Sirin held Clara’s small hand and walked into a house located deep within Boulder Town.
Although the walls were mottled and the furniture was simple, it was already quite rare in this resource-scarce and harsh Underworld.
The interior was sparsely furnished.
There was a worn wooden table, a few stools of varying heights, and two small beds placed side by side in the back of the room.
On the only table, there were three equally simple plates, each holding a fried egg, bacon, and a piece of black bread.
Someone was already sitting at the table.
Her hair was neatly tied back, and her purple eyes held their usual sharpness and impatience—it was Seele.
She was tapping her fingers unconsciously on the tabletop, and upon seeing Sirin and Clara enter, she raised an eyebrow:
“You’re finally back?
If you hadn’t come, I would have eaten by myself.”
“Yes, yes, yes~” Sirin replied, her tone unruffled, as she led Clara to sit at the table.
Clara consciously climbed onto a stool that was slightly too high for her and sat down.
After sitting down, Sirin didn’t eat her own portion; instead, she picked up her utensils and skillfully divided the fried egg, bacon, and black bread on her plate into two equal portions.
Then, she pushed half of it onto Clara’s plate, and subsequently moved toward Seele’s plate.
“Hey!” Seele immediately spoke up to stop her, blocking Sirin’s movement with her fork, her brow furrowing even tighter.
“I have enough!
Eat your own!
Don’t give your food to me and Clara every time!”
Sirin’s hand stopped.
She looked up and calmly gazed at Seele: “Seele, you know.
I am a puppet, I don’t need to eat.”
“Don’t keep using that as an excuse!” Seele’s voice rose slightly, carrying a hint of imperceptible agitation.
“You said it before, didn’t you?
Even if you can’t eat, it doesn’t mean you can’t taste!
Since you can taste, just eat your own portion properly!”
“Seele…” Sirin looked at her, seemingly wanting to say something.
“Mom,” Clara gently tugged at Sirin’s sleeve, looking at her, and whispered, “Don’t be angry with big sister…
Clara and big sister just saw that Mom hasn’t been back for a long time, and we just wanted to…
have a nice meal with Mom.”
Sirin’s gaze turned to Clara, and a faint softness seemed to flash across her calm eyes.
She reached out and stroked Clara’s snowy white hair.
“Mm, I know,” she said softly.
Then, she looked back at Seele and tilted her head slightly: “However, while we call it eating, it’s actually just me keeping you two company.”
“…Tch, who asked you to keep us company.” Seele turned her face away, her ears seemingly flushing a little red, but her tone had already softened.
She placed the divided food steadily onto Seele’s plate.
“Alright, don’t be’shy’.
If Mom gives it to you, eat it up.
Mom will keep you company until you finish the meal.”
“Tch.” Seele still refused to soften her words, but this time she didn’t refuse, tacitly accepting the food Sirin had shared.
She poked the fried egg on her plate with her fork and began to eat quietly.
Clara also ate her portion in small, cherished bites, occasionally sneaking a peek at Sirin to confirm that Mom was still by her side.
Halfway through the meal, Seele suddenly spoke, her voice lower than before: “How long…
will you be back for this time?”
Clara also immediately looked up, her eyes filled with clear anticipation as she gazed at Sirin.
They both knew that this “Mom” was not a native of Belobog and did not belong to this planet.
She had appeared suddenly in the Underworld about a decade ago, her whereabouts uncertain; sometimes she would disappear for months or even longer, and at other times, she would return quietly.
Every time she returned, she would bring some supplies from the outside world.
The people of the Underworld were able to slightly improve their lives and reduce some unnecessary casualties, largely thanks to these “outside” goods she brought.
A relatively “sumptuous” meal like today’s was an absolute luxury in the Underworld, and the source of the ingredients went without saying.
“This time…” Sirin looked at the two girls and said calmly, “I will stay until the catastrophe in Belobog ends, the Upper and Underworlds restore contact, and they coexist in peace.”
Seele’s hand holding the fork froze in mid-air.
Clara’s eyes widened as well.
Belobog’s “catastrophe”—that massive shadow which had shrouded this planet for centuries, bringing the Eternal Freeze, the Fragmentum, monsters, and the isolation between the Upper and Underworlds—had long become an inescapable despair in everyone’s hearts, an “end” that was unreachable and even dared not be hoped for.
Many people had long become numb, struggling to survive day after day, unable to see a future at all.
“End”…
This was almost an impossible word to realize.
But…
if it was their “Mom” saying this…
Seele and Clara exchanged a look, both seeing in each other’s eyes an unbelievable shock, as well as a trace of weak yet real hope that had been forcibly ignited.
Because their Mom was omnipotent; whatever she said, she would do.
(Perhaps…
there really is a sliver of possibility?)
This thought was like an extremely fragile sprout quietly budding deep within the frozen earth.
After silently finishing this meaningful dinner, Seele cleared the bowls and plates, said “I’m going on patrol” to Sirin and Clara, and then pushed the door open and left.
Sirin picked up the already sleepy Clara and walked toward the small bed in the inner room.
She gently helped Clara take off her coat, tucked her in, and then lay down on her side, holding the little girl in her arms.
Before completely drifting off into dreamland, she asked her deepest hope in a barely audible whisper:
“Mom…
will the…
catastrophe…
really end?”
Sirin’s chin rested gently on Clara’s soft white hair.
She answered in a low voice, her tone calm but filled with absolute certainty:
“It will.”
“Because, a group of people who have once saved countless worlds…
have set foot here once again.”
Clara seemed to want to ask something more, but ultimately could not overcome her sleepiness and fell into a deep sleep in Sirin’s steady embrace.
Sirin’s fingertips gently brushed over Clara’s soft white hair, her thoughts drifting back to over a decade ago.
At that time, she had not yet awakened the memories of her past life.
It was in that state that she saw Elio’s script.
Regarding the Jarilo-VI section, ripples arose in her heart, especially since the Astral Express’s archives also contained records of Jarilo-VI.
Elio did not stop her either.
It only spoke to her in its calm, waveless voice:
[You may, meow.]
[The direction of the script requires some unexpected variables to ensure it ultimately points toward a better future, meow.]
[As long as you guarantee that when they set foot on that land, the gaze of Preservation will arrive as promised…
the rest is up to you.]
Thus, Sirin came.
The first one she “picked up” was Seele.
It was in a chaotic corner of a scuffle in the Underworld.
The blue-haired girl was still very small, like a thin, bony young beast covered in thorns, confronting several vagrants much older than her over half a piece of moldy bread.
Her eyes were fierce, yet they could not hide the panic and despair deep within.
Sirin just stood there, watching calmly.
Until the conflict escalated and Seele, outnumbered, was about to be beaten down, she walked over.
Without flashy moves, she used minimal actions to render those vagrants unable to move.
After she brought Seele to Natasha’s clinic, and saw her injured again a few days later, bringing her back to the clinic again, after this happened many times, Natasha saw that her relationship with Seele was getting better and better, and asked if she could adopt her; Sirin agreed.
A few years later, deeper in the Robot Settlement, in the ruins near the edge of the Fragmentum contamination, she “picked up” Clara.
Thus, she had a second “daughter”.
Over a decade ago, it started because of the script, and because of the ripples in her heart.
Who could have imagined it?
The ripples of that year have now become the reasonable justification for Sirin’s appearance in this Belobog.