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Chapter 252 – Mother-in-law
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 15:55:46 +0000 UTCCecilia’s death was inevitable, so telling her the truth hardly mattered.
“Is this… some kind of joke?”
Her smile inevitably stiffened as she looked at the green-haired girl before her, giving one last look of wary confirmation.
“Of course I’m not joking, Mother-in-law. I’m being very serious with you.”
C.C. playfully poked young Kiana’s soft cheek with a slender finger, earning a bright, sunny smile from the little girl.
Realizing that this seemingly pure and refined beauty might actually be a pervert, Cecilia immediately scooped Kiana back into her arms despite the child’s reluctant little whimper.
She turned around, using her own body as a shield to block C.C.’s line of sight.
Her gaze toward C.C. grew sharp, her whole demeanor shifting.
Gentle, kind, approachable those words could all be used to describe Cecilia.
But when it came to Kiana, she was not just a saint — she was a mother.
And when it came to perverts with improper thoughts about her daughter, she would deliver justice personally!
“Calm down, Mother-in-law. I’m not a pervert.”
Noticing the icy edge in Cecilia’s aura, C.C. smiled with unshaken composure and even gave a French-style salute.
“I’m someone who traveled back in time from the future.”
In an instant, Cecilia’s cold edge vanished, replaced by a look of pity.
‘Such a beautiful girl… yet mentally ill?’
It made sense, she thought.
For someone to appear here on the floating island of Schicksal HQ, she must have been injured fighting the Honkai — perhaps even suffered brain damage.
She was probably undergoing treatment.
Within a split second, Cecilia had already filled in the “most likely” backstory in her mind.
“I understand.”
Her tone softened, her expression filled with gentle affection as she took C.C.’s hand, intending to escort her to the island’s medical wing.
“You don’t believe me at all, do you?”
C.C. sounded almost pouty as she noticed Kiana stretching out tiny arms toward her.
With her free hand, she picked up the little girl again.
“Everything I’m saying is true!”
“Alright, alright, it’s true~”
Since the girl might be a fellow warrior who had suffered for humanity, Cecilia didn’t stop her from holding Kiana this time.
Instead, she used a soothing tone — the kind one might use for a child… or a mental patient.
“So… what’s life like in the future with Kiana?”
When dealing with someone whose mental state was fragile, it was best not to provoke them.
The safest approach was to go along with their words and gently lead them somewhere safe — like Schicksal’s medical division.
“Life with Kiana in the future, hmm… Are you sure you want to know, Mother-in-law?”
C.C.’s lips curved in a mischievous arc.
A true connoisseur of schadenfreude, she wasn’t about to hold back even for her “mother-in-law.”
Her fair cheeks gained a faint blush, her beauty so striking it could take one’s breath away.
“Normally, parents wouldn’t want to hear about a couple’s private life. But… if you really want to know, I suppose I could tell you.”
‘What an adorable child,’ Cecilia thought.
Seeing the slightly flushed green-haired beauty, and being in the peak of her motherly instincts after giving birth to Kiana, Cecilia felt even more pity for her.
She silently vowed to tell the Overseer to make sure this poor girl’s mind was healed.
“If you don’t mind, please tell me. I’d like to know what Kiana will be like in the future.”
Watching Kiana’s obvious joy in C.C.’s arms, Cecilia was genuinely curious about what kind of future this “brain-damaged” girl might imagine.
“Alright… fine…”
The green-haired girl shyly averted her gaze as if embarrassed but then Cecilia caught her whispering something strange, words she couldn’t quite understand.
“Since this is a long story that would take days to tell… I’ll just send it directly!”
Cecilia could detect an undertone of suppressed amusement in her voice, but mostly she just felt confusion.
‘Send? Send what?’
Naturally, C.C. meant using a copy of Fenghuang Down’s powers to transmit memory directly.
She began with the time she first met the “stupid tuna” and the early days of their relationship.
Occasionally, she swapped in memories of her time with the the heiress Kiana and with true Kiana… and even slipped in a certain… indescribable night.
She kept it to everyday life no details of Kiana or Sirin’s actual fate, she fear that dumping too much information might break Cecilia’s mind entirely.
Of course, to make things more… pleasurable, C.C. carefully edited the memories before sending them over.
She removed all traces of Nagami his male form—leaving only the tender, heartwarming moments between beautiful girls, a garden in full bloom with lilies of purest white.
And then—
‘BOOM!!!’
It was like thunder out of a clear sky.
The moment the curated memories began to play in Cecilia’s mind, her brain erupted in a deafening roar.
It felt as though a cloud-burst bomb had detonated inside her skull, blasting her thoughts into utter white noise.
Her eyes flew wide open, mouth slightly agape, staring blankly ahead.
She looked like someone yanked from a deep, blissful sleep only to be greeted by a solid kick in the ribs and a couple of well-placed blows to the head.
The very picture of someone questioning the meaning of life itself.
“Mother-in-law? Mother-in-law?”
C.C. tightened her grip on Cecilia’s delicate hand, watching the older woman’s dazed, bewildered expression.
She looked… well, almost like a late-stage dementia patient—only, since this was Cecilia, it somehow came across as adorably tragic.
“Mom? Mom?” Little Kiana also noticed something was wrong.
Abandoning the pretty green-haired girl, she clambered back into her mother’s arms.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?”
“T-this… this…” Cecilia finally managed to recover enough to speak, though her voice was shaky.
She stared at C.C., whose expression was a picture of innocence—perhaps too much innocence—and her eyes filled with disbelief. “What in the world is going on here?!”
Because in those memories… she had just seen two identical Kianas blooming like lilies together with this mysterious girl—on a bed.
Her heart was in chaos, tangled in a mix of despair, subtle awkwardness, relief, regret, and even a hint of happiness.
A pie chart couldn’t possibly map out that mess of emotions.
Logically speaking, even if this green-haired beauty revealed some intimate detail about Kiana’s body, Cecilia wouldn’t be shaken so easily.
Kiana was born here on the floating island of Schicksal, and certain details about her were recorded by the medical department at birth—files that, in theory, could be stolen if someone hacked the database.
But this? This was different.
C.C. had just transferred memories directly into her mind—something even Schicksal’s cutting-edge tech couldn’t do without the subject’s cooperation, large-scale equipment, and hours of precision work.
And this girl had done it in seconds.
Coupled with her claim of being from the future… and the vivid, unmistakable face of that blue-eyed, white-haired girl playing in her mind… Cecilia could no longer dismiss the terrifying possibility that this was all true.
Her daughter’s future…
Oh, it wasn’t that she was shocked by Kiana and C.C.’s relationship.
In Schicksal, where 99% of Valkyries were women, this was hardly unusual.
As long as Kiana was happy, she’d give her blessing.
What truly unsettled her was the part of the memories showing Kiana wandering the world alone for years in search of Siegfried… and the fact that there was no trace of her in any of them.
And then there was the mystery of the two identical Kianas…
Questions surged like an unstoppable tide, and Cecilia felt the string of her sanity stretching to the breaking point.
“This isn’t really the best place to talk, is it, Mother-in-law?”
“You… you’re right,” Cecilia said, her tone strange and conflicted. “Then please… come inside.”
And so, with a look that was equal parts bewilderment and forced composure, she invited her future daughter-in-law into her home.
