"You little bastard, go to hell!"
Everyone could see that the beaten boy was about to give out. Just as the Youth, who controlled the begging orphans on the streets of the Imperial Capital, was about to deliver the final blow to send him on his way, the Delinquent Youth suddenly found himself flying.
He was forcibly lifted from the ground by an irresistible force and flung into the air, and then his abdomen instantly felt as if it had been struck by a solid cannonball! His entire body was bent in half like a shrimp by the impact, and half of him was blasted into the wall, jammed tightly. Before the Delinquent Youth could even react to what was happening, his body was folded like a cooked shrimp, half of him embedded in the wall.
From his neck to his scalp, blood rushed up, his entire skin turned crimson, and the extreme pain and crushed lungs made him unable to utter a single word. In his dying moments, he vaguely seemed to see a woman's figure. Then he felt a hand press on the top of his head, and his vision suddenly spun rapidly in a circle, and then, there was no then... "Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack..."
As Zhi Feng released her hand, the dead Delinquent Youth's neck, like a tightly wound spring, rotated back counter-clockwise with a series of crisp cracking sounds from his cervical vertebrae, his head hanging low and gently swaying a few times. Zhi Feng looked at the corpse embedded in the wall before her with a frosty face and let out a cold snort:
"Killing scum like you is simply a defilement of my hands. If your blood were to stain the weapon bestowed upon me by Big Sister, that would be a defilement of Big Sister's intention."
Everything before her made the Little Girl even more bewildered, unable to understand what had just happened. How did an extra person suddenly appear in the house? In a flash, that bully who had always tormented her and her brother, who had monopolized their begged copper coins, was beaten terribly, much worse than when he beat her brother.
Just then, an arm clad in an expensive sleeve gently lifted the silver-haired girl from behind. The Little Girl turned her head back in alarm and saw a somewhat familiar pretty face.
It was the young lady who had given her cake earlier that day.
"Are you Najenda?"
"...Mm."
The Little Girl nodded gently, confirming Rin's question with a mix of alarm and fear. Rin's expression instantly became wonderful; she didn't know what expression to use to face this girl. If she were to say anything, she could only marvel at the peculiar twists of history.
The future general manager of NIGHTRAID, the important secret intelligence and assassination organization belonging to the anti-Imperial Revolutionary Army, and also a future female general of the Empire, was thus encountered and held in Rin's arms.
Rin carefully examined the Little Girl in her arms under the moonlight. After knowing her identity, she found that she looked more and more like the imposing BOSS Najenda from the original work/canon of Night Raid. Her bright silver hair, large eyes embedded with beautiful clear pupils like blue crystals, and her face, once the dust was wiped off, looked like a crystal doll.
However, was Najenda born and raised in the Imperial Capital's slums when she was little?
Rin couldn't help but feel a little confused, but then she shook her head and no longer dwelled on the question. After all, every world is split into countless world lines, and each world line contains countless similarities and differences. Just as games have different Strategy routes, it's just that the route she entered was one where Najenda was born in the Imperial Capital's slums.
If Rin had not descended into this world, Najenda should have grown up safely under the arduous upbringing of the brother who found her. Perhaps one day her closest relative would die unexpectedly, or she would want to change the plight of the common people in the Empire, join the army, and then become an Imperial General, finally joining the Revolutionary Army because she could no longer tolerate the corruption and darkness of the Empire... and so on, leading to a series of original work/canon plots.
Between two fixed points, the line can be twisted into any state; this is fate. And Rin is undoubtedly the person who can pull out the nails of fate. The self-determined events of the original world were largely disrupted the moment Rin appeared.
Everyone knows about the butterfly effect, but the butterfly itself does not know that its flapping wings will cause a storm. Tiny changes in initial conditions can lead to huge chain reactions that drive the entire world's trajectory. The development of any matter has both certainty and variables. The trajectory of matter's development has laws to follow, but there are also unpredictable "variables." And for a world, a transmigrator is undoubtedly the most thorough variable. A certain person or thing that originally did not exist now exists. Even a small, intentional or unintentional action can change the predetermined direction of a world.
Therefore, any talk of transmigrating without changing the plot is nonsense, because from the moment of transmigration, the direction of the world's plot has already changed!
Just like now, because Najenda and her brother, who took care of her, received a lunch from Tohsaka Rin that they wouldn't have otherwise, a series of tragedies ensued, caused by the jealousy and resentment of the Delinquent Youth who were monitoring them.
Najenda would have a 99% chance of dying directly right now, and who knows what the world's path would be like afterward.
Perhaps in a village in another city of the Empire, there would still be a girl named Najenda who, more than a decade later, would embark on a military career; who knows if that would be the case?
Or, perhaps the world subtly piqued Tohsaka Rin's interest in visiting the slums, ensuring that Najenda would inevitably meet Tohsaka Rin...
Even if that were the case, Tohsaka Rin wouldn't feel any aversion; she never thought about strictly adhering to the original work/canon plot, but she also didn't intend to deliberately change it.
She was in this world; her experiences, her world, constituted her own story.
If the direction the world guided her in didn't contradict her own will, then why deliberately go against the world's flow?
Wouldn't it be thrilling for a Transmigrator and the World's Will to cooperate in various ways to bring about the Empire's downfall?
Doing the opposite of what others say is what an ignorant, mischievous child does; don't you know what 'pleasant cooperation' means?
From this perspective, the meeting between Tohsaka Rin and Najenda was also a fated encounter.
For Tohsaka Rin, the young lady who had kindly given her cake before, little Najenda, held in Tohsaka Rin's arms, was not flustered.
As the saying goes, children from poor families mature early; even though she looked less than two years old, this impoverished orphan born in the slums understood some things.
"Brother, brother... him."
Little Najenda timidly reminded Tohsaka Rin with concern, and Tohsaka Rin and Zhi Feng's gaze naturally fell upon the boy lying to the side.
When Zhi Feng had just thrown the Delinquent Youth away, the boy had also let go and flown to the side, but Tohsaka Rin had made a judgment in her heart the moment she saw him.
Beyond saving... From his face, which had already begun to turn a deathly gray, and his bloodshot whites of his eyes, Tohsaka Rin could confirm that his pupils were starting to dilate and fade, and his breathing was faint.
No further diagnosis was needed; he was a dying man.
Unless this world released its mystical suppression on Tohsaka Rin, allowing her to use magic for healing, Tohsaka Rin would be powerless.
That was clearly impossible.
At this moment, the dying boy's spirits actually lifted; he consciously scanned his surroundings, immediately saw Tohsaka Rin, and little Najenda held in Tohsaka Rin's arms.
His eyes instantly lit up again; clearly, he also remembered Tohsaka Rin's appearance vividly and immediately recognized her.
He struggled to get up from the ground, but multiple fractures on his body ultimately prevented him from succeeding.
Tohsaka Rin knew this was no miracle of life, but merely a final burst of energy before death, the last warmth of his life.
"I didn't expect such a noble young lady to come here; this is not a place where you should be."
The boy's voice was clear and fluent, which was already abnormal; he also realized something.
"It seems I'll soon become food for stray dogs, just like Krim two days ago.
Noble young lady, please leave quickly; this place will only stain your clean clothes."
The boy, who begged on the streets during the day, used the last few words of his life to urge Tohsaka Rin to leave this place, even though he was about to die.
Even Tohsaka Rin could not deny that kindness truly exists in some people's hearts.
No matter how small it seemed before the ugliness of materialism, it could not obscure this light.
"Don't worry about us; we naturally have a way to leave safely."
Tohsaka Rin held little Najenda and squatted beside him, looking at him.
"You're about to die; do you have any last words?"
"Yes, I'm about to die, and there are still so many things I haven't done."
The boy's eyes looked through a hole in the roof at the clear starry sky, revealing a fervent longing and reluctance.
"I don't want to die; I still want to grow up, find a decent job, marry a virtuous wife, and have a bunch of children...
Noble young lady, can I not die?"
"I can't do that, but do you still want to continue such a painful life?"
"Yes, because... living is beautiful, no matter how things are, as long as you're alive, it's good.
Once you're dead, everything is gone.
Even I, at least, have one more life than those who died, don't I?
Ah... but I'm about to have nothing."
As he spoke, the boy's breathing gradually became weaker, almost to the point of being barely perceptible.
"Someone of my humble birth would never have believed that when I died, two noble young ladies would come to hear my last words.
This is simply too extravagant... Hahaha, it seems I've lived a pretty good life, though it was short, but it's already much better than those who died unknown in a corner."
Tohsaka Rin looked in surprise at this dying boy born in the slums, a satisfied smile even appearing on his face.
"You think... this kind of life is good?"
"Of course, even now, I can imagine how wonderful future life will be.
To be able to eat such delicious steak before I die, to have two noble young ladies listen to my last words, I've gained so much more than that guy buried under the wall behind us!"
The time for the final burst of energy would not be long; the light in the boy's eyes quickly dimmed.
He turned his gaze to Tohsaka Rin's face and pleaded:
"Miss, can I beg you... to take Najenda?
She's still too young... without anyone to care for her, she won't survive..."
"She's not your blood sister, is she?
Why would you try so hard for a child you don't know and are unrelated to?"
At this, the boy suddenly broke into an incredibly bright smile:
"How can we be unrelated?
I originally planned to marry Najenda when she grew up!"
...Men are indeed all no good; you might as well die.
"Regardless of whether you take Najenda or not, I still sincerely thank you, noble young ladies... May I know your names... I want to remember your names when I go there."
"My name is Tohsaka Rin, and she is Zhi Feng."
"Is that so, I'll remember.
Well then, I'm going now... That steak was so delicious; if possible, I'd like to eat it again in my next life..."
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