Starting with the Herrschers, I Cut Down All

Even Kiana could figure out that this was aimed at Bronya.

"Maybe it was because I mentioned it this morning?"

Bronya truly couldn't make sense of that.

"Then why did he look so relieved when you agreed, when you were clearly the one who brought it up first?!"

Bronya: ...

After a long silence, she gave the best possible answer:

"I don't know."

She felt a faint lingering fear. Though she was indeed no longer young, she hadn't had nearly enough fun yet. At the very least, she needed to make something of herself first.

And what was wrong with staying single for life? Wasn't Mama Cocolia still single even now? What right did she have to urge her to get married?

"Hmph!"

Kiana sneered. If you asked her, someone had betrayed their little single-person club.

Meanwhile, An Yu returned to his workstation and explained the situation to his sister.

At present, the band had Kiana on rhythm guitar, Bronya on drums, while he could play violin or serve as the bassist... Anyway, bass wasn't important. As long as he was decent enough, that would do.

The occasions where they truly needed a bassist to raise the band's ceiling had nothing to do with them.

No traitors here. Time for some bass jokes.

Elysia: "Hehe! Just look forward to it!"

Elysia: "Lately, I feel like my sense of rhythm has been amazing."

Maybe it was because she had nearly been beaten into hallucinating in her dreams. She now felt somewhat transcendent—somewhat close to humanity, yet somewhat close to divinity. Like a demigod, yet also like a god in human form.

As a result, her affinity for music kept increasing.

Incidentally, she was the lead guitarist.

As for a keyboardist... They weren't really a rock band. They could just make do.

Elysia: "Cute kitty head.jpg"

Elysia: "Why aren't you replying? Aggrieved kitty head.jpg"

An Yu searched for reaction images until a fragrant scent drifted into his nose, sweet with a slight bitterness. His movements stiffened.

Who?

"Who is Elysia?"

Kiana leaned over from behind, curious.

There were some questions Bronya couldn't answer, so she would ask someone else instead.

"My sister. The band's lead guitarist."

"Oh."

Kiana nodded. She knew that already. After all, An Yu had kicked someone out of his sister's band for Bronya's sake.

"Also, you're pressing down on me."

Although the softness by his ear felt nice, and it belonged to Kiana—the melancholy ice-and-snow literary girl he had once admired—An Yu sniffed.

After entering university, he had looked up relevant cases. Divorce meant splitting assets in half, while molestation generally required compensation too.

Besides, Kiana wasn't some melancholy literary girl.

"Come on, we're bros!"

Kiana's ears reddened slightly, but she forced herself to remain calm. Her little head thought rapidly... Was he not interested in women?

Men who weren't interested in women were generally either conservative about romance, had high moral standards, or were gay.

But there were exceptions. Some people developed an immense fear of it after their marriages suffered major upheavals. An Yu was currently unmarried, so the possibility of him being an exception could practically be ruled out.

An Yu: ...

Come to think of it, when did the two of them become bros? Oh, just now.

"Since we're going to form a band together, can I ask what your dream is?"

Did forming a band require asking something like that? Was this even a serious band?

But An Yu answered without hesitation, "Make a lot of money, or gain great power and influence."

Having neither money nor power was unacceptable.

If his business path hadn't gone so smoothly, An Yu's original plan had been to take the civil service exam, then engineer a few coincidences and see whether he could become some rich family's live-in son-in-law, soaring all the way to the top.

Oh! Kiana looked toward her bestie's office in the distance.

"What do you think of Bronya?"

An Yu's thoughts stalled. He vaguely sensed a little blue cat's brain spinning at high speed, contemplating everything from the birth of the universe to the origins of humanity.

Then he blankly looked toward the boss's office.

Then he looked back at Kiana.

"The boss is great. She's pretty and protective of her own people, easygoing but knows where to draw the line. And our hobbies are incredibly similar."

Street racing, music, game development, gaming, and even fighting and shooting. Unfortunately, this was Reson Studio, not Anti-Entropy, so many of those hobbies had naturally faded away.

"Oooh..." Kiana dragged out the sound.

"Have you ever thought about winning her over? Then you'd have money and power, plus a beautiful wife at home to warm your bed. And with how similar your hobbies are, you could hold something soft and fragrant in your arms twenty-four hours a day."

She egged him on. Bronya currently had no intention of dating. If he confessed early and failed early, then Bronya's chances of staying single with her for life would increase a little more.

Come to think of it, Uncle Ryoma was so stingy. He still wouldn't let Mei come out and play with her.

"..."

Were you seriously trying to pimp her out?

An Yu spoke tactfully. "You might not understand my family situation, Miss Kiana."

He had a mentally ill older sister at home. That was absolutely a major drawback.

"It doesn't matter. No matter what your family situation is, once you succeed in courting her, all those difficulties will be easily resolved."

"And think about it. Even if you aren't compatible in the future and you divorce Bronya, wouldn't you still get fifty percent of the assets?"

Kiana continued whispering like a devil. She feared that An Yu would confess a few years later, when Bronya was helplessly pressured by her family, and since the two of them were so familiar with each other, she would simply go along with it.

Then Mei would see that even her bestie no longer insisted on staying single, relax her guard, and give Uncle Ryoma an opportunity to recruit a live-in son-in-law.

What would she do then?

"If you do turn out to be compatible, you'll become an Anti-Entropy shareholder in the future. That's Anti-Entropy!"

An Yu covered the lower half of his face with one hand, his feelings complicated.

Because he couldn't tell whether Kiana was having one of her episodes or testing him.

"Do you know who my teacher is, Kiana?"

"Who?"

"Einstein." An Yu added, "My teacher currently has no children, and I'm even her only student."

Though thinking about the future this way was rather unambitious, he had watched The Knockout. At worst, he could become An "The Art of War" Qiqiang Yu.

Being born poor was not shameful. A true man knew when to bend and when to stand tall!

Kiana's thoughts froze. Damn it, the two of you really were well matched in status, weren't you?!

This brat couldn't seriously succeed, could he?!

No, while Bronya's determination to remain single was still firm, she had to make the two of them fail once.

"No, bro..."

Kiana tried to organize her words, but her personality left her unable to come up with anything unreasonable for once.

After a long silence, she sat on the table beside him.

Her expression suddenly became incomparably sincere. "Does Anti-Entropy have any similar major shareholders? I wouldn't mind having another mom. I could even give up my inheritance rights in Schicksal."

Bronya could wait. If she managed to infiltrate Anti-Entropy, then communicating with Mei should count as internal business communication, right?

P.S. Damn it, I don't know whether I set the schedule wrong or the site glitched.

It was originally scheduled for eight tomorrow morning.

After scheduling it before bed, I discovered that the chapter had already been posted...

Just pretend it came out tomorrow morning, brothers. I'm completely numb. Good thing I have a leave slip, or I'd lose this month's attendance bonus.

Volume One: Chapter 51 — Genetic Inheritance

What do you mean, you wouldn't mind having another mom?

"You can go look for Dr. Tesla, but she's really been trying hard to conceive lately. If you show up at her door now, you might get beaten out."

An Yu didn't know what else to say about that. Tesla and Uncle Yang had already been together for so long, yet they were still trying this hard. That showed they had truly made up their minds.

But on further thought, the younger generation of both Anti-Entropy and Schicksal maintained the habit of staying single... Could that be because the previous generation had all married so late?

For example, Otto was still single even now. His only daughter was an adopted collateral relative, the child who most resembled his childhood sweetheart.

"If I became Dr. Tesla's daughter, could I freely enter and leave the ME Entertainment Alliance?"

Kiana looked full of anticipation. Though she would feel sorry for her parents, they had three daughters. They didn't need their youngest one that badly.

Maybe she would be the first to get into a relationship, though she might not be able to have children.

An Yu recalled the development history of ME Corp.'s entertainment alliance within Anti-Entropy and nodded.

"You could. After all, ME Corp.'s current manager, Raiden Ryoma, was discovered by Dr. Tesla. In a sense, he can be considered Dr. Tesla's direct disciple."

How had he been discovered? He and Dr. Tesla had simply clicked.

Back when he was still a teenager, Raiden Ryoma had moved Tesla with his passion for mecha and comics at school. Then he seized the opportunity and soared upward, a classic example of a grassroots underdog rising to prominence.

It was very novel-like.

Thinking about it that way... An Yu covered his face and sighed. Anti-Entropy truly had an immeasurably bright future.

Still, he had nothing to complain about. It was because he had heard about such matters that he had focused on Teacher Einstein's courses in university and successfully entered Anti-Entropy's circle.

"Then wouldn't that make me Ryoma's peer?!" Kiana understood instantly.

Then visiting Mei would be like an aunt visiting her niece. How could anyone refuse? And having another layer of relationship like that sounded exciting just thinking about it.

An Yu covered his face with one hand.

Amid her excitement, Kiana suddenly froze. "Eh, wait. If we count it that way, wouldn't Bronya also be Mei's aunt?"

"Auntie Cocolia joined much later. She's from the same generation as Uncle Ryoma."

Oh, then there was no need to ask... Wait, wasn't that even worse?!

Kiana stiffly turned her head. "Then what about you?"

An Yu felt even more exhausted. "We each count things separately."

Generational seniority was not something that could be properly sorted out, especially after adding teacher-student relationships into the mix. If they seriously kept calculating, it would become a mess.

Still, if Anti-Entropy held an annual meeting, he really would sit at the same table as Uncle Ryoma instead of at the children's table.

"Um, I'm mainly just curious..." Kiana gestured with both hands, but ultimately couldn't suppress her curiosity. "Bro, how did you end up doing so badly?"

An Yu paused and looked at Kiana blankly.

"Aren't you from the same generation as Ryoma? Raiden Ryoma is currently the manager of ME Corp., which is practically Anti-Entropy's largest subsidiary. Cocolia has also made quite a name for herself at Anti-Entropy headquarters. So why did things suddenly fall apart when it came to you?"

You were even working for Bronya here... Oh! Working for Bronya... Ooh!

Kiana seemed to understand. Her yuri-loving dog brain, which only spun this quickly in matters like these, had figured everything out!

That damned Bronya! Kiana refused to believe her bestie was so smart that she couldn't understand something this obvious!

Thinking that, she angrily ran back to the office. Bronya! And you said you hadn't betrayed us!

An Yu's gaze returned to his computer.