"You two bastards." Tesla glared daggers at the pair of them. Einstein was a lost cause — she'd long since grown a hide thick enough to deflect anything — so Tesla directed the full force of her resentnt at Joyce instead.
"First day back and you're already colluding with Chicken Nest Head?"
Joyce rubbed the back of his head with a sowhat sheepish expression. Without the years of conditioning Einstein had put herself through, he clearly hadn't developed anywhere near her level of shalessness.
Still, the situation wasn't unfamiliar. Back in the old lab days, Einstein had constantly needled Tesla like this. So things never changed.
Faced with Joyce specifically, Tesla found she couldn't quite bring herself to say anything too harsh. She let out a sigh instead. "Fine. I'll let it go since you just got back. More importantly — how are you feeling? Physically?"
"Honestly, better than I rember being." Joyce raised his hand and flexed it experintally. "Other things might need more ti to assess, but I think I should be alright."
"Well, of course~" Irene crossed her arms with smug confidence. That artificial body of hers had earned the dual seal of approval from both Mobius and Vill-V — its pedigree was impeccable.
Even Mobius hadn't been able to find a single flaw with it. In fact, when Irene had finished constructing Joyce's body, Mobius had wordlessly climbed straight in to test it herself.
Though Mobius had, wisely, refrained from testing whether killing herself in it would trigger her Honkai Beast gene resurrection effect. Too risky. Not worth finding out. If sothing went wrong, she'd just be making more work for Irene — and besides, staging a dramatic self-inflicted death in that particular atmosphere would have been... tonally inappropriate, to say the least.
"Good to hear." Tesla exhaled with relief. "And even if sothing does co up, you should be able to use the Herrscher of Reason Core to make adjustnts yourself."
"As for that..." Joyce raised his hand. A blue crystal erged from his palm — the Core that Bronya had carefully extracted to serve as an anchor point during the transfer, ensuring that the thread of Joyce's consciousness survived the process intact.
Joyce gazed at the blue crystal in his palm, a wave of quiet emotion washing over him. This Core had passed through so many hands now. Was he the third owner? Or the fourth?
"I rember it being grey back in the day. Seems like after all this ti, it's taken on your colors." Joyce turned to glance at Bronya, who stood on the other side of the room.
"Mr. Joyce." Bronya t his gaze steadily. The true Herrscher of Reason had returned. Which ant her own ti as a Herrscher had co to an end.
When all was said and done, according to what Dr. Einstein and Dr. Tesla had told her, both she and Welt fell far short of Joyce's level. Joyce was the real thing — soone who could touch an object and rapidly comprehend, internalize, and replicate it entirely. Neither of them had ever been able to do that.
Bronya felt a quiet ache at the thought. Without the Herrscher identity, as an ordinary Valkyrie, there was so little she could do to help Sister Irene. She could hardly ask Sister Irene to go out of her way to secure another Core for her.
But even as those thoughts were forming, the blue Core drifted slowly back toward her.
Bronya stared at the Core hovering before her, then looked up at Joyce with a gaze full of bewildernt.
Joyce read her expression easily and smiled. "Don't look so confused. I've seen so of the weapons you've built — you're more than capable. And besides, even without it, I can still use certain abilities."
To demonstrate, Joyce raised his hand. A chain radiating the Power of Binding materialized between his fingers — an ability he had once analyzed and archived within himself.
Even without the Core's support, he could still produce it. The main impact of going without the Core was simply a matter of Honkai energy reserves.
There were limitations, of course. He wouldn't be able to produce anything on a large scale — sothing like the Moonlight Throne that Bronya could construct was completely out of reach without that much Honkai energy to draw on.
But that wasn't really a significant problem. From what he'd glimpsed in Bronya's eyes of the current situation, it didn't seem like they were short on combat power anyway.
"It's been marinated in gems long enough, after all." Irene leaned against the wall and shrugged, unsurprised by any of this. "Welt could still use the Herrscher of Reason's abilities after separating from the gem too — to create the Star of Eden. Though technically that thing should probably be called the Stellar Harmony."
"That's Eden's weapon, right?" Little Senti tilted her head, her gaze drifting to the Herrscher Core in Bronya's hands, sensing the will still residing within it.
"Oh, right — the other three hundred thousand consciousnesses inside it." Irene waved a hand. "I'll put together a vessel for them later, Joyce, and we can do a transfer. Simple enough."
"That said, I do need to warn you — their souls aren't intact the way yours is. There's no bringing them back the way we brought you back. You were simply weakened; they are incomplete."
"They truly died in that disaster all those years ago. What remains are only lingering remnants."
"I understand." Joyce gave a quiet nod, his eyes lowering to the Core. "But before that — I'd like to keep them with for now. They want to see the end of this disaster with their own eyes."
They had died in that catastrophe. They had shaped who he was. They had fought alongside him. And they had witnessed every step of Welt's and Bronya's battles ever since.
They wanted nothing more than to see the Honkai's end with their own eyes. So he would carry them — all the way to that day.
Joyce raised his hand again, nudging the Core closer toward Bronya. "So take it. It's yours now — you're its keeper. Though I may need to borrow it for sothing down the line. I'll let you know when the ti cos."
"Bronya understands." Bronya nodded and reached out, accepting the gem and absorbing it into her body. "...Thank you, Uncle Joyce?"
After her conversations with Welt, Bronya had used Project Bunny to dig through old records, trying to learn more about this man — the very first Herrscher of Reason.
Tesla and Welt had also granted her clearance to access the relevant files, wanting her to understand what Joyce had done back then, and what had happened at Anti-Entropy's founding.
Certain details had obviously been scrubbed and revised — after all, in the official records, Joyce, or rather Welt, had never died.
Joyce blinked at the honorific. "So now I'm getting called 'Uncle' too, am I."
"Think about how old you actually are." Einstein gave him a look and shrugged. "Anyway — Sovereign, shouldn't you go introduce yourself? To your enterprise, as it were."
Caught off-guard, Joyce tilted his head in puzzlent. "Ah? But didn't I abdicate?"
He had followed things from inside the Core. He knew Einstein and the others had built Anti-Entropy in his na. The problem was — he had never actually served as its Sovereign. Anti-Entropy hadn't even fully co into existence yet before he'd died.
The one who had truly held the title of Sovereign in any aningful sense was Welt, wasn't it? What did any of this have to do with him?
"In everyone else's eyes, you are the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy." Einstein swirled her coffee. "You can't just idle around following everywhere."
"You need an identity. So go be a proper Sovereign. What do you say?"
Anti-Entropy didn't technically have a functioning Sovereign at the mont anyway — Welt had been missing for so long that it had just been Einstein and Tesla running experints and doing research. Asking either of them to manage an organization, well... one could look to the example of how Cocolia had nearly run everything into the ground single-handedly. The two of them were researchers, plain and simple.
The political and administrative side of things was a different beast entirely. At least before, there had been Raiden Ryoma, who had understood that world at least a little. Though clearly not enough — otherwise he wouldn't be sitting in a prison cell right now.
"I haven't served a single day as Sovereign, though." Seeing that Einstein wasn't budging, Joyce could only nod in resigned acceptance. Einstein wasn't wrong, either.
He would need so kind of identity regardless. He'd likely be accompanying Einstein constantly going forward, and Welt had used his face often enough that even if he didn't claim the title, most of the mbers would probably recognize him.
It was a genuinely absurd situation — Joyce was Sovereign in na, but hadn't spent a single day actually being one.
"Talent cos with obligations." Irene patted Joyce's shoulder. "The storm is about to break. I just hope we get a little more peace and quiet first."
"Right..." Joyce nodded, then scratched his head with a troubled look. "I haven't spent a single day as Sovereign, and now Welt's been called away on top of that..."
"Just say a few words. Sothing ceremonial." Irene patted his shoulder again, the picture of reassurance. "Speaking of which — you ntioned credentials earlier?"
"Just a figure of speech." Joyce shrugged and spread his hands. "A joke, really. I don't even have identification papers. Where would I get credentials?"
He'd been scooped up by Schicksal practically from birth, run through a string of fruitless experints, and then transferred to work under Einstein. After that, the two Doctors had taken him in as their own, teaching him everything they knew. His knowledge base was more than sufficient for a doctorate.
But without any formal examinations or certifications on record, he genuinely had no credentials to speak of.
"Ha. Just say the ceremonial bits. The things that need saying." Irene's mouth twitched. "As far as most people are concerned, you're the Sovereign. No getting around it."
"On the administrative side of things, I'm actually thinking of handing Theresa off to handle it."
Einstein raised an eyebrow at Irene. "Principal Theresa? Are you sure, Miss Irene? Anti-Entropy isn't exactly a sprawling empire like Schicksal, you know."
"She's managed a whole academy, at least. That's so administrative experience." Irene shrugged. Soone had to start getting Theresa into shape — otherwise, she was genuinely going to end up as Overseer Theresa with permanent dark circles under her eyes.
Starting her off with Schicksal was too big a leap. But Anti-Entropy as a stepping stone? That seed manageable. A graduated approach.
Though even as Irene thought it through, she recalled how Theresa had typically looked when managing the academy, and her confidence wobbled slightly. Theresa had been coasting in idle mode for far, far too long.
Tesla looked at Irene's expression. "Irene, maybe we should look for soone else. Or — how about we find a way to get Ryoma out first? Theresa can... wait a bit longer?"
"Trust . She can handle it." Theresa was classic 'no pressure, no output' — the type who only wound herself up when the stakes were real. After a period of proper training, Theresa would at least be capable of running Schicksal.
Obviously she'd never reach Otto's level. But Otto was a once-in-ten-thousand-years political freak of nature — no one could match that. Still, it proved Theresa did have a certain innate talent; she was simply too lazy to use it.
So it was ti to push her up onto the stage whether she liked it or not.
At that very mont, in her room, Theresa was lying face-down on her bed, reading a comic.
Out of nowhere, she sneezed.
Theresa sat up in puzzlent and touched her nose. With her constitution, catching a cold was essentially impossible — which ant soone was talking about her?
It wouldn't be Grandpa, would it? Surely not. What would Otto have to say about her?
A sudden chill crawled down Theresa's spine. She had the distinct, unshakeable feeling that sothing was about to co crashing down on her head — she just couldn't figure out what.
"It's not actually Grandpa, is it?" Theresa looked around warily, then pulled out her communicator and gave it a quick scan. Nothing urgent. No critical notifications.
Satisfied that nothing important had been missed, Theresa set the communicator back down, turned over, and picked up the comic she'd dropped during the sneeze.
"Ugh, I wonder why the author stopped updating. Don't tell it's going on indefinite hiatus — please, not that." Theresa stared at the comic in her hands. It wasn't a new one; this was an older volu.
The reason was simple enough: there was nothing new. New chapters had just... stopped coming out. She hoped the author was okay.
In this world, you could never run short of anything except unexpected disasters. And the Honkai, that wretched thing, really did bloom wherever it pleased. Hopefully it wasn't the worst-case scenario.
Theresa offered up a quiet prayer for the author, then turned back to the comic. And at that mont, soone knocked on her door.
Theresa looked up. She flipped off the bed in a single smooth motion, tucked the comic under the pillow, and opened the door. Seeing Irene on the other side, she let out an audible breath of relief.
"Oh, Irene. What's up?" Theresa moved to usher her inside. "Co in, co in — you've been so busy lately. Barely had ti to co find ."
"I've had a lot on my plate. Can't be helped." Irene followed Theresa into the room and let herself be tugged down onto the edge of the bed. "But actually — I do have sothing I need to talk to you about."
Theresa tilted her head. It had been a long ti since Irene had co to her with sothing like that. Theresa straightened up and patted her own chest with gusto. "Say the word. Whatever it is, leave it to this Principal. I've got you."
This was Irene, coming to her for sothing. She had to make a good impression.
Then Theresa saw what Irene was holding out to her: a mobile terminal.
She looked down.
Row upon row of docunts filled the screen.
Irene set the terminal squarely on Theresa's lap. She opened the holographic interface, and imdiately, an avalanche of reports and paperwork cascaded into the air in front of Theresa's face.
Irene patted Theresa on the shoulder. "Nothing too serious, really. It's just that Anti-Entropy has been letting work pile up lately, and I thought — Theresa, you'd be so good at this. So~"
"..." Theresa stared at the mountain of docunts floating before her and swallowed hard.
She finally understood what that chill had been about.
There were villains afoot. Soone was out to get her.
____
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