"Dad...?" Siegfried repeated the word aloud.
At the same time, he looked at the girl who had just walked in with suspicion.
White hair, blue eyes, a purity on her face completely unspoiled by the weight of knowledge — well, judging by appearances, this was in all probability someone from his own family.
But at this moment, this girl's pupils had contracted slightly. Even though she was forcibly suppressing her expression, Siegfried could still easily read the panic she was trying to hide.
Beyond that, what struck him most was a certain sense of familiarity emanating from her.
Although this was their first meeting, Siegfried had the peculiar feeling that he had seen her many times before.
"Could this child be the daughter of some distant relative of mine?"
After all, that distinctive white hair and blue eyes were a rare combination — practically a hallmark of their family line.
The hypothesis seemed quite reasonable. But meeting those blue eyes filled with barely contained anxiety, Siegfried instinctively overturned the idea.
"The resemblance... it's too much..." Staring intently at Kiana's eyes, Siegfried murmured to himself.
If the familiar feeling and the white hair and blue eyes could perhaps be explained by a distant relation, there was one thing about these eyes that couldn't be faked.
The purity in those eyes bore an uncanny, nine-out-of-ten resemblance to his own dumb deer of a son!
And the reason he fixated on this so much was naturally because those eyes were inherited directly from him, Siegfried — this kind of intelligent gaze simply could not exist unless Kevin's soul had somehow been transplanted into her body.
And furthermore...
As he studied the girl before him, Siegfried noticed even more details.
Now that he thought about it — didn't this girl look a little too much like his dumb deer?
Walking in and reflexively calling him "Dad." Looking remarkably like his son. That signature intelligent gaze. And the poorly concealed nervousness and panic on her face right now...
When all of this information was assembled together, an audacious idea rose unbidden in Siegfried's heart. Absurd as the idea was...
"This child couldn't be my own kid, could she?" Siegfried felt a jolt run through him, then another. "Could it be that Cecilia was carrying two children back then, and one was lost due to a hospital mix-up?"
Having spent a lot of time recently watching evening primetime family drama soap operas with his wife, Siegfried's mind had wandered there automatically.
He quickly tossed aside this ridiculous idea — after all, how many children his wife had been carrying was something that could be confirmed.
And once all impossibilities were eliminated, whatever remained, however absurd, had to be the answer.
The girl before him was, in all likelihood, truly a daughter of his who had been lost to the outside world!
Was there any other possibility?
There wasn't!
If she wasn't a lost daughter of his, what — was she his dumb deer of a son somehow transformed?
"That's impossible. This world operates on science." Siegfried dismissed this nonsensical thought internally.
Being a direct and straightforward person, the moment this bold idea formed, Siegfried asked outright: "Are you… my daughter?"
But no sooner had the words left his mouth than he watched the white-haired girl's eyes fill completely with panic, her face going sheet white in an instant.
Seeing her reaction, even without a verbal answer, the answer had already been given.
Siegfried was just about to step forward and ask further questions when the white-haired girl stiffly turned around.
Then immediately bolted out of the arcade at full speed, running into the distance without looking back.
Watching Kiana's reaction, the last trace of doubt in Siegfried's heart dissolved.
This child was his own — not his son, but his daughter!
With that realization, a complex mixture of feelings rose in Siegfried's heart: three parts bewilderment, three parts alarm, three parts disbelief, and a small but unmistakable thread of joy woven through it all.
Though his dumb deer of a son was wonderful in his own right, like every father who had only sons, he had sometimes imagined how nice it would be to also have a sweet little daughter.
But very quickly, that small joy was swamped by a much larger wave of panic — because Siegfried suddenly thought of a rather serious problem.
Though he had no idea where this child had come from, he was certain she had not been born to him and Cecilia.
Which meant she was offspring left behind from a time when he hadn't known.
But the problem was...
"I have never betrayed Cecilia — so where on earth did this child come from?!" Siegfried wailed inwardly. The feeling was like an enormous black pot crashing down onto his head.
"This can't be right — it just can't!"
The more he thought about it, the more alarmed Siegfried's expression became. He suddenly realized — who said this was a situation only he could have been responsible for?
"Could it be that some detestable degenerate woman violated me without my knowledge?"
Though the thought was quite absurd, compared to the even more preposterous reality of having suddenly acquired a daughter from nowhere, it actually struck him as the most logical explanation.
But the moment this thought surfaced, Siegfried felt like there was a death star flickering ominously right above his head.
No matter how this child came to be, if Cecilia found out, he would have a black pot slammed over his head that could never be taken off no matter what he said.
The child already existed — if he insisted he hadn't been unfaithful, who would believe him?!
By that point his marriage would — no, would definitely — be finished!
The moment this thought crossed his mind, the mild bewilderment on Siegfried's face was completely consumed by pure horror.
"Wait! Don't run!"
Siegfried realized that even he had been able to read so much from this child at a glance — and Cecilia was far more perceptive than he was. She would see even more.
He hadn't yet figured out where this child had come from, and if Cecilia discovered her right now, he would truly have no way to explain himself!
The thought of his otherwise perfect life being on the verge of total collapse was enough to get Siegfried out of his seat in an instant. He abandoned any concern for the arcade's interior and at the fastest speed he had ever moved in his life, charged off in the direction Kiana had run.
"You — don't run off! If Cecilia finds out about this, I'm finished!!!"
Watching the taller and shorter pair of white-haired figures sprint out of the arcade one after the other —
Lucius fished a bread roll out of the shopping bags he was carrying for Kiana, and as he worked his way through it, a predatory grin spread across his face.
"Heh... to witness such a deliciously dramatic scene — truly worth the price of admission even if I died for it!"
But just as he was reveling in his excitement, preparing to savour this gloriously chaotic family drama playing out before him, he found his communicator going off.
Lucius opened it and found a message from Kiana, who had just run off.
[Lucius... save me!]
[My life can't be over yet — I don't want to move to the moon overnight and spend the rest of my days there!]
Reading it, Lucius sighed.
[Good friend, when you put it like that, what else can I say? Looks like I have no choice but to step in.]
[Location]
[Lead Siegfried to this place. What happens next, leave to me.]
In a few bites he finished the bread in his hand, then picked up the shopping bags and walked outside, his expression filled with resolute determination.
While Siegfried was chasing Kiana all over the place —
He had not noticed that across the street, in a café, a woman with long white hair had already been sitting for quite some time.
She wore a lady's sun hat, and had tucked herself as far as possible into the shadow of the café's interior to minimize her presence.
At the same time, she was craning her head to observe the arcade diagonally across the street.
This was, of course, Cecilia — who had followed Siegfried here.
"Siegfried, so you still remembered all of this..." Upon seeing the arcade diagonally opposite, Cecilia felt a wave of emotion wash over her.
Recognizing the familiar layout inside, she was taken back to the memory of her first meeting with Siegfried.
"So all this time of early departures and late returns, it was to prepare this surprise for me." Cecilia's eyes softened with warmth.
But then, remembering why she had come here in the first place, a look of shame crossed Cecilia's face.
Because the reason she was sitting here was, in truth, because she had been following her own husband...
The origin of all this was, naturally, the information about Kiana she had received from Shigure Kira the day before.
And the question that had grown from it — whether Siegfried had been violated by some unknown degenerate woman without her knowledge.
Upon returning from Shigure Kira's, Cecilia's heart had been filled with quiet anguish.
And so last night when she arrived home, she had tried to probe Siegfried indirectly.
What had put Cecilia's mind somewhat at ease was that Siegfried seemed to have no reaction at all — as though everything had simply been her own mistaken suspicion.
But before she could even exhale in relief, Siegfried had left the house this morning under the pretense of 'going to work' — and unusually early at that.
Upon hearing that excuse, Cecilia's internal alert level spiked to maximum — because today was a weekend.
Cecilia had sharply sensed that Siegfried was hiding something from her.
Once that suspicion took root, she found herself looking back over their recent life together.
And then, to her surprise, she realized that over this stretch of time Siegfried had indeed been different from usual — regularly leaving early and coming home late, always explaining it as being busy with company matters.
Once the seed of doubt is planted, it easily takes hold and grows. Cecilia believed wholeheartedly that Siegfried would never betray her.
So what she was thinking was: could something or someone have been coercing him in her absence?
The very thought of that possibility, even for someone as gentle and composed as her, felt like it could melt through her reason entirely.
And so this morning, she had decided to follow Siegfried and see what was actually going on.
Yes — Siegfried had never noticed that from the moment he left the house, Cecilia had been following behind.
When she watched Siegfried enter his company building, Cecilia had exhaled in relief. "So he really did come to handle work."
But out of caution, she didn't stop there, and waited a little longer.
Then she watched Siegfried, after finishing work, ride his bicycle off in a direction away from both the company and home.
Cecilia's heart clenched again, and she found herself following once more.
Siegfried pedaling his bicycle ahead, Cecilia pedaling hers behind.
And then — upon seeing Siegfried's destination, Cecilia had frozen in place. It was an arcade that matched her memory of the very place where she and Siegfried had met for the first time.
After asking one of the café's staff and learning that this arcade had been built in recent weeks, Cecilia had understood the truth behind Siegfried's strange movements — and her heart had been wrapped in a wave of warmth.
"Siegfried was... preparing a surprise for me." With the truth revealed, Cecilia was filled with deep emotion.
And alongside that emotion, she felt guilty about the hasty suspicions she had harbored before.
Siegfried's mental state was so healthy, the love between them so solid — how could he possibly be someone who had been violated by some degenerate creature?
Cecilia felt rather embarrassed and couldn't help raising a hand to cover her slightly flushed cheeks.
"Honestly... it's all Kira's fault. I must have been influenced by those strange ideas of hers."
With that thought, Cecilia stood up, preparing to cross to the arcade and reunite with Siegfried.
"Looks like Siegfried wanted to give me a surprise — but seeing me show up should be quite a surprise for him too, right?" Cecilia thought with a small flutter of happiness.
But just as she rose, she spotted two figures stopping at the arcade entrance — a young man and a young woman, both carrying shopping bags, apparently about to go in.
"Is that... that child?"
Cecilia looked with some surprise at the two figures — a black-haired young man with a white streak, and a white-haired, blue-eyed girl with cheeks puffed out as she ate something.
It was Lucius and Kiana, stopping at the arcade entrance.
Cecilia watched the two exchange a few words, and then the white-haired girl grabbed the black-haired young man's arm and pulled him inside.
The smile that had just risen from her earlier emotion froze once more.
"Could it be that Siegfried actually knows her? Which would mean... which would mean..."
Cecilia's complexion went pale. One hand gripped the other tightly. She watched the arcade entrance with unease.
Her heart was now completely consumed by overwhelming alarm.
She wanted to charge in and confront them both — but she also feared that doing so might tear the peace of their life apart entirely.
But very quickly, Cecilia found she didn't need to agonize over it.
Because she watched the white-haired girl who had gone inside come rushing back out shortly after, her face full of distress, running off into the distance.
And then she watched Siegfried come running out of the arcade too, chasing after the white-haired girl who was already disappearing.
"What is happening?" Cecilia wondered.
She hesitated for only a moment — then immediately got to her feet.
She burst out of the café and took off in the direction Siegfried had gone.
A quieter entrance on a side street.
On the rooftop of an old-fashioned building near the intersection, Shigure Kira was lying flat and still, monocular in hand, surveying the street below.
"Strange — why haven't Lady Cecilia and that Siegfried fellow come this way yet?" Watching the scene below, Shigure Kira said with puzzlement.
After helping Lady Cecilia plan a shopping route, she had lain in ambush at the intersection the two of them would inevitably pass through.
And what was she here to do?
Bridge-camping, naturally!
Apart from her close friends, very few people knew that Shigure Kira was in fact a master of bridge-camping.
The reason was simple — she had neither a father nor a mother. In the most literal sense.
Miss Kira had an incomplete childhood — or rather, her entire childhood had been spent in an orphanage. That place was the only memory she had from her early years.
Unfortunately, when she went back not long ago, the orphanage had been rebuilt after being attacked by Honkai Beasts from some unknown origin.
Which meant the memories of her childhood now existed only in the unforgotten corners of her mind.
Among them, the most precious and unforgettable memory came from one particular afternoon.
Shigure Kira remembered: the other children at the orphanage were playing house, but that happiness had no place for her.
Because of an innate deficiency in her pitch, she had been excluded. She could only huddle alone in a corner, wiping tears.
And then, crying as she was, she had encountered someone who had climbed over the wall to find her.
"Oh? Why are you crying?"
Even though so much time had passed, Shigure Kira still remembered it clearly — that older sister sitting on the wall, white hair drifting in the breeze, her smile seeming warm enough to melt the ice of winter.
Upon learning of her situation, the older sister had suggested they play house together.
She would be the mother. Kira would be the daughter.
Beyond that, there was also a white-haired older brother who had climbed over the wall with her... that part could be left out.
On that afternoon, Shigure Kira truly spent one afternoon with a mother — nestled against her, listening to her talk about journeys to distant places, the scenery of her hometown, and the wide world beyond the orphanage walls.
It was also on that afternoon that the older sister had taught her the first song she ever learned.
And at the same time... she was the first person who had ever listened to Kira sing, and told her that her voice was beautiful.
Though it had only been a game of make-believe, it was the first time she had ever felt what it was like to be loved by a mother.
"I wished time could have stopped right then." Shigure Kira thought.
But a game of make-believe was, in the end, just that.
The older sister and the older brother had been chased out by the orphanage director at dusk — they hadn't been staff, just two people who had climbed the wall to hide from someone chasing them.
But the warmth of having a mother that Kira had felt that afternoon — she would never forget it for the rest of her life.
And the greatest thing she gained from that afternoon was the older sister's name.
— Cecilia.
And so Shigure Kira was certain: Cecilia was someone who could be her mother. She was sure of it.
Because she was the only person, to this day, who had ever listened to her sing and told her it was beautiful.
"I am doing something terribly greedy." Shigure Kira lay on the rooftop of the building at the intersection, monocular raised as she surveyed the street below, and said: "But everyone needs to have a mother — and Lady Cecilia is someone who could be my mother!"
---
Advanced 30+ Chapters in pat/reon.com/Sleepy_Hua