Rita breathed in the crisp air, having changed back into a comfortable long-sleeved outfit. She had brought Sirin to a place she once knew all too well.
Ever since they had landed in Siberia, Sirin had remained completely silent, a silence that left Rita feeling deeply uneasy.
Please don't just turn your head and kill me out of nowhere.
Rita was fraught with worry. While she didn't think Sirin was truly evil, a place like this could very well trigger a relapse into her frenzied state.
Babylon Labs, a sealed research facility shaped like a towering spire.
The level of research conducted here had been low-tech, relying on crude methods like injecting subjects with varying concentrations of Honkai Energy to see what would happen.
Rita had studied this place. Before the invention of artificial Stigmata, there was no way to forcibly increase a person's adaptability to Honkai Energy. Even the development of artificial Stigmata required a great deal of "accumulation" to achieve the desired results.
That "accumulation" was, of course, a euphemism. Any subject who failed to accumulate successfully was simply obliterated, turned to ash.
Quite literally turned to ash. The danger posed by a Honkai Energy leak was so severe that immediate and complete cleanup was the only viable option.
It was here that Sirin had tragically lost her few young friends—the subjects used for "accumulation."
Without them, without the pain their loss inflicted upon her, Sirin might never have received the Honkai's "Herrscher certification."
And what was this certification? It was the equivalent of the Honkai deciding, "This person's life is so tragic, they're perfect for the job."
Only those who passed this tragic certification could become truly exceptional Herrschers.
Rita dared not ask too many questions. She had a feeling Sirin was not an easy girl to look after, yet she had no choice but to deal with this unfortunate child.
The situation was extremely perilous. Rita felt that any word she spoke could be a landmine, potentially stepping on one of Sirin's emotional triggers at any moment.
Even happy topics were off-limits. She couldn't very well chat with Sirin about the best ways to kill Valkyries, could she?
That would be utterly monstrous, and Rita still considered herself a person with morals.
"Sirin, did you manage to kill all those researchers back then? Any of them slip through the cracks?"
And so, Rita found a topic she thought they could discuss.
A peculiar expression flickered across Sirin's face. She had used the slaughter of those researchers as bait to lure Theresa out. But she had been too slow back then and had failed to finish Theresa off.
Ultimately, she had been too weak, not even ruthless enough in her killing.
"Hmph. I killed them all, but I never managed to find their families. The thought of those families living comfortably on the salaries earned from experimenting on my friends fills me with a genuine rage!"
A murderous aura truly began to emanate from Sirin. In the past, before she understood the complexities of society, she wouldn't have had such an urge to wipe them all out. She could distinguish between good and bad, more or less, and even knew that killing was immoral.
But things were different after she started following Noldrei. When Sirin thought about how the results of the research on her friends had become nourishment to make Valkyries stronger, she could no longer accept it.
Her feelings toward Cecilia had even started to shift, because Cecilia was one of those Valkyries. How many children like her friends had been sacrificed for the development of artificial Stigmata? Sirin didn't know, but she was sure the number of sacrifices must have been immense.
The fruits of this research were all converted into power for the Valkyries, strengthening them while also granting them better living conditions and higher social status.
Although Sirin knew many of these Valkyries had also been victims of the Honkai, they had still, intentionally or not, ignored the harm humans inflicted upon one another. For that alone, Sirin could never forgive any Valkyrie.
After Noldrei's "tutelage," Sirin's resolve had only hardened; she now realized she hadn't killed nearly enough people back then. If she had been more patient, more cunning in manipulating public opinion, she could have torn the Valkyries apart from the inside. With Schicksal in chaos, they would have been unable to face the Honkai, giving her the perfect opportunity to defeat them one by one.
Unfortunately, Noldrei had descended from the heavens and single-handedly destroyed her grand ambition.
Now, she was just an oppressed, unfortunate child.
I just wanted to wipe out humanity, what did I do wrong?!
With this thought festering in her mind, Sirin set foot once more on the Siberian soil.
Waiting for her was... Cecilia?
No, it was Hare. Misteln Schariac!
"Misteln? Why are you here?" The moment Sirin saw Hare, she instinctively turned her head away, unwilling to look at a woman with the same face as Cecilia.
"Someone asked me to come and watch you, but I don't really know how. So I figured if you decided to start killing people, I'd have to stop you."
Misteln raised the massive banner in her hands, already prepared to fight the Herrscher of the Void.
The Herrscher of the Void couldn't even defeat Fu Hua before she had fallen, let alone a weapon of mass destruction like Misteln, who had years of combat experience from battling across different worlds.
"You! You're just ganging up on me, aren't you?!" Sirin felt utterly wronged. Why was it that everywhere she went, someone was there to lord it over her?
"No, no," Misteln explained, flustered and a little shy. "Mr. Noldrei told me to treat you like my own daughter. But... I don't have a daughter, so I don't know how I'm supposed to do that."
Seeing such powerful backup, Rita finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Miss Misteln, thank goodness you're here. I really didn't have the confidence to look after her myself. Lady Sirin is much more difficult to handle than Lady Durandal."
Even among Kianas, there was a clear hierarchy.
As if understanding Rita's passive-aggressive remark, Sirin's anger began to flare up. Just then, a communication request from Noldrei appeared before her.
"Sirin, what do you think of the two I found for you? Does it feel like you have two young mothers? I've noticed your generation places a high value on family, so I thought this might help you rediscover some motherly love. If you dare lay a hand on them, you can forget about ever using a Herrscher Core again. Got it?!"
"Y-Yes, I understand..." Sirin meekly submitted.
As if she had suddenly rediscovered her morals, she reverted to the sullen demeanor of a rebellious teenager.
Rita and Misteln watched, completely bewildered, wondering what on earth Noldrei had done to make Sirin so terrified of him.
Seeing their shocked expressions, Sirin realized she had let her dignified facade slip. She quickly put on the stern, pouty face of a proper mesugaki.
"Let's go! Weren't we supposed to be looking for something here? You lead the way. I don't want to see anything else familiar in this place. And just so we're clear, after we're done, I'm going to destroy this entire facility!"
Seeing her act like this, Rita felt a pang of pity for her.
Sirin probably still had no idea what the real reason for bringing her here was, did she?