But then again, if she wanted to live a peaceful life with Seele, her boss was actually an obstacle, wasn't he?
Miss Banya thought.
After witnessing Mr. Welt-One, who had attacked alongside her, get blown into a pixelated mosaic while she herself remained unharmed and even received Li Zihan's help, Bronya understood something.
Her boss's favorability toward her was not low; it could even be said to be very high.
However, she had never met Li Zihan before arriving in Nagazora, which naturally ruled out the possibility of them being old acquaintances.
Thinking about it that way, such a high level of favorability was completely inexplicable.
This kind of inexplicable affection that arises between a man and a woman is generally called love at first sight, or perhaps, lust at first sight.
To put it simply, the boss was after her body.
Honestly, even though he was after her body, Miss Banya didn't dislike Li Zihan. In fact, she was quite grateful to him.
After all, he had first spared her life, and then practically gave her a great deal of information about the Sea of Quanta for free under the guise of her working for him.
Now, he even seemed to be heading into the Sea of Quanta personally to help her find Seele.
To be honest, if it weren't for Seele, Miss Banya might have even been a little moved.
A person willing to venture into a perilous environment like the Sea of Quanta simply because of a girl's wish was truly rare and worth cherishing.
Unfortunately, she still wanted to be with Seele more.
At this thought, Miss Banya couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
The boss is a good person, but we're not right for each other. It's truly a waste for him to spend so much effort on me.
So, I should think of a way to divert the boss's attention away from me and let him spend his energy on a girl with whom he can have a future.
Miss Banya, who had been in contact with a few of her old sisters back home, stared at the young man before her with her beautiful, pale gray eyes, lost in thought.
Li Zihan, being watched, didn't pay much mind to Miss Banya's gaze.
Not being a fan of the taste of alcohol hidden beneath juice and ice, he asked the waiter for two more servings of grapefruit juice and poured them into his glass.
The location of the whimpering donkey-fox had been found, the S-Rank Valkyrie Judah was in place, and Chief Wa was willing to be his backup thanks to the intelligence he had provided.
The next step was to take the Gem of Conquest to the designated location, awaken the eight "yings," and then deal with the Higokumaru on her.
Once he had Jizo Mitama, approaching Otto would be much safer and easier.
Li Zihan sipped his drink and tapped his fingers on the table, thinking.
Considering only the Honkai world, the Oath of Judah was the most suitable armament for him.
Like the Herrscher of Binding, Judah had the ability to nullify Honkai energy and weaken other forms of energy to varying degrees.
Its Zeroth Power, the "Divine Grace Field," could create a field that nullified Honkai energy for one minute.
Li Zihan's primary profession was a magus. Inside a Bounded Field where Honkai energy was nullified, he could still use his weakened magical energy and his Mystic Codes.
Within the Divine Grace Field, his advantage in using magecraft would be maximized. Only then would he be qualified to speak with the Forerunner, Su, and the World Serpent Lord, Kevin.
A small smile touched the corners of the young man's lips as the series of plans formed in his mind.
He was rather looking forward to what was to come.
"Boss, is there a girl you like?"
Just as Li Zihan was pondering his plans, these words were suddenly uttered from Miss Banya's mouth.
Li Zihan paused, the figures of Kuonji Alice and Miss Mei flashing through his mind.
Of all the people he knew, these two were among the few girls with relatively normal personalities.
If he were forced to choose a girl to date, Alice and Mei would naturally be the best candidates.
Kuonji Alice seemed cold, but she actually had a very girlish heart and was a closet tsundere—super cute.
Miss Rice Cooker had an incredibly gentle personality, a true Yamato Nadeshiko, practically the perfect choice for a wife.
Besides them, Bronya was also quite cute. A pseudo-sanwu who carried multiple male protagonist templates and could even summon "Even Shidan is afraid of me."
And then there was Beo. Beo...
Better not. Humans shouldn't, at least they shouldn't... f— a golden husky.
At this thought, Li Zihan's heart felt a pang of sorrow.
Why did other people's childhood friends get to be tsundere, blonde, beautiful girls, while his childhood friend was a golden husky?
"Why do you ask?"
After lamenting his tragic fate inwardly, Li Zihan asked Miss Banya in return.
Of course, it's to confirm whether you have a girl you like.
Miss Banya muttered in her heart.
If he did, she would play wingman and help her boss fall in love as soon as possible, making him forget about her.
If he didn't, it would be more troublesome. She would have to spend a lot of effort finding a pretty girl with a suitable personality to KO her boss.
"Just simple curiosity."
Bronya lied without a blush or a change in her heartbeat.
"Not at the moment, I suppose."
Li Zihan mused for a moment before speaking, then looked at Miss Banya with a teasing smile.
"What, are you planning to offer yourself to me and help me escape the bitter sea of singledom?"
"Boss, you're a good person. I don't really want to visit you in a Shenzhou prison."
Bronya calmly educated her boss on what constituted a serious criminal offense.
"It's fine. I can wait."
Li Zihan grinned as he spoke.
And he really could wait. As a magus, if he wanted to drag things out, living for a few hundred years was absolutely no problem.
Bronya fell silent.
Indeed, it would be better to bring Liliya and the others over soon to see if they hit it off and divert the attention of this lolicon boss.
With that thought, Miss Banya stood up, preparing to take her leave from Li Zihan.
Cocolia was done for, so restarting the X-10 experiment was something only she could handle.
Furthermore, the matter of diverting her boss's interest in her needed to proceed simultaneously.
"Boss, Bronya will be leaving first."
The girl, who clearly had urgent matters to attend to, said to Li Zihan.
"If it's about work like restarting the X-10 lab, you don't have to do it."
Li Zihan, who roughly knew what Miss Banya was busy with, spoke up.
"You can just leave that kind of thing to Welt."
"Boss, are you crazy? The Sovereign would absolutely never allow human experimentation to appear in Anti-Entropy."
Miss Banya, who had personally seen her own mother get arrested by Welt and thrown into Nagazora Prison, couldn't help but raise her voice a few notches.
"Just describe the X-10 experiment as a dangerous path to the Sea of Quanta."
Li Zihan smiled faintly as he spoke.
"Welt is only against human experimentation; he's not against exploring the Sea of Quanta."
Miss Banya was stunned. She had truly never considered that things could be handled this way.
But, would that actually work?
"Boss, the Sovereign isn't that easy to fool."
Bronya's expression was hesitant as she reminded her boss.
"Whether he can be fooled or not, we have to at least try."
The young man, who was planning to go find Welt and Theresa to deal with Higokumaru next anyway, shrugged his shoulders.
"Want to come with me and see how it goes?"