Compared to other areas, the fire was slightly less intense in the direction the voice came from. Bronya was just thankful that the weaker flames allowed her to rush in more quickly.
Taking off her coat, Bronya swung it forcefully, batting away the flames that might block her path. The wind from the coat whipped the tongues of fire to the side, opening a path she could barely squeeze through.
She turned and tossed aside the coat, which had already caught fire, then shielded her face with her arms and charged into the room.
The moment she broke through the doorway, choking smoke billowed into her face. Bronya held her breath and waved her hand, but it did little to alleviate the discomfort.
A flicker of doubt arose in her mind. In an environment like this, she could barely breathe, let alone speak.
Bronya was certain that the moment she opened her mouth, it would be filled with smoke and dust.
At this moment, that loud and miserable cry took on a strange quality.
Bronya immediately thought of the Herrscher outside, fighting Kiana and Mei. As vigilance rose in her heart, her feet began to slowly retreat.
"Mama—!!"
Bronya, who had been backing away, stopped dead in her tracks. It was as if a thread had pulled her gaze, making her look through the thick smoke to a corner of the room.
She saw a small, ragged girl covered in soot, huddled helplessly in the corner. A path cleared by tears ran down her face, like the tear line on an exquisite puppet.
"Mama—where are you—?!" she wailed, her voice already hoarse, but the fear in her heart drove her to keep calling out.
The children here wouldn't scream like that... The children at the orphanage, though some were mischievous and some were noisy, might cry out of panic, but they wouldn't make such meaningless cries for help...
Something is wrong here... Bronya's mind was screaming at her not to get any closer. She knew that turning and leaving right now was the best course of action.
But...
She couldn't lift her legs... She felt frozen in place, staring blankly at the child crying in the midst of this disaster.
The flames burned, forming a cage, locking her inside this small room...
Bronya's hands began to tremble, the glaring fire stinging her eyes.
BOOM—!
"Mama—!!"
A violent explosion from outside, mingled with the girl's cries, transformed into a sharp sword that instantly pierced Bronya's already crumbling mental defenses—
Shells... firelight... sharp wails... grief and cries spreading across the battlefield of memory.
Bullets flew relentlessly. People around her fell one after another. The shockwave of the explosion overturned the black soil buried under the white snow. Blood fell into it, burning fiercely on the frozen earth along with the flames.
Bronya stood in the center of the battlefield. Her hands were empty, and she wore only thin clothing.
Splattered blood touched her face, yet it was as cold as ice.
The swirling dust landed on her palm, yet it was a burning heat...
The stark contrast finally shattered Bronya's trembling pupils.
In the sea of fire, the piercing cries stopped. The girl in the corner vanished, and in her place, huddled in that same corner...
—was Bronya.
Invisible threads wrapped around her, controlling her every move.
She wanted to call out, to call for her mother like the little girl who had disappeared, but she didn't dare... Her past experiences told her that calling out in danger was to expose oneself, an extremely dangerous act.
Even though calling out was the best choice right now, fear had already invaded her mind, devouring her reason. She curled up tightly, burying her face, not daring to make a sound.
Crying for help should be a human instinct, but Bronya was nearly suffocating. She didn't dare... she was afraid... she was waiting...
"Big Sister..." Just as she was about to completely seal herself in the cage, the little girl's voice appeared again.
A crack opened in the dark world. Bronya looked up, as if seeing an angel that could save her.
She is my savior, my new "master"...
My "mama."
Even though the other was just a puppet in the shape of a little girl, crude and stiff.
But she still reached out a hand to Bronya.
She said—
"Did Mama tell you not to leave here either?"
---||---
{"Bronya, do not leave here without my permission!"}
{"Tell me, why did you act on your own! Did I not instruct you?!"}
{"Can the famous 'Ural Silver Wolf' also lose her head?"}
{"Bronya! Answer me! Why did you do it? Is it so hard—to follow orders?!"}
{"BRONYA—!!"}
...
{"Will you... become the Bronya's new 'master'?"
"Master? Is that the kind of thing those people drilled into you? Hmph... I won't be your master. I will be your mama."
"Mama...?"
"Yes. From today on, you won't have to go through any more battles. This is your home, a place that will shelter you forever."}
---||---
The canary fell from the sky. She landed in the shadows, waiting for death. A pair of hands lifted her from the shadows, treated her wounds, wrapped them in healing bandages, and placed her in a cage.
From then on, she only needed to sing with her pleasant voice to receive food and shelter. Even if she did nothing, her master still loved her.
And from that moment on... even flapping her wings was a sin for the canary.
---||---
The puppet reached out its hand, gathering a thread into its grasp. Bronya, her expression vacant, stood up from the corner, oblivious to her surroundings.
A faint membrane began to form over the orphanage. A thread descended from the sky. The puppet raised its hand, and the threads on Bronya connected to the one from the heavens.
"Finally... it's done..." The Herrscher, having narrowly dodged another sword strike, did a flip and suddenly looked at the sky, speaking his first words.
"Three anchors. Now only the last one remains..." He looked to the sky, and Kiana, her body surging with red light, came into his view.
But what he was staring at was the thread on Kiana's wrist.
---||---
Meanwhile, Schrodinger had also found her target.
I was right... The Herrscher's attack back then wasn't without warning... Schrodinger sighed, looking at the person with the vacant expression before her.
"So what did you see... Frélle Cages?"
Frélle lifted her numb face and simply gave Schrodinger a formulaic smile.