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Chapter 249 – Sirin, with Intelligence
🕑 Added 2025-08-14 15:00:21 +0000 UTC“I’m your future… husband.”
After a brief hesitation, Nagami ultimately decided to tell the truth.
In the end, he would use that feather to weave into Sirin’s mind the memories she was meant to have in the proper timeline.
Memories that would automatically unlock when she touched the re-created Herrscher of the Void’s Plume in the future.
“What?”
Sirin’s eyes widened in shock, her face freezing in unexpected disbelief.
The little ahoge on her head swayed as if mirroring her inner turmoil, and she even forgot to pull herself out of Nagami’s embrace.
“I could give you more details, but… let’s get you something to eat first. I imagine you haven’t had a proper meal in quite a while.”
Setting the thin, frail girl down, Nagami conjured a piece of chocolate and held it out to her.
He smiled lightly at the hesitation flickering in the little girl expression.
“Relax, it’s not poisoned. See? Your little friends are perfectly fine.”
Sirin could feel warmth constantly radiating from the boy before her.
Since Nagami’s steady, normal body temperature was far higher than the frigid steel air of this laboratory.
After a glance at her companions, who were already wolfing down food, Sirin extended her pink tongue to give the chocolate a tentative lick.
Then she parted her cherry-blossom lips and bit down hard.
One warm tear after another slid down her pale cheeks.
“…Thank you.”
The soft, sincere words made Nagami pause for a moment.
Neither the game nor the manga had ever depicted Sirin before her Herrscher transformation.
Seeing this version of her, without the queen’s arrogance, without the venom—felt strangely unfamiliar to him.
She wasn’t even acting haughty.
After a moment, Nagami shook his head.
Sirin, in her current state, still retained the heart of a child.
And after enduring unspeakable suffering, it wasn’t strange for her to show a moment of weakness when faced with a gentle adult who meant her no harm.
Piece by piece, Nagami fed Sirin the chocolate, all the while pondering how to reach a perfect ending.
When the future Herrscher of the Void stood before him, she bore a queen’s presence.
By that point, the seal on her memories should have already been undone… so why had her attitude toward him been so odd?
Could it be… that he’d done nothing for her?
His thumb brushed away her tears, and under her startled gaze, he placed the droplet in his mouth.
Salty.
Would a version of him who wanted so badly to save these children… truly do nothing?
No—if her Herrscher nature wasn’t the cause of that future distance, then it must have been something he had done.
Nagami sighed inwardly.
Best to take it one step at a time.
“Why’d you stop eating?” he asked, looking down at the purple-haired girl.
Through those golden eyes, Nagami could see the ghostly confusion and doubt swirling within her heart.
After a brief pause, he allowed a faint smile to curve his lips. “Fine. Truth is, in the future, we aren’t married yet—we’re just boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Sirin stared at him in silence.
If her expression could be broken down into a pie chart, part of it said you’re an idiot, part said I pity you, and part said you’re a creep.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Nagami rubbed his cheek, a little embarrassed under such a little girl’s gaze.
“I’m serious. You’ve heard of stories about people traveling from the future to the past to save their loved ones, right? Even if you haven’t read them, you must’ve heard of them.”
“Of course, I don’t expect you to believe me right away. When the time comes, you’ll understand.” He ruffled her long, messy purple hair, still smooth despite not being brushed in ages.
His smile remained gentle. “So, whether you believe me or not… let’s get out of here first.”
As for the other children in the facility who had already been eroded by Honkai energy—Nagami couldn’t fully restore them to a completely normal state.
The best place for them would be Saint Freya Academy under Theresa’s care.
“W-Wait!”
The girl, who had been silently watching him as though lost in thought, suddenly spoke up, halting Nagami just as he was about to open the Imaginary Space portal.
“What’s wrong?”
Her small hand clutched his wrist.
Nagami looked up in surprise, only to see Sirin turn her head away with a somewhat awkward expression.
“I don’t know if what you said is true or if you’re just trying to trick me… but if you really are my… future b-boyfriend… then could you do something for me?”
Her voice was laced with a trace of shyness, her sickly pale face showing the faintest flush on her profile.
“Of course.” Nagami locked eyes with her golden irises, which now gleamed with a strange light, and raised a brow. “What do you want?”
“…Help me kill everyone in this laboratory.”
The girl who, moments ago, had seemed like a little angel now spoke with chilling coldness.
Her immature face took on the distant cruelty of a snowbound mountain range, her voice edged with madness.
At this point, the Herrscher of the Void was still in her weaker stage, but she wasn’t without brains.
From the way Nagami had suddenly appeared—able to conjure food out of thin air he was clearly no ordinary person.
And since this person kept claiming to be her future… b-boyfriend, whether it was true or not, he might be willing to help her take revenge just to win her trust.
Of course, Sirin knew that even without Nagami, if she waited just a little longer, she could take her revenge herself.
‘With this power God granted me!’
If she threw all caution aside, she could do it right now—but that came with the risk of being discovered.
If there was a chance to escape early, she would rather give up the satisfaction of delivering the final blow herself than stay another moment in this frozen hell.
Nagami was momentarily stunned—not by Sirin’s request, but by the fact that she actually had this kind of cunning.
‘So… just how far does her IQ drop after becoming a Herrscher?’
His gaze locked on the golden gleam in Sirin’s eyes.
From the moment a Herrscher core begins to form, a corresponding Herrscher persona takes shape—growing until it completely rips apart the original personality.
Sirin’s case was different from the Herrscher personas Nagami had encountered before.
Mei’s Herrscher persona, for example, had been catalyzed by the Honkai Will using her memories and negative emotions.
Sirin, on the other hand… think of it like this:
If her original personality was a stretch of fertile soil, then the Honkai Will planted the Herrscher persona in it like a seed.
This seed absorbed her hatred and despair, and when it matured, it would split the soil apart.
That was why the relationship between Kiana and Sirin was so unlike that of other Herrscher hosts and personas—they were much more deeply intertwined.
In an environment like this, endless despair and hatred became nutrients for the Herrscher persona, altering her personality with every passing second.
If Nagami had arrived even a day later, her attitude toward him might have been entirely different.
Because today was… January 31st, 2000.
The strength of his soul brought the contents of the manga from his past life into vivid clarity.
February 1st—that was the day Sirin would make her move.
Nagami couldn’t help grumbling internally.
‘Seriously, Kurumi, your aim with the Twelfth Bullet is way off!’
‘If the timing had been just a bit later, the difficulty wouldn’t just double—it’d skyrocket!’
Of course, that was because before meeting Nagami, Kurumi hadn’t had the luxury of “time” to freely use the Twelfth Bullet—at most, she could only rewind by short spans.
The idea of time travel on a scale of years had always been more of a dream for her.
As for Sirin’s shifting personality, Nagami didn’t interfere.
If the Herrscher of the Void was destined to emerge, this was an inevitable process.
The most important thing was that, so far, she was still within acceptable limits.
As long as he could prevent the Honkai Will’s influence from completely consuming her at the moment of full Herrscher awakening, he could stop her from taking the worst possible path.
“Of course, I have no problem with it,” Nagami said with a natural, matter-of-fact tone. “Even if you hadn’t asked, I’d still do it. I’m pretty protective of my own, you know.”
Killing the people who performed cruel human experiments on children? No guilt there at all—in fact, it might even be therapeutic.
“But revenge… isn’t it more satisfying if you do it yourself?”
He naturally took her small, delicate hand, then shifted the nature of his power to match the Herrscher of the Void’s wavelength, channeling it into her not-yet-complete core.
“This… are you God?”
Feeling her power surging, Sirin trembled with excitement.
After all, the only one who could grant her such strength was God.
“Of course not. I told you, I’m your future boyfriend.”
When she made it clear she didn’t believe him, Nagami flicked her forehead lightly with a hand chop.
“Go on— Start doing what you want to do~”
