Chiya… One Thousand and One Nights…
Grace Howard — the "Iron Witch" of Belobog
As the adopted daughter of former Belobog president Horus Belobog, and the sworn older sister of his biological daughter Koleda Belobog, Grace had always been exceptional.
She studied at the Ruther Machining Institute, the so-called holy land of mechanical engineering in New Eridu. Because of her obsessive devotion to machines—and the matching indifference toward human socializing—people branded her with a nickname:
"Iron Witch."
By rights, she shouldn't have felt something so wrong toward Chiya.
But fate is like that.
It's not that we choose destiny—
Destiny chooses us.
Belobog's signature product—its new-generation industrial machine for specialized Hollow operations—had already become a celebrated "miracle tool" across the entire construction world of New Eridu.
Yet no one knew just how much of her mind, time, and soul it took to "raise" those children.
To save a declining Belobog, Grace joined the company after graduation—even if the work was "just a tiny bit" off from her major. She resolved to build, based on Uncle Horus's blueprints, a new kind of engineering vehicle: lighter, easier to mass-produce, easier to maintain.
When she smiled with total confidence into the recorder, Grace Howard could not have imagined how long and painful the next one thousand and one days would be.
She was a genius.
Her professor once told her:
"Grace Howard—you are the jewel of my institute, my proudest student. Walk boldly into the future. Nothing will ever stump you…"
She recorded those words.
At the beginning, it was just motivation for her pride.
Later… it became the only rope still tying her will together—driving her forward while slowly tightening into a noose.
Time… time… time.
Time is life. Time is money.
And money could save Belobog.
A project of that magnitude could not be done without cost.
In fact, every era-defining creation demands an era's blood and tears—an era's suffering and pain.
Money poured into the warehouse like into a bottomless pit.
Yet she still couldn't see the light of completion.
The basic verification framework? Done—then the power unit degradation problem jumped out.
Fix the degradation—then the voiceprint command system stopped "responding properly."
It was like she was a watcher in a wheat field:
She crushed one locust on her "children"…
And in the next second, more locusts swarmed in—gnawing at her work, chewing her heart, mocking her.
Her mentor's message, looped again and again, lost its inspirational force.
It began to sound like ridicule—ridiculing her arrogance, her overreach, her "jewel" title.
The fire that once burned on love as fuel…
Was slowly soaked by rain, eroded by wind, stripped by hail—
Until her "development logs" stopped being logs at all.
They became the travel diary of a collapsing soul—a desperate pilgrim whipping herself along a thorned road, not even knowing whether the direction was right, whether success was possible, whether Uncle Horus's drawings could ever become reality.
She could only keep walking.
Covered in mud.
Will fraying.
And a state like that… always breeds accidents.
So one day, during routine testing—
Her test panel data spiked into overload.
Then the child suspended overhead… came crashing down.
Her brain recognized danger.
Her body tried to dodge.
But months of sleeplessness, and injuries that never fully healed, made her slower than she used to be.
The next moment—
A thunderous boom shook everything.
Steel and machinery bloomed a blood-red flower.
It splattered across the warehouse floor.
Outside the warehouse…
Koleda, beaming, walked over with the workers.
"Hehe—Ben, Anton, the heavens really don't betray hard work! We finally got a project! Once the client pays out and we distribute wages, Grace's research can keep going!"
Then they heard that ominous impact.
Koleda—just back from hauling concrete—stared at the sealed warehouse.
An inexplicable dread seized her heart.
The power hammer slipped from her hand and hit the cement.
Her trembling fingers dialed a number.
"Sis? Sis?!"
"…Ah… it hurts…"
"Sis!!"
Silence.
Koleda—who had just been smiling—picked up her hammer and smashed the warehouse doors open.
Inside—
Grace's lower body was pinned beneath the massive machine.
Blood leaked from her lips.
She struggled to move her head, looking at Koleda, mouth trembling as if she wanted to say something—
But she couldn't.
Her head fell limp.
"SIS!!"
"GRACE!!"
Quiet
Quiet—truly quiet.
Since starting that project, she hadn't experienced quiet like this.
No machine hum.
No keyboard clacking.
No sighs growing louder and louder.
No worried voice:
"Sis, how did you hurt yourself again?"
Am I dead?
Grace laughed inwardly at herself.
How stupid, Grace.
Last time, she'd been crushed once already.
The doctor told her to rest, to recover.
She promised Koleda she'd take care of herself—she wouldn't act recklessly before healing.
And yet—
Grace, you selfish idiot.
You only thought about raising your children faster.
But if you die, what will Koleda do?
She already lost her father—
And now—
Belobog poured a fortune into this research.
If it dies here, too…
How does Belobog revive?
How do the people who depend on Belobog survive?
No. No.
I can't die.
I can't die yet—
I haven't finished raising them.
I haven't repaid Uncle Horus.
I still haven't—
I still haven't seen Koleda grow up and get married…
What if she's bullied someday, and no one stands on her side?
No family beside her, no arms to cry into—
Only hiding in a bathroom stall—
How miserable would that be?
How painful?
…Wait.
If I'm dead, why can I think this long?
Did I become some kind of electronic ghost?
"Wake up, lazybones! How long are you going to sleep?!"
…That was Koleda's voice?!
"Doctor Chiya, why isn't my sister awake yet?! Is she—"
"That's how anesthesia works. Relax. Her injuries are mostly healed. Her brain's probably still fighting a war with itself."
"Huh? 'Fighting a war'?"
"No, nothing. Don't worry. Let me check… oh, like this—Koleda."
"What?!"
"I'll teach you a method. She can wake up right now."
"Really?!"
"Really. Come—Nugget, jump up."
"Mm-neh mm-neh (Okay, Chiya)—puff tart—"
"And straighten your arm."
"Give her a slap."
"Mm-neh (Thunder Power!)!"
First came numbness—
Then, as the numbness faded, a sharp pain yanked her awareness back.
Darkness tore open.
The sunset cut through the window lattice, lighting the flower basket at her bedside.
Koleda cheered.
"Sis! You're awake!"
"…Who was that?"
"Huh?"
"…Who just hit me?"
"Mm-neh mm-neh (Me. So what?) Mm-neh-da (You wanna fight?)"
A Bangboo like this…
Modified?
Rare.
Grace stared at the Bangboo covered in cross motifs, dazedly thinking she should study it—
Then a slender hand pinched the Bangboo by the neck and lifted it up.
And a single ahoge strand entered her field of view.
"Grace Howard. How do you feel?"
"…Fine."
"Except my face hurts."
She turned her head with effort and finally saw the doctor—
A kid only slightly taller than Koleda?
And… why did he look so bizarre?
Grace stared into Chiya's emerald eyes without blinking.
For reasons she couldn't explain, the gaze felt familiar—
Yet she couldn't remember where she'd seen it.
While she was still blanking, Chiya looked away and spoke to Koleda.
"I'll tell Mr. Ben outside the room the post-op instructions later. You supervise."
"Huh? Can't you just tell me?"
"You're kind of dumb. You won't remember."
"HEY! Don't underestimate a site-born CEO!"
Chiya left a cool sentence behind, voice flat:
"Your emergency handling was a mess."
"If you hadn't paid that much, I'd want to reject requests from people who only create work for doctors."
Then he walked out of the ward.
Inside, Grace kept thinking—
Where was that strange familiarity coming from?
Much later — the answer
Much later, when Grace came into contact with a senior technician from the Marcel Group and toured some Bangboo models, she finally understood.
Among them was a particularly special unit.
A medical Bangboo—
But built on the frame of a treasure-hunting Bangboo.
It had been fitted with a deviation core.
It could still operate…
But it could not be "upgraded" the way other Bangboo could.
Everything about it began from that flawed core—
And could only walk, step by step, toward its final ending.
"Can't this outcome be reversed?"
"Why reverse it? It's fascinating."
"Even if it's destroyed in the end, the data will be an extremely valuable sample."
"And if you insist on reversing it, the cost would be absurd—possibly a bottomless pit. No one would do that."
"…Maybe."
"Chiya… One Thousand and One Nights…?"
"Who gave you… that incorrect core…?"
Grace exhaled a soft laugh.
"Whatever."
"No matter what, you saved my life."
"So, Doctor Chiya—one day, I promise… I'll help you."
"I'll help you—this lost Bangboo."
After being pulled back from death
Whether it was fate, or "misfortune becoming fortune," after Chiya dragged her back from the reaper's hand, Grace's progress became astonishingly smooth.
Even at the last crucial step—stabilizing the system through Ether stimulation—
Not a single Ethereal attacked her or her children.
Koleda arrived to look for her and couldn't help feeling awkward.
"Sis, didn't you say this thing of yours would attract Ethereals?"
"I saw a few on the way—why are there none here?"
"Today is the one-thousand-and-first day."
"Maybe… Doctor Chiya blessed me."
"Ha? Don't joke. Doctor Chiya isn't even home today!"
And while Koleda and Grace teased each other—
On the other side of the Hollow…
"WAAH! Chiya! This Ethereal-attracting reagent you made—did it attract way too many?!"
"No way! Based on my calculations, unless there's special high-frequency Ether interference—like from large machinery—it shouldn't catalyze the reagent!"
Chiya's consciousness, attached to Nugget, was holding hands with Belle's consciousness attached to Eous—
And the two were sprinting with short little legs, fleeing in panic.
Nugget's combat power was insane, yes—
But Chiya had attached his consciousness through the HDD in order to observe the reagent's effects with his own eyes.
And—
"Your vassal's vassal is not your vassal."
Nugget being strong has nothing to do with Chiya's control.
Besides, the number of Ethereals this time looked like he'd attracted everything from the other side of the Hollow too—
Like holding up a sticky mosquito board in the middle of a rainforest.
"Waaah… sorry, Belle!"
"Hey! We're family! Apologize after we get out!"
"Belle! I calculated a new route—take it and get Chiya out of here!"
"Damn it! Why is it like this?!"
Back to the present — Black Goose site, inside Grace's warehouse
"Come on. Be good. Let me see!"
"No! I already told you—I'm not a Bangboo!"
"Aiyaa, I know, I know. Hurry and undo your clothes. Let me take a look."
"No!!"
"If you keep this up, then the demolition project—Initi—"
"Listen, Grace! Don't keep going down this wrong path!"
"Ben!"
"And me! A man's never late—!"
"A—Anton!"
Ben—who couldn't wait any longer—and Anton, now fully awake, kicked the door in.
The load-bearing pillar on Ben's shoulder and the power drill in Anton's hand glittered in the sunlight with righteous brilliance.
And behind them…
A small figure walked out slowly.
"G—RACE!"
"I told you!"
"Show some respect to Chiya!"
"Little runt—wait!"
"Ben! Combo move!"
"Roger! President!"
In the end, amid the chaos—
Good bro Anton successfully carried Chiya out and escaped.
And Black Goose site, thanks to extreme-volume, extreme-duration noise pollution, received a very personal "courtesy visit" from the Public Security Bureau.
Yep.
Another peaceful day.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 60)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 60)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 64)
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin