'I like Herta.'
Kiana felt that she was a little shallow. Before meeting Herta's true body, she had thought that everything would be left up to Herta to decide.
She remembered everything that had happened with Herta inside the trial world, but was that truly an irreplaceable kind of love?
It felt more like trust and dependence.
She did not deny that this, too, was a form of love. But after regaining her memories, she was no longer the person who could only cling to Herta as her sole lifeline.
She couldn't help but think.
Is this really appropriate?
Would this truly be a good thing for Herta?
So in truth, her attitude toward this matter had never been one of relentless determination.
If Herta calmed down and decided it had all been a moment of impulse, Kiana could accept that. She would feel a little disappointed, yes, but she would respect Herta's decision.
To put it bluntly.
She had feelings for Herta, but not to the extent that she would cling desperately no matter what it took.
After all, she had never expected things to turn out this way.
Which was why she said she was shallow.
She knew she liked beautiful people. She had little resistance to someone who matched her aesthetic perfectly—just like when she had fallen in love with Mei at first sight and then started shamelessly creating opportunities to pursue her.
Herta's beauty made her heart race.
Simply looking at her was pleasing to the eye.
"That depends on how you want me to think."
"Oh? Heh. Then I hope you'll come with me. I'll give you a chance to fulfill your wish. Will you come?"
Herta was referring to what Kiana had said earlier—that she wanted to stay with Herta forever, because being by her side made her feel at ease. She had used that as an excuse to confess.
That lovers could always stay together.
"...You're making this hard for me." Herta had struck her right at the weak point. Kiana laughed awkwardly and said tactfully, "I still have so many things I haven't done yet."
Of course Herta knew she wouldn't agree. She wasn't disappointed, only gave a cold snort. "If you can't do something, don't say it out loud."
"Even if I can't go with you, if you need me, I can come find you anytime." Kiana thought for a moment and said, "You've seen it—I can move freely through space. Distance doesn't matter to me."
Herta was reminded of something and asked curiously, "That ability of yours..."
"I don't know." Kiana spread her hands. "I woke up from a nap and suddenly knew how to do it, just like how Araya suddenly came into being."
"You're lying."
Herta narrowed her eyes and examined her. Her thin lips parted as she exposed Kiana's lie.
"I really didn't lie to you. If you don't believe me, go ask Ruan. I really just woke up and knew how. If you ask me about the principles behind it, I can't explain it clearly either. Let's just say Honkai is mysterious."
"What I'm saying is that when you said 'I don't know,' that was the lie," Herta said, precisely catching the flaw.
Kiana looked at her in confusion. "Why do you say that?"
Herta answered simply, "A guess."
"...Huh?"
Kiana looked at Herta strangely. She truly didn't understand the reason. Whether it was the teleportation ability or Araya's sudden birth, she genuinely didn't know the principles.
"Ruan Mei might indulge you, but I won't." Herta lifted her chin slightly. "Do you think I'm with you because I like you? Don't flatter yourself. I'm just interested in your existence."
Kiana was momentarily stunned. Then a bright smile bloomed across her face, radiant as spring sunlight.
"That's fine."
Whether Herta was being stubborn or telling the truth, Kiana didn't really mind. Well... not that much. Really.
If Herta didn't like her, then she didn't like her.
Herta was beautiful enough to please the eye. Just seeing her true body already made this trip worthwhile.
That's fine?
Herta, who had just lifted her head, lowered it again. The corners of her lips pressed downward slightly. She took a deep breath and gritted her teeth. "You..."
That's fine?
Was she saying, I don't like you either, so it doesn't matter whether you like me or not. I don't care?
Herta indeed did not like Kiana.
But she didn't want to hear Kiana say something like that.
"As long as I like you, that's enough."
Seeing her expression change, Kiana understood that Herta's earlier words had been the former—she was being stubborn. That realization only improved her mood, and her smile grew even brighter.
She didn't know which action or which sentence of hers had made Herta see her differently, but that didn't matter.
As long as Herta was willing, she could cling to her just like she had inside the Stigmata, repeating that she liked her.
She had done that before. Doing it again now posed no difficulty at all.
As she said those words, memories of their time inside the Stigmata surfaced, as if her thoughts and feelings had been pulled back to that moment.
Feeling as though she had fallen into Kiana's trap, Herta's expression did not soften. She stared at her and pinched her cheek that was smiling so annoyingly. "Let's make this clear first. Don't tell me you think that by changing the subject, I'll forget the question I just asked you."
The more beautiful something was, the easier it was to destroy.
People were no exception.
"Huh? What do I need to say?"
"You want to play this game with me?"
Herta's expression turned dangerous. This Kiana really pushed her luck. Give her a little kindness and she would climb higher, testing the boundaries bit by bit.
"I was joking." Kiana reached out, trying to pull her hand away. "Don't keep such a straight face—smile more."
Herta withdrew her hand from Kiana's cheek and gave her a light chop on the head. She sneered. "Answer my question first."
Kiana hadn't expected to be hit. Covering the spot on her head, she looked at Herta in surprise and confusion, but she did calm down.
If she kept pushing it.
Herta might really get angry.
"The question... where were we? Teleportation, right? Mm... I really don't understand its principles. I wasn't lying about that."
Before Herta could frown, Kiana spoke again.
"You and Ruan examined Araya. You must have gained something, right? Ruan noticed it too. It's just as you suspect. Honkai has a special ability to 'grant wishes.'"
"I wished to teleport to designated places. I wished for Araya to be born. So those wishes were fulfilled."
"And the price?" Herta said. "If you fulfill a wish, you should have to pay a corresponding price, shouldn't you?"
"So sharp, as expected of you." Kiana praised her with a grin, her relaxed attitude still lacking seriousness.
Herta no longer wanted to comment on her tone and simply ignored it.
"Yes. The price."
The smile remained on Kiana's face for only the duration of that single sentence. As soon as she finished speaking and moved on to the next, it vanished completely.
"Of course something like this requires a price. Even I'm no exception," she said. "As for the price of Araya's birth... haven't you already seen it?"
Herta hesitated. "That's the price?"
"What else would it be?" Kiana looked at her and asked in return. "Based on our experiences, with those three segments of memory as the foundation, Araya was born because of that."
"Ruan created the Stigmata Terminal."
"Araya was also born because of it."
"Doesn't that count as a price?"
After listening to Kiana, Herta pondered for a moment before suddenly saying, "I almost let you fool me. What you said is indeed part of the reason, but it's not the whole of it."
"I don't know." Kiana spread her hands. "I'm not Honkai itself. How could I possibly understand it that clearly?"
That was true.
Kiana was still on the path. She hadn't reached the end yet. It was normal for her not to fully understand certain deeper things.
That was what Herta thought.
The two of them had not talked much about the nature of Honkai. If the one standing here were Acheron instead, she would certainly have raised doubts immediately.
After all, Kiana had always resisted Honkai. How could she now say something like, "I'm not Honkai yet"?
There had to be some unknown change behind that.
"So you really don't know anything?" Herta instinctively felt something was off.
"I can't be certain right now, but I should be able to figure it out in the future," Kiana replied.
"In the future?"
"No matter how unwilling I am, there are some things I'll eventually have to do." Kiana let out a soft sigh, finally becoming a bit more serious.
"Are you speaking in riddles?"
Kiana raised her right hand and pressed her index finger to her lips in a shushing gesture. "There are some things I haven't figured out myself yet. But in the future, I'll probably need your help. When that time comes, we can continue today's topic. How about it?"
Herta frowned, then thought of Ruan Mei and asked, "Did you say the same thing to Ruan Mei?"
Kiana shook her head. "Ruan... she's busy with other matters right now. I don't want to disturb her at this time."
She hadn't mentioned it to Ruan Mei?
That made things interesting.
Subconsciously, Herta recalled how, before conducting the Stigmata Terminal experiment, she had told Kiana to discuss it with Ruan Mei—and the hesitation on Kiana's face at the time.
"So you don't want to disturb her, but you're fine troubling me?"
"I know you'll be interested."
"And if I say I'm not?"
Kiana smiled. "I believe you wouldn't say that."
Herta clicked her tongue in irritation. "Don't act like you understand me so well. You probably don't even know how old I am this year."
Kiana froze. She really didn't know.
All she knew was that Herta had rejuvenated herself. Thinking about it that way, Herta was probably like a long-lived species. So her current age...
A hundred? Two hundred? Or even more?
She asked cautiously, "Then you—"
"No one ever told you not to ask a woman her age?"
Kiana was rendered speechless. Herta had brought it up first, and now she was saying this.
She had deliberately stirred up her curiosity, only to shut it down immediately.
Was this revenge?
Because of the way she had spoken earlier—half teasing, half provoking?
When Herta's beautiful face came alive with expression, she looked even more stunning. She was different from her puppets. Her expressions were far richer.
Not that the puppets weren't cute.
An emotionless girl had her own charm.
But Kiana found Herta's true self far more interesting.
"No one's ever told me that," Kiana refused to back down. "And I don't think it's some untouchable secret. Herta, do you want to know how old I am?"
"I don't."
For someone who should have been brimming with curiosity, she showed none at all and coldly ended the exchange.
Kiana pouted. "Can't you at least follow up and let me finish what I was going to say?"
Herta let out an indifferent sound and turned away, no longer standing there wasting time with her. "Then say it."
"I don't know either."
Kiana grinned as she followed behind her.
To be honest, Herta didn't truly know what kind of person she was. That meant anything she did in front of Herta was reasonable.
She didn't need to think too much.
Their first meeting hadn't been pleasant at all. Back then, she had been full of vigilance toward Herta.
Herta stopped walking and turned back, giving her a complicated look. "Are you trying to amuse yourself at my expense?"
"I really don't know." Kiana recalled her own situation. "I suddenly appeared in this universe, and I slept for such a long period in between. How am I supposed to calculate that?"
Herta sat down on the sofa. Hearing this, she thought of something else. "They said you slept for a while in the past too, because of Nihility's influence?"
"That was only part of it." Seeing that Herta didn't object, Kiana casually sat down beside her. "It was also related to me forcibly undergoing Herrscher transformation at the time."
"I heard that wasn't your homeland. Why try so hard?" Herta looked at her. "Acheron and the others didn't seem to agree with your decision."
The smile on Kiana's face faltered. Her expression visibly darkened.
"Without me, Izumo would still have been destroyed. Even the Ark wouldn't have escaped. In all of Izumo, the one most likely to survive Nihility's influence would have been Mei."
"My intervention made Izumo deviate from its destined trajectory and allowed more people to survive."
"Then what are you feeling guilty about?"
"But that doesn't change the fact that those people died because of me." Kiana took a deep breath. "I know that in your eyes, this way of thinking is just me making trouble for myself, bringing suffering upon myself. But I think... this is precisely proof that I'm human."
Herta frowned subconsciously. "Your cognition?"
"Don't worry. My current state is fine." The gloom disappeared from Kiana's face as she buried it back in her heart.
"Just thinking about finally realizing a long-held dream makes me excited!"
"You're curious about the Stigmata world I'm about to construct too, aren't you?" Kiana looked at Herta with a smile. "When the time comes, you have to help."
Herta reached a conclusion. "It seems Honkai hasn't left you entirely unaffected."
"Of course. If Honkai energy were truly harmless, why would I treat it like a great enemy?"
"Does Ruan Mei know?"
Kiana knew what Herta was asking. She was asking whether Ruan Mei knew that something was wrong with her cognition.
"I didn't bring it up in front of her."
"So I'm the first?"
"You can't deny that secrets can quickly draw two people who aren't very close closer together. Isn't that right?"
Herta stared at Kiana, who seemed unconcerned, and said quietly, "This is the real price, isn't it?"