Chapter 172
"Mother-in-law, hm," [Irene] murmured, drifting over to lean beside Irene and peer at the card in her hand. "Didn't expect her to show up now. I wonder what Sirin and the others will have to say about this."
The others gathered closer, drawn by curiosity. Cheng Lixue — who had come from the same era as Cecilia — gazed quietly at the card resting in Irene's palm.
"Lady Cecilia," she said softly.
Irene turned to Lixue. "Speaking of which — in your world, what became of Cecilia in the end?"
"Because I resolved the situation with Sirin ahead of time," Lixue said, meeting Irene's gaze, "there was no missile strike — not in our timeline. Lady Cecilia and Siegfried lived well."
"They joined the battle against Chiyou as combatants as well. As for what happened after that... I couldn't say. All I know is that at that point in time, they were still alive."
"A happy family, then." Irene gave a small nod, then released the card. It lifted from her fingers at once, dissolving into a beam of white light — and from within that light, a figure slowly took shape.
Cecilia opened her eyes.
She found herself looking out at a barren Palace of Consciousness. A flicker of confusion crossed her face — but then she felt presences behind her. She turned.
A group of people stood watching her.
"Ah — I'm sorry to intrude. Could you tell me where I am? And who you all—"
Cecilia had barely begun her polite inquiry when her eyes caught a familiar face among the crowd. Her words stopped.
"Lixue?"
Cheng Lixue had been one of Schicksal's finest A-Rank Valkyries in her time, someone who had fought alongside Cecilia on multiple occasions. Cecilia knew her well. And given that Cecilia's relationship with Fu Hua had always been a warm one, she had naturally come to know Fu Hua's disciple — Lixue — and held her in equal regard.
"Yes, it's me." Lixue gave a small nod. "Lady Cecilia — but I should say, I'm not the Cheng Lixue you knew."
She paused, then asked, carefully but directly: "This may sound strange, but... did you die?"
"Ah." Cecilia blinked — not from surprise at the question itself, but because the answer was yes.
She had died. Or at least, that was what it had felt like.
"Allow me to explain, Miss Cecilia." Irene stepped forward with a warm smile and held out a Book of Memories. By now it had practically become the standard welcome gift for new arrivals. "This is something I made. Read it, and everything will become clear."
"...Thank you." Cecilia accepted it without suspicion, opened the cover, and let the memories flow in. After a short while, the book dissolved in her hands.
By the time she finished, she understood her situation. She had come to another world — one different from her own. A world where she had died long ago.
"Difficult to believe," she said, looking at Irene. "It's... hard to take in."
"But it's true," Irene said gently. "That includes you as well — your story is real, your world is real. It's just..."
"Sometimes worlds diverge at a fork in the road. One small change can send everything down a completely different path."
"I understand that." Cecilia shook her head. "It's not that I don't follow what the book said. It's simply... still a shock. Hard to fully accept."
Not that anyone could be blamed for that. Learning of your own death was never going to be easy.
"We all came here the same way." Kallen gave a small shrug. Hadn't they all been equally lost and confused at the beginning? Back then, Irene hadn't even developed the Book of Memories yet.
"Kallen... ancestor?" Hearing Kallen speak, Cecilia went momentarily flustered. Technically she belonged to the Shaniat Family, but the Shaniat and Kaslana bloodlines had been intertwined for generations.
Never mind the rest — Cecilia's eyes alone made it difficult to argue she had no connection to the Kaslana lineage. And she had married Siegfried, after all. Acknowledging a forefather or two didn't seem unreasonable.
"Let's skip the 'ancestor' business." Kallen waved her hands quickly. The last thing she wanted was to be reminded how many generations separated her from the present. And besides — if they were truly ranking by age and seniority here, wasn't there a certain cat that had everyone beat?
Kallen's gaze drifted sidelong to Nuwa and Fuxi. Those two, within the context of Shenzhou, were figures straight out of myth. If anyone started calculating actual age rankings, the results would be an absolute mess.
Age and seniority were things everyone had quietly agreed to ignore. People just called each other whatever felt natural — and Irene herself seemed to have a different name for everyone depending on the day. The whole group had long since given up on any consistent hierarchy. There was still some respect where it mattered, though — Lixue, for one, was genuinely reverent toward Nuwa and Fuxi. They were her Master's oldest friends, foundational figures of Shenzhou, and literal figures of legend. Hard not to show respect.
"Just call me Kallen — everyone does." Kallen patted Cecilia's shoulder with easy familiarity. "We're all going to be working together from here on. Friends."
Meanwhile, the System quietly called up Cecilia's data and settled in to observe. It was genuinely curious — what exactly did Briar-Blood Blossom mean?
The System's epithets for each person were never arbitrary. Quantum Beast spoke to Pardofelis's Quantization ability. Nun of Atonement captured both Kallen's role and her self-perception. Sword God of Ruoshui described Lixue's power. Regret Realm summarized Little Senti's entire lived experience. And Wind of Emergence was a straightforward description of Wendy's abilities.
But Cecilia? Briar-Blood Blossom didn't seem to describe any ability at all.
―――――――――――
[Briar-Blood Blossom · Cecilia]
[Type: Possession Card · Logic of Continuation]
[Abilities:
Shaniat Holy Blood: Her blood possesses an exceptionally powerful dispersing and suppressing effect against Honkai energy.
Blood Thorns: Due to special circumstances, her body was altered by the 6th Divine Key — the Abyss Flower — granting her the ability to generate thorns of hardened blood.
Blossom of the Bloodstained Flower: Pure white blossoms containing vital life-force bloom upon the Blood Thorns. These flowers can restore her own life, or transfer that restorative energy to others.
Flowers produced by the Blossom of the Bloodstained Flower exert a degree of suppressive pressure against Honkai energy, and can be used to restrain Honkai corruption.]
[Assessment: A saint who offered her blood to save the world — even as that blood ran dry, she refused to abandon a single life she could still protect. When the last of her blood was spent, the Daughter of the Void offered a final sanctuary, and the Lance of Life and Death sheltered the soul who had bled herself empty.
Blood became thorns. Thorns bloomed into white flowers. So long as my blood has not run out, I will not take a single step back.]
―――――――――――
"...I see." Irene dismissed the panel with a wave and turned her attention to Cecilia. "Miss Cecilia — you may not have fully processed everything that's happened yet."
"But I'd like to hear your story, if that's alright. What exactly happened in your world?"
"Ah — of course. No objection." Cecilia gave a small nod, took a moment to gather her thoughts, and then began to speak.
At first, the story was much the same as what Irene already knew. The broad strokes matched — only the perspective differed.
But when the Second Eruption arrived, the ending diverged sharply. Cecilia's expression grew quietly sorrowful. "I wanted to save her. I just... couldn't reach her in time."
"Sirin?"
"Yes." Cecilia nodded. "That child was so deeply hurt, so full of pain. I wanted to protect her. But I was too late — I arrived too late."
"I tried to give her some final warmth within the illusion. But illusions are illusions — you always wake from them."
Cecilia's gaze softened into something distant. "We had no choice but to fight Sirin again. In my last moments, all I wanted was to give her one final embrace."
"I wanted her to feel warmth — even at the very end of her life. But that child..."
She paused.
"...she used the last of her strength to construct a small space and pushed me inside. She refused my embrace. She protected me with everything she had left — even though she could have taken shelter in that space herself."
Cecilia's voice dropped low. But she steadied herself quickly and continued.
"I don't know how long I lay in that space. But when I finally woke..."
She raised her hand. From her palm, a thorn slowly grew — winding and coiling around itself until it formed a sharp jousting lance.
And then, across those crimson thorns of hardened blood, white blossoms bloomed — adorning and wreathing the lance, their soft petals framing it. Yet through the flowers, one could still see the blood-crystal thorns beneath: both sacred and faintly eerie.
"Overseer Otto told me it was likely because I had spent so long receiving treatment from the Abyss Flower while trapped there."
"Lady Cecilia," Lixue said, watching her carefully. "I imagine you know who gave the order for those missiles. And yet — you don't seem angry?"
"Sometimes we all have to answer for the duties we carry." Cecilia met Lixue's gaze. "I know what you're trying to say. But... the Valkyries that the Overseer leads are still out there saving the world."
"I was an S-Rank Valkyrie of Schicksal. The least I can do is not let everyone believe the Overseer is evil."
"A surprisingly pragmatic reason," Fuxi observed, giving a quiet nod. "And then? What happened after? You say that, but surely it wasn't so easy to simply let it go."
"Then I went and founded St. Freya Academy." Cecilia blinked. "Just as you said — I certainly didn't let it go so easily."
"So afterward, I submitted a request to Lord Overseer, took Theresa with me, had Siegfried bring our daughter, and headed to the Far East to establish St. Freya."
"I see." Irene nodded — then a thought struck her. She looked at Cecilia. "What about Mei? How did you feel about Mei?"
"...Perhaps I simply wanted to try," Cecilia said. "I wanted to prove that Herrschers aren't absolutely destined to harm humanity."
"So when I saw that child regretting what she had done, I decided to try. I brought her into the Academy."
"And it turned out I was right. Herrschers are not purely evil. They are only children who have been hurt so deeply they lost hope."
A small smile touched the corner of Cecilia's lips as she looked at Irene. "Mei became a Valkyrie who stood on her own feet. She protected so many people."
She smiled — and there was something in it that suggested she was thinking of Sirin, the girl who had protected her at the very end.
"A different reason from Himeko's," Irene said with a nod. But then, the person making the decision was different — of course the reasons would differ.
Cecilia continued. From that point, the story unfolded in much the way Irene expected — largely in line with the original events, save for one difference: Kiana in this world was the true Kiana, not K423. Just that single divergence.
Until...
"My life ended facing the Binding." Cecilia looked at Irene. "That Barrier of Binding was truly formidable — it even reached out with its chains of its own accord, pulling us in."
"To save Theresa, I stepped in and blocked one of those chains. It dragged me inside."
"Wait—" Irene stared at Cecilia. "Wasn't that Barrier of Binding Overseer Otto?"
"Hm? Of course not." Cecilia shook her head. Why would it be the Overseer? At that time, the Overseer had been leading the assault on the Herrscher.
It was just that against a Barrier of Binding that actively struck back and eliminated high-priority threats on its own, the assault hadn't been particularly effective.
"Although the Overseer did propose trying to counteract it by simultaneously deploying the Oath of Judah alongside the Barrier of Binding — and it was in the midst of that process, while covering Theresa, that I was pulled inside."
"Then there isn't much reference value here," Irene murmured, brow furrowing.
Cecilia was the only person she had on hand who had survived — or at least directly faced — the Binding. Little Senti had also lived past that point, but she'd emerged after the Binding was already resolved. She couldn't be used as a reference.
And Cecilia, while she had faced the Binding, had encountered a situation completely unlike what Irene had anticipated. Was it because of Cecilia herself that the Overseer had never created K423? Because the Herrscher of the Void was never born, the plan was never executed? Or was it something else entirely?
"I see. I'm truly sorry to hear that."
Cecilia's unexpected apology broke through Irene's thoughts. Irene waved her hands quickly.
"No, there's no need to apologize at all. When even one link in a chain is missing, everything changes — that's simply how it is. It doesn't matter."
"Thank you very much for sharing this with me, Miss Cecilia. Now then —" Irene smiled warmly. "I imagine you have quite a few questions of your own, don't you?"
"I do." Cecilia nodded. "The Book of Memories mentioned K423 — the one who is apparently my daughter in this world. I'd very much like to know more about her. Could you tell me?"
"Of course." Irene nodded, and then from the very beginning, she told Cecilia everything — Otto's research, how K423 had come to be, how the consciousness of Kiana had awakened within her, how Siegfried and the real Kiana had worked together to rescue K423, and how an accident had unfolded during the pursuit by the Valkyries.
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