Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Bronya was caught in an unspeakable dilemma.

She herself didn't see any problem, but she hadn't considered the possibility that Noldrei might just say it out loud.

He had simply kept quiet out of habit. On most matters, he maintained a basic respect for everyone's feelings.

Aside from some initial conflicts when he first arrived due to "cultural differences" and "when in Rome" issues, Noldrei was a very normal and friendly human friend.

But right now, Noldrei had no time to deal with Bronya's minor girlish troubles.

He was up late, hanging out with his Crown Princess, engaged in a very important task.

"Kiana, create a 'Crown Granddaughter' to be our regent!"

"No way! Can't you find anyone else to manage things?" Kiana flatly rejected the absurd proposal. She was just going to a parallel world to help investigate and find someone; why did she suddenly have to create a child for herself?

"To be honest, no, I can't. Because of the constraints of her Honkai Core and her own Stigma, Tesla can't enter the Kaslana Stigma Space. So, having another powerful Kaslana heir right now would be extremely beneficial."

Noldrei said with a straight face, "Think about it. With your abilities and mine, we could create a countless number of Durandals almost without limit. Wouldn't the Honkai be a piece of cake then? I'm telling you, Otto's method of cultivating them one by one is too slow. If we just clone and mass-produce exceptional individuals, we could easily churn out S-rank Valkyries."

'He makes a frightening amount of sense, but there's no way I'm doing something like that.'

Kiana found him utterly ridiculous. "Then why don't you do it yourself?" she retorted.

Noldrei looked at her in surprise. "Do you really want to see me create a bunch of you?"

That stumped the white-haired girl. She herself was the product of a cloning experiment. If Noldrei took her genes and cloned a whole army of new Kianas...

She didn't dare even imagine the scene.

"You're right, so that's why you're asking me? But I don't want to clone myself to create some regent either. No matter how much you try to persuade me, I won't agree to it."

Kiana still refused. She felt there was something inherently dangerous about creating a child specifically to work for her.

It seemed the plan to have Kiana create a proper Kaslana Crown Granddaughter was dead in the water.

This made Noldrei hesitate. For a moment, he really wasn't sure who could properly control the Kaslana Stigma Space.

But he didn't feel comfortable entrusting it to anyone else.

"It seems we'll have to use another method: creating a Stigma Will."

A Stigma Will—a slice of one's current self. Such an entity could barely serve as a regent.

When the Emperor returned to his throne, this Stigma Will could be erased, its purpose served.

Noldrei then shared his idea with Kiana.

Kiana's expression was very strange. She had actually met the Kaslana Stigma Will before—a young man who looked a lot like Noldrei.

The problem was, she subconsciously saw this Stigma Will as a person, not just a "slice" of some past Kaslana.

For instance, she saw him not as a Stigma Will, but subconsciously as a still-living Kaslana ancestor.

"Um... that doesn't feel any different from creating a person..."

Kiana was troubled, though she did know how to slice her own will using the power of the Stigmas.

She had learned this type of activity from observing the interactions between many people and their Stigma Battle Suits.

"You're right. If you were to create a Kiana Stigma Will now, and that will were to defeat your current will, then theoretically, the new will would become the new Kiana."

Noldrei didn't mince words, truthfully explaining the shifting nature of human consciousness. It was like a simple version update for a computer, except humans can't perceive the effects of such an update. Or rather, a sufficiently powerful physical brain can handle several versions running simultaneously.

This was the legendary phenomenon of schizophrenia. Kiana had seen people in mental hospitals who had developed psychosis from their Stigma Battle Suits.

Compared to direct Honkai adaptability experiments, a failure with a Stigma Battle Suit only resulted in temporary psychosis, which was practically harmless by comparison.

Kiana's expression soured. She had a feeling that if she continued down this line of thought, it meant the Herrscher of the Void was, in fact, also Kiana.

But now, their consciousnesses were separate, and they had become two completely different people.

"I think..."

Her instincts made her reluctant to split off a part of herself. But if she handed the Kaslana Stigma Space over to someone else, Kiana didn't feel entirely at ease.

"How about we temporarily hand it over to Siegfried? Let your father manage it?"

Hearing Noldrei's words, she immediately shook her head. "I don't think my father is strong enough to suppress the Kaslana Stigma Will."

"How about we let Otto fill in?"

Noldrei proposed another heavyweight.

Kiana made an emoticon-like expression of disbelief. She couldn't believe Noldrei would even suggest Otto as an option.

"After everything he's done to me, you still want to pick him to take over my job? Do you have a problem with me or something?"

Kiana truly didn't expect Noldrei to have such high regard for Otto. At this rate, she'd rather let Theresa take over.

Noldrei, seemingly oblivious to her anger, calmly explained, "I believe Otto is currently the most capable person to execute my plans. With him as regent, though he will definitely make some small moves and even plant some traps in the Stigma Space, I believe he can perfectly maintain the stable operation of the entire Stigma Space."

Whether Otto might try to usurp the "nation" was a problem for later. For now, he would definitely keep the country running. As for how many people he might indirectly harm in the process, that wasn't Noldrei's concern.

Kiana had to admit that Noldrei had a knack for picking people. They all perfectly suited his needs.

"Why don't we leave Durandal behind? Or give it to Tesla? The Anti-Entropy Sovereign could also do it. I can't trust anything Otto does..."

At that moment, Kiana understood the importance of a central leader.

She realized that even finding a perfect replacement for herself was incredibly difficult.

"We need Durandal with us. Currently, only she and Rita have been to the Sea of Quanta and returned intact. And..."

Noldrei paused for a moment before saying with a smile, "I want to know if it's possible for the two of them to become Herrschers."

'No wonder you were thinking of choosing Otto...'

Kiana was speechless. So their family was just destined to be tied to Herrschers, wasn't it?