[What, you're starting to doubt it yourself?]
Customer Service Kiana-chan asked with a knowing smirk.
"Uh, well, it's mainly because I've been thinking it over carefully..."
Lynelle began counting off the suspicious aspects about herself on her fingers: "While some things might genuinely just be coincidences, when there are this many similar coincidences piling up, even I can't help but feel a little suspicious..."
"Most importantly, if Snakey is so certain, she must have her own reasons, right? Otherwise, it's hard for me to imagine someone like her being so exceptionally kind to me based on just a mere possibility..."
"So..."
[Well... actually, the answer to this question isn't all that complicated.]
A hint of nostalgia crept into Customer Service Kiana-chan's voice.
[First, let's talk about your relationship... hmm, it's probably the kind that would get you locked in a basement and turned into a fountain.]
"Be serious, hey!"
Lynelle's face flushed bright red. "That's not what I was asking!"
[Ahem, don't rush me... This really is a bit tricky to explain. Mainly, due to certain reasons, I can't go into too much specific detail about the first playthrough with you.]
[So I'm trying to figure out how to answer without sounding like a complete riddler.]
Kiana-chan thought for a moment, then said.
[Put it this way. Leaving aside the ages, forms of existence, and other complications of the Flame-Chasers... if we look purely at the relationship of creator and created... both in the first and second playthroughs, Mobius truly is your creator.]
[Of course, definitely not in the 'giving birth to you' way. I mean, your body was indeed crafted for you by Mobius.]
"?"
[Don't start with the question marks just yet. I know what you're going to ask.]
[Your identity as a transmigrator is correct, you're not Mobius's daughter or anything. But, when you first arrived in this world during the first playthrough, you were in a state without a physical body.]
[If we were to turn your adventures into a game, then the plot of Chapter One would roughly be 'Dominion of the Inner Sanctuary', Chapter Two would be 'The Land of Origin', and Chapter Three would be 'Elysian Realm'... with St. Freya coming later. Does that help you understand a bit?]
"Sort of..."
[Mhm. Setting that sequence aside, you can probably grasp the rest. Because in the first playthrough, the methods for using your Herrscher of Corruption authority, Stigmata, and other abilities were also taught to you by Mobius.]
[And the body she crafted for you naturally included some... adaptations to facilitate using those powers.]
[To draw an analogy, your relationship is somewhat similar to the one between Stelle and Kafka over in Star Rail.]
[I remember you actually made a chart before to complain about the complicated relationship between you and Mobius, let me find it...]
A moment later, Kiana-chan transmitted an image directly into Lynelle's memory.
The gist of the picture was...
Lynelle: Snakey, I can't possibly be your daughter, student, partner, experimental subject, research assistant, confidante, bed-warmer, instant-noodle-specific tool, and shield against Elysia's teasing all at the same time.
Mobius: Why not?
"Alright... that's certainly vivid. I understand completely now."
Seeing the image, the corner of Lynelle's mouth twitched involuntarily.
[I know your personality. Before, when you hadn't figured out why Mobius was so good to you, you could accept her kindness with a clear conscience.]
[But now that you know the reason, it's inevitable that you'll feel some guilt, like you've been deceiving her.]
Kiana-chan said with a grave tone.
[So, the point of me telling you all this is to let you know that you can actually face Mobius's favoritism normally. You don't need to carry any psychological burden. Because, judging by your relationship in the first playthrough, there's really no need to be so distant.]
"Understood!"
Lynelle immediately replied, full of vigor. "I'm going out right now to tease Snakey!"
[...]
Kiana-chan was silent for a beat.
[You just learned about your origins and you're already rushing to offer yourself up on a silver platter? How interesting.]
"That's not it at all!"
--+--
Although she'd said she was going out to tease Snakey, when Lynelle actually returned to reality, she found that Snakey hadn't given her the chance at all.
Waiting for the young woman was only a faintly glowing green snake-shaped bracelet.
"What's this..."
"Little pink mouse~"
Just as Lynelle put the bracelet on, a shimmering, phantom-like green figure suddenly appeared behind her, gently wrapping its arms around her neck.
Of course, the guilt-ridden Lynelle was so startled she jolted.
"Don't be so surprised. Right now, the real me has already returned to the Elysian Realm. What's in this bracelet is just a one-time, pre-recorded message."
As if having predicted Lynelle's reaction, Mobius's phantom chuckled lightly and leaned closer to Lynelle's ear.
"Although I had an inkling this might happen, I truly didn't expect you'd run into life-threatening danger so quickly... Not sure if I should say you attract trouble as easily as that Elysia woman, or if you just don't pay enough attention to your own safety."
Classic Snakey, can't even let this moment pass without taking a jab at Elysia... Lynelle thought, sweating bullets internally.
Even though she'd been boasting earlier about teasing Snakey, Lynelle was self-aware enough to know her limits.
Bullying someone like Stelle was already overachieving for her, let alone dealing with expert-level 'bad women' like Snakey and Elysia. And judging by the 'gentle' tone of Snakey's message...
Lynelle had a feeling she was doomed.
"However..."
Mobius's phantom spoke again at this point.
"Regarding your... situation... we'll talk about it when you return to the Elysian Realm. I'll 'educate' you properly then. For now, considering this phantom's time is limited, I'd better get to the main points."
"First, World Serpent likely won't dare make a move against you again before Kevin returns. But don't go around causing trouble for them just because of that."
"After I dealt with Jackal, their methods for verifying Project Stigma should become gentler. At the very least, until Project Stigma is complete, your paths don't inherently conflict... I don't need to elaborate on the importance of Project Stigma, you're well aware."
"Second, I saw from little Wendy's memories that you wanted to look into Jackal's memories... I'm not sure what you're looking for, but it's probably also related to the verification of Project Stigma."
"I asked Grey Serpent. Jackal was a decoy from start to finish. What she was responsible for was merely a disguised Project Stigma, with little real value. Add to that the extremely graphic nature of those memories, for the sake of your mental health, it's better you don't look."
"However, from Jackal, I did find something useful for you. Focus your senses on the bracelet. You'll find something on it that should feel very familiar to you."
"This is..."
Lynelle immediately did as told, channeling her mental energy into the bracelet. Then, she sensed...
"Correct. An entrance that can connect to a Stigma Space."
Snakey's voice sounded again. "Although that Jackal was bubbling over with foolishness, I must admit, sometimes fate does seem to favor fools."
"The Stigmata on her body possesses the rare abilities of connection and disguise. A pity she didn't really know how to use it. So, to prevent such a treasure from being wasted, I took the liberty of preserving this particular Stigmata separately."
"In special circumstances, if you urgently need to infiltrate a specific Stigma Space, you can choose to activate this bracelet. The device I left behind will use her Stigmata as fuel to connect you to the Stigmata Space you need to reach."
"Of course, since I said 'burning', it obviously can't be used indefinitely. How many times it can be used depends on your luck. But... judging from my previous experimental results, Jackal should be quite... combustible."
"Alright, that's all I have to say."
After relaying both matters, Snakey's phantom began to automatically dissipate.
"Oh, and one more thing..."
The phantom seemed to turn suddenly, looking at Lynelle with a 'gentle' smile.
"Don't avoid coming to the Elysian Realm because you're afraid of the 'punishment', okay? Otherwise, I... ah, no, that Elysia fellow, would be very, very sad."
"Pfft..."
Watching the points of light scatter into the air, Lynelle couldn't hold back a laugh.
"Still putting on a tough act even as you leave, huh, Snakey? You really..."
"But..."
Lynelle couldn't help but shrink her neck a little. "Snakey wouldn't... do anything too extreme to me, right?"
"Whatever, I should deal with the aftermath first. Let me see... First, find Wendy wherever she is. Need to check on Cecilia too. And Ragna, she's probably figured things out by now, I'll likely have to give her an explanation..."
Following the trail of corruption left by Mobius, Lynelle quickly found Wendy, peacefully asleep in a corner.
Whether Snakey had been too heavy-handed with whatever she used, or whether there were other concerns, Wendy was sleeping far more deeply than Lynelle had imagined.
Even when Lynelle repeatedly poked a certain sensitive spot on Wendy, it only caused the sleeping girl's face to flush and elicited a few soft moans, with no sign of her waking up.
Helpless, Lynelle could only carry Wendy back to the dorm first, taking a glance at the branch's landing pad on the way.
"Ragna's personal aircraft hasn't returned yet. Looks like they're probably still dealing with the aftermath of the Honkai Beast riot... That shouldn't be right."
"I remember Wendy pretty much cleared out all the major Honkai Beasts on their end. Did Grey Serpent pull some other stunt to buy time?"
"But thinking about it... First, I wrecked a bunch of Otto's Soulium bodies, and this time I took out over a dozen of Grey Serpent's bodies. This Herrscher of Corruption title really isn't for nothing..."
Since Ragna wasn't back yet, Lynelle didn't wait around, instead quickly heading towards the arcade not far away.
Ever since she and Wendy first engaged the enemy, Cecilia's signal had vanished completely, seemingly pulled into some private pocket dimension by the enemy.
Although Cecilia's current state of existence was somewhat similar to Otto's, meaning her bodies were essentially disposable, considering she and Hare still hadn't settled their fight after all this time, Lynelle was a bit worried about her situation.
So, what was Cecilia doing at this moment?
The answer: deep within a Stigmata Space, in a place undetectable by anyone...
Ahem, no 'Tuna Four' here, but the 'undetectable by anyone' part is true.
Due to certain reasons, Hare was feeling somewhat shy about her own circumstances, so she didn't want anyone else interrupting this hard-won conversation either.
About ten minutes ago, when Hare first pulled Cecilia into the Stigma Space, she had still tried to overpower Cecilia by force.
Unfortunately, Hare had somewhat underestimated Cecilia's strength, as well as the 'sentience' of the Stigma Space.
It turned out that the Stigma Space didn't really recognize the body, but rather something more intangible like the soul.
The moment Cecilia entered the Schariac Stigma Space, Hare immediately felt her control over the space diminish.
And even more disheartening was that, after just a short bout of fighting, Hare had to admit another bitter truth—she was completely outmatched by Cecilia.
In terms of combat skill and raw power, Cecilia, having regained her peak condition, was never weaker than Misteln who was born from her.
After all, Misteln, in her early days, saw herself as a calamity, spending all her time figuring out how to end herself—a daily routine of grim thoughts, with no training whatsoever.
Later, after her transcription into Hare, she focused her efforts on training her mental powers, becoming World Serpent's sole mental perception-type warrior, and one of a caliber they could send to deal with someone like 'Little Senti'.
But the problem was...
Cecilia wasn't afraid of mental abilities.
During the Second Honkai War, Cecilia had told Sirin that, since the only worthy opponent for her within Schicksal was Fu Hua, the two of them sparred daily.
Through this, Cecilia, relying on her own talent, had painstakingly developed a method to resist mental-type abilities, to the point that even Fu Hua's Fenghuang Down later became largely ineffective against her. And our Miss Hare's mental abilities were, naturally, no exception.
So, after trying for a while, and considering her doubts about Cecilia's identity coupled with the reality that she simply couldn't win, Hare decisively... gave up.
As the saying goes, when colleagues work, I take a break; when the boss strives, I do odd jobs.
Since she couldn't win anyway, and was just a contracted external employee for World Serpent, not slacking off would be against the natural order.
Of course, the most important reason was still... Cecilia, she was just too alluring.
As a legendary-level 'Schicksal Siren' from the older generation, Cecilia hadn't really wanted to fight Hare in the first place.
Especially after chatting with Hare for a bit and successfully coaxing out the question Hare had wanted to ask Lynelle from the socially inexperienced 'homebody' Hare, Cecilia revealed a gentle smile.
"So... you just want to know if you can still call yourself a 'Schariac'..."
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 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.