Seiya had a habit of taking care of children, he realised as he trudged through the snowfields.
‘Well, I suppose Bella doesn’t count as a child.
She looks around sixteen.’
He should probably ask her, he realised.
Turning around, he glanced back at the trio following behind him.
They had ditched the car for a while in order to collect firewood in the forest and hunt a few animals.
They had insisted on coming along, even though they probably wouldn’t be able to help much.
Now, however, they were utterly exhausted and insisted on stopping every few seconds.
So Seiya leaned against a tree while waiting for Galina—the one who had been most adamant about coming—to catch her breath.
Bella, meanwhile, noticed him waiting and hurried forward to reach his side.
“Bella, look ahead a bit and check whether there are any animals nearby.”
She nodded eagerly, happy to be useful.
An hour or so later, they had secured themselves a nice piece of venison.
Seiya had killed the deer painlessly, sparing the girls from the bloodier parts of the hunt.
“I suppose I should at least tell you all where I’m going, and why.”
The three girls looked at him inquisitively.
They had simply assumed he was taking them to a nearby town or city.
“Bella already knows this, but I have a sister named Sirin.
I love her a lot, and she was taken by those Schicksal grunts.
The same ones I saved you from.”
He paused briefly upon noticing their attentive expressions before continuing.
‘So that’s what they’re called?
Schicksal?’
The three girls thought in unison.
“I’m going to their lab to get her back.
Staying with me will continue to be dangerous.
For a long time, you’ll have to rough it out on the road with me.”
Seiya finished with a reassuring smile—not one trying to convince them to stay, but one that quietly said:
‘It’s fine if you wish to leave.
It would be safer for you if you did.
I set out alone.
I’ll finish alone.’
The three girls, however, proved far more resolute than expected.
Bella beamed at him, though confusion lingered faintly on her face.
He had saved her life.
And he had mentioned a laboratory.
He had probably rescued her from torturous experiments like the ones she’d read about in books.
‘Surely Lord Seiya doesn’t think I’d forget him that easily.
I have a life debt to repay.’
In truth, Bella’s inspiration for this mindset came almost entirely from fantasy novels.
The idea of journeying alongside a heroic saviour rescuing his younger sister only deepened the hero worship she already felt toward him.
Galina flashed him a fiery grin with all the determination a fourteen-year-old could muster, while Agata nodded timidly beside her.
Both of them still wanted to help the purple angel.
When everything someone has ever known is ripped away in an instant…
When everyone they have ever loved is slaughtered before their eyes…
And when every remaining source of hope takes the form of a single man who looks almost angelic…
Three young girls’ devotion naturally falls upon his shoulders.
Seiya understood this.
These were not heroic Valkyries.
They were not soldiers prepared to die in battle, nor were they Honkai Beasts driven by instinctive destruction.
These were merely three teenage girls whose lives had been shredded apart by catastrophe.
He had saved them at the lowest point they would likely ever experience—a state worse than death itself.
They had watched their families massacred without reason before being dragged away toward an unknown fate.
And then, like a beam of light descending from the heavens onto the mortal plane, this golden-eyed saviour had drenched his hands in blood to rescue them.
At times of great desperation, humanity turns its gaze toward the heavens.
They’d begged and cried.
The heavens had not answered their pleas.
But Seiya had.
And they had never even asked him to.
Thus, all of their belief fell upon this seemingly divine being—their grief and despair intertwined with the fragile hope preventing them from collapsing entirely.
Naturally, they clung to hope and rejected despair.
Seiya had filled their starving stomachs, treated them gently, and offered them a path forward.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that, at this point in time, they would willingly throw away their lives to protect his.
Such is the despair and hope of humanity.
As fickle as the whims of a god, yet as intertwined as yin and yang.
Faced with their fragile mental states and adolescent hopes, Seiya chose to take them with him.
More people were always useful, even if only to keep watch at night.
Besides, at present, they had no one left in the world except each other—and him.
Leaving them now would shatter them completely, a fate crueler than death itself.
Who knew what kind of people might take advantage of them if he simply abandoned them in some random town?
So, as always…
Making cute girls cry was a sin, y’know~?
Sirin held onto hope.
She gazed out toward the stars, warmth enveloping her small body.
It had been three days since she had arrived at Babylon Labs, and honestly…things weren’t that bad in her mind.
Sure, she had been subjected to brutal experimentation in the name of science.
But there were bright sides too!
Instead of being crammed into a room with three other people like the other prisoners, she had a room all to herself!
And she’d only have to stay here for a little while.
Surely her brother would come save her.
He was probably already on his way!
Big Brother Seiya was incredibly reliable!
And so, while the scientists marvelled at her astonishingly stable mental state, Sirin simply looked toward the stars.
They had been pleased with her high level of “Honkai tolerance,” whatever that meant.
So she was safe for now.
For the time being, Sirin intended to cooperate instead of resisting.
The happier she kept the scientists, the less likely they were to accidentally hurt her.
Big Brother Seiya would hate seeing her injured!
Thus, while idly twiddling her thumbs, she stared at the night sky with hope filling her heart.
The injections they had given her honestly hadn’t been that bad.
The others cried a lot, but perhaps they simply had poor pain tolerance.
‘If Big Brother Seiya had raised them, they’d think this was nothing too.
Actually, knowing him, when he comes to rescue me, he probably won’t leave them behind either.
Will the cabin even be big enough for everyone?’
Sirin doubted it.
The absurd mental image drew a small giggle from her lips, which she barely managed to stifle.
The guards outside remained deeply confused by her astonishingly cheerful mood compared to the other children.
Perhaps she had simply lost her mind.
That had to be it.
Meanwhile, Seiya looked up toward the stars from the forest floor, the jeep hidden among snowy foliage nearby.
Bella, Agata, and Galina slept huddled together across from him.
Far apart, beneath the same sky, Sirin and Seiya both reached toward the heavens.
Two voices rang out simultaneously from entirely different places.
“Wait for me, Sirin!”
“I’ll be waiting, Big Brother!”