Now that she thought about it, the in-game story surrounding Wendy was oddly vague — only fragments of background, scattered across a handful of throwaway lines.
Plenty of people probably knew the setting detail that Wendy was one of Theresa's students. But Silver Wing suspected far fewer remembered that Wendy's participation in the experiment that left her permanently disabled had, in fact, been personally recommended by Theresa herself.
Whether Theresa had ever known the true nature of that experiment — or whether she had only ever been told [Schicksal]'s sanitized official line — was unclear.
But even accounting for Theresa's particular brand of obliviousness, something still didn't add up when you followed the logic through.
Her most outstanding student had been crippled for life by an experiment. The future of an S-rank Valkyrie, shattered. And Theresa had not said a single word about it.
Never mind storming [Schicksal]'s halls and demanding answers — at the very bare minimum, shouldn't she have brought Wendy back to St. Freya Academy and looked after her properly?
Instead, Theresa had seemingly forgotten Wendy existed entirely, leaving her to languish in New Zealand — until the Moonlight Throne needed four gems, and only then did she think to dispatch Kiana and the others to retrieve the Gem of Desire.
What happened to the bond between teacher and student?
Silver Wing turned it over in her mind and came to the inevitable conclusion: ah, right. That's just how it is.
When a character acts wildly out of keeping with their established personality, it's because the screenwriter's will has taken over and left them no choice. This phenomenon had been documented in a certain all-girl high school band composed entirely of non-humans.
A pure plot device. Nothing more.
The trouble was — this wasn't a story. There was no screenwriter's consciousness pulling the strings here.
With Rita's S-rank Valkyrie clearance clearing the path ahead of them, leaving the New Zealand Branch proved surprisingly smooth.
"Wendy — have you ever reached out to your old teacher... Theresa? Told her how things stand?"
Unable to make sense of it, Silver Wing simply asked.
"I contacted Teacher Theresa in the first month after the experiment failed. She was going to come see me in New Zealand, but something urgent seemed to come up."
Cradled in Project Bunny's enormous palm and gliding through the air, Wendy looked exactly like a child on a carousel — beaming with pure, uncomplicated delight.
Silver Wing's gaze drifted, almost involuntarily, to the way Wendy's chest bounced gently with each rise and fall of Project Bunny's hand. It was a volume that rivaled Kiana's, paired with an age even younger than Bronya's — which, by any reasonable standard, also qualified squarely for the 'baby-faced bombshell' category.
Growing up nicely, aren't we.
"I told Teacher Theresa not to worry — that I was fine, that I'd cooperate with the doctors to find the cause and work through treatment, and that she should go focus on what was important. After that... I couldn't reach her anymore."
"I see."
Silver Wing propped her chin on one finger, lost in thought.
It was all transparently logical, now that she looked at it through the lens of a real world without screenwriters. In the first stretch after losing the use of her legs, Wendy had still been able to maintain a positive attitude and cooperate with the so-called follow-up experiments. As for the months that followed — someone had stepped in to cut off her contact with Theresa.
With [Schicksal], whenever something underhanded was afoot, the first name that sprang to mind was always Otto.
It might not have been Otto's direct orders — it could have been researchers of the same stripe as those in the Babylon Labs during the Second Eruption, hungry to push past every ethical boundary in the name of science. But Otto knew. He had to. One hundred percent.
Meanwhile, as Silver Wing and her new little sister Wendy were busy bonding —
"Ri — Rita?! Hold on, what are you doing with that camera?!"
Little Bianca threw both arms up in a defensive stance. The maid in question was operating her camera shutter at speeds that defied human vision — snapping away in every conceivable direction: up, down, left, right, front, back, all at once.
"Being able to witness Lady Durandal like this again — for Rita, this is a precious, once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Rita's face wore the beatific smile of someone who could die right now without a single regret:
"Whenever Lady Durandal feels like being spoiled — please, don't hold yourself back on my account."
"You're... saying weird things again."
Little Bianca's expression crumpled with embarrassment. She turned her face away with a stubborn huff. "Who on earth would want to be spoiled by you!"
But that combination — the classic tsundere temperament layered over an adorable face — hit Rita like a red cape hit a bull. Two jets of scorching white steam blasted from her elegant, snow-pale nostrils. Rita ceased to be Rita and became Rigid-ta — frozen in place, stiff as a statue.
"Lady Bianca — could you say it one more time?"
"Say it one more time? Say what?"
Fixed in the beam of Rigid-ta's wine-red eyes — that gaze swirling with equal parts maternal tenderness and unhinged devotion — little Bianca felt every inch of her skin crawl with discomfort.
"'Sister Rita, please.' I'm begging you, Lady Bianca — this is the most heartfelt request of Rita's entire life!"
She had almost fainted from the cuteness the first time and completely forgotten to hit record. Rita's heart was bleeding.
"Rita. Calm down."
Little Bianca shook her head vigorously, face scrunched in dismay, both hands waving in time with it.
"That wasn't me just now."
The golden-haired little loli's mildly troubled expression pulled Rita back from her Rigid-ta frenzy. She blinked, visibly puzzled. "It wasn't you?"
"No. That was the Bianca from a parallel world."
Rita had always been one of the people Bianca trusted most, without reservation — and so Bianca hid nothing from her.
Daylight made no move to stop her from saying it, either. In fact, she needed Bianca to fill Rita in — because in the future, even when Bianca wasn't present and Daylight was operating the body alone, this would deepen the 'Bianca quotient' Rita associated with Daylight.
"Parallel world?" Rita's elegant willow-leaf brows knitted together.
"I don't fully understand the current situation myself, but..."
Little Bianca relayed everything she had learned from Daylight to Rita in clear, orderly fashion.
When she finished, Rita was quiet for a long moment. "Lady Bianca — do you truly believe that... traveling through time and space is actually possible?"
Little Bianca thought for a moment, then nodded, brow faintly creased, her answer firm and unhesitating: "It is."
"My little sister once told me — as the god of Earth, wielding the Authority of Finality to cross through time and space is not, in itself, particularly difficult. But when you get down to it, what it accomplishes isn't so different from what Otto does. It's nothing more than growing a new branch on the Imaginary Tree."
"...?!?!"
The sheer density of information packed into a single sentence crashed through Rita's defenses and caused a full system shutdown. The maid stood rooted to the spot, breathing halted, expression blank with stunned incomprehension.
"You said... what?"
Little sister?
The god of Earth?
The Authority of Finality?
What Otto does?
Rita couldn't parse a single one of those phrases — yet she could feel, intuitively, the weight of intelligence compressed within every word. A tidal wave of shock rose inside her, vast and obliterating, crashing over her from every direction at once.
"Ah — I've known for quite some time. I am the biological daughter of Siegfried Kaslana and Cecilia Schariac."
Little Bianca gave a light laugh and raised her face.
"This matter... Rita, you already knew, didn't you?"
Rita's expression shifted again — the surprise remained, but now there was something helpless layered beneath it. "Lady Bianca, you..."
"Don't worry. I hold no resentment toward you for keeping it from me. To me, that is a matter from a very long time ago. I have long since reunited with my family — recognized one another, come back together. They are irreplaceable treasures to me."
"The Great Eruption will end in late 2017. My darling little sister — Kiana Kaslana — will successfully embrace the Cocoon of Finality in the future, master the Authority of Finality, and become the god of Earth."
Little Bianca smiled — a smile full of pride and quiet relief.
Hearing it confirmed by the golden-haired little loli herself did nothing to diminish the shock reverberating through Rita's chest. Of course she knew about Otto's Project Sirin.
The Herrscher of Finality... Kiana would become the Herrscher of Finality.
The god of Earth?!
"But my other self told me — this is not a new branch. I have genuinely traveled into the past of the intrinsic world, and the future has not been overwritten."
The latter was a fact Bianca had confirmed for herself.
If it were otherwise, she could never return to her own future — the future she belonged to would have been replaced the instant she arrived in the past, overwritten by an altered timeline.
Listening to Bianca's account, Rita once again fell into deep contemplation.
It was true — based on Bianca's mannerisms, her small habitual gestures, and the shared history between them, the young girl standing before her was unmistakably Lady Durandal. There was no doubt.
"How did you come to arrive at this particular point in time?" Rita asked.
"I'm not certain — but I have a theory..."
Bianca thought carefully. She suspected that Kiana had encountered some sort of accident while in slumber, causing the Authority of Finality to spiral out of control — because when it came to forces capable of triggering something of this magnitude, the Authority of Finality was the only candidate.
[Whatever the cause — whether it was the Authority of Finality or not — the outcome in front of us is, for the time being, a good one.]
Daylight's words sounded, on the surface, like she was washing her hands of the matter. In practice, she had just neatly passed the blame onto the Authority of Finality.
"Good?" Bianca glanced back over her shoulder.
"Hm?" Rita directed a puzzled look at the softly murmuring young girl.
"It's nothing. I'm communicating with my other self."
Bianca offered Rita no pretense of concealment.
"Bronya — what are your plans from here?"
Through her exchanges with Daylight, Bianca now understood: the consciousness inhabiting the fourteen-year-old silver-haired girl before her was that of a future Bronya from a parallel world.
The other woman had existed at this point in time for quite a while already — long enough to alter history, to avert the tragedy of the Third Eruption.
Given that none of this would overwrite her own future, Bianca was more than willing to help fight for a better outcome on this worldline. If fate had given her a second chance, she would use it to mend every regret she had ever carried.
Find Kiana. Protect her precious little sister.
Tell her big aunt about certain details regarding the Cocoon of Finality in advance... no, wait — her big aunt at this point in the timeline was a little unreliable.
Better to pass the intelligence to Dr. Tesla and Dr. Einstein — [Schicksal]'s two chief scientists.
"Divert the impending Fourth Eruption — and heal Wendy's legs."
Silver Wing gave a soft laugh. She was Daylight; she had heard every single word of Bianca and Rita's exchange without missing a syllable.
"Divert the Eruption?" Rita's eyes went wide.
"Heal my legs?" Wendy's head snapped up.
Both of them wore the same unmistakable expression: can something like that really be done?
"What's your plan?"
Little Bianca's delicate face was set with perfect seriousness.
Before the silver-haired girl could answer — Bianca's head snapped toward the rooftop of the building ahead. Rita and Silver Wing reacted at almost the exact same moment.
"Before we proceed to the next step, we should welcome some guests who've come a long way. You're a little late, aren't you."
"Gray Serpent. Raven."
Silver Wing drew her scarlet katana — its blade pulsing with divine light. "Out of respect for Mobius, I'll ask first — Gray Serpent, are you certain you want to come at me when I'm holding Bayard?"
From the shadows lining both sides of the road and the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, hundreds of figures materialized — each swathed in pitch-black gray hooded jackets, each wearing a white mask stamped with the image of a sword hilt.
Every one of them was silent. Their eyes moved — to the silver-haired girl. To the Jizo Mitama. And to... the golden-haired little loli, standing with her small fist clenched tight.
Facial recognition results confirmed: the identity of this loli was —
Bianca Durandal Aglovale!
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