Kiana's home.
After promising to help her keep her identity safe, Lucius decided to leave.
After all, this was precisely the time to advance the Second Honkai War's storyline. He needed not only to make arrangements for the devastated Siberia, but also to gather the relevant characters.
Although his other mental projections were already running around handling things, having one more pair of hands would still speed things up.
But just as Lucius was about to leave, Kiana stopped him.
"By the way, Lucius — you've stayed over at my place many times before, so… how about spending a night here?" For some reason, Kiana's face was flushed with inexplicable excitement as she looked at Lucius with great anticipation. "As you can see, my place is pretty big~"
At that, Lucius shot her a suspicious look and asked: "Good friend — why do I get the feeling you're up to something?"
"W-what do you mean?!" Kiana's eyes shifted slightly, but she persisted stubbornly: "We're good friends! I just want to invite you to stay and catch up — strengthen our bond a little."
Although Kiana's tone sounded normal enough, Lucius still caught the guilty look on her face.
Still, he didn't dwell on it. After all, his good friend was extending a warm invitation — how could he turn it down?
"Since you've gone to the trouble of asking, I'll stay for the night."
"Great, it's decided then." As if afraid Lucius would take it back, the moment she heard him agree, Kiana immediately bolted out of the dining room. "Feel free to look around the house — I'll go get a room ready for you."
"So then — Kiana, what are you planning?" After Kiana left the dining room, Kuro asked her.
While it was nothing unusual for someone to invite a friend to stay over, as a being who shared Kiana's mind and body, Kuro had still sensed the abnormal excitement simmering beneath the surface.
It was plainly obvious she had some other objective.
"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, Kuro!"
Kiana wasn't surprised that Kuro had noticed. Rather than tidying a room, she turned back to her own bedroom and pulled a tightly sealed silvery-white case out from under the bed.
"What is that?" Kuro asked.
Kiana smiled without answering. She pressed the switch on the side of the case, and with a click it opened.
The moment the case unsealed, wisps of cold air seeped out along the edges.
And now Kuro could see clearly what was inside.
— Extremely beautifully made cookies and sweets.
"So Kiana — why do you have a cold-preservation case hidden in such a secretive place?" Kuro expressed her puzzlement.
"Because these sweets are ones I brought back from Mei's place — I thought they might be useful as a weapon."
Hearing Kiana's answer, Kuro suddenly understood everything. "Well, that explains everything. That explains everything."
But then she thought of another problem and her tone became worried.
"But Kiana — you're pulling these out while Lucius is staying over. Does that mean you're planning to..."
Click.
Kiana casually shut the case. In a perfectly composed tone she said: "That's right. These are for Lucius to eat."
"!!!"
"Kiana — whatever conflict you have, you can talk it out! There's no need to go for the kill!"
Kuro's voice was full of alarm. As a being who shared Kiana's mind and body, she had experienced firsthand every meal at Mei's house right alongside her.
She therefore understood perfectly well just how potent this stuff was. This was food so terrible that even Shub-Niggurath couldn't endure it!
"Relax — given Lucius's current constitution, the most this will do is knock him out for a while."
"...So Kiana — what exactly are you trying to do?"
"Find out what Lucius is hiding." Kiana said with complete seriousness.
"Hm?"
She pushed the case back under the bed, then flung herself onto it and burrowed entirely under the covers.
Through the blanket, her muffled voice drifted out.
"Kuro — Lucius is keeping something from me… and I'm not happy about it."
"We agreed we'd be the best of friends. What could there possibly be that he needs to hide from me?"
Hearing Kiana's words, Kuro felt a little exasperated. "Kiana — is there any possibility — and I do mean possibility — that even between close friends there are things that can't be shared?"
But at Kuro's attempt to reason with her, Kiana rolled over and said with great matter-of-factness: "But we're the best of friends! I don't have any secrets from him at all..."
"Err..." Kuro wanted to say something, but now didn't know quite what to say. For the first time she felt the sheer complexity of human beings as a species.
But clearly, Kiana had already made up her mind. Trying to talk her out of it would likely be useless.
What Kuro wasn't actually worried about was Lucius — quite the opposite. She kept feeling that Kiana was being just a little too optimistic.
Given her intelligence level... could she actually pull off an ambush on Lucius?
Kiana lay on the bed, reached out her hand and clenched it into a tight fist, a confident smile curling her lips.
"I know — if Lucius doesn't want to talk about something, he won't open up willingly. So I have no choice but to resort to more forceful measures!"
"Hmph hmph hmph..."
While Kiana was brimming with confidence, Lucius seemed to have no idea any of this was happening.
And so the night passed without incident, and time quickly advanced to the following morning.
In the familiar dining room, Lucius and Kiana sat across from each other.
Before both of them were laid various beautiful sweets and cookies. To drink, there was black tea, milk, and coffee.
As Kiana watched with eager anticipation, Lucius picked up a cookie from the spread in front of him.
"Good friend — isn't having this kind of thing for breakfast a bit inappropriate?"
"Is… is it? I think it's perfectly fine!" Kiana poured herself a cup of black tea, forcibly masking the unnatural expression on her face with a smile.
Fortunately, Lucius didn't seem to notice anything unusual.
"Fair enough — cookies it is. At least it fills the stomach." He picked up the cookie, preparing to put it in his mouth.
Seeing this, Kiana subtly lowered her body, using the table for cover as she quietly fingered the rope in her hands.
Once the cookie knocked Lucius out, she could tie him up and crack open that closed heart of his — finally finding out what this fellow had been hiding from her!
Just as Kiana was anticipating all of this, she noticed Lucius had raised the cookie to his lips and then stopped.
He then looked toward Kiana, whose face was visibly eager, and said with a suspicious expression: "Good friend — how come you're not eating?"
Kiana immediately sat bolt upright, suppressing the panic threatening to surface on her face.
She realized she was being far too suspicious. So she hastily grabbed several cookies and shoved them all into her mouth, puffing her cheeks out like a hamster.
At the same time she gave Lucius a thumbs-up and said: "Mmm… so good..."
Watching the suspicion gradually fade from Lucius's face, Kiana couldn't help but exhale in relief.
"Good thing she had prepared a separate batch to avoid——"
Chewing away at the cookies in her mouth, Kiana suddenly felt something was wrong.
As the cookies hit her taste buds, what came flooding in was not the expected crisp and sweet flavour — but something extraordinarily strange.
Salty, sweet, spicy, sour... it was as though every flavour in existence had been combined and was beating her taste buds into submission simultaneously.
"This is… this is..."
As she swallowed the cookies, Kiana's blue eyes gradually began to spiral.
Her body swayed in the chair, then toppled to one side.
Thud.
Kiana — fully and completely unconscious.
Looking at Kiana lying helplessly on the floor, eyes spinning in circles with little ghosts drifting from the corner of her mouth, Lucius tossed his own cookie aside without a second thought.
He then came over to the spot where Kiana had been sitting, picked up the rope from the floor, and neatly tied Kiana up.
By the time Kiana's consciousness gradually returned and she opened her eyes, she found Lucius sitting across from her.
In front of him sat a cup of black tea. He was holding a small spoon and stirring it gently in the cup.
Very quickly, her memories from before losing consciousness surfaced in her mind.
Kiana's expression changed drastically. She instinctively tried to stand up — only to immediately discover her body was tightly bound.
She looked down — and saw her upper body firmly tied to the chair with rope.
She then slowly lifted her head, and met Lucius's expression — somewhere between a smile and not a smile.
Instantly, cold sweat broke out on Kiana's forehead.
Her throat shifted awkwardly, and she averted her gaze from Lucius's.
"Um… about that… Lucius, I can explain."
Watching the crying-without-tears look on Kiana's face, Lucius stirred his black tea and couldn't help sighing: "Haah… good friend — I know you've long been dissatisfied with our father-child dynamic, but I'm genuinely curious: given your level of intelligence, where did you find the courage to try ambushing me?"
The truth was, Lucius had noticed something was off the moment Kiana's face went strange when she invited him to stay over yesterday.
"Don't you dare insult my intelligence!" Hearing Lucius question her intellectual capabilities, Kiana flared up.
But meeting Lucius's half-smile expression, Kiana deflated like a punctured balloon and asked sulkily: "How did you find out?"
"Are you referring to your very loud scheming?" Lucius looked at her in mild amusement. "Next time you scheme, remember to do it inside your head — my hearing is quite decent, after all."
"..."
"Alright, good friend — you lost the bet, now pay up. Tell me why you made a move on me."
"... Aren't you hiding something from me?" Kiana asked.
"Yes." And Lucius's answer was short, direct, and completely candid.
"We're best friends — can't you tell me?" Kiana looked at him hopefully.
"... No."
The moment Lucius's words came out, Kiana turned her head away. "Hmph! Then there's nothing more to say! Do your worst!"
Watching her be this stubbornly adorable, Lucius smiled. He picked up his black tea and leaned toward Kiana.
"How about this — as long as you acknowledge my paternal status and promise not to turn on me, I'll let you go. What do you say?"
At that, Kiana's eyes went wide, and she declared with righteous indignation: "What do you take me for?! A warrior may be killed, but not humiliated!"
Seeing her this stubborn, Lucius lightly sipped his black tea and turned to leave.
"In that case, all your collector's edition manga, limited-edition figures, and game cartridges are now my spoils of war."
"Wait!" Kiana called after him.
"Oh — had a change of heart, good friend?" Lucius asked with a smile.
But Lucius quickly noticed that the look of humiliated anguish that had been on Kiana's face was now gone, replaced by an expression of someone who had the situation completely under control.
"Lucius — it looks like I win this time."
"What?" This was the first time Lucius had ever seen this particular expression of quiet brilliance on his good friend's face. He felt genuinely incredulous.
But very quickly he felt the world go dark before his eyes — as though he had been thrown into a washing machine, everything spinning around him.
Lucius's expression changed. He forced himself to stay upright and looked at the black tea in his hand.
"This tea..."
"Oh, that?" The smile on Kiana's face could no longer be contained. "I got that from Yuna before leaving St. Freya. How is it — delicious, right?"
Clatter. The teacup fell from his hand and shattered on the floor.
Lucius stared at Kiana — still completely composed and self-assured despite being tied to a chair — with an expression like he had seen a ghost. "I actually got ambushed by you, you dumb deer? I refuse to accept this. I absolutely refuse to accept this!"
"Hmph! I told you not to underestimate my intelligence!"
Lucius swayed on his feet, and ultimately could not withstand the powerful sleep-inducing effect of the tea. He crashed to the floor with a thud.
By the time Lucius's consciousness returned, it was — as expected — a complete reversal of the situation.
Kiana was now seated primly across from him, both hands clasped together under her chin, watching him with a faint smile.
And he himself was now bound to the chair with rope, completely unable to move.
Meeting Kiana's blue eyes — full of quiet intelligence — Lucius was silent for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh with genuine feeling.
"Good friend — seeing you capable of such brilliance, your father is truly moved."
Hearing Lucius's praise, the smile on Kiana's face grew even wider.
She leaned forward slightly, putting on a menacing expression: "Lucius — tell me what you've been hiding, quickly. Otherwise… hmph hmph… I'm going to show you what it means to suffer!"
Seeing her this persistent, Lucius sighed and said: "Alright then — untie me first."
"Will you run?"
"No."
Having received Lucius's promise, Kiana untied him without hesitation.
Lucius rubbed the marks the rope had left on his arms, then asked with some surprise: "You let me go that easily?"
Kiana found the question baffling. "You said you wouldn't run — so why would I keep tying you up?"
Hearing Kiana's answer, Lucius actually felt his conscience prickling. He thought that if his system interface could display a friendship meter, Kiana's trust level toward him was probably already overflowing.
"Since you want to know so badly — come here then." Lucius smiled and crooked a finger at Kiana.
At that, Kiana scooted up in front of him in a few steps and asked curiously: "And then?"
Lucius smiled gently, then raised both hands and placed them on Kiana's shoulders. "Don't move."
"Hm?"
The next instant, Lucius pressed down with both hands.
Kiana felt herself falling backward. Her instinct was to brace herself — but then she remembered Lucius's words, and forced herself to stay still.
Thud!
With the sound of landing, Kiana felt herself lying on the ground — but unlike the hard floor she had expected, the moment she fell, whatever was beneath her felt soft.
Only then did she notice the scenery around her had changed completely.
The ornate dining room furnishings had disappeared entirely, replaced by a grey sky with great flurries of heavy snow drifting down. And beneath her, that softness was the thick snow piled on the ground.
"Where are we?" Reaching out her arm and feeling the cool sensation of snowflakes melting against her palm, Kiana couldn't help but ask.
"Siberia. Also the Stigma space of Schariac." Lucius's voice came from beside her.
Kiana followed the sound and looked beside her, finding Lucius lying there, reaching out a finger to point at something in the sky.
"Look over there."
Kiana followed his finger — and immediately saw a figure falling from high above.
It was a woman with snow-white long hair, plummeting from the sky. And as she fell, vivid crimson flowers erupted outward from where she was centered, spreading like blood spurting from a heart wound, nearly painting half the sky red.
But Kiana's gaze was deeply transfixed by the white-haired woman — because her face was achingly familiar.
"Mom?"
"That is Cecilia — but not the Cecilia you know. She is the mother… er, or possibly the grandmother… of your counterpart fifty thousand years from now."
Lucius raised his hand and gently traced a line through the air, as though dragging a progress bar.
As his fingertip moved, everything within his gaze began to rewind.
Kiana watched the crimson flowers filling the sky begin to recede back into Cecilia's body. She watched the conflagration tearing the earth in the distance contract and retract. She watched a meteorite lift from the ground and fly backward into space in reverse...
Finally, all that remained around them was a desolate, empty snowfield.
Lucius sat up, then reached out his hand and pulled Kiana upright.
"Lucius — where are we?"
"A Stigma space from Schariac. Though at this point, it could also simply be called Siberia."
Kiana thought carefully for a moment, then her face fell. "Never heard of it."
Lucius smiled, took Kiana by the arm, and stepped forward. The scenery around them began rapidly fading away.
As the two took their step, they emerged beyond the snowfield.
Before them stood a wall shimmering with iridescent light — rising from the earth and disappearing into the clouds.
"Wow… that's incredible." Seeing this sight, Kiana couldn't help but gasp in wonder.
"What's inside is the stage I've prepared for the Second Honkai War's storyline. It comes from the portion of your Stigma genes that belongs to Schariac."
"After the entire human race was implanted with fragments of the Stigma gene, the Stigma spaces were already born — because the Stigma genes of humanity in this era originate from your own Stigma genes."
"Therefore, when the Stigma spaces were born, the 'Kaslana' and 'Schariac' Stigma spaces — which occupy the most significant parts of your Stigma genes — were born alongside them."
"Because only two phases of the Stigma project have been completed so far, they can only be considered a foundation. But Mobius has put forward an interesting proposal: we may be able to use the advancement of the Second Honkai War's storyline to bring them to completion."
"If it can be done, we may be able to, to a certain degree, activate the Schariac Stigma space and gain a helper on par with a Herrscher. She is also one of the most important trump cards for advancing the Stigma project."
"And what we see before us is the place with the deepest memories in the Schariac Stigma space — a Siberia from fifty thousand years in the future. The place where Cecilia died fifty thousand years from now."
"We used a special method to swap the Schariac Stigma space's Siberia with the real Siberia. This means that no matter how severe the damage inflicted on this Siberia, when everything is over, the real Siberia won't be affected in the slightest."
Listening to Lucius's explanation, Kiana listened with great interest, nodding from time to time.
Seeing her listening so attentively, Lucius asked: "Good friend — did you follow all of that?"
"Not a single word of it." Kiana replied with complete unapologetic confidence.
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