Three days later.
Deep beneath the Anti-Entropy Entertainment building.
This was a place wrapped in thick layers of special alloy and lead plating, a place where not even the faintest cosmic ray could penetrate. Only the cold-toned blast lamps on the ceiling gave off their dull, monotonous light.
Kiana stood before the one-way observation glass.
She had been standing here for nearly half an hour, still clutching a cup of hot cocoa she hadn't finished.
In the medical bay next door, Su Yu still drifted up and down within that pale, greenish repair fluid.
His breathing was steady, but the fractures caused by the collapse of his second-stage Genetic Lock would still take a little more time to mend.
Welt pushed up his glasses. He, too, held a cup of coffee, though this one had just been poured, still steaming.
Kiana didn't turn her head, her gaze still fixed on Su Yu's face. Two days ago it had been pale as paper, but now it had regained a healthy, rosy color.
During this time, Kiana had fabricated an excuse and finally managed to send off everyone from the studio.
She had also learned from Bronie exactly what that idiot called Sirin had done while she'd been away.
Even though she already knew everything that had happened, she wanted to hear it.
She wanted to hear that fool Su Yu tell her everything that had happened, in every last detail, little by little.
The voice of the Herrscher of the Void had vanished without a trace since that day.
She didn't know whether it was avoiding her, or whether, after awakening her, it had fallen into a state of weakness.
Right now, Kiana's feelings were especially complicated.
There was gratitude toward the Herrscher of the Void for awakening her, yet she could never quite forget the torment the Herrscher of the Void had once inflicted upon her, the crimes it had committed.
In the end, she simply stopped thinking about these matters that would yield no conclusion any time soon. Right now, the one and only pressing matter was to wait for Su Yu to wake up.
As long as he was here.
Only then did she have a home in this world, an anchor for her heart, everything.
"Sometimes I think, if he hadn't picked me up that rainy night... in this peaceful world, maybe he'd have become a world-class gaming master. Instead of lying in a tank filled with medicine, like he is now."
Kiana's voice was flat, betraying little in the way of emotion.
But that paper cup, crushed slightly out of shape, told of what was on its owner's mind.
"This was his choice too, Kiana." Welt took a sip of his coffee, his tone like a patient, guiding history teacher's. "In this world, he doesn't fight to save the world. He fights for a certain someone. That tends to make a person push themselves far harder than any grand slogan ever could."
Kiana fell silent for a few seconds, then turned and walked toward another blast door at the end of the corridor.
"Lead the way, Teacher Yang. I want to go see that... guest who nearly took this everyday life away from me."
The underground cell.
There was no electric chair here, nor any whip.
There was only a fully sealed, sterile chamber into which not even a single strand of hair could be brought.
Rita Rossweisse sat upon a specially made metal chair.
That gorgeous and deadly "Argent Knight: Artemis" armor had long since been dismantled into parts and shipped off to the Mobius Laboratory.
At this moment, Rita wore nothing but a thin, form-fitting black combat underlayer.
Even reduced to the position of a prisoner, this S-rank Valkyrie of Schicksal still maintained a kind of utterly absurd elegance.
She sat perfectly upright, her hands resting flat on her knees, her hair immaculate, and that hound-like alertness in her eyes had never once faded.
"Mr. Welt, I believe I've already made myself perfectly clear."
Hearing the sound of the door opening, Rita didn't so much as turn her head, her voice still carrying that polite yet distant smile.
"Until that Mr. Su Yu awakens, I will not answer any questions."
Welt glanced at Kiana and gave a helpless shrug.
Kiana stared at Rita's back, her lips pressed into a straight line.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to say something "cutting," that cool, clear voice sounded in her mind.
"Let me handle this, Kiana."
Kiana closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, that sharpness and restlessness belonging to a young girl vanished in an instant without a trace.
In its place was a steadiness heavy as a mountain, weighty, carrying the vicissitudes of a thousand years of scrutiny.
Fu Hua had taken over the body.
She walked slowly before Rita and simply stood there, silent.
She released no aura whatsoever, yet it made Rita—who had originally been resting with her eyes shut—suddenly shudder.
Rita opened her eyes, and the moment her gaze touched those eyes, it was as if her whole being had been struck by a pause button.
"...Lady Fu Hua?"
For the first time, Rita's voice cracked.
Her originally placid, water-still posture crumbled, her fingers unconsciously gripping the armrests of the metal chair.
"Why would you... appear here? And, in this form..."
Fu Hua did not answer her question.
She merely looked at Rita, her expression blank.
"Rita, three years ago at the training camp of the Austria Branch, you secretly swapped the top-grade tea leaves the Bishop had given me for dried-up dead leaves."
"Last year, at the Valkyrie cafeteria in Schicksal Headquarters, to test my reactions, you deliberately added triple the amount of mustard to my bento."
Fu Hua's voice remained utterly level.
"These things—you surely haven't forgotten them yet."
The cell fell into deathly silence.
That face of Rita's, which had always worn a mask named "the Perfect Maid," turned ghastly pale in an instant, and then was swiftly stained by a flush of embarrassment.
These "little devil" antics, known only to the two of them—things even Durandal might not have been aware of—being exposed here in this utterly unfamiliar world was more devastating than any brutal interrogation.
"You... you really are Lady Fu Hua."
Rita lowered her head, and in that moment, all her prideful defenses collapsed entirely.
She knew that this guardian of Shenzhou never lied.
"So then, may we talk now? About Arc City, about the... deadlock that sent you here."
Fu Hua pulled over a stool and sat down across from Rita.
Rita let out a long breath, as if trying to expel every ounce of pride pent up in her chest.
"In that laboratory... we ran into a swarming encirclement of Death Web."
Rita's voice grew somewhat unsteady, as those shadows of death once again shrouded over her.
"That was one part of Project STIGMA. Shencheng Pharmaceuticals had set the trap long ago."
"They specially prepared a poison mist capable of neutralizing Honkai energy. After inhaling the mist, I gradually grew weak, and very soon, they dispatched the monsters made specifically to hunt Valkyries—the Death Web."
Welt listened clearly from the side.
His coffee cup froze in midair.
As Old Yang, who had once cleared the story of Honkai Impact 3rd, he understood better than anyone.
According to the original script, Rita would indeed be gravely wounded, but she would be rescued by Kiana, who was wandering through Arc City, and then the two of them would join forces to expose the dark schemes of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals.
But because of his own appearance, because of the existence of this world's Su Yu, the gears of history had made a bizarre jump here.
This world's Kiana had been eating pizza and playing games at Su Yu's home all along; she simply did not exist in that Arc City of the Honkai world.
"You said that before you lost consciousness, you heard something?" Fu Hua continued.
"It was like some kind of synthesized mechanical voice... saying something about detecting damage to a core character, and about forced execution of an Anchor teleport."
Rita lifted her head, a deep sense of absurdity showing in her eyes.
"And then, when I opened my eyes, I appeared in that abandoned building, and after that I ran into—"
She said no more; what followed was that battle.
Fu Hua nodded. She glanced at Welt, then let her gaze fall back onto Rita's face, and cast out that heavy bomb enough to blow apart everything Rita believed.
"That was Su Yu's power—that is, the very man you nearly killed just now."
"I'm afraid it was that existence of his called the System, which, from tens of thousands of light-years away... or rather, from a different dimension, forcibly locked onto your existence and pulled you out of a certain-death ending and into this peaceful world."
"Rita."
A trace of a sigh entered Fu Hua's tone.
"The head you very nearly cut off belonged to the one who saved your life—the only benefactor you have in this world."
The air in the cell seemed to be sucked away in an instant.
Rita froze utterly where she was.
She recalled how, amid those ruins, that man covered in blood, though clearly already at his limit, had still thrown himself before her time and time again—even resorting to that extremely self-destructive method to suppress her.
She had originally thought it was an obstruction.
But now...
That immense guilt, one that violated the aesthetics of a maid and the spirit of a knight, surged over her like a cold tide, drowning her in an instant.
Those eyes of hers, once clear, were now filled with panic and self-loathing.
"That's enough. Squad Monitor, leave the rest to me."
Kiana's voice sounded in her mind.
Fu Hua closed her eyes and returned control of the body to that girl who had long been unable to restrain herself.
Kiana opened her eyes anew.
That steadiness had vanished, replaced by a disgust laced with a hint of scorn.
She strode up before Rita, abruptly seized her by the collar, and hauled her half up out of the chair.
"Did you hear that? You ungrateful wretch."
Kiana ground out each word through gritted teeth, as if squeezing them out from between them.
"You should count yourself lucky he's still alive. Otherwise there's no way you'd be standing here in one piece."
"And it's not just me—there are plenty who want your life. But we all know..."
"If that big idiot woke up, he'd definitely rub his shoulder and say something nauseating like, 'Oh come now, it was all a misunderstanding, Lady Rita was deceived too.' That kind of sickening nonsense."
"He's just an incurable, bleeding-heart pushover."
Kiana let go, slamming Rita back down hard into the chair.
"He even wants to save the Herrscher of the Void, who's killed him countless times—let alone a maid like you who just looks decent enough on the outside."
Rita slumped in the chair, strands of her hair falling down, obscuring her expression.
She stayed silent for a long time.
In the not-so-long life of Rita Rossweisse, she had lived as one of Schicksal's top-tier agents, active as a Black Glove.
Those sins, that darkness—it was fine for her alone to bear them.
As long as she could keep Lady Durandal's hands unsoiled, it didn't matter in the slightest what became of herself.
Her comrades had always evaluated her as elegant and composed, the "Dark Rose" who danced gracefully upon the battlefield.
But this did not mean she was a person cold-blooded to the utmost degree.
Quite the opposite—precisely because she had witnessed such darkness, she held a heartfelt respect for those who dared to struggle against the dark, who kept to their own bottom lines and duties.
And what had she herself done?
Not only had she led Lady Mei and the members of the Immortal Blades into a trap, she had also nearly taken the life of her own savior.
Ragna had taught her that the duty of a Schicksal maid was by no means limited to pouring tea or tending to the manor.
A maid's true mission was to "clean" this world.
She likened the Honkai, disasters, and the cruel, dark side of the world to "dust" and "grime."
A maid's duty was to scrub these filthy stains away in the shadows, so that others could live in a clean, beautiful world where they never had to face the darkness directly.
This was also why Rita could later take on Schicksal's cold, dirty work and elimination missions without complaint—even with a smile—because in her eyes, it was merely fulfilling a maid's proper duty of cleaning.
And yet.
At this moment, she herself was the dust and grime that ought to be cleaned away.
She had completely mistaken even who her swinging scythe was aimed at, who she ought to protect, who she ought to serve.
With a self like this, what face did she have left to call herself the "Perfect Maid"?
In that silence, so drawn-out it was suffocating.
The figure of Bianka surfaced in Rita's mind.
If it were her—if it were that lady—faced with this scene, what would she say, what would she do?
The answer was self-evident.
With Durandal's incomparably upright nature, there was only one thing she would do.
She would press her forehead against the cold ground, over and over, stubbornly and refusing to give up, hoping to earn the other party's forgiveness.
She would say, "Whatever the demand, I will accept it."
She would say, "As long as you spare Rita, you may take my life and I won't mind."
Rita drew a deep breath.
Faced with this situation, there was likewise only one thing she could do.
In the span of a few breaths, Rita Rossweisse made her decision.
And then, this proud S-rank Valkyrie slowly slid down from the chair.
Onto that cold alloy floor.
She knelt on both knees, pressing her forehead to the cold ground before the tips of Kiana's shoes.
"I... have no intention of arguing away my crimes."
Rita's voice carried a tremor that had cast aside all dignity.
"If it is that lord's will... please allow me to see him once. At the very least, let me make some amends for my own foolishness."
"Within my armor space, there is a biometric lock."
"Stored inside are Schicksal's highest-grade healing agents. They would help with his injuries."
She raised her head, and on that exquisite face there was no longer any elegance at all—only a humble plea.
"And also, Lady Raiden Mei..."
Hearing that name, Kiana's breath abruptly stopped for a second.
How long had it been since she'd last heard that name, since she'd heard any news of Mei?
"To cover my escape... she's probably still trapped on that hell-like battlefield together with my squad members, fighting the World Serpent alone."
"Lady Kiana, in this world, without relying on that lord's power... I can find no way to go back and save them."
"What's more, the truth of the World Serpent's Project STIGMA is a screening of ruthless extremity. They mean to conduct their experiment in that super-metropolis of a million people. Once the experiment begins, it will turn into a living, breathing hell on earth."
"I know that no matter what I say, nothing can exonerate my crimes."
"But I have reasons why I must go on living."
"I know this is a shameless act, but even so, I beg of you—"
Kiana looked down at Rita kneeling at her feet.
She had never imagined that in that world, Mei would actually have formed an alliance with Rita.
Nor had she imagined that this lofty S-rank Valkyrie would, at this moment, lower her posture to such a depth.
She knew Rita wasn't lying.
And she knew that her guilt and self-reproach were genuine.
Kiana drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
For Su Yu's injuries.
For Mei, still suffering.
For those tens of thousands of ordinary people in Arc City.
"Teacher Yang."
Kiana turned her head, looking toward Welt.
"Taking her to see that big idiot is fine, but before that..."
Kiana reached up and touched her own collar—which still bore the limiter that Mei had once made for her—and her eyes turned cold.
Though by now she no longer needed this limiter. Having reached the realm of divine essence, even if the present Kiana were to return to the Honkai world, it would be enough for her to contend with Sirin, who had regained her Honkai energy.
"Help me get in touch with Dr. Tesla. Since she's a top-tier agent, ordinary confinement probably won't work on her."
"Make an identical limiter using the same parameters as mine."
Kiana looked down at Rita, the corner of her mouth curling into an arc devoid of warmth.
"Listen carefully, Rita."
She gazed into those eyes like jewels.
"If you dare pull any little tricks, this high-powered collar will, in an instant, release a current strong enough to paralyze your heart. Even I, a Herrscher's vessel, would likewise be subdued in an instant—so you know what that means."
Rita looked at Kiana's collar. She understood all too well what kind of concept an electric shock even Kiana's body couldn't withstand was.
For her, that would be equivalent to dying in the depths of extreme agony.
Yet she showed not the slightest hesitation.
She only bowed her head deeply once more.
"If this can quell some of the rage in your heart, I have no complaints whatsoever, Lady Kiana."
Kiana said nothing more, and turned and walked out.
Welt let out a long sigh: "I hope you'll be as good as your word, Lady Rita."
This Welt, who had once lived through the Finality War and who knew of the connection between Rita Rossweisse and that Bianka, as well as the matters between Bianka and Kiana, said nothing further.
As the containment chamber was sealed shut once again, Rita still held that same posture, unchanged.
But her fingers were clenched tight, trembling uncontrollably.
It was not out of anger, nor out of humiliation.
It was an immense guilt, one that seemed as though it would drown everything about her.
Yet after only a few breaths, Rita calmed her heart.
She rose again and returned to her seat.
What had happened had happened; no matter what she said now, it was far, far too late.
She would not run away.
All she could do now was atone as much as possible for the wrongs she had committed.
This was, as an S-rank Valkyrie, and likewise as the "Perfect Maid," her final bottom line and dignity.
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