One had to admit, Cecilia truly lived up to her title as an S-rank Valkyrie certified by Schicksal during the Second Eruption.
Whether in combat or non-combat situations, she was proficient at almost everything—except cooking.
After hearing about Lynelle's predicament of being lost, Cecilia immediately displayed the unflappable composure of an S-rank Valkyrie from the older generation.
With her help, Lynelle quickly found an abandoned Schicksal outpost, where they discovered a broken, outdated terminal.
"That's odd, why is it broken...?"
Cecilia stared at the communication device coated in a thick layer of dust, puzzled.
"It's one thing for this outpost to be abandoned, given its location near the radiation zone. But this model of communicator was just upgraded last year, wasn't it? Has the quality of Schicksal's equipment really deteriorated this badly..."
"Another possibility is that the current time is far removed from the Second Eruption," Lynelle studied the device for a moment before saying, "No matter. Even though the communicator itself is broken, the communication lines at this station are still intact... I can use this to locate nearby towns and contact Anti-Entropy."
"The powers of the Herrscher of Corruption are so convenient," Cecilia remarked, floating nearby. "Little Sirin really put a lot of thought into this."
"Alright, Senior Cecilia, please possess me. I'm going to start the transmission."
After a moment of somewhat unsteady focus, Lynelle gently touched the communication line connected to the terminal. In an instant, the figures of the girl and the spirit vanished from the snowy plains.
A short while later, in a settlement on the outskirts of Siberia.
"I've got some bad news, Senior Cecilia," Lynelle sighed softly as she observed the noticeably more developed buildings around them.
"While I was transmitting just now, I took the opportunity to gather some scattered data. And I realized... we've skipped forward quite a bit in time."
"How long are we talking about?"
"Fourteen years," Lynelle revealed a number that left Cecilia stunned. "It's currently the end of 2014."
"That long?!" Cecilia was shocked. "Then my little Kiana-chan must have... grown into a young lady by now?"
"Mm..." Lynelle pondered for a moment, then rubbed her temples with a headache.
"To be honest, after so much time has passed, I'm not sure what's happened between Schicksal and Anti-Entropy... Here's the plan, Senior Cecilia: let's find an arcade. You take control of my body to avoid raising suspicion, and I'll try to connect to the network to gather information."
"Don't worry, I'm a pro at games," Cecilia declared confidently. "I'll complete the mission!"
After finalizing their plan, Lynelle took to the streets and easily found an arcade. Using her Herrscher powers to discreetly generate a hefty amount of game tokens, she settled in front of a gaming machine.
"Senior Cecilia, you can start now."
"Alright! I wonder if the games I used to love are still running after all this time... Huh?" After browsing through the game selection for a while, Cecilia's expression turned strange.
"Kallen Fantasy... Why hasn't it gotten a sequel? And why is the high score still held by Bishop Otto?"
"Heh..." A slightly mischievous smile crept onto Cecilia's lips.
Even though she didn't have a physical form right now, and couldn't exact revenge on Otto for his persecution of her and Sirin...
With her skills, causing a little trouble for Otto in the game and snatching the top spot on the leaderboards was totally doable.
A mother's wrath is not to be underestimated, after all.
And so, Cecilia promptly created a new account, entered the name "Yae Sakura," and started playing.
--+--
"Yawn... Good evening, Senior Cecilia. Sorry to keep you waiting for a few hours. You haven't gotten bored, have you?"
A full four hours later, Lynelle finally returned to her body, yawning sleepily after emerging from the data network.
"Not at all, not at all! Lynelle, wait a moment before taking back control. Let me just beat this score too..."
Well, it seemed she wasn't bored in the slightest.
Watching Cecilia, who had fully embraced her inner 'gaming addict,' Lynelle couldn't help but smile wryly.
"By the way, Lynelle, how did your investigation go?" Cecilia asked, multitasking effortlessly as she breezed through a boss fight.
"Well... it's complicated. I'll probably need to make contact with Anti-Entropy to get the full picture," Lynelle sighed. "But here's the gist of it..."
Truth be told, Lynelle's investigation hadn't gone smoothly.
Initially, she had tried to directly hack into Schicksal's core database to check on Kiana's status and whether K423 had been created.
But then... she ran into a problem.
Schicksal's core database was entirely protected by a special security measure implemented by Void Archives.
An ordinary firewall would have been one thing, but what really stumped Lynelle was the familiar aura she sensed from these defenses.
It was... the Authority of Corruption, just like hers. To be precise, an incomplete version of the Authority of Corruption, mimicked by Void Archives.
This left Lynelle utterly bewildered.
Logically, since the 12th Divine Key wasn't fully completed yet, Void Archives shouldn't have been able to handle the power of Corruption, let alone mimic Jizo Mitama. But judging by the current situation... Void Archives had clearly obtained some data related to Jizo Mitama!
Could it be...?
Considering the current time was the end of 2014, after the events of the "Sakura Samsara" storyline, a hypothesis began to form in Lynelle's mind.
However, pressed for time, Lynelle could only bury her confusion for now.
While Void Archives could defend the core database by mimicking the Judgement of Shamash, its capabilities were limited.
It couldn't protect all of Schicksal's databases simultaneously.
Because of this, Lynelle gradually pieced together the answers she sought from other, less critical data.
For instance, duty logs featuring photos of Durandal, and wanted notices for Siegfried.
After confirming that the worldline hadn't undergone any major deviations, Lynelle hastily concluded her investigation.
Instead, she sent Welt a special executor code he had previously given her, along with her current location, via his private channel.
After all, if she couldn't find out much from Schicksal's side now, it was better to just ask Welt directly rather than risk leaving traces by forcibly breaking through Void Archives' firewall.
Anti-Entropy was usually involved in these incidents anyway.
"So, all we need to do now is get some sleep here and wait for Anti-Entropy to pick us up?" Cecilia asked, watching as Lynelle electronically disguised the arcade machine she had used and their trail, then skillfully checked them into a motel using fake identities.
"Mm. Since there's a high chance I'll return to the Star Rail side if I fall asleep, I told Welt that if I'm in a dormant state, he should just take me away without waiting for me to wake up," Lynelle nodded. "But the system should be almost done upgrading by now... It's been five or six hours already..."
As if on cue, shortly after Lynelle finished speaking, the system's notification chime sounded in her mind.
[System update complete. Compensation of 600 Crystals has been sent to your mailbox. Please check.]
[System Space officially unlocked! System Sprite Chibi Avatar Simulation officially unlocked! Dorm System unlocked!]
"Huh?" Before Lynelle could say anything, Cecilia exclaimed in surprise.
"I think... I heard some kind of notification sound too?"
"But that voice... why does it feel so familiar and comforting..."
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.