At first, Ren thought he was seeing things. But then he turned his head and saw a white Haired Tuna slumped right beside his pillow.
A flicker of inexplicable panic crossed his eyes. In an instant, Ren mentally replayed his entire memory of last night, but couldn't recall sleepwalking.
Fortunately, the faint, fresh scent reaching his nose helped his rapidly spinning brain calm down. He realized Kiana was just sitting on the floor, her head resting beside his bed.
Her clothes were neat; she must have come into his room after getting up. For some reason, she had fallen asleep leaning against his bed.
"..." Letting out a long breath, Ren wasn't sure if he felt relieved or disappointed. Making sure Kiana was still asleep, Ren pressed down on the thin blanket covering him, subtly calming the... ahem... natural morning occurrence common to all boys.
Glancing at the slightly ajar door, Ren's mind raced. He quickly figured she probably came over intending to wake him up. But since he usually woke up precisely at six, she must have decided to wait beside the bed.
And while waiting... she fell asleep.
"What on earth goes on in that head of yours..." Ren couldn't help but gently rub her head. He knew she had a habit of sleeping in, yet here she was in his room before six. She must have been incredibly tired to fall asleep just leaning there.
Sensing the movement, the white Haired Tuna stirred slightly. Sleepily lifting her head, she noticed Ren looking at her and quickly forced herself awake. "Morning, Ren! I was planning to wake you up today, but looks like I came a bit early."
She grinned sheepishly, trying to cover up her embarrassment about mistaking the time.
Because she had talked late into the night with Himeko, it was already the middle of the night when Kiana got back to her room. Lying in bed, however, she couldn't fall asleep. Himeko's words about getting to know Ren better kept replaying in her mind. On impulse, she set an alarm to wake Ren up in the morning.
But perhaps because she kept thinking about it, she woke up groggily before dawn. Glancing at the clock, she thought it was already past six and rushed over to Ren's room to wake him.
Only after entering did she realize she'd misread the time. Figuring waiting a little longer wouldn't hurt, she ended up crouching by Ren's bedside. But whether from exhaustion or because Ren looked too peaceful sleeping, she ended up leaning against the bed and dozing off.
"Is that so?" Ren wanted to say it wasn't necessary – after all, mornings could be awkward for guys – but then he remembered he also barged into her room in the mornings... maybe it wasn't so inappropriate after all...
"But you still look half-asleep. Want to sleep a little longer?" Ren knew Kiana's usual sleep schedule. She had pulled an all-nighter the day before yesterday and gotten up so early today; she was most likely still tired.
"No need." Waving her hand to indicate she was fine, Kiana placed her hands on the edge of the bed to push herself up.
However, perhaps because she had been crouching for too long and her legs had gone numb, she lost her balance the moment she stood up and pitched forward, falling right onto Ren.
Ren felt a dull thud against his chest, almost knocking the wind out of him. But quickly, a soft feeling transmitted through the thin blanket, making his mind go momentarily blank.
"Ahem, ahem." Before Kiana could explain, a light cough sounded from the doorway. They both looked up to see Himeko standing outside the open bedroom door, eyes wide, staring at them.
"You two..." Himeko started to say something but immediately swallowed her words. Her expression complicated, she just said, "Close the door next time."
Oblivious Kiana didn't catch the meaning in Himeko's eyes at all, just replying blankly, "Oh."
Although the situation was somewhat intimate, neither Ren nor Kiana felt particularly awkward. In their minds, this level of contact had long become commonplace.
It had to be said, when it came to lacking a sense of personal boundaries, the two were remarkably similar.
The little morning incident went unnoticed by anyone else. Except for Himeko, who seemed to constantly hover on the verge of saying something, the parties involved didn't think anything of it.
However, during breakfast, Ren noticed something was off. Why did Kiana glance over at him every single time he took a bite?
"Is there something on my face? Or is the breakfast not to your liking?"
Caught off guard, Kiana panicked, quickly shoveling several mouthfuls of rice and mumbling indistinctly, "Nope, nothing."
"Then why do you keep looking at me? Is there something you want to say?"
"Well..." Kiana averted her gaze, unable to admit she was trying to observe Ren's every move.
Her eyes skipped past Ren and landed on Himeko. Brain working fast, she blurted out, "It's Himeko-sensei!"
"Hm?" Himeko looked utterly bewildered.
"Himeko-sensei has something to ask you!"
Seriously, dude...
Himeko, suddenly saddled with the blame, didn't know how to react. But seeing her student's pitiful expression, she could only take the fall.
"Uh, yeah, I actually do have something for you." She cleared her throat, picking one issue from her recent pile of work headaches. "ARC City's industrial expansion has pretty much covered the core area, but we're facing quite a bit of resistance expanding outwards."
"Especially in the South Asia region. The local powers there are extremely resistant to outside industries. The company's pharmaceutical group has tried negotiating multiple times, but they've all been rejected."
"Pharmaceuticals?"
Turning to business, both Ren and Kiana became more serious. "Honkai."
Himeko explained, "There have been nearly a thousand Honkai incidents in the South Asia region recently, with casualties exceeding ten million. What's strange is, both Schicksal and us have provided a significant amount of Honkai Energy inhibitors. Logically, the casualty numbers shouldn't be this high."
"You suspect foul play?"
"It's possible. Religious forces are rampant there, and sanitation conditions are extremely poor. We can't rule out external factors. We sent people to investigate, but conventional methods haven't found anything unusual."
'Conventional methods,' of course, referred to standard medical inspections. The Obsidian Concord Group couldn't have reached its current scale relying solely on Ren controlling everyone one by one.
"Since you two have time, maybe you could go investigate the specific situation."
"Okay." Ren nodded in agreement. Daring to mess with my stuff? Let's see who's got the guts.
"Then I'll leave it to you. I'll send you the address. Schicksal is very active; try not to reveal your presence."
If it weren't for finding something for the two of them to do, Ren could have solved this level of trouble simply by sending a puppet.
I wonder what expression the troublemakers will have when they realize they've attracted the attention of the two strongest Herrschers.