On the way back after receiving a status report from the facility manager.
Perhaps it was because the thorough inspection had taken longer than expected.
Before I knew it, the sky had darkened, and the streetlights were illuminating the road.
My heart wanted nothing more than to head straight home and rest.
But the Commander still had to hand off duties to the night watch.
So we had to return to the Lumia Branch first.
"There are always so many people here. Ah, let me move a little closer."
"There's no need to apologize."
Perhaps it was because the western district came alive at night.
To avoid being swept away by the crowd, the Commander and I had no choice but to walk close enough that our shoulders nearly touched.
How convenient. A perfect excuse.
I deliberately tapped the back of his hand with my knuckles.
But maybe he thought it was just an accidental brush in the congestion.
The Commander didn't catch the signal at all. Honestly, a little annoying.
"Commander. We're eating together later, right?"
"Yes. Is there something you'd like?"
"Hmm… what about something like xiaolongbao? Yubina recommended a place."
"That works for me."
Compared to our first day in Lumia, this felt like nothing short of a miracle.
Back then, I had coldly turned down his dinner invitation.
Whether he was thinking back to those days, the Commander seemed to be in good spirits.
His face looked exactly the same as always — I had no idea how I could read his mood from it.
And so we walked side by side, moving from the western district toward the central zone.
The dense crowd thinned out all at once, and naturally, the two of us drifted apart as well.
"…So that's how Sepia and I ended up moving the medical capsule together. Commander, do you know what was underneath it?"
"What was there?"
"A magazine that had been sitting there for ten whole years. Someone must have slipped it under to level the thing out, and it just… got left there. I was genuinely shocked."
"Using a magazine to level something…. That seems like a rather primitive solution."
"Exactly!"
It was always me steering the conversation.
My real personality leans introverted — I'm far more comfortable with silence.
But Leila's character is closer to extroverted.
I had to wring out topics like squeezing water from a rag.
And yet, oblivious to my bone-grinding effort and suffering.
The Commander simply responded to my stories with quiet, polite acknowledgment.
Honestly, I wasn't even trying to be entertaining.
I was just rattling off the kind of things Leila would say — nothing more.
But when I watched his expression, he didn't seem bored.
*I should remember exactly what I said. So I can keep it consistent after a Regression.*
I committed every topic I used to memory, one by one.
If I regressed, I'd have to say the same things as if for the first time.
Keeping track of details like this was simply part of the job.
Continuing to memorize as I walked, I kept moving forward.
Before long, we had arrived at the Branch.
All that was left now was to greet the night watch officer, hand things off, and then head out with a light step for dinner.
But as we stepped through the main entrance, we were met with something unexpected.
"Oh, you're…."
"Ah, Leila-unni!"
"And who is…?"
Standing there was Yubina, tonight's duty officer.
And two girls I had absolutely never seen before.
One was a girl with long blue hair falling to her waist, her expression blank.
The other was a lively-looking brunette wearing goggles.
I sensed a strong, unmistakable aura radiating from them and immediately understood what they were.
*Valkyries…? Why?*
They were unmistakably Valkyries.
But why had they appeared here out of nowhere?
I hadn't heard anything about a deployment from headquarters.
I looked over at the Commander with a puzzled expression, silently asking if he knew anything.
He shook his head — apparently, he hadn't heard a word either.
They carried themselves too confidently to be deserters.
Had there been some serious mix-up somewhere?
As I pulled out my terminal to check if I'd missed anything.
The pretty girl with the goggles came toward us, eyes sparkling.
"Excuse me, is the gentleman over there… Commander Yujin?"
"Yes. I'm Yujin, Commander of the Lumia Branch…."
"I'm Spica. B-rank Valkyrie! Class is Dealer!"
"Adelaide. Same."
So the energetic goggle girl's name was Spica.
And the expressionless blue-haired beauty was apparently named Adelaide.
I had been listening quietly, but a strong sense of déjà vu washed over me.
The name of the expressionless blue-haired girl felt oddly familiar.
Where had I heard it before?
I furrowed my brow slightly, and then the memory surfaced.
*Oh, right! Adelaide — she's a character from the original work!*
A classic feature of subculture games.
Sometimes you know a character even though you've never played it.
Especially if they've appeared in certain doujinshi — somehow they feel weirdly familiar.
My first encounter with Adelaide had been in an NTR doujin.
She gets blackmailed into doing things, endures it all with that blank expression.
And then eventually breaks under the pleasure — the usual kind of story.
She hadn't appeared until the early part of Chapter 2 in the original.
But given how much care had gone into the art in that doujin I'd seen.
She was probably a character with a fair amount of presence in the original work.
*But right now… she seems to be B-rank.*
Yet for all that notoriety, her strength was nothing remarkable.
Both Adelaide and Spica were B-rank — the same level as me.
Maybe they were the type who grew over time, like Yubina.
Right, so I at least knew their names, but…
Why had they shown up without any notice?
Confused, I stepped in front of the Commander for the moment.
Spica was bouncing on her heels and being rather loud.
More than anything, I needed to hear the actual explanation before I could feel any better about this.
"Excuse me… Spica?"
"Yes! What is it?"
"I'm Leila, Commander Yujin's Adjutant. Could you tell me what brings you to Lumia?"
"Huh, didn't anyone let you know?"
"I'm not sure what's going on, but… we haven't been told anything on our end. Could you explain in detail?"
"Of course!"
Spica seemed genuinely puzzled that the news hadn't reached us.
She then explained why she and Adelaide had come here.
It turned out they hadn't been dispatched from headquarters like me.
They had transferred to Lumia from a city called Grizid.
Perhaps headquarters had decided that B-rank Valkyries were sufficient for this posting.
Listening to her, it didn't sound like a lie.
I looked at Spica, still trying to make sense of the situation.
"When did you find out about the transfer?"
"I heard this morning and got on the train right away…. You really didn't receive any word at all?"
"No. It seems like there was some kind of mix-up."
Maybe that signal-jamming Erosion Species had appeared again.
Or perhaps it was simply a communication breakdown between branches.
After a brief moment of thought, I turned to the Commander with a smile.
"Commander. It looks like… we'll be working late tonight."
"Yes. So it seems."
Unplanned overtime.
I let out a small sigh and looked at the unexpected visitors who had arrived in the dead of night.
*
We couldn't stay in the main entrance forever.
So we gathered in the command center and relayed the situation to headquarters.
We hadn't been told anything, and then Valkyries had suddenly appeared.
When we reported that, there was quite a commotion on the other end.
About ten minutes later, a coordinator came on and explained what had happened.
Apparently there had been an omission somewhere along the line.
Spica and Adelaide's transfer to Lumia had been planned for several days.
Thank goodness they're not deserters. I was genuinely worried.
Once the information was confirmed, the formalities were wrapped up in no time.
Starting tomorrow, both of them would officially be assigned to Lumia.
Two B-rank Valkyries had arrived, however unexpectedly.
It seemed only right that something worthwhile should come of it.
"Well then, you'll get a good rest tonight and we'll sort out squad assignments starting tomorrow… but shall I give you a tour of the facilities first?"
"Yes, please!"
The Commander and I decided to show them around.
The training facilities, the infirmary, the maintenance bay, the cafeteria, the dormitories….
Much like the day we had first arrived in Lumia, we made the rounds.
After seeing everything, Spica crossed her arms with an air of serious evaluation.
"This is…."
"What do you think?"
"Not bad!"
Surprisingly, the response was positive.
How could anyone give the Lumia Branch facilities that kind of review?
The reason was simple. We had upgraded them.
Lumia wasn't short on money.
The problem had been the previous Commander bleeding the budget dry like a thief.
So once we restructured how the budget was allocated.
Money for facility improvements appeared almost immediately.
Resources like steel and scrap metal were sourced from outside the city.
And with help from civilian construction firms within Lumia.
We had managed to bring all the Branch's facilities up to Level 1.
In other words, the Level 0 training ground cobbled together from shipping containers was gone.
In its place stood a proper building equipped with actual training gear.
You could finally call it a training area without feeling embarrassed about it.
"What about you, Adelaide?"
"Basic."
"Ahaha, well… we're not exactly flush with resources."
Of course, it still felt like we were standing at the starting line.
Reactions like *wow, incredible* were hard to come by.
Headquarters had training facilities that looked like theme parks.
Compared to those, this was a school gymnasium at best.
And it wasn't just the training area that had been transformed.
The infirmary, which had only had beds before, now had a dedicated ward.
The cafeteria could now hire professional cooks.
And the dormitories had been replaced with modern buildings with proper water pressure.
Right. The facilities should be at least this decent.
Even Valkyries deserve decent living conditions.
The beds especially — those were critically important. They had multiple uses, after all.
"You can use these rooms."
"Ooh, private rooms! And they've got everything you'd need!"
"What about your clothes?"
"Haven't arrived yet."
"They said they'd send them later. Probably sometime tomorrow?"
I had the Commander wait at the entrance for a moment.
Then I showed Spica and Adelaide to their rooms.
Both of them seemed pleased about having private rooms.
But there was one thing that nagged at me.
Looking at their luggage — just a light bag each.
I asked, half on a hunch.
"Did you bring any sleepwear?"
"Oh, right! I should have packed pajamas!"
"I can just sleep like this."
"But you're both still in your Combat Suits. Sleeping in those seems… uncomfortable, doesn't it?"
The Combat Suit that drew out a Valkyrie's power.
In my case, it was a form-fitting uniform.
Spica's was an adventurer's outfit with a thick jacket.
Adelaide's was a blue qipao-style dress.
No matter how I looked at it, none of those were suited for sleeping.
But if they didn't have anything else, there wasn't much to be done.
Adelaide furrowed her brow slightly as if thinking it over.
Then she turned to look at me with an unreadable expression and spoke.
"Then lend me something of yours to wear."
"Huh."
"Oh, what kind of pajamas do you wear, Leila? I'm curious!"
"Ah, um… well…."
This was a bit of a problem.
My sleepwear happened to be a negligee — sheer enough to see right through.
The important parts were covered well enough, technically.
But it was a touch on the provocative side to be showing other people.
I'd been wearing it from the moment I transmigrated into this body.
So it was probably the real Leila's taste.
…Wait. Then there's nothing to be embarrassed about, is there?
It's not that *I'm* a pervert — it's that *Leila* is a pervert.
Right. It would be a little strange for me to bring it up and then dodge the question.
After a brief moment of flustered hesitation, I let the tension out of my shoulders and answered.
"All right. I'll lend you something. Sleepwear."
It was surprisingly comfortable once you actually put it on.
And the soft fabric brushing against your skin felt pleasant in all sorts of ways.
If anything, I wanted to recommend it. *This is more comfortable than you'd think.*
But perhaps they hadn't expected sleepwear quite like this.
Both of them held up the negligee and visibly faltered.
"Um, er…. Isn't this for, you know… *that* kind of use…?"
"Unexpectedly indecent…."
"You're the ones who asked to borrow something. This is all I have. If you don't want it, give it back."
"No! I — I'll wear it gratefully!"
"I think it'll feel a little empty around the chest."
Apparently the thought of sleeping in their stiff Combat Suits was worse.
Adelaide and Spica quietly accepted the negligees.
Well, our builds weren't that different.
It shouldn't be too uncomfortable. I hoped they'd have a good night.
And thinking about these pretty girls sleeping in outfits like that.
Something about it felt deeply, deliciously wrong…. Yeah. That's a little perverted of me.
"Commander. All done!"
"Is that so."
"Now let's all go eat together!"
"Yes. I'll make a reservation."
Anyway, after handing over the sleepwear.
We left the dormitory and all had dinner together.
We'd been so busy with one thing and another that we'd missed the usual mealtime.
Xiaolongbao eaten while starving was absolutely delicious.