Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Kiana felt she had been wronged.

She had no idea what kind of catastrophe she had caused by casually walking up to Noldrei and saying she wanted to marry him.

The proposal immediately prompted Noldrei to seize control of Kiana's body and give her a sound thrashing.

Dr. Tesla couldn't even bear to watch.

Domestic violence! This was straight-up domestic violence!

If she made some mistake in the future, did that mean Noldrei would discipline her the same way?

Fortunately, all Tesla wanted was a meaningless piece of paper—a marriage certificate from modern industrial society. Noldrei couldn't care less about such a trivial matter. Even creating two new lives using her genes wasn't a big deal to him.

But who would have thought Noldrei would be so terrified of the kind of marriage that existed in his future?

"It's horrifying," Tesla lamented to Dr. Einstein, reflecting on the terrors of the future. "For people of our time, the worst-case scenario with marriage is just not getting married at all. I never thought... I never thought he would beat his most beloved Crown Princess to a pulp on the ground like that." She continued, "I don't even think I'm more important to him than Kiana is. And yet, just because she got a little jealous and worried that the person who takes care of her would be stolen away, she gets thrashed so brutally for being selfish."

Was that just a thrashing? He looked like he wanted to kill her. Didn't you see that man-eating look in his eyes?

Dr. Einstein thought that if Kiana had been even a little more willful at that moment, she might have disappeared for good.

It was a good thing Noldrei had a soft heart and couldn't bring himself to harm the only other kindred being he had in this world.

At this point, Tesla found something odd. "Wait a minute," she said, surprised. "If that's the case... then why doesn't he mind when someone like me brings up marriage? He didn't even show the slightest hint of annoyance."

Dr. Einstein had an answer for that, seeing as it concerned her best friend's upcoming wedding.

"Because you don't have the ability to do what Kiana could," Einstein explained. "Didn't he tell you? Marriage for the humans of his future involves a corresponding exchange of control over one's partner. That implies they have the ability to do such a thing in their era, which is why it became a societal consensus."

"In other words, because Noldrei knows you can't do that, your talk of marriage is, in his eyes, a complete gift from him to you. It's not a normal, equal marital pact at all. He told you the truth about what marriage is like for his people—it grants absolute control over the other person, and it also represents a unified stance of power to the outside world."

"You might not get it if I put it that way, so think of it like this: in America, members of the two major political parties can't just casually get married. If they did, what would await them at home would be... something akin to a family-sized session of Congress, full of fighting."

"That's why Noldrei was so angry. Kiana is his only kindred, yet she doesn't know or understand his ambitions and ideals. And then, like a fool, she blurts out a marriage proposal just because she's scared of someone else snatching him away."

"She was definitely asking for a beating!"

Dr. Einstein felt no pity for Kiana at that moment. The girl had brought it entirely upon herself.

Dr. Tesla now understood the crux of the issue and was mentally prepared for such possibilities.

"I never imagined the institution of marriage in the future would have such a... complex background."

Tesla figured that aside from getting that traditional piece of paper, there wasn't much she could do to influence Noldrei.

Thinking about it that way, it was almost as if she was the one who had NTR'd that little girl Kiana.

"Oh no, am I the third wheel?!"

Dr. Lobster suddenly realized what she had done. At the time, she had just instinctively felt that Elysia was right. Since she was going to get married eventually, why not choose Noldrei?

"Exactly. You're only just realizing this now?" Einstein teased. "Look at you, you're already eighty. No matter which handsome guy you go for, you'd be robbing the cradle. We can't have you going for some old man your age, or someone like the five-hundred-year-old Otto, can we? And everyone knows about Otto. He's a complete and utter Kallen-con. The number of Valkyries in history who have confessed their feelings to him is anyone's guess, but he sent every single one of those poor girls to the front lines to fight the Honkai."

Einstein wondered why she'd never noticed how secretly passionate Tesla was before.

Tesla felt she was being a bit overly sentimental herself. She used to be a simple, wicked lesbian who just wanted to pilot a mech and... 'handle' foreign female spies.

Changing the subject, Tesla grew curious about Noldrei and Kiana's current relationship.

"Hey, bird's nest head," she said, "what do you think their relationship is now? Let's say, just hypothetically, if Kiana could one day understand his ambition—the world he wants to create—wouldn't their bond become a kind of family relationship, one far stronger than any modern marriage we understand?"

It already is. Tesla, you really are a bad influence!

Einstein thought back to what Tesla had told her about future marriage after she returned. To forge a bond of love that was so tightly binding, the external environment must have become a struggle so cruel that modern people couldn't even comprehend it.

The moment you got married, you'd be making an absolute declaration of "if we die, we die together."

It was like an ancient wedding ceremony where the couple suddenly pulls out a bowl of wine mixed with their blood, clinks it together, and declares, "We ask not to be born on the same day, in the same month, of the same year, but we ask to die on the same day, in the same month, of the same year!" They'd down it in one gulp, and then the husband and wife duo would head for the mountains to start a rebellion and overthrow the old world.

"But I really didn't expect..." Tesla said thoughtfully, "that he actually believes Kiana has the potential to control his power. Is that the confidence he has in his own kind? Doesn't that mean..."

"Don't say it. It's better not to talk about things like that!"

Dr. Einstein stopped Tesla from finishing her thought. She knew exactly what Tesla was about to say.

Tesla was clearly implying that if Kiana and Noldrei's chosen paths for the future were to diverge completely, it would lead to an incredibly vicious conflict between them.

At that point, the nature of their struggle would infinitely approach the "true future" that Noldrei spoke of.

"No wonder so many emperors worry about their heirs. If Kiana were to rebel, she might actually be the one who could succeed."

But Tesla still couldn't figure it out. She couldn't think of any reason why Kiana would one day oppose Noldrei.

"I can't even imagine a reason for Kiana to oppose him. She was originally a wandering little girl, and it was only after Noldrei took her in that she began to have something resembling a home. There's just no reason for her to turn against him one day. I think when that time comes... Kiana will still support him."

Tesla simply couldn't envision a day when Kiana would stand against Noldrei.

"Really? Do you believe that?" Dr. Einstein's smile was a little strained.

Tesla hesitated, no longer daring to make such a definite statement.

We're the lucky ones, Einstein thought to herself. Given our lifespans, we probably won't live to see the day those two become enemies.