The Fire-Chasing Herrscher Who Destroyed the World

"Ugh!"

Before she realized what was happening, her upper body had already jumped up from the bed skillfully.

Then, as expected, she met the familiar face of Cocolia.

"Xi'er finally woke up?"

"Ugh... Cocolia's mother..."

An unknown bird was chirping by the window, and the overly bright sunlight stung her eyes, bringing a serious sense of time and space confusion, so that Xi'er looked at Cocolia's smile and was a little unresponsive for a while.

"Hmm? Xi'er, is there any problem?"

Cocolia's smile was restrained a little, and she pursed her lips. But this made Xi'er feel a little uncomfortable.

Because...she could no longer connect the gentle Cocolia's mother in front of her with the Cocolia who decisively drew her gun last night.

"Eh? You kid, you didn't sleep for too long and became stupid, right?"

"Ugh..."

"Don't you feel uncomfortable? Then you should get up."

Cocolia patted Xi'er's leg gently.

"Wash up, the children still need your help to take care of them. Oh, by the way, I told them that you were not feeling well today, so you slept in, don't worry. Also, the orphanage is running out of food, someone will deliver a batch this afternoon, and I'll trouble you to connect with them then, but remember, just like last time, it's best not to let the delivery person see the children, understand?"

"Yes."

Xi'er responded as obediently as always.

Cocolia left quickly, Xi'er put on her clothes, rubbed her head, washed up silently, and recalled what she saw the moment before she woke up.

The sound of the gunpowder explosion, even if it was just the propellant of a small pistol bullet, against the backdrop of the silent night, seemed like a violent explosion, hitting people's hearts and eardrums heavily.

But what happened afterwards made Xi'er a little confused.

She vaguely remembered that at almost the same time as the gunshot, there seemed to be a blue light blooming in the hand of sister Bronya in front of her, and then a transparent barrier with hexagonal matrix patterns faintly visible appeared in front of the two of them.

"Click-"

It seemed that someone pressed such a key, so all memories ended here, and thinking about it further, it was the memory of this morning.

"There is no useful information... But sister Bronya's inference seems to be correct. It's just that seeing sister wearing military collar and armbands, mother Cocolia was so excited that she drew her gun directly... No, I have to find a way to collect some information in the half day before sister Bronya arrives, but how to do it?"

She gently applied a towel dipped in ice water to her face for a while. If possible, Seele would rather use hot water to apply to her face, but the dormitory of the orphanage obviously cannot provide living conditions equal to those of the dormitory of St. Freya Academy, but this is also good. Although the bone-penetrating coldness will irritate the skin, it can also make the nerves more active and make people more awake.

Looking back at the angle of sunlight hitting the bedroom, Xier stared blankly at the light particles floating in the sunlight, her eyes gradually becoming empty and numb.

"Ah..."

With a light sigh, Xier opened the door. Just as one foot stepped into the corridor, she heard the boy's shouting:

"Good afternoon, Sister Xier! Tamiani pooped in her pants this morning!"

"Bullshit! Last time you blamed me for wetting the bed!"

Xier's lower lip trembled and raised upwards, and her hand couldn't help but hold the door frame. She wanted to say something, but in the end she covered her forehead with her empty hand first, and then her eyes.

After a while, a violent cough came from her ear. Xier rubbed her eye sockets hard. When she took her hand away, her eye sockets had sunken slightly.

She walked silently to the two children. The two boys were only wearing thin wool sweaters, leaning against the cold cement wall, holding their backs hard, and then shaking their heads and coughing continuously.

Originally breathless and weak, the more she coughed, the more she felt suffocated by lack of oxygen. She coughed until stars appeared in her eyes and she felt like she was going to vomit out her entire lung in the next second. Xi'er had had this experience before, but that was the result of the instructor leading her to run three sets of 10 kilometers with weights in one breath at the training ground of Saint Freya.

The two boys in front of her only ran back and forth two or three times in the distance of dozens of steps up and down the stairs.

"You two... stop coughing for now, bear it for a while, I'll take you back to the bedroom first, then drink some water and have a good rest."

Xi'er helped the two boys who were almost speechless to stand up. The action of helping was actually a little inaccurate. She almost directly put her arms through the armpits of the two boys and picked them up directly. Then she took the two back to the bedroom with a pace that was neither slow nor steady enough, and carefully put them on their respective beds, but did not let them lie down immediately, just sit and rest.

The next thing was nothing more than pouring some hot water, adding a pinch of precious sugar and salt, letting the two drink it all in one gulp, and then letting them lie down slowly when their breathing and heartbeat were stable.

The whole process was so orderly that Xier even forgot whether she blinked or not. After all, she had faced the same situation many times before, so there was no need to rethink it. Sometimes the body would repeat what it had done in the past.

However, this time, it seemed a little different.

Tamini fell asleep quickly as usual, but the child in front of Xier seemed to want to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth and took a breath, he couldn't help coughing violently again.

"Sister Xier, it hurts..."

"Ah?"

Before Xier could answer, the child was already covering his chest, crying and twisting his body on the bed.

"No... No, how could this happen..."

Xier stood up at a loss, but she soon seemed to have thought of something. She held the boy's body and lifted his shirt. As expected, the purple lines had spread to the right side of his chest.

"How could this happen!"

This problem had not occurred several times before. Was it a coincidence? Or... time was not actually moving in a strict closed loop as she and Bronya had speculated?

Without time to think too much, Xier rushed directly out the door. After running two steps, she turned back and warned:

"Xier, go call Cocolia's mother over right away. Don't worry, nothing will happen!"

However, the child rolling on the bed could no longer make any sound except the groan of pain.

When Xier and Cocolia rushed back to the bedroom of the two children, even the groan of pain disappeared.

Xier and Cocolia were so scared that they checked quickly. The child should have fainted. Although his breathing and pulse were disordered and weak, they still existed.

But the good news ended there. Pulling open the clothes, the purple lines on the chest extended to the heart at a speed visible to the naked eye. If it continued at this speed, death might be within ten minutes.

"But... Cocolia mother..."

"Don't say it... I know... I know..."

Cocolia supported her forehead with her hand and paced back and forth in the room anxiously.

Xier looked at this scene, and her anxiety was self-evident, but she also felt something strange. Cocolia's current appearance seemed to be...

"Xier, you stay here with Lape, I'll go get some medicine."

Xier couldn't refute it, so she could only hold the boy's hand silently.

After waiting for about two or three minutes, the sound of high heels was heard again at the door. Cocolia rushed in with something in her hand, but what she said made Xier feel puzzled.

"Xi'er, can you please go out for a while?"

Xi'er couldn't refuse. After all, she knew only a little bit more about this place than nothing. She didn't dare to say or do anything more. What's more, the child's condition was urgent. Even if she really wanted to say something, she couldn't delay the treatment.

She quickly walked out of the room and closed the door. Xi'er sighed helplessly and depressed.

"What was that thing that Kokolia mother held in her hand just now? I've never heard of a precedent where a Honkai patient could be saved after reaching this stage. Will this be different from Kokolia mother's... Let's observe the situation again..."

Thinking of this, the door suddenly opened from behind.

"Eh? Kokolia mother, he..."

"Don't worry, he should be fine..."

Before Kokolia finished speaking, Xi'er squeezed in through the crack of the door. She lifted the boy's clothes again. The purple lines still existed, and seemed to have faded a little bit, but it was still not far from the heart.

Fortunately, it no longer extended at a speed visible to the naked eye, but it did not continue to fade.

If this state is maintained, it cannot be said that everything is fine. After all, it will only take a few days...

When Xier thought of this, her nose was sore and her vision was a little blurred, but she did not cry.

"He should be fine, he is fine now."

Cocolia walked gently behind her, put her palm on Xier's shoulder, and comforted her softly.

"Things have come to this, there is no way... Let's do this, Xier, these two children will be temporarily left to you, I will take the other children to the front yard to play games and make lunch, so that it will be quieter here, but these two children will be left to you."

"Understood."

Xier answered in a daze, while putting down the boy's clothes, and pulling over the hard quilt to wrap the boy's body.

After doing all this, she sat quietly by the bed, and the noise of the children outside the house gradually faded away.

The two children behind her made a slight and even snoring sound. They were no longer noisy and unusually quiet, completely different from the previous few times. Xier also sat quietly, and even didn't know what she had to think about for a while.

When the angle of sunlight coming in from the window tilted about three degrees, Seele finally realized that this was a rare opportunity.

Cocolia was with the children in the front yard and the kitchen, and the two children didn't look like they would have any problems. Then, she might be able to sneak into Cocolia's office now, at least to see what method Cocolia used to stop the boy's Houkai disease from worsening.

After all, even if this kind of thing happened a thousand times in front of Seele, she could only say... unheard of.

"No... Sister Bronya has been suffering all the time, Seele must do something."

Standing up, she walked to the door of the room with slow steps, opened a crack in the door, and quickly flashed out after careful observation.

There were no children in the backyard, and probably everyone was taken to the front yard. Seele didn't have time to hesitate. She rushed up to the second floor in three or two steps, gently turned the door handle of Cocolia's office, turned around and glanced behind her quickly, and then slipped in through the crack of the door.

After entering the room, before she had time to turn around and take a closer look, Xier sniffed and smelled the scent of disinfectant alcohol.

The room was not big, and was even more cramped than Xie'er's bedroom, probably because there were bookshelves stacked on three walls. The entire room is basically a sofa for resting and sleeping. There are quilts and pillows piled on the sofa, and there is a desk inside.

The smell of alcohol, as expected, came from a pair of disposable rubber gloves left on the table.

"That is……"

Xi'er walked to the desk and looked at the test tubes and syringes that had not been put away. She instinctively wanted to reach out and touch them, but she still chose to stay away.

"Is the thing in this test tube the same thing that saved the child just now? There is saline in this bag...has it been diluted? I seem to have heard that there is a serum that can cure collapsing disease, but most people have to No...well, did it come from the other me or brother Mikael, no, no, no, it’s not important, it’s just, how did Cocolia’s mother get this?”

Xi'er couldn't figure it out, and she didn't waste her energy on this kind of thing. Instead of racking her brains against a bunch of things that couldn't speak, she would be better off trying to find other clues.

The desk drawer opens with a pull, and there are several books stacked in the drawer.

The top one was an accounting notebook that Xi'er was familiar with. She didn't know the following books at all.

She stretched out her hand to take out the book and examine it, but her fingers were pressed against the sides of the second and third books, and she felt a slight crack.

"What's hidden here?"

She took the notebook out of the drawer and easily saw what was between the two notebooks.

"How could it be... No, this can explain a lot..."

Tucked into the book were clearly the coalition government's badges, armbands and captain's rank insignia.

Xi'er was not unfamiliar with this, because she had only seen it on Bronya "last night", but the pattern on Bronya's badge and armband was a lighted moth, which was different from Cocolia's. Just slightly different.

Moreover, this is not unimaginable, because wasn't Cocolia a soldier in the original world?

But the fact was before her eyes, but it made Xi'er even more confused.

Since Cocolia’s mother is also a soldier herself, why did she get to the current situation step by step?

But in a sense, Xi'er feels that this identity is more beneficial to her and Bronya's actions. At least the Cocolia mother in front of her has more similarities with the familiar one, and her thoughts are easier to guess. Come on...

etc! In front of you?

Xi'er slowly turned her neck and returned her gaze to the place where she stayed three seconds ago.

Cocolia was leaning silently on the door frame, looking at her with a smile, silent.