Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

Nagazora was far more prosperous than Tokyo.

It was a gathering place for nearly 27.32% of the nation's population, while even Tokyo at its peak only had 11.61%.

This was already a threefold difference.

Furthermore, this single city accounted for 53.4% of the entire country's annual economic output. Combined with the surrounding metropolitan areas, it could directly claim to be the Far East itself.

Holding this city in one's grasp was essentially no different from completely unifying the entire Far East. Especially since Schicksal's branch here was generally incompetent, making the seizure of power a simple matter.

In thousands of years of history, even when the Emperor's power was at its greatest, it was not a third of this power.

More importantly, she was an only child.

Those so-called major financial conglomerates, even if several of them joined forces, could at best monopolize a few industries, with their influence extending to a few cities. This was based on their internal staff numbering in the hundreds or thousands, with each member of the family contributing a part of their influence—some in politics, some in business, some in the military; it took generations of dedication to barely achieve such results.

And her father alone was enough to call himself the shadow emperor of the Far East, the supreme ruler.

Without her father's nod, the Prime Minister couldn't even hold office.

To be precise, the Prime Minister was already serving her father.

All of this, including some private matters, Raiden Mei told Jiang Cheng without reservation—

There was no need to hide anything.

"Mhm, I understand."

Perhaps it was too detached from reality, but after hearing it to this extent, Jiang Cheng could understand.

This was also reasonable; power never had a vacuum. Not only do people pursue power, but power also pursues people.

As long as you have strength, wealth, and money, you naturally gain the power to control others. Especially compared to Theresa, Raiden Ryoma was more suited to be the ruler of the Far East.

"It is said that our family did not use the surname Raiden in the past; we were known as Hokushin," Raiden Mei said.

"Hokushin?" Jiang Cheng mused indifferently, "To possess inherited secret arts and hold an original Stigmata... this at least indicates that your family's genes have carried this Stigmata for generations, though it mostly manifests as a recessive trait."

"----?"

Raiden Mei tilted her head, not understanding.

Within seven generations of her family, she was the only one who possessed an original Stigmata, not even her father.

...What did that have to do with anything?

"All humans possess Stigmata within their bodies, but during human inheritance, when males and females with different Stigmata conceive offspring, it can lead to damage in the Stigmata's gene chain. This means the minimum requirement for descendants to awaken an original Stigmata is for their ancestors to have maintained a relatively complete Stigmata gene,"

Jiang Cheng continued to explain, "Stigmata are extremely rare in human history. Even with active stimulation, it's at least one in ten thousand, let alone naturally occurring original Stigmata. Theoretically, as long as your ancestor awakened one, she could easily become a hegemon in that era with her superhuman combat power, a winner in life, and establish a vast empire."

"So... there really is bloodline? And having children with different genes causes genetic errors and such..."

Raiden Mei rubbed her chin, and suddenly her eyes lit up as if she had thought of something. She looked at Kiana.

"In that case, the genes of the Primal Human Adam have been preserved to this day, and the direct descendants can still possess Stigmata. And Kiana's father chose to abandon Kiana outside, strongly refusing for Kiana to return to the family..."

"So that's why..."

Under Raiden Mei's undisguised gaze, Kiana's eyes gradually brightened. In their place, her voice began to tremble.

"--Is the Kaslana family that dark?"

The gazes of the two girls unconsciously met, their eyes seeming to ponder countless conspiracy theories in an instant and transmit them to each other—

"--Where on earth are you two going with this?!"

Jiang Cheng placed a hand in front of the two girls, forcefully drawing their gazes to himself.

"There is no incest or inbreeding at all. Even though this was common in history, many families practiced incest for up to a hundred years to maintain purity, and it was extremely common in the Italian region where the Kaslana family has always existed. Many classical families and royal families would choose to marry relatives. But the Kaslana family alone would not do this—absolutely—absolutely—not!"

"Why is that?" Raiden Mei's guess, which had been logically sound and self-consistent, was exposed, making her even more confused.

Even Kiana cast a gaze of inquiry for the first time, unconsciously taking steps towards him.

—Although she hadn't truly arrived, Raiden Mei naturally, casually, and seemingly unintentionally blocked her path, taking her place to face Jiang Cheng directly.

"The Kaslana family is different from anyone else; their ancestral Stigmata will be passed down forever. Whether they marry relatives is meaningless; as long as there is some bloodline, it is enough to awaken the Stigmata," Jiang Cheng said all at once, leaving no room for doubt. "For example, Kiana has the genes of the Schariac family and the Kaslana family, and she is the current head of the Kaslana family and the previous Saintess of the Schariac family."

"...Saintess, Family Head?"

Raiden Mei had been asking for a long time, and felt that apart from her mind becoming more muddled, she had gained nothing.

Each answer was answering a question with new questions; every word was unfamiliar, leading to more confusion.

"In other words," she raised a finger, trying to sort out the logic, "Kiana's father is the head of one of the three major families—the Kaslana family, and her mother is the Saintess of another of the three major families—the Schariac family."

"That's right," Jiang Cheng nodded. "She has the bloodline of a Chief Knight and the most outstanding Saintess, and also mixed with some bloodlines that are absolutely not inferior to the previous two in terms of excellence."

"..."

Raiden Mei narrowed her eyes and slowly turned her head, carefully scrutinizing Kiana, whom she was blocking behind her—her undisguised gaze made the white-haired girl unconsciously scratch the back of her head, cautiously avoiding it.

Hmm. No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see any elegance.

She was completely an idiot.

Only when they first met, and when she asked Cheng-kun if he knew about the Honkai Sickness, and when she was overwhelmed by too much information and gave up, deciding to fight a Titan and abandon thinking, did she show a demeanor that could be called a Saintess, running over to stop her with seriousness...

—As expected.

She still found it difficult to reconcile the refined, responsible man she had imagined with the idiot standing before her.

Furthermore, looking at it this way, the problems only multiplied.

"Could it be that Kiana, possessing the bloodlines of both a saint and a knight, is being forcibly claimed by the current Overseer of the Apocalypse family to complete a three-way exchange of interests? And is that why Kiana's father, unable to accept such a filthy transaction, chose to leave her to fend for herself, never once coming to see her?"

Raiden Mei tried to think from the perspective of the upper echelons—even though she had never experienced such things herself.

Besides, she had heard that Otto had been the Overseer for a very long time; he was likely an old man by now.

That sort of thing should be... ridiculous, right?

"..."

Kiana suddenly fell silent, the hand that had been scratching the back of her head stopping mid-motion.

Her long, silver-white hair was stirred by the cold wind. A color that should have been as bright and cool as moonlight instead cast a shadow over her face at this moment.

"...Eh?"

In Raiden Mei's increasingly astonished gaze, the girl who had just been categorized in her mind as—at the very least—a near-idiot, projected an aura so silent and gloomy that it felt like a reappearance of the girl she had witnessed that day.

Wielding a baseball bat, sharp-tongued, with eyes that seemed capable of piercing straight through a person's heart.

"Gulp..."

Raiden Mei swallowed hard, yet she could not detect even a hint of a joke on Kiana's face.

Yes.

Kiana answered in her heart.

It absolutely had to be this way.

Her Stinky Old Man, who had always expressed his hatred for the current Overseer without reservation—every time she tried to ask about the past, he would find ways to brush her off, and he refused to tell her anything at all about Schicksal.

It wasn't that he didn't understand, or that he didn't know.

It was that he simply didn't want to talk about it, didn't want to think about it.

It seemed that merely recalling these events was enough to cause him torment—torment related to her, Kiana. Whenever these things were brought up, the look in his eyes made even her feel afraid, as if he had become a completely different person.

Most importantly, given the strength her Stinky Old Man had displayed, there was no need for him to live in Siberia, a place completely unsuitable for human life. Even if it were to fight Honkai Beasts and fulfill a promise to become a shield for humanity, there were many places in the world that truly needed protection compared to these dead, uninhabited zones.

Yet her father... had always...

He had always dragged her along to live in such a place.

It made no sense from any angle; she couldn't understand it. But if it were to hide—

Ah, ah.

What place could be better for hiding than an uninhabited zone?

"So... is it an arranged marriage?"

Kiana took a deep breath of cold air, though it felt as if her internal organs were already frozen to the core.

"Is that why you never wanted to tell me..."

"--There's no such thing!" Jiang Cheng had lost count of how many times he had interrupted.

"You don't have to comfort me," Kiana said softly.

The entire girl seemed to be dyed in the color of weathered snow.

"The largest power in human history, involving the most extensive exchange of interests—it really is quite despairing."

"According to what Stinky Old Man said... that Overseer Otto seems to be even older than he is..."

Her mournful voice was like the winter wind; a gentle blow was enough to strip away all the warmth from one's body.

Yet, amidst the wind and snow, Kiana lifted her head.

"But, at least this lady knows news of Stinky Old Man; Dad definitely didn't abandon me on purpose!"

Raiden Mei bit her lip.

Anti-Entropy, an organization whose strength was inferior to Schicksal, had a faction leader whose mere presence could cause such torment around her.

And the pinnacle that was Schicksal—a legacy spanning thousands of years, the Schicksal of old—there was no way to imagine a possibility of rivaling them. Even the so-called Herrschers, hadn't several of them already died?

"----?!"

Raiden Ryoma's eyes widened as well.

The Executor, who had arrived at some unknown point, stood there like a raw recruit, stunned.

As for Xilian, although she had promised Jiang Cheng they would speak without reservation, only a night and a morning had passed, during which they had experienced a "shura field," leaving her no chance to chat.

Therefore, still understanding nothing, she finally interjected into the story of the knight and the prince eloping.

"If that's the case, won't Kiana have to stay with an old man in the future..." She bit her lip.

"...Isn't that just too tragic?"

"No wonder Brother Siegfried always instructed me not to tell Kiana her location, yet refused to tell me the truth no matter how much I asked. So... the truth is this cruel..." Raiden Ryoma nodded in sudden realization.

The unhidden voice reached the ears of the four people here clearly, but the others, who were already deeply immersed in Kiana's ill-fated life, did not care at all about this person who had appeared suddenly without a sound.

"--Uncle Ryoma, why did you come here too?"

Only Jiang Cheng was completely bewildered the whole time; he turned his head and saw this middle-aged man who was talking to himself.

"I saw that you hadn't come for a long time after the notice was sent out, and I was worried you might destroy the city... ah, no," he quickly corrected himself, "I was worried you might be hurt, so I came to see if you had run into any trouble. But I didn't expect that there was such a deep hidden story behind Siegfried's defection from Schicksal back then. To think that his own daughter was chosen as an object for family interest exchange—it's despairing just to think about it."

Raiden Ryoma could not even begin to imagine what choice he would make, or what choice he could even make, if one day Raiden Mei were to be treated the same way.

"However, I originally thought he was simply irresponsible and didn't want to raise Kiana. I didn't expect him to be so dutiful as a father," Raiden Ryoma said earnestly. "It seems I still need to learn a lot from him."

"Father."

Raiden Mei bit her lip slightly, looking at her father.

Perhaps there had been some resentment in the past, but ever since she learned the identity of the Homu Sword Saint, that was no longer the case.

There was no such thing as a lack of love; he was simply constrained by his long-standing dignity and did not know how to speak up. If only... he could make a little more room for herself and Cheng-kun, that would be even better.

"Stinky Old Man..."

Kiana kept her head lowered.

It was impossible to discern her specific expression anymore, because no matter how one looked, one could only see a sheet of silver.

It was like the thousand-year-old snowfields of the Far North, like the bright moonlight shattered upon the surface of the sea at night.

The only thing that could be heard was her voice—

Silent, mute.

It was as if a complex mixture of countless emotions had been thrown into a vat and ground together.

"So the story behind Kiana is this touching~" Xilian's pale, jade-like fingers were intertwined in front of her. "Even in my storybooks, there are rarely father-daughter bonds like this."

Jiang Cheng, who was watching from the sidelines, never even had a chance to interject from beginning to end. The one time he did speak, it was dismissed by Kiana as a well-intentioned lie and comfort.