"Kiana, that girl, couldn't handle a lot of the trouble she caused. We had to clean up after her, though it was never anything major..."
As Himeko spoke, she couldn't help but chuckle at the memory.
"Ha... some things are really funny to think about now.
"I remember one time, Hua brought a lot of fresh bayberries from Shenzhou. It was probably the first time Kiana had ever eaten that kind of fruit. She ate a lot in one go. I still remember her crawling into Mei's bed in the middle of the night, crying about a toothache...
"And then there was Mei's birthday... oh, you know Mei, right? Kiana said she wanted Mei to taste her cooking. In the end, not only did she make a mess of the kitchen, but Mei herself ended up in the hospital..."
Bianka was stunned. The hospital... that must have been very serious, right?
Was that also a "minor" thing?
"Do you think that's serious?" Himeko leaned closer to Bianka's face, making her shrink back instinctively.
"It was serious. Mei was in the hospital for a whole month, just from one bite of Kiana's cooking.
"At the time, I thought it was because Mei, as a young lady, was too delicate. But then I took a bite myself and ended up in the hospital with her for a month, hahaha..."
"You... weren't you angry?" A month was a very, very long time for Bianka, a third of her entire memory.
Although she wouldn't have been too angry about something like that if it were her friend, but...
Alright, she couldn't even think of a complaint for that situation. She would probably just consider herself unlucky and silently block it out...
Anger... anger...
What did anger feel like?
Bianka thought back.
It was probably what she had felt towards that Herrscher when she saw Azhar get hurt.
"Angry? Theresa was furious at the time. I was even scared by how much anger could erupt from such a small body," Himeko said, opening a new can of beer and taking a large gulp before shaking her head.
"But, Kiana was the one who ate the most of it..." Himeko's teasing voice gradually softened, an uncontrollable gentleness beginning to permeate her words.
"She... she always knew her cooking was terrible, so she was actually very strict with herself about the food she made. It's just that her way of being strict was to taste it herself..."
Often, people couldn't be judged by the same standards. What Kiana thought was good was not so good for Mei and Himeko at the time.
At the very least, most growth couldn't be achieved in isolation. Positive feedback from the outside world was a major factor in promoting growth.
In fact, for most people, a simple word of encouragement could make many continue to work hard, to persevere through difficulties.
Perhaps sometimes they did need help, needed others to correct their wrong path, needed others to light the way forward...
But more often than not, what they needed more was a little push, a push to keep them moving forward. Even if that push was insignificant, even if it was counterproductive, that was all people really longed for.
But in reality?
The only "support" Bianka had received so far was from Rita and the others in establishing "Immortal Blades," and the trust of the Snow Wolf Squad after Siegfried was injured.
Other times...
["Why are you still here?"]
["You are not worthy."]
["No self-awareness, fragile, emotional, reckless, stubborn, no plan, dependent on others... Bianka, how many more of your shortcomings do you want me to list?"]
["Do you think I will always support you, or do you expect Rita to clean up after you?"]
Ugh...
The more Bianka thought, the lower her head sank. Eventually, it seemed as if she would bury her head in her chest.
A faint sense of grievance rose in the three-month-old girl's heart. At the same time, a small expectation was quietly born in her heart.
Support...
If she could have as many friends and partners supporting her as Kiana...
No, no, that would be too greedy. Senior Rita and Theresa and the others were already very supportive of her. And now there was Cecilia... Mom and Dad, and the seniors from the Snow Wolf Squad.
She was already a very happy person, wasn't she?
But if it were possible... could she be... a little happier?
Like Otto's approval... she had never heard a word of praise from the Overseer.
Even... even...
Senior Shu's approval?
This wasn't actually a difficult thing. Bianka didn't know that she had already received the approval of both of them. Before this phone call, Otto hadn't even noticed this.
Otto had even thought he was very caring towards Bianka before. Even though it was because he hadn't paid much attention, it was still somewhat lacking in self-awareness.
And Shu... you couldn't expect someone with a naturally full affection meter to make further breakthroughs. Although it was hard to believe, Shu's affection for the people mentioned in the original story was basically maxed out.
With the exception of villains like Otto.
Otto had realized this. In Shu's world, it was very obvious who was special. It was more like Shu didn't even bother to hide his favoritism.
And Otto strongly suspected that the reason Shu was forcing himself to take on the responsibility of protecting everyone now was because he had once abandoned the refugees of a military base in ARC City.
What was that about... but the more Otto thought about it, the more he felt that this was the truth. After all, what kind of person hadn't he seen? Just someone who liked to put pressure on himself...
He had actually seen it... the Kaslanas were like this when faced with difficulties, wishing they could concentrate all the pressure on themselves. This group of people who believed that with great power comes great responsibility loved to forcibly take on other people's tasks.
If Shu's abilities could really be given to Kiana... Otto believed that Kiana would be the same.
But Kiana would never have Shu's pathological pressure, and that kind of attachment.
Bianka now also had a similar tendency to Shu, but she just hadn't reached his level yet.
Otto still didn't know what Shu needed, but he was very clear about what Bianka needed.
Approval... Otto was already thinking about writing a ten-thousand-word essay praising Bianka.
Wait... should this be left to Susannah?
"Found it!!"