"So, are you doing this deal or not?"
It was night, inside a brightly lit manor residence.
Suke, dressed up like a nouveau riche, waved his hand, which was adorned with various gemstone rings.
The child soldier named Bronya stood honestly beside him. Having been changed into a maid outfit by Suke, her current identity was that of a lolita maid accompanying the young master.
Though, strictly speaking, no real young master would want a scummy maid who smoked and drank at such a young age.
"Gold coins worth one million US dollars in exchange for this manor in such a remote location... I think you stand to gain a lot."
Suke pushed a box of stones onto the table.
However, in the eyes of the couple, upon whom the Magic · [Brainwashing] had been cast, the box was shining with gold.
Under the dual effects of light alteration and brainwashing magic, this greedy and mean couple was completely being led by the nose by Suke.
Although he wasn't short on gold coins, Suke really didn't want to give money to these guys whose souls appeared pitch-black under the [Hallucination] magic—heaven knows how many filthy things they had done.
"You know clearly that the times are not peaceful right now."
"The government is constantly purging the remnants of the resistance army hiding in the icefields. God knows when they might come over to sponge off you again."
"Take this money and leave!"
This was Suke's plan.
After activating the [Hallucination] magic and taking his captive Bronya for a lap around the icefield, Suke quickly found traces of the lost Junimo, Starfruit.
The place where Starfruit last vanished was inside this manor, and there were no traces of it leaving. It seemed his target was most likely inside.
Suke decided he might as well buy this large piece of property to search it slowly.
He had to lament that Old Yuki's magic was truly useful; her full-power state was essentially a low-spec version of omniscience and omnipotence. No wonder she possessed the trait of a 'Saint Child'.
"Honorable Sir, there is something you do not know."
The obese middle-aged man rubbed his hands fawningly: "Actually, there is another precious treasure inside this manor... So, I hope the price can be raised a little bit."
"Oh?" Suke raised his eyebrows, feigning interest.
"Go, hurry up and call that girl down!"
Seeing this, the obese middle-aged man hurriedly ordered the woman beside him, his wife. His wife moved very quickly, perhaps tempted by so many gold coins, and rushed upstairs.
Not long after, in Suke's eyes, a girl dressed like an exquisite doll walked down elegantly, lifting the hem of her princess dress.
She had long hair tied in twin high ponytails with alternating purple and pink colors, and heterochromatic eyes of gold and grey.
With such high recognizability, a name instantly popped into Suke's mind: Sin Mal.
Commonly known as Uncle Sin.
A young girl who always referred to herself as 'This Great Lord', coming from the Cocolia Orphanage just like Bronya Zaychik and Seele Vollerei.
Together with the other two, she was known as one of the 'Tri-Stars'.
But actually, such a title did not exist in the Honkai Impact 3rd timeline, and Sin's background was also glossed over, remaining a mystery.
Could this be the worldline of Houkai Gakuen 2?
Glancing at Bronya in the maid outfit beside him, Suke was secretly startled. No wonder he always felt this Duck was full of ruffian vibes.
Now, seeing Sin before she had been deceived by the Duck emotionally and cut her hair to show her resolve, he suddenly understood.
That wouldn't be strange then, that wouldn't be strange at all!
It was just that the Houkai Gakuen worldline had dozens of times more monsters and demons than Honkai 3rd. In the end of the plot, basically everyone reunited in the underworld.
Will I win?
"This is our couple's adopted daughter, Sin Mal."
"She herself is unwilling to leave with us. If you want to buy this manor, we must trouble you to take care of her in the future."
"Sin, hurry up and say hello to this honorable gentleman!"
"Hello, Uncle."
The elegant girl, who looked nothing like someone who would rudely call herself 'This Great Lord' in the future, curtsied to Suke.
A red light secretly flickered in her grey eye that had been scorched by fire. Although the sign was minute, it was still keenly captured by Suke.
It seems she has already awakened the Eye of Sin. I wonder if she has awakened Time Stop yet.
Recalling the information about Sin in his mind, Suke looked thoughtful as he faced this girl who was showing him a standard fake smile.
As for the other party calling him Uncle, he couldn't even be bothered to retort anymore.
"Treasure?"
"I don't understand what you mean. Isn't this a living, breathing person?"
"I do legitimate business; I don't do those immoral things like mutilating people for begging."
"This..." Seeing that Suke didn't seem to buy it, the middle-aged man and woman looked somewhat troubled.
Originally, seeing Suke accompanied by a petite grey-haired girl maid, he thought Suke had a taste for this sort of thing.
As a result...
"Tell you what," Suke took out another wooden box filled with stones, pretending to be hesitant as he pushed it in front of the couple, "I can't offer any more. Just these."
"Now get out quickly, before I change my mind!"
"Eh, alright!"
"Wish you a pleasant time!"
Hmph, what a pretender, I thought he was some gentleman.
The obese middle-aged man viciously despised this young wealthy merchant in his heart, but his face still wore a fawning smile. He put away the wooden box containing the 'gold coins', left the property deed, and nimbly packed his things to leave.
Anyway, this manor wasn't their property; they were just guardians. The true heir was Sin Mal.
It was best to cash out everything immediately now; otherwise, who would want to stay in this godforsaken place of ice and snow?
The obese middle-aged couple quickly got into a car and disappeared into the night along the road.
Leaving behind only the empty mansion with nothing valuable left, and two young girls—one a mercenary, one a young lady.
'This wizard is too amazing, isn't he?'
'He scammed such a huge house using just two boxes of broken stones picked up from the roadside. If Bronya could learn his witchcraft too...'
Bronya, dressed in the maid outfit, stared at Suke, thinking unknown thoughts.
Life is hard, Duck has already begun to fantasize about days of debauchery after becoming a Wizard Duck.
If she gave up being a mercenary now and switched to learning magic from a master, would it still be too late?
"Hello, Uncle. I am Sin Mal."
"Uncle, are you here to accompany Sin to play?"
"What do you want Sin to play with you?"
Suke had not deliberately used verbal [Brainwashing] on Sin, so the girl born with the Eye of Sin easily saw through the fact that he had defrauded her adoptive parents.
But she didn't care; it was just changing one guardian for another.
If not for the matter of 'Starfruit', perhaps she would even be very happy to switch to a more handsome guardian.
"Miss Sin, honest people don't speak in riddles."
Through [Hallucination], Suke glanced at Sin Mal and knew that the Junimo Starfruit had various obvious connections with her.
Even if Starfruit wasn't in Sin's hands, she most likely knew where Starfruit had gone.
"First of all, I am not a bad person. My purpose in doing this is simply that I found your adoptive parents unpleasant."
"I will not do anything improper to you, so you can rest assured... After all, I am a married man."
With black lines covering his head, Suke ignored Bronya's wide-eyed expression looking at him.
That expression seemed to say: Eh, aren't you that kind of person? Then who was the one who put me in this maid outfit?
"Let's talk about the important matter first."
"Miss Sin, have you seen a... hmm, a small life form that looks like a yellow apple and can move, recently?"
"If you know its whereabouts, please be sure to tell me. I will provide a generous rewar..."
"I don't know."
"Sin doesn't understand what you are talking about, Uncle. How could such things that only exist in fairy tales exist in reality?"
"Don't be too childish, Uncle, seeing as you are no longer young."
Before Suke could finish his sentence, Sin flatly shook her head and denied his question.
Although that pixelated appearance of the other party looked eerie, he didn't seem bad, and he had a girl with a pure and translucent soul by his side.
Sin hoped to cut off the other party's thoughts with crisp and decisive words, so that she might not need to come into conflict with him.
Suke: ...
Of course, the young girl did not know that her appearance of thinking she was being crisp and neat looked more like a confession without duress in Suke's eyes.
Fine, I'm being childish again. You don't know, is that it?
Uncle is really going to get angry now!
Thump! Thump! Thump!
"Open the door! Routine government inspection!"
However, just as Suke planned to use some special methods to pry information out of Sin Mal's mouth, the mansion's main gate, which had not been closed for long, was suddenly knocked on urgently.
Noises came from outside the door; it sounded like the kind of search unique to chaotic times.
Thinking about it, it wasn't strange. Judging by the Houkai Gakuen timeline, the current Siberia was still full of warlords after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Otherwise, a semi-military, semi-political organization like Anti-Entropy, where Cocolia was located, wouldn't have popped up.
But isn't this inspection coming a bit too coincidentally?
Seeing that Suke didn't seem to believe her, Sin quietly pinched the triangular piece of paper hidden behind her back. She had originally planned to use force to forcibly drive the other party away.
But this timely knock on the door made Sin's spirit relax slightly.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, she also didn't wish to conflict with this man whose background was unknown.
After all, in the future she saw in her dreams, she wasn't his match even when pushing her abilities to the limit, and simply couldn't prevent the outcome of Starfruit being taken away.
"It's him! He is the spy for the resistance army!"
"Look at that grey-haired girl beside him! Isn't she that mercenary of the resistance army on the wanted list?"
"Look at his attire and getup; his status in the resistance army must not be low!"
The mansion's main gate was forcibly blasted open, and a squad of fully armed government soldiers filed in.
Their equipment looked quite impressive; Suke even saw the symbol of Anti-Entropy, which couldn't be compared to the previous mercenaries.
And the obese man from the middle-aged couple who had left not long ago reappeared before Suke's eyes.
At this moment, he was showing utmost flattery to the officer beside him, then turned to scold harshly in this direction.
Their appearance of greedily scanning all existence within the mansion, as if regarding it as something in their own pockets, completely lowered the sense of guilt in Suke's heart for what he was about to do.
Bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a grate.
Humans, ah, are just such defective products. Their flaws are as numerous as the stars in the Siberian night sky. Countless.
Bronya's body tensed up. She hurriedly pulled out a rifle from under her maid skirt, waiting in full battle array.
Although she knew just by looking at their equipment that her bullets could only tickle them, it was better than dying without doing anything.
Sin on the side also subconsciously wanted to make a move, but Suke, holding the Shepherd's Crook, had already stood up from where he was:
"I say,"
The hands of the soldiers suspected to belong to Anti-Entropy, which were raising their firearms, suddenly went stiff.
Accompanied by silent cries of alarm,
Like balloons, they instantly expanded and burst!
Blood scattered like butterflies. The people, losing their hands first and then their knees, knelt down with a plop.
Fear instantly swept through everyone, especially that obese middle-aged man, and the Anti-Entropy officer beside him who had been arrogant just a moment ago.
"Have you caused enough trouble, gentlemen?"
____
New Story: COTE: Natsuki Subaru Returns to School, but as the Purge King
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