Adam and [Mash] hurried straight to the spot where the violent clash of Noble Phantasms had just erupted.
Adam drew in a breath. The air hung thick with the scent of ash and scorched earth. At the center of the blast, the searing heat from the flames had carved out a perfect circular vacuum zone. Houses, roads—every trace of the surroundings had been reduced to gray dust.
The rest of the area lay twisted and shattered by the shockwave of another deafening impact, barely recognizable as the city street it had once been.
At the heart of the ruined battlefield stood two figures.
One was Kiyohime, every swing of her fan unleashing sweeping waves of flame.
The other was Elizabeth Bathory, who let out piercing shrieks between strikes while gripping her oddly shaped lance.
The pair had clearly gotten into some kind of quarrel. Their weapons weren't the only things busy—their mouths were working just as hard.
Elizabeth missed an attack and stomped her foot like a frustrated child.
"You damn, damn, damn arrogant Eastern country bumpkin squirrel!"
"Why do you keep following me around?! Are you some kind of stalker?!"
Kiyohime answered with pure disdain.
"Heh, who's the arrogant one here?"
"Accusing me of following you~?"
"How could a half-baked amateur like you possibly defeat a true dragon like me? Right, Miss Elizabeth?"
Kiyohime's words stabbed straight into Elizabeth's sensitive nerves.
"Ughhh, you're making me so mad! Before I deal with Carmilla, I'm going to blood-sacrifice you first, you Japanese python!"
"Hmph~ With what, you little frilled lizard?" Kiyohime replied, hiding the lower half of her face behind her fan, but the contempt dripped from every syllable.
Enraged by the nickname, Elizabeth fired back immediately.
"You! You pit viper!"
"Mexican viper!" Kiyohime shot right back.
Their argument bounced back and forth like two grade-schoolers squabbling.
Adam watched the familiar scene and couldn't help thinking back to his own Chaldea. Whenever Kiyohime and Elizabeth met there, it was exactly like this—oil and water, completely incompatible.
Of course, their fights always revolved around how Kiyohime constantly clung to Adam's side. Elizabeth found the sight unbearable.
In short, it was pure jealousy.
Elizabeth would criticize Kiyohime for being too clingy, and Kiyohime would mock Elizabeth for envying their relationship. Once her real feelings were exposed, Elizabeth couldn't hold back.
Looking back, almost every fight had centered on Adam.
Especially Kiyohime. Any chance she got, she found a way to stick close to him. According to Da Vinci's incomplete tally, the number of times she had snuck into his room at night ranked in the top five across all of Chaldea.
Adam figured his bond with her had to be at least a 9.
But no matter how deep that connection ran, it was with the Kiyohime from his Chaldea.
The Kiyohime standing here now was the one from this First Singularity. To her, he should have been nothing more than a stranger. There was no bond between them yet.
"Senpai, we can't let them keep fighting. We have to stop them."
At [Mash]'s reminder, Adam looked at the still-clashing pair and stepped forward with her to intervene.
His goal was to recruit both of them. Losing either one to an internal squabble would be a loss he couldn't afford—strategically or personally.
Ideally, he would talk them down.
But…
He and [Mash] had already reached the battlefield. He called out to the two combatants.
"You two, hold on! Stop fighting for a second and listen to me."
Elizabeth Bathory glanced over. The thought of anyone interrupting her while she tried to finish off the annoying reptile made her glare at Adam in irritation.
"Huh? What do you want? Who the hell are you? Don't get in my way while I'm exterminating this stinking python!"
"Ah, figured as much," Adam sighed softly, seeing that Elizabeth had no intention of stopping.
That was fine. If she wouldn't listen to reason, his Servant knew how to use force.
He glanced at [Mash], ready to have her step in.
Just then, Elizabeth wound up for her next attack—only to freeze when she saw Kiyohime's face.
Kiyohime was staring straight at Adam. Her expression shifted from blank shock to overwhelming joy. Every thought of continuing the fight with Elizabeth vanished completely.
In her eyes, only Adam existed. The rest of the world had faded away.
Adam noticed the change and raised an eyebrow, confused by the intensity of her gaze.
Before he could react, Kiyohime broke into a run, completely ignoring Elizabeth. With a big leap, she jumped straight into his arms. He caught her on instinct, wrapping his arms around her.
"Darling! You really are here! I've been waiting for you for so long. Why did you only come to pick me up now?"
Kiyohime's face glowed with pure happiness as she looped her arms around his neck and clung tight.
Adam was stunned. The way she acted felt exactly like the Kiyohime from his own Chaldea.
He stayed quiet for a moment, carefully watching her every movement to figure out what kind of state she was in.
Beside them, [Mash]'s expression cracked. Seeing Kiyohime pressed so closely against Adam, she stared wide-eyed as a strangely familiar sense of crisis surged inside her.
"Miss Kiyohime, p-please let go of my Senpai right now! Why are you being so intimate with a man you've only just met?"
"And calling my Senpai 'darling' like that!"
[Mash] reacted instantly to the direct assault.
She could accept the female Servants back in Adam's Chaldea—they had spent a long time together. But this Kiyohime from the Singularity should have been meeting him for the very first time. A rival appearing out of nowhere made her extremely uneasy.
"Hey, you stinking python! Why did you suddenly jump into that guy's arms?!"
"Get back here and fight me! I haven't blood-sacrificed you yet! Are you scared or something?!"
Left standing alone, Elizabeth was furious. She felt a helpless rage with nowhere to vent.
Kiyohime didn't even glance at her. The only reaction she showed was to [Mash]'s words.
She turned her head slightly while still nestled against Adam's chest.
"[Mash], what are you talking about?"
"Darling and I have been together for years now, haven't we?"
"Why would you say this is our first meeting?"
"Eh?!?!" [Mash] was completely thrown. She had no idea what Kiyohime meant.
This Kiyohime from the Singularity should have been meeting Adam for the first time. So why was she claiming they had already been together for years?
Adam was just as confused.
He knew he had deep connections with many of the women in Chaldea, but those had grown gradually through time spent together. Sudden love-at-first-sight moments were rare for him.
Even the later Kiyohime in this Singularity had shown affection, yet he could tell her feelings weren't true love yet. Only after they returned to Chaldea—when he helped her break free from her obsessions—had she fallen for him completely.
So her behavior right now caught him completely off guard.
First, the way she addressed him—"Darling"—was something that only appeared after their relationship had crossed that line back in Chaldea. The later version of this Singularity's Kiyohime had never used that word.
The more he thought about it, the more puzzled he became. He looked down at the girl in his arms and asked hesitantly, "Kiyohime… do you know who I am?"
Kiyohime's blissful expression flickered with a trace of confusion.
"Of course I do, Darling. Why would you ask me that?"
Then, as if some clarity returned to her love-filled mind, she seemed to understand his question.
"Ah~ I see. You're wondering about that, right?"
Kiyohime slowly explained:
"It's true that you've come to this different world and are reliving this Singularity. So you thought the Kiyohime of this Singularity wouldn't recognize you, correct?"
"Your thinking makes sense, Darling."
"A few days ago, when I first materialized in this Singularity, my mind really was blank, just like you thought. I had no memories."
"But deep in my heart, I felt like I had forgotten something incredibly important."
"I kept searching until I reached this city."
"This is the city where we first met. Even though I was lost, something told me I would find the answer I was looking for here."
"So I decided to stay."
"During those days of searching, my heart was filled with unease."
"A mysterious feeling kept telling me that I had forgotten someone extremely important—someone who had always been by my side."
"I searched this city for a long time but couldn't find you."
"Then I ran into that lizard over there. The moment I saw her, I had this strong intuition: if I kept following her, I would eventually find you."
"Because I remembered that our first meeting happened together with this lizard."
"And now… the moment I finally saw you, everything came rushing back to me."
Kiyohime's blazing, passionate love for Adam had crossed both space and time, directly reaching the Kiyohime of this Singularity and granting her all the memories of the Kiyohime from Adam's Chaldea.
That explained perfectly why this version of her was acting so intimately toward him.
After listening to her words, Adam could feel the depth of her love. He gently stroked her soft hair, a happy smile curving his lips as his own feelings rose to the surface.
"I'm sorry, Kiyohime. I underestimated how strong your love for me really is. If there's a next time, the first thing I'll do when I enter a Singularity is come find you."
"You must have felt so lonely walking around with that empty feeling in your heart these past few days. I've been thinking about you too."
"Ahh Darling"
Kiyohime let out a voice full of love and buried her face in his chest, rubbing against him affectionately and savoring the moment that belonged only to her beloved.
"Muu~"
Watching her Senpai being so close with Kiyohime, [Mash] adorably puffed out her cheeks.
She wasn't jealous… well, maybe just a little.
But more than anything, she felt genuine admiration for Kiyohime.
[Mash] could clearly sense the intensity of that love. She wondered to herself—if she were in the same situation and had lost her memories, would she be able to remember everything the instant she saw Adam again?
Elizabeth Bathory had watched the whole scene and heard every word. She looked curiously at the Master the crazy woman kept obsessing over and gave him a once-over.
"Oh, so the person you kept mumbling about not being able to forget was this little puppy?"
Elizabeth twisted her face into a mocking expression, clearly trying to provoke Kiyohime.
"He's nothing special. Your taste really is as bad as your level as a dragon."
"Not like me! One day I'm definitely going to meet a one-of-a-kind Master!"
Elizabeth closed her eyes dreamily, already imagining what her ideal future Master would look like.
Kiyohime, who had been happily nuzzling against Adam's chest, suddenly froze at those words.
Adam could feel her body trembling—definitely with rage.
Bluish flames slowly rose around her. Unlike her usual red flames, these burned far hotter and carried much more hostility.
She turned her head with a furious glare and roared at Elizabeth.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!?!?"
The sudden shout made Elizabeth jump in fright.
Kiyohime looked ready to grind her back teeth to dust. Her dragon pupils had narrowed into thin vertical slits, as if she wanted to burn Elizabeth to ashes right there.
"I don't care how much you insult me~"
"But! How dare you… look down on my Darling!!!"
Her current fury was easily a hundred times stronger than anything she had shown during their earlier fight.
"Eek—!"
The previously arrogant Elizabeth immediately started backing away in fear.
Although she would one day grow into something like Carmilla, right now Elizabeth still had the mind of a young teenager—in other words, she was basically still a little girl.
Their earlier fight had been nothing more than childish roughhousing. But facing Kiyohime's all-consuming rage, Elizabeth began trembling uncontrollably.
Every dragon had a reverse scale. Touch it, and they would fly into a fury. For Kiyohime, that reverse scale was Adam.
"Calm down, Kiyohime. Easy now~" Adam gently stroked her head, trying to soothe her anger.
"But Darling, she…" Kiyohime's voice instantly softened the moment she heard him speak.
"It's okay, Kiyohime. I have my own way of punishing Elizabeth for what she just said." Adam glanced at the visibly shaking Elizabeth.
Even though Elizabeth had shown some hostility toward him earlier, Adam didn't want Kiyohime to handle it herself. If she did, Elizabeth would probably be finished. He decided to give her a light punishment his own way.
"Alright, Darling." Even though she was still furious, Kiyohime forced herself to hold back for his sake.
After comforting Kiyohime a little longer, Adam walked toward Elizabeth Bathory.
"W-What are you going to do?" Elizabeth tried to act tough as he approached, but both her voice and body refused to cooperate.
Adam looked at the nervous girl, and the corners of his mouth curled upward into a grin.
***
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