Far beyond the Great Homu Kingdom, within the distant Dragon's Lair, a small palace stood in this untrodden land.
Though called a small palace, it was actually seven or eight stories high, its vast footprint large enough for a single person to explore for an entire day. If one got lost, that time frame would be entirely different.
Case in point: a certain white-haired furball currently dashing haphazardly through the Dragon's Lair palace.
"Hey! Where the heck did you take me?!" Kiana Kaslana exclaimed, spinning in circles, jumping up and down, and scratching her head in frustration as she encountered the same suit of armor decoration for the third time.
Bella, who had been trailing Kiana all this time, shrunk into a ball, hands and wings clutching her head, trembling and too scared to speak.
"Lady Sirin told me to do it, Lady Sirin told me to do it..." Seeing the increasingly exasperated Kiana turn towards her, Bella quickly squatted down, turning her back to Kiana, muttering continuously.
Kiana's raised fist suddenly had nowhere to go. After hovering in mid-air for a moment, it drooped helplessly.
"Ahhhh!!!!" She was at her wit's end, furiously ruffling her hair, messing up the neat style Mei had painstakingly braided that morning.
Who could understand?! Her life of adventuring with everyone was going just fine, and then suddenly she became the princess of the Homu Kingdom! And Mei was the knight coming to save her... Damn it, why wasn't she the knight?!
You doing this makes me look so... ugh!
Actually, being a princess wasn't so bad; princesses usually got good treatment, and being pampered occasionally wasn't terrible.
But no one told her the princess's treatment involved being kidnapped by an evil dragon! What era was this? There were still evil dragons kidnapping princesses instead of princes?!
She'd seen Shu come to rescue her, but clearly, the rescue hadn't succeeded! Shu must have been stopped by Sirin!
Confronting a Herrscher head-on and failing to achieve your goal... what good outcome could there be?
Kiana couldn't help but clench her jaw. She picked a direction and charged off once more.
Bella, still cowering with her head covered, watched Kiana disappear around the corner again and silently scooted to the side.
She didn't follow this time. After trailing Kiana three times, she had understood one thing: she couldn't lose Kiana even if she tried.
Sure enough, after waiting quietly for ten minutes, a disheveled Kiana reappeared at the intersection, once again fuming at the sight of the knight's armor.
Bella silently turned around, resuming her defensive crouch, bracing herself for whatever Kiana might do in her frustration.
She was just a little dragon who hadn't grown up yet, only capable of a tiny "Rawr~."
But this time, she couldn't escape. Kiana, driven mad by returning to the same spot for the fourth time, no longer cared if she was bullying a child. She quickly took two steps, squatted down in front of Bella.
"Ahem!" Kiana tried her best to make her smile look gentle, hoping to gain some superficial goodwill. "Little one~ Can you tell me where the exit is?"
Kiana's cutesy, high-pitched voice earned her an eye-roll from Bella. Bella silently turned herself half a circle, once again presenting her back to Kiana.
Kiana: "..."
The bewildered white-haired furball looked up, left and right. She glanced at the large axe on the wall, then at the meteor hammer nearby, and finally, her gaze settled on a portrait hanging on the wall. She stared thoughtfully at the sharp corners of the picture frame.
That picture frame would definitely make a very handy weapon!
Taking a long, deep breath, Kiana steadied her emotions, her lips still twitching into a forced smile.
"Little one... Your name is Bella, right? Bella~ Could you please tell me how to get out of here? It's really important to me, 'kay~"
"But you not leaving here is also really important to me..." Bella mumbled. "This is the script Lady Sirin gave me..."
Crack—
Bella looked back in terror, just in time to see Kiana, panting heavily, hanging the picture back on the wall.
"Hoo..." Kiana gently patted her chest, muttering reassurances to herself, then approached the terrified Bella again.
"Bella~ This young lady... this big sister will ask you one more time, okay?" Kiana's corner of mouth (corner of mouth) was twitching uncontrollably now. "How do I get out of this castle~?"
Bella shrank further into the corner, shaking her head decisively. "Bella doesn't know!"
"Really?" Kiana's voice was unprecedentedly gentle. In that moment, her tone even showed signs of approaching Mei's.
Bella shook her head.
Kiana leaned in closer, still maintaining that unsettling squint and smile. "Really~?"
Two crystal tears had already welled up in the corners of Bella's eyes, but she persisted in shaking her head.
"N-No... Don't know!"
A pale fist, veins clearly visible on the back of the hand, knuckles white from clenching, slightly smaller than a sandbag, abruptly appeared between them.
Kiana's nose and Bella's nose were almost touching. Bella's eyes had turned into swirling, mosquito-coil-like spirals.
The next moment, Bella's face flushed red. As tears streamed down her face, she scrambled sideways, trying to get away.
But before she could crawl two steps, Kiana grabbed the scruff of her neck—her fated weak spot.
"Nooo! Lady Sirin! Your Bella is going to be eaten!!" Bella struggled, letting out a terrified shriek.
---||---
In the palace, Sirin, who had been gently returned to her large bed by the clouds, suddenly frowned, then rolled over and continued to sleep soundly.
---||---
Bella's heart-wrenching wails echoed in Kiana's ears, her words filled with pessimistic "last words," but not a single syllable of surrender or plea for mercy.
Kiana held Bella's collar with one hand, impatiently covering her own ear with the other.
By now, even she understood. Bella's loyalty to Sirin was likely too strong to be broken by conventional means. Getting directions out of her was basically impossible.
But she couldn't find her way out on her own, and in such a huge castle, they didn't even bother to put up a single map!
Was she, the renowned [Finality] of the Fire Moth's First Pioneer Team against the Honkai, second only to Shu, going to be pathetically trapped in this castle?!
No! Kiana Kaslana would absolutely not allow such a thing to happen!
If the path doesn't work... then I won't take the path!
With this thought, Kiana abruptly stood up, simultaneously lifting the height-deficient Bella, forcing her feet off the ground to dangle dazedly in the air.
Kiana stared intently at the castle window, took a deep breath, then glanced down at the still-unresponsive Bella in her hand.
Route: prepared!
Parachute (Bella): prepared!
Then—
Jump!