Hearing Lucien say he was homesick, little Kallen tilted her head, looking as if she half-understood.
She had never truly left home, nor could she fathom the deep-seated feelings buried in Lucien’s heart.
But that didn’t stop her from comforting him.
“Here, this is for you.”
As she spoke, the girl pulled something out of her pocket and stuffed it into the young man’s hand.
Lucien opened his palm and saw that it was a piece of candy wrapped in candy paper.
A few handfuls of soil from the homeland, a piece of candy in a foreign land.
It was quite interesting, really.
He reached out and pinched little Kallen’s fair, smooth cheek, teasingly saying:
“Coaxing me with the candy I gave you…
isn’t that a bit…?”
“Ehehe, I saved this one on purpose!” Exposed, little Kallen didn’t blush at all.
She pulled out another candy, popped it into her mouth, and muttered, “Mm~ Didn’t you say ‘Everything will be okay after eating candy’?”
After saying that, as if sweetened by the candy, she offered a sweet smile.
Lucien looked at little Kallen and couldn’t help but laugh softly.
Silly girl, I was lying to you.
Truth be told, this is the first time I’ve ever received candy from someone else.
In the end, Lucien couldn’t bring himself to reject little Kallen’s kindness.
He popped the candy into his mouth.
Mmm, very sweet—almost as sweet as little Kallen’s smile.
After carefully putting away the candy wrapper, Lucien savored the sweetness and quietly looked at little Kallen, a thought stirring in his heart.
Although he had been taking care of both children, he had always shown a clear bias toward little Otto.
But at this very moment, that bias was completely rectified.
Perhaps…
perhaps he should also try to guide little Kallen…
Under the tree, little Otto shrank in the shadow, his expression calm.
Leaning against the tree, he rubbed the handles of his wheelchair, carefully chewing on every detail of the conversation between Lucien and little Kallen.
Finally, he nodded gently, as if he had made up his mind.
[After eating the candy Kallen gave you, your affection for Kallen increased.]
[You developed the desire to guide and protect Kallen.]
[This desire persisted into the next day.]
[Just as you were pondering how to keep both Otto and Kallen by your side, the two little ones ran up to you.]
[They said they wanted to give you a surprise, so they needed some time alone without you following them.]
[Huh?]
First, I need to finish reading a classic…]
[July 5th: Second day with private time.
I really miss Otto and Kallen.]
[July 6th: Third day with private time.
I really miss Otto and Kallen.]
[July 7th: Lucien, oh Lucien!
How could you be so lazy?
Wasting private time instead of improving yourself—this must never happen again!]
[July 9th: Sixth day with private time.
I really miss Otto and Kallen.]
[…]
[The two little ones spent the rest of their day with you anyway; you were simply unused to spending time alone.]
[After all, if you weren’t thinking about them, you’d be stuck dwelling on your misfortunes back in the real world.]
[As for cherishing this time, laying down plans, and secretly manipulating the entire situation in Europe…]
[If you were actually capable of doing something like that, you wouldn’t have lived peacefully in your hometown until you were eighteen.]
[After several consecutive days, this torture finally came to an end.]
At noon, Lucien held his “hilarious diary,” pondering how to destroy it as gracefully as possible.
Just then, the two little cuties, Otto and Kallen, came over together.
Little Kallen was pushing little Otto’s wheelchair, while little Otto held an object covered by a red cloth in his hands.
Presumably, this was the “surprise” they had prepared.
Lucien thought for a moment and calmly tucked the diary away safely.
“Ahem, is this the surprise you two prepared?”
“Mhm, we prepared it together for a long time,” said little Otto.
“Yup, I helped out a lot too!
Hurry and take a look, I guarantee it’s a surprise!” said little Kallen.
Although all little Kallen did the entire time was hand tools to little Otto and chat to keep him entertained when bored, that didn’t stop little Otto from acknowledging this as the fruit of their joint effort.
So the statements “prepared together” and “helped out a lot” were not wrong at all.
“…” Receiving a gift for the first time in his life, Lucien pursed his lips and suddenly realized his heart was beating fast.
Was it anticipation?
Was it excitement?
Or perhaps both?
With mixed emotions, he reached out and lifted the red cloth covering the item in little Otto’s hands.
The sphere was crystal clear, resting on a mahogany base that sat quietly on little Otto’s lap.
Lucien might have had a few guesses about what surprise they were preparing, but seeing this snow globe before him still left him stunned.
Holy crap, making a model airplane in this era is one thing, but how on earth did he make a snow globe?!
Is this something that should even exist in this era?!
Honkai Energy really is all-powerful, huh?
Otto’s ability is pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Lucien’s thoughts churned, but his eyes remained locked on the scene inside the snow globe—draped in silver, ancient and elegant structures stretched and winded endlessly.
This was…
the Great Wall…
[In an instant, your ears could not hear, and your mouth could not speak, for your eyes recognized the structure and where it came from.]
[You didn’t miss your hometown, but you were born there, raised there, drank its water, and ate its food for eighteen years.
That was a past you could never sever in this lifetime.]
[Your homeland made up everything you were.
You didn’t miss her, but given the chance, you would probably be willing to die there and be buried there.]
[On this point alone, no other place in the world could ever compare.]
[Shameful as it was, you spent your entire life studying mindlessly in a small county town, and until your “death,” you never managed to leave it.]
[Naturally, you never got to see the vast and beautiful lands of your homeland, let alone see the Great Wall with your own eyes.]
[However, there was no need to see it in the future anymore.]
[You gently stroked the snow globe, as if touching the snow-covered Great Wall through the glass, or touching the emotions rested upon this single snow globe.]
[After a long time, you carefully put away the snow globe, and then pulled Otto and Kallen into your embrace, one on each side.]
[Only then did you completely lose control of your trembling shoulders.]
[When your father died, you didn’t cry.
When your mother ran away with someone else, you didn’t cry.
Even when you received the news of your grandparents’ passing right after completing the college entrance exam—a moment of extreme joy turned to grief—you didn’t cry.]
[It wasn’t that you were cold-blooded or lacked feeling, but that you believed rather than shedding a few cheap tears or weeping in mourning for those who could no longer hear, keeping moving forward was what a survivor truly ought to do.]
[In other words, you resisted releasing grief, preferring to shoulder everything alone.]
[Just like when you first transmigrated and endured the excruciating pain of cramps and skinning without letting out a single sound, doing nothing but grinding your teeth together.]
[However, there are exceptions to everything.]
[You couldn’t hold it in any longer.]
[You had already spent many days in this world, spending quite some time with Otto and Kallen.]
[Yet only today did you truly begin living in this world.]
[The world moves between truth and illusion, two realms clearly divided.]
[Where is home in a foreign land?
Wherever the heart finds peace, there is home.]