"Why are you calling me today? Are you asking about Bronya?" As soon as the call connected, Misteln's teasing voice came through. After hearing Cecilia's gentle and caring tone so much recently, listening to Misteln speak felt somewhat unfamiliar.
"Cecilia." After Shun spoke the name, he could clearly sense that the sound of breathing on Misteln's side had stopped. Although Misteln did not need to breathe, she often imitated many human behaviors to appear more human-like — breathing, eating, and sleeping were all part of that.
After a moment, a voice came from the phone. "It's not suitable to talk about this over the phone. Come over to my side."
"Alright." Shun agreed without hesitation and immediately activated the Cosmic Juggernaut.
A short while later, Shun arrived once again at the place where Misteln lived in seclusion — Ali, Tibet. However, from the outside, it seemed somewhat different from before.
They had even put up utility poles? In the past few times Shun had visited Misteln, there had been no electricity here, but now there were utility poles? Shun didn't need to think hard to know the reason. He could only say that Misteln really doted on Bronya too much.
Shun slowly walked toward the wooden cabin. When passing the utility pole, he looked up.
"National Grid, damn…" He could only say that the National Grid was truly impressive. This place was dozens of kilometers away from the nearest human settlement, yet they had still laid power lines all the way here?
"Misteln, I'm here." Shun pushed open the slightly ajar door of the wooden cabin and walked straight inside.
"You shouldn't have come…" He didn't see Misteln, only her sigh drifting through the air.
"How surprising, Misteln. You've even learned to joke around? Have you been influenced by Bronya?" Shun could easily tell what kind of joke Misteln was making. He could only say that Bronya's influence was quite strong — how long had she been with her before she started picking up bad habits?
"Don't blame Bronya. This is something I wanted to do myself, just to get closer to all of you." Misteln seemed to have guessed what Shun was thinking and immediately stepped out.
"You just keep spoiling her." Knowing that Misteln was Bronya's aunt, Shun had nothing more to say. He had also seen how Theresa usually spoiled Kiana, and he himself doted on Kiana even more than Theresa did. Basically, as long as it was something he could do, he did it for Kiana.
"Tell me, why did you suddenly call me today and only mention Cecilia's name? It couldn't be that you think Kiana lacks maternal love and want me — this Schariac-type Stigmata — to cosplay as Cecilia and serve as a substitute for Kiana, right?" Misteln said jokingly.
"If you're willing to be Kiana's mom, that wouldn't be impossible either." Shun continued along Misteln's line of thought.
Misteln clapped her hands happily. "Great, then I'll try on the clothes Cecilia used to wear. They probably won't be too big or too small on me."
Wait, you're actually going to do it? Shun felt that if he didn't make things clear, Misteln might really go and cosplay as Cecilia.
"Alright, alright, I surrender. Your mouth is really tight. More than ten years ago, Elysia brought Cecilia's consciousness to find you, right? Did you manage to convert her into a Stigmata?" Shun patted his head, his expression somewhat helpless.
"It seems you've remembered what happened more than ten years ago? No, it should be that you experienced the events of the Second Honkai Impact. Am I right?"
"Do I have any secrets in front of you? You can guess it in one try?" To be honest, Shun felt that as a transmigrator he had no dignity left. Not to mention anything else, both Elysia and Otto knew his secrets. Although he didn't know how much they knew, it really made him unable to hold his head high in front of his senior transmigrator predecessors.
"Actually, it's because Elysia's mouth isn't tight. Otherwise, how could I guess so much out of thin air?" Misteln decisively sold out Elysia.
The result was already self-evident. Elysia's resistance to beautiful girls was almost zero. During the Elysian Realm plot, she had even hinted at Mei both openly and subtly. The fact that Mei didn't figure it out could only mean she wasn't that smart. Shun had spent quite a long time with Misteln and naturally knew her level.
"Alright, enough sidetracking. Since you already know those things, it should be fine to tell you the rest. That's right. Back then, after Elysia used me to briefly return to the Stigmata Space, she brought that crystal flower containing Cecilia's consciousness to find me. She explained the situation and asked me to convert Cecilia's consciousness into a Stigmata-type."
"And then?" Misteln's words stopped there, giving Shun a headache. Couldn't she finish speaking instead of stopping halfway?
"As for what happened next, of course I successfully converted Cecilia into a Stigmata-type. With me taking action, would you still worry that I would mess it up?" Misteln asked in return, seemingly displeased that Shun would question her.
"No, no, how could I possibly doubt you? Right?" Fortunately, Misteln did not make things difficult for Shun and did not pursue the matter.
"However, you said Cecilia was converted into a Stigmata-type. Then where is the person? She couldn't have just disappeared into thin air, right?" Shun was very curious. If Cecilia was still alive, why did the subsequent events still follow the original plot? How had this world gone from 2000 to 2013 without a single change?
"To be honest with you, although I successfully converted Cecilia into a Stigmata-type, a Stigmata-type still needs a carrier. After all, unlike me, a Stigmata needs a host that can bear it to be considered a complete Stigmata-type. After I converted Cecilia into a Stigmata, she disappeared. My guess is that if there is still another Cecilia or something similar like a flower in this world, then Cecilia is probably there."
With no other options, the trail had gone cold. Shun could only leave. During his visit, he supervised Bronya's training progress. Well, it couldn't compare to his own cheat-enabled progress, but she had indeed improved.
After returning from Misteln's place, that sentence kept lingering in Shun's mind and wouldn't go away. Even Ana could tell he was preoccupied.
"What's wrong? Ever since you came back from the Lord Bishop, you've been frowning."
"I'm thinking about some things. I feel like my memory has gotten a bit bad lately. It feels like I've forgotten something. It's fine. You go to sleep first. It's getting late."
After sending Ana back to her room to sleep, Shun continued pondering in the living room. When it came to similar flowers, Misteln was undoubtedly the existence closest to Cecilia, but Misteln was a Schariac family Stigmata, not just Cecilia's. As for another Cecilia?
Wasn't there only one Cecilia in this world?
No… If those were also counted as Cecilia… Shun felt he had caught onto the truth.