February 10, 2000, Anti-Entropy Base, ten minutes before the Arahato launch. Hermit and Kiana stood atop the carrier rocket, ready to hitch a ride.
Kiana gazed at their precarious perch, her words caught in her throat. She finally clutched the rocket's pointed tip, protesting:
"I get the logic, but why do we have to stand on the rocket's outer shell?!"
Kiana yelled in exasperation, staring at Hermit, who somehow remained firmly planted on the rocket's hull.
"Hmm? What's the problem?" Hermit asked, puzzled by Kiana's trembling grip on the rocket.
"Of course there's a problem! A huge one!" Kiana shouted back indignantly, delivering her soul-piercing question:
"Do you stand on the airplane wings when you fly?!"
"Logically speaking, there's no reason you can't stand outside if you don't plan to pay," Hermit said, lowering her head in feigned contemplation before offering Kiana her answer.
"Besides, riding a rocket like this would be quite thrilling... This is the Dreamscape, after all. We can temporarily ignore certain physical laws..."
"Thrilling, my foot! This rocket is carrying a mech inside! It's going to disintegrate once it reaches space, right?!"
"Think like you're already in space! Now get your butt into Arahato!"
"Fine, if you're not going to try it, whatever. No one else gets this kind of opportunity anyway."
Hermit shook her head, snapped her fingers, and shifted their view to the Arahato within the rocket. Welt and Siegfried were already seated in the cockpit, silently awaiting liftoff.
"Huh? Why aren't they saying a word to each other?" Kiana asked, puzzled by their silence.
"They're both weighed down by heavy thoughts," Hermit explained, watching the two silent figures in the cockpit. "And your father is facing a difficult choice right now."
"What choice?"
"Comrades and family... the Kaslana family's will was torn between these conflicting ideals at that moment..."
"In the wreckage of the stone pillars discarded by the Second Herrscher, Anti-Entropy's Doctors discovered a technology capable of sealing Honkai energy. However, most of the meteorites burned up during atmospheric entry."
"As you've already seen, these fragments containing technical data originated from the Second Herrscher's ruins on the far side of the Moon..."
"Welt Yang proposed two options to Siegfried: he would lure away the Second Herrscher, who might still be lurking at the heart of the ruins, while Siegfried retrieved the invaluable technical fragments, securing a temporary reprieve for humanity."
"Or Siegfried's own plan: he would pilot the Arahato alongside Welt Yang, fighting the Second Herrscher together, even though their chances of success were slim."
"Fighting alongside comrades or returning to his family with humanity's hope... this agonizing choice relentlessly tormented your father's spirit..."
"We cannot judge his actions as right or wrong. Humans are inherently contradictory; we often strive for balance, but not every situation allows us to stand on the scales' center."
"Your father must now stand on one side of the scales."
"Family and the world, or perhaps his former comrades-in-arms—"
Hermit watched Siegfried sitting cross-legged in a chair within the scene. The man's face was etched with worry until Welt handed him a bottle of whiskey.
Listening to Hermit's story, Kiana also fell into deep thought herself.
"Comrades, family, and the fate of the world... I really want it all..."
The pensive girl was drawn back to the conversation by the voices of the two men before her, her eyes lighting up with interest.
"Teacher Yang and Dad both ran away from home before? Dad actually likes watching cartoons? Wait, cartoons drawn by Teacher Yang? And Dad used to be afraid of Teacher Yang too?"
Gradually captivated by the gossip, Kiana drifted further from the main topic, now eagerly anticipating what other scandalous revelations the two old men might unearth.
"Hold on... Mom fell from the sky and Dad just... picked her up off the street?!"
Kiana stared at Siegfried in disbelief.
"...That's right. Your dad picked up Cecilia after she fell from the sky onto the road. Now, guess who sent her flying?"
Hermit's voice carried a teasing smile as she glanced at Kiana, whose face was practically screaming with gossip.
"Could it be that Teacher Yang...?"
Sensing the implication in Hermit's tone, Kiana turned to look at Welt Yang, who was sitting on the other side of the seat.
"You're right. Back then, the Leader of Anti-Entropy fought Cecilia, and Welt used the Star of Eden to blast your mother away."
"Uh... So Teacher Yang was a matchmaker? Is that what they call it...?"
"Perhaps. A very unconventional matchmaker." Hermit shook her head dismissively, steering the conversation back on track.
"They've arrived... and your father, Siegfried, finally made his choice..."
"...What did Dad choose?"
"Family and the world. For Siegfried, Cecilia Schariac and Kiana Kaslana—his beloved wife and child—their weight was too great, tilting the scales in his heart toward family. But that alone wasn't enough."
"What truly solidified his resolve was Welt's final plea—"
"He said to him: The fate of this world hinges on your decision, Siegfried. Which is more important to you—the survival of humanity or the preservation of a single person's name?"
"The choice between one person and tens of millions; the choice between one person and hundreds of billions of lives."
"The weak ultimately possess their own law of victory—devotion and sacrifice... This is the cornerstone and ladder of civilization."
-
"So... Teacher Yang ultimately won, right? After all, I kept seeing him around St. Freya Academy afterward."
Kiana looked at Hermit, but this time she didn't receive the Hermit's affirmation. Instead, she was met with a completely contradictory answer:
"Welt Yang's body only underwent a brief recovery. He stood no chance against the Second Herrscher, who had obtained four Gems and undergone transcendence. All he could do was what he had done before—delay her as long as possible... buying time for your father to gather the fragments."
Hermit shook her head, refuting the girl's speculation.
"...Then what happened to Teacher Yang?"
"The Herrscher of Reason is a very special Herrscher. The destruction of his physical body is irrelevant; he can reconstruct it at any time, though the process takes a long time."
"So, after being defeated, Teacher Yang hid his consciousness within the Herrscher Core?"
"Precisely. The Second Herrscher remained completely unaware of this. Overjoyed and ecstatic, she absorbed the Core into her power..."
"Even if she's a complete illiterate who didn't even finish middle school... she can't truly use this Herrscher Core..."
Hermit observed the Second Herrscher, who was merging the Core of Reason into herself and falling into frenzied joy, and delivered her assessment:
"She's merely accelerating her chronic suicide from four times the speed to five times..."