Little Bianca, Elysia, Sakura — and even Gray Serpent and Rita — all had their own questions swirling in their heads.
Why had a Flame-Chaser from the Elysian Realm appeared in reality? Who was this impossibly adorable golden-haired little girl? Where was Guinevere? And who was this pink-haired pervert scheming against Lady Bianca?
But in that moment, everyone pressed their questions down and turned to look at the silver-haired girl, brows rising in surprise or faint astonishment.
"Deliberately trigger a Great Eruption?" Little Bianca furrowed her brow, her small face turning serious.
"Create a Herrscher…"
The pink fox ears atop Sakura's head gave a faint twitch. Even by the standards of the Previous Era, Silver Wing's plan was wildly, boundlessly audacious.
"S-Sister Bronya — you want me, me me, to become a Herrscher?!"
Wendy froze. Surprise flashed across her face, followed by a wave of helpless, flustered bewilderment.
"We can't go doing things like that to cute girls, you know."
Elysia puffed out her cheeks adorably, raised one slender porcelain finger and wagged it left and right, then sashayed over on her lush, beautiful legs to stand beside the silver-haired girl — ready to launch into a full lecture.
"Mm-hm~ this is a treatment."
"If Wendy becomes a Herrscher, not only will her legs be fully restored — she'll also gain the combat strength of an S-rank Valkyrie."
Thinking of the humiliation the original timeline's Wendy had suffered — beaten apart by a single punch from Father Titans — Silver Wing's warm and intimate tone gradually shifted, her voice dropping lower, taking on a subtler edge.
This time, the Herrscher of Wind, who had absorbed a portion of the Third Eruption's energy, surely wouldn't end up as weak as she had in the original timeline?
"Don't worry — I have a way to help you keep your own will after becoming a Herrscher."
A face that sat right on the boundary between girl and young woman — fourteen years old, tender and still unfinished — yet it wore a smile of gentle, elder-sister warmth. Silver Wing softly ruffled the girl's dark-green hair.
"!"
The warmth descending on her head reached Wendy's heart, and the panic inside her began to dissolve.
Even Gray Serpent — who had been quietly trying to reduce his presence and gather more information — had his dark-red electronic eyes flicker to a halt before flashing with crimson light, betraying the surge of emotion behind them.
"Keep a Herrscher's original will? Is that… actually possible?"
To Sakura, who came from the Previous Era, and to Elysia, who existed here as a memory entity, this was nothing short of fantastical — impossible on its face. The Elysia of the Elysian Realm held no memories of the part where she had sacrificed herself to arrange the stars.
"It's possible — but not with a hundred percent success rate. Let me calculate…"
The silver-haired girl lowered her head, expression focused, as though running figures in her mind. "I'd say… a little over eighty percent?"
"?"
Rita and Sakura both did a simultaneous double-take. Over eighty percent?
Sure, it wasn't a hundred percent — but that probability… was she serious?
Whether it was Otto or Dr. MEI, either of them would have gone all-in without hesitation if they'd ever had odds like that!
Bianca, who had come from the future, was also mildly taken aback. Even she — who had read the research results on the Cocoon of Finality compiled by Dr. Tesla and Dr. Einstein, and whose understanding of Finality surpassed anyone else in this era — felt that this probability was absurdly, outrageously high.
"Wendy — would you like to try?"
Silver Wing held the girl's gaze, looking into those green eyes.
"Sister Bronya, I — I… is it really okay for me to?"
Wendy pressed the tip of her index finger together, joy flickering beneath a trembling layer of anxiety as she spoke softly.
"Yes. I believe in you."
Silver Wing placed both hands on the girl's soft, rounded shoulders, eyes warm with encouragement. "Even if it fails — I'll protect you!"
"…Thank you, Sister Bronya."
Her fingers unconsciously pinched the hem of her clothes. Wendy drew a long breath, and at last a calm, resolved smile broke across her face. She had made up her mind.
"I'm willing to try."
There was no reason to refuse.
This probability was higher than every verdict combined that all the trial subjects in [Schicksal] had ever been given!
"So what do we need to do?" Little Bianca asked.
She was curious — what method did this Bronya from the future of a parallel world have up her sleeve?
"What needs to be done isn't complicated. This isn't a good place to explain it all — let's head back to Anti-Entropy's base first."
Keeping Wendy's personal consciousness intact was simple enough: use the yin-yang splitting mechanism of the [Biao] Talisman.
What required careful thought was choosing where to trigger the Great Eruption.
Resting her small hand under her chin, Silver Wing mused for a moment — then, as though something had just occurred to her, she turned her head toward the twelve-year-old golden-haired little loli and smiled.
"Oh right, Bianca — Kiana and Mei are also on standby nearby."
"Kiana! Mei?!"
Little Bianca blinked in confusion, her adorably startled, wide-eyed look prompting Rita to suck in a sharp breath. "How are they here?"
At this point in time, shouldn't her little sister and Mei be at St. Freya Academy?
No — wait. By the normal course of history, Bronya should be at St. Freya too, and yet here she was in New Zealand…
The entire flow of history had been completely rewritten.
"I understand." Little Bianca gave a small nod.
This was for the better.
In the original history, her reunion with her little sister had been anything but beautiful — that version of herself, serious to the point of obsession, had followed Otto's orders and forcibly dragged her sister back to [Schicksal] headquarters the moment she learned Kiana had undergone Herrscher-ification.
Durandal understood the principle that ignorance was no crime — but the moment she thought about what she, kept in the dark by Archbishop Otto, had done to her own little sister, an overwhelming urge to sink into the floor with shame washed over her as an older sibling.
But now that she had the chance to make amends — she would protect her sister without fail.
"Then let's go."
They were now entering the urban district, and this wasn't the place to be rolling through the streets in a giant steel beast. Silver Wing had Project Bunny set Wendy down on the ground, then took the handles of her new little sister's wheelchair herself.
"As for you, Gray Serpent — if you don't plan on swearing allegiance to Elysia as your new Sire, then I won't trouble you with an invitation back to Anti-Entropy."
Frankly speaking, now that the Jizo Mitama's Divine Awakening had activated, as long as Kevin's main body hadn't returned, the World Serpent posed absolutely zero threat to Silver Wing.
And even if Kevin's main body did return, the reborn Silver Wing didn't believe he could move against Elysia directly.
Gray Serpent — black umbrella raised — was silent for a moment. Whether it was the Jizo Mitama operating at far above its normal parameters, or the sudden appearance of the strongest S-rank Valkyrie in her childhood form, both were things he couldn't stop thinking about.
Variables. Variables everywhere.
The situation had blown completely past anything he had anticipated. But the Key of Corruption and the Elysia standing right at Silver Wing's side both kept Gray Serpent from making any rash moves — he dared not act for fear of the consequences.
Sighing inwardly, Gray Serpent bowed respectfully to Elysia and Sakura, then turned and departed.
Elysia, Sakura, Little Bianca, and Rita fell in step behind Silver Wing.
"Little Bianca — could I pinch your cheeks? Sorry, it's just that Little Bianca is so utterly adorable — I genuinely have no resistance whatsoever to cute little friends like you~"
Having put away her crystal bow, Elysia bounced over to Little Bianca in a cheerful skip.
"Ah…" Little Bianca, overwhelmed by the sheer force of Elysia's presence, instinctively took a step back.
"Miss, please refrain from causing Lady Bianca any discomfort."
Rita immediately stepped in front of Little Bianca to block her.
Please — even she had never managed to pinch Little Bianca's cheeks. There was absolutely no way she was letting anyone else get there first.
"Oh my, you're Rita, aren't you? Lovely, beautiful maid — you might have slightly misunderstood me."
Seeming to sense the wariness in Rita's gaze, Elysia leaned forward until she was right in Rita's face.
"This child means absolutely no harm. Or perhaps — is Rita worried that Little Bianca might neglect you, captivated by the beauty of someone like me, the living embodiment of all the world's loveliness?"
"That won't happen at all, you know. Rita isn't just a beautiful girl — she's an elegance so refined it makes people want to draw closer~ That perfect, poised manner of yours sets off the most irresistible ripples in one's heart~!"
As a maid, a beautiful girl, and as someone who was effectively the Herrscher of Lewdness, Elysia was hitting every single one of Rita's buttons at point-blank range. Rita was practically twitching, barely holding herself back from launching forward.
"I feel like we could get to know each other much better. Oh — could you teach me some maid etiquette? I have a maid outfit of my own, you know~"
The relentless barrage of direct hits finally rendered Rita speechless. That eternally flawless smile on her face stiffened — even her iron-clad composure couldn't hold up under this.
What was with this person?
So utterly, shamelessly narcissistic!
Daylight reclaimed control of the body, eyes narrowing slightly. In the midst of Rita's mild, stunned confusion, she proactively reached out and took Rita's hand — and when Rita looked over, she flashed her a sweet, age-appropriate, well-behaved smile.
Rita instantly lit up like she'd been injected with adrenaline.
Sakura watched the whole exchange and couldn't stop shaking her head.
Daylight continued to amuse herself with the delightfully entertaining maid, while Silver Wing fell into conversation with Wendy.
---
A coffee shop tucked in a corner on the outskirts of the city. Two potted green plants flanked the entrance, the shop's unpretentious name carved into a wooden sign, the whole facade wrapped in climbing vines.
The decor leaned toward vintage European. Through the reinforced glass door, you could see a slice of the interior.
"Dr. Tesla, drinking on the job is really not recommended."
"What do you mean on the job — I'm just sitting in a coffee shop staring at the wall waiting for people! Besides, it's just one little bottle. Things are going fine on her end, anyway. It's fine!"
The hot-tempered lobster doctor had always been impatient by nature. Even though she'd been receiving steady reports from Silver Wing's side that everything was proceeding smoothly, sitting around doing nothing still wore at her.
She tipped the bottle back and took a long, satisfying series of gulps, then wiped the corner of her mouth with a dramatic flourish.
"What's even good about alcohol…"
Kiana, unable to comprehend adults and their love affair with the stuff, sat there at loose ends, picking up a warm cup of coffee from the table beside her.
She was just bringing it to her lips when her eyes suddenly snapped into focus. Through the window, she caught a glimpse of a familiar silver-haired figure — and she immediately dropped the coffee, grabbed Mei by the arm, and bolted outside to meet her.
"Silver Wing, Silver Wing, you're back~!"
"Silver Wing — no trouble along the way?" Mei asked with concern.
"Mm, I'm fine."
Kiana and Mei both let out a breath of pure relief at that — and only then did their attention shift to the figures behind her.
They had reviewed Wendy's dossier beforehand and recognized the girl in the wheelchair as the mission target.
But.
"Who are these two?"
Mei looked toward the petite maid in the rose-trimmed uniform and the adorable golden-haired little loli.
"Let me introduce them — this is Rita Rossweisse, an S-rank Valkyrie of [Schicksal]."
As Silver Wing made the introduction, Daylight activated Auto-Battle and handed control of the body back to Bianca.
"And this is Bianca."
"Huh? That name — why does it sound just like my sister's?"
Kiana scratched her head in confusion, then met the gaze of the golden-haired little loli, whose eyes swirled with nostalgia, affection, and profound tenderness all at once.
"She is your sister."
"Huh??"
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