Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

"I, the Crown Princess, have been thrown into the Sea of Quanta and abandoned by the Emperor. Every day, I have to survive on these quantum shadows that come from who knows where..."

Kiana was heartbroken, wailing like an eight-year-old child who had been deserted.

"You feel the same way, right, Sis?!"

Durandal was much calmer. "No," she denied, "This is exactly how Overseer Otto used to throw me into the Sea of Quanta to work."

Kiana stared at her sister in shock. "How much did that Otto guy pay you?"

"I don't know, a lot, I think. More than I could spend most of the time. Why? Is there something you want to buy?" Durandal looked at Kiana curiously, not understanding why she would ask such a question.

"It seems like Noldrei has never given me any money either. I've mostly been spending Schicksal's funds," Kiana said, feeling like she was getting a raw deal as Crown Princess.

"Hasn't he already given you theoretically the most precious thing he could?"

Durandal's single sentence left Kiana completely stumped.

'Is that what I wanted? Bullcrap! He forced it on me, saying it was for my own good, for my own good, just like one of those weird Shenzhou parents.'

Kiana thought to herself that she never should have attacked that thing that looked like poop-mud. The most painful thing in her life was...

Wait a minute.

"Sis, how do you know about that? I don't remember telling anyone about it," Kiana said. She had always regarded that incident as a case of stepping in a pile of dog crap. She vaguely felt it was a good thing, but at the same time, it felt like she had just gotten "dog crap" lucky. The experience itself had been absolutely awful!

"Everyone knows about it. Mr. Noldrei is already preparing to write the story of how you met him into the history books. When he makes his grand proclamation and ascends to the throne, everyone will know how you first encountered him. Overseer Otto is already working overtime to help polish the manuscript."

Durandal spoke with such animation that Kiana was surprised her sister could even make so many expressions. But the content of what Durandal said almost made Kiana's brain short-circuit on the spot.

'He's going to do what?! He's going to write the story of how he met me in history textbooks for the whole world to read?!'

Kiana's mind went blank, as if she had just eaten a curry laced with something funky.

"No, what is he doing? Why is he doing this to me?! Am I doomed to appear to future generations only in that image for the rest of my life? What's the point of inheriting the empire then? When people look up at me, all they'll see is the me from the history books."

This time, Kiana was truly overwhelmed with grief and indignation, especially since she was trapped in the Sea of Quanta with no idea what other terrible things might befall her.

"What are you thinking? All of that content has to be reviewed by Overseer Otto before it's published. How could it possibly be released exactly as Mr. Noldrei describes it? Even if what's written is true, there's no need to tell everyone everything."

Kiana didn't doubt Durandal's words. Her sister had a one-track mind, but it was different from Kiana's own, which was often just muddled. Her sister's one-track mind manifested as an incredibly absurd level of personal conviction.

The term "Child of Destiny" was the most fitting description for Durandal's life journey, not to mention she carried the dual bloodlines of the Schariac and Kaslana families.

Because of her unique nature, Durandal had been able to get whatever she wanted since childhood without ever needing to lie. As a result, she had practically lost the ability to lie. (Of course, this didn't include lying to keep a cute little cat, even if that cat was a Honkai Beast.)

Her credibility amplified the devastating blow of this news for Kiana.

"You're my sister! Why didn't you stop something so awful?!" Kiana broke down on the spot. "And you even went along and read it!!!"

Kiana's scalp tingled, if she still had a scalp.

'It's precisely because I knew you'd react this way that I didn't tell you...'. Durandal's goal was to protect her sister's mental state. She knew full well that her sister's power was no match for Noldrei's. Since she couldn't interfere, she simply chose not to tell her, adopting a rather defeatist attitude.

Kiana writhed around in the Sea of Quanta like a giant, transparent worm, on the verge of blending in with the tentacled creatures that inhabited the space.

It was terrifying. This was the true form Durandal saw her sister in every day.

"So," Durandal began, "shouldn't we use 'anchor points' to see if we can find a parallel world?"

Durandal worried that things would only get more complicated with time. She just wanted to meet a few friends from a parallel world and tell their counterparts to hide their Herrschers quickly, preferably so Noldrei would never find them.

Just as she was thinking about how to prevent the parallel world from sending out any information about their own.

As one of the "traitors" by the Emperor's side, Durandal didn't feel the same inner turmoil as the Trisolarans.

This was because Noldrei was the type of guy who would actually go over and "pillage." He was single-mindedly focused on building his harem of Herrscher ponies, so of course, he wouldn't let go of any Herrschers he discovered.

If she could just block the feedback from a parallel world once or twice, Noldrei would lose interest in Honkai Energy, which was only usable within the solar system.

But things didn't go as smoothly as Durandal had anticipated. In the Sea of Quanta, she encountered a familiar "existence."

It wasn't so much that the thing itself was familiar, but rather that it was something that had appeared at Schicksal.

And from that existence descended a person who was both "familiar" and "unfamiliar" to Durandal.

"Rita?!" Durandal's eyes widened as she looked at the familiar friend who had appeared before her, her attention drawn to Rita's uncharacteristically long hair.

"Hmm?" Kiana also turned her gaze to the newcomer.

This person was not Rita.

The moment she saw this person, Kiana could tell from her genetic information that this was not the maid she knew.

"Sis, that's not the Rita you know."

"This friend is correct," the woman said. "However, you may call me 'Rita.' I am but a flower, occasionally similar, among countless bubbles of illusion." Her appearance was no different from Rita's, but she carried an unfamiliar lantern in her hand.

An unsteady blue light flickered within the lamp, like an ethereal flame guiding the way through the Sea of Quanta.

Durandal's heart sank. The moment Noldrei left, all these people from mysterious origins started popping up. Could this person be a Herrscher too?