Honkai: Oh No, I’ve Become the Herrscher of Corruption?! - Chapter 147

From July 14th to 15th, Theresa, along with the Valkyries from the African branch, ventured deep into the Sahara Desert once again for further investigation.

But aside from getting sand blown into their mouths and eyes by the sandstorm, they found nothing.

On July 18th, after confirming that Africa was secure, Theresa returned to the Far East. Before leaving, she even gave Sera an autograph. She never expected that a business trip to Africa would earn her a fan.

On July 19th, back in the Far East, Theresa took the child for another examination. Apart from some data appearing as garbled code, no signs of an Imaginary Singularity were detected. Every cell in her body told the instruments that she was a perfectly healthy 16-year-old girl.

Adhering to the principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” Theresa naturally regarded her as an ordinary girl. She arranged for her to enroll at St. Freya Academy and fabricated some information about her. From then on, on the artificial island in the Far East, there was a young girl named Josephine Merrid.

Night of July 19th, World Snake Headquarters.

“Who would have thought that A.E. would actually stumble upon something by accident? I’m certain that girl named Merrid is definitely not just the pure and lovely beauty she appears to be on the surface.”

Enoxia said to Grey Serpent with a playful expression.

“I’m all ears.”

When Merrid left A.E.’s African base, she had touched some electronic equipment. Seizing this opportunity, Enoxia slipped into her body and began reading her information.

[Josephine Merrid, born March 6, 1998, in Klagenfurt, Carinthia, Austria. Father is an engineer, mother is a horticulturist. The family traveled to Egypt on July 1, 2012. They were separated from her parents after a sandstorm on July 8…]

This memory seemed fine on the surface, but when Enoxia tried to go further and project her memories like a film, they became blurry and indistinct.

Furthermore, Merrid’s memories were like two concentric circles. The outer layer—including her birthdate, name, family background, and most of her personal experiences—could be freely read and modified by Enoxia. But the inner layer was like it was locked away. No matter how much Enoxia probed, she found nothing, wasting Honkai energy for nothing.

“So, do you think she’s a Herrscher? After all, an Imaginary Core doesn’t just appear or disappear out of thin air. Just because it’s invisible to the naked eye and undetectable by equipment doesn’t mean it’s truly not within her.”

Enoxia shook her head.

“I don’t know. There are many special people in this world. Jumping to the conclusion that she’s a Herrscher without solid evidence—forget whether it’s inhumane—from a purely rational standpoint, if she isn’t the Herrscher, us rashly treating her as one would obviously alert the real one.”

“The new Herrscher hasn’t caused any damage to human society so far. This suggests that even if this Herrscher isn’t fighting for humanity like Welt, they’re most likely thinking like a normal human, like me and Sirin. Some methods could easily be seen as hostile acts. Pushing a Herrscher who originally posed no threat to humanity into becoming an enemy is clearly not a wise move.”

“So… what do you plan to do next?”

Enoxia stretched lazily.

“Wait a year or two, then go observe for a while at St. Freya Academy myself. Simple. If Sirin’s willing, she can come along.”

“Just go like that? Directly?”

Enoxia shrugged.

“While I can shapeshift and alter A.E.’s data to make them detect nothing, it’s actually not that troublesome. After modifying the info in A.E.’s archives, I can just swagger right in as I am now. The ones who should be worried aren’t me, but A.E.”

“For a Herrscher like me—powerful enough to threaten all of humanity, impossible to kill, yet principled and capable of normal communication and negotiation—if A.E. can fulfill my wishes within their means, I won’t even need to say much. Theresa and the others who know me will actively create a new identity for me.”

“After all, St. Freya Academy was only built after the Second Eruption. Very few Valkyries have actually seen me and Sirin. It’s not too difficult a task for A.E.”

——————————

August 15th, Vienna.

Today, A.E. would hold a funeral here to honor the Valkyries who lost their lives in the Third Eruption.

Although headquarters did not mandate attendance, every Valkyrie’s grave had at least a few bouquets of flowers. Among them, the grave with the most flowers, blooming the most vibrantly, was Ragna’s.

The first bouquet was placed by Cheng Lixue. She never imagined that the sparring session in the third training room a month ago would be their final farewell.

“Ragna, do you remember those two people you recommended? Rita Rossweisse—I confirmed it myself—she is indeed a qualified A-Rank Valkyrie now. She’s caught the Overseer’s eye and will be assigned more important work. I expect her future will be just as you predicted: she’ll become an S-Rank Valkyrie.”

“Bianka Ataegina… in Norway, if she hadn’t arrived on the battlefield in time, I’d probably be in the same world as you by now. I don’t know why she has such incredible talent, able to defeat most A-Rank Valkyries after learning just a few moves from you.”

“But I am certain that in the future, she will single-handedly change all of A.E. I believe she will reach heights even Lady Cecilia never attained.”

After placing her flowers, Cheng Lixue turned and left. The next to arrive was Rita.

“Teacher Ragna, do you remember? Back in the flower shop in Manchester, you saved me, holding me in your arms. The distance from the scene to the safe zone wasn’t long, so you probably held me for less than a minute. But in my memory, that short journey was overflowing with eternal sunlight, wrapped in an intoxicating fragrance. Time disappeared. Pure, elegant, warm, strong. I felt every beautiful thing humanity pursues embodied in you.”

“Also, after coming to A.E., many people, like me back then, wondered why a Valkyrie would choose to become a maid. The answer you gave me then remains utterly convincing to this day:”

“As a servant, we find it easier to reach the ‘real person.’ Many people in this world are accustomed to living behind layer upon layer of masks—especially in this damp country. They often say relationships between people are like porcupines: they huddle together for warmth but get pricked if they get too close. However, when you place yourself in a very low position, and are ‘obviously’ not a threat to others—people’s instinctive defensive awareness towards their own kind unconsciously weakens. You can more easily hear their true thoughts. You learn what people in society truly think.”

The third to arrive here was Murata Himeko. As the sole survivor of the Vanguard Squad, she came to mourn not only Ragna but also the other squad members. Due to the heavy losses suffered by the Vanguard Squad, A.E. headquarters decided to disband the unit permanently. Murata Himeko became the only living witness to that chapter of history.

“Captain, back when I was 19, I joined A.E. to investigate the truth behind my father’s death and received an artificial Stigma that wasn’t compatible with my body. Many people told me that at my age, it was already too late to receive an artificial Stigma.”

“It wasn’t until I met you that you patted my shoulder and said to me earnestly, ‘It’s never too late to do what you want to do. The important thing is to start.'”

“Although I still don’t fully understand everything you told me, I will carry on your will in my own way. I will pass on what you taught me!”

Murata Himeko placed her flowers, stepped away from Ragna’s gravestone, and walked into the distance with firm resolve.

A few hours later, as the Valkyries and staff gradually departed, under the night sky, the entire cemetery held only Bianka. The evening breeze gently blew through her golden hair. Her gaze remained fixed on Ragna’s gravestone. After a long silence, she finally spoke:

“In the orphanage in France, we met for the first time. I originally thought you were just a scary soldier who only emphasized discipline and training. I never expected the first lesson you gave us was a peaceful and relaxing gardening class. Do you remember the lilies we planted together? Just this summer, those lilies bloomed, but the one who taught us how to plant them is no longer here.”

The cemetery fell into silence once more. Finally, Bianka decided to express her remembrance with a poem by Shakespeare.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

She felt this was the best portrayal of the Ragna in her memory.