On the coast outside Arc City, Miss Kiana Kaslana—the central figure of Schicksal's hottest topic of discussion—glared at the girl before her. This girl also had the distinctive white hair of the Kaslana family.
"Hey, who are you? Don't you know this place is dangerous? You didn't even bring a weapon... Which branch of the Kaslana family are you from? Did you run away from home?"
"Hmm... But don't worry. A Schicksal unit should be here to find you soon. Just stay put and wait!"
"I've already cleared this area, so no Honkai constructs will show up for a while. Just wait quietly for a Schicksal patrol to take you back."
Kiana muttered to herself for a while but received no response from the girl.
"...Uh, can you at least say something? Were you scared stiff by those Zombies and Honkai Beasts? That won't do! A warrior can't be afraid of these things!"
Kiana waved her hand in front of the girl's face, trying to snap her out of it.
"Hey, hey, can you hear me—"
"Let go of that Dual-Blade Zombie! You've already crushed its neck, you know!"
After getting nowhere, Kiana grabbed the other white-haired girl's shoulders with both hands and began to shake her vigorously.
"...Ugh."
As if Kiana's violent shaking had jolted some of her consciousness back, the other white-haired girl stared blankly at the Knight Princess before her.
"Phew... You scared me! I thought you'd gone into some kind of shock and shut down completely..."
Seeing the girl finally come to her senses, Kiana breathed a sigh of relief and began to study her more closely.
Long white hair, cyan eyes, a pure white dress, and a hair ornament that looked like a pair of lifelike angel wings.
"You're actually quite pretty... Hey, I'm Kiana Kaslana. You're a Kaslana too, right, you strange girl? What's your name?"
Kiana looked at the girl with immense curiosity.
"...I have no name. I'm only two days old—"
The cryptic girl didn't give Kiana a straight answer. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and watched Kiana with a playful gaze, giving Kiana the strange feeling that this person might be someone she knew.
But when did I ever meet another Kaslana?
Hmm... White hair, cyan eyes—a mix of blue and green—and that cryptic way of speaking...
Kiana knew a few cryptic people, but their hair was always gold or silver.
Gazing at the angel-like, white-haired girl, Kiana grew even more confused. She stared into the angel's cyan eyes, lost in thought, while the girl simply offered a gentle smile in return.
Cyan eyes... white hair... and the monstrous strength to snap a Zombie's neck... First, let's rule out all the weird possibilities. You have to be a Kaslana, or at least have Kaslana blood. The combination of white hair and superhuman strength is unique to the Kaslana family, even within Schicksal.
Channeling her inner great detective, Kiana began to gather the observable clues.
Then there's your strange eye color... Kaslana Valkyries all have blue eyes. Whether they're mixed with Schariac blood, from inter-family marriages, or some other bizarre combination—even someone as strange as Snow, a Kaslana-Apocalypse hybrid, couldn't escape the blue eyes.
"But Snow's hair was a rather special pale gold... not white—uh... wait! Green mixed with blue is cyan, isn't it?"
"Don't tell me you're another one of Otto's illegitimate daughters?!"
"...?"
The angel-like girl was clearly taken aback by the Knight's erratic train of thought, her expression a mixture of bewilderment and shock.
"White hair, cyan eyes from a blue-green mix, superhuman strength, and—most importantly—you speak in riddles instead of plain language!!!"
"Did that bastard Overseer Otto forget about you after having Snow? Come on! I'm taking you to Schicksal right now to beat up your old man!"
Kiana grabbed the angel's arm, preparing to execute a long-range teleport straight to Schicksal Headquarters' office building. She planned to follow up with a devastating coordinated attack, blasting the Lord Overseer—who dared to forget his own offspring—right out of the headquarters.
"...Imhotep. You can call me by that name."
Seeing the impending disaster, the angel-like girl finally spoke, revealing her name and temporarily halting the furious Knight's plan to pummel a certain golden-haired Overseer.
"Finally willing to talk, huh? So, what's your relationship with Snow and Otto?"
"Ah... Her branches intertwine with mine, our roots tangled as one."
The white-haired, cyan-eyed girl hummed softly.
"...Speak like a normal person! Is being unable to talk straight the number one trait of anyone connected to the Apocalypse family?!"
"You wanna bet I won't pin you down and kiss you right now?"
The White Knight, enraged by Miss Imhotep's pretentious act, bared her teeth and claws, looking ready to pounce.
"I am her, yet she is not me... She is the honored body slumbering upon the Divine Throne; I am the transcendent one walking the mortal world."
Ignoring the other girl's aggressive posture, the girl calling herself Imhotep continued to hum to herself.
"Oh, and... Miss Kiana, I will be sure to relay your exact words to Miss Theresa and Miss Raiden Mei...?"
The angel-like girl tilted her head in confusion as she watched Kiana's threatening display.
"Er... I'm sorry! Please, please don't tell Auntie and Mei!"
At those words, Kiana performed a perfect sliding kowtow.
"And you're still talking in riddles... though I guess I can sort of understand this time..." Kiana muttered under her breath, having decisively backed down.
"Hmm... As you say. Schicksal's forces are approaching—"
Imhotep glanced at the subdued Kiana and tilted her head again.
"Aren't you leaving?"
"Huh? Okay... But you're coming with me? Just so you know, even though I'm living pretty freely right now, my place isn't exactly great, and I don't have enough spare cash to feed another mouth."
"I don't care."
Kiana opened a portal and gestured for the girl before her to enter.
"Then follow me... And, Miss Imhotep, I hope you'll explain your situation properly later."
"Mhm~ I will..."
Kiana stepped through the portal first, with the girl calling herself Imhotep following close behind.
Silence returned to Arc City's coastline. A few minutes later, the area was swarmed by Arc City Guardian Mechs and Schicksal's stationed Valkyries, completely sealing it off.