Kiana, What... What Are You Doing? / Putting Looks Before Friendship, Putting Looks Before Mom

So after Kafka thought for a long time and still couldn't think of any reward she could offer, she decided to leave the choice to Kiana.

"Go on, cutie. What do you want?"

At Kafka's words, Kiana's eyes lit up. Before she could speak, however, Silver Wolf cut in from the side.

"Lewd stuff, absolutely not."

Silver Wolf quickly stretched out her hands and crossed them in front of her chest. In the end, all she got was Kiana's disdainful look.

"Hmph."

"You—"

"Silver Wolf."

If Kafka hadn't stopped Silver Wolf, she probably would have charged forward again, planning to have a proper bout with Kiana.

"All right, Silver Wolf. Stop fooling around. I believe Kiana isn't the sort of person who has nothing but lewd things on her mind."

Seeing Kiana puff out her chest after Kafka's words, as if mocking her, Silver Wolf couldn't help spitting to the side.

"Anyone who can talk about a city of lesbians is definitely a yuri fanatic. Otherwise, how could she see yuri in everyone?"

After finally separating Silver Wolf and Kiana again, Kafka felt as if she were looking after children. Silver Wolf had clearly been quite reliable before. Why did she always end up arguing whenever Kiana was involved?

Could this be a matter of compatibility?

But after hearing Kiana's request, Kafka suddenly understood what it meant to have a headache.

"My request is simple. I have a few outfits here, so I'll leave them to you."

Looking at the three outfits and two little booklets Kiana had taken out, Kafka and Silver Wolf froze for a moment. They soon understood.

Kiana wanted them to change clothes and then recite the lines she had prepared in the booklets.

"But why are there three outfits? The third one doesn't fit either of us."

"Oh, you mean this pink princess dress? It's for Blade. We can't show favoritism."

"That's not how you use 'show favoritism'!"

Kiana knew that the Stellaron Hunters actually consisted of four people—or five if Elio was included. However, she didn't know Liuying or Elio's measurements, so she couldn't prepare outfits for them in advance.

After the two changed clothes, they agreed that once they returned, Blade would also put on the pink princess dress. They would take a picture and send it over. Only then did Kiana nod in satisfaction.

Once the deal was concluded, Silver Wolf quickly kicked Kiana out of the room, and the two of them disappeared as well.

Kiana opened the group chat and sent the two videos she had just recorded to the Star Rail group.

Himeko and Ouyang were bored on the train when they heard their phones chime. They opened the two videos Kiana had sent.

It would have been better if they hadn't watched them. Himeko sprayed out the coffee she had just sipped, while Ouyang spat out his tea.

The first video was Kafka's. She suddenly picked up a pink magic wand and shouted, "Transform!"

Silver Wolf suddenly appeared and put on a pink Lolita outfit that was completely at odds with Kafka's mature charm. She even added a line.

"Baby, stop digging through trash cans. Mommy will take care of you."

That was exactly why Himeko had sprayed out her coffee.

The second video was the culprit that made Ouyang spit out his tea and wear the expression of someone staring blankly at a subway advertisement.

Silver Wolf wore the outfit of the Herrscher of Reason that Ouyang knew all too well, then shouted, "Have you ever seen the stars shatter?"

Himeko: "Oh no. Have I drunk so much coffee that I'm hallucinating? What is this Kafka?"

Ouyang: "Oh no. Is this Silver Wolf, or the Herrscher of Reason? Has Honkai followed me all the way here? This is too much!"

Both their CPUs had completely overheated. For a while, they even forgot to ask Kiana where she had gotten the two videos.

The others who hadn't spoken were also watching the videos Kiana had sent. Stelle, in particular, felt that the first video was somehow aimed at her.

Stelle: "She called me 'baby.' But trash cans are delicious too. What should I do?"

March 7th: "Don't let that bad woman fool you. But I also suggest you stop thinking about trash cans every day. I'm begging you."

Dan Heng calmly watched the show in the group chat, but that calm didn't last long.

Silver Wolf was genuinely efficient. It was also possible that she was curious what Blade would look like in the outfit.

Soon, a picture was sent over.

Kiana clicked her tongue in amazement as she looked at the photo. Before long, another video arrived. The person filming clearly wasn't Silver Wolf, because Blade was chasing her through the video, looking as if he were about to go berserk.

Kiana sent the photo to Dan Heng privately, then put away her phone.

Dan Heng replied with only a question mark before falling silent again.

However, in the nightmare that followed, Dan Heng still dreamed of Blade saying those familiar words.

"There are five people, and three prices to pay. You are one of them."

This time, though, Dan Heng didn't wake from the nightmare in a cold sweat. Blade was wearing the pink princess dress from the photo.

So instead of being jolted awake in terror, Dan Heng woke with goosebumps all over.

Chapter 37: Kiana, W-What Are You Doing?

Finally, after "countless trials and tribulations," Kiana successfully reached the spot beneath the wanted posters.

The others had seen the photos Kiana took and left their hiding places as well, meeting up with her.

March 7th arrived first.

The moment Kiana saw March 7th, she went over, raised her chin like Kafka had earlier, and wrapped an arm around her waist so she couldn't escape.

"Kiana, w-what are you doing? You can't do this in public! We can talk about it back in the room."

"Little March, have you forgotten our bet?"

"What are you trying to do?"

"What else? Obviously the thing you wanted me to do earlier."

Kiana had only meant to tease March 7th. But when March 7th suddenly blushed and began acting bashfully, Kiana suddenly didn't want to let go.

"Um, let's wait until we're back on the train. This isn't a good place, and we don't have any props."

Props?

What was Little March thinking? Kiana had thought this would just be a little prank, but she had actually brought up props.

Kiana suddenly felt that the March 7th before her was a little unfamiliar. Still, a lewd Little March was cute too.

Stelle and Dan Heng's arrival rescued March 7th.

"By the way, Kiana, are you serious? The Stellaron Hunters told you that the Stellaron on this planet is missing? Would they really be that kind?"

"Exactly. What if they're lying to you, just trying to distract you so they can take the Stellaron?"

Before Kiana could explain, Stelle released the trash can and rushed over to join the conversation.

"Impossible. Kafka is obviously a good person. She definitely wouldn't lie to us."

March 7th: ...

Dan Heng: ...

Kiana: ...

"Good girl, Stelle. Go play somewhere else. But remember, don't let older sisters fool you in the future."

Only after splitting up to investigate did they learn that the Silvermane Guards had recently been searching for something. Their plans to gather in force and counterattack the Cracked Boundary had also been delayed, while the Supreme Guardian had personally gone out searching for something.

Only then did they believe Kafka and Silver Wolf.

"So what are we doing now?"

"Rob the rich, redistribute the land, and kidnap the women!"

Under March 7th's unfriendly gaze, Kiana coughed twice and became slightly more serious.

"Ahem. Just kidding. We're strangers here, so we need to find someone powerful, influential, and willing to trust us to do the work for free. I mean, to help us save this planet."

For some reason, the image of a blue-haired middle-aged woman appeared in everyone's minds, then vanished in an instant.

"Are we going to find Sampo again? You caused her so much trouble, Kiana. Will she still help us?"

"Sampo?"

Kiana tilted her head, somewhat puzzled as to why March 7th had brought him up at a time like this.

March 7th tilted her head by the same amount, keeping her eyes level with Kiana's adorably dazed face.

"Are we not looking for her? Then who are we looking for?"

"Bronya, obviously. When you think of someone powerful and influential, shouldn't Bronya be the first person who comes to mind? Even if not her, it should be Serval, a former member of the City Builders. Why did you think of that unreliable guy?"

The three of them stared at Kiana. They couldn't understand how she had managed to say that with a straight face. Whether Sampo was unreliable was debatable, but apart from tricking them once at the beginning, he had been the one getting exploited the entire journey.

They had thought finding Bronya would be difficult. Yet that night, after sneaking into Kliperburg, they discovered Bronya inside, apparently handling some documents.

"Why are you here?"

"You're asking us? We were going to ask you why you never contacted us when nothing was wrong."

Bronya fell silent for a long while. At last, she stood, placed the completed documents neatly to one side, and brought them to her room. There, she told them what had happened over the past few days.

At first, Bronya had confronted Cocolia. But halfway through their argument, Cocolia suddenly became like a puppet whose strings had been cut and nearly fell over.

Bronya forgot their argument at once and hurried over to support Cocolia.

Then she saw an expression on Cocolia's face that had never appeared before: seven parts fear and three parts desolation.

After that, Cocolia seemed to let go of her convictions—or perhaps she had simply lost the motivation to continue—and told Bronya everything she knew.

Bronya then described everything she had seen in the Lower District, along with her own thoughts.

"It's too late. It's all too late. The plan has already been carried out to this point. Now that the Stellaron's connection with me has suddenly been severed, even knowing that everything is wrong won't change anything."

Thus, Cocolia kept Bronya in Kliperburg. Officially, it was so Bronya could prepare to take over her position, with Cocolia handing everything over to her in advance.

In truth, Cocolia had ordered people to return from the front lines and search for the Stellaron.

After several days of searching without finding it, Cocolia also relaxed Bronya's confinement.

Perhaps Cocolia had simply given up.

"Wow, it's really gone. Strange, can Stellaron's run away? That never happened during any of our journeys. Wait, let me ask the others."

March 7th pulled out her phone and contacted Ouyang and Himeko in the group chat. Their conclusions were identical: although a Stellaron could influence others and even control them indirectly, it absolutely could not move on its own.

Otherwise, if Stellaron's ran around every day and wandered from planet to planet, the world would have descended into chaos long ago.

"Bronya, what do you think?"

"I don't know. But I think I should go find Mother. The Stellaron's disappearance may be a good thing. Perhaps the crisis will be contained, and the Cracked Boundary will stop spreading. Then we can slowly reclaim the lost land and use our strength to revive this planet, restoring it to the splendor it had eight hundred years ago."

As she listened to Bronya's speech, Kiana quietly turned on her phone's camera. Once everything was over, she planned to show the video to several of Bronya's acquaintances.

She hoped Bronya wouldn't die of embarrassment then.

What joy. True joy!

At the thought, Kiana's lips curled high without anyone noticing, revealing a mischievous smile.

Chapter 38: Choosing Romance over Friendship, Romance over Mother

Because Cocolia had given up, her personal guards at the door were practically useless. The few stubborn ones were easily knocked unconscious and tossed into a corner.

With her status, Bronya quickly learned where Cocolia was.

To make absolutely sure, Bronya also assembled most of the Silvermane Guards available in the city.

Aside from a small portion needed to maintain the city's normal operations, everyone else was ordered to prepare for an expedition.

Serval also joined the group after their visit and Bronya explained everything.

Just as Bronya was about to lead everyone toward Cocolia's location, Kiana stopped her.

"Don't send everyone out. If you gather them all together and we really encounter the Stellaron, won't we be throwing away all the strength we have left at once?"

Kiana had thought that with Serval's help as a former member of the City Builders, along with Bronya's own talents, Bronya would make the best choice.

She hadn't expected the two of them to think so alike. They were both reckless.

Inside Kliperburg, after stopping Bronya from issuing the order, Kiana looked toward Serval, who was standing nearby, and said helplessly,

"Serval, you're not worried about Cocolia, are you?"