Awakening (Continued)

However, realizing that Mom was deceiving her, Sirin immediately shattered under the weight of this deception.

Sixteen years later, K423 experienced the same thing, eventually shattering once more after Fu Hua exposed the truth to her.

Immersing others in happiness, only to tell them that none of it was real and to snatch away that hypocritical happiness...

To Lin Yu, this was unquestionably the most malicious attack method.

Even though Siegfried, a senior with such a good personality, had no intention of blaming him.

Even though Siegfried was expressing his heartfelt gratitude to Lin Yu.

Yet at that moment, a thought still popped into Lin Yu's mind.

I really am no different from Otto at all...

I... truly deserve to die!

Using a skill on someone else, only for the victim not to shatter while I, the perpetrator, shattered instead...

Hahahahaha, this feeling... is just utterly stupid.

Was this the cost of using the Phantasm Lantern Barrier?

What an incomparably terrible experience.

"Wait, no, your expression..."

Watching the guilt on Lin Yu's face grow increasingly severe, to the point where a hint of breakdown faintly emerged in his eyes, Siegfried grew a little anxious.

"I'm not lying to you, I really am thanking you."

Damn it, you being like this just makes me feel even worse, okay?

After taking several deep breaths, Lin Yu finally stabilized his state of mind.

Then, looking at Siegfried before him, he spoke to him with utmost earnestness.

"No matter what your thoughts are, I feel like I genuinely did the wrong thing, so..."

"—I am truly, very sorry."

Wow, why is this young man unexpectedly so straight-laced about this kind of thing?

If you keep acting like this, I'll start worrying that your straight-laced nature will cause you to end up just like me in the future.

"I know an apology is useless, so I'll try my best to compensate Mr. Siegfried."

"Ah haha, it doesn't have to be like that..."

"Let me give you a piece of intelligence first, then."

After letting out a deep breath, Lin Yu said to Siegfried.

"Mr. Siegfried, that illusionary realm was fake, but a part of it was real."

"Your daughter, Kiana Kaslana, whom you once thought had died, did not die back then."

...!

"Are you serious?!"

Meeting Siegfried's incomparably shocked gaze, Lin Yu didn't pick up on his words, instead speaking on his own.

"Back then, after she fell from the sky, although she suffered heavy injuries, she didn't just die like that."

"The Valkyries of Schicksal recovered her and brought her back to headquarters."

"After that, having lost her memory and with a somewhat altered appearance, once her body recovered, she chose to rename herself Bianca Durandal Atagina."

"She made many companions, went through numerous adventures, and became even stronger, except..."

"At the same time, Bishop Otto learned of her aptitude and took the initiative to cultivate her."

"Because of that reason, she trusts Bishop Otto and is working hard to earnestly help him."

"The present her has already inherited the Black Abyss White Flower and become Schicksal's strongest S-rank Valkyrie."

"I don't know whether you believe what I'm saying, but I can guarantee that everything I've said..."

"Is absolute truth."

Upon learning this news, Siegfried's first reaction was naturally disbelief.

After all, in Siegfried's common sense, falling from that kind of high altitude... even with a physique like his, he felt he wouldn't come out of it well.

To be told that his eldest daughter fell from a high altitude and didn't die...

Who would believe that?

Yet, looking at the young man before him whose eyes were filled with guilt and sincerity, Siegfried couldn't help but feel that the other party might actually be telling the truth.

"Durandal... I know that name."

At that moment, after forcing himself to calm down a fraction, Siegfried still couldn't hold back his inner doubts and confirmed it with Lin Yu once more.

"Little bro Lin Yu, everything you just said..."

"Is of course all true."

He is serious.

At least on this point, I can be certain.

This news... Calm down!

Only then did Siegfried realize that his only remaining hand was currently trembling incessantly.

If he didn't know that now wasn't the time, he definitely would have chosen to storm Schicksal headquarters to see that Valkyrie named Durandal with his own eyes.

Admittedly, according to Lin Yu, that young girl's appearance had been altered.

Yet Siegfried believed that as long as he could see that young girl face-to-face, he would be able to confirm many things.

Kiana... is still alive.

Kiana is still alive!

Even without confirmation, Siegfried found that he was already ecstatic at this moment.

The young man before him could recount the first half of that accident in such detail, which meant he had already learned about it through some channels.

And Otto... Heh, knowing Otto as well as he did, the man would never write things he didn't want others to know into a database.

Looking at it this way, very few people actually knew about this.

And the probability that the other party knew about it and yet lied to him while wearing a guilty expression was actually quite low.

Siegfried didn't know whether he was making a rational deduction right now or using some wishful thinking to reach the conclusion he wanted, but he could be certain of one thing...

—Right now, he was truly, immensely happy.

The passing of his wife and the death of his daughter were inherently the two biggest shadows in Siegfried's entire life.

And now, he learned that there was actually a probability his eldest daughter had survived, and was even living well. The fact that he wasn't laughing out loud on the spot was already a remarkably restrained result.

"Uh, well... cough..."

Watching Siegfried's distorted expression, Lin Yu said very cautiously.

"If you want to laugh, it's actually fine, you know."

"This barrier is, in reality, a mental barrier. The physical bodies of both of us are still outside; I just pulled your consciousness into the barrier."

"Even if you laugh out loud right now, no one else will hear it."

"Huh? Oh, it's fine, it's fine. I'm very calm right now."

Yeah, right. Your whole body is shaking, man.

"Speaking of this ability, though."

At this time, Siegfried patted Lin Yu's shoulder in a deep, meaningful manner.

"Little bro, you should still try not to throw this ability around casually in the future."

"...I'll try my best. Unless it's a life-or-death situation, I won't recklessly use such an excessive ability."

"...No, that's not what I meant."

Seeing that Lin Yu had misunderstood him, Siegfried said with utter helplessness.

"I'm not talking about it in that sense... Put it this way, let me rephrase."

"If I hadn't wanted to see Cecilia so badly this time, the moment this barrier expanded, I probably would have sensed the abnormality directly, realized it was a mental attack, and broken free from the barrier."

"To be honest, after all, you don't know me all that well. The illusion constructed by someone who doesn't know me has way too many flaws."

"For instance?"

"For instance..."

At this, Siegfried let out a profound sigh.

"At home, I'm usually the one who cooks."

Oh, give me a break. Is the stuff you make even edible???

Lin Yu wanted to say 'You cook things so terribly that's why I swapped people', but remembering how hurtful those words were, he managed to swallow them back down.

"Anyway, even if you can roughly construct an illusion without knowing a person well, the probability of failure will still increase because the other party will sense the abnormality."

"Besides, I'm a pretty easygoing guy with average mental strength. If you run into someone with relatively powerful mental power, they'll just follow the vine to find the melon and backlash you, which would be rather awkward."

"Wait a minute..."

Listening to Siegfried's words of caution, Lin Yu felt a bit bizarre.

Whoa, wait, isn't this a magic tool that can counter Otto's Simulated Feathered Dust?

Why could Siegfried instantly pinpoint the problem?

Nonsense. Countering Otto relies on the magic tool's own inherent traits.

Whereas trapping an enemy relies on your application of the ability and your understanding of the other person.

Yet in the original work...

In the original work, the person who used this ability had possessed the magic tool stored in their body for over a dozen years; their compatibility was infinitely higher than someone like him who had just acquired it and forcibly implanted it into his body!

Besides, in the original work, Minase Yuka and Gougetsu Kakeru were childhood friends who had lived together for over a dozen years. Naturally, when Minase Yuka used the Phantasm Lantern Barrier to deceive Gougetsu Kakeru, there wouldn't be any flaws in the details she fabricated.

Case solved.

Turns out this stuff wasn't as overpowered as I imagined.

Brother Fei is right; I still need to be careful using this thing in the future.

Pulling off large-scale illusions... this move really has far too many flaws.

Instead of all that, it's better to just forcibly overwrite cognition and then directly manipulate the physical body in close combat before the opponent can react.

"There's also one more thing."

"Actually, I thought of something too, but you go first, Mr. Siegfried."

At that moment, Siegfried pointed at his own head and said to Lin Yu.

"This ability of yours can alter my cognition, right?"

"Then I suggest you slightly modify my cognition so that, in my understanding, I learned the news about my daughter through 'friends in Anti-Entropy'."

"What a coincidence, I wanted to do that too. After all, Bishop Otto being who he is..."

Hearing Lin Yu's half-spoken words, Siegfried said with absolute helplessness.

"I get it, I get it."

Before preparing to use the magic tool, Lin Yu still hesitated for a moment.

"I can feel that you have zero defenses against me right now."

"In this state, if I forcibly modify your memories, it will become very difficult for you to ever recall your past memories again."