Siberia is a vast expanse in North Asia, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to Cape Dezhnev in the east, bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the mountains of north-central Kazakhstan to the southwest, and Mongolia and the Stanovoy Range to the south. It covers an area of approximately 13.22 million square kilometers.
Topographically, it can be divided into three parts: the West Siberian Plain, the Central Siberian Plateau, and the East Siberian Mountains.
Among these, the West Siberian Plain is Russia's breadbasket, possessing incredibly abundant resources.
However, abundant or not, the terrain and the time of year dictated that this place would be anything but warm.
---o---
"Hoo~"
Standing on the desolate street of an unknown small city, Miss Mei exhaled a breath.
In the January cold, the air she breathed out cooled rapidly, transforming into a plume of white mist.
Even though she was a Herrscher, the girl, dressed rather lightly, still felt a distinct chill.
Herrschers are beings capable of surviving even in the vacuum of outer space; temperatures that are lethal for ordinary people are fundamentally harmless to them.
However, the abrupt transition from the warmth of Chaldeas to the perpetually snow-covered landscape of Siberia was still a bit jarring for Miss Mei, and she found herself struggling to adapt.
She stomped her feet, moving about slightly to warm herself up.
"It's a little cold."
"It seems I've chosen a terrible travel destination."
The boy—half-motivated by the desire to stagger Seele's and Mei's weddings, and half-motivated by the urge to pull some shenanigans with the wedding itself—tenderly took off his coat and draped it over the girl's shoulders.
"It's nothing, really," the girl said quickly, now wrapped in her lover's coat. Seeing the slightly self-reproachful look on his face, she rushed to reassure him. "This temperature poses no harm to me at all."
"But you're still not used to it, are you?"
The boy sighed. His original plan had been to hold the wedding in this era, then head to Schicksal's Babylon Laboratory to find the Pufferfish, and retrieve the soul of his future mother-in-law in the process.
In the late 20th century, the unbreakable union had finally collapsed. The union's bureaucrats, clinging to the Tsarist tradition of embezzling assets, had attempted to reform the system while maintaining their powerful union, all in a bid to rake in even more wealth.
As it turned out, they had grossly overestimated themselves.
The consequence was the Great Depression they now witnessed.
As a wedding venue, this place was simply abysmal.
I should probably deal with the Pufferfish situation first, and then find a warmer region to prepare for the wedding.
Li Zihan thought.
However, before that, there were other things to do.
---o---
"What should we do next?"
Miss Mei looked at the desolate streetscape around them, her expression hesitant.
Truthfully, she had come here with almost no thought as to what would happen next. She had followed him to Chaldeas and then here, operating entirely on the principle of, "Wherever Zihan goes, I will follow."
"Probably find the laboratory where the Second Herrscher is being held, locate Sirin while she's still an experimental subject, have a good talk with her, and then prepare to take the soul of Kiana's mother—Cecilia."
The boy stated his purpose for being here with a calm, matter-of-fact tone.
"The matter of Sirin and Kiana's mother?"
Hearing those two names, Miss Mei's feelings grew complicated.
If Li Zihan hadn't told her, she never would have imagined that her dear friend Sirin was the main culprit behind the Second Honkai Eruption.
And...
Lady Cecilia died because of internal strife?
As a Valkyrie who held great respect for the woman whose deeds were recorded in textbooks, the girl's heart was filled with a complex mix of emotions.
"Speaking of which, if we interfere with the past like this, won't it change the future?"
Realizing the gravity of what Li Zihan planned to do, Miss Mei couldn't help but worry.
Both the Second Herrscher Sirin and Cecilia were pivotal figures of this era. If she and Zihan, people from the future, altered history here, would it not have major repercussions for their own time?
"It's not a big problem," the boy, who was no stranger to fabricating the past, said with a smile. "Trust me, I will handle everything."
Her lover's confident words instantly put Miss Mei's heart at ease.
She trusted Li Zihan.
That was beyond question.
Since Zihan said it wasn't a problem, then he must have a way to set everything back on the right course after he was done causing a ruckus.
"However, before all that, let's find a place to stay first."
The boy took the girl's slightly chilled hand in his, rubbing it to bring some warmth back into it.
"Don't we need to handle the other matters first?" The girl's face flushed slightly as her lover gently chafed her hand.
"Things that can be resolved so easily don't require much in the way of prior preparation."
The boy shrugged. If he were truly pushed, he could very well use Goetia's Grand Ring of Light to return to the Previous Era or even the birth of the Earth to lay out his plans.
For someone so adept at manipulating time, history was truly like clay, something to be molded and changed as he pleased.
The observational ability born from the fusion of the three Grand Casters' Clairvoyance, combined with his power to jump back and forth across the river of time, allowed him to achieve an effect similar to the Principle of a certain Mercury Snake.
Mercury merely forced the world into infinite cycles, allowing change to occur with each loop until he achieved the result he desired.
Li Zihan, on the other hand, observed possibilities and then altered individual nodes to arrive at his desired future.
As long as he didn't encounter a deus ex machina, this scumbag was, for all intents and purposes, an eternal victor.
It's a shame Dull Goose didn't come along.
Li Zihan, who was fundamentally lazy and really just wanted to cuddle with girls, sighed inwardly.
Likely because of Sirin's "cheating cat" comment, Durandal had an instinctive aversion to the mission in the Second Honkai Eruption era and wanted no part in it.
As Schicksal's top-tier Valkyrie, the Dull Goose who could beat the Queen of the Void into a cornered Herrscher of Thunder was an absolute T0-level existence in this era, where Ancestor Kevin was still benched, Fu Hua was half-crippled, and Otto had yet to fully develop.
If he had her as a tool, there would be many things he wouldn't have to do himself.
What a pity.
Li Zihan thought.
But oh well. If she didn't come, she didn't come. It just means my workload will increase a bit.
With that thought, he pulled his lover's hand and began walking toward a reasonably decent-looking inn he had spotted.
And then—
"Wait for me!!"
A cute, screeching voice, one that sounded both familiar and somehow different, echoed from the distance.
Li Zihan glanced back.
And he froze.
A blonde girl, who looked to be between fourteen and sixteen years of age, was charging straight for them.
Is that... Dull Goose?