than Jiang Qiao at her poorest, because Cecilia had given her plenty of travel expenses.
As for her other friends, there was no need to mention them. Kiana relied on part-time jobs, and Mei, due to the Raiden family assets being mostly frozen, although Ryoma had managed to leave her a considerable sum before being imprisoned, it was only enough for daily expenses.
Moreover, asking them for money wasn't something Elysia could do.
The dignified Miss Fairy was actually troubled by a lack of funds. Life was hard, Elysia sighed.
Seemingly noticing this, Raven, subconsciously not wanting to see her with such an expression, remembered her unreliable adoptive father's words.
Didn't he say that all expenses with this man could be claimed from the organization?
Thinking of this, Raven's eyes lit up, and she took the initiative to say:
"Here's this card. Swipe it for whatever you want."
She pulled out a black card from somewhere and handed it to Elysia. World Serpent would cover the expenses. According to Gray Serpent, she could swipe it freely.
"Eh? Is that okay?"
"No problem, just swipe away."
It wasn't her money anyway.
Raven sneered inwardly.
Since she was given this task, how could she miss such a good opportunity to shop with public funds?
Anyway, that bastard said that keeping "Jiang Qiao" happy was the Sovereign's order, so she had a justification if questioned later.
If she wasn't worried about going too far, Raven even had the urge to ask Elysia to help her pay for her island villa.
She was still short of quite a bit of money. If she could take advantage of this opportunity to freeload, wouldn't she save herself years of effort?
Gray Serpent didn't know that his adopted daughter was already scheming about how to reasonably fleece the organization.
—Hilarious, the adopted daughter he just sent out is now turning against them, who understands?
Of course, even if he knew, he would probably just grit his teeth and pay the bill.
Given the Sovereign's attitude towards Elysia, let alone shopping on World Serpent's account, even if they gave half of World Serpent to Elysia, Kevin probably wouldn't bat an eye.
Setting aside the potential large, unnecessary expense facing World Serpent, Gray Serpent was currently pondering his next course of action.
Originally, according to the Sovereign's will, they were supposed to gather food to restore the Sovereign's body and help liberate him.
However, the Nagazora City Eruption failed, and just as they were setting their sights on K423 and Raiden Mei in Nagazora, Elysia suddenly appeared.
Hiss, these two clearly have a close relationship with Elysia.
Remembering the Sovereign's will, Gray Serpent decisively abandoned these two targets.
So…
Was their next target the gems held by Schicksal?
According to World Serpent's intelligence, in a few days, the failed Gem of Desire experimental subject seemed to be transferred to Schicksal's Atlantic branch in New Zealand.
Recalling the previous two times, either they were inexplicably destroyed by unknown Herrscher fluctuations, or just as they were about to start, they received the bad news that the Divine Key in Raven's possession had been borrowed by Elysia.
Gray Serpent felt a little apprehensive.
This time…
This can't possibly go wrong again, right?