"Speaking of which, I'm surprised you haven't asked me to look into the future to find out who your father really is."
"I'm guessing you can't see it. Otherwise, you'd have been gloating in my face about it long ago."
"Tch... You're right, I can't. The interference from the Imaginary Tree is too strong. The recent past is manageable, but the future—even the very next second—is just a blurry, unlocatable axis."
"Oh, by the way, Himeko said I'll be sharing a room with you from now on."
With some time still before lunch, the two girls—one with golden hair, the other with purple—chatted idly as they tidied up the room.
It was a standard double dormitory room: not spacious, but not cramped either. There was enough room to run around and roughhouse, though neither of the room's new occupants was particularly inclined to do so.
The March temperature at St. Freya Academy wasn't high, hovering around five to six degrees Celsius. A cashmere carpet covered the floor, feeling just right under their bare feet.
"Phew—that's about it," Kyuusyou sighed, looking at the half of the room that had fallen into disuse from being unoccupied.
After mounting a screen and projector to the wall and ceiling, Kyuusyou connected the projector to a nearby computer.
A simple framework for their plan appeared on the projected screen.
"Come take a look," Kyuusyou said. "We still have some time before lunch. Let's start refining this framework."
"First, we need to share what we know."
"Let's start with our protagonist: K-423, the Herrscher clone created by combining Kiana Kaslana's genes with this world's Sirin's genes."
"Three consciousnesses currently reside within her body."
"—The one we see active in our daily interactions: Sirin's benevolent consciousness." "—The one hidden within her dreams: the malevolent consciousness of this era's Second Herrscher, Sirin." "—And finally, our target for revival: the soul fragment of the Sirin from another world. Let's temporarily call her 'Little Sirin.'"
"Our greatest challenge is that while both the benevolent and malevolent consciousnesses of this era's Sirin can remain active in this body..."
"...Little Sirin shows no activity at all. If the benevolent consciousness is a normal disk sector, and the malevolent one is a hidden, unpartitioned space..."
"...then our target is a damaged sector. Even the body specially crafted for a Herrscher cannot read the corrupted data within that sector."
"...Even if that sector does contain data. Therefore, our most crucial objective is to reawaken her consciousness. This is the core foundation of the entire plan."
"Little Sirin must be conscious when we perform the revival ritual—"
"Otherwise, we'll just end up with someone in a vegetative state, right?" Snow pointed out the critical issue.
"Exactly. A vegetative state."
"Perhaps we could use Fenghuang Down..."
"A Divine Key is indeed a good idea, Snow, but our target isn't a complete soul consciousness."
"This is the last remaining fragment of her consciousness. Even with the most restrained control, a Divine Key would still be too crude for a mere fragment."
"We need a true Herrscher—a controllable Herrscher of Sentience. And we must ensure that this era's Sirin consciousness, the one representing the malevolent aspect, is destroyed."
A brief silence fell over the room. The idea of annihilating one specific consciousness among three within a single person, without harming the other two, was unheard of.
Methods to destroy consciousness did exist. On the battlefield of the Second Eruption fourteen years ago, if the so-called "god" hadn't blocked a fatal blow for the Second Herrscher, her self-awareness would have been mercilessly shattered by the Taixuan Sword God.
"...Taixuan Sword God? No... That thing's fine for hacking people down, but we need to perform a precise excision of consciousness. We can't do surgery with a butcher knife," Kyuusyou muttered, shaking her head.
Replicate the First Herrscher's miracle? Snow entertained the dangerous thought. The myth forged from the wills of three hundred thousand ordinary people... if they could guide that force to specifically target the malevolent consciousness... No, with a little guidance, it might even awaken the target's consciousness...
"Ahem, stop that dangerous line of thinking," Kyuusyou interrupted, seemingly sensing the blonde girl's wild speculation.
"Let's not even get into where we'd find over three hundred thousand people, guide their thoughts with methods bordering on brainwashing, and then annihilate them all at once..."
"Just by doing that, never mind becoming enemies of the world, Little Sirin herself would never agree!"
"...It's the safest method. Whether it's the three hundred thousand people or the means to erase them, they're insignificant in a civilization already steeped in suffering... The only real difficulty is how to guide their thoughts... The Herrscher of Sentience might be a good choice," Snow retorted, raising an eyebrow in dissatisfaction.
"...You...! For goodness' sake, think of a normal solution! What are you, some new breed of Otto?!" Kyuusyou, furious and exasperated, glared at the pouting girl. She pinned the blonde onto the bed and began stretching her cheeks with both hands.
"Ow... Stoph it...!" the girl protested, her words muffled by Kyuusyou's grip.
After seemingly kneading Snow's face to her satisfaction, Kyuusyou finally released her hands. The blonde girl sat up, rubbing her abused cheeks, but the purple-haired girl's lecture didn't pause for a moment.
"Even if I, Houraiji Kyuusyou, haven't played the savior for years, I will never, ever, one-thousand-percent-never agree to a method that sacrifices others to achieve your own goals!"
"...Foolish. The morality of the process is ultimately just window dressing. What matters is achieving the objective."
"..." Kyuusyou fell silent, then spoke again.
"You care deeply for those around you. Even if they share only the simplest bond with you, you're willing to give your all for them, right?" Kyuusyou looked at the girl before her.
"Indeed."
"So you can, with a clear conscience, manipulate, dominate... and trample over everything and everyone unrelated to you and your friends?"
"Indeed—"
"You're truly cruel, Snow. In some ways, you're even worse than Otto Apocalypse. At least he had the self-awareness to recognize himself as a villain."
"But you—you're like a child playing with their favorite set of building blocks. When one piece wears out, you simply disassemble less cherished toys to scavenge replacements."
"—you use the salvaged blocks to patch up your favorite toy, then discard the rest without a second thought..."
"But it's so efficient—"
"You bastard...!"
"Aren't you tired?" The golden-haired girl asked, her blue eyes fixed calmly on the purple-haired girl before her.
"...What?"
"Crossing countless worlds, searching for a glimmer of hope, bound by your own self-imposed constraints, yet still striving to grasp that faint light—Traveler, aren't you... tired?"
The argument in the room fell silent again at the golden-haired girl's question. Kyuusyou, still lying pinned beneath her on the bed, braced her hands on her shoulders. Her amethyst eyes gazed earnestly at her companion.
"Then let this be Lord Kyuusyou's first lesson—Little Snow, remember this well..."
"...Perhaps the journey will accumulate pain, but that doesn't mean it's all suffering. The so-called 'pilgrimage' represents both the saints' arduous trek and the radiant brilliance of their unwavering faith—"
"If you abandon all your principles and moral boundaries—even if you cradle that faint light in your palms, it will vanish in an instant..."
"Efficiency—before certain things—holds no value, no meaning whatsoever."
Silence descended upon the room once more, until the sound of the door being pushed open shattered the stillness between them.
"Kyuusyou... Snow, it's time to eat... Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt, you two carry on," Mei said, her gaze darting between Kyuusyou pinning Snow to the bed, their shoulders pressed down, and their slightly disheveled clothing. Her face flushed crimson, and she swiftly closed the door.
"..."
"Wait! Mei-senpai, it's not what you think!" Kyuusyou shrieked, scrambling off the bed and shouting at the closed door.
"Kyuusyou-san, no need to explain. I'll keep it a secret!"
"Understood... I'll reconsider the feasibility of alternative plans," the Golden-haired Valkyrie replied solemnly, her voice carrying through the closed door.
"Then... please take care of me, Lord Kyuusyou?"
"Miss Snow has already confessed! Kyuusyou-san, are you trying to become a heartbreaker?!" Mei's voice rang out from beyond the door again.
"Aaaaargh! You jerk! Why are you suddenly figuring things out at the worst possible moment?!"