Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

"It seems to be because our family all has light-colored hair, and white stockings are hard to wear in the real world; only those with body proportions like those girls in Japanese anime would suit them..." Sirin asked, "It seems like we're all about the same size?"

"After all, we are from the Saintess's family..."

"Actually, I secretly asked my silly sister, and she said that Pandora is really obsessed with anime girls, and his computer is full of downloaded cartoons. If that's the case, maybe the girls in our family would be very attractive to him?"

"You like this style? Do you...do you?"

When Shen Liang returned after paying, he saw Xilin and Anna chatting happily at the store entrance. As soon as he approached, Xilin immediately turned to him and asked, "What type of stockings do you like?"

Is this okay to ask?

Shen Liang was taken aback, but honestly replied, "White or black, they all look good. Knee-length, pantyhose, short, long, thin, thick, I'm fine with any of them."

Xilin gave her a disdainful look. "You know so much."

"Hey, hey, hey, I need to buy clothes for my four little sisters, okay?!"

“However, your taste is commendable. Liking brightly colored stockings like red, purple, yellow, and green is a sign of immaturity.” Xilin patted his head and praised him, a rare occurrence. “A mature woman like me would only choose black and white.”

"No, mature women don't actually wear white stockings..." Shen Liang muttered to himself.

However, he simply shrugged and didn't respond. Because, comparatively, Shen Liang preferred white, and most of the girls in the Shaniat family also preferred white, so there was no need to refute her.

Almost everyone in the world who dislikes white stockings is a woman, because they are extremely demanding on leg shape and figure, exposing your flaws exponentially. However, the Shaniat people are uniformly slim-waisted and have long legs, without any flaws, and Shen Liang greatly admires their aesthetic sense.

Yes, it is like that.

After acquiring "Flowers, Birds, Wind, and Moon," Shen Liang's already extremely high aesthetic standards became even more discerning. However, the Saintess lineage would always be the Saintess lineage, and Shen Liang would never find fault with them.

Since its birth in Europe at the end of the 16th century, stockings have become a highly sought-after commodity among upper-class ladies within a few years. Few people know why stockings, originally designed for men to ride horses, were valued by women, because European ladies of that era were not known for their elegance.

Many of them would only bathe a few times in their entire lives, and the perfect bodies imagined by later generations were actually covered in dead skin and grime. At the time, they were even proud of this, because according to Catholicism, a dirty body was closer to God and more sacred. For example, the mother of King Henry IV of France insisted on not bathing her entire life and was canonized as a saint, Agnes.

Their body odor was described as "holy fragrance," but despite this, their bodies honestly developed a whole host of perfumes to mask it. Therefore, stockings were a revolutionary invention, making even the dirtiest, muddy thighs smooth and soft, naturally earning them high praise in high society.

Shen Liang learned all this when he was helping Cecilia heal, and the Holy Maiden told him about it as a joke. At the time, Shen Liang, completely oblivious to the atmosphere, asked the Holy Maiden, "Sister Lia, since your Shaniat family has always been the lineage of Holy Maidens who are closest to the Church, were your ancestors also so 'holy' over the past hundreds or thousands of years?"

Then Cecilia "gently and kindly" tugged his ear for ten minutes.

Of course, the image of the Shaniat family ultimately didn't crumble. Because the extraordinary are, after all, the extraordinary; Destiny has been analyzing the history of pre-civilization eras since ancient times, thus the Valkyries' intellectual level is often far ahead of the civilizations of their time. The Saintess lineage is no exception; they understand the importance of hygiene better than any other European of their era.

Historically, socks were first designed for women in the 17th century, and then various types of socks, including short socks, long socks, over-the-knee socks, pantyhose, and garter stockings, began to flourish, becoming beautiful accessories for girls to adorn themselves.

But in fact, on the side of the extraordinary, materials such as nylon fiber and Lycra fiber were already discovered by the divine mandate in the Middle Ages, and the Valkyries may have enjoyed this smooth, comfortable, sexy and cute fabric for thousands of years.

Anna liked wearing stockings with garter straps. Her stylist said that stockings often gave a sexy impression and were usually a way for mature women to show off their allure. But Anna was timid; she didn't dare to dress too seductively. She would just secretly hook the stockings under her skirt with the garter straps. Because the over-the-knee stockings were off-white, the garter straps were also off-white, and the skirt was quite long, they were generally not noticeable.

At most, Pandora will only see a tiny bit of what a suspender top looks like; it will absolutely not make any boys have any wild thoughts!

"It's really time to go home." Shen Liang unlocked the small cart parked outside the shop. The cart wasn't actually locked; it was the kind that usually had the tires locked and required a one-euro coin to operate. Leaving it outside made it easy for someone to just insert a coin and push it away, but Shen Liang didn't care anyway.

He would be happier if someone simply put coins in the shopping cart and pushed it away.

With practiced ease, Xilin pressed Shen Liang's shoulder, used the momentum to jump up, and then landed comfortably in the shopping cart, sitting down once more.

Shen Liang saw her face suddenly contort in anger, and he guessed it was probably because the bike was parked on someone else's shop's air conditioning vent, and since the bike was made of stainless steel, it was getting scorching hot. Xilin's hot pants barely covered her bottom, and her fair, tender thighs, which were now resting on the edge of the bike basket, were definitely going to be burned.

But Celine clearly knew that the stupidity she had made was too low-level, and her dignity wouldn't allow her to expose such a foolish thing. So she grimaced for several seconds, and only after her inner thighs were scalded and she got used to the heat did she loosen her tightly clenched fists.

“I’m going to put a lock on this car,” Sirin said coldly.

"Why?" Shen Liang couldn't understand her thought process.

"This is the esteemed Queen of the Sky's vehicle. Only I can ride in it; no one else is allowed to use it. Coin-operated security is too basic; we need a more advanced combination lock. Hmm, let's have one combination for me and one for you."

Can I not take it?

"No."

“But we’re going home soon, and this car has already completed its historical mission. You can’t possibly take it home with you, can you?”

"Why not?"

"We came here in a Koenigsegg! It's a sports car, there's no room for this thing!"

"Then you can get out. Anna is enough to drive anyway."

"Even if I get out, your sports car can't fit this thing! Wait, why should I get out? I want to go home too!"

"Human! You're so long-winded!"

After shopping, the three of them went home. No one was abandoned, because Celine was too determined to bring the shopping cart, so Anna ended up having a family driver come and pick it up.

It was at this moment that Maria rubbed her eyes and looked down from the monitor screen.

At this moment, she was in the ice cellar beneath Neuschwanstein Castle, casually eating sunflower seeds with her sister, leaving the shells lying around on the floor of the cold storage. Then, the robot vacuum diligently turned around and collected the shells.

"Are you relieved now?" Cecilia smiled warmly at her sister, who finally breathed a sigh of relief, and chuckled, "Now you know how difficult it is to be a mother, right?"

“Knowing that there’s still a certain risk in him going out now, he still went out shopping.” Maria said unhappily, “He’s really causing me trouble. Doesn’t he know that even in Munich, we can’t necessarily monitor the entire city?”

“Strictly speaking, we can.” Cecilia also came over to watch the scene on the way home as Shen Liang and the others got into the car. “All the surveillance in Munich is set up by the Schariac family. They can only pass through our area before they can pass through the city. If something really happens, not many people can take them away before you can get out of there. Actually, you don’t need to keep such a close watch. The family has a special department in charge of surveillance.”

“There’s a time lag of several minutes before the report gets through, I can’t trust it…” Maria pouted.

"Oh? Oh oh oh? My dear cousin Maria seems to have grown quite fond of Pandora. Hmm, that's more like it. That's the mindset a mother should have!" Cecilia picked up a glass of soda that had been sitting for a while and had solidified a bit. She warmed it up with Honkai energy before drinking it.

“I didn’t treat him as…” Maria instinctively tried to retort, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Cecilia gave a mischievous smile, gently tapped her hot-tempered cousin's chest, and quietly moved closer. "Really not? So many days have passed, and I've seen him call you 'Mom' all the time. You don't seem to mind it much, do you?"

“I…you didn’t know when I was resisting.” Maria quickly looked away.

"Are you really that resistant?" Cecilia frowned, looking aggrieved, before saying, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it. It seems you two don't get along. If all else fails, we can find Pandora a different mother. Oh dear, ever since Pandora arrived, those little brats from the split family have been restless, complaining to me every day about why I didn't go to them in the first place—Gelino's mother wants a son, and Lady Nelre says she hopes to find a younger brother for her daughter so they can learn from and grow together. Even Anna's mother, when she came to have afternoon tea with me last time, said that Pandora seems to be getting close to Anna and she wants to be Pandora's godmother or something. Hmm, it's really difficult. I even wanted to be Pandora's godmother when she's baptized."

The more Maria listened, the more her irritable but beautiful face twisted. After finishing her sunflower seeds, she finally spoke in a low voice: "Forget it, Pandora has a murderous aura hidden in his heart. Only I can discipline him. It would be too much trouble to find someone else, and the family's words have already been spoken, so it's not easy to change them."

“It’s alright, we don’t need to change the external publicity. We just need to change the person in charge of the internal affairs.” Cecilia smiled. “Pandora isn’t exactly hard to manage. She’s very well-behaved with me. Don’t worry, Maria, let’s go transfer the ownership right now!”

"Alright, alright! I give up! Don't change the person!" Maria was furious, on the verge of tears. "You know I'm just being stubborn, so why do you have to expose me? What kind of older sister are you?!"

"Hmph, being arrogant in front of me won't work." Cecilia proudly puffed out her little nose, finally satisfied. "You don't even know how to be grateful for the son I gave you. As your older sister, I've taken the best care of you and Angelia, okay? Pandora is so cute, do you think I went through so much trouble to resist the urge to call him 'Mom' before giving him to you?"

"Thank you so much," Maria kicked the robot vacuum cleaner away and pouted. "She just wants to marry her daughter off."

"Hmph, I've looked into the customs of Shenzhou. Anyway, even if he marries my daughter, she'll still have to call me 'Mom.'" Cecilia swayed happily, her hands supporting her on the glass dome of the liquid nitrogen bed. "He's practically locked into the Shaniat family now, which proves that Sirin and I made the right choice. Look, he's already started representing the Shaniat family on missions to Destiny. What does that mean? It means he's already accepted his identity as a Shaniat."

“How dare he disagree? He’ll be the future son-in-law of the Shaniats, my son. Even if his bloodline is fake, he’s still a Shaniat by conventional standards!” Maria said irritably. Then, remembering Anna’s situation, she frowned. “However… as you know, he’s been going a bit too far lately.”

"About Anna?" Cecilia tilted her head.

“Actually, I haven’t even told Anna’s mother about that, for fear of any negative repercussions. But as you know, secrets can’t stay hidden forever,” Maria sighed. “He will indeed be the son-in-law of the Shaniat family, but he’s a bit of a womanizer.”

"That's definitely a problem. Kiana can't let Anna outshine her!"

"Is that what you're focusing on?!" Maria snapped. With a mother like that, she truly felt indignant for her niece! No wonder Celine always called her an "old woman"; Kiana had never been home since she was little, and with a mother like that, she really wanted to be an unfilial daughter!

"This is very important, okay? I can't sleep when I think about how Anna's mother bragged to me on the day of Pandora's wedding about how her daughter stole her love from my daughter, and then showed off the 140-carat Sierra Leone diamond around her neck for the thirty-sixth time!"

Maria was stunned. She couldn't understand how Cecilia could have imagined such a complete future scenario. And so, you really care about your own feelings rather than your daughter being stolen away from you?

“Although we’ve been subtly and overtly pushing Kiana and Pandora’s relationship forward, so far… there’s been very little progress.” Maria sighed again, took out a lollipop and put it in her mouth before saying, “Pandora spends too much time in the other world. During her time in Neuschwanstein Castle, she spends most of her time either connecting with her sisters or with Anna. When she’s with Kiana, Sirin is usually there too.”

"How can you be so insensible, my Celine?" Cecilia frowned.

“In some ways, Pandora spends more time talking with Sirin than with Kiana, after all, he still has to go to the Schicksal headquarters with Sirin.” Maria glanced at her sister. “Heh, I feel like he has a better chance with Sirin than with Kiana.”

Cecilia stroked her fair chin, lost in thought.

Maria suddenly felt a chill in her heart. She immediately turned to look at Cecilia and said nervously, "Sister, I was just joking! Don't overthink it!"

"Tsk, I wasn't thinking anything." Cecilia shook her head. "It's good that you're not joking. Anyway, Sirin is getting older, even older than Kiana, right? I just want little Pandora to be my lovely son-in-law. As for who marries into the family, I don't care."

"Is that even human language?!" Maria exclaimed, speechless.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: We've failed so badly, Seele

"Let's talk about Sirin and Pandora's trip to Schicksal headquarters," Maria wisely steered the conversation back on track.

"Doesn't the family often send people to headquarters for routine missions? In terms of affiliation, all members of the Shaniat family are Valkyries of Destiny. In fact, Sirin hasn't reported to headquarters for a long time."

"Don't you know why Celine rarely goes to London?" Maria retorted.

Cecilia was silent for a moment, then bent down to pinch her toes and stretch them.

“Since the Siberian Collapse War, communication between the family and headquarters has become increasingly rare. The fission bomb destroyed the Honkai Beast tide and also completely annihilated the last heir of the Kaslana family. Since then, only two of the three pillar families remain.” Maria understood her sister’s silence. “In fact, everyone in Schicksal can see that the Shaniat family is intentionally distancing itself from Otto’s control, because we cannot guarantee that we will continue to be bound to Schicksal. Will Shaniat be the next one to be sacrificed?”

“They’re all smiles on the surface, but not on the inside.” Cecilia smiled helplessly.

“The Knight and Saintess lineages were originally Schicksal’s trump cards, but we are no longer in an era where Valkyries are a distant dream. Nowadays, it is possible for any human to awaken Honkai energy, and most Honkai-related disasters no longer require the Schariac family to solve them personally.” Maria’s expression turned slightly cold. “Schicksal now even has three S-rank Valkyries. It has become so powerful that it no longer needs the Schariac family to work themselves to the bone for it.”

Yes, if S-class Valkyries are nuclear weapons, then Schicksal already has three; these are Otto's trump cards. In comparison, the Schariac family only has two S-class Valkyries.

In the past, when chaos reigned and human civilization was fraught with peril, the Schariac family was a blade in Otto's hand, and Schariac's S-rank Valkyrie was Otto's S-rank Valkyrie. But things are different now. The world situation has eased, and Schariac must now consider its own future.

The destruction of the Kaslana family was not long ago. Was Siegfried's death truly not a matter of divine intervention to eliminate dissidents?

Learning from history means we must always be vigilant.

“And after you protected Aisha that time, we took the Black Abyss White Flower and the male Honkai Competent from Schicksal. These two things were already quite excessive for headquarters,” Maria said. “That’s why I resigned from headquarters and returned to the family. Most of the Valkyries from the Shaniat family who were stationed at headquarters have left headquarters and been transferred to other departments. Some have even resigned directly from Schicksal and returned to the family.”

Most Valkyries in Schicksal are employed on a mercenary basis, but their compensation is quite generous. Moreover, working for Schicksal not only means financial gain—most Valkyries are not short of money—but also represents a path to advancement.

Only by staying within Destiny can one progress. Destiny controls countless systems and methods for cultivating Valkyries, many of which originate from Earth's pre-civilization era—an advantage that no other nation or power can easily provide. Leaving Destiny means that all growth must be achieved through self-exploration; without systematic education, resources, or peers and teachers, progress becomes virtually impossible.

The Valkyrie's progress doesn't just mean increased strength; sometimes the byproducts are equally appealing. Increased Honkai energy intensity can slow aging, maintain youthful appearance, and most importantly, significantly enhance physical attributes, potentially even increasing lifespan.