"Neko-Charm!!"
The girl's fist slammed into his jaw with tremendous force, launching him clean into the air.
She stomped the ground and leapt after him, unleashing a storm of punches like a torrential downpour.
"Ora ora ora ora ora!!"
She may not have heard what Alvitr said earlier, but she'd caught every word of the knight girl's explanation loud and clear.
She never imagined her old man would do something so envi—ugh, disgraceful!
'How could he do that to Mom?!'
Even if she had little memory of Cecilia, that didn't stop her from wanting to help Mom teach this lecherous dad a lesson.
But the real reason was—
"Where have you been all this time?! Do you have any idea what I've gone through?! You damn old man! You jerk!!"
Her fierce elbow strike landed squarely in Siegfried's stomach.
None of her punches held back—each one sharp, wild, and full of wrath.
For a moment, both the The heiress and True Kiana felt a strange sense of cathartic satisfaction.
They even raised her right fist, tempted to join in on the combo.
But her left half was dragging her right forward in an awkward, unnatural motion.
Luckily, Alvitr's full attention was still glued to the rampaging girl.
Otherwise, she might've assumed this knight had some kind of illness.
If it were just a punch to vent, The heiress wouldn't have stopped True Kiana.
She might've joined in herself.
But True Kiana had already slotted in her memory core—clearly ready to go all-out.
If she didn't stop her, Siegfried might get double the beating Cecilia used to give him.
This wasn't just anger anymore.
After the barrage of fists and kicks finally slowed, the girl collapsed into Siegfried's arms and clung to him tightly.
Her voice was soft, vulnerable, and unlike anything even Nagami had ever heard.
"…I missed you so much, you dumb old man…"
The idea of crossing the entire Eurasian continent alone sounded impressive—but who really knew how much Kiana had suffered along the way?
The black credit card Siegfried had given her was frozen long ago.
Kiana had spent many days starving, enduring the long journey completely alone.
In the early days after Siegfried's departure, she had felt abandoned by the entire world—trapped in a cage of despair, loneliness her only companion.
Thankfully… she was a bit of an idiot.
Not long after arriving in Nagazora, she met Mei—and then she met Nagami.
"Kiana...!"
Just as Siegfried instinctively began to counterattack after being hit, he froze mid-motion the moment he heard that familiar, spirited voice.
His entire body ached as if even his bones were wailing in pain, but he didn't dare make a sound.
His face, however, twisted into a painfully vivid expression.
That ridiculous strength. That total lack of restraint. Yeah… that was definitely his daughter.
"If it hurts, why didn't you dodge? Why'd you just stand there and let me hit you? Are you stupid or what?!"
Arms crossed and eyes watery, the grumpy Kiana glared at him, her gaze sharp and stubborn.
'Not rubbing it for him! Hmph!'
"...Sorry, Kiana."
After a long silence, Siegfried finally spoke.
When it came to his daughter, he was like a clumsy, reticent father—completely unsure of what to say.
Instead, he simply used his right arm to hug the crying girl tightly in return.
No matter how tough she acted, in front of family, she was still just a child.
For ten years—until she met Nagami—her only emotional anchor had been this elusive father.
Meanwhile, the smile on the knight-girl's face slowly froze as she watched their tender reunion.
Her left half tried to turn away, to remove this scene from her vision, but her right half stubbornly kept her body facing forward.
————————————————————————
[The heiress]: The other me…
[True Kiana]: I'm fine. Kiana Kaslana is the daughter of Siegfried Kaslana. What we're seeing now is a warm, long-awaited reunion—almost ten years in the making. Isn't it touching?
[The heiress]: …
————————————————————————
She said nothing.
As dual consciousnesses sharing one body, The heiress could feel True Kiana's thoughts and emotions completely.
True Kiana had fully—completely let go of her identity as Siegfried's daughter.
Her resolve was so absolute that The heiress didn't even know how to begin persuading her otherwise.
The heiress was mentally screaming.
'Why is the version of Dad in this world such a mess?!'
'Even if he had just one-tenth of my dad's qualities, things wouldn't be like this...'
But True Kiana's overwhelming mental waves snapped The heiress out of her spiraling thoughts.
Heart pounding, she immediately pushed all thoughts of this world's Siegfried aside.
The knight-girl continued watching the father and daughter silently embrace.
The anger that had been carved into her refined features slowly melted away, leaving her face as blank and calm as a sheet of paper.
"Sorry? You think just saying sorry is enough?! I want a full explanation! Where have you been all these years?! Why didn't you come find me?!"
After soaking in the warmth of her father's hug, Kiana pushed Siegfried away and stood akimbo.
One hand on her waist, the other pointing accusingly at his now-avoiding gaze.
Now that her emotions had somewhat calmed, Kiana finally noticed something was off.
She grabbed Siegfried's left arm—or rather, the empty sleeve—and her eyes widened in alarm.
"Dad, what happened to your arm?!"
"It's nothing. Injuries are part of being a warrior. This is… a badge of honor," Siegfried said, shaking his head with a relaxed grin.
He reached out with his remaining arm to ruffle her hair.
Kiana pursed her lips, silently staring at him.
After a moment, she took a deep breath and smacked her cheeks.
"I'll take you to Nagami! Nagami can definitely fix you!"
She turned, grabbing Siegfried's sleeve and trying to pull him toward the Hyperion.
"Nagami? Who's that?"
During his recovery, Siegfried hadn't kept up with much news.
Since he'd never formally joined Anti-Entropy, their relationship was more of an informal alliance.
And back in the U.S., Siegfried had specifically asked not to be disturbed unless necessary.
That's why Kiana had never shared any details about Nagami with him.
"Nagami is... he's... my… really good friend!"
Her cheeks flushed.
Though she'd already sorted out her feelings internally, it was still way too embarrassing to say something like that so bluntly to her dad—especially since Nagami...
To be honest, she hadn't even confessed yet.
No way she could say it out loud like this!
"A really good friend, huh?"
Any normal person could tell she was lying through her teeth.
As her father, Siegfried felt a pang of guilt.
After all these years of absence, how could he possibly claim the right to meddle in her relationships?
She'd been just a child when he last watched over her… and now she was already at an age where love was on the table?
"I'm guessing it's actually your boyfriend, huh~? Not gonna introduce him to dear ol' Dad?"
Siegfried slung an arm around her shoulders, teasing her like the picture of a modern, open-minded father.
Still, he had to meet the guy. And if this "Nagami" dared hurt Kiana's feelings...
Siegfried's grip on Judgement of Shamash subtly tightened.
"Of course he's not your boyfriend! Nagami is my future husband!"
Though the voice and tone matched Kiana's exactly, the words definitely didn't come from her.
There was a hint of bashfulness in the knight-girl's left eye, and unwavering determination in her right.
True Kiana had taken control of the body. The heiress assisted.
She had lived her entire life in solitude.
Besides cold experiments, books were her only companions.
Even so, True Kiana's heart had remained incomplete.
Her isolated, loveless upbringing had left her with a deep sense of loneliness and insecurity.
The feelings she had now—what once flowed from her other self—were now hers.
They filled the cracks of her shattered heart.
So True Kiana always shot straight. This was the one thing she could not afford to let go of.
"The hell are you saying, Sirin?! Nagami would never be your husband!"
Kiana spun around, face flushed with outrage, and glared daggers at the knight-girl.
'BOOM!'
Her shout cracked like thunder through the air. Siegfried felt like his brain had exploded.
The smile froze on his face. His arm, still half-extended, stopped midair. Even his thoughts ground to a halt as if frozen in time.
"S-Sirin!!"
He said the name like he'd seen a ghost. Chaos erupted in his mind.
"Huh? Wait, Dad—you know Sirin?"
Kiana blinked, tilting her head in confusion.
But Siegfried didn't answer.
His gaze locked on the knight-girl—on those unmistakable ruby-red eyes.
The knight-girl didn't acknowledge his stare.
Instead, she lifted her eyes to the sky, where a small aircraft was swiftly approaching—the vessel carrying True Kiana's real body.
It was being piloted by one of the Hyperion Valkyries, under direct orders from Nagami through the chat network.
"Oh, he knows me alright~ Not just knows me—we go way back."
A cold smile crept across the knight-girl's lips.
She slowly closed the twin-core memory device in her right hand, still shaped like a 'W.'
Her armor—half-black, half-emerald dissolved into a blur of wind and darkness.
And in Siegfried's horrified gaze, the girl who looked exactly like Kiana... finally revealed her true form.