Honkai Double Transmigration, Taking Xilian to Honkai Impact 3rd

Looking at the people who, despite the absurdity of it all, were sighing over Kiana's tragic fate—

I get the feeling that if I blurt out the truth now, I'll end up being the dense third wheel in a romance novel.

Besides, compared to those truths, perhaps being labeled the fiancée of a five-hundred-year-old antique who intends to force a marriage... isn't actually that bad? After all, that would downgrade me from a major villain to a minor one.

If Kiana chose to keep a ponytail, she would actually look no different from Kallen. She would just need to be a bit more resolute and have a more serious gaze.

--Wait, no!

Why am I thinking about things like this?

Jiang Cheng stepped forward without hesitation and clapped his hands loudly, lacking any grace, shattering the atmosphere at the scene entirely.

"Clap—clap—clap—!"

"Everyone, stop for a second, just stop. Stop letting your imaginations run wild with all this nonsense. Otto isn't some simple scumbag like a pedophile. He is the ace pilot among scumbags. Even though he has done many very low and stupidly evil things, he isn't low enough to reach that level. He is a super-scumbag who is the polar opposite of those people on Epstein Island."

Jiang Cheng finished that long paragraph in one breath. Before those sky-blue eyes could show shock, his finger landed directly on her face.

"There is no such thing as a marriage contract or any of that mess regarding Kiana. The reason Siegfried took Kiana and fled was that Kiana was subjected to human experimentation by Otto!"

--???

Kiana's eyes widened. Her azure pupils instantly contracted to the limit, contrary to her previous expression.

The people present looked at the boy's pure eyes, which lacked even a trace of impurity. The tragic atmosphere that had permeated the place finally exploded under the most extreme pressure at this very moment—

"Jiang Cheng/A-Cheng/Cheng-kun..."

"You said..."

"What?"

Everyone's voices were laced with a hint of loss.

And no matter how hoarse their voices sounded at this moment, or how distorted their original tones became—

They could only look at Jiang Cheng and watch him nod gently.

"Yes."

"There has never been any marriage contract involving Kiana. Siegfried's departure has nothing to do with Schicksal either."

Jiang Cheng held up a finger earnestly. "Stop letting your imaginations run wild. Let's not have our world get tainted by that kind of 'crotch-literature'; it only leads to misfortune."

The truth had been exposed.

But the crowd present didn't provide feedback immediately; instead, they fell into silence.

The entire world became deathly still at this moment.

Xilian finally managed to interject, but before she could chat for more than a few minutes, she curled up like a cat and used her height advantage to hide behind Jiang Cheng.

Her expression? Her posture? Her movements? Everything was hidden in the shadows; nothing could be seen.

--Only the sound of a heart pounding.

Raiden Ryoma, who had come here because of business, slowly pushed up the bridge of his nose, though he wore no glasses.

He was calm to the extreme, as if he had just arrived and had not participated in anything that had happened before.

Raiden Mei, who had originally imagined Kiana's background and misled everyone present, had her head bowed so low that it seemed she really wanted to bury it in the ground like an ostrich. Her delicate, pearl-like fingertips curled together on her wooden sandals, tightening bit by bit, and a seductive flush even appeared on her arches.

As for the real person involved—Kiana.

The girl's body had already begun to tremble, and a wave of shame and anger surged upward from her neck like a bursting levee. Her small face, which had looked pale due to her low spirits, was now flushing and heating up at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Her long, silver-white hair still covered her face, but it was useless now; instead, the light refracting through it made the red flush even more apparent.

Even the roots of her ears were stained with a deep crimson.

She was like a steam engine heated to the limit, "hissing" non-stop, and Jiang Cheng could even vaguely see steam rising from the top of her head.

Although, inexplicably, her eyes held a weariness that contradicted her agitation, there was no denying that Kiana's emotions were at their absolute peak.

"If I say you were right, is there still any hope?" Jiang Cheng asked cautiously.

However—

All that could be seen before them was Kiana, who had suddenly turned and bolted aimlessly. In just a few seconds, she had put a kilometer of distance between them and was still sprinting.

"This Miss... This Miss is definitely dreaming! There's absolutely no way I failed again or anything!"

"Nothing happened today!"

"This Miss is going back to sleep!"

She threw out only that one sentence before turning into a headless fly, as if she had unearthed some brand-new potential within her body, and in an instant, she had widened the gap to nearly a thousand meters.

"If you're going back to sleep, at least walk toward your room. You're heading straight for the main street!"

Jiang Cheng could barely hold back the urge to retort.

But Kiana, who had just experienced the greatest social death in history, clearly didn't care about that anymore.

It didn't matter which direction she went. She just ran headlong by herself, as if she wanted to run out of this world in one breath and escape to a place where no one knew her.

"Beep beep--!"

The piercing sound reached her.

It was followed by a bright, intense white light.

Kiana, instinctively turning her head towards the sound, saw the wide front of a vehicle rushing towards them.

It was a truck.

Kiana belatedly realized this.

Unlike the sedan that had collided with Jiang Cheng, even she would probably get hurt by this.

Yet, her body froze in place, like the female leads in those cheesy short dramas whose legs were always useless, her long lashes drooping.

"Hoo."

"Haa..."

All it would take was a slight tiptoe to run away, to continue her desperate escape, to flee from all the embarrassment...

Or was it?

Could that really be called embarrassment?

Was the reason she wanted to run away truly just embarrassment?

After finally getting news about Stinky Old Man from Jiang Cheng, it turned out to be wrong again, and she still hadn't caught him.

Didn't Stinky Old Man leave because he cared about her, because he was forced to? Or... was he abandoning her?

...So tired.

Kiana sighed from the depths of her heart.

How long had it been since that day of wind and snow?

She couldn't remember anymore. Perhaps it was because she simply didn't want to look at a calendar, didn't want to recall the day he disappeared...

She had woken up in a warm bed, she had fallen asleep with Stinky Old Man last night, she had just rubbed her sleepy eyes and asked, like always, "Dad, what are we eating today?" But when she opened her eyes, she saw that the person who was always there was missing from the wooden cabin. At the closed door, only two fading footprints remained.

He didn't return even when she waited until late at night.

He didn't return even when she waited until the next day.

"Why is this happening?"--But no one would answer even if she screamed until her voice was hoarse.

"Did I do something wrong?"--But no matter how she asked, she could only see the empty snowfield.

She wanted to chase, she had countless questions she wanted to ask, so she ran desperately around, but the heavy snow had already buried everything, leaving no footprints behind.

--He was already gone.

She couldn't even correct her mistakes because she didn't know what she had done wrong, only able to constantly correct herself, repent, and pray that he would appear again... walking alone through the snow, carrying hope to city after city, even if it was to the other end of the world, even if it was to the ends of the earth.

Disappointment.

Disappointment.

Disappointment.

She couldn't find him no matter what, neither through science nor metaphysics could she find any trace.

Infinite anticipation, infinite disappointment, even the most lively and cheerful heart couldn't bear it.

On one Christmas after another, watching other children walk into supermarkets with their parents, pointing at gifts, and expressing their likes to their parents.

The girl, pressed against the window, her breath fogging up the glass, the girl who had to wipe it away with her small hand, what thoughts would she have?

Like a rat in a basement, peeking at others' happiness through the cracks, sensing warmth that didn't belong to her.

Just because Jiang Cheng expressed unconditional trust, she unconsciously helped him, rushing around without regard for the cost.

--Was it really just because she wanted to help others?

If he knew, he would probably be very disappointed. The person who had been helping him all along wasn't some selfless hero.

She really didn't want to see that scene.

She didn't want to see any disappointment in Jiang Cheng's eyes.

Kiana simply closed her eyes gently, letting her body relax and stretch completely in the overwhelming white light.

Then, before the impact she anticipated arrived--an excessive warmth came from her side, like a natural hot spring, rapidly spreading and enveloping her entire body.

"Kiana, if there's anything upsetting, you can... try telling me?"

...It was Jiang Cheng's voice.

"If you don't want to... I'll owe you one more time, otherwise I'll draw turtles on your face."

As expected, no matter when, she found him so annoying.

She hated him rushing over, hated him calling her a big idiot over and over, hated him...

Knowing her emotions better than anyone else.

"I can carry you on my back a few more times too, no matter how many times. I've become very strong now, I can even stop a speeding truck with one hand."

"So, please, tell me."

The inner thoughts she had never voiced were being understood without her permission.

The person she had never truly seen before, someone she had merely peeked at like a lowly, despicable rat, was now, in a genuine sense...

"I really don't want to—I super don't want to—I don't want to see you looking sad on any level whatsoever."

Sad for my sake.

How truly sorrowful.

The girl who craved love the most, the girl who hungered most for warmth, the girl who would even pit her young body against a Honkai Beast just to obtain love.

Yet, for no reason at all, she had lost the fatherly love she had always assumed would last forever; she had lost the only person in this world who had ever bestowed the thing called love upon her impoverished heart.

In the end, she could only chase after it like a donkey at a mill, with a carrot dangled over her head by someone else.

But.

He was still speaking.