The Paladin on the Infinite Tour.

Walking out of the kitchen, Bronya placed a piece of iced tea that had just been prepared in front of Alexia: "Sister Mei, Sister Sakura and Xi'er went to the mall together, while Miss Bianca and senior Rita were performing outside. Task. So only Bronya looks after the house."

"I see...Thank you for your hard work, Bronya."

"It's not hard, Bronya. Besides -"

Holding the dinner plate with both hands, Bronya stood beside Alexia for a moment, and then said in a very rare tone with some emotion: "Bronya would like to ask, can the master give me tonight?" Bronya, can you give me some time?"

"Bronya has something she wants to talk to the master alone."

"——It's something very important to Bronya."

119. The night without Bianca

The fifth floor of Alexia's house.

In Alexia and Bianca's bedroom.

The time now has reached eight o'clock in the evening. Alexia, who is leaning on the bedside and has finished taking a shower, is holding her personal terminal in her hand and chatting remotely with Bianca and Rita.

"...So, you won't be back tonight?"

[Well, the mission is a little troublesome. Rita and I have to stay here overnight. I guess we won’t be able to go back until noon tomorrow at the earliest.]

On the other end of the phone, Bianca, who was standing on a brightly lit street and didn't know which city she was in, said this.

[Sorry, we didn’t expect that today’s mission would require staying overnight.You can only sleep alone tonight. 】

Yes, Bianca and Rita didn't come back today.

Something unexpected went wrong during their mission, so they had to stay there one more night.Thanks to this, the two of them are missing from the dinner table tonight. In addition, Fu Hua and Kiana did not come back for dinner tonight. According to Fu Hua's call back, Kiana seems to be She got so good at practice that she insisted on pestering Fu Hua to practice more at night. She was so full of energy that it was abnormal.

Fu Hua really couldn't defeat her, so in the end he had no choice but to continue training with Kiana after having dinner outside. It was estimated that he would not be able to go home until after ten o'clock.

However, even if four people were suddenly missing—five people including Anna—the dining table at Alexia's house would not look deserted.

"It doesn't matter, I'm not someone who can't sleep without your pillow, so you can just go about your mission with peace of mind," Ixia said with a smile, "I'll talk to Bronya about some things and then I'm going to sleep."

[Does Lady Alexia still have a reservation with Miss Bronya? 】

Next to Bianca, Rita, who was also present, asked curiously.

"Well, after returning home in the evening, Bronya asked me to stay with her for a while tonight. She has something very important to tell me - I think it's probably something related to Xi'er."

Alexia thought she could guess some of the thoughts of her little maid.

Saving Xi'er - this is what Bronya thinks is the most important thing, and now with the help of Ixia, Xi'er has been successfully rescued, so what Bronya will do next is probably Just help Xi'er arrange a way out, and also help her figure out what she should do in the future.

Maybe Bronya wanted to come and tell him this tonight.

[Hmm~~~~That’s it]

Rita smiled meaningfully.

[Then Bianca-sama and I will not disturb you any more, Exia-sama.Since this is something that Miss Bronya considers very important, please communicate with her carefully.It is also very important to respond to the seriousness of others】

"Don't worry about this, Rita. I'm super serious when I should be serious." Ixia smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow, but I don't know if the Catholic Church will assign me any more tasks. If so, we can probably only meet in the evening."

[It’s okay, no matter what, we can definitely meet at night.Good night, Alexia. 】

"Well, good night, Bianca, Rita."

The phone call between lovers ends here.

Looking at the interface where the phone was hung up, Alexia put the personal terminal on the bedside and was about to get out of bed when a subtle knock on the door rang from outside.It sounded like he didn't want to be heard by others, or didn't want to disturb others. The knock on the door was not loud, but just enough for Alexia to hear.

Is it Bronya?

"The door is unlocked, come in."

"Crack..."

The person outside the door opened the door carefully, pushed out a small crack, and then squeezed in through the crack - it was indeed Bronya. She seemed to have finished taking a shower and was wearing all the clothes on her body. Cute pajamas with homu patterns printed on them, and the double spiral ponytail that is usually tied together is now down.

Pushing the door gently, Bronya looked at Aikesia: "Excuse me, Master."

"It's okay, I have a lot of free time at night anyway... By the way, what's wrong with you?" Alexia wanted to laugh a little, "You were so careful when you came in. If I hadn't known it was you, I would have thought there was a thief in the house. ."

"Bronya doesn't want to make too much noise to disturb other people."

"But this is the fifth floor."

I don’t know if it was the deliberate result of Bishop Otto, but the walls and floors of this home have very good sound insulation effects, and there is almost no sound from other floors.Now Alexia's room is on the fifth floor. Because Bianca, Rita and Anna are not here, he is the only one on the fourth and fifth floors combined.

There was no need to worry about the sound being transmitted out. Raven and Sakura, who lived on the third floor, couldn't hear anything at all.

"Don't you want others to hear your conversation with me? Bronya."

"Yes."

Bronya nodded seriously - but because she always had a poker face whether she was serious or not, Alexia couldn't tell much of the difference.

(However, Bronya would be so cautious, which does seem to be a particularly important matter.)

Alexia, who was thinking this way, couldn't help but become serious: "So, what do you want to tell me? Bianca and Rita won't be back tonight. If you want, I have a whole night to spare. Come talk to you.”

"..."

Wordlessly, she came to the bedside and pressed the hem of her pajamas. Bronya sat next to Alexia: "...Bronya is here to formally thank the master."

"Thank you? Ah~~~Xie'er's matter?"

Alexia reacted: "But haven't you already thanked me a long time ago? Not to mention what happened in the Quantum Sea. In the past few days, you have also prepared a lot of delicious dishes with the help of Mei and Sakura. Right? I think it’s enough as a thank you.”

[If you want to say thank you, just cook me a meal later] - This was indeed what Alexia said to Bronya before.

Although it is not as good as Raiden Mei, Fu Hua and Yae Sakura's cooking skills, if you want to rank them down, Bronya's cooking skills are probably the first in this family behind those three.At least it was much better than someone like Alexia who couldn't help him, so he was very satisfied with those dishes.

However, Bronya shook her head: "This is not equitable, Master. Perhaps in the eyes of Master, helping Bronya rescue Xi'er is just a little effort, but for Bronya, The master has helped Bronya fulfill her greatest wish and rescued Bronya’s most important person.”

This is not a favor that can be repaid by cooking a few meals for Ixia.

Is there any life-saving grace that can be offset by cooking a few meals?

Even though Alexia herself thought this was enough, Bronya didn't think so.

and so--

"Bronya wants to repay the master more."

This is the reason why Bronya came to Exia at this time.

120. Bronya’s confession

Bronya's words made Alexia pause.

Wanting to give herself more in return - Bronya would have this idea and come to express it to him specifically, which means...

"It seems that I have underestimated the importance of Xi'er to you, Bronya."

Xi'er is a very important person to Bronya. Alexia knows this, but she doesn't have much real sense of it.Just like Kiana said that her favorite dish is made by Raiden Mei, but she loves to eat every dish made by Raiden Mei.

Therefore, even if she knew how important Xi'er was to Bronya, Alexia didn't have a specific impression.

but now......

"For Bronya, the importance of Seele is the same as the importance of sister Bianca to the master." Bronya said, "Bronya has told the master about Bronny What happened in Ya’s past?”

"No. After all, I basically have no chance to chat with you privately, Bronya. Besides, I don't think it's a good thing to take the initiative to explore a person's past, so I only understand a small part. As of now, you are in Anti-Entropy It’s just time to live in its orphanage.”

"Bronya is from Siberia."

Siberia.

This place attracted Aixia's attention.

Siberia is not a peaceful place for the world. The second collapse that occurred in 2000 and the battle between the Second Herrscher and the Destiny reduced the entire Siberia to ruins. Even if the Second Herrscher was defeated in the end, it did leave Siberia with an incurable scar. Trauma and tragedy have been unfolding in Siberia ever since.

One of the manifestations of these tragedies is the large-scale displacement of children.

Although this situation has been alleviated through the efforts of the Siberian government, the solution is-

"Bronya, could it be that you were a young soldier from Siberia?"

"Ah."

The military—perhaps Siberian, or perhaps an unknown military organization—adopted displaced orphans on a large scale after the Second Collapse, and trained those orphans to be emotionless and A young soldier who knows how to carry out killing orders.

[Children in this country learn to hold a gun before they learn to hold a knife and fork]

There was a saying circulating in Siberia at that time.

Bronya is one of those countless young soldiers.

"This is some information from Bronya's past, Bronya collected it."

Bronya opened a file with her personal terminal, and handed it to Ixia.

The information recorded in the file is the intelligence of an assassin who has disappeared for several years, codenamed [Ural Silver Wolf].In the world of assassins, this assassin can be said to be a somewhat legendary existence.She was not active for long, and quickly retired like a flash in the pan. However, during this active period, she set a record for the fastest time to reach the top of [Charon's List] - an assassination for the whole world. The ranking list below them - no assassin has been able to challenge it so far.

By the way, Miss Raven of the Exia family is currently at the top of Charon's list, and she is even number 2.

The assassination method of this Ural Silver Wolf is also said to be unique. In addition to some common assassination methods, she will also disguise herself as a prostitute, sneak into the target's side, and then strangle the target's throat with stockings to complete the assassination.Before she disappeared, she quietly killed thirteen senior officers in this way.

However, one day in 2012, she suddenly disappeared and has not been seen since.

"...So, the Ural Silver Wolf is you?"

"Yes." Bronya nodded dully, "Bronya was a Ural Silver Wolf before she was adopted by Cocolia's mother. And assassinating Cocolia's mother was Bronya's last mission. , but the mission failed, and Bronya was also adopted into an orphanage by Cocolia's mother - below the file are the events of that period that Bronya herself compiled."

Really considerate and considerate.

Alexia scrolled down, and Bronya also gave a cooperative explanation.

"One of the things that Bronya has received since she was a child is that Bronya doesn't need to have her own ideas, she just needs to obey orders, and the person who can give orders to Bronya is Bronya's Master. After being adopted by Cocolia’s mother, Bronya thought that Cocolia’s mother wanted to become Bronya’s new owner.”

But it's not.

During that period, Cocolia, with the support of Anti-Entropy, established an orphanage to adopt orphans and young soldiers. Even though Bronya was the one who wanted to assassinate her, Cocolia took her in. Let Bronya call her mother - this is not Cocolia's thought operation. She has indeed done what a mother should do, and is indeed working hard to become a mother who takes care of her children.

The day Bronya was taken in was also the day she and Xier met.

Since then, Bronya has become a member of the Cocolia Orphanage.At first, because of the training she had received since she was a child, she could be said to be a somewhat cold and ruthless person, even a bit like a robot that could not act without giving orders. However, as she was influenced by other people in the orphanage, Bronny Ya was gradually influenced, and bit by bit she became like a normal child, with rich emotions.

In this process, the person who played the biggest role was undoubtedly Xier.

Xi'er is the person who changed the original Bronya to the greatest extent. Bronya also gradually regards Xi'er as her most important person while getting along with Xi'er.

Therefore, after Xi'er fell into the quantum sea, Bronya always wanted to save Xi'er. For this reason, she did not hesitate to do anything, and she did not hesitate to use demonic means to achieve her goal-but in the end, the third The three collapses were ended by Exia, Cocolia was killed by Exia, and Bronya became a prisoner of destiny.

She lost everything again.

Whether it was the [home (shelter)] that Cocolia brought to her, or the possibility of rescuing the most important person in her heart, Xiel - Exia easily destroyed it unintentionally.

During the few days she was imprisoned in the prison of Tianming Headquarters, Bronya was disheartened. She only had damaged emotional circuits, but did not completely lose her feelings. At that time, she thought that she would never be able to see Xier again. .

"However, Master gave Bronya what she lost again."

Everything Bronya has now can be said to have been given by Aixia.

Although becoming Alexia's maid was something arranged by Otto, after that, Alexia did not interfere in any way with Bronya moving into his home. He gave Bronya She has the greatest degree of freedom and has not made any difficulties for her for more than a year. She even takes the initiative to help her rescue Xi'er now.

Bronya was very grateful to Aixia.

It's not just a simple thank you, but a sincere and sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And, she wanted to express this gratitude with actions.

She once heard Fu Hua mention that there is an old saying in China called "If you receive a drop of kindness from someone, you should repay it with a spring of water" - Ixia's "drop of kindness" allowed Bronya to regain everything she had lost. In this case, the [Report of the Emerging Spring] given by Bronya must have sufficient value and weight.

After thinking about it for the past few days, the answer Bronya gave was...

"Bronya will spend the rest of her life repaying the kindness of her master."

Bronya showed quite obvious seriousness.

This was the only way she could think of to repay Ixia when she had nothing to offer - Bronya knew that her origins were dishonorable and her past experiences were by no means easily accepted by others. She had killed many people with her own hands. Her hands are always scarlet.

But she wanted to confess all this to Exia, because Exia is her current [Master].

The master has the right to know everything about himself.

121. Ducks donate blood