Glug glug glug.
Under Raiden Ryoma's murderous glare, Siegfried chugged the bottle of Ryoma's expensive, treasured red wine. He had no intention of savoring the fine vintage, instead pouring it down his throat like water, a complete waste.
"Ryoma, my boy, the wine you've collected tastes pretty damn good! Got any more? Give me another ten bottles!"
Siegfried looked disheveled and travel-worn, his face even bruised and swollen as if he had been beaten with a baseball bat for half an hour. Yet, his spirits were exceptionally high. He cheerfully raised his hand and vigorously slapped the back of Raiden Ryoma, who was next to him.
"Siegfried, you bastard! If you dare to waste my collection again, get the hell out of my house!"
Seeing Siegfried, who was drinking like a fish, wanting to continue wasting his precious wine collection, Raiden Ryoma, who had already accumulated a lot of anger, finally exploded.
He punched Siegfried squarely on a bruise on his face, sending the man sprawling back onto the soft sofa. Siegfried then shifted, found a comfortable position, and chose not to get back up.
"I know you're happy and excited to be reunited with your daughter, but I hope you can channel your excessive excitement towards your own daughter, instead of coming to my house and causing us unnecessary trouble."
Raiden Ryoma adjusted the tie on his chest. After punching Siegfried, the tightness in his chest finally eased.
"I'd like to stay with Kiana too, but because I've been hiding from her for so many years, the first thing that came out upon our reunion wasn't filial piety, but rebellion. After she gave me a good beating, she started ignoring me, even avoiding me. I guess it'll be a long time before Kiana can calm down and forgive me."
Siegfried, sprawled on the sofa, scratched his swollen cheek. He instinctively hissed in pain.
Because he truly owed Kiana for so many years, Siegfried didn't deliberately defend himself when his daughter was hitting him. He could only take all of his filial daughter's baseball bat swings, getting beaten so badly he had to run with his head in his hands. Only then did Kiana, who had chased him all over the world, finally vent some of her anger.
Originally, Siegfried had wanted to bring Kiana to the Raiden residence as well, to thank their benefactor, Ren Amamiya, together.
However, because Siegfried looked very healthy, and the left arm he claimed to have accidentally lost in an accident had been replaced with a high-precision mechanical prosthesis made with cutting-edge technology that was as flexible as a normal arm, Kiana, while relieved, also started to act resentfully towards her real father.
Forget staying with Siegfried, Kiana didn't even want to talk to him. At most, they could barely communicate with Raiden Mei acting as a go-between.
With Kiana being so resentful, Siegfried could only give up the idea of bringing her along and came to the Raiden residence alone to thank Ren Amamiya.
"Speaking of which, where did that Phantom Thief go? I thought he'd be at home at this time."
Looking at Siegfried, who was lounging leisurely on his sofa, casually referring to the Raiden residence as Ren Amamiya's 'home' as if it were a matter of course, Raiden Ryoma's temples throbbed violently again. He felt his blood pressure shooting up.
Siegfried's words made it sound as if Ren Amamiya had already completely won over his daughter, Raiden Mei, and was about to inherit this Raiden residence...
While feeling angry, a sense of sorrow and helplessness also welled up deep within Raiden Ryoma's heart.
Because he actually knew that Siegfried's thoughts were probably right, and might even be on the verge of becoming reality.
"Ren... Ren didn't return to the real world yesterday. But around this time, he should be returning from Mementos soon."
Raiden Mei, sitting in a corner of the sofa and refilling a teapot, seemed absent-minded. It wasn't until her father, Raiden Ryoma, turned to observe her expression that she barely came back to her senses. She forced a smile and spoke to her father and Siegfried.
Just as Raiden Mei's voice fell, Siegfried, who had been lazily lying on the sofa, suddenly sat up straight. Welt Yang, who had been reading a book while sipping tea, also silently put down his teacup. Their gazes simultaneously turned towards the entrance of the Raiden residence.
Realizing something from the actions of the two elders, when the faint sound of the door opening came, Raiden Mei and Bronya, who was sitting next to her, eagerly stood up. They finally saw the figure they had been longing for after a day's absence.
"Welcome back, Ren— Huh? Hare? Why are you back in the real world with Ren?"
A genuine smile had just appeared on Raiden Mei's face when her gaze was instantly drawn to the gentle, white-haired woman walking beside Ren Amamiya, entering the Raiden residence with him.
"The radiation pollution that Hare's body carried is gone... So, Ren spent the night in Mementos yesterday because he was busy helping Hare remove her curse."
As the weakest combatant present, Bronya, who until yesterday couldn't withstand Hare's Honkai energy radiation for long, was the first to notice that the Honkai energy pollution Hare carried had disappeared.
Through Project Bunny's energy detection program, Bronya confirmed that this wasn't just her imagination, but that the Stigmata curse that had always plagued Hare had finally been completely eliminated.
Realizing this, Bronya and Raiden Mei exchanged a look, and both silently breathed a sigh of relief.
Before yesterday, Ren Amamiya had never spent the night in Mementos. Raiden Mei had wanted to ask Shadow Mei, who had become Ren's Persona, for some news, but Shadow Mei seemed to be in a very bad mood. She only told Mei that Ren wouldn't be back that night, and then dove deep into her consciousness, leaving her on 'read'.
Raiden Mei and Bronya had been worried that something [Bad] had happened, but now it seemed that everything was thriving and developing in a positive direction.
'Ren, the person behind you is... the Schicksal executive who tried to kidnap Kiana yesterday? And Miss Fu Hua?'
Casting her gaze behind Ren and Hare, Raiden Mei once again saw the faces of the two stunningly beautiful women.
However, compared to before, a crimson thorn collar, as if condensed from fresh blood, was now worn around the slender white necks of these two graceful young women.
"...Is that on their necks, Schariac Holy Blood?!"
As the person in the world most familiar with Cecilia, Siegfried immediately sensed an extremely familiar aura from the two thorny blood collars.
Looking at the gentle, long-haired white woman standing with Ren's group, whose every move revealed an extremely intimate feeling, Siegfried's blue pupils couldn't help but tremble violently.
The appearance of Schariac Holy Blood and that delicate face, so similar to Cecilia's, almost made Siegfried blurt out Cecilia's name.
Fortunately, he ultimately controlled himself, knowing that Cecilia had long since passed away. The person who was so intimate with Ren Amamiya was clearly another member of the Schariac clan who had awakened the power of the Holy Blood.
"It's the power of Schariac Holy Blood. To think I'd be able to see this kind of ephemeral miracle again one day."
Welt Yang pushed up his glasses, his tone filled with a rather intriguing sense of relief and emotion.
Schariac Holy Blood's restraining effect on Honkai was extremely strong. In the early years, Welt Yang, a Herrscher transformed from a human, had merely gotten a little of Cecilia's blood on his hand, and his palm had been severely burned, giving him a firsthand experience of the power of a "Herrscher Killer".
Seeing the power of Schariac Holy Blood again after Cecilia's death, and seeing it in the hands of this mysterious ally, Ren Amamiya, a sense of gratification actually appeared in Welt Yang's heart.
Although he felt that this mysterious masked man, Ren Amamiya, had more and more masks and trump cards being revealed, for Welt, who was dedicated to defeating Honkai, the more trump cards Ren had, and the stronger he was, the better.
...Is Schariac Holy Blood really that famous? Why does it feel like everyone knows about it?
Ren Amamiya blinked, nodding to everyone in the room. This thought couldn't help but pop into his head.
I wonder which is more convenient and powerful, this or Midrash...
Without harming Hare, Ren Amamiya, in cooperation with her, re-transcribed her body, a process that took a full day and night.
Although he had successfully obtained the power of Schariac Holy Blood, Ren hadn't had the chance to test it in actual combat against the Shadows in Mementos, so he didn't know its specific power.
"Good evening, everyone. My name is Misteln Schariac, codename Hare. I am a companion of Ren, Mei, and Bronya. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Hare smiled, placing one hand on her chest and curtsying gracefully like a noblewoman, introducing herself to Siegfried and Welt, whom she was 'meeting for the first time'.
"Misteln... so she really is from the Schariac clan."
Siegfried smacked his lips, his tone extremely complicated. As an experienced man, he could naturally see the overly intimate relationship between Hare and Ren Amamiya. From the overly gentle way Hare looked at Ren, Siegfried could even tell that Ren and Hare had already... gone past the point of no return.
Although he was known as a playboy in his youth who stole the hearts of all Schicksal's Valkyries, Siegfried was actually only devoted to Cecilia.
He could only feel a mix of appreciation and disapproval for Ren Amamiya's amorousness among the women in his team... Yes, Siegfried had also noticed that Bronya, who had been Ren's enemy just last week, had now fallen for Ren just like Raiden Mei.
In such a short time, to make female enemies fall for him one after another, although Siegfried didn't really want to comment on Ren Amamiya's amorous behavior, he had to give a thumbs-up for this kind of heart-capturing gambit.
'Forget it. Ryoma is the one who should be worrying anyway. I just need to keep an eye on Kiana and make sure she doesn't bother Mei anymore...'
After a brief brainstorm, Siegfried finally gave up thinking about it. Anyway, the ship Ren Amamiya was poaching from belonged to Raiden Ryoma's family. He, Siegfried, had no need to meddle in his benefactor's affairs.
"Thanks for your help, Ren... Yeah, it's okay for me to call you that, right? You cleared the Palace much faster than I thought. As expected of a professional Phantom Thief. So, was the intel I gave you useful?"
Siegfried raised his hand and scratched his head. Although his face was bruised and swollen from being beaten by his daughter, he still greeted Ren Amamiya in a carefree manner.
"The reward we agreed on before still stands. If you want to learn Kaslana Gun Kata, you can come to me anytime."
"Kaslana Gun Kata, huh? We did have that agreement. But... Siegfried, what happened to the injuries on your face?"
Clearing the Herrscher of the Void's Palace was a goal Ren Amamiya wanted to achieve himself. It wasn't until Siegfried brought it up now that he remembered Siegfried had once promised to teach him the Kaslana family's handed-down Kaslana Gun Kata if Ren successfully changed the Herrscher of the Void's heart.
At the time, Ren Amamiya had coveted Kaslana Gun Kata, a fighting style that could freely combine long-range and close-range attacks.
Although he could summon Persona Siegfried to command in battle, Persona Siegfried was just a trick Ren had pulled off using the special nature of the Kaslana Palace. His real Persona was Kallen Kaslana.
Therefore, Ren Amamiya had only mastered the Kaslana Gun Kata that Kallen had learned five hundred years ago, when firearms were not yet advanced.
However, now, looking at Siegfried's bruised and swollen, pathetic appearance, Ren Amamiya couldn't help but feel hesitant. He began to doubt the strength of the Kaslana Gun Kata technique.
Ren was very clear about Siegfried's strength. If Siegfried went all out, even the current him would have to put in some effort to instantly defeat Siegfried.
But this Siegfried, who was always bragging about Kaslana Gun Kata, was beaten black and blue after being approached by an acquaintance. How could this not make Ren doubt the value of Kaslana Gun Kata?
"Huh? Oh, Kiana, that girl, did this. Even though it was because of the Herrscher of the Void, I did deliberately hide from her for so many years and made her suffer a lot. It's only right that she gets to beat me up a bit to vent her anger... It has nothing to do with the strength of Kaslana Gun Kata!"
Siegfried was stunned for a moment, but he quickly realized the reason for Ren's strange look and hurriedly tried to explain himself.