Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

Before she could even catch her breath, Mei excitedly threw herself at her.

Kiana, you're finally awake!

The white-fuzzy ball of consciousness was brought back to reality. Beside her bedside stood Himeko, Theresa, Bronya, Jiuxiao, and Ningdi, all looking at her with concern or curiosity.

"What happened...? How did I get here? Shouldn't I be in Singapore on a mission?"

"You little brat, you lost consciousness after being hit by a powerful Honkai energy blast during the mission."

"You were so careless! Luckily, Snow, who was on vacation in Singapore at the time, and Fu Hua, who was with you on the mission, found you in time and brought you back."

"Remember to thank them!"

Himeko stood with her hands on her hips, looking helplessly at the bewildered Kiana in front of her. Meanwhile, the now-awakened white-haired girl herself felt as if she'd been hit by a battering ram, her entire body aching terribly.

Ningdi, seeing Kiana start to bare her teeth, seemed to have thought of something.

"Kiana, Fu Hua said you did a great job on this mission, and she's planning to give you a perfect score."

"Hey! The class monitor is the best!" The white fluffy ball instantly forgot the soreness all over its body and cheered.

"...But Kiana, you still owe at least thirty credits this semester," Ningdi said seriously, looking at Kiana who had suddenly cheered.

"...Mei, is it too late for me to faint now?"

"Kiana—!" Mei's helpless voice rang out, accompanied by the laughter of the crowd around her.

--

Meanwhile, in a distant corridor, a blond, blue-eyed man was walking side by side with his daughter.

Those were the very culprits that made the white fluffy ball feel sore all over.

"How are you feeling, my child?" The man strolled leisurely through the academy, posing his question to his daughter beside him.

"The fight felt pretty good, and that Herrscher consciousness was really bad at the game but had a lot of gimmicks and talked a lot..." the girl thought for a moment and gave her answer.

"Useless, addicted, and talkative..." The man's lips twitched.

"...I'm not referring to that, my daughter. I'm talking about—your opinion on my plan: to have Fu Hua take K423 out to check on the plan's progress."

"The Herrscher's consciousness has gradually become active and is expected to fully awaken within the next one to two years. After being stimulated through special means, it will take over this body."

"One to two years is enough time for K423 to build a strong bond with this college."

"Then, my dear old man, you can test whether your power of love can truly allow a human heart to control the power of a Herrscher."

The girl stated her father's next plan with a bored expression, seemingly without any intention of mockery or dissuasion.

"You don't seem to object at all?" The man looked at his daughter, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

"...What are you against? Your plan? No, no... Your plan actually suits me quite well—" The girl shook her head.

"Is that so...? A plan is a plan because no matter how much you try to improve it and fill in the gaps, it will still be full of variables and unexpected events."

"And you, my child, you want to exploit these loopholes to turn variables into constants, and accidents into established facts, in order to alter certain aspects of the plan's trajectory."

"Instead of going to great lengths to devise a completely new plan to counter it, it's better to utilize the plan that already exists from the beginning."

"Subtly embed the factors of change, the turning point, and the altered matters into it—making the mastermind of the plan feel it's only natural, yet unknowingly altering something."

"I obtained the experimental data, but what did you obtain, my child? It's truly intriguing..."

The man nodded in agreement, then changed the subject.

"But my child, if you're just trying to take shortcuts... you won't change the final outcome—"

"There's no need for Father to worry about that... You should think about how you're going to explain the 1:1 life-size figurine hidden under your desk when Mother returns."

"...Where did you know that?" Cold sweat suddenly broke out on the man's back.

"Although you were really handsome when you assigned Simone Riley to me, but—"

"You looked really awkward when you first started hiding things under the table... especially since there was a large full-length mirror behind your office chair."

"I saw it all—" Snow glanced at Lord Otto, who was already turning gray beside him.

“My child—let’s make a deal…” Golden feathers began to appear on the man’s hand.

"Ow—"

Don't even think about it.

The good daughter, without hesitation, punched her own father in the nose, interrupting her scumbag father's spellcasting.

"Well... let's make a deal. You don't have to tell anyone, and I'll design a custom Valkyrie armor set for each member of your squad."

"I officially approve of your relationship with that little rabbit named Penglaiji Jiuxiao... ptooey, ptooey, little cutie. What do you say, my daughter?"

Otto offered what he believed to be an irresistible condition, while Snow scrutinized the man's face for a long time.

Otto even wondered if he hadn't brushed his teeth properly that morning, and some food was stuck to them...

Just as the man was about to accept his doubts, the girl offered her response.

"Okay, you said it yourself, Dad. I didn't force you, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes," the man nodded frantically.

"Then it's settled... Oh, one more thing..."

"My dearest father, have you thought about how you're going to explain this to your dream girl..."

"Did she suddenly have a daughter with both your and her bloodline?"

"..."

Otto Apocalypse, the greatest bishop in Schicksal's history, at this moment, his mind ceased to think—

"Aba aba... baby, can I put you back?"

"From a purely rational standpoint, you can't do it, so please face reality soberly—"

"And your family's position," Snow raised his index finger and shook it at the man in denial.

"And...I, as your only daughter, and Theresa, as your nominal granddaughter—"

What should I call her, and what should she call me?

"Although the relationships among European nobles are quite complicated... are you planning to put on a show—that it's my daughter's or my daughter's... isn't that going too far?"

"...Daughter, I suddenly remembered I still have some things to take care of at headquarters! I won't be able to chat with you any longer."

See you next time!

Under the girl's barrage of questions, the man spoke slowly, his entire body's steel muscles activating, especially the muscles in his legs.

Then, the man burst into an astonishing speed and disappeared from his daughter's sight.

"cut--"

[Running away is shameful, but it's useful.jpg]

Chapter Forty-Nine: Treasure Hunt in the Foggy City

"So... the plan to retrieve the Tranquility Gem failed?"

In the dimly lit laboratory, a scientist wearing an Anubis mask looked at his pet cat with a tone full of disdain.

"Meow! (You idiot, I almost got punched to death by Schicksal's S-rank Valkyrie!)" The cat's face was full of anger, and it promptly put on a cat-like sullen face.

"An S-rank Valkyrie??? Impossible! According to our leads, Schicksal only sent an A-rank Valkyrie and an apprentice." The voice behind the mask betrayed astonishment.

"Meow???! (You call that monster who punched through a building and almost caused a basement collapse an A-rank Valkyrie???)" The cat's smugness deepened.

"But—!" The masked scientist wanted to argue something more.

"Enough, Jackal—the plan to bring back the leader needs to be postponed. Destiny and Anti-Entropy are focusing too much on those gems right now." A man wearing a white mask that only revealed his right eye and dressed in a black hoodie appeared at the laboratory's main entrance.

"I'll investigate the Valkyrie your pet cat mentioned. Now, let's turn our attention to the artifact left behind by the Lord—" The man glanced at the kitten baring its teeth at him; it seemed quite unhappy about being called a pet cat.

"Hmph... Archbishop Otto Apocalypse of Destiny has his eye on a certain artifact that the Lord himself sealed away, forbidding anyone from touching it. Jackal, this matter is yours and Raven's responsibility. Don't disappoint the Lord." With a cold snort to the cat, Gray Serpent conveyed his purpose.

......

"Snow Apocalypse... the snake will offer you a deal and promise you can't refuse, and you have no right to refuse..."

On the high platform of the building, a man wearing a black hood and a one-eyed mask held a black umbrella and looked at the investigation data in front of him. From beneath the mask, he uttered a sinister voice brimming with confidence.

--

"Achoo—!" In the Valkyrie's dormitory, the blonde girl sneezed, drawing concerned glances from the others nearby.

"Oh, Snow-kun, do you have a cold?" Raiden Mei asked with concern, looking at the girl rubbing her nose.

"No, it's just that my nose is a little itchy... I guess someone's thinking about me." The girl shook her head, picked up her coffee, and continued to sip it.

"Thinking about Sister Snow... Bronya thinks it's that gluttonous, stupid Kiana..."

"After all, she just got thrown out by her sister for stealing everyone's afternoon tea," Bronya thought for a moment and offered her guess.

"Hey! Bronya, are you trying to fight me?! I'm always upright and honest, I never gossip about others behind their backs!" Kiana, who had been sitting to the side eating heartily, suddenly couldn't sit still anymore. She jumped up from the living room sofa, pointed at Bronya, and started yelling.

"No, of course it couldn't be that white fluffy thing. If she didn't like you, she'd just rush up at you, baring her teeth and claws, ready to punch you," the blonde girl shook her head.

"Then you can randomly choose between beating the other person until they're black and blue and making Mei-nee apologize endlessly, or getting yourself beaten black and blue and making Mei-nee apply medicine with a pained expression," Ningdi said, reflecting on her observations of the strange human species she'd kept over the past few days.

"Ningdi, do you want to get hit too?!" Kiana turned around angrily to look at the blonde little girl being rubbed by Jiuxiao.

"...According to Bronya's observation, Kiana has a 100% win rate when attacking characters outside the dormitory, and a 1000% win rate when attacking everyone inside the dormitory." The gray-haired girl nodded seriously.

"What? My win rate is pretty high, isn't it?"

The fluffy white ball stood confidently with its hands on its hips, completely oblivious to the sarcasm in Bronya's words, its face beaming with an expression that said, "I'm so amazing, Mei, come and praise me!"

[This person is hopeless] Everyone had the same thought as they looked at the smug girl.

"Ahem... Kiana, do you really understand what 1000% means...?" Jiuxiao's eyebrows twitched as he reminded the overconfident Kiana.

"It's just a 10x win rate—I feel like I can now turn my back on all living beings and rule the world alone!"

"...Unfortunately, 1000% usually means you're doomed to fail, not literally 10 times, and—if you keep standing on the table..."

"You'll probably be carrying a hundred pounds of Judas on your back, ruling for eternity outside the gates... Your dear auntie will pull Judas out from behind you."

Snow pointed amiably to the back of the white fluffy ball that had triumphantly stepped onto the table, his eyes filled with sympathy and pity—behind her, Headmistress Theresa was silently gathering Judas's ultimate attack bar.