Poseidon in Arknights

Mostima shook his head: "No, I don't understand at all."

Bison pulled out his phone: "Then quickly contact Texas, maybe they..."

Mostima pointed to a screen on the metal box: "It seems too late. This is probably a timed one."

Bison swallowed hard: "It really is a bomb!?"

Mostima nodded. "It is, a bit old-fashioned. I mean its design. Of course, the thing itself is too."

"Tsk... Miss Mostima, you go first."

"Then what are you going to do?"

“Let’s take a gamble.” Bison took a deep breath. “This shield is specially made, and my body is still quite strong. Even if I bet wrong, I might still have a chance to survive.”

"really?"

"Ah."

Mostima smiled. "Then let me witness it to the end. Don't worry, maybe I can also mitigate the damage from the explosion."

"After all, this is work."

"I understand, phew..." After composing himself, Bison gently lifted the gift box. "Let's get started!"

"You've made up your mind? But that hair looks just like the color of my hair," Mostima suddenly said, watching Bison's movements.

Bison paused momentarily as he cut the thread: "Ugh! Mostima! Don't joke around like that! I almost..."

"Ah!" Bison noticed out of the corner of his eye that the countdown on the screen was about to reach zero. He quickly raised his shield to cover his head and chest. "Countdown to zero! Get behind me!!"

"well."

"Uh...uh?" Bison's eyes were tightly closed. He felt the push, but something seemed strange. "Why isn't it hot?"

"What is this, candy!?" Bison opened his eyes and saw the candy that had been sprayed into the air with him.

"Okay, watch your landing posture, or you'll get hurt."

Kong twitched his ears and turned to look behind him: "What's that sound?"

Croissant looked up: "I don't know, but—wow! Someone flew down from the sky!?"

Bison clutched his lower back: "Ouch, ouch, ouch! Why do I always... Ah! I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright, what are you guys playing, some kind of trapeze artist?" Croissant had just put Bison down when something fell on her head.

"Ouch! What hit me?"

"...Candy?" Kong reached out and caught a piece of candy. "Are candies falling from the sky?"

"Sigh, the sweet smell in the air is even stronger now." Texas sighed, seemingly unsurprised by what was happening, and turned to the gangsters who still seemed ready to make a move, saying, "You guys, it's about time you stopped."

"......knew."

Exusiai looked at Texas: "Hmm? Hmm? Texas, do you know something?"

Texas, with a Pocky cookie in her mouth, said, "I don't know. But I can guess roughly."

"Hey!! If you have any clues, you should have told me sooner!"

Texas ignored the shouting Exusiai and turned to look at the Emperor and Yuuki who walked out of the crowd: "Requiem Night, it's long over."

Chapter 48: The Aftermath Party

"Yuzuki! What exactly happened? We're already in the car, can't you tell me?" Exusiai held Yuzuki's hand tightly and shook it back and forth. It seemed that she wouldn't let go unless Yuzuki told her everything.

"Okay, okay, I'll explain it to you~" Yuuki patted Exusiai's head.

"When will you explain?!"

"Shut up, Exusiai, you're too noisy..." Texas rubbed her ears while driving.

"But Texas, aren't you curious? No, Texas, you seem to know something, don't you?"

Texas glanced at Yuuki, who was smiling, in the rearview mirror: "I don't know, but I have a guess."

"As expected of Texas~" Yuuki casually patted the red-haired angel's head, and had to admit it was quite smooth.

“I should have sensed something was wrong the moment you didn’t bring the red ribbon,” Texas shook her head.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Exusiai scratched her head, seemingly not understanding what this had to do with whether or not to bring Red.

“Sigh…” Texas shook her head and drove the car into the garage of the End of the Earth bar. “Now we’ll just have to wait for the guy who said he’d explain.”

"Let's go." Xi Yue smiled and got out of the car. The others also got out of the car one after another and followed behind Xi Yue.

"I'm so sorry to have kept you all busy all night," Yuuki said as she entered through the back door of the tavern. She pushed open the door connecting the rest area to the bar and gestured for the group behind her to enter. "Well then, as an apology..."

"Oh~~" Exusiai drawled, her gaze passing through the door. The Emperor's bar was now completely renovated, even more opulent than before. Of course, none of this was enough to elicit an exclamation of surprise from Exusiai.

What truly amazed Exusiai was the enormous dessert tower in the center, filled with all sorts of small cakes and other desserts.

"Thank you for your hard work~" Yu Yue extended her hand to Shui Huan Shen, who was walking towards her.

After nodding to its main body, the water phantom transformed into a stream of water and merged into Xi Yue's body.

"So you left a water clone here to make desserts?"

"I originally thought tonight's performance would end quickly, but I didn't expect it to drag on until now. But don't worry, everything is still at its best!"

"Mommy~" Hong suddenly jumped out from behind and hugged Xiyue, rubbing against her. Although the water clone of her mother was also nice to rub against, it was still not as good as the real mother.

"Alright, alright, Hong, my dear~" Xi Yue took Hong off from behind her and rubbed it vigorously.

"Mmm, Hong is very good~" Hong made a comfortable purring sound from her throat.

"Let's treat this as a belated Requiem Party~" Yuuki glanced out the window, "Even though it's already past midnight~"

"It's okay, it's okay~" Exusiai sat down happily, not caring at all. "Sarkota's stomach never refuses any dessert at any time."

"If you're not really in the mood for dessert, I have other options too. I'm open to ordering today!"

“No need, it’s still Requiem Night, and it’s a good time to have dessert before morning~” Sora sat down next to her.

"Actually, I'd rather have a drink~" Croissant casually picked up a croissant from the dessert tart.

"Won't I gain weight?" Sora shook her head. Although she said that, her hands were still very honest and she took a piece of cake from the dessert card.

“We have red wine and beer, for example, you can drink some beer while eating chocolate cake.” Xiyue pointed to the box next to the dessert tower. “But that depends on personal preference.”

“Oh, this looks good…” Texas took out a plate of long, thin cookies from under the dessert tart, which were already drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with a layer of chopped nuts.

"Oh, so this is it~" Mostima pushed open the door and walked into the hall, then saw the huge dessert tower in the center and showed a surprised expression. "Looks like I came at the right time. Did Miss Yuzuki make this?"

"Mostima, why can't it be me who did it?" Exusiai smiled as she looked at Mostima who pushed the door open, her tone sounding slightly unfriendly.

“Can you make that much?” Mostima waved her hand. “The others don’t seem like they know how to make desserts, so I guess it must have been Miss Yuzuki who made them.”

“Okay, you guessed right.” Exusiai took a Black Forest cake from the dessert tower. “Speaking of which, where are the boss and Bison?”

"The Emperor probably went for a drink. After all, everyone was incredibly busy today, and he said he was going to see some good friends." Xi Yue took a lava chocolate cake from the dessert tower. "As for Bison, he went back with his butler."

"Oh, what a pity, he went back too early," Exusiai shook her head. "Never mind!"

------

"Cheers!!!" x6

Exusiai placed the wine glass on the table, rubbed her head, and looked at Yuuki: "So today's incident was just the Rat King trying to establish his authority? That's a bit too simplistic."

"Many things are just that simple. Exusiai, don't think of every single thing as a huge conspiracy." Yuuki shook her head and smiled at Exusiai.

"To establish authority?" Texas tapped her fingers on the table involuntarily. "At this time?"

"As for the reason, you'll find out soon enough, so please allow me to leave it blank here~" Yuzuki winked playfully.

"Whatever you want." Texas waved her hand, and judging from her wagging tail, she was in a good mood today; at least she had almost finished the plate of cookies.

"Haha, whatever. Anyway, the boss was involved in this and gave us a lot of bonuses, plus all these delicious desserts. I forgive you~" Exusiai waved her hand, deciding not to pursue the matter any further.

--------

"Ugh..." Exusiai, reeking of alcohol, collapsed onto Mostima's lap, making groaning sounds from time to time.

"So it turned out like this after all~" Xiyue shook her head and touched the two red faces that had also been persuaded to drink and were lying on her lap.

“Oh, have they done this before?” Mostima finished his last glass of wine.

“Yes, they tried to gang up on me at my welcome party.” Yuuki smiled and reached out to steady Texas, who was about to slip off her shoulder.

“This is the first time I’ve seen Texas so close to someone.” Mostima smiled and gently patted Exusiai’s head. “She didn’t stay quiet after getting drunk; she caused quite a ruckus.”

"But she's still quite cute when she's quiet, isn't she?"

"That's only if you're asleep and quiet. You're usually quite noisy~" Yuzuki smiled and then turned her gaze to the door. "It seems someone has come to see you. I'll take the others to rest first."

Yuuki raised her hand, and several wisps of water enveloped Texas and the others, suspending them in the air: "I'll leave Exusiai to you. Have a pleasant night tonight."

“I will.” Mostima nodded. “You also have a wonderful evening, Lady Yuzuki.”

-------

"Alright, now let me see you, you orca..." After placing the others in their resting places, Yuuki turned and went into her own room, looking at Skadi lying on the bed.

"Hmm, it looks like it's just asleep?" Xi Yue stroked the little orca's head. "That's strange, it hasn't woken up yet?"

After a moment of contemplation, Yuuki slowly spoke, "Hmm... Isamara?"

"..."

"Looks like they're all asleep. Honestly, they've caused me a lot of trouble, and they've just fallen asleep on their own." Xi Yue sighed. "I wonder what's going on in Iberia. I hope the Emperor can help me find out, or it would be better if we could go and check on things sometime."

After looking at Skadi for a moment, Yuuki turned around, created a bed in the air with water, and rolled onto it.

"Then let's do it tomorrow..." Xi Yue closed her eyes, preparing to go to sleep, "Hmm?"

Yuuki opened her eyes, turned over and looked at Skadi, who was sitting up and looking at her: "Are you awake? Did I wake you up?"

“…Huff…Huff…” Skadi looked at Yuuki, who was panting heavily for some reason.

"What's wrong?" Yuzuki sat up from the waterbed, intending to go and see what was wrong with Skadi.

"Hoo..." Before Yuuki could even get out of bed, Skadi pounced on her from the bed, trying to pin Yuuki down on the waterbed.

Yuuki raised her foot and used her knee to firmly block Skadi, who was trying to approach: "Hey, hey, hey, you're not going to try to hit me again, are you?"

"It smells so good... I want to... get closer..." Skadi murmured to Yuuki, unsure whether she was speaking to herself or explaining her actions to Yuuki.