She had thought Siegfried stopped contacting Anti-Entropy because he wanted to live a quiet, ordinary life. Turns out he just let himself go completely.
He can't even take proper care of his own daughter now.
Wrapped in two coats like a little penguin, Kiana blinked, not sure what to say.
She lowered her head, glanced at the down jacket on her lap, then at the thick coat she'd just been bundled into, then looked up, first at Shiraha, then at Tesla.
Her lips moved a few times, but no words came out.
"Let's head back to the base, Nee-chan. I'm getting a little cold."
Shiraha spoke softly.
He wasn't really cold, honestly. It had been two years since he met his Nee-chan, and even though his Stigmata was still frustratingly stuck at the final step, his constitution had improved quite a bit.
But isn't a kid's greatest role to break an awkward silence?
Tesla snapped back to attention. "Right, right back to the base."
She bent down and scooped Kiana up, piggyback style. The girl was so light it made her heart ache.
Kiana lay against Tesla's back, her two coat-wrapped legs dangling at either side, her sky-blue eyes staring blankly at the marketplace fading into the distance.
Dad, I think I'm being kidnapped.
Tesla's expression was calm, but deep down, she really hadn't expected someone of Siegfried's caliber to sink this low.
Though it would actually get worse. He wouldn't pull himself together until about a year from now, when K-423 would finally be given the name Kiana in the story.
The base wasn't far, and Tesla wasn't exactly frail, carrying a kid was nothing.
Shiraha glanced back at the marketplace and let out a long breath. From this point on, the story was going completely off the rails.
"Don't be scared. We're not good people."
He patted Kiana's arm with a clean smile. Kids always found common ground with each other.
Tesla made a questioning sound. "Hm?"
"Oh! Wait, I misspoke, we're not bad people."
Shiraha quickly corrected himself, looking a bit embarrassed.
Kiana pressed her lips together, and a tiny smile seemed to creep onto her face.
"You two… know my dad?"
Tesla kept her tone even. "Yeah. We used to be friends. He saved my family's lives."
A life debt was a life debt, but that didn't stop her from being really pissed off at Siegfried right now.
"Should we go look for Siegfried… in a while?"
The embarrassment had long since faded from Shiraha's face, and he asked casually.
"Don't call him that!" Tesla shot a glance back at him, then added, "And yes, we need to find him right away, in fact."
"Otherwise that guy will probably just dump Kiana on us and wander off on his own."
Tesla didn't quite understand this state of mind, but she'd once had a good friend named Nancy, Edison, that is. After Otto scammed her out of tens of billions of dollars, she'd been a wreck for ages, even wanted to die at one point, just stopped caring about everything around her.
Back at the base, Tesla coaxed information out of little Kiana while ordering others to track down Siegfried.
She was mid-order when she suddenly spotted people hauling sacks of rice inside. She paused, bewildered. "Hey! What's all this?"
The base's mission was about to wrap up soon, what did they need this much rice for?
The delivery person pointed at Shiraha. Tesla turned her head slightly and looked at him. The boy's gaze immediately started drifting, ceiling one second, floor the next.
"Heh. Heheh. Barely old enough to tie your own shoes and you've already figured out how to win over girls, huh?"
Tesla didn't quite know what to feel.
"Pull a few people aside. Send half this grain to Cocolia. Leave the other half here as a free relief station, stop the local hoarders from jacking up prices."
She kept giving orders, calm and methodical. She'd lived over seventy years, after all. She could handle a little surprise.
"As for little Kiana…" Tesla paused, then looked at Shiraha. "Shiraha, Kiana's your responsibility. Watch her until Welt gets back from the search."
Shiraha nodded firmly.
Looking after kids? That was his specialty. He'd spent two whole years already looking after Mei-nee, he had all the experience he needed.
Once Tesla had finished delegating, Kiana finally untied the coat sleeves from her legs. But there was nothing she could do now. All she could do was watch as the red-haired lady seemed to send people to catch her dad.
"Are you bad people?"
Kiana looked at Shiraha standing guard beside her, then at the two big men stationed nearby. Her little fists probably couldn't beat grown-ups, she figured.
"Bad people never admit they're bad people."
A slight smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. He was just about to tease little Kiana a bit more, when the sound of shattering glass rang out from the second floor. Sharp.
Crystal clear.
He froze. The smirk vanished in an instant. He pulled Kiana behind him.
"Soldiers, forw—"
No need to finish the call. The two soldiers stationed there had already crumpled silently to the floor.
Elysia, looking utterly unhurried, pulled Shiraha behind her with one hand. With the other, she caught a hardback book hurtling through the air, the kind that definitely would've left a nasty bump if it'd hit a kid's head.
Shiraha thought for a second, then grabbed Kiana's hand and rushed over to the soldiers slumped on the floor. Still breathing. He exhaled in relief. But their necks were all red and swollen… probably out of commission for a few days.
"Careful. The real bad guy's here."
"I hardly think kidnapping someone else's daughter qualifies as 'good people.'"
What a wrecked voice, Shiraha thought to himself. Sounds like he just woke up hungover.
But Siegfried was even more perplexed. He couldn't figure out how this kid had blocked his attack, even if he hadn't put much force into it.
"D-Dad!"
Kiana's emotions surged instantly. Shiraha narrowed his eyes. He was starting to understand why Sirin had gone berserk on Siegfried the moment she emerged.
Siegfried's total hands-off approach early on was one thing, but what made it worse was that little K-423, fresh to the world, had gotten genuinely attached to this so-called father.
"Siegfried, si—" Shiraha caught himself and dropped the honorific. "Dr. Tesla went looking for you."
"I know."
Siegfried walked down from the second floor. The man looked like a piece of wind-dried jerky. The Judgement of Shamash hung at his waist, but he clearly had no intention of using it.
If he needed the Shamash just to rough up a kid, then he really had hit rock bottom.
Shiraha studied the man who was technically the strongest active combatant alive. The disappointment on his face was unmistakable.
He'd known Siegfried had fallen apart for a few years after his real daughter's "death," but he hadn't imagined he'd end up looking like this.
"Come with me."
Siegfried didn't say a name, but Kiana knew exactly who he meant. She nodded and was about to run over, when Shiraha grabbed her wrist. Not rough, but firm.
Kiana hesitated. The boy in front of her didn't seem like a bad person.
Shiraha exchanged a glance with Elysia. She gave a faint, resigned sigh, then wrapped her hand around Shiraha's wrist in turn. With a gentle pull, she drew Kiana back into her arms as the little girl looked on in complete confusion.
Siegfried: ….
Is this kid stronger than the test subjects?
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