Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

After everything was settled, Noldrei finally led Kiana out of the Kaslana Stigma Space.

Regardless of how it happened, she had successfully created her own Stigma Will. The only problem was that its IQ remained on the exact same level as her own.

An increase in knowledge hadn't changed Kiana's simple heart.

Cocolia was truly a master trainer of people. She had gaslit those young girls so thoroughly, yet Bronya still obediently called her "Mama"?

Misteln would probably weep for Alexandra. This was the fate of those who died too early. Look at what Bronya had been educated into?

"Mei, what's going on with them?"

Kiana asked Mei in shock. The first thing she saw upon exiting was Bronya, under Cocolia's tutelage, apologizing to Noldrei.

A torrent of "You've been too good to me" caught Kiana completely off guard.

"I guess... I guess Bronya just thinks Noldrei has been too good to her? That must be it."

Raiden Mei explained simply.

Kiana's pupils contracted. "You're saying," she whispered, "that Noldrei—the one who turned me into a slime tentacle monster, criticized my aesthetic preferences, forced me to go to school, modified me whenever he felt like it, and made my clothes explode at the drop of a hat; the one who periodically enters my Stigma Space to lecture me and always assigns me jobs I've never done before—Little Bronya thinks he's been good to her? Has she gotten addicted to being a pony?"

'You seem to have kept a very clear record of every single instance, haven't you?'

Mei explained, "Being a pony is actually pretty great. Besides that, maybe she just genuinely thinks Noldrei is good to her...? Huh, he does seem to be pretty good to everyone. Look, didn't he save me? If not for him, I would have almost become a Herrscher too."

'Isn't becoming a Herrscher something you can do whenever you want?' Kiana felt nothing special about it. By the time she encountered Herrschers, Noldrei had already beaten them into a state of disenchantment.

The only one worth mentioning was Sirin, who was too cruel, killing many innocent people and Valkyries. But those Valkyries were planning to kill Kiana anyway, so from her perspective, she had no reason to be hostile towards Sirin.

"Mei, you've been corrupted too. Look at his confused expression. I bet he doesn't even think he's been that good to Bronya."

Kiana was right.

Noldrei was baffled by Little Bronya's perplexing behavior for a few seconds before he calmly said to her, "Little Bronya, is it possible? It's not that I've been good to you, but that the people who raised you before were too cruel to you?"

Bronya, still glowing with newfound gratitude, didn't react at first. Her mind went blank for a moment...

She subconsciously glanced at Cocolia, who was staring at the ceiling, frowning in deep thought about some great problem concerning the future of humanity.

'Oh no, I've been gaslighted all this time! Even this monstrous man from the future thinks my past life was too miserable.'

Bronya was shocked to realize that she was being pitied by someone who didn't care about others' opinions at all. It just went to show how much abuse she had suffered before.

But then, the young girl's mind did another flip. She spoke up in his defense, "No, that's not right. Bronya's past was terrible. Doesn't that mean you, who changed that situation, have been really good to me?"

Noldrei was utterly stunned. He never imagined that in this primitive era, one could control a person to this extent without using genetic information.

If Noldrei were tasked with such a job, he wasn't confident he could achieve it without resorting to cognitive control methods.

"Well... you're right. I'll be better to you in the future."

Noldrei said with a heavy heart, "From now on, even after Seele comes back, you can still come to me in private."

A huge burst of enthusiasm erupted from Bronya. "Really?" she asked, overjoyed. "Even after Seele comes back? That's wonderful!"

'This is great! Rounding up, I'll have two Seeles! One during work, and one after work!'

Such a happy life filled Bronya with the motivation to move forward.

The rest of the family was utterly baffled.

This little loli has definitely been gaslighted, hasn't she?

No matter how much Kiana thought about it, she couldn't figure out what kind of private meeting could make Bronya so excited and energetic.

In just one short year, he had molded this little loli into his own shape. It was too much!

Kiana was dying to know what those two were doing in private.

If she knew that while she was getting lectures, this little assassin in charge of monitoring Mei was getting to work while cuddling a beautiful girl every day... who knows how jealous she would be.

This was blatant preferential treatment. Perhaps the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, Li Chengqian, had felt something similar.

"Mei, did something happen between them that I don't know about while I was out working?"

Kiana's brow furrowed, as if she had just seen Sirin trying to usurp her power.

"If I knew, would I be standing here looking confused?"

Raiden Mei rolled her eyes and gently patted the head of the little pony next to her. "Ana, what do you think?"

"Huh? What? What happened?!"

The little pony shifted its hooves uneasily. Ana knew better than anyone that Kiana, as the Crown Princess, had received a great deal of Noldrei's attention over the past year.

On the other hand, Kiana, having been converted from a human of this era, instinctively retained a sense of territoriality in her relationships.

They absolutely could not let Her Highness the Crown Princess develop unnecessary jealousy.

Otherwise, who knew what this girl, who lacked both a father's and a mother's love, was capable of? The key point was that the current Kiana actually had the power to do it.

Ana chose her words carefully. "It's probably... definitely the boss encouraging an excellent employee. Didn't you hear what foster father said? Bronya's previous treatment must have been too poor. She has found the enlightened ruler of her heart!"

'Impressive, Ana! You've got a whole string of clever phrases there. It actually sounds plausible!'

Raiden Mei patted her little pony sister's head in encouragement.

Kiana also felt that there probably wasn't anything too strange going on between Bronya and Noldrei. She thought about it for a while and decided she was being too sensitive and suspicious, probably from reading too much about the art of being an emperor.

"That makes sense. The more loyal Bronya is now, the more beneficial it is for our team exploring the Sea of Quanta."

Kiana was different from the others. Although she and Theresa were both products of a lab, Kiana had experienced a pitifully small amount of familial love.

Even though Siegfried had lived with her for a time, their time of mutual care was too brief.

The first person in this world to give her an identical life structure was, in fact, an airdropped man from the future.

Her paternal, maternal, and peer relationships had been completely and forcibly usurped by an outsider.

It was a "new" ethical relationship that was difficult to explain.