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ArabicHonkai Impact: My Power Grows When Valkyries Fall For Me — Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Do You Like Me?
Bronya rubbed the spot on her forehead where he had flicked her. Her expression was a perfect mask of indifference, though a flicker of annoyance at her plan’s failure ghosted through her eyes.
“The Bronya was not acting cute,” she stated, her tone flat and serious. “That was a tactical display of weakness.”
She corrected him with such gravity, one would never guess she was the same girl who had been looking up at him with soft, pleading eyes just a moment before.
Seeing this stubborn little duck refuse to admit defeat, Lucian couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
He leaned down slightly, bringing his gaze level with hers. “Alright then,” he repeated, his voice laced with amusement. “And how effective was this tactic, in your assessment?”
Bronya’s gray eyes shifted, a clear sign that the gears in her mind were turning. After a moment of contemplation, she asked a question that came completely out of left field.
“…Is your target me?”
“?”
Lucian blinked, momentarily stunned. Bronya’s sudden query had completely derailed his train of thought. What kind of logic had led her to that conclusion?
Observing his clearly dazed, almost dumbfounded expression, Bronya maintained her usual placid demeanor. Deep within her eyes, however, a glint of ‘just as I thought’ flashed for an instant.
“Because the Bronya almost killed you,” she began, laying out her evidence with cold precision, “yet the way you look at the Bronya is fundamentally the same as how you look at Seele.”
“This cannot be explained away by you simply having a good impression of the Bronya.”
“It’s possible you are merely a lolicon who finds the Bronya appealing, but the Bronya is somewhat unwilling to believe that.”
“However, that leaves one other possibility.” Her gaze sharpened. “Have you… been familiar with the Bronya for a very long time?”
Lucian’s expression froze.
A deep silence settled around them. Bronya’s stare was unwavering, as if she had already pierced through his every disguise and seen the truth beneath.
“…You’re overthinking it,” Lucian finally said, shaking his head as his voice returned to its usual gentleness. “I just happen to know a few things about you.”
“Happen to?” Bronya echoed the words, her gaze growing even more suspicious. “Very few people know about the X-10 Experiment. Seele’s existence has also been strictly sealed by Mother Cocolia. You, a young agent of Schicksal… how do you ‘happen to’ know these things?”
Her eyes narrowed, her deduction reaching its climax. “Unless… you already knew the Bronya and Seele. And you even know many things about the future…”
“Are you… from the future?”
Lucian fell silent.
Bronya’s logic was flawless. He did come from another world, which, in a very real sense, was indeed her “future.”
“I underestimated you, Bronya,” he admitted with a wry smile. He reached out to pat her head, but his hand was firmly pushed away before it could make contact.
“The Bronya is not the Bronya you know. Our relationship has not reached that stage. Please refrain from casually patting my head.”
Her voice was firm, her gaze holding a new layer of seriousness. She had confirmed her own theory; she was now certain that Lucian had traveled back from the future.
Seeing her so convinced, Lucian decided to have a little fun.
“Then… what if I told you that in the future I know, you end up becoming one of my ‘wings’? Would you believe me?”
Bronya tilted her head. “…?”
A rare look of genuine confusion appeared on her face. She had no frame of reference for what he was talking about.
“‘Wings’? What does that mean?”
Looking at her earnest, inquisitive expression, Lucian deliberately drew out his words, explaining slowly and with a hint of mischief, “‘Wings’ is a metaphor.”
“In some stories, if a male protagonist has several close female companions, they are jokingly referred to as his ‘wings’.”
He paused, seeing her still-bewildered look, and decided to be a bit more direct. “To put it simply,” he added with a playful smirk, “it’s a more romantic way of saying ‘harem’.”
Bronya’s expression went blank. “…”
Now she understood.
“Impossible,” she declared, her voice calm but absolute. She looked directly into his eyes, her conviction unshakeable. “The Bronya’s heart belongs only to Seele. The Bronya could never fall for a man like you. It is absolutely impossible.”
Lucian was taken aback for a moment, then let out a soft, self-deprecating chuckle.
“You’re right.”
His joking expression melted away, replaced by a gentle earnestness. “My goal since coming here has never been to build some kind of harem. That’s just absurd.”
“I just hope the people I care about can suffer a little less… and have a better ending.” His gaze softened, filled with a warmth that seemed to push back against the encroaching void.
“What I hope for, more than anything, is that we can become wings for each other.”
As Lucian spoke, the space around them began to dissolve. It was like watching an old oil painting fade, its vibrant colors peeling away layer by layer, its defined edges blurring into nothingness.
“This place is about to disappear,” he stated calmly.
Bronya gazed at him. In the gradually dimming light, his violet eyes seemed exceptionally clear. They reflected her own image, but also a kind of deep determination that she couldn’t fully comprehend, yet found herself not repelled by.
“See you in the real world, Bronya.”
“Mm.”
————
The moment his consciousness snapped back to reality, Lucian was hit with a wave of slight dizziness. It was followed by the familiar, soft resistance of his own bed.
A faint ache pulsed deep within his right eye before quickly subsiding. A lingering discomfort, however, remained around his neck.
He blinked, his vision slowly sharpening from a blurry haze.
The first thing to come into focus was a head of smooth, silver-gray hair styled in distinctive spiral curls. The strands were somewhat disheveled, scattered across his chin and neck, creating a faint, ticklish sensation.
Next, he saw a pair of lips, pale and so close they were almost touching his own.
It was Bronya.
She was lying on top of him in a posture that could hardly be described as comfortable, her head practically pressed against his face. Her hands were resting on either side of his neck, her fingers loosely entwined with the pair of white stockings still looped around his throat.
She hadn’t woken up yet. Her breathing was even and shallow.
For a moment, the only sounds in the room were their intermingled breaths and the faint light and chirping of early morning filtering in from outside the window.
Lucian’s mind went completely blank for several seconds.
He had assumed that after they returned to reality, Bronya would have already vanished as quietly as she had appeared.
Turns out, he was the one who woke up first…
Lucian was at a complete loss. He tried to shift his body, just a fraction of an inch, and the weight on his chest immediately became more distinct. With one hand, he instinctively propped up Bronya’s head to keep it from falling, and instantly regretted the movement.
This position was far, far too intimate.
The girl’s body heat seeped through their thin clothing, and her even breaths brushed against the skin of his cheek, sending an indescribable, tingling numbness through him. He could even feel the steady, slow beat of her heart against his ribs, a subtle counter-rhythm to his own, which was beginning to pound a little too quickly.
Lucian lay perfectly still, not daring to move a single muscle.
‘Wake her up?’he thought frantically.’Waking her in this situation would definitely get me strangled for real with these stockings.”Don’t wake her up? Waiting for her to wake on her own would also get me strangled.’
Playing dead seemed like the best option, but how could he possibly pretend to be asleep while actively holding up her head with one hand?
Just as he was wrestling with this impossible dilemma, the Bronya lying on his chest fluttered her eyelashes.
Then, she slowly opened her eyes.
They held a trace of sleepy confusion, as if she hadn’t fully processed her surroundings. Her gaze focused on Lucian’s lips for a long moment, then slowly traveled up to meet his own somewhat rigid, panicked stare.
Their eyes met.
Time seemed to freeze for a few agonizing seconds.
The confusion in Bronya’s gray eyes rapidly faded, replaced by dawning, horrified realization.