I Became a Saintess at Schicksal

"Is this Anti-Entropy's Alliance Leader? I'm Theresa Apocalypse. Siegfried and Kiana are both on your ship, right? Then I'll keep this short. I'll stop the Schicksal Floating Battleships pursuing you. Don't send anyone to rescue me, and make sure you stop that big idiot Siegfried..."

Siegfried froze after listening, then looked at Welt.

Welt nodded.

"This is indeed a recorded communication from Theresa Apocalypse. She is Bishop Otto's sole heir. If we go save her now, it will confirm that she is colluding with Anti-Entropy. Her current actions can still be excused as helping you escape. Compared to the charge of colluding with Anti-Entropy, the charge of merely covering for you, the Kaslana Family's stain, will not cause her too much trouble."

Without caring whether Siegfried understood, Welt continued, "You can go save her, but what about that clone? Didn't you rescue her from Schicksal because you wanted her to avoid inhumane experiments?"

"If you leave her with Anti-Entropy, aren't you afraid that one day Anti-Entropy will experiment on her too? Also... could you take off that Humo outfit?"

Only then did Siegfried notice that he had apparently only removed Humo's head. He was still wearing the Humo mascot costume, which had exceptionally high resistance to Honkai Energy.

"...I understand."

Still, Welt's reasoning made sense.

Siegfried could not leave his daughter's clone with Anti-Entropy.

If he could, he wanted to take his daughter far away and hide somewhere no one could ever find them.

But what he had found was not his daughter, but his daughter's clone.

Siegfried was deeply worried about his daughter's safety.

"I want to see the clone."

"I'll arrange it. My people are operating on her right now. They'll soon remove the signal transmitter inside her."

Welt had a headache too. This time, Otto had truly outmaneuvered all of them.

Though he was somewhat guilty of playing along with Otto's scheme, he had failed to achieve his goal of rescuing the real Kiana. He had not even managed to buy Siegfried an extra half hour.

If Theresa had not stepped in so loyally, several of Anti-Entropy's secret bases would certainly have been destroyed by Schicksal this time.

Now, Anti-Entropy's Floating Battleship rapidly withdrew from the battlefield before Schicksal's encirclement could form.

After the signal transmitter inside the clone Siegfried had rescued was destroyed, the fleet of Schicksal Floating Battleships lost track of Siegfried, Welt, and the others.

Theresa, who had been completely surrounded by Valkyries, ultimately chose to surrender.

Afterward, she was restrained by the Valkyries and taken back to Schicksal Headquarters.

But neither Anti-Entropy, Siegfried, nor Theresa knew what was happening at Schicksal Headquarters at that moment.

Otto, who had worn an expression that said everything was going according to plan, was also left depressed by Theresa's actions.

Helping Anti-Entropy escape was an extremely serious offense.

Especially since Schicksal Headquarters had been attacked, Anti-Entropy had to bear at least half the responsibility.

Otto did not want Theresa's reputation to suffer in the slightest.

To that end, he had to minimize the negative impact of this operation.

Otto had long prepared a new defensive field for the Floating Islands. This attack on Schicksal Headquarters' Nine Floating Islands, with the defensive field breached from within by Welt, would naturally make many Valkyries uneasy.

The new defensive field possessed formidable external defenses, and its internal defenses were no less impressive.

Secondly, Otto had already planned for the staff and Valkyries killed or injured by the battle's aftermath. Once K422 inherited the Apocalypse name, he would have her conduct charity events in welfare communities across the region.

Most importantly, K422 becoming a Valkyrie was the best possible promotional topic for the other Valkyries.

The attack on Schicksal Headquarters this time had been the enemy's attempt to seize the future strongest Valkyrie.

As long as K422 displayed the potential to become the strongest Valkyrie in her battle with Maria Schariac a month from now, the negative impact of Schicksal being attacked would diminish.

He would use K422 to create a buzz.

Simply put, he would get her trending.

As long as everyone focused on K422, naturally no one would pay attention to Theresa.

After Otto brought K422 away from the massive Floating Battleship, he also prepared a new outfit for her.

The outfit's design had the style of clergy robes from Schicksal's religious era.

The sacred white garment and dignified ceremonial dress were called Song of Honor.

Originally, she would not have fit into it. Judging by its size, Bishop Otto had likely prepared it for Theresa, but because he urgently needed to put K422 in the spotlight, he had it altered one size smaller.

After K422 undid her braid and put on the ceremonial dress, one could not help but think of the praised Saintess—Cecilia.

Of course, Cecilia had never worn such a dress. It was simply that K422 radiated the sacredness that only Cecilia possessed after putting it on.

But Otto saw someone else's shadow in K422.

At the end of the day, the Kaslana Family's hereditary traits were far too obvious in her.

Appearing on the Floating Island in such magnificent attire to comfort the injured Valkyries also lifted their morale.

They knew that Schicksal Headquarters had been attacked because hostile forces led by Anti-Entropy had set their sights on her, the future strongest Valkyrie.

Her appearance meant that every scheme and plot of the enemy had come to nothing.

It formally declared Schicksal's victory in this battle.

"..."

Unable to refuse Otto's arrangements, K422 could only wear that fluttering dress around everywhere.

Her task was to let more people see her, to see that she had become a Valkyrie... so Bishop Otto did not forbid her from using her monstrous strength.

K422 used that strength to assist the Valkyries and staff with rescue efforts.

When they discovered that she alone could lift a metal frame too heavy for eighteen or nineteen grown men, every Valkyrie believed that she would soon become Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie.

Otto tossed her into the most crowded area and left by himself. Who knew what he was off to do?

K422 could only sigh while helping with the rescue work.

This ceremonial dress was indeed beautiful, but she was not used to wearing it.

Otto had prepared many beautiful dresses for her before, but she still preferred casual pants. During daily training, she naturally wore training clothes that allowed easy movement.

Even if the Little Maids forcibly put her in a skirt, she would stuff bloomers and safety shorts underneath.

But beneath this gorgeous ceremonial dress, which carried an air of holiness, the sacred white garment concealed a tiny red dress.

The skirt was very short, exposing far too much of her thighs.

It made her feel terribly insecure.

Still, this outfit truly did boost morale.

Many Valkyries had been caught in the areas where the Floating Island collapsed during its descent, and many were still buried beneath the rubble.

Fortunately, Valkyries possessed exceptionally tenacious vitality after becoming Valkyries. Only a few particularly unlucky Valkyries had been pierced through by steel bars and ultimately bled to death.

After half a day of rescue efforts, the staff and senior researchers who had evacuated before the battle gradually returned.

Among them was Schicksal's Propaganda Department.

Yes, someone from the Propaganda Department came looking for her.

"Kiana, would you be interested in filming a music video? I think your current appearance is perfect for a debut."

A music video was essentially a short film set to music.

The people from Schicksal's Propaganda Department believed that she would become popular if she debuted looking like this.

The Propaganda Department had approached Cecilia before, but Cecilia had refused at the time.

Under Otto's orders, the Propaganda Department, which had always promoted K422 through various tragic personas, was meeting K422 for the first time.

Yet after seeing K422 dressed in Song of Honor, they sincerely believed she would become popular. As long as she filmed a music video or some other kind of promotional short, she would definitely become famous around the world.

"Lady Kiana, we're serious. With how adorable you are right now, just sing or dance a little. It doesn't matter whether you sing off-key or dance well—you'll definitely be popular! If you really can't remember the lyrics, you can just get by with cute little 'woo woo wah wah' sounds!"

"..."

Honestly, she really wanted to refuse.

However, Otto, who had been hiding away, contacted her at that moment.

"Cooperate with the Propaganda Department's activities. All proceeds can belong to you. Even if you truly debut as a songstress, do whatever makes you happy. As long as you can win Black Abyss White Flower a month from now, I can give you the freedom you desire afterward."

"..."

K422 would bet that Bishop Otto was secretly laughing right now.

As for freedom, she considered it a joke.

As long as Bishop Otto had no intention of releasing True Kiana, she could never have true freedom.

Release Notice

Here's a quick release notice. The book goes premium tomorrow morning at ten, though I usually update after noon, so... you know how it is.

This is, for now, my seventh contracted novel on Book Guest and my fourth to go premium.

Two contracted works never went premium, and one flopped before it even went premium. As you all know, I'm an old author—either flopping or on the road to flopping. Covers face.

I'm personally not good at picking subjects, yet I always like trying new ideas. I especially love courting disaster in the infinite crossover anime genre.

Before coming to Book Guest, my representative work was probably "Eastern Pale Legend."

And now, my representative work is "The Matter of Me Joining an Evil Organization."

That Evil Organization novel could be said to have gotten lucky. I picked the right subject, though something unexpected happened then too, and the later plot fell apart a little. Sigh. After all, in the original outline, Platinum was the female lead. But you know, little Miller was not at an appropriate age.

And this "I Became a Saintess at Schicksal" is naturally a Honkai Impact fanfic that I have always wanted to write.

After all, I've always liked K423!

Didn't expect that, did you?!

Not Mei, and not Bronya either, but the Tuna.

Even if K423 became the Queen, I still liked the silly, dim-witted K423. Of course, when the Sky Ranger awakened and K423 turned into an elegant older girl, I suddenly felt like an old father watching his daughter grow up.

But I still liked the innocent, happy, carefree K423.

Release notices are basically always about bonus chapters for rewards.

I won't talk about that for now. I'll definitely add more chapters for a while after release, but let's put aside the subject of reward-based bonus chapters for the moment.

I only hope you can continue supporting me.

By the way, I originally wanted to write a Captain, but somehow it turned into K422.

It really felt like some mysterious force had pushed me to do it.

It's Me, It's Me, It's Me

Although K422 had no interest in debuting as a songstress, she could not disobey Bishop Otto's orders.

Of course, Bishop Otto had also offered generous terms: all income from the promotion would belong to her.

K422 curiously asked about the promotional income earned by the previous generations of Schariac Saintesses. Well, she was really only curious.

Though her mom had refused such activities, the Saintesses of the Schariac Family throughout the generations seemed to have been quite enthusiastic about such a career.

The head of the Propaganda Department did not hide anything and honestly gave her a rough estimate of the earnings of the Saintess from two generations ago and the Saintess from three generations ago.

In that era, when multimedia had not yet become particularly advanced, the income of the Saintess from two generations ago and the Saintess from three generations ago could support an entire branch.

"..."

Yes, after taxes, their personal income alone could fund a branch with multiple research institutes and dozens of orphanages under its jurisdiction.

K422 looked at the ceiling, which was missing several large sections, and fell silent.

Not every Schariac Saintess in history had held the title of Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie like her mom, Cecilia.

In terms of looks, her mom was no less beautiful than the other members of the Schariac Family.

Her mom had turned down several hundred million.

No wonder the current head of the Schariac Family wanted her to return and become their Saintess.

Even if she debuted together with the current Saintess candidate as a pair of Twin Saintesses, they would definitely make a fortune.

After all, she had far too many selling points for promotion—whether it was her identity as the previous Saintess's daughter or her potential to become Schicksal's future strongest Valkyrie...