Only a single road separated Bronya and Lierre.
Rain continuously battered the umbrella, and the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive along with the environment.
Lierre held her umbrella, quietly watching the emotionless loli not far away.
"Bronya, this might be a trap. Mission canceled. Escape from here immediately," Cocolia's muffled voice came through the earpiece.
"Understood."
Bronya kept a wary eye on Lierre before quickly turning to run toward a crowded area.
With the assistance of her exoskeleton armor and Project Bunny 19C, Bronya's feet left the ground within a few steps. She pulled away from Lierre at several times the speed of an ordinary person, using the crowd as cover to rush into a roadside building.
But the moment she stepped inside, she ran straight into Cecilia, who was waiting in ambush.
How could Cecilia be here?!
Bronya's pupils quivered, and alarm bells rang in her mind. Just as she tried to adjust her direction to escape, a gust of wind suddenly blew from behind.
She felt a sharp pain at the back of her neck, and in the next second, she collapsed straight into a soft, warm embrace.
"My apologies."
Cecilia picked up the unconscious Bronya and quickly left the spot before anyone else could react or call the police.
Lierre had stationed her here specifically to ambush a fleeing Bronya.
Although she didn't know how Lierre was so certain Bronya would duck into this specific building, she was glad she hadn't let the girl slip away.
Cecilia brought Bronya before Lierre.
Lierre took off Bronya's earpiece, put it on, and said to Cocolia on the other end, "Evil by nature, Cocolia—are you so eager for me to stop being single that you couldn't wait to send your daughter over? How polite of you. I'm quite satisfied with her looks. But business is business; I'm not going to call you mother-in-law."
Hearing this, Cecilia gave Lierre a strange look.
Cocolia's heavy breathing came through the earpiece, her voice raspy as she said, "Release Bronya, and I will agree to anything."
"Fine, I'll take a small loss. Let's trade the Olenyeva sisters for Bronya."
"You—!"
"I know you're anxious, but don't be. My request remains the same. When you send the sisters over is when I'll release her. You'd better hurry; any slower and you might be holding a granddaughter."
With that, Lierre crushed the earpiece and gave a light wave of her right hand.
An invisible force instantly swept across Nagazora, immediately severing Cocolia's control over the city's surveillance and, incidentally, erasing the backdoor left in the bio-chip within Bronya's brain.
Cecilia hesitated for a moment before finally speaking up to advise her, "Um, I respect your sexual orientation, but... this child is a bit too young. You two aren't exactly a good match. If you're really in a hurry, why don't you consider Theresa?"
In her memory, both Lierre and Theresa were quite old.
"Stop. I only said those things to intentionally disgust Cocolia. Even Cocolia probably didn't take them seriously—why did you?"
"...My apologies. It seems I misunderstood."
"By the way, you're selling Theresa out just like that?" Lierre narrowed her eyes.
A look of embarrassment flashed across Cecilia's face as she said awkwardly, "Well, I just feel that with Theresa's personality, she probably won't find a partner even by the time she's old..."
After all, both Theresa and Lierre acted as if they had no interest in men.
Furthermore, they were roughly the same age and neither of them could grow up, which made Cecilia feel like they were a perfect match in terms of social standing.
"I've recorded those words. Calculating the time, Theresa should be arriving soon. I'll play them for her right in front of you."
Lierre smiled and pulled a phone from her pocket, waving the recording file.
Seeing this, Cecilia sighed helplessly. "You really do love playing pranks, and I can't stop you. Now, my image in Theresa's heart is going to plummet quite a bit."
She shouldn't have let her imagination run wild and hand a weakness over to Lierre so willingly.
"Let's go. Cocolia shouldn't be bothering me again anytime soon."
"What do you plan to do with this child?"
"I'll just toss her to Theresa when the time comes. Before long, our peaceful days will be over. To be the enemy of the world—just thinking about it is exciting."
...
"Greedy brat!"
Cocolia angrily swept everything off her desk. Her ample chest heaved with her heavy breathing.
Regardless of whether the other party was intentionally trying to anger her, it was clear that they weren't just targeting Bronya; they even had designs on the Olenyeva sisters.
What an appetite. Why not just swallow her entire orphanage?
Since they were so capable, why didn't they go and capture Seele from the Sea of Quanta just to spite her further?
Everyone else in the room was so terrified they didn't dare to breathe.
Above Nagazora, a massive aerial warship flew through the clouds.
"Hyperion, maintain aerial alert. Stay vigilant for the appearance of potential enemies. Himeko, I'll leave things here to you."
"Please be careful, Theresa."
"I was once a Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, you know. I won't be taken down that easily."
Theresa patted her chest with confidence, holding a shrunken Oath of Judah as she quickly ran toward the hatch.
Murata Himeko watched her departing back.
Theresa hadn't told her the purpose of coming to Nagazora.
However, seeing her so anxious, Himeko could roughly guess that the reason Theresa hadn't told her was likely because she didn't want to involve her.
Leaving the Hyperion, she landed successfully.
Theresa patted down her skirt, activated her personal terminal, and opened the address provided by Tesla.
After confirming the specific location, she quickly moved her short legs and hailed a taxi.
In the car, Theresa felt uneasy, her hands gripping her skirt tightly.
Had Kiana been living well these past few years? Would Cecilia blame her for not taking good care of Kiana?
And, Cecilia... is it really you?
Theresa bit her lower lip.
Under the explosion of the Honkai fission bomb back then, she couldn't even gather Cecilia's complete remains.
There was simply no possibility of Cecilia surviving at that time.
"Abyss Flower should be in Durandal's hands, so why would it appear in Nagazora? Could it be Grandpa's doing?"
Theresa couldn't help but start overthinking.
She was afraid that all of this was Otto pulling the strings behind the scenes and that Cecilia was merely a clone.
"Little girl, we're here."
The driver stopped the car on the side of the road.