The next day, when Kiana woke from her sleep, the time had already reached morning.
Opening her eyes, the Sunday sunlight filtered through the half-drawn curtains, casting several slender streaks of light across the floor of the rented apartment.
When Kiana woke up, she felt much lighter than the day before.
The lingering effects of the fever had faded, but her first reaction was still to warily scan her surroundings.
An unfamiliar ceiling, unfamiliar smells, an unfamiliar sofa.
…Sofa?
Kiana sat up abruptly and found herself lying on the living room sofa, covered with that blanket.
Right.
She had already agreed to stay at Liang Wu’s place.
Thinking back to last night’s conversation, Kiana could not help letting her mind wander again.
According to the information from last night, she had arrived in what seemed to be a past civilization on Earth.
And she had encountered someone else who came from the same place as her, who happened to know who she was.
Was something like that really possible?
Could this really not be some experimental site deliberately set up by Otto to deceive her into fulfilling some ulterior purpose of his?
Kiana had indeed considered such doubts, but for some reason, she had inexplicably chosen to trust him for the time being.
Moreover, during dinner last night, she had experienced a hallucination and accidentally mistaken him for Lady Cecilia, even calling out “Mom.”
“!!!” Realizing again what she had done last night, Kiana’s face flushed once more.
Kiana, Kiana, what was wrong with you?
Why did you suddenly call a man “Mom”!?
She shook her head vigorously, trying to drive those messy thoughts away.
But feeling the quiet atmosphere around her, Kiana still felt a bit dazed.
At that moment, Liang Wu, who was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, noticed that she was awake: “You’re up.
How did you sleep last night?”
Kiana nodded, then shook her head, and finally let out a vague “Mm” as her answer.
Liang Wu did not press further.
He simply brought over a steaming bowl of plain congee: “I know you ate quite a bit last night and might not have digested it all yet, but do you want to have a little something to start the day?”
“No, thank you, but I’m not hungry yet!” Kiana refused almost instinctively.
But in reality, as a Kaslana with a bottomless stomach, the food from last night had not even come close to filling the deficit from the past few days.
However, since she and Liang Wu had only just met, she could not yet bring herself to accept his kindness as if it were perfectly reasonable.
Liang Wu glanced at her but did not insist.
Get ready, we’re going out in a bit.”
“Going out?” Kiana was taken aback.
“Where are we going?”
“To get you some things, of course.
Clothes, daily necessities.
You can’t keep wearing my T-shirt and using my toothbrush forever, can you?”
Kiana looked down at the oversized white T-shirt she was wearing, and her ears began to redden again.
“I…
I can do without…”
“That won’t do.
Since I’ve decided to take you in, I’ll see it through.” Liang Wu cut her off.
“You don’t plan to keep wandering around this era in my clothes and using everything I’ve used, do you?”
Hearing the words “take you in,” Kiana turned her head away sullenly.
Right now, she felt like a stray cat with nowhere to go.
First Siegfried had taken her in, then Theresa, and now even this person she had only known for a day wanted to take her in.
“…I’ll pay you back.”
Liang Wu did not pay it much mind.
Though as a student, he was not exactly wealthy, he could take out a small loan!
He was already an adult.
Though his credit score was not quite high enough, if he worked on it a bit, he could still withdraw some money.
What, you say this money is just borrowed, and what if he could not pay it back later?
That was the thinking of the weak!
The Third Herrscher was about to descend.
His top priority right now was to farm Kiana’s bond points and get rewards to level up.
A small loan was merely a bit of frost on the path to godhood.
Liang Wu spoke again: “Sure.
We’ll talk when you actually have currency from this era.”
As he spoke, he turned and walked to the door, taking his jacket off the hook and putting it on.
Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only softly murmured, “…Thank you.”
Seeing Kiana’s reaction, Liang Wu had some thoughts.
What was going on with Kiana?
When she had first woken up yesterday, she had not trusted him at all.
She had even suspected he was sent by Otto and had a little scuffle with him.
Yet today, she had suddenly become so docile?
She could not even look him straight in the eye!
In fact, Liang Wu had a fair idea of the answer.
It must have been because of the Cecilia Stigmata he had acquired last night.
Stigmata were a miracle of the Previous Era’s biotechnology.
Their purpose was to allow humans to control the power of Honkai, and in essence, they were a database storing vast amounts of genetic information.
Now that he had obtained the Cecilia Stigmata, Liang Wu had, in a sense, awakened Cecilia’s genes.
And combined with his own white hair and blue eyes, the hallucinatory effect was immediate!
After all, during dinner last night, Kiana had suddenly called him “Mom” out of nowhere!
Wasn’t that absurd?
An eighteen-year-old young man suddenly became a mother.
Even now, Liang Wu could tell that Kiana’s gaze toward him was off.
But for Liang Wu, this was actually good news.
Wasn’t it just being a male mother figure?
So be it.
This actually worked in his favor for building bond points!
Moreover, after awakening the Stigmata, aside from the [Blood of the Saint] skill, all of Liang Wu’s stats had improved.
According to the system’s evaluation, his stats were now comparable to those of an A-rank Valkyrie.
In this era, on the eve of the Third Herrscher’s outbreak, if you looked purely at stats, he might even rank in the top ten of humanity’s combat strength.
With that thought, Liang Wu’s mood brightened even more: “Let’s go, daughter.
Time to go shopping.”
But Kiana’s face flushed again: “I told you, last night was just an accident!!!”