Thanks for the invitation! I am in Honkai, still connected Chapter 30 30 - An Unknown Crisis

In a usually restricted floor of a high-class restaurant in Nagazora City, the faint scent of agarwood perated a room decorated in a traditional style.

As the head of the prestigious Raiden family and forr president of Corp, Raiden Ryoma, despite a considerable stint in prison, still had a large number of people willing to serve him.

Therefore, finding a secluded place suitable for a gathering of so Anti-Entropy mbers was, for him, as simple as drinking water or eating a al.

The man, whose hair color and features bore a striking resemblance to Raiden i's, sat before the tatami mats, clutching a sword, his expression far from calm.

It was an exquisitely crafted nodachi. The hilt was a deep, dark purple, and its ice-blue blade, mostly concealed within the scabbard, still emanated an intense chill from the exposed section.

Plasma Kagehide. A masterpiece designed by the Anti-Entropy agent Raiden Ryoma, conceived when he embedded the Gem of Conquest into Raiden i's body to seal her rampaging Stigmata.

If, one day, Raiden i were to transform into a Herrscher due to the Gem embedded within her, he would take up this weapon, declare war on the Herrscher of Thunder, and help his daughter reclaim control of her body.

Without a doubt, this was a super-weapon designed from its inception with a Herrscher as its hypothetical foe, its output potentially no less than that of a Divine Key in its standard state.

Not long ago, this weapon had been hidden in an unknown location by Raiden Ryoma's staunchest loyalists; now, it had been retrieved by its designer.

"Ryoma, what do you think you're doing?" The lobster-headed scientist, who had co to rendezvous with Raiden Ryoma after his successful prison break, shivered as she felt the surrounding temperature plumt due to Plasma Kagehide.

"Chicken-coop head, you try to talk so sense into him too!"

She felt that Raiden Ryoma didn't look like he'd broken out of prison, but more like he was preparing to plunder.

To kill and pillage.

"Though I don't know what you've been through, I think you should calm down." The chicken-coop-headed lady, almost inseparable from her lobster-headed companion, also looked sowhat alard. Raiden Ryoma was acting very strangely.

"There's nothing wrong with my condition." After parting ways with Li Zihan, the man, who had imdiately bombarded his daughter with questions—so many, in fact, that he was t with considerable disdain—spoke in a heavy voice.

"I'm rely contemplating so issues."

"Then put the sword away while you contemplate!" Tesla, the one with the lobster-head, sounded anxious.

She had a feeling Raiden Ryoma was about to toss the scabbard aside and carve a path from the city center to the suburbs, and then all the way back again.

"Hey, don't tell you're furious because that kid hooked up with your daughter without your permission!" Tesla, who had chatted quite enthusiastically with a certain soone who addressed Raiden Ryoma as "Esteed Father-in-Law" during their communications, now looked apprehensive.

Raiden Ryoma's face stiffened, his grip on the sword hilt involuntarily tightening.

After a long mont, he recalled the scene when he asked his daughter, "Did you two stay in the sa room last night?" His expression beca tinged with a slight desolation.

The answer he received was: "We did stay in the sa room, but we slept separately on the bed and the sofa. He took the bed, I slept on the sofa."

Damn it!

A virile young man lures a beautiful girl into his room, and then makes her sleep on the sofa?

Even if you're going to lie, at least make it sowhat believable!

At this thought, the desolation on Raiden Ryoma's face deepened, to the point where Tesla and Einstein, watching him, began to feel a twinge of pity.

"Why would you bring up his daughter being 'spirited away' in front of a man with a daughter-complex?" Einstein, whose emotional intelligence had once been rated in the negatives but who still understood one shouldn't say such things to a doting father, questioned Tesla in a low voice.

"I just blurted it out! How was I supposed to know Ryoma would react so strongly!" Tesla, with her typically boisterous personality—she'd even refer to herself as "Laozi" when drunk—muttered guiltily.

"While I am indeed thinking about related matters, the reason has nothing to do with him 'hooking up' with my daughter." Raiden Ryoma, whose daughter had been 'stolen' after he'd spent a re two and a half months in prison, forcefully suppressed the grief and indignation in his heart and brought up another matter.

"I'm thinking about Li Zihan's own situation."

"Are you thinking about the information that boy—the one who contacted us on your behalf—ntioned?" Tesla frowned, speaking.

During their communications, the person speaking for Raiden Ryoma had said that the situation in Nagazora City was quite peculiar and suggested that Welt Yang, who was currently undercover at Saint Freya Academy, should be called to Nagazora City, just in case.

Such a statent felt distinctly off.

"Mm." Raiden Ryoma, vexed by issues on two fronts, nodded.

When he t with Einstein and Tesla to discuss the events of the past two and a half months, he had heard Tesla ntion that a certain 'pig suspected of rooting up the prize cabbage' had ntioned Welt.

"I don't recall ever telling him the Sovereign's whereabouts."

Back in prison, the term "Esteed Father-in-Law" had muddled his mind so thoroughly that his IQ had temporarily regressed to Theresa's level, causing him to overlook the boy's peculiarities.

Now that he had cald down sowhat and replayed the events in his mind, that fellow seed suspicious from head to toe.

"Welt's movents have been exposed to outsiders? That truly is troubleso." Hearing Raiden Ryoma's words, Tesla's expression changed abruptly.

Welt's whereabouts had always been a top Anti-Entropy secret, known only to a handful of agents; not even Cocolia, who controlled a large portion of Anti-Entropy, was privy to it.

And now, soone who was clearly not a mber of Anti-Entropy had revealed Welt's hiding place.

The re thought was enough to send shivers down one's spine.

"Though I don't know which faction that fellow who's close to your daughter belongs to..."

"...I think it's highly unlikely he's from Schicksal." Einstein, possibly the most level-headed person in all of Anti-Entropy, stated calmly.

Schicksal was undoubtedly Anti-Entropy's mortal enemy, or perhaps, their natural predator.

As far back as 2005, Schicksal had attempted to activate the Fourth Divine Key—a satellite stationed in outer space—in an effort to annihilate all Anti-Entropy mbers in one fell swoop.

If not for a man nad Murata Ryusuke betraying Schicksal and transmitting intelligence about the Fourth Divine Key to Anti-Entropy, their situation would not be as optimistic as it was now.

If Schicksal knew Welt's location, they could easily arrange an ambush, capture Welt—whose health was already failing—and then launch an encirclent operation to wipe out Anti-Entropy.

"Regardless, we absolutely need to question him thoroughly." Raiden Ryoma exhaled a turbid breath and said.

He was imnsely grateful to Li Zihan for protecting his daughter and for rescuing him.

However, the boy knew far too much.

And sotis, information could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

If they didn't get to the bottom of this, the entirety of Anti-Entropy could be plunged into crisis.

"That fellow you ntioned, where is he now?" Tesla, now fully aware of the precariousness of the situation, looked at Raiden Ryoma and asked.

"He went to welco Theresa." Raiden Ryoma, who had been keeping tabs on Li Zihan's movents, replied.