Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

The girl opened her eyes. It was Saturday. As usual, she hadn't set an alarm. And on weekends, before lunch, her roommates wouldn't bother her about sleeping in.

However, today will probably be an unexpected day for the girl's friends. The white-haired ball of fluff quickly got out of bed, dressed herself, combed and braided her messy hair, and quickly finished washing up in the bathroom.

Kiana quietly opened the door. The corridor was quiet and deserted. It seemed that everyone liked to sleep in on the weekend, and the only exception, Class Monitor Fu Hua, should have already gone out for her morning exercise.

"Phew—looks like everyone's resting..."

Kiana quietly closed the door and slipped out of the dormitory.

If you really want to see them, go to the St. Freya Academy cemetery; they're in the very first row...

Why should I linger for someone who hasn't come to their senses?

[Sirin thinks this must be a trial given to her older sister by the Hermit.]

The voices of the two echoed in the girl's mind again in her dream, making her determined.

"Will I find my answer in that cemetery...?"

Pushing open the door, the girl rushed toward her destination, then abruptly stopped.

"Uh... shouldn't I bring a few bouquets of flowers according to custom... I've got it!"

As Kiana pondered, her eyes caught sight of the white flowers blooming in the flowerbed.

"These are the ones!" Kiana picked the white flowers, tied them into a simple bouquet, glanced at the bouquet in her hand with satisfaction, and continued running towards the cemetery.

.....

The cemetery gates were open, and no one was guarding it, allowing people to come and pay their respects. Each stone tablet in the cemetery was engraved with the name of a Valkyrie and her epitaph.

Kiana walked through the flowerbeds planted with pine trees in the cemetery and arrived at the deepest part of the cemetery.

Behind the black monument, more than twenty nameless crosses stand on the green grass, without names or epitaphs.

"......?" Kiana, holding a bouquet of flowers, was lost in confusion.

"If you're here to mourn them... you can place flowers at the foot of that black monument."

A very familiar voice broke the white fluff ball's confusion. It was the voice of Penglai Temple's Nine Heavens. The tall woman, who had appeared out of nowhere, looked at the bewildered girl standing in front of the group of crosses and spoke up to remind her.

"Uh... Jiuxiao, what are you doing here?"

Two years have passed. Compared to the girl herself, who hasn't grown much in height, her companion has long since reached the height of 1.72 meters. As time goes by, her hair has changed from its original bright purplish-red to its current dark purple.

Facing Jiu Xiao, who was almost half a head taller than her and exuded a sense of oppression, Kiana subconsciously shrank back.

"You sneaked out early in the morning, looking all worried... As your friend, why can't I follow you and check on you?"

Jiuxiao smiled as he looked at the white-haired girl in front of him.

"It seems you want to know about the academy's earliest predecessors who lie buried here?"

Kiana nodded seriously, her blue eyes looking at Jiuxiao, seemingly anticipating her explanation.

"Then come here and take a look at this black monument..."

Jiuxiao turned her gaze to the towering obelisk beside her, her expression solemn. She quickly walked to her companion's side and followed her gaze to the obelisk, where more than twenty names were crookedly engraved. Compared to the meticulously carved artistic lettering on the tombstones outside, these looked more like they had been carelessly and crookedly written by a child.

"I'm curious, why are the names on the stone tablet like this? Right?"

"It's actually very simple. They carved it themselves, so it's different from the tombstones outside that were carved by the academy's craftsmen." Jiu Xiao shrugged.

"Jiuxiao, you said they carved this themselves? But the tombstone isn't..." Kiana's voice was filled with disbelief and confusion.

"They were erected by others after they died?... No one is unafraid of death?... They are different... They have long been unafraid of death."

"Because they have already died once—as the most unfortunate survivors of the Second Honkai Impact, they have already died once."

"They carried so much suffering, friends who have long since departed, family members whose whereabouts are unknown... I truly wonder what their mindset was when they carved this epitaph..."

"epitaph?"

Upon hearing Jiuxiao's words, Kiana turned her head and continued to examine the obelisk. Soon she found a line of words, a line of neat and orderly words. Although it could not compare to the carvings made by sculptors outside, it was still clear that its owner had put a lot of effort into it.

"—Fight for all that is good in the world."

"...Having experienced the hardships of life, faced the darkness of humanity, and suffered the setbacks of fate, the epitaphs they left here are not lamentations about the hardships of life or curses against the injustice of fate, but a vow."

"This oath has inspired generations of students at this academy to embark on the path of Valkyries, and it eventually became the first sentence of St. Freya's motto."

"—They are warriors, warriors who fight for the world, warriors who bear the fate of all on their shoulders..."

Silence fell over the cemetery once again.

"You don't seem as troubled as you were this morning... It seems you've found the answer? Although I don't know what you were struggling with, it seems they've cleared up your confusion..."

Jiuxiao turned his head to look at Kiana, who was staring at the obelisk in deep thought, and reminded her—

"What? You've already brought flowers, aren't you going to put them up as a thank you?"

"Huh? Oh oh oh oh!" The white fluffy ball realized what was happening, solemnly placed the white bouquet of flowers in its hand under the monument, and then turned around and bowed slightly to Jiu Xiao to express its gratitude.

"Thank you for your explanation, Jiuxiao. Um... I'll treat you to some of the snacks I made myself next time!"

Kiana seemed to have spotted something extraordinary and quickly ran away.

“You really don’t have to be so ungrateful…” Houraiji Kyushou’s eyebrows twitched as he recalled the huge explosion that happened after Kiana went into the kitchen last time, and his lips twitched.

"Nine Heavens, Kiana, where did you pick these flowers from...?" The academy headmaster, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere in the cemetery, looked at the very familiar flowers under the monument and frowned deeply.

"Huh? It looks like they were plucked from the flower bed at the entrance of the dormitory area. When I came out, all the white flowers there were gone... Uh, goodbye Dean?"

Seeing the headmaster rush off after hearing the explanation, chasing after Kiana's trail, Jiu Xiao shrugged. Fu Jin landed on Jiu Xiao's shoulder from a nearby branch.

"Sir, may we continue tonight?"

"Of course... a sharp sword always needs to be constantly forged and honed."

Chapter 71 Your tactics are all dirty-minded.jpg

She was filled with determination, her sky-blue eyes brimming with resolve... Then she turned off the light, lay down on the bed, covered herself with the blanket, and drifted off to sleep in the blink of an eye. Fukin, watching from outside the window, was dumbfounded; if only a raven could have such an expression.

"This bird doesn't understand, but this bird is greatly shocked..." Fokin shook his head vigorously, watching Kiana, who was lost in a dream, once again push a certain queen who was trying to make her presence known offline, and also added a ban.

The Second Herrscher is still banned today.

--

In the dark space, Kiana opened her eyes and saw the hermit before her.

"It really surprises me that you've changed so much in just one day... There's something in your eyes now that looks like enlightenment."

The voice, hidden beneath the hood and mask, betrayed no emotion, but Kiana knew that she had gained the approval of the person before her, even if that approval was only just beginning.

"Hmm, although you're still quite inexperienced... at least you've earned the right to move forward... follow me... this journey isn't over yet."

The darkness gradually faded, turning into a snowy landscape. Kiana looked into the distance and saw Babita about five kilometers behind her. They were currently in a small grove of trees in the Siberian snowfield.

...

"Achoo! It's freezing in here, you bird's nest! Why are we waiting here? Aren't we here to attack the Tower of Babel?"

A red-haired girl with twin tails and glasses caught Kiana's attention. At that moment, Kiana was loudly addressing a blue-haired girl and another...

"Teacher Yang???" Kiana exclaimed in surprise as she turned her gaze to the last man in the gray coat.

“Don’t rush, Dr. Tesla. Our best spy has already entered the Tower of Babylon. We need to wait for her to bring back the intelligence.”

The blue-haired girl spoke, her voice calm and collected.

"If we're lucky, she might be able to secretly bring [that person] back, and we can avoid fighting the Destiny Force—the Alliance Leader certainly hopes this incident can be resolved peacefully as well."

Kiana looked at the hermit beside her with a face full of question marks.

"They didn't even mention why Professor Yang was here... What the heck is Dr. Tesla? Is he the Tesla from the textbook? That old man passed away a long time ago."

"...If you have the chance in the future, you can go and talk to that Dr. Anti-Entropy in person and see if she will use the Titan mech to repair you."

"That's Dr. Tesla from the textbook, and the blue-haired one is Dr. Einstein."

"Yes, don't look at me like that, that's Dr. Einstein."

The hermit rolled his eyes at Kiana, who was glaring at him with a look that said, "Don't try to fool me."

"As for your dear Professor Yang... he is the second leader of Anti-Entropy, his full name is Welt Yang, and the second First Herrscher."

"Wait, wait, there's a lot of information here! Let me sort it out—"

"...Tesla and Dr. Einstein in the textbooks were actually women, and they are still alive today. Yang, the original history teacher at the academy, is the leader of Anti-Entropy."

"So he was the one who caused the invasion of St. Freya before?!" The white-fuzzy ball of fur suddenly realized something.

“No, that’s the radical faction of Anti-Entropy… led by Cocolia, while what you’re seeing now are members of the conservative faction—you heard them trying to avoid direct combat with Schicksal’s forces.”

"To be precise, the Anti-Entropy members you've dealt with all belong to the radical faction. The conservative faction basically wouldn't attack Schicksal proactively. They are idealists who believe in putting people first and using machines to fight the Honkai instead of humans."

"How could they possibly attack the Valkyrie of Destiny for no reason?" (6~8) (3) (7) (2) (9) (5)

The hermit gave a brief introduction to the two major factions of anti-entropy to the white furball in front of him.

"So, Professor Yang and the others didn't come here to capture the Second Herrscher, did they...? After all, Professor Yang is a Herrscher, isn't he?" Kiana scratched her head, a bold idea forming in her mind.

“Congratulations, you got it right. Walter Yang’s initial goal was to persuade the Second Herrscher to take her away right under Schicksal’s nose and avoid a conflict—a typical idealist.”

The hermit acknowledged Kiana's conjecture and commented on his actions.

"So that Patrick is the spy Dr. Einstein was talking about. The reason he faced the Herrscher alone without bringing his period was because he planned to kidnap Sirin himself. Hmm, they're waiting for her now, right?"

Kiana's mind raced, combining previous information to arrive at the current situation. The hermit nodded, a hint of approval in his voice:

"You're quick-witted. It seems you're not as simple-minded as you appear; you're just plain lazy..."

"Hey! Is that how you praise someone?!"

Kiana glared at the hermit, raising her right fist and waving it around in dissatisfaction.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Uh..." Kiana was immediately speechless at the Hermit's question.

"Yes, Patrick has arrived. Anti-Entropy has now received news that Sirin has become hostile to humanity."

"Hey, are they going to attack the Tower of Babel next?"

"No, they'll work with your stinky old man, Siegfried Kaslana."