The Herrscher of Death Makes a Decision.

Seele Fulei is a special being.

Himeko has maintained a consistent view on this from the beginning to the present.

Whether as a special experimental subject to aid the Sea of Quantum Project or now as the Herrscher of Death, her fate has always been fraught with hardship.

Himeko's reasons for choosing to visit were inevitably mixed with elements of pity and curiosity.

Besides that, the expression on the boy's face that day was also part of the reason.

The Herrscher is life itself.

For some reason, from the very first day I saw the existence of the Herrscher, as hatred and sorrow arose, this simple and unemphasized conclusion, which was as plain as a statement of fact, left a mark on my heart.

What exactly am I thinking about?

Himeko, born as a researcher, thinks very differently from normal warriors. This philosophical spirit of inquiry and curiosity is something that cannot be erased even now.

Therefore, unlike most members of the Moth to Fire Herrscher, Himeko's first reaction upon learning that Seele Fulei had become the Sixth Herrscher and retained her sanity while staying in the Soul Steel Prison was to want to see her.

As for the emotions that followed, although they were somewhat complex, they could generally be summarized as sighs and pity for their plight.

Given the precedent set by the Third Herrscher and Su Qing'an, Himeko viewed Seele Fulei's successful escape from the control of the Honkai Consciousness with a blessing in mind.

For that already scarred young man, there were very few things left to hold onto in this world. Perhaps the two of them weren't very familiar with each other, but for some reason, she inexplicably hoped that such a person could find happiness.

Himeko didn't dwell on whether her attitude towards him was too gentle; she attributed it all to a strange connection and the guilt she felt for her mistake at the time.

What exactly happened to Su Qing'an that day? She has never been able to find the answer.

For that person, having a close friend become Herrscher and then escape danger should have been a situation of loss and recovery. Even if there were some sorrow and worry, it would not have caused Su Qing'an such depression and loss.

Women inevitably feel curious and a little worried about this. It's a bit strange that she subconsciously treats the other person with the attitude of an elder, but she herself doesn't realize this difference and just naturally moves forward in this direction.

However, when Himeko actually arrived, Su Qing'an was not at home.

Fu Hua happened to go and have a heart-to-heart talk with Shiyu Qiluo and Carole this morning. The two of them would not return until around evening. The little girl, who was still at home, looked like a left-behind child forgotten by the careless couple. She sat in the empty living room staring blankly at the huge television, looking rather lonely.

Himeko felt that her arrival was timely in a certain sense; at least her presence made Seele seem less lonely.

On the other hand, after a long war and becoming accustomed to the hardships of fighting on the battlefield, communicating with children one-on-one became something that women were not good at.

After some basic questions and pleasantries, Himeko and Seele watched an old documentary together, chatting idly before falling into a long silence.

She didn't dislike television. In fact, many years ago, before she had personally experienced the Honkai of her youthful days, occasionally drinking sparkling wine while watching TV dramas was one of her rare forms of entertainment.

It just seemed a little strange to sit and watch TV with a child who had become Herrscher during a rare vacation.

In Himeko's eyes, aside from the terrifying Honkai Energy fluctuations that were indistinguishable from a monster, which constantly caused the nano-terminals on the back of her neck control armor to burn, Seele Fulei was almost no different from before.

Their relationship had previously been lukewarm, which is why it is now.

The little girl's words broke the silence once again. Looking at the animal behavior and phenomenon described in the animal documentary, she asked earnestly:

"Himeko, do you think it's excessive for the cabbage white butterfly parasitizing its Pierrot's Cocoon Bee?"

Himeko didn't think much of it; she simply responded softly:

"That depends on the basic perspective and stance. If we judge the actions of the animal world by human moral standards, then it is naturally excessive."

"But from the perspective of the animals themselves, this is simply a natural food chain and basic cycle; there's no question of whether it's excessive or not."

Seele whispered blankly:

"But in the end, it is no longer a butterfly that emerges from its pupa, but a velvet wasp. It is cruelly replaced in everything, yet no one feels any regret?"

Himeko responded:

"Emotions are responses to external stimuli and are a common ability shared by all organisms with nervous systems. However, from the perspective of the cabbage white butterfly's own species, its lower nervous system may not be able to understand this situation. In terms of habits, it would not know that its eggs are being parasitized by other organisms."

"Even from a human perspective, those unfamiliar with this insect cannot detect whether it is parasitic or not, let alone understand the hidden cruelty. If you were to ask whether this particular form is true or not, then probably no one would feel sorry for it."

Her Amber eyes lowered as she looked at the girl's profile and asked:

"Why is Seele asking this question? Aren't you already feeling sorry about it?"

Seele pursed her lips; she didn't respond to this unanswerable question.

Those words, which seemed to be a disguised expression of his innermost feelings, could only remain stuck in his throat for the time being, unable to be spoken.

The little girl continued to ask:

"Himeko wonders, how can you tell two people who are exactly alike apart?"

Himeko didn't find the other woman's avoidance strange. Fourteen was an age when all emotions were close to pure, yet people were also prone to avoiding them. However, the question Seele followed up with intrigued her. So the woman asked:

"Seele said 'exactly the same,' does she mean everything, including external factors such as genes, fingerprints, appearance, and iris?"

Seele responded softly:

"Within this, all thoughts, memories, cognition, decision-making mechanisms, motivations, perceptions, and even everything in the true sense are contained exactly the same."

Himeko thought for a moment and said:

"Logically speaking, it shouldn't be possible to distinguish between them, but the question you raised sounds like a thought experiment."

The little girl asked in return:

"Thought experiment?"

The woman said:

"Yes, it's an obscure thought experiment, but it's also an interesting question often used to contemplate the self-affirmation proposition of 'What am I?'"

Seele didn't ask any further questions. She listened quietly to Himeko's story, her gaze lingering on the wriggling cocoon on the television screen for a long time, seemingly lost in thought.

She was also a little unsure why she had brought up her recent worries with him. Perhaps it was because these topics, which were significant to her, were just casual conversation in Himeko's eyes, something that didn't require suspicion or speculation, so there was no need to worry about the truth being revealed.

Of course, it's possible that the recent pressure, distress, sorrow, and guilt have gradually accumulated to a point where one's spirit can hardly bear it, forcing one to find a suitable person to confide in.

Himeko is the only suitable candidate for this task.

The woman began to speak in detail:

"One day, a man went out for a walk and was tragically struck by lightning and killed as he passed by the edge of a swamp."

"At the same time, a bolt of lightning struck the swamp right next to him. Remarkably, the lightning reacted with the swamp, creating a creature that was identical in both shape and mass to the person who had just died."

"We call this newly emerged creature the Swamp Person."

"The Swamp Person is structurally identical to the original person at the atomic level, and his appearance is exactly the same. His brain state before being struck by lightning is also completely replicated. That is to say, as you said, all his thoughts, memories, cognition, decision-making mechanisms, motivations, perceptions, and even everything in the true sense are exactly the same."

"Afterwards, the Swamp Person, just like the man who had just died, walked back home, opened the door of the man who had just died, called the man's family, and then fell asleep while reading the book the man hadn't finished reading. The next morning, he went to work at the man's company."

Himeko looked at the television broadcast showing images of deer calves in the forest, smiled, and said:

The question is, Swamp Person and that other man actually the same person?

"In terms of facts, it shouldn't be considered that, but considering the Swamp Person who came after him, his family and friends, and even objective reality in a certain sense, it wouldn't be a problem to consider them the same person."

"This case is more thorough than the parasitic version of the cuckoo taking over the nest mentioned before. The only flaw might be that the Swamp Person have no memory of being struck by lightning, so there will be a subtle gap in their reason for staying near the swamp."

"But this flaw is so minor that it doesn't need to be noticed. For example, it's like you're holding a mechanical pencil and looking for that particular mechanical pencil."

"Although it may seem foolish, it's a common occurrence, so it's not considered particularly strange, and no one will delve into it. It might even become a topic of conversation for a while, but no one will feel that they are no longer their true selves, but rather a perfectly replicated Swamp Person because of it."

Seele remained stunned for a long, long time. To Himeko, this was merely a philosophical experiment, a conversation topic that didn't matter whether a definite answer could be found or not; it was something she would casually mention whenever it came to mind. But to her, it held profound significance.

Because if we apply the premise of this thought experiment, then she, who has now inherited everything from Seele Fulei, is undoubtedly Seele Fulei's Swamp Person.

But now this Swamp Person, who should have been completely unaware and continued living in place of the original, knows everything. She is distressed, desperate, saddened, and pained by it, yet she doesn't know what to do.

The girl spoke softly, her voice low and slow, carrying a complex and difficult-to-decipher emotion:

"For the original being struck by lightning, is the existence of the Swamp Person a form of suffering?"

Himeko thought for a moment and replied:

"Assuming the answer to this question is that the two are not the same person, and taking into account that the deceased could know everything, I think this question requires a personality-based answer that will vary."

"First of all, pain will always exist, and it's normal to feel resentment, sadness, anger, or even hatred. Everything you've experienced, accumulated, and possessed in the past has been completely replaced by someone who shouldn't exist. It's impossible not to feel pain."

"Therefore, perhaps the gentler a person is, the less they want their loved ones to be saddened by their death, the more they might feel that the existence of the Swamp Person is a kind of alternative salvation. From this perspective, they might find solace even while experiencing pain."

The girl thought that perhaps Seele Fulei was exactly as Himeko had described.

It was precisely because she was no different from her that she understood that the real Seele would rather completely give up everything and let the Swamp Person take her place to continue their original life than let Su Qing'an feel sad because she knew the truth.

From this perspective, even for the sake of her brother, this cruel truth must continue to be buried completely with lies.

The greatest kindness the Herrscher of Death could offer Seele Fulei was to fully inherit this identity, fulfilling her wish not to cause her loved ones pain.

Even if all of this serves as sufficient justification for lies and deception, the truth will not change.

She cannot help feeling no guilt because of these things, nor can she feel at ease about them.

Himeko's words still offered some comfort and eased Seele's mood somewhat. However, the thought experiment she proposed resonated too much with her own experience, causing a renewed conflict in her self-awareness, which had previously been forced to abandon critical thinking.

Does she truly qualify as Seele Fulei?

This seemingly thoughtless yet profoundly meaningful question is a source of unease that haunts her in the dead of night, making it difficult for her to ignore.

So the girl chose to ask a question:

"Does Himeko think the Swamp Person and the one who was struck by lightning are actually the same person?"

Himeko wasn't surprised by Seele's questions, or rather, the very purpose of the thought experiment was to elicit these kinds of questions, which wasn't a bad thing.

She responded:

"My thoughts?"

"The example of the Swamp Person is very similar to another thought experiment called the Ship of Theseus, which is about a ship whose logs are gradually replaced until none of the logs are the original logs, and then whether the ship is still the same ship."

"From a personal perspective, I prefer to think of the ship as still the same ship, because the idea of replacing the wood is essentially no different from the metabolism of human cells."

"The cells in the human body are completely replaced every three to six months. During this period, old cells die and new cells are born. If the wood were completely replaced, the ship would no longer be the same ship. Similarly, humans would become completely different people at certain times."

"If we break this down further, since the human body exchanges substances every moment, and its composition and combination change every moment, can we assume that—every moment, the old self dies and the new self is born?"

"So, turning to one of the earliest propositions of the Swamp Person theory, it seems that the conclusion that the two are not the same person becomes a false proposition, because I won't live past a Planck time, so discussing who I am and who I am becomes meaningless."

"If being struck by lightning and the existence of the swamp are merely special variables in the exchange of materials, then my death and the birth of the Swamp Person might just be a slightly special exchange of materials, with the loss being that insignificant memory. In the beginning, there might not have been another person at all."

Seele tried hard to understand Himeko's logic, arguments, examples, and conclusions, and finally said earnestly:

"Although I didn't quite understand, I got the gist of it. So, Himeko thinks they're the same person?"

This is like a clueless student who has skimmed through a dozen mathematical formulas and calculations, only understanding the answer, and then pointing to the answer and asking the teacher if this is the correct answer.

Himeko didn't seem to care. Even though she had almost completely changed her previous researcher's terminology and conversation style, and had gotten used to explaining things in plain language, it was still quite troublesome for children to understand.

So she simply responded:

"I should say I prefer this way, it's more appropriate."

The woman looked at the somewhat confused little girl and said with a smile:

"Thought experiments themselves do not need to arrive at a definitive answer. After all, every answer has some merit, and if one were willing, there would be countless arguments to prove its correctness."

"Therefore, Seele only needs to choose the answer she likes."

You can simply choose the answer you prefer.

Seele murmured Himeko's words, even though she still didn't quite understand them, she still sensed a warm power within them.

If she continues to hold onto the principles within, perhaps one day she will be able to let go of some things and thus find redemption.

Only...

Himeko recalled her last conversation with Su Qing'an, and she could clearly perceive a similar core message between the two conversations.

She seemed somewhat moved by this, and while watching television, she said softly:

"You and your siblings are both interested in similar topics. Is it fair to say that you've been influenced by your surroundings?"

The girl was stunned for a moment, but she almost immediately grasped some possibilities that shouldn't exist.

Seele's pupils contracted slightly, and she instantly sensed a profound fear.

How could that be? It's just a discussion about similar topics, what's there to doubt? You're just overthinking it.

She tried to comfort herself and forcibly suppress the complex emotions that arose from this, but even so, the panic in her heart was still hard to control.

The more one cares about the current situation, the more one fears the possibility of destroying it completely. The current Herrscher of Death is like a frightened bird, unable to ignore this subtle detail.

The little girl continued watching TV, and tried her best to ask in a steady voice:

"So, my brother and Himeko have discussed similar topics before?"

Himeko, oblivious to the awkward atmosphere, responded naturally in a soft voice, and when Seele asked, gave the date, continuing:

"Although I don't know the reason, I could tell that Su Qing'an was acting strangely that day. But given our relationship, we can only have a casual chat at most, and that's all I can do to help him."

She sighed:

"Perhaps Su Qing'an became a little more understanding and calmer that day, which wasn't necessarily a good thing."

"That's just his personality. He's used to bearing everything alone, so as long as he doesn't reveal his true feelings, he'll never choose to speak out about things within his capacity to handle them."

"Perhaps going straight home and having you and Hua notice his unusual behavior would alleviate some of his inner turmoil, but coming to me has allowed him to maintain a facade of calm, which actually puts even more pressure on him."

"That person probably planned this all along before coming to me; in a way, they're really being capricious."

The woman smiled, pursing her lips.

"So I'm telling you this in secret: you and Hua should find a chance to comfort him later. It'll probably be easier for him to relieve stress than talking to an outsider like me."

Seele's lips moved slightly, emitting a response as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

Her pupils were dull, as if her thoughts had fallen into a deathly silence.

The day Su Qing'an met and talked with Himeko was the same day he stepped into his home but then chose to leave. It was also the real turning point when he finished his long week-long mission and started going home every day again.

One can access passive soul abilities when receiving Stigmata transplant, but cannot do the same when using those abilities on oneself.

After reflecting on the many details, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful expression on the boy's face and the words he uttered when he hugged her tightly.

[Seele is right here.]

Why should she feel sad? She just felt that her brother was working too hard and needed comforting.

But only now has the girl arrived at the real answer.

How could Su Qing'an want to return to this home? How could he not feel sad?

He already knew.

I've known for a long time... that Seele Fulei is no longer Seele Fulei.

This indirectly proves that his soul and Seele's soul are not the same; otherwise, his brother wouldn't have discovered the truth first.

She was an unmistakable fake, a counterfeit whose flaws had been exposed.

But these girls no longer cared. They understood the despair Su Qing'an was experiencing without making a sound, and were overwhelmed with sorrow and guilt because of it.

Did the older brother, who possesses the ability to observe souls, understand the whole truth the moment he saw her?

Even so, he still tried his best to hold onto everything in daily life, bearing all the sorrow and despair alone.

Even so, he still did not choose to take responsibility for Seele Fulei's death himself, and continued to see himself as Seele Fulei.

How long will this tenderness, which reveals extreme cruelty towards itself, last?

This is something that neither the real Seele Fulei the current Seele Fulei can tolerate.

On this day, the Herrscher of Death made a decision.

Like honeysuckle blooming in winter.