Until 1477, Kallen stole a Honkai energy crystal that was under research by Schicksal. She fled to the Far East and fell in love with Yae Sakura, a Pseudo-Herrscher contaminated by the Honkai energy crystal.
In the same year, for unknown reasons, the Pseudo-Herrscher Yae Sakura and the Honkai energy crystal disappeared together, creating a huge obstacle for Schicksal's research.
The heavily injured Kallen was captured by Schicksal's intelligence forces and brought back to the European headquarters. At the council meeting in the European headquarters...
"That girl who became a Herrscher is innocent, and I have fallen hopelessly in love with her."
Kallen declared this at the council. Everyone on the council thought she was mad. But the most shocked was Kallen's father, Francis, the patriarch of the Kaslana family. When Kallen firmly told everyone she had fallen in love with a Herrscher, Francis felt like his world was collapsing.
On one hand was his most beloved daughter, on the other was his family's conviction to fight the Honkai... Francis had thought about making Kallen retract her statement, but he knew that with Kallen's personality, it was impossible.
For the first time in his life, he felt it was a mistake for him to be the family patriarch. If he weren't the patriarch, he could have just run away with Kallen from all of this...
But he couldn't. The Schicksal Overseer, Nicholas Apocalypse, was eyeing the Kaslana family like a tiger. The Schariac family was on the brink of extinction. The Kaslana family was currently relying solely on Francis to hold things together. The moment he stepped down as patriarch, Nicholas would immediately make a move against the Kaslana family.
Family or daughter, in the end, Francis chose his family.
The council's final verdict was to sentence her to death by hanging, to be carried out shortly.
"Fall in love with a Herrscher? Herrschers are human too. Herrschers are just people whose hearts have been twisted by Honkai energy; they aren't monsters...
Is it wrong to fall in love with a Herrscher? Then what about me and Ryn? What about us, who have been living with Mei all this time..."
Kiana clenched her fists. She couldn't accept being hanged just for falling in love with a Herrscher. Ryn was a Herrscher, and Mei was a Herrscher too. They were Kiana's family, and Ryn was Kiana's lover.
"It's okay. No one can oppose us being together." Ryn saw Kiana's worry and held her hand, giving her a sense of security.
"Let's go save Kallen. She can't be hanged for such an absurd reason," Ryn said.
"Right, these guys are too much! We have to save Kallen! Bronya, tell us the time and place of the execution!" Kiana shouted at Bronya.
"Save her? This is just a virtual world constructed from data. The real Kallen died 538 years ago."
Bronya brandished her little fairy wand, wanting to give Kiana and Ryn a whack on the head to see what on earth they were thinking.
"I don't care! Even if it's virtual, I can't just stand by and watch her die like this!" Kiana retorted.
"We can't refuse to save her just because she's virtual. We can no longer save the Kallen from five hundred years ago, but this virtual Kallen is waiting for us to save her right now." Ryn shook his head, disagreeing with Bronya. "Besides, Kallen has already paid the price. How can we not go and save her?"
"Paid the price? When did that happen? She didn't!" Kiana said, puzzled.
"She gave it when she left."
"What was it?" Bronya pressed.
"The reward was... a smile~"
Ryn said to Kiana and Bronya with a grin. "Someone who, despite being in immense sorrow, still insists on showing you a smile... how can we just stand by and watch her die?"
"Fine, fine... I really can't win against you two... The Bronya needs to plan this carefully. After all, we don't have any weapons in this world. And I don't know how much damage Ryn's power will do to the data space..."
"Yay!" Hearing Bronya's agreement, Kiana jumped for joy.
"Thank you, Bronya. I'll have Cortana assist you with all her might." Ryn also replied with a happy smile.
"The Bronya thinks it would be better for Cortana to use her full processing power to directly modify the history of this data space."
"That won't do. If Cortana directly modifies the world, it would lose its meaning. That's not a rescue, it can only be considered the entertainment of some creator god."
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Because this was a space of true historical records within the Schicksal database, time passed by quickly. While Ryn and the others were still discussing their plan, time seemed to be on fast forward.
The sun and moon flew by, the stars shifted. In what felt like a few actual minutes, the world had fast-forwarded to the time of Kallen's execution.
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Ryn and Kiana rushed to the execution site, cloaking themselves in burlap and blending into the crowd at the execution ground.
Bronya, on the other hand, was outside the execution ground preparing to create a large explosion to cause a big enough commotion to draw people's attention for Kiana and Ryn.
The execution ground was packed with people. The common folk were all protesting Kallen's execution. Kallen was their light in the darkness, a saint recognized in their hearts. But the saint in their hearts was about to be executed, yet they feared the oppression of the nobles and dared not resist, only able to whisper amongst themselves below the scaffold.
"Execute—"
With the order given, Kallen's execution was about to begin.
Watching the executioner put the noose around Kallen's neck, Kiana and Ryn were burning with anxiety.
Ryn kept thinking to himself why he didn't have Welt replicate a copy of the Star of Eden for him, so he could use his abilities at will even in normal times.
Almost everyone present here was an ordinary person. Ryn couldn't just use his Herrscher authority recklessly, otherwise even a sliver of leaked Honkai energy would be enough to infect them all and turn them into Honkai Zombies.
After using his authority on Arthur before, the people nearby had all suffered from Honkai energy erosion to varying degrees. Although their erosion disappeared as time fast-forwarded,
it also made Ryn understand that once his Herrscher authority was unleashed, he himself would become a walking source of Honkai energy contamination.
It might be harmless to those around him with strong Honkai energy adaptability, but to ordinary people, he was a walking natural disaster.
Ryn would never let a bunch of other people die just to save one Kallen. So he and Kiana were waiting, waiting for Bronya's signal.