Xingyue, is Xiaokai also considered Kai?

She didn't quite understand why this woman, who seemed to have a good relationship with Novia, was suddenly showing her such kindness. Was she targeting her?

Therefore, Eri looked at Lilith with great vigilance.

"Would you believe me if I said I'm not a bad person?"

Lilith seemed to see through Erise's wariness, her smile deepening as she lowered her voice, leaning close to Erise's ear and speaking in a volume only the two of them could hear.

"I just smelled a familiar scent."

A familiar taste?

Eri was even more confused.

Lilith's gaze lingered on Eri for a few seconds, she sniffed lightly, and a knowing look flashed in her eyes.

This little girl has Novia's blood in her veins...

"...A daughter?"

Lilith wondered to herself what kind of woman could bear children like her.

A strange thought even popped into his head: "Should we bring little Mugel along too, so they can meet him?"

These chaotic thoughts flashed through Lilith's mind, and then she reached out and gently patted Eri's shoulder, her tone becoming even more affectionate:

"Nice to meet you, my name is Lilith. From now on we're family, please take care of me."

Although she didn't know Lilith very well, Erise nodded after seeing her genuine kindness: "My name is Utsumi Erise. Nice to meet you."

“Utsumi…” Lilith repeated the surname thoughtfully, then resumed her cheerful expression. “Erise, you seem a little unhappy. Is it because of what happened earlier? Don’t worry about it. That’s just how they are. They feel uncomfortable if they don’t make a fuss for a day. You’ll get used to it.”

Eri forced a smile but didn't reply, only internally complaining.

"Should I say that you all vying for a man, could you please not be so overbearing? Can't you see that Miss Kuonji's expression is getting worse and worse...?"

Lilith seemed unconcerned by her silence and continued speaking to herself:

"Speaking of which, what about Eri's family? Are they as mysterious as Novia?"

Upon hearing this, Eri's expression softened slightly.

After all, when she thought of her family, she thought of her grandmother, Chitose Masuru, who was both a tyrant and a dictator to her, and also very kind to her.

“I used to live with my grandmother, to be precise, before I was eight years old and after I was four.”

"Oh? Grandmother." Lilith's eyes lit up. "What kind of person is she? She must be very gentle."

Eri's lips twitched slightly.

Gentle? That word seemed completely unrelated to her grandmother, after all, there was still a large slit near her ear when her grandmother accidentally cut her hair when she was four years old.

“…She’s very strict.” Erise carefully chose her words. “Many people say she’s a tyrant, a dictator.”

"Oh?" Lilith let out a meaningful exclamation, her eyes gleaming with gossip. "That sounds interesting. What's her name?"

She's the tyrant type, I never expected Novia to like this kind of thing. You should have said so earlier, I was quite 'brutal' when I was Anat.

"Ten-year-old True Crane".

“Matsuru…Chitose.” Lilith murmured the name, then suddenly, as if remembering something, asked, “Would it be convenient for me to see her picture? I’m very curious about the grandmother who raised you to be like this.”

Eri hesitated for a moment.

Although she usually complained about her grandmother's faults, at this moment, faced with Lilith's curious gaze, she still inexplicably took out her tablet and pulled up a few photos of her grandmother in her album.

That was a candid shot.

The girl in the photo, or rather, the woman who looks like a girl, is wearing a well-fitting black sailor uniform. Her long silver hair is casually draped over her shoulders, and the sea breeze blows through her hair and skirt, outlining her slender and graceful figure.

Her face was expressionless, her eyes calmly gazing into the distance, yet she possessed an indescribable aloofness and a... like a young widow, carrying a faint sorrow and homesickness.

Lilith's gaze froze slightly the moment it fell upon the photograph.

Her pupils contracted involuntarily, and the smile on her lips froze for a moment; her signature silver hair was back...

At the same time, Lilith quickly withdrew her gaze from Novia, her expression returning to normal, even her smile becoming brighter than before. Pointing at Chitose in the photo, she said in an exaggerated tone:

"Wow! Eri's grandmother is so young and beautiful! Her aura is absolutely amazing! Especially her silver hair, it's so similar to Lilith's! It's incredible that she has so much silver hair. Besides me, there's Kama, and even Melsin. I wonder who else will have silver hair in the future!"

To be fair, if she hadn't known that this Chitose Masuru couldn't possibly be the missing Shejina, given her understanding of Shejina, this kind of atmosphere would have been quite normal for her. After all, she had done that in front of Shejina that time, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that she had unintentionally caused Shejina's mental breakdown...

"Really?" Erise smiled a little embarrassedly. "She's always like this."

It wasn't until Lilith mentioned it that Eri realized Novia's hobby seemed to be silver, which explained why her grandmother had been targeted.

"Yes, Chitose is very charming! No wonder she's Eri's grandmother, and you are too, Eri!"

Lilith nodded vigorously, lightly brushing aside the matter of the photos.

He then chatted with Erise for a while, subtly inquiring about Chitose and Erise, until he felt he had gathered enough information. With a look of unfinished business, he sent Erise back to her room to rest.

"Alright then, Eri Se, go and get some rest. We'll talk again next time."

Lilith waved her hand until Eri's figure disappeared at the end of the corridor. The smile on her face gradually faded, and she turned around to glance at the two people still clinging to Novia.

However, she just smiled and didn't go up directly.

because,

"Novia, that child, doesn't know anything yet, right?"

For Lilith, communicating with Novia through so-called telepathic dialogue was perfectly normal, even though she felt that verbal communication would be better. However, doing so now would likely lead to arguments with Kama and Melusin, so taking a slight step back was to be expected.

“Well, Eri doesn’t know yet. She now knows that she is the Lord’s Mind, Permanderges.”

"The mind of the Lord, that sounds so much like—"

"In a sense, she is also my daughter."

Upon hearing this, Lilith first revealed a sly smile that said, "Just as I expected," then her eyes narrowed like a cat's. She walked up to Novia, ignoring Kama clinging to her and Melusin hugging her neck, and gently nudged Novia with her elbow before beginning a telepathic conversation, full of ambiguous teasing.

"Oh dear, I never expected you to be like this now."

"It's a long story, but I'd say Shejina deserves some credit too."

Novia subconsciously touched her lips.

That was a mark left by Lilith with her sharp little fangs in a moment of carelessness.

He paused, then added, as if stating a simple fact: "After all, she is my mother now."

"........Huh? Mother?!"

This time, Lilith's smile froze completely.

His eyes widened suddenly, and the lollipop stick he was about to bite off fell to the ground with a "thud".

Her reaction caught Kama's attention. Since Lilith only uttered the last sentence of their conversation, Kama naturally assumed that he was the so-called mother.

Hmm, isn't that just obvious?

Cupid thought this with great confidence.

.......

Meanwhile, back in her room, Eri's anxiety and unease had not lessened at all.

She hadn't even changed out of her new clothes yet, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

For some reason, an inexplicable sense of irritability filled her heart.

Just then, the tablet vibrated without warning, and the screen lit up automatically. An ID that Eri was extremely familiar with but rarely contacted on her own initiative stubbornly flashed on the screen—Matsuru Chitose.

Eri sat up abruptly and answered the video call.

On the screen appeared Chitose's familiar yet somewhat distant face.

She was still wearing her signature black sailor suit, and the background seemed to be a tall building, where you could see busy figures and flashing lights of instruments.

“Erise,” Chitose’s voice came through the communicator, as concise and clear as ever, “The reconstruction of Tokyo is basically complete, and Lucius and I are expected to return in a few days.”

"Oh."

Eri responded absentmindedly.

"How are you doing, Novia and you?" Chitose seemed to notice Eri's unusual behavior.

"I'm fine..." Eri hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't help but pour out her dissatisfaction. "Chitose, let me tell you, that Novia, he's definitely not a good person! Don't be fooled by him! He's a complete scumbag! He's cheating on several women at the same time, and he's made a mess of Kuonji-san's house!"

Eri said it all in one breath, her chest rising and falling slightly.

She knew that what she was saying was inappropriate, even bordering on the wrong, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want Chitose to be hurt by a man like Novia; at the very least, someone like Chitose deserved better.

Chitose neither got angry nor argued back; she simply listened quietly to Eri's complaints, her face expressionless.

After Eri finished speaking, a brief silence fell between the two.

After a long while, Chitose on the other side of the screen seemed to have a complex and unfathomable emotion flash across her eyes before she slowly spoke: "I'm sorry, Eri."

"Eh?"

Eri was stunned.

She never expected to hear an apology.

She thought that Chitose would, as usual, tell her in an unquestionable tone not to meddle, or simply hang up the call.

"Chitose, why are you apologizing? You didn't need to apologize to me," Eri asked, puzzled. "Do you... do you really want to be with that Novia? I was just... I was just saying. If you really like him, I won't say anything more..."

Eri was somewhat incoherent.

Originally, she just wanted to vent and also remind Chitose that if Chitose really insisted on developing a relationship with Novia, she, as her granddaughter, would not approve but would not interfere too much.

However, Chitose's next move completely exceeded Eri's expectations.

On the screen, Qian Sui slowly raised her hand, her fingertips lightly touching the air, and a faint magical halo flickered at her fingertips.

The next second, something incredible happened.

Chitose's signature long, moonlit silver hair began to shorten at a visible rate, its color gradually changing from a pure silver-white to a deep, inky black. In just a few seconds, Chitose on the screen had transformed from a cool, aloof girl with waist-length silver hair into a girl with short, neat black hair and a touch of heroism in her brows...

Aside from the still extremely strong sense of nostalgia for the widow and those striking purple eyes.

This sudden turn of events left Erise's mouth agape involuntarily, forming an "O" shape before she could even react. Her blue eyes widened in shock, and her brain went into a brief daze.

“Erise,” Chitose, with her short black hair, or rather, a different side of herself, gazed calmly at her, her voice carrying an indescribable complexity, “Who do you think I resemble now?”

“Like…” Eri started to speak instinctively, then a thought flashed through her mind like lightning, “Like me…”

She was stunned as soon as she said it.

Like her? How could that be?

Chitose is her adoptive grandmother, the creator of the new world, and the victor of the Holy Grail War. Although she was adopted, from any perspective, Eri should resemble Chitose, not Chitose.

This is ridiculous.

However, when Eri looked closely at the short-haired, black-haired Chihiro on the screen, it really felt like she was looking in a mirror.

“No, that’s not right…” Erise shook her head, trying to shake off the absurd thought. “A thousand years old is a thousand years old, I… how could I…”

On the other side of the screen, Chitose, seeing Erise's confused and shocked expression, first raised her hand as if to slap her, then for some reason gently stroked her own face, and in that soft voice that could freeze one's blood, murmured a line from "The Demon King" that was very familiar to Erise, a line she had spoken to Erise when she was four years old and unconscious after being possessed by Novia—

“Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn? (My dear son, will you join me?)”

Chitose shook her head slightly as she spoke, and then, a new sentence, like a sigh, rang in Eri's ear:

"No, Eri Se."

Actually, it's me who resembles you.

575: The older sister is meant to protect her younger sister! (5k)

No sleep for one night.

As the eastern sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, Eri gave up her futile struggle against sleepiness.

She got out of bed with slightly stiff movements and went to the bathroom to wash up.

Eri Se in the mirror had dark circles under her eyes and looked haggard.

After a quick wash, Eri changed into her usual black leather jacket and left the room.

The mansion was already quiet in the early morning, and the black-haired girl's footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, sounding particularly clear. However, this only made Erise's already depressed mood even more irritable.

To Erise's surprise, Kuonji Yuzu was already there when she arrived at the lobby.