"Kiana, are you okay?" Raiden Mei looked at Kiana with a worried expression.
"I'm fine, Mei. I'm used to it," Kiana shook her head, not feeling too much discomfort.
"So this person named Raven hates Kiana for a reason like that?" The corner of Bronya's mouth twitched. "As much as I'd like to make fun of it, if you think about it carefully, it's not entirely unreasonable."
That's right. Someone spends half their life's savings to buy an island and a villa, and then with a single transformation, you wipe out half a lifetime's worth of effort. If you disregard her identity as a World Serpent executive, it's something that anyone would find unacceptable.
"But that wasn't my fault..." Kiana felt wronged. It was clearly Otto and the Herrscher of the Void's fault. Why hate her for it?
"It's alright. The future can be changed. As long as you don't lose control, Kiana, Raven's island and villa will be safe, and she'll have no reason to hold a grudge against you," Theresa said.
Hearing this, everyone agreed that it made sense.
Just then, a vision appeared in the Q&A Space, and everyone quickly focused their attention on it.
On the screen, a little girl with purple hair was eating the food in front of her with a blissful expression.
Opposite her stood Raiden Mei and Tesla.
"Th-This is so delicious!"
The little girl was so moved by the delicious food that she was on the verge of tears. Judging by her tattered clothes, it was clear she didn't usually live well.
"There's plenty more in the kitchen. Don't be shy, eat as much as you like," Raiden Mei said with a gentle smile.
"Sigh, if only Teacher had Big Sister Mei's cooking skills. Teacher is a wonderful person, but her cooking is the one thing that's hard to like..." the little girl said, a bit dejected.
"Speaking of which, I'm a bit curious. Your teacher clearly leaves every month. Why hasn't she taken you all out of Nagazora in three years?" Tesla asked inquisitively.
The little girl was silent for a moment, then began to speak slowly.
"...There's a reason for that, of course."
"Teacher isn't someone who was born with money and status. Her childhood was as unfortunate as ours. She started her life with nothing."
"But she didn't give up. She worked hard, climbing and climbing... She dealt with people from various countries, went through many things, and after more than a decade, she finally saved up a huge amount of money."
"She used that money in a distant country... I forget the name. She bought a private island there and planned to build a big house on it. Then she was going to bring us, and all the other children she's saved from other places, to live there."
"The house was almost finished, and everyone was so happy. Teacher had worked hard her entire life, and she was finally going to have a home."
"That sounds like a very wonderful story," Tesla remarked.
"...But no one could have expected that tragedy would suddenly strike..."
The little girl paused, then continued in a deeply sorrowful tone.
"Four months ago, a massive Honkai Eruption suddenly occurred in the world. At that time, Teacher was right here in Nagazora. Honkai Beasts appeared one after another. She fought them all alone, protecting us and the Nest from harm."
"The battle lasted for several hours before it finally stopped. But just as everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, terrible news came from afar—"
"Teacher's island... had sunk forever into the sea during the Great Eruption....."
Raiden Mei: "...?"
Σ( ° △ °|||)︴
"To this day, I can still remember how Teacher looked then... She was expressionless, silent, but she kept pacing back and forth in her room, running, rolling on the floor....."
"She kept saying 'It's fine, it's fine,' but tears just kept streaming down her face."
"Finally, Teacher couldn't hold it in anymore and rushed outside. Facing the edge of the sea, she wailed like a child, heartbroken and sad...."
"She cried and cried... until her tears ran dry and her throat was hoarse. Only then did she stand up."
"I will never forget the vow she made to the setting sun—"
"No matter what the cost, humanity will defeat the Honkai....!"
Raiden Mei: "..."
Tesla: "..."
"Well... what a sad story."
Raiden Mei's expression was complicated. She knew she should feel sad for the little girl's teacher, but for some reason, she also had an inexplicable urge to laugh...
It was a good thing Raiden Mei's control over her expression was top-notch. If she had actually laughed at that moment, imagine the psychological damage it would have done to the little girl.
"Alright, it's getting late. I'll take you back first," Raiden Mei said, composing herself.
"Okay, thank you, Big Sister Mei. But this curry is really delicious... I want everyone else to try it..."
"Hehe, don't worry. I've already prepared twenty servings of curry. You can take them all back with you."
"What the—? Mei, when did you make so much food?" Tesla looked at Raiden Mei in astonishment. "Are you the Herrscher of Rice?"
Raiden Mei rolled her eyes at Tesla and said irritably, "Dr. Tesla, I'm taking Xiao Kong back now. I'll leave the rest to you."
With that, she led the little girl, Xiao Kong, out of the room.
The vision ended there.
Everyone: "....."
"Well... it is indeed a very sad story."
Himeko said the words, but her eyes were filled with an irrepressible smile.
The others looked much the same.
It wasn't that they lacked empathy. It was just that Xiao Kong's description had been so incredibly vivid that it created a mental image in everyone's minds of a person sobbing, rolling on the floor, and then, facing the sunset, delivering a line that should have been epic and passionate, but felt strangely comical.
Raven Pacing.
Raven Crying.
Raven Rolling on the Floor.
Damn, that's too vivid an image.
"In that case, Kiana really did do her wrong," Bronya stated.
"Hey, even if I did her wrong, that's my future self, okay? At least for now, I haven't done anything to her precious island and villa," Kiana said righteously.
"By the way, is an executive of the great World Serpent really in such a miserable state?" Theresa found it hard to understand.
"It's not necessarily that she's miserable. The little girl just said that she was an orphan saved and adopted by Raven. Besides her, there's probably a whole group of orphans. For Raven to support them all by herself and save up to buy an island, it must have been really tough," Himeko explained.
"Does that mean... this Raven isn't actually a bad person?" Raiden Mei asked. "When I saw that little girl in the vision, her eyes were full of love and a familial trust when she talked about her teacher... Raven. If Raven was a bad person, what would be her motive for saving and adopting all those children?"
"Hmm... I also feel like she isn't a bad person. At least, from the little girl's attitude toward her, I can't see it," Fu Hua added.