Seeing Bronya's flushed, pretty face, Seele couldn't help making a snarky remark.
"Why are you blushing? Your bottoms had barely any more fabric than mine."
March 7th came running over after hearing the voices. When she saw Kiana standing in the doorway and staring fixedly at Bronya's legs inside, March 7th thought she had discovered the truth.
She leaned close to Kiana's ear and said, "Stop looking. If you really want to see, come to my room. I'll put them on for you."
Kiana: ?
After March 7th covered her face and returned to her room, Kiana wondered if she had misunderstood something.
What no one knew was that another visitor had arrived in the Lower District.
She crouched at a high point in Rock Town and looked toward one of the rooms in the Goethe Grand Hotel.
"Ah, no wonder I couldn't find her in the Upper District. So she came here. Leaving without saying goodbye isn't something a knight would do, but I quite like it."
"Um, why did you come here?"
The girl looked to the side at the purple-haired young woman who had made no attempt to hide herself and tilted her head.
"Who are you?"
"I'm old Sampo."
"Sampo?"
The girl searched through her memories and thought of the lecherous man she had tricked before. She glanced at the figure before her, whose expression and bearing matched, but whose appearance and body were completely different, and tilted her head without replying.
"Believe me, I was tricked too."
"I understand."
"No, you don't!"
Sampo seemed to have found an acquaintance and an outlet. He vented about how miserable he had been these past few days, but received not the slightest comfort. Instead, the corners of the girl's lips kept rising.
If she hadn't been worried that laughing aloud would make her miss the entertainment before her, she probably would have doubled over with laughter and thoroughly mocked him.
"Forget it. What are you doing here?"
"What? Is there a problem with me coming here?"
"No, but I'm begging you, don't trick me anymore. Old Sampo is already having a hard enough time. Recently, I've been losing money and supplies, earning nothing, and losing the most precious thing of all. Please, don't use me for your amusement anymore, okay?"
"Well, who knows?"
Watching the graceful figure disappear before him, Sampo couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
Sometimes, human relationships really did involve the mutual generation and suppression of forces.
With his abilities, Sampo could drive many people to the brink of an emotional breakdown. But there were also people who could make Sampo lose his composure simply by appearing.
He had thought the Express crew's visit would bring him some amusement, only to find himself becoming Kiana's plaything. And now, his own nightmare had arrived too.
If he hadn't intended to watch the performance known as Belobog's end and rebirth to the very end, he would have fled the planet immediately.
"Forget it. Looks like I'm not her target, so it doesn't matter."
29: Wake-Up Call Service
Seeing his old acquaintance appear at his door, Oleg still couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth, even though he had received advance information.
"Sampo, you're quite... quite busy. What brings you here?"
He didn't say the last word, which would have sounded rather suggestive. But seeing the things in Sampo's hands, they were presumably the supplies Oleg had previously asked him to buy from the Upper District.
Sampo stared blankly at Oleg without replying. After looking him over strangely, Oleg simply opened the door and motioned for Sampo to come inside.
After all, Sampo had done this many times before.
This time, however, just as Oleg pushed the door open and turned to enter the room, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and instantly lost consciousness.
Sampo tossed the wooden stick in his hand into the room, then dragged Oleg inside.
Meanwhile, at the Goethe Grand Hotel, several members of the Express crew gathered to discuss whether they should guard against Oleg.
"We should. After all, being stabbed in the back at the hotel last time feels like it happened only yesterday."
"Could it have actually been this morning?"
The Goethe Grand Hotel in the Lower District was clearly less soundproof than the Goethe Hotel. At the very least, Bronya, who was in the adjacent room, heard what they were saying. As the person responsible for capturing them, Bronya pretended she had heard nothing.
But when the group began discussing standing watch, they had differing opinions.
March 7th's reaction was the strongest. When she heard that someone had to stand watch, she widened her eyes. "Stand watch? Isn't that something from fantasy novels?"
Then she quickly yawned and put on an exhausted expression. "Ah, I'm suddenly so sleepy."
"March, you seem to have plenty of energy. How about you do it?"
Faced with Kiana's teasing, March 7th stopped pretending and hurriedly came up with an excuse.
Her voice suddenly turned soft, as if she were acting spoiled. She tugged on Kiana's clothes and looked pitifully at everyone.
"No, I can't! I've never stayed up all night before! Do you know how bad staying up late is for your skin?"
In the neighboring room, Bronya had already wanted to go next door and apologize for what she had done during the day. It couldn't exactly be called atonement, but she could at least help stand watch.
Besides, everything she had learned today had left her mind in a mess. She probably wouldn't sleep well tonight anyway.
"I'll do it. You should all get some proper rest tonight."
However, when she reached the door and pushed it open, she discovered that they seemed to have already made their decision.
Dan Heng would be standing watch. On one hand, he had volunteered. On the other, Himeko had asked him to look after everyone when she arrived. What was more, he had barely participated in the incident, so standing watch would give him time to organize the clues.
"Bronya, what is it?"
"Nothing."
After Bronya left, Stelle returned to her room. Dan Heng went to the hotel entrance and leaned against the wall to stand watch. March 7th didn't leave immediately, instead tugging Kiana over and asking,
"Kiana, do you know Bronya and Seele?"
"Mm, you could say that."
"Really? Then what did Bronya come to find us for just now?"
"Who knows? Maybe she thought hot pants with black stockings were too embarrassing and came to ask me if I had any clothes."
Bang!
Kiana heard something smashing into the wall next door, so she didn't continue the topic.
"All right, March. Go back to your room and sleep. Otherwise, you won't have the energy to find Svarog tomorrow."
"Fine."
March 7th looked dispirited. She had still wanted to hold a second pajama party with Kiana, but the beds in the Lower District were too small. There was no way they could sleep in one together.
The night passed peacefully. Early the next morning, Kiana felt someone pushing her in her sleep.
"March, stop fooling around."
Kiana thought March 7th had come to wake her. She moved away the small hand poking her face, but in the next instant, she became fully alert.
"You are!"
Kiana changed clothes in an instant, sprang out of bed, gripped the Void Lance, and pointed it at the person who had just been beside her bed.
"Hello. I'm a service attendant at the Goethe Grand Hotel. I came to wake everyone up. I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?"
"?"
Seeing that Kiana clearly didn't believe her, the girl neither panicked nor grew embarrassed. Instead, she placed both hands before her, bowed slightly toward Kiana, and helped make Kiana's bed.
"I'm sorry. It seems I disturbed you. This is the hotel's wake-up call service. Your companions are already downstairs eating. I didn't expect you to still be in your room."
"It's fine."
Since the girl had explained herself so thoroughly, Kiana didn't know what else to say. Still, for some reason, the blue-haired girl before her looked strangely familiar, though she couldn't say why.
It wasn't until she noticed the hair ornament atop the girl's head that Kiana remembered why she looked familiar.
"You're the front desk attendant from the Goethe Hotel."
"So Prince remembers me after all. What an honor."
The only response she received was an attack from the Void Lance.
Even with the Void Lance pressed against her throat—one slight movement enough to pierce her skin and pass through her neck—the girl showed no fear. She continued smiling.
Kiana was just about to press forward and find out what she was really after when March 7th's voice came from the doorway.
"Kiana, are you up? We're going to eat."
In that moment of distraction, the figure before her had already vanished, apparently escaping through the window.
"Huh? Kiana, what are you doing?"
Seeing the Void Lance in Kiana's hand, March 7th froze for a moment. She also drew her bow, cast a shield over herself and Kiana, and began surveying the surroundings.
"It's nothing now. Let's go downstairs first. I'll explain later."
Kiana told the others what had happened. The girl had bypassed Dan Heng, entered Kiana's room without a sound, and left just as quietly, without leaving a trace.
She clearly wasn't an ordinary person.
But someone obviously had a different opinion.
"Wake-up call? Kiana, are you saying that person came to wake you up?"
"?"
Bronya had spent the night in a daze. When she came downstairs and heard such a shocking topic, she wondered whether she was simply too tired or hadn't woken up yet.
But after pinching her arm and confirming that the pain was perfectly normal, Bronya took a few steps back.
"You're all up. Bronya, why are you backing away?"
Seele arrived at that moment. When Bronya saw her, she immediately pulled Seele to her side and whispered something into her ear.
"Haven't you received a higher education? What are you thinking? They were probably talking about the hotel's wake-up service."
30: Fictional Historian
According to the original plan, they were supposed to eat first and then head to the Mechanical Settlement to find Svarog.
But Kiana had a sudden idea. Maze Rabbit was a top-tier hacker in that world bubble. In fact, no matter which version of Little Duck it was, she possessed impressive hacking skills.
If they could directly hack into the Mecha System, it was only a possibility, but what if?
What if the Mecha System was connected to Svarog's database? What if Kiana's half-baked skills were enough to hack into that database? What if the database happened to contain what they needed?
That was what Kiana thought, and that was what she did.
When Kiana once again transformed into Bronie's appearance, the two members of the Express crew had grown used to it. Bronya also knew the truth by then. Seeing someone who looked extremely similar to her as a child, she only froze for a moment before regaining her composure.
Only Seele's gaze kept moving between Kiana and Bronya.
"What's your relationship?"
Seele had always been impatient. Bronya felt familiar to her, while Kiana gave her an inexplicable sense of closeness. So when she saw Kiana transform into a smaller version of Bronya, Seele immediately asked the question aloud.
Only then did Kiana remember that Seele still didn't know the truth. A little devil appeared in Kiana's heart.
Kiana stopped March 7th and Bronya, who were about to explain, and instead took two photographs from her phone.
The first was a photograph of Cocolia.
"This is Bronya's mother, the current Supreme Guardian, Cocolia."
Then she took out a photograph of Serval, especially highlighting the blue tips at the ends of her hair.
"This is Serval, Cocolia's close friend and a former member of the City Builders."
Seele compared the photographs, then looked at Bronya and Kiana.
As if she had guessed something, her mouth fell wide open.
"Could it be that you're actually sisters? One has silver hair, and the other has silver hair with blue tips. Is this what Natasha called recessive inheritance?"
Bronya was instantly covered in black lines. She hurriedly explained that she wasn't Cocolia's biological daughter. Besides, Cocolia and Serval were merely close friends and former musical companions.
But as she spoke, even Bronya began to lose confidence.
Could Mother and Serval really have had some secret relationship? Was that why Serval was expelled from the City Builders back then—because their relationship had developed cracks?
Before you continue