Amidst the commercial street, Kiana Kaslana wore an expression of peerless excitement as she looked around.
"Hmph hmph hmph, come to think of it, this young lady is a natural genius to begin with; there was never any need to be tied down by something like academics."
"If I come out to play once in a blue moon, it holds zero downsides for me—anyway, all that stuff at school, I learn the moment I see it, so I don't need to worry about academic matters at all."
Yet, while strolling and spouting such words, Kiana was currently keeping a secret watch on the surrounding crowd.
Lately, Kiana always felt as though she frequently sensed an intangible gaze lingering upon her.
Though she failed to detect any malice within this gaze, being stared at from the shadows could hardly be called a comfortable experience.
To put it bluntly, her choice to skip school today was precisely to find out what was going on with that gaze.
If she could still feel this gaze even after leaving the school grounds, it meant the matter had nothing to do with those people at school.
Hmph, that stinky old man once claimed he used to be a member of Schicksal, but now he had turned into a wanted criminal of Schicksal.
Could it be that this gaze came from people belonging to Schicksal?
No, there was another possibility.
Walking along the path, Kiana suddenly considered a certain possibility right then.
Back then, after Siegfried suddenly took off without a word for various reasons, Kiana had wandered all the way from Europe to Changkong City entirely on her own.
Only now, upon reflection, did Kiana constantly feel that this matter was full of fishiness.
That stinky old man of hers might usually feel unreliable, but no matter what, he shouldn't be the irresponsible type.
Even if he had to leave abruptly, Siegfried Kaslana wouldn't have just left his daughter to fend for herself like that.
Now that she had matured just a bit, Kiana also discovered that her wandering was filled with suspicious points.
She admitted she was a brilliantly smart and talented teenage beauty—true enough—but no matter how much of a genius she was, could she wander alone all the way from Europe to Far East almost completely unscathed?
That was obviously impossible.
Could it be that the stinky old man had actually been protecting me from the shadows all along?
And this gaze... was actually the stinky old man's?
Thought of in this light, this conjecture was entirely reasonable.
The stinky old man wasn't the kind to abandon his daughter; otherwise, why would he take the risk to rescue this young lady from Schicksal?
With that perspective, the stinky old man had actually been right beside her the whole time... could it be that he was worried she wouldn't grow, and thus used this method to train her?
The moment she thought about how the hardships she endured over the past four years were due to a reason like this, Kiana felt two contradictory emotions—a trace of lingering annoyance and a sense of comfort—well up in her heart.
Hmph hmph hmph, if that really was the case, then all she needed to do next was find an excuse to fish the stinky old man out, and this young lady would get to see him.
At that moment, the white-haired girl clenched her fists, feeling that her knuckles had thoroughly hardened.
Once she saw the stinky old man...
--This young lady will definitely use her fists to land a heavy blow right on his face!
Chapter 16: Better Let Me Do It!
Of course, although such thoughts arose deep within Kiana's heart, she knew she couldn't act too obvious right now.
Only after she confirmed the other party's position would she have the chance to haul the person who had been staring at her out into the open on the spot.
During the time that followed, Kiana kept wandering through various shops along the commercial street.
Shuttling through the assortment of stores, the girl could sense that the owner of that gaze would sometimes even vanish from her perception.
Finding things increasingly suspicious, Kiana finally failed to curb the restlessness in her heart and dashed straight toward the location she had confirmed.
Then, she laid eyes on a figure that left her immensely disappointed.
The father the young girl had pursued for so long was not in that place.
The owner of this gaze wasn't Siegfried Kaslana, but rather Lin Yu, a senior attending the same school as Kiana.
"H-! HOW! IS IT! YOU!"
Gazing at Lin Yu, who looked relieved at the moment, Kiana spoke with intense dissatisfaction.
"Senior Lin Yu, why are you here? Could it be that you don't need to attend classes?"
"Oh, here is how things are."
Looking at Kiana, who was inexplicably furious, Lin Yu stated quite calmly.
"Because I've fallen in love with you, the moment I discovered you weren't at school I started searching everywhere you might appear—did you buy that explanation?"
Good pitch! Good ship! Well played! You know that for this kind of naive girl, throwing a direct pitch sometimes makes the best offensive strategy!
Well, except if you could adjust your tone slightly and avoid being so calm, the effect would probably be even better.
Sigh, I hope you really are a fool.
If you're a bit foolish, it makes it easier for me to fool you.
While Lin Yu mentally roasted the system, Kiana listened to this spate of words from Lin Yu and said with utter speechlessness.
"Does this young lady look that much like an idiot to you?"
"If you had any other tone than one so perfunctory, this young lady would actually consider believing you by a tiny, teensy bit."
"Oh, right. Well then, how about this..."
After taking a deep breath and adjusting her facial expression, Lin Yu spoke to Kiana once more.
"Classmate Kiana, actually, I've had my eye on you for a long time."
* "Though you love to sleep in class, frequently score zero on exams, act all careless without a shred of proper decorum, and specialize in being a glutton who hates to work, who cares when you're a pretty girl."*
"I, Lin Yu, like—"
"Stop!"
Hearing Lin Yu's 'deeply affectionate' confession, Kiana interrupted his words with even greater speechlessness.
Observing the speechless expression on Kiana's face, Lin Yu knew the other party had been successfully baited into shifting topics.
Though this creature was sharp at critical moments, the moment she felt safe, her little brain would revert to amoeba mode.
If anyone with even a shred of experience heard Lin Yu's lines, they could easily tell he was changing the subject to brush her off.
Yet Kiana, right then, was simply brushed off by exactly that.
Sigh, looking at the young girl before you, a long sigh issued from your heart.
With her foolish appearance, some scumbag specialized in sweet-talking could probably trick her into bed twenty-odd times.
Regardless, Kiana Kaslana truly was an outstanding beauty—well, ignoring certain flaws.
Rather than letting some other jerk profit, you might as well let me do it—at this moment, that notion began to surface in your mind.
Get lost!
If you want to mess around in your own head, leave me out of it!
You're making me look like some scumbag plotting to lure and deceive a minor WCN girl!
Well said, but you're actually quite clear on one fact.
When all was said and done, K423 was Sirin after her resurrection, and K423's age combined with Sirin's age undoubtedly exceeded eighteen—she was an absolute, full-grown adult!
No, isn't luring an adult beauty still something a scumbag would do?
Gazing at Lin Yu before her, Kiana felt completely speechless and let out a heavy sigh.
"Sigh, though I have no idea what you're thinking, Senior, to put it plainly you're just here to drag me back to school, right?"
"Whatever, I'm not in the mood today anyway. I get it, I'll go back with you."
Whoa, is this amoeba being this obedient today?
Look at that! Confessing works—hasn't she been successfully domesticated already!
I hope what you're saying is true, but...
Observing the visible disappointment on Kiana's face, Lin Yu couldn't help but feel as though he had done something wrong.
On the other side, knowing she had guessed wrong, Kiana only felt a somewhat hollow sensation in her heart.
Just a moment ago, she had been overwhelmingly excited, believing that her father Siegfried had never left her side and had always been accompanying her.
As a result, upon discovering that the owner of that gaze was Lin Yu, the fantasy instantly shattered.
Stinky old man... I shouldn't have held any fantasies about him to begin with!
Next time we meet, a single punch won't solve things anymore!
When this young lady meets him next time, I'm definitely giving him a few extra punches!
Meanwhile. Commercial Street.
Inside a certain alleyway on the commercial street, a man wearing a hood looked at the several dazzling women surrounding him and chuckled.
"Ha, I really didn't expect that even at my age, I'd still have this kind of charm."
"Could a few beautiful young ladies kindly step aside for a moment? My daughter is around here, and carrying on an affair right in front of her is never a good thing."
"Oh, is that so?"
Watching the man concealing half his face with a hood, Rita spoke with feigned surprise.
"If I recall correctly, the database of Schicksal states that you've pinched the rear of every single Valkyrie on the Hyperion."
"This is data recorded in Schicksal's database, and you wouldn't want to claim it's a rumor, would you, Mr. Siegfried Kaslana?"
What the hell, that little brat Shigure Kira.
Spreading rumors back then was one thing, but how did she manage to write this into the database?
No, that wasn't the crucial point.
The crucial point was, this young lady...
Tch, is she a warrior on the same tier as Shigure Kira and Cheng Lixue?
Even though the criteria for selecting Valkyries had been lowered after the Second Honkai Eruption, this young lady was still an S-rank.
To have already dispatched an S-rank to Changkong City, that fellow Otto...
Had he already discovered the abnormality in this place?
Chapter 17: Aren't We on the Same Side?
The appearance of Siegfried Kaslana in Changkong City was no coincidence.
Just as Kiana had guessed, after leaving her side, he had actually been secretly tailing behind Kiana to keep an eye on her.
After all, advanced in age as Siegfried was, even a fool knew how many dangers an underage girl had to face wandering out in the world.
As for why he chose such a roundabout way to watch over his daughter, the reason was actually quite simple.
During his previous battle with Sirin, Siegfried discovered that lingering by his daughter's side only served to agitate the Herrscher Persona sleeping within her.
In order to keep the Herrscher Persona inside Kiana relatively stable, Siegfried had no choice but to adopt this method.
Over these past few years, Siegfried—who constantly kept tabs on Kiana—also discovered that not only him, but Otto as well had continuously stationed people around Kiana, standing ready to help her resolve issues at any moment.
This made Siegfried even more certain that after Otto 'resurrected' the Herrscher of the Void, he unquestionably harbored an even more frantic and outrageous plan.
Of course, since these people posed no harm to Kiana, Siegfried couldn't be bothered to lift a finger against them.
Including the Valkyries standing before him now, Siegfried knew that the vast majority of Schicksal's members weren't bad people.
He was a member of Schicksal to begin with, and naturally understood that the overwhelming majority within the organization joined simply to fight against the Honkai.
Before you continue