The busy morning passed in a flash. Ryn and Kiana worked together to patch the large hole in the wooden cabin with planks. Looking at the old-fashioned clock on the wall, it was almost noon.
"Is it just the two of us for lunch?"
"Yeah, my stinky old dad has been gone for days. I've been eating alone all this time."
Kiana's eyes dimmed a little. Siegfried had already acknowledged her and taught her the Kaslana fighting style and the Kaslana family philosophy. But not long ago, Kiana woke up to find Siegfried gone. At first, Kiana thought Siegfried was playing a joke on her.
She waited from morning till night, but Siegfried didn't return. She had been hungry for a whole day. Without Siegfried, she didn't know how to cook. She went to bed with an empty stomach, thinking that maybe when she woke up, Siegfried would be back.
In her dream, she met Siegfried, but he had lost his left arm. His right hand held the greatsword, Judgment of Shamash, high, its hilt burning with raging flames. This was the Zeroth Power of the Judgment of Shamash—Might of An-Utu.
And the target of Might of An-Utu was herself.
"Dad, no!"
Kiana woke with a start. One of her originally ice-blue pupils had turned golden. After another blink, it returned to ice-blue.
Kiana hugged her knees, curled up in a corner of the bed, silent. The night was quiet, only occasionally punctuated by the rumbling of Kiana's stomach.
The next day, Kiana woke up and started searching for Siegfried at home and in the vicinity, but found nothing. Well, it wasn't entirely fruitless. Kiana encountered two Ranger-class Honkai Beasts. She took out the dual pistols she carried with her and engaged them in battle.
In the end, Kiana expended most of her stamina to finally kill the two Honkai Beasts. Looking at their corpses, Kiana thought that if her stinky old dad were here, he would have dealt with them with a single wave of his hand.
She grabbed the two Honkai Beasts and headed home. This would be her food for the next few days. Her stinky old dad used to roast these things with the Judgment of Shamash. They had no taste and were tough to chew, but having something to eat was better than nothing.
A few days later, Kiana had searched the entire area around the wooden cabin but still couldn't find Siegfried. She decided to follow the road and keep searching until she found him.
After packing her luggage, Kiana shouldered her oversized backpack, took one last lingering look at her room, locked the door, and set off.
And then, on the road, she found the passed-out Ryn. Which brings us to now.
Ryn thought for a moment, then asked curiously.
"You must be a great cook then?"
Kiana shook her head, then pointed to her large backpack and said, "Nope. I've been eating raw Honkai Beasts these past few days."
"You can eat that stuff? The Honkai really can do anything!"
Ryn looked shocked. According to what the Stigmata had told him, Honkai Beasts and Honkai Zombies were the "wild monsters" of the Honkai world. From the name, Honkai Zombies were basically dead people, so Honkai Beasts couldn't be much better. They're probably not much different from Honkai Zombies. And you can eat that stuff?
Kiana looked at Ryn suspiciously, circled him, and then asked the soul-crushing question.
"Why can't you eat Honkai Beasts?"
"Huh?!!"
"Huh?!!"
"What are you 'huh'-ing about?"
"I don't know. I saw you 'huh', so I 'huh'-ed too."
Ryn gave Kiana a helpless eye-roll, then walked into the kitchen, preparing to cook a meal himself.
"No rice? No flour either? No vegetables! Where's the stove! What do you guys usually eat!" Ryn walked into the kitchen only to find the refrigerator completely empty, the cupboards bare, and even the place where the stove should be was empty.
"A stove? What's that?"
Kiana felt like she had just heard a new term, but her question left Ryn speechless.
"It's the place where you cook things. How can you cook without a stove?"
"Huh?! Usually, to cook things, my stinky old dad just puts them on the Judgment of Shamash, and after a while, they're cooked. I've never actually seen a stove!"
Kiana lowered her head, her hands in front of her chest, poking her index fingers together. Suddenly, she seemed to remember something and said happily.
"What about that thing outside? That big fireplace. My dad and I often roast things there."
"Rationally speaking, it's already amazing that a wooden cabin has a large fireplace inside. Is it even usable... but I see it's covered in dust. It must not have been used for a long time."
"It used to be that Dad would just stick the Judgment of Shamash in and pull it out, and the fireplace would light up. Now that Dad's gone, I don't know how to start a fire!"
"Then I guess you don't even have a tinderbox or anything. I don't know how to make a fire by drilling wood either. Then we might as well eat raw Honkai Beasts. I don't know if I can eat it, but it's better than starving to death. To think that I, the great savior of the world, would starve to death in this snowy wasteland."
"Alright, alright, you should be glad there's something to eat. If you want something else, you can go out and find it yourself this afternoon. My stinky old dad always brings back a bunch of ingredients whenever he goes out. Though once he puts them on the Judgment of Shamash, they end up tasting like charcoal." Kiana said as she unzipped her large backpack and took out a pink lump as big as her head, covered in dents and clear teeth marks.
"How much do you want?"
"I think I can eat a lot. It's my first time eating this stuff too." Ryn and Kiana looked at each other, then both looked at Ryn's stomach. Kiana scratched her head, then raised her hand and started knocking on the lump.
In the end, she couldn't break off a piece. So, Kiana tilted her head, her ahoge bobbing along. Under Ryn's shocked gaze, she opened her mouth and started gnawing on it. The Honkai Beast meat that she couldn't even break by knocking was bitten off by Kiana.
A moment later, Kiana, with her cheeks puffed out, looked at Ryn. After waiting a moment and seeing no reaction from Ryn, she, to Ryn's utter bewilderment, pulled his hands over and spat the food into them.
After spitting, Kiana hugged the remaining portion, sat on the sofa, and started taking big bites. As for Ryn, he was petrified on the spot.
Two voices echoed in Ryn's mind. A little Ryn with small black wings said temptingly.
"Eat it, eat it, just eat it directly. It even has Kiana's saliva on it. It's an indirect kiss~"
A little Ryn with white wings pushed the black one away and said righteously, "You should wash it before eating. We are the savior of the world, we should have some decency..."
While Ryn was having a mental breakdown, Kiana walked over to him and waved her hand in front of his face. Seeing no reaction, she raised her hand to pat his cheek. Suddenly, Kiana remembered something, and the gentle pat turned into a full-on slap.
"You pervert, what are you thinking about? Hurry up and wash it before you eat. You're not actually thinking about eating my saliva, are you? Pervert—!"