Morning. 'Kiana' woke up in her large house.
Before drowsiness had dissipated, her body rolled out of bed according to muscle memory, fumbling to extend her feet into slippers, wobbling unsteadily toward the washroom.
"Splash~"
Cold water splashed on her face, making her body shiver slightly. Her spirit quickly extracted itself from haziness, and she became completely awake.
Then she saw in the mirror that girl who was unfamiliar yet familiar.
She froze for a moment, then realized.
"Oh, it's me..."
It must be said, humans are indeed a species with extremely strong adaptability.
Kiana had originally thought that becoming what she was now would probably be very difficult to accept.
But after yesterday's full day of buffer time, she didn't seem to have entered any state of mental breakdown.
However, she knew that today's test for herself was just beginning.
Because today was Chiba Academy's opening day. According to the identity Lucius had prepared for her, she would be enrolling under Kiana's identity.
And thinking about how after entering campus, she would have to accept the scrutiny of person after person, familiar or unfamiliar, in her current appearance, pressure instantly surged up.
But backing down was impossible. Last night, Lucius had sent some information—about the disasters involving Honkai that would be encountered in the future.
After seeing it, she could only pray that such an ending would never descend upon those around her.
Thinking of this, thinking of Lucius's promise to her, Kiana clenched her fist at herself in the mirror, the corners of her mouth involuntarily pulling into a resolute smile.
Courage welled up from her heart. She was fearless, and to protect everything—
She must...
"I will become a god!"
...
Chiba Academy.
First Year, Class B.
As class time approached, the classroom had already become lively.
But all of this had nothing to do with a purple-haired figure wearing glasses in the back seat by the window.
Students spontaneously formed small groups, but no one interacted with her. She was like someone excluded from the world.
Mei—this was a name with considerable recognition at Chiba Academy.
Since she enrolled at Chiba Academy, the first place position in grade exams had never shifted.
She was like an insurmountable mountain peak, as unscalable as Everest, crushing the dignity of all challengers who tried to usurp her, those calling themselves academic achievers and academic gods.
Over time, everyone lost the courage to challenge this genius standing at Chiba Academy's peak.
But geniuses are always lonely. Not many people could chat with someone who opened their mouth about Poincaré, closed it about Goldbach, and in their spare time wrote several papers that made a bunch of old professors beat their chests in frustration.
So when such an almost inhuman genius truly appeared among everyone, how should ordinary people interact with her?
Ancient philosophers had already given the answer: respect ghosts and gods but keep them at a distance.
Thus, Mei, who was viewed as a god, was consciously ignored by everyone.
However, this might not necessarily be a bad thing for Mei herself.
She didn't need to deal with complex interpersonal relationships and could extract her limited energy from complicated social interactions to do more meaningful things.
It should have been like this originally, until today.
Under the curious gazes of students in the class, the homeroom teacher brought in a girl they had never seen before.
She had white hair and blue eyes with an aloof temperament, wearing Chiba Academy's standard girls' uniform, clutching books tightly in both hands, following behind the teacher.
For some reason, her aloof face seemed to carry a hint of awkwardness. Such contradictory characteristics instead added a certain mysterious quality to her.
This was precisely Kiana, arranged by Lucius to attend Chiba Academy.
In an instant, the classroom that had quieted down became noisy again.
The homeroom teacher coughed lightly a few times, signaling the students to quiet down, then introduced her to everyone.
"This is Kiana, a student from Austria, who will be joining our little collective from now on."
"I hope everyone can demonstrate Chiba Academy's spirit of friendship and not trouble Kiana."
After speaking, the homeroom teacher turned to look at Kiana beside her and said gently, "Kiana, there are quite a few empty seats in the classroom. Go choose one."
"Yes, teacher."
Kiana clutched her books and walked down from the podium. At the same time, every girl with an empty seat beside her showed anticipation.
Ultimately, Kiana walked to the side of the purple-haired girl wearing glasses by the window.
"Classmate, may I sit here?"
Mei, immersed in her own world, was called back by the voice. Looking up, she saw Kiana calling to her.
She found that Kiana was staring at her, waiting for a reply.
Only then did Mei confirm that this unfamiliar girl was indeed calling to her.
Mei didn't say anything, just nodded lightly.
...
Time flew by quickly, and soon a full day of classes had successfully ended.
Kiana awkwardly declined girl after girl calling her "big sister" and wanting to get close to build relationships, fleeing the classroom as if escaping.
She hadn't forgotten her purpose—according to Lucius's requirements, to protect this student Mei at Chiba Academy.
According to Lucius, this Mei possessed powerful talent and was a major aid for combating Honkai in the future.
Of course, she also had a small selfish motive.
She wanted to become friends with this student Mei. Only by becoming intimate friends could she better protect her.
This is what Kiana thought, and this is what she did. She had always been a person with strong initiative.
So taking advantage of Mei leaving campus after school, Kiana directly chased after her and called out bluntly:
"Student Mei, please become friends with me!"
Mei, who was constantly flipping through the notebook in her hands, heard the voice, stopped her steps, turned around, and saw the white-haired girl who had just become her deskmate rushing up.
"Student Mei, please become friends with me!"
Mei looked over Kiana standing before her, finally pushing up her glasses coldly, the lenses reflecting a glint of cold light.
"Sorry, I'm not interested."
Life falling into the depths had already exhausted almost everything from her. She no longer had capacity to manage so-called interpersonal relationships. If not for the generous scholarship, she actually wouldn't even come to school.
After speaking, Mei turned around, not planning to pay attention to this strange new classmate.
But just as she took a step, she felt her wrist become heavy. Her body leaned forward, and at the same time, her wrist was yanked forward by the momentum.
"Thud!"
Mei looked down and found that this white-haired girl had just grabbed her wrist and been pulled down by the momentum of her wrist, falling and kneeling on the ground.
Seeing that she had dared to grab her wrist, Mei couldn't help but furrow her brow.
No matter what, this was too rude. Mei downgraded her evaluation of this white-haired girl by one level in her heart.
Finding herself kneeling on the ground, Kiana was also stunned.
However, things had come to this point. The embarrassment that should be lost had already been lost, so she might as well go further.
So she gripped Mei's wrist tightly, her tone carrying pleading.
"Mei, please, please become friends with me! This is really important to me."
Looking at the white-haired girl before her pushing her luck, Mei fell silent, then questioned, "Do you understand me? Do you know my inner self? Do you know what kind of person I am?"
Kiana blinked and answered honestly, "I don't know, but we can become friends first and then understand each other."
Mei took a deep breath.
"Listen, I'm not interested in making friends right now."
"I have very important matters to handle and no time to put energy into things like making friends."
Kiana still didn't let go. "You can tell me about your difficulties. I can help."
Hearing Kiana's words, a spark of anger rose in Mei's heart. She exerted force with her arm, bit by bit extracting her wrist.
At the same time, she looked at Kiana coldly.
"You have no idea what I'm facing."
Mei pulled out her arm, her words stabbing into Kiana's chest like daggers.
"Your casually given promise, that appearance like charity—how truly... high and mighty!"
Watching Mei's disappearing back, Kiana felt extremely wronged.
She really just wanted to become friends with her, but didn't know why the other party reacted so badly.
...
After leaving Chiba Academy, Mei didn't go directly home but went to a nearby convenience store and selected several discounted bento boxes.
By the time she returned home, the sky had gradually darkened.
The key inserted into the lock, the mechanical lock core responded, turning the door handle to open the door.
At the same time, the smell of alcohol accompanied by the odor of certain organic substances fermenting immediately surged out, making Mei furrow her brow.
However, fortunately, she had gotten somewhat used to it during this period.
After the smell in the room dissipated somewhat, Mei walked into the room.
"I'm home."
As always, there was no response, because the other living person in this room—her father Ryoma—was currently lying on the sofa fast asleep.
On the table lay several empty bottles, and on the floor was some disgusting vomit.
Mei's expression didn't change as she opened the window to let air circulate again.
Then she cleaned up the bottles on the table, cleaned up the vomit on the floor, and finally brought a bucket and mop to wash the floor again.
Only after doing all this did she take out the bentos, placing one on the table near her father.
The other she placed in front of herself, preparing to eat.
Facts proved that life's hardships are the best teacher. Before this, Mei had never imagined she could do housework so smoothly.
But just as Mei was about to eat, a ringtone sounded from the sofa—from her father's phone.
After hesitating, Mei ultimately picked up the phone and answered.
An unfamiliar voice came from the phone's receiver. The other party seemed quite polite.
"Mr. Ryoma, your debt will be due in a few days."
"We hope you can repay the debt on time and not make things difficult for us."
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