After stopping Theresa, Jun An promised to buy her more bitter melon juice, which finally placated her somewhat.
"Just who wrote that bogus guidebook anyway?" Theresa drank her bitter melon juice with displeasure. "Writing nonsense without even knowing my bust measurement!" If she were actually that big, fine, but the problem was she wasn't!
"Calm down, calm down. Don't stoop to their level." Jun An said helplessly. "Look, at least you got third place. I only got sixth, didn't even get a consolation prize."
Jun An was also quite curious about that guidebook. He wondered if he was even mentioned in it. If he got the chance, Jun An really wanted to get his hands on a copy to see how it described the other Valkyries.
Once Theresa had calmed down, she and Jun An started wandering around the anime convention together. Although it was a collaboration event, it wasn't limited to just Schicksal Valkyries; there were other anime characters too. Many people were "stamp collecting" – posing for photos with cosplayers.
Because Theresa looked so much like herself, quite a few people came over to get a photo with her. As for Jun An, since his Captain cosplay wasn't the handsome, cool version, almost no one approached him.
Jun An relied entirely on his looks and his aura of "frail sickliness" to attract attention. Mostly, it was a bunch of older sisters who wanted to tease a child, but they were all scared off by Theresa's terrifying glare.
However, those older sisters were probably just looking to have fun with Jun An anyway. Even after being glared at by Theresa, they weren't angry at all, merely finding the dynamic between Theresa and Jun An like innocent childhood sweethearts. Some even found it amusing and deliberately hugged Jun An just to tease Theresa.
Perhaps because of the recent "bust doesn't match the rumors" incident, Theresa became even angrier seeing those girls press their chests close to the Captain, especially the cosplayers wearing particularly revealing outfits!
"Captain, don't hang around here! Come with me!"
Theresa discovered that whenever she posed for a photo with someone, women would immediately seize the opportunity to strike up a conversation with the Captain. One time, he was almost pulled into a crowd and separated from her!
He was still so small, even younger than Mei was! What if some bad woman assaulted him?
The more Theresa thought about it, the more terrified she became, so she immediately dragged him into the women's restroom. Jun An instantly became alert the moment he saw the women's restroom sign, but it was already too late.
Fortunately, cross-dressing was common at conventions, so Jun An wasn't discovered. Still, Theresa forcefully induced a "sage mode" upon him, making it impossible for Jun An to "commit crimes" even if someone tried to abduct him.
After about ten minutes, Jun An waited another ten minutes. He only dared to leave the restroom separately from Theresa when there were fewer people around. After all, if two people came out of the same restroom together, anyone would know what was going on.
Emerging from the restroom, Jun An still felt uneasy, looking at Theresa speechlessly. "Seriously, can things like that not happen so suddenly?"
"What's wrong? Wasn't the Captain having fun too?" Theresa rinsed her mouth with the bitter melon juice, then swallowed it. "You were even pressing my head down just now. Captain, do you have a hidden S-side?"
"Do you have any idea what would have happened if you'd made even a sound?" Jun An retorted. "Even if you were jealous, you don't get jealous like that!"
Jun An wasn't opposed to that kind of play itself. The problem was who the partner was. If it were Himeko, Jun An wouldn't be worried; she'd probably just look envious at most. But the partner was Theresa! Her physical age was set at around twelve, only slightly taller than Bronya was when she first entered school. Jun An was afraid of ending up in jail.
However, thankfully, the convention restroom was large enough and had enough stalls. When the crowd thinned, those coming and going weren't queuing up, and Jun An and Theresa managed to leave the women's restroom without incident.
"What are you afraid of? If anything happens, just have Himeko bail us out, right?" Theresa, holding significant power, didn't seem bothered. After all, the Far East Branch used to be her territory, and now it was Himeko's. As long as no one deliberately blew things out of proportion, she wouldn't care too much.
"And even if things really did get out of hand, known to everyone, we can just use the ultimate secret weapon."
Seeing Theresa looking so confident and self-assured, Jun An couldn't help but become curious. "What is this ultimate secret weapon you're talking about?"
"Why, the great Herrscher of Sentience, 'Little Senti', of course!" Theresa said nonchalantly. "If someone spreads things around uncontrollably, reaching a point of no return, why not just use the Herrscher of Sentience's abilities?"
"That's not something the Overseer of Schicksal should be saying!" Jun An couldn't help but complain. "You weren't like this before! Weren't you the one with the most principles among all of us?"
During the fight against Honkai, Theresa and Himeko, as the guardians of everyone, were always the ones who led by example. It was precisely for this reason that Theresa was one of the spiritual leaders of the entire Far East Branch, guiding everyone in the right direction.
Theresa looked at Jun An speechlessly and retorted, "Well, Captain, who do you think I learned from?"
"Definitely not me." Jun An looked away. Among the spiritual leaders, Jun An was the one with the fewest principles, to the extent that he couldn't even be properly written into textbooks.
The two tacitly agreed to drop the subject and instead went to browse the convention together. Jun An's purpose was clear: he was looking for doujinshi.
"Theresa, let me ask you something. If you saw a doujinshi about yourself, what would you do?" Jun An looked at the dazzling array of stalls, suddenly curious.
Theresa gave Jun An a sideways glance and countered, "What would the Captain do if he saw a BL doujinshi about himself?"
"Well, I'd feel it violated my portrait rights and demand that the seller stop immediately." Jun An's expression turned serious. "Who's so idle? Drawing doujinshi about beautiful girls is one thing, but what's the meaning of drawing one about me, a man?"
"It's just a hypothetical," Theresa shrugged. "Actually, I'm pretty much the same as the Captain. If I saw one, I'd shut it down immediately. By the way, Captain, you shouldn't underestimate yourself. You're a great hero who fought the Honkai. The number of doujinshi about you is actually quite high. Ai-chan did a little survey, and it seems about a third of them are BL."
Jun An's face instantly darkened upon hearing this. "And the other two-thirds?"
Theresa's face also darkened instantly. "They're doujinshi about the 'brave hero who died' to make me cry. Some of them even depict the heartwarming daily life of the Schicksal Overseer, meaning me, and the Captain, only to reveal in the end that it was just my fantasy... Back then, I really wanted to catch the artist and beat them up."
Theresa spoke through clenched teeth. After a brief tantrum, she immediately grabbed Jun An, her grip tighter than when they usually held hands.
Seeing Theresa like this, Jun An instantly became intrigued. He immediately searched online and indeed found some free, wholesome short manga. They often paired Jun An with various characters (CPs).
At first, they depicted very heartwarming scenes, but then they would suddenly take a turn and tell everyone—the Captain is dead, each one more like the Herrscher of the Thousand-Persona than the last.
It was clear there were artists with some conscience, but not many.
As he scrolled, Jun An suddenly found a manga that claimed to be an "if" story where Jun An had resurrected. It was quite popular. Jun An instantly showed it to Theresa, curious.
"Oh, I've read this one." Theresa replied, still slightly unhappy. "Although this one is indeed more conscientious, for us as the actual people involved, it doesn't really change anything. Reading too much of it just makes us sad."
But even though she knew it was a "knife" (sad/tragic story), Theresa couldn't help but want to read it. She could only blame herself for seeking out such heartbreak.
"Speaking of which, Himeko and I really did want to resurrect the Captain." Theresa said suddenly.
"Oh?" Jun An became interested. "And then? You didn't just think about it, right?"
"Of course not," Theresa nodded. "We considered going to the Imaginary Tree, like the Captain did, to find the Captain in a past timeline, and bring the past Captain to the present in a state of suspended animation right at the moment of his death."
"And then?" Jun An asked, though he knew the answer. Jun An, as a Transmigrator, was extremely special – unpredictable, not subject to causality, outside the cycle of reincarnation. This special nature was precisely why he was a Transmigrator.
"Of course, we failed. Otherwise, the Captain could see a version of himself from a different timeline." Theresa poked his face dissatisfiedly. "In short, there were three difficulties in resurrecting the Captain. First, although the Second Divine Key could observe information about that precise moment in the past, it couldn't intercept any information regarding the Captain, so we couldn't reach that point."
Otto used the Second Divine Key's beacon to pinpoint the exact moment of the Saint's death five hundred years ago, ensuring it wasn't too early or too late.
But Jun An was unpredictable. By the same logic, they couldn't observe his past either. They used the Key of Ego (Hundred-Realm Joint) to observe the "past" from the "present", so naturally, they couldn't capture information about Jun An.
"Second, was the matter of power and the method of rescue. To stop a star-destroying level attack, the safest bet is naturally Kiana with her star-destroying power, but she has to stay on the moon. Until the Captain's Lunar Throne blueprint is complete, she has to remain there."
Jun An had seen the original story, so he had indeed left preparations for Kiana, who couldn't easily leave the moon. But without Jun An's power, that plan was currently difficult to complete.
And Theresa was ultimately kind. She wouldn't risk the entire world by having Kiana leave the moon just for Jun An, as that could lead to unpredictable consequences. Theresa naturally wouldn't do that.
"Third, was the problem of how to return. Grandpa [Otto], after creating a new world, never thought about returning. And the method for the Captain to return without affecting the past became almost impossible to figure out after your departure. So, we couldn't risk it."
If they went and couldn't return, or if they messed up the timeline trying to return, causing various butterfly effects that made the hard-won outcome worse, that was something everyone wished to avoid.
"But now that the Captain is back, those attempts aren't necessary anymore." Theresa moved behind the bench and hugged Jun An. "Don't worry, this time, I won't easily let the Captain leave us again. No matter the cost."
Jun An felt somewhat suffocated, both figuratively and literally. He couldn't help but feel that maybe Theresa's work stress over the past year had caused her to develop some yandere tendencies?
—System.
[I'm here.]
—Help me allocate points. Put all these days' points into recovery.
[...]