Chapter 89: Welt: You Just Want to See Me Make a Fool of Myself, Don't You?
"And what if I say yes?"
Leon raised a single brow. He met Serval's teasing gaze with absolute composure, his voice carrying a slow, unhurried drawl.
A few steps away, Cocolia watched the exchange in complete silence. Her fingers hovered over the neck of the mechanical guitar. A very strange, very complicated knot tightened in her chest. For some inexplicable reason, standing here watching Leon and Serval trade playful jabs felt exactly like watching a current boyfriend flirt shamelessly with an ex-girlfriend.
"Then I will have to interrogate you properly." Serval leaned in, a wicked glint in her eyes. "Just how much research have you actually done?"
She had not expected the man to answer with such brazen confidence. For a split second, the blonde rocker froze, blinking in surprise before throwing her head back and letting out a bright, ringing laugh. A mature woman of her caliber was not going to be flustered so easily.
Taking a deliberate step forward, Serval closed the distance until her fingertip hovered a hairsbreadth from Leon's chest. Her eyes narrowed into mischievous slits.
A sharp, discordant twang echoed through the room.
Cocolia had subconsciously plucked a guitar string, following it up with a soft, pointed cough.
"So," Serval continued, ignoring the interruption with a smirk, "are you willing to cooperate with us and finish this performance?"
Leon possessed an incredibly sharp eye. He caught the fleeting flash of awkwardness crossing Cocolia's features and let out a low chuckle. Taking a smooth step back to create some space, he expertly steered the conversation back to business.
"Of course I am."
Serval was far from foolish. Jokes and flirting aside, their interactions over the past day had proven one thing to her: Leon was a decent man. More than decent, he possessed an unfathomable level of power. According to his own words, once this grand script of his reached its finale, he would personally intervene to fix the harsh environment of Belobog.
On that promise alone, turning him down was an impossibility.
Wait... Serval's mind clicked. If he possessed that kind of world-altering strength, then his little stunt yesterday fixing the heater with a baseball bat was a complete lie. He had used his own raw power and blamed it on the bat.
If that was true, this man had a thoroughly wicked sense of humor.
Strangely enough, she found she quite liked it.
"In that case, I won't disturb your little reunion any longer." Leon offered a lazy wave, his lips curving upward as he turned toward the door.
The moment the heavy door clicked shut behind him, the playful atmosphere vanished.
Cocolia slowly turned her gaze toward the blonde rocker. The Supreme Guardian's posture was rigid, her hands gripping the guitar strap until her knuckles turned white.
"Serval," Cocolia began, her voice barely above a whisper. "I am sorry... I was wrong."
The apology hung heavy in the quiet room. It was an admission of past sins, a plea for forgiveness directed at the best friend she had so deeply hurt. Even if the whispers of the Stellaron had clouded her mind and seduced her into madness back then, she refused to use that as a shield. An excuse would only cheapen the apology.
"Heh. I really didn't expect this."
Serval let out a long, shaky exhale. The mischievous spark in her eyes dissolved into a swirl of complex emotions. "I have imagined the scene of you apologizing to me countless times. But I never expected it to look quite like this."
For years, she had thought she would be consumed by righteous anger. In her wildest daydreams, she would scream, cry, and smash this very guitar into pieces right in front of Cocolia, proudly declaring that she had finally crawled out from beneath the Supreme Guardian's suffocating shadow.
Yet, standing here, looking at the genuine remorse etching lines into Cocolia's face, Serval found all that fiery resentment turning to ash. She simply did not have the heart for it anymore.
"You woman... you really are a haunting ghost."
A fragile smile tugged at the corners of Serval's mouth, but her voice cracked, growing thick with unshed emotion.
"I tried so incredibly hard to forget everything from our past. I threw myself into music, into machines... yet you always find a way to drag yourself right back into my sight." Serval took a shaky breath. "Cocolia, you... you absolute bastard!"
The dam broke.
"First you terminated my research, throwing me out into the cold! And now you show up just to shatter my peace of mind all over again! What else do you want to take from me?"
Tears spilled over her lashes, tracing hot, wet lines down her cheeks. She did not bother wiping them away.
Cocolia took the verbal blows in absolute silence. She lowered her head, the weight of the crown she no longer wore pressing heavily on her neck.
"I am sorry," Cocolia whispered after a long, agonizing stretch of silence. Her tone was hollowed out by guilt. "I once thought... I truly believed we would be friends for a lifetime."
She owed debts to many people in Belobog, but the debt she owed Serval Landau was a gaping wound.
"Hmph. Who wants to be friends for a lifetime with you?" Serval snapped, turning her face away to hide her crying. The words were harsh, but the trembling of her shoulders betrayed the lie.
Cocolia looked at the guitar in her hands, a sad, relieved smile gracing her lips.
"I have been looking forward to this day," Cocolia said softly. "Hoping that maybe, just maybe, one day... I could return this guitar to you."
She stepped forward, gently placing the instrument on a nearby workbench.
"When that time comes... perhaps we can finally let bygones be bygones."
Cocolia understood Serval's anger perfectly. If their positions were reversed, she would find it entirely impossible to forgive the person who had publicly humiliated her and expelled her from the City Builders' Technical Division. As the Supreme Guardian, Cocolia knew exactly how vicious the rumors and political gossip had been. If Serval had not possessed the protection of the Landau Family name, the streets of the Overworld would have eaten her alive.
Putting herself in those shoes, Cocolia knew she did not deserve easy forgiveness.
She turned on her heel, her posture defeated, preparing to walk out the door and leave Serval in peace.
"Is that it?"
Cocolia froze.
"Is that all there is to your grand apology?" Serval's voice cracked like a whip, halting Cocolia in her tracks.
"Eh?" Cocolia blinked, turning back to stare at the blonde woman in utter bewilderment.
Serval's cheeks flushed a bright, angry red. She kept her head turned stubbornly away, refusing to meet Cocolia's eyes.
How could she not cherish this bond? For countless lonely days and freezing nights, Serval had stared at the ceiling of her workshop, wondering if Cocolia had completely forgotten the promise tied to that guitar. Hearing that apology today... deep down, beneath the layers of hurt and pride, a deep sense of joy had bloomed in her chest.
Serval raised a hand, her fingertips brushing against her own cheek. The cold, wet sensation made her realize just how hard she was crying.
"Serval..."
Seeing the stubborn, tear-stained face of her oldest friend, the heavy burden crushing Cocolia's chest finally lifted. A genuine, radiant smile broke across her face.
Deep within the rusted, echoing caverns of the Underworld, the atmosphere was entirely different.
"Miss Bronya, if I may ask a rather personal question... do you have any sisters?"
Welt Yang adjusted his glasses, looking at the recently awakened silver-haired girl. This question had been burning a hole in his mind for quite some time.
"Ah? No..."
Bronya looked up, her expression distracted. She had been staring out at the miserable, dilapidated sights of the Lower District, her heart aching for the people forced to live in such squalor. Welt's sudden question caught her completely off guard.
Did she have sisters?
She searched her mind, finding nothing but empty space. Although Bronya knew she was Cocolia's adopted daughter, her memories of her early childhood before the Overworld were practically non-existent. She had been far too young, and the passage of time had scrubbed those years clean. The fragments that remained were nothing more than a blurred haze.
"You do, Bronya. You absolutely do."
A familiar, lazy voice drifted through the damp air.
Leon's figure materialized from the shadows, stepping quietly into Bronya's line of sight. "Bronya, do you still remember the orphanage?"
"Yes..." Bronya's eyes widened. She almost blurted out the word 'benefactor', but catching sight of Welt standing right beside them, she swallowed the honorific just in time.
However, that tiny, aborted syllable, that subtle shift in her posture, was entirely captured by Welt's sharp eyes.
Welt narrowed his gaze. Bronya knows Leon? They have had contact before this? Was she about to call him something respectful?
A terrifying thought crossed the seasoned Trailblazer's mind. Could it be that Leon had already resolved the Stellaron crisis behind the scenes? But if that was the truth, why had Bronya been leading the Silvermane Guards to hunt the Astral Express crew down just yesterday?
In the span of a single second, a dozen different possibilities fired through Welt's brain, but none of them formed a logical picture.
Before he could analyze the mystery any further, Leon's next words shattered his train of thought.
"The orphanage..." Bronya lightly touched her forehead, her brows knitting together. "I have some faint impressions, but the memory is so blurry."
Leon smiled. He raised a hand and tapped his index finger lightly against the center of her brow. A tiny wisp of golden light flared, sinking directly into her mind.
"You were adopted from an orphanage right here in the Lower District," Leon explained, his tone gentle but carrying a hint of amusement. "Seele, who grew up in that exact same orphanage alongside you, is naturally your sister."
"Really?" Bronya's eyes lit up, the fog in her mind clearing as old, buried emotions bubbled to the surface. "I actually have a sister? That is wonderful."
A heavy silence fell over the small group.
Then, a sound broke the quiet.
"Hahahaha!"
Welt threw his head back and laughed out loud, completely abandoning his usual stoic demeanor. He pinched the bridge of his nose, his shoulders shaking. "Let me get this straight. You are telling me that Bronya was an orphan, was adopted by Cocolia, and also happens to have a sister named Seele?"
Dammit. This was an absolute joke. The cosmic irony was staggering. It was an exact, one-to-one mirror of the history from his previous world.
"Ah, by the way, Mr. Yang," Leon added, a thoroughly wicked grin spreading across his face. "I forgot to mention something else. The Lower District does not just have Seele. It also has a doctor named Natasha."
Leon watched Welt's reaction with pure delight. This really was too much fun. It was just a pity there was not a hot-tempered scientist named Tesla running around Belobog; otherwise, the comedic value would be truly astronomical.
"Um..." Welt's laughter died in his throat. He adjusted his glasses, staring at Leon with a completely speechless expression. "I... I actually just met Natasha."
The final puzzle piece clicked into place.
Welt stared at the grinning transmigrator, finally understanding exactly why Leon had insisted he come down to the Underworld in the first place. There was no grand strategic reason. There was no tactical advantage.
Leon had sent him down here purely to watch him suffer a psychological breakdown over the Honkai Impact lookalikes.
Truly, utterly wicked.
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