“That’s incredible… is this really the strength of a Valkyrie from Headquarters?”
At the designated rendezvous point, Sienna stepped onto the transport plane waiting to take her back.
She had wiped out every last Honkai Beast in the area with effortless ease, a feat that earned her looks of raw admiration and envy from the other Valkyries on board.
“With skills like that, you’ve got to be at A-rank level, right?”
One of the girls—a fellow B-rank Valkyrie—leaned over to ask as Sienna stowed her gear and took her seat.
“No, not at all. I’m still a long way off from the real A-ranks, like the ones in the Snowwolf Squad.”
At this point in time, an A-rank wasn’t like the later generations who reached that level simply by stacking Valkyrie armor and artificial Stigmata.
Right now, Schicksal’s Valkyrie exams were far more grueling than they would become in the future.
In the entire organization, the number of A-ranks before the war wasn’t much higher than the number of S-ranks.
“Still, you’re way stronger than me.”
The girl thought back to the enemies Sienna had faced.
If those things had appeared in front of her, there was no way she could have returned so pristine—not a scratch on her, and not even breathing hard.
“Are you from the Kaslana family?”
The Valkyrie took a closer look at Sienna’s white hair and blue eyes.
She figured she’d found the source of the gap between them.
“I am.”
As a descendant of Kevin, the strongest MANTIS, the Kaslana bloodline remained significantly more powerful than average humans even after dozens of generations.
That power in their veins ensured that almost every member of the clan could become a warrior against the Honkai.
“Then you’ll definitely be an A-rank someday.”
Upon hearing Sienna’s confirmation, the girl felt a mix of certainty in Sienna’s potential and a touch of envy for her birthright.
Outside of houses like the Kaslanas or the Schariacs, civilian-born Valkyries were one-in-a-hundred finds.
Schicksal had originally been founded and ruled by the Three Houses, but since Otto’s rise, it had become an organization under his sole control.
To Otto, the current Kaslanas were merely a convenient tool for fighting the Honkai.
But to an ordinary Valkyrie, they were a clan of immense combat power and influence.
In every generation of Valkyries, the elite top tier always included a few Kaslanas.
A girl from a common background like herself, even if she managed to survive until retirement, would likely never move past B-rank.
“Hey… I’ve heard some pretty bad rumors about Siegfried. Are they actually true?”
Thinking of the Kaslanas naturally brought up the current head of the family, Siegfried.
In a world where men’s resistance to the Honkai was far inferior to women’s, he had somehow managed to become an S-rank.
“You mean the one about him groping every Valkyrie in sight? Total nonsense.”
After seeing Cecilia set to marry Siegfried, Shigure Kira—Cecilia’s number one fangirl—had resorted to spreading rumors just to vent her rage and frustration. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping dot com.
“If he actually tried something like that, Lady Cecilia would definitely whip out Abyss Flower and beat him within an inch of his life while healing him at the same time.”
Siegfried was the head of her family, after all; Sienna figured she might as well clear his name while she was out and about.
“I guess that makes sense.”
Even if the union between the Kaslana patriarch and the Schariac Holy Maiden had originally been orchestrated by Otto, Siegfried’s love for Cecilia was undeniably real.
‘Maybe not now, but just you wait.’
Sienna thought about the version of Siegfried from a few years down the line—the depressed man who would barely give Kiana an education.
During their escape from Schicksal, he wouldn’t even manage to take the real Kiana with him, eventually giving her name to K-423 instead.
By then, Cecilia might not be so inclined to heal him after breaking his legs.
“Do you have more missions tomorrow?”
Having exhausted the family gossip, the two shifted the conversation toward work.
“Yeah. Until that whole sector is cleared out, every day is going to be just like today.”
Compared to Sienna, who could pick and choose her assignments, their schedule was much more grueling.
“Well, it’ll be cleared eventually.”
“It’s better than those missions where you have no idea what kind of danger you’re walking into. These aren’t so bad.”
The current mop-up operations were just one phase of the Great Second Honkai War.
Now that Schicksal was fully mobilized, their intelligence gathering made every sortie much clearer.
They could scout their destinations with high precision.
“We don’t have to pack for days in the wilderness anymore. We go out on time, and we come back on time.”
The survivors had long been evacuated, and the area was sealed off from civilians.
Faced with Honkai Beasts that didn’t move around much, the plan was simple: kill a set quota every day and then retreat.
It was a strategy designed to keep Valkyrie casualties to an absolute minimum.
“If you’re heading out tomorrow, want me to show you a few interesting spots in the city?”
“No thanks. I’ve already planned out what I’m doing for the next few days.”
With Vanilla helping her gather Honkai Energy on the battlefield, Sienna could finally go find Cocolia.
“Well, if you’re going out, remember to bundle up.”
Seeing that Sienna had her own plans, the Valkyrie dropped the subject.
–+–
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Cocolia pounded hard on the rusted, peeling iron door, waiting for someone inside to let her in.
After using the money Sienna gave her to nose around the city, she had finally tracked down this cheap rental building.
“What do you want?”
The woman inside peered through the peephole.
She clearly didn’t want to open up, but then she remembered that just a few days ago, this woman had been pointing a gun at her.
Realizing she still had no way to resist, she reluctantly opened the door.
“I’m not the one looking for you.”
Cocolia saw the cold expression on the woman’s face but didn’t care.
She stepped inside, glancing around at the sparse room containing only the most basic furniture.
Cocolia set her bag on the table and sat down, looking up at the still-standing Mrs.
Zaychik.
“First off, whether you believe it or not, I didn’t kill your husband. You saw how things were back then.”
The woman couldn’t do anything to her, but Cocolia didn’t want someone nursing a grudge against her forever.
She had to explain what happened.
Whether the woman actually listened was another story.
“Second, a strange person asked me to bring you some money.”
With that, Cocolia pulled a thick stack of bills from her bag.
“This…”
Regarding her husband’s death, she knew exactly what he had been up to.
There was the monster that appeared out of nowhere, and then there were the prisoners.
But since she hadn’t seen the scene with her own eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to fully trust Cocolia’s words.
She started to speak, but the sight of the money cut her off.
“They just told me to give you this. As for the rest…”
Mid-explanation, Cocolia’s phone began to ring.
That person, Sienna, was back at the base and finally had a moment to call.