A little red coat, bright and dazzling like flames, wrapped around her petite frame.
Her face was delicate and doll-like, brimming with cuteness.
But it was her crimson eyes—sparkling with joy yet untouched by any stain of impurity—that drew all attention.
"Hehehe!"
Clutching a bouncing bomb nearly as big as herself, Klee giggled as she watched the fish darting about in the crystal-clear lake.
Raising the bomb above her head, she licked her lips with her tiny pink tongue, as though already savoring the taste of grilled fish.
But just as she was about to hurl it down, a strange sensation rippled across her senses.
Little Klee's vocabulary wasn't big enough to describe what it was—she had no words for it. All she knew was… something was about to happen.
'BOOM!'
A thunderous explosion tore the air apart, white light blazing brighter than the sun.
Flames surged upward from the heart of the lake, swelling into the shape of a colossal starfish.
In an instant, the entire lake was vaporized, rising as a scorching cloud of steam, carried by raging shockwaves that swept in all directions.
Water blasted into the sky and rained down in torrents, while Klee's small figure bobbed in the storm like a tiny boat tossed by a hurricane.
"Wow! What blew up just now?!"
Her ruby eyes didn't hold a trace of fear—only unrestrained excitement, glittering like a Kamen Rider fan who had just witnessed a transformation scene live.
When the last echoes of the blast finally faded, Klee looked at the lake, now half its original size.
She glanced at the bomb still in her hand, her cheeks puffing slightly with disappointment, before tucking it back into her little brown backpack.
Then she reached out a small, pale hand—and caught a fish falling from the sky.
She blinked in surprise.
This wasn't like the usual charred, inedible fish she always ended up with.
Despite being caught in the explosion, the fish looked perfectly intact—cooked, even, with a mouthwatering aroma wafting from it.
Klee tore off a piece of the tender meat and popped it into her mouth.
Her crimson eyes lit up with delight.
"Yummy! Even better than the fish I usually blow up!"
With a little hop and a wiggle of joy, she immediately dashed off in the direction from which that strange sensation had come.
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"Ah…!!"
Jean stood frozen at the window, staring wide-eyed at the massive starfish cloud blooming on the horizon.
After a long stunned silence, her mouth fell open and a scream ripped out of her throat.
"KLEE!!!"
Her chest heaved with rage, blood rushing to her head until she felt faint.
She was this close to blacking out from sheer anger.
There was hardly any doubt who was behind such a catastrophe.
To be fair, she couldn't say there was no other possibility at all… but compared to her mother, Klee was still far easier to manage.
No one else—besides that mother-daughter duo could create such disasters.
And Jean had not forgotten that Klee once flattened the entire Wolvendom…
"This year's Windblume Festival won't need any balloons," Jean muttered through a strained smile, her expression taking a rather dark turn.
She drew in a deep breath, then bellowed toward the door:
"KAEYA!!"
"On my way, on my way!"
Kaeya had already been hurrying to the office the moment he felt the explosion's shockwave.
Seeing Jean's terrifying aura, he immediately dropped his usual playful attitude.
This was no time to fool around—unless he wanted to be sentenced to mining duty.
"The Cavalry Captain swears to bring the Spark Knight to justice!"
Striking a textbook knight's pose, Kaeya wasn't sure how many times he'd made the same vow over the years.
But this time, his voice was definitely the loudest.
Jean gave a heavy nod, and Kaeya bolted from the office, rounding up his men as they rushed toward the source of the blast.
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"Even though Seele wants to focus on using the power of Creation, if you want to be a proper support, you need to at least learn some basic self-defense techniques."
C.C. lowered her pale hand, which she had shaped like a gun, and turned toward the short-haired girl beside her.
"See? If you combine Creation and Oblivion in just the right way, you can make this little firecracker. Got it, Seele? Seele?"
Seele's mouth hung slightly open as she stared blankly at the distant explosion, her sky-blue eyes filled with confusion.
C.C., unable to resist, reached out and poked her cheek with a finger. So soft.
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[This is a "little firecracker"?!]
————————————————————————
If the one saying this weren't Nagami's sister—ah, maybe "C.C. onee-san" was better—Veliona would have grabbed her by the collar and demanded to know if she had some strange misunderstanding about what counted as a firecracker.
Veliona hadn't planned to listen to these "Law of Death" lessons in the first place.
After all, she was born from the stigma of a Herrscher in the Previous Era—how could she not know how to wield its power?
But since Nagami had asked, she had agreed.
Now, though, she was starting to wonder if her memories of the Previous Era were fake…
It wasn't the sky-splitting explosion itself that surprised Veliona—she could unleash techniques far more destructive anytime she wanted.
The key lay in the amount of Honkai energy being used.
C.C. had spent far less than even her smallest skill usually required, yet the effect was as devastating as a full-powered ultimate.
If she had used combat-level energy instead of a simple demonstration, the lake would have expanded dozens of times over…
'That's the kind of power!'
"C.C. onee-san, teach me! Teach me!"
Seele's sky-blue eyes flashed crimson in an instant.
Veliona as a natural sadist with a dominant streak, she was thrilled by this kind of raw, overwhelming violence.
Excited, she clung to C.C.'s arm without hesitation.
Her ample chest—impressively full compared to her petite frame—pressed tightly against C.C.'s slender jade-like arm.
"Of course I'll teach you! But to learn this, you'll need to study a little extreme and high-energy physics first—eh? Where'd she go?"
Though encouraged by Veliona's enthusiasm, the moment C.C. mentioned those two words, the girl abruptly handed her body back to Seele.
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[Veliona]: I'm counting on you, my other self!
[Seele]: Eh?! Y-you… my other self, you…
————————————————————————
Normally, if Veliona asked, Seele would gladly help her other self solve problems together. But this time…
Math.
Just recalling the strange symbols C.C. had written down made Seele's head spin.
Dizzy, her mind clouded, her vision swirled until her eyes turned into spirals.
"Ahh…"
Seeing her like this, C.C. let out a helpless sigh, ending the lecture.
The sheet of paper she had been writing the simplest formulas on dissolved into a flurry of blue particles.
C.C. glanced at Kurumi, who was quietly retreating into the distance, and finally gave up on her dream of raising the average academic level of Herrschers.
"Fine then."
She shrugged, then suddenly slipped her arms around Seele's slender waist from behind.
Resting her chin gently on the girl's smooth shoulder, she leaned close to her ear.
"Seele, let onee-san teach you this way instead."
The intimate gesture pulled Seele out of her daze.
Feeling the warm breath against her ear—and remembering that C.C.'s essence was really Nagami—her pale cheeks flushed with a faint pink.
"Nagami-nii…"
Her small hands instinctively covered the ones resting on her stomach, sensing the soft warmth and springy elasticity of the touch.
It was… even more comfortable than Bronya's embrace.
The thought startled her, and she shook her head sharply.
'How could she even think that?!'
"It'll sting just a little."
Before Seele could even process the words, she felt something slip into her body.
A brief flash of pain—then a strange, inexplicable comfort spread through her.
(And no, don't get the wrong idea—cough, cough.)
"Mmm… C.C. onee-san… this is…"
Her body shivered lightly at the unfamiliar sensation, a soft moan escaping her lips.
Her delicate frame trembled as her head tilted back on its own, exposing the length of her slender neck.
Her pale face bloomed with a rosy flush.
"Now… focus on sensing my Honkai energy, and then guide the Honkai energy within yourself."
Holding the soft warmth of the girl in her arms, C.C. could honestly swear—even with a conscience fuller than Seele's chest—that this time, she really wasn't doing it on purpose.
This was a necessary part of the teaching process!!
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