I Am the Saintess of Heavenly Mandate Chapter 3

Still that same darkness. Still those two familiar little girls.

One now seemed to carry her own gloomy backdrop; the other still only knew how to wail at the top of her lungs.

"Hello there, I'm Kiana Kaslana. Not sure which number I am—if I'm the eldest sister, I'd be pretty happy..."

If she were the eldest of the three, then she'd have the right to spank her sisters' bottoms in the name of discipline.

One of them clearly understood human speech but deliberately ignored people; the other couldn't understand human speech and had no sense of atmosphere, just crying.

But the moment she announced her name, the little girl curled up with her knees hugged tight exploded in fury.

"...I'm the real Kiana Kaslana! I am, I am Kiana!!"

The furious little girl scrambled up from the ground.

Then, just halfway through her charge, she took a spectacular face-first spill.

Straight onto the ground.

She felt the pain for that little girl.

Especially since the little girl looked exactly like her—it was as if the pain were her own.

"Wah..."

The little girl who'd fallen didn't get up. Instead, she curled into a ball, hugging her knees and burying her face between them, letting out soft sobs.

And so the darkness echoed once more with loud wails and low weeping.

Even though she hadn't done anything, she inexplicably felt for this little girl.

"Don't cry, don't cry... there, there, let big brother... ah, let big sister chat with you."

She walked over to the little girl and helped her up.

But the little girl clearly didn't want to show her embarrassment to anyone, stubbornly burying her little head between her knees.

"Got something sad? Spill it so big brother... sister can have a laugh—ah, no, I mean, it'll feel better to talk about it. Like me... I just found out I have a mother named Cecilia, and before I could even be happy for long, the next second I was told that beautiful mother was gone. Plus, because of some experiment accident, I don't remember anything before age eight. See? Pretty tragic, right?"

"That's my mom!"

The little girl who'd planned to ignore her bristled again.

And it proved the saying that even a rabbit will bite when cornered.

Even though the little girl had blue eyes, her bite really hurt.

3. Actually, I'm only 0 years old now (Revised)

She struggled hard to pry the little girl off her arm.

Looking at the neat row of teeth marks on her arm, she sucked in cold air from the pain.

It really hurt.

The little girl's teeth were straight and pretty, but as the one being bitten, she wasn't so thrilled.

"Hey you... uh, why are you crying now? What's there to cry about?!"

She rubbed the teeth marks on her left arm and glared fiercely at the little girl.

But the next second, the little girl burst into tears.

(ノ=Д=)ノ┻━┻

Shouldn't she be the one crying?

And as this little girl cried, the other little girl, who only knew how to cry, suddenly wailed even louder.

"What a load of nonsense!"

She covered her ears and muttered.

After a long while, the two little girls, tired from crying, finally stopped.

One curled up hugging her knees, sinking into self-isolation; the other lay on the ground, still sobbing softly as she dozed off.

"Hey hey, don't go all antisocial on me just yet!"

She quickly tried to talk to the little girl who was prone to shutting down.

Leaving aside the little girl who reacted like a newborn baby, this one—who bristled and then went silent—was clearly the only one in this darkness she could communicate with.

The little girl, who was burying her head between her knees, heard her call and looked up, glaring at her like an enemy with a cute... no, a very fierce stare.

"Anyway, let me ask one thing first."

Seeing that the little girl responded to her words, she hurriedly stated her purpose.

"You said your name is Kiana Kaslana?"

"..."

The little girl nodded silently.

"Then your mother is Lady Cecilia?"

"..."

The little girl nodded again, then prepared to retreat back into her shell.

"But someone told me my name is Kiana Kaslana..."

Hearing this, the little girl's body trembled slightly, and she buried her head between her knees.

"Wait, I told you, don't go shutting down yet. At least finish explaining first."

If she didn't get the answers while the other little girl was tired out from crying, once she woke up, it'd be another round of wailing, and then there'd be no chance to ask anything.

The other little girl's cries easily triggered this one's empathy, and then it'd be a duet of sobbing and sniffling all over again.

"...I don't know."

After a long pause, just when she was about to give up and find her own corner to curl up in, the little girl hugging her knees lifted her head and spoke.

"I am Kiana Kaslana. My father is Siegfried Kaslana..."

"Huh? You have a father?"

Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

In other words, she had a father.

But a father could never be as good as a mother!!

Hearing her exclamation, the little girl glared at her fiercely.

But she couldn't pull off a menacing expression—it looked more like a white cat trying to be cute.

She ignored the little girl and went on, "The more I hear, the more it feels like the Misaka Sister routine. By the way, do you have any proof that you're the real Kiana Kaslana?"

"???"

The little girl looked completely bewildered.

She was Kiana Kaslana—why would she need proof to prove that?

"Maybe I'm the real Kiana, and you're just a fake implanted with Kiana's memories?"

A fake wouldn't admit to being fake, after all.

So she thought her reasoning made perfect sense.

But right now, everything she knew lacked evidence. She couldn't prove she was real, and she couldn't prove she was fake either...

"Wait, actually, there might be proof... that I'm the fake."

"???"

The little girl was even more confused now.

She wanted to say she was only eight years old, and all this complicated stuff was way over her head.

"Do you know K422?" she asked.

The little girl shook her head, indicating she didn't.

"Oh, never mind."

Considering it might be the same setup as the Misaka Sisters, she wasn't surprised the little girl didn't know.

There was no way the original would be told about someone secretly making clones of her.

But the first time she woke up, she'd heard the numbers K422 and K423.

Putting two and two together, she figured she was K422.

And the little girl who only knew how to cry was K423.

"Yeah, that guess holds up. So Amber really is a liar—said she'd sleep with me, but by the time I was almost asleep, she hadn't even gotten in bed. Big liar. No... the real big liar is that man."

She naturally regretted that the white-haired woman hadn't provided any bedtime company, but when she thought of how the man called 'Otto' had looked at her with such care, her expression turned complicated.

If she was just a clone of the real Kiana, just a fake, then his whole string of performances was nothing but overacting.

What a drama queen.

And screw the 'Little Princess' title.

She had no attachment to that nickname that gave her goosebumps.

"Looks like I really am K422. Sigh... I thought Cecilia was really my mom. But since I'm a clone, there's no genetic difference between me and the real Kiana, so it's fine to treat Cecilia as my real mom. Yeah, I can ditch a dad, but I have to claim a mom."

In this darkness, she felt her mind was clearer than in the real world—even words like 'clone' and 'gene,' which sounded so complicated, came naturally to her.

"By the way, kid, even though you're the real Kiana, that man's probably going to settle on 'Kiana Kaslana' as my name from now on. Calling you Kiana too would get confusing, so... how about the nickname 'True Kiana'?"

?

Logically, as a clone, she should be either a younger sister or a daughter, but she still spoke to the real Kiana with an air of superiority.

"???"

'True Kiana' lifted her little head, her small face full of confusion.

How did she become 'True Kiana'? Wait—was this fake in front of her trying to steal her name?! And trying to steal her mom too!!

'True Kiana' bristled again, but her only means of attack were scratching and biting.

Among them, biting was the most effective attack method... a mouthful.

"Wait, how can you bite people like that?! Stop it—no, open your mouth!"

A girl who used her mouth was terrifying.

She didn't hold out long before surrendering, but 'True Kiana' simply refused to let go.

Hearing her wails, the little girl who had cried herself out sat up and began crying in defiance.

This dark space instantly became unbearably noisy.

Hours later, she woke from a nightmare.

Yes, to her, it truly was a nightmare.

But this nightmare carried no small amount of information.

First, she learned she was a fake, yet Bishop Otto had pinned the name 'True Kiana' on her, clearly with ill intent.

Although she had never trusted the man named Otto from the very beginning for unknown reasons, she now had solid evidence.

Second, there was the current situation of 'True Kiana.'

'True Kiana' remembered that when she was two years old, her father had tried to take her away, but in the end, he never showed up. After that, Bishop Otto brought her here, and the only people she could interact with were Bishop Otto and a woman named Amber.

She had confirmed with 'True Kiana' that they were indeed the same person.

The white-haired woman named Amber was clearly Bishop Otto's direct subordinate.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have had access to someone like 'True Kiana.'

Although Bishop Otto provided a high-quality environment and abundant food, even offering primers and assigning Amber to teach arithmetic, 'True Kiana' still wanted to be with her father.