I Love You

As the world returned to normal, everything before Siegfried's eyes began to flow again. Watching the pedestrians coming and going in the shops, he rubbed his head.

"Was that... a nightmare? Guess I've been under too much work pressure..." Siegfried massaged the back of his head and went back to where the two were picking out clothes. By now, Sirin had changed into a long red dress.

"How does this look?" Seeing her smug expression, Cecilia smiled with her teeth but not her eyes:

"Beautiful. As expected of my daughter—you look good in anything. We'll take this one too... Darling, you're back. What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

Cecilia immediately noticed something off about her husband.

"I'm fine." Siegfried forced a smile.

"You've been under a lot of pressure lately. Don't push yourself." Cecilia said as she brought the drink she'd been sipping to his lips. Siegfried took a pull from the straw, and the cool sensation instantly swept away his mental fatigue.

The three of them arrived in front of a pet shop. The orange cat at the entrance caught Sirin's attention. She crouched on the round platform, motionless. Even when people came to pet it, the cat didn't care—in fact, it seemed to enjoy it.

As luck would have it, just as Sirin reached the pet shop, the person who had been petting the cat got bored and left. The chubby orange cat locked eyes with Sirin and let out a "meow."

"Sirin, it's very gentle. Want to try petting it?" Cecilia noticed Sirin's hesitation and beckoned her over.

Sirin's cheeks flushed slightly. She shuffled over to the chubby cat in small steps, and her eager little hands began stroking its fur. The silky texture instantly captivated her, and at the same time, awakened a memory from her past.

She remembered that there had once been something she had petted just like this.

"Bella... it's... Bella..."

Those two words flashed through Sirin's mind, and memories of her came flooding in—not of Benares, but of the real Bella.

"I... my name is Bella." On her first day at Babylon Tower, the gray-haired little girl had reached out to Sirin with a sweet smile.

"H-Hello, I'm Sirin." Faced with this unfamiliar girl her own age, Sirin hesitated for a moment, then took her hand.

"Sirin, that's a lovely name. Were you brought here by Schicksal too?"

Seeing her harmless smile, Sirin nodded.

"Then we're friends now. I'm from Cologne. What about you?"

The first time they met, they hit it off as if they'd known each other for years, quickly becoming familiar. But back then, they had no idea what awaited them.

"44." The researcher called out expressionlessly, then grabbed Bella and dragged her out.

"Ah, Bella!" Sirin immediately latched onto the researcher's left leg, but how could a little girl be a match for a grown man? The researcher kicked her back with his right foot.

Sirin got up, forgetting the pain, and rushed toward the door as fast as she could, but the iron door had already slammed shut. She pounded desperately on the barred window, but all she got in return was Bella's hopeless shake of the head. The researcher didn't even spare her a glance.

Just then, another researcher walked over, holding a syringe filled with liquid in his right hand and a strange experimental device in his left.

"Right here?"

"Here's fine. Easier to clean up."

The first researcher nodded, then forced Bella to the ground. The second researcher fixed the strange device onto Bella's body.

"Don't,"

"Don't."

"DON'T!!!"

Faced with the cries of a girl who looked only thirteen or fourteen, the researcher's expression didn't change. With his left hand, he yanked Bella's arm out, and without any further preparation, the syringe in his left hand pierced precisely into her vein, and he quickly pushed the plunger.

Though she had never been to school, Sirin knew perfectly well that the syringe was filled with pure Honkai Energy.

"AAAAAAHHHH!!!" Bella's bloodcurdling scream echoed throughout the space. Sirin turned her back, covered her ears, and crouched down. As someone who had personally endured the entire process more than once, she knew this was only the beginning.

"Heart rate: 113"

"xxx: 867"

Watching Bella's contorted face, the researcher recorded the data without changing expression, like a cold, mechanical machine.

After who knows how long, the experiment ended. The researcher looked at the data he had recorded and shook his head in disappointment: "Still didn't meet the requirements. Too bad this experimental subject can't undergo another round. I'm so unlucky—every subject I pick is garbage. Tch, this report's going to be a pain to write..."

The iron door opened again. Bella was tossed in like trash. Ignoring the researcher's look of disgust, Sirin threw herself onto Bella like a madwoman.

"Bella, how are you? Bella! Bella!" Sirin shook her for a long time, but Bella couldn't cry and vent her pain like before. Instead, the look in her eyes as she gazed at Sirin was one of relief, gentleness, and release.

"Bella, when do you think days like these will end?"

"Sirin, I believe that one day, we'll definitely leave this place together."

"You'd better not lie to me. If you run off on your own one day... I'll..." Sirin thought for a long time but couldn't bring herself to say anything harsh.

"How could I? Sirin is my best friend, after all. Why would I lie to you? How about we pinky swear?"

Two little girls, warming each other in that cold prison, extended their pinkies at the same time.

"Pinky swear, a hundred years, no take-backs."

"Bella, you said that once we got out of here, you'd open a flower shop next to my clothing store, so we could see each other every day..."

Bella gazed tenderly at Sirin, saying nothing more.

In the illusion, struck by the impact of this unforgettable memory, Sirin remembered everything.

"They're not my parents. My real mother died long ago. They're just like those researchers—they belong to Schicksal... Everyone from Schicksal deserves to die!"

A surge of immense power erupted from Sirin, knocking both Cecilia and Siegfried to the ground.

Crash. Glass shattered. The chandelier above swayed a few times before plummeting straight toward Sirin's head. She tried to activate the Herrscher of Void's Authority to teleport herself away, but found she couldn't use her Herrscher Authority.

Cecilia quickly got up, wrapped her arms around Sirin, and threw herself to the ground, the chandelier crashing onto her back.

"Don't be afraid, Sirin. No matter what happens, Mom will protect you. Ich liebe dich."

"You!" It was the second time in years that Sirin had been held by someone. Unlike Enoshia, from Cecilia, Sirin actually felt the sensation of her real mother.

"She's clearly a Valkyrie of Schicksal... Why... do I..." Two streams of hot tears flowed down her cheeks. Sirin stopped struggling and lay peacefully in Cecilia's arms.

Just then, a patch of black mist swept in from somewhere, devouring the entire world bit by bit. Until she was completely swallowed, Cecilia kept Sirin shielded behind her.

When the whole world vanished, the three of them regained all their memories and found two more people ahead—Enoshia and Welt.

"I tried using the Herrscher of Corruption's Authority to taint this dreamscape. Didn't expect it to work on the first try. The Herrscher of Frost's trick is truly vicious—making you dream together." Enoshia briefly explained what she knew.

"This illusion is the Herrscher of Frost's ability? And the condition to clear it is the death of the person you most want to see?" Siegfried's mouth hung open, his face full of shock.

"Her terrifying recovery, lifelike illusions, and the fact that she devoured a Divine Key earlier—none of that should be the Herrscher of Frost's Authority. The reason is still unknown." Enoshia shook her head in frustration.

"Wait, you mean..."

"That's right. The result of dreaming together is that the three people you most want to see are all real. Without outside interference, only one of you can survive."

This was the information Old Yang had obtained. If you died in the dream, your real self would suffer brain death. He had deduced this in the illusion, analyzing clues with Joyce's phantom. Just like Elysia's phantom, Joyce's phantom had ultimately chosen to erase its own existence, allowing Old Yang to wake up.

"Luckily, the worst-case scenario I feared didn't happen—that all three of you would realize it was an illusion at the same time. Miss Cecilia, who was awake the whole time, probably didn't notice that Mr. Siegfried and Sirin were real people, right?"

Cecilia gently shook her head. "No. I thought they were just extremely realistic illusions."

At that moment, Sirin, who had been silent all along, finally spoke. "Why? Since you knew from the very beginning that I wasn't your daughter, why did you treat me like this?"

"Sirin, ich liebe dich. That's all."