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ArabicHonkai Impact: My Power Grows When Valkyries Fall For Me — Chapter 8
Chapter 8: The Mysterious One-Armed Man
The setting sun bled across the streets in hues of warm orange and deep red. As Lucian walked the path home, his footsteps slowed, his mind still miles away. He had already parted ways with Kiana, but his thoughts remained tethered to the park bench where they had sat, and to the unnerving seriousness in her brilliant blue eyes.
“Don’t die.”
Her words had been a whisper, as light as a sigh, yet they had landed with the weight of a mountain.
Lucian unconsciously touched his chest. His heartbeat was a steady, reassuring rhythm; his breathing was even. This body was undeniably alive, and with a bit of luck, it could remain so for a long time. All he had to do was avoid any encounters with Honkai Beasts, steer clear of the fallout from a Herrscher’s awakening, and disentangle himself from the conflicts he was never meant to join.
But that was impossible.
From the moment Schicksal had recruited him, from the moment he’d accepted the mission to monitor the Second Herrscher… no, it was from the very moment he opened his eyes to find himself in this world ravaged by the Honkai, a peaceful life was a luxury he was destined never to know.
Kiana’s dream was undoubtedly a fabrication, a phantom of her anxieties. That much was certain. But what did it truly signify? Was he, in some inevitable future, walking toward his own demise?
Lucian stopped, his gaze lifting to a sky that was already beginning to darken at the edges.
Death was hardly a stranger in this world. For the Valkyries who fought on the front lines, every sortie was a potential final farewell. Every Great Honkai Eruption left a scar on history, with death tolls counted in the tens of thousands, if not more.
He wasn’t afraid of dying; he had already experienced it once in his previous life. Every second he lived now felt like a gift, a borrowed moment he was determined to cherish.
But he refused to die for nothing.
If death was truly his destiny, he hoped it would be meaningful. He hoped it would be a death that was remembered, not a pointless, silent fading into oblivion.
“What am I even thinking…” Lucian let out a bitter smile.
Was this some sort of self-consolation? Or had his subconscious already started to accept that grim future, preparing him for the end?
He shook his head, forcefully pushing the heavy thoughts from his mind. It was far too early to be dwelling on such things. There was still so much he had to do.
Lucian started walking again, his apartment building now just a short distance away.
“Hey, kid. Don’t move.”
A man’s voice, low and gravelly, materialized from the shadows behind him. An instant later, the cold, hard ring of a gun barrel was pressed firmly against the back of his head.
“…”
Lucian didn’t turn. He didn’t need to. He recognized that voice.
“Mr. Siegfried, I’m just a normal person,” Lucian said, his own voice laced with a hint of weary helplessness. He raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, slowly taking off his sunglasses and tucking them into his pocket. “Getting shot will really kill me, you know.”
He knew this was coming. Becoming close to Kiana at Chiba Academy was a surefire way to end up on the wrong end of a gun held by her overprotective father.
“A normal person?” Siegfried’s voice was a dangerous murmur right behind his ear. “A normal person wouldn’t have guessed who I am. And they certainly wouldn’t be speaking in that tone with a gun to their head.”
Lucian felt the barrel press harder, a slight, threatening shift of metal against his skull.
“Don’t play games with me. Tell me who you really are, and what Otto’s real purpose is for sending you here. My patience is limited.”
He could feel the tension in the man behind him, the subtle shift in weight that spoke of a finger resting on the trigger. This wasn’t a bluff. If he gave a useless answer, this old soldier wouldn’t hesitate to pull it.
Keeping his hands raised, Lucian’s voice remained unnervingly steady. “My identity is a matter of public record within Schicksal. I am Lucian, an A-rank Intelligence Agent. A normal person with zero Honkai resistance.”
He tilted his head just enough to catch a glimpse of the tall, imposing silhouette in his peripheral vision.
“As for my purpose, it’s exactly what it says on the tin: to monitor and report.” He paused, letting the words hang in the tense air. “My mission is to observe the state of the Second Herrscher’s vessel, K-423, as well as any signs that might indicate the reawakening of Sirin’s consciousness. I am to report everything I find, truthfully, to Overseer Otto.”
Siegfried said nothing, but the Judgement of Shamash pressed against Lucian’s head began to radiate a distinct, unnatural heat.
“Keep talking.”
“I’ve told you everything I can,” Lucian replied smoothly. “So why don’t we change the subject, Mr. Siegfried?”
He took a quiet breath.
“Let’s talk about… the fact that the real Kiana is still alive.”
The world seemed to fall silent. The ambient noise of the city, the distant traffic, the rustle of leaves—it all vanished. Lucian could feel the gun barrel at the back of his head tremble violently, as if the man holding it had forgotten how to breathe.
“…What did you say?” Siegfried’s voice was a choked, broken thing.
“I said, your daughter is still alive,” Lucian repeated, his tone clear and precise. “And I’m not referring to the Kiana you know now. I’m talking about the real Kiana. The one whose fate has been unknown for the last four years.”
A long, dead silence descended, broken only by the mournful wail of the night wind through the empty street and the frantic pounding of Lucian’s own heart.
“…Where is she?”
“How about we change locations to talk?”
—
“Kid, I only came with you because I was worried Otto’s ears were on the street. You actually brought me to your home?”
Standing in the entryway of Lucian’s apartment, Siegfried’s brow was furrowed in a deep scowl as he scanned the simple, two-bedroom layout.
“Don’t worry. Otto’s surveillance network may cover the entire city, but it doesn’t cover my place.” Lucian locked the door behind Siegfried, then gestured to an inconspicuous black device humming quietly in the corner. “Anti-eavesdropping jammer. Schicksal’s latest model. I made a few minor modifications.”
Siegfried’s eyes narrowed, sweeping across the small space. The furniture was sparse and functional. A desk was piled high with files. Pinned to one wall was a large map of the Far East, with several red markers clustered around Chiba Academy and the surrounding areas.
His gaze finally settled on the coffee table, and his expression hardened. His own file was laid out on its surface.
“You expected me to come.”
“I’ve been expecting you since the day I first made contact with Kiana at the academy,” Lucian confirmed. He switched on the living room light, retrieved two bottles of beer from the fridge, and tossed one to Siegfried. “You’re about two weeks later than I anticipated, though. It seems you’ve been busy with other things… investigating me, I presume?”
Siegfried caught the beer but didn’t open it, instead sinking heavily onto the sofa.
“Your file is as clean as a blank sheet of paper,” he said, his voice low as he watched Lucian. The young man before him was proving to be far more perplexing than he’d anticipated. “Lucian, seventeen years old. Both parents deceased. Recruited by Schicksal’s intelligence department three years ago. Zero Honkai resistance, combat evaluation E.”
He leaned forward slightly. “As for your records before the age of fourteen… they’re completely blank.”
A faint smile touched Lucian’s lips. He walked over to the map on the wall, his fingertip lightly tracing the coordinates of Chiba Academy. “If I told you I came from another world, would you believe me?”
Siegfried stared into his eyes. Under the apartment’s stark light, the boy’s expression was so candid it was almost reckless.
“Another world?” Siegfried’s voice was tinged with confusion. “Are you talking about a parallel universe? A Bubble Universe? Or…”
“The world after death,” Lucian interrupted calmly. “To put it simply, I died once. Then I woke up in this world, at the age of fourteen, appearing out of thin air… in Otto’s bathhouse.”
“Pfft—”
Siegfried, who had just raised the bottle to his lips, choked, spraying a fine mist of beer onto the floor. His eyes widened as if he’d just heard the most ridiculous joke of the century. But when he looked at Lucian, the boy’s expression was dead serious.
“…Bathhouse?” Siegfried lowered the bottle, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “You mean that old bastard Otto’s private hot spring?”
“That’s the one,” Lucian confirmed. “And if you want proof of who I am…”
He turned to face Siegfried fully, his gaze unwavering.
“I know many things about this world—more than you can possibly imagine. You can ask me anything. I will answer every question until you no longer find me suspicious.”