"How were the results?" Kaguya asked.
"There are Entries, but they aren't very bright, probably because they were fabricated." Chen Li sounded rather disappointed. He placed his hand on Sirin's chest and pushed her Herrscher of the Void core back into her body.
An Entry for the Herrscher of the Void with that level of brightness wasn't worth extracting. He might as well just extract from his own blood.
"So the Herrscher core wholesale plan is bankrupt?"
"Bankrupt."
"What's the 'Herrscher core wholesale plan'?" Sirin frowned.
"No need to worry about a plan that's already gone bankrupt," Chen Li said.
"Retainer, do you have a great need for things that carry historical significance? Like the 'Entries' you mentioned?"
"More or less. Or things with distinct characteristics will also have Entries," Chen Li nodded.
"Hmm... do I not have any Entries on me at all?" Sirin asked, a little unwilling to accept it.
"You do."
"What Entry?"
"Puffiness."
"..."
Sirin bit her lower lip, the initial desire to contribute more being rapidly replaced by shame and anger. Her cheeks flushed a visible crimson, and her whole demeanor resembled a cat whose tail had been stepped on—furious, yet unsure how to vent her rage.
Damn him!
"Whoa," Kaguya stared at Sirin in surprise. This was the first time she had seen such a literal, physical manifestation of someone "seeing red."
"Benares has an Entry too, and it looks pretty interesting," Chen Li suddenly added.
"What Entry?"
"Loyalty," Chen Li said.
"Loyalty!" Benares immediately stood up, planting her hands on her hips and standing protectively in front of Sirin.
"Good, very spirited!"
"By the way, Retainer, I wanted to ask, what excuse did you use to trick the other... er, umm..." Sirin hesitated for a long time, unsure of what to call the Queen of the Void.
"I gave her a nice name, Queenie the Sprite. You can call her that," Chen Li said.
"...Hold on, let me look that up." Sirin quickly took out her phone and searched for the name "Queenie the Sprite" online.
She felt she had already reached a deep understanding of Chen Li—he loved to take existing concepts, rewrite them, and then use them to deceive naive young girls.
Like herself.
That Golden Homu King was clearly something fabricated yet based on a real prototype.
And Queenie the Sprite...
After reading the online explanation, Sirin glanced back at Chen Li.
"So you plan to raise Queenie the Sprite into a useless freeloader?" Sirin quickly grasped the situation.
"How can you say that? I just want to cultivate the Queen of the Void into a consciousness that doesn't have an antisocial personality."
"...So what excuse did you actually use to trick Queenie the Sprite?" After a moment's thought, Sirin decided that the idea of turning her into a freeloader didn't seem so bad. As long as the child could live, how she lived wasn't important.
Sirin still didn't deny her seething hatred for the idiotic organization of Schicksal, and she could still understand why the Queen of the Void wanted to blow them to kingdom come. Sirin herself felt the same way.
But on some level, Sirin envied Kiana for having so many friends and a semblance of a family.
The hatred for Schicksal was Sirin's thought, but the desire for a chance to start over was also Sirin's thought. To destroy her own happy life for the sake of revenge... Sirin felt it was entirely unnecessary. That Queenie the Sprite simply didn't understand how badly Sirin wanted a life like Kiana's.
That was why Sirin always felt that neither Queenie the Sprite nor Kiana was completely her.
"Speaking of which, I feel like I've changed a lot, but at the same time, it feels like I haven't changed at all," Sirin said, rubbing her forehead in confusion.
"Ahaha... you're imagining things. Let's get back to the topic of tricking Queenie the Sprite," Chen Li said, trying to change the subject.
In a way, Sirin's intuition was frighteningly accurate. And just as she suspected, Chen Li had indeed added a little something "extra" when he fabricated her body.
Sirin's current body was that of a complete Herrscher of the Void, capable of maximizing her control over Herrscher authorities, and her memories had not been altered by Chen Li.
The only thing that had changed was her personality.
It was a little-known fact that Sirin had wholly accepted the Honkai consciousness's temptations, meaning her heart had completely leaned towards the Honkai. Chen Li had simply dialed her personality back a bit, to the point before she accepted the Honkai's influence. To the point where she was wavering between the human and Honkai factions.
The Honkai consciousness had made Sirin accept the mission of destroying humanity; Chen Li had merely removed that part of the influence. How Sirin would treat the relationship between humanity and the Honkai in the future was her own business. Chen Li had only given her a chance to choose again.
Because Chen Li felt that children should act like children.
"Oh, so how did you trick her?"
"Er, I said I was the companion beast of the Herrscher of the Void from 50,000 years ago, that I waited 50,000 years for her, and that I finally found her again, successfully establishing a connection through the fate shared between Herrschers of the Void." As Chen Li spoke, he suddenly felt like this was also a life-threatening question.
"...Isn't that the same reason you used to trick me?!"
Just as Chen Li had thought, Sirin slammed her palm on the table.
"Calm down... to be precise, I tricked her before I tricked you," Chen Li said.
Besides, it wasn't his fault. Chen Li felt this reason was just too useful.
Look, Chen Li had eaten the Herrscher of the Void's companion Honkai Beast, so he could emit a similar "delicious" aura. Then, he integrated the material card of that Honkai Beast into a scale and sewed it into the Homu doll...
Therefore, the Golden Homu King was, in a sense, a companion beast to the Herrscher of the Void!
If Chen Li put on the suit, then he too was a companion beast to the Herrscher of the Void!
"..." by Sirin.
I, Chen Li, did not lie! So don't you dare point Judgment of Shamash at me!
"Forget it. If this is also part of fate, then so be it. Now that I'm living in your home, what do I need to give in return?" Sirin asked, crossing her legs.
"Why are you suddenly asking about this?"
"Because only by paying a corresponding price can I stand before you as something more than just a recipient of charity. That way... I can do outrageous things and still have a clear conscience. Just like her," Sirin said, looking towards Kaguya Houraisan.
"What did you teach her now?" Chen Li asked Kaguya after taking a deep breath to calm himself.
"Nothing. I just told her I'm staying here and paying rent by making longevity pills for you. I didn't say anything else," Kaguya said, blinking innocently without a change in her expression.
"In that case, you shouldn't be asking me what I need you to do. You should be telling me what you can do," Chen Li said to Sirin after a moment's thought.
"...Lend me a Curio, and sign a Friend contract with me. Whenever you need me, I will appear behind you," Sirin stared intently at Chen Li.
I will always be watching you. Always. Forever!
"Forever. Emmm... alright, pick one yourself." For some reason, Chen Li felt Sirin's words were a bit too heavy, but he also felt it might just be his imagination.
He displayed the catalogue cards of all his currently unassigned Curios.
Everything except the [Friends Circle] and [Gourmet Cells].
Chen Li could summon a copy of any Curio to exist simultaneously with the original by spending Star Stones. So, as long as he didn't mind spending one or two Star Stones, he could lend all his Curios to others and let them create miracles.
But the passively-activated [Friends Circle] and [Gourmet Cells] were exceptions.
"Hmm? A resurrection card? When you told Otto you might give her a chance at a revival checkpoint, were you talking about this thing?" Sirin's eyes lit up when she saw the 1-Star Curio.
"That's right," Chen Li nodded.
In truth, Chen Li wasn't just thinking of helping Otto revive Kallen, but also helping Kallen revive Yae Sakura. But reviving Kallen so easily would be letting Otto off too lightly, so Chen Li planned to pull some stunts before her revival.
"Can you send me a link?" Sirin asked, her voice filled with excitement.
"Of course. In fact, almost every member of the Friends Circle group has a copy."
"Then... my mother, is it possible for her to win the Revival Games?" Sirin asked after a moment of hesitation.
The last lingering will she had left in her Herrscher core was indeed to feel Cecilia's warm embrace one last time, but Sirin had a mother of her own.
Sirin knew the authority of the Herrscher of Death couldn't truly resurrect someone, because she had tried. The body she had created from nothing using DNA residue from clothes was just a body, without a soul.
Yet now, a chance for a no-side-effects resurrection was right in front of her.
"How should I put this... although your mother was an ordinary person, so her chances of winning the Revival Games are relatively low, it's not impossible. Because the number of deceased across the infinite worlds is vast, she might just run into a bug and squash it," Chen Li said. "But by the same token, not even an immortal Aeon has a 100% chance of winning, because among the infinite worlds, there are always dead beings even more ridiculous than them."
"Winning the Revival Games is purely a matter of luck. If you had two revival cards and gave them to your mother and Cecilia, it's possible your mother could win while Cecilia doesn't," Chen Li explained.
"I can specify Cecilia?"
"Of course. As long as you have a revival card, you can specify anyone," Chen Li nodded.
Of course, that was on the premise that he, the organizer of the Revival Games, agreed.
"..." Sirin sighed.
I'm sorry, Kiana. I'm about to do something insatiably greedy.
That's right. Sirin didn't just want to revive her own mother; she wanted to snatch someone else's mother as well. Who wouldn't want double the happiness? In any case, the only price was 30 seconds of advertisement time.
Beyond that, Sirin also wanted to revive her friends like Avrora, Agata, and Galina.
Given a new life, Sirin felt there was nothing wrong with being a little greedy.
Just like what she planned to do next.
"So, have you decided? Which Curio do you want?" Chen Li asked.
"That one." Sirin pointed directly to a scissor-shaped Curio without any hesitation.
"Are you sure? This Curio is very powerful, but if you use it to cut certain strange things, you'll have to pay a price," Chen Li reminded her.
"I'm choosing it because there's a price to pay. In the future, whenever you need to use [Myriad Phenomena Severance], just call me to do the cutting. I know I owe you a lot right now, so I'm going to use the 'price' to pay back everything I owe you, and then..." Sirin stared intently at Chen Li again.
"And then what?"
"Then we'll be even," a faint smile appeared on Sirin's face.
"Really even?"
"Of course. By the way, this Curio can also splice things together after cutting them, right?"
"Right."
"Then... what about the red thread of fate? If I wanted to cut the fates of two people and then splice them tightly together, what kind of price would I have to pay?" Sirin asked nonchalantly.
"What are you trying to do?!"
"I just don't want to be separated from Benares again. Why are you reacting so strongly?" Sirin glanced at Chen Li, a little strangely.
"Oh, you scared me. No problem, of course you can. The prerequisite is that you can understand or see the thing you want to cut. These scissors can cut anything. And because it's a 1-Star Curio, the price you have to pay is relatively small. So if you want to be willful for once, it's no problem," Chen Li said.
"My Queen~~" Benares was moved to tears, vowing to be forever loyal to her Queen.
"Mm-hm," Sirin patted Benares's head perfunctorily, then began to ponder how she could see "fate."
Chen Li himself had just said it: being willful for once was no problem at all.
---o---