"Bronya Zaychik... She is the child left behind by a human friend of mine. That friend has passed away, leaving only Bronya as proof and continuation of her existence in this world."
When mentioning that human friend, a touch of sorrow flickered across Hare's exquisite face.
She paused briefly, then composed herself, continuing to speak to Ren and the others in her gentle, soft voice.
"Due to certain external disturbances, I was forced to separate from that friend for a period. By the time I found her again, she had already become a cold grave."
"After investigating through certain channels, I located Bronya's whereabouts, knowing she had been adopted and raised by others... I am not human, after all, and cannot remain in the real world for long periods. Even if I wanted to care for Bronya, it would only harm her. Therefore, I could only provide her with some subtle help indirectly through the followers of the Serpent."
"After Bronya was adopted and could live properly, I would only occasionally appear in the real world and check on her situation through the intelligence gathered by the followers of the Serpent."
If reality permitted, Hare naturally wanted to personally care for Bronya, her friend's orphaned child.
Unfortunately, while Bronya's Honkai energy adaptability far surpassed ordinary people, it couldn't reach the astonishing heights of her mother, a Stigma Awakener.
Hare, as the crystallization of the Schariac Stigma, carried an extremely terrifying death curse. Bronya, not being a Stigma Awakener, even just being near Hare, would likely only survive slightly longer than a normal person before succumbing.
Bronya's mother was a Stigma Awakener. Theoretically, Bronya did indeed possess the potential to inherit Stigma awakening from her biological mother.
However, Hare absolutely dared not gamble on whether Bronya could successfully awaken her Stigma. Because if the awakening failed, Bronya would face certain death.
Even with Bronya's biological mother, Alexandra, Hare only attempted to stimulate her latent Stigma potential as a last resort when Alexandra was on the verge of death, facilitating her awakening as a Stigma Awakener without holding much hope.
Unless a miracle occurred, like Bronya suddenly becoming a Stigma Awakener like Ren Amamiya, or becoming a Herrscher with human consciousness like Raiden Mei...
Otherwise, given Bronya's Honkai energy adaptability as an ordinary human, Hare would never meet her in the real world.
The only thing Hare could do for Bronya was to undertake missions for World Serpent in exchange for commissioning Gray Serpent to help look after and keep an eye on Bronya's situation.
However, Gray Serpent's character was utterly unreliable. Like an employee at a nursing home, it only worked diligently when Hare appeared in the real world.
When Hare was in the Imaginary Space, Gray Serpent merely ensured Bronya's bare minimum survival, clearly using her as leverage.
After the uncle who adopted Bronya died, Bronya, still a child, remarkably survived for a period as a world-class assassin in the snowfields, until Gray Serpent secretly arranged for her adoption once again.
And the person Gray Serpent chose to adopt Bronya was none other than "Cocolia."
According to Gray Serpent, Cocolia was an executor of Anti-Entropy's radical faction, one of the few in the current civilization's anti-Honkai organizations willing to adopt orphans and capable of protecting them during Honkai events. Bronya being adopted by Cocolia was supposedly the best outcome.
However, looking at the young, fragile, blue-haired girl before her—also adopted by Cocolia, yet cruelly subjected to human experimentation and now fallen alone into the Sea of Quanta...
A strong sense of foreboding suddenly gripped Hare's heart.
Cocolia's purpose in adopting orphans seemed impure; she even conducted dangerous human experiments on the orphans who called her "Mama."
Perhaps out of consideration for Gray Serpent, Cocolia might not subject Bronya to high-risk experiments that threatened her life.
But as long as Bronya remained in Cocolia's orphanage, she still faced the risk of being experimented on.
Even if Bronya wasn't likely to lose her life like other orphans due to experiments, losing certain body parts or functions, becoming disabled from being a normal person—that was highly possible!
All the information Hare could obtain from Gray Serpent was delayed, and absolutely nothing Gray Serpent didn't want her to know would ever reach her.
After all, with Hare's gentle nature, caring deeply for innocent lives, she would find it extremely difficult to make the decision to personally approach Bronya with her death curse to confirm the situation.
If Hare didn't possess the special ability to read information and hadn't requested Gray Serpent to collect items Bronya had used for her to verify through reading their history, the true extent of Bronya's treatment in Cocolia's orphanage would remain unknown.
After all, with Gray Serpent's resources, faking signs that someone was still alive was far too easy.
Fortunately, Hare was no longer alone now.
Hare, as a Stigma crystallization, couldn't easily navigate human society in the real world, but Ren Amamiya had no such constraints.
Ren was far more trustworthy than Gray Serpent.
If Ren was willing to help look after Bronya in the real world, Hare could finally rest easy in the Imaginary Space.
And according to the earlier conversation between Ren and Seele, Ren had clearly already met Bronya in the real world.
Although the encounter might not have been pleasant, judging from Ren's attitude, Bronya was at least still alive.
Just knowing this brought Hare a slight sense of relief.
After all, after Ren obtained the power of Jizo Mitama, he could exert terrifying strength far exceeding Herrscher levels in the real world. Bronya, with her power, stood no chance of defeating Ren.
"Miss Hare... you were Bronya-oneechan's mother's friend?!"
Hearing Hare's softly spoken words, Seele covered her slightly agape pink lips with her slender white hand. Her sapphire-blue eyes softened considerably as she looked at Hare, a newfound closeness in her gaze.
"There's such a connection? I think I understand now."
Ren raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised by the relationship between Hare and Bronya.
But thinking about it carefully, it was unexpected yet logical.
As characters within the same game's story, it was perfectly normal for Hare and Bronya to have some connection, however tenuous. In fact, it felt very much in the style of Persona.
Realizing this, Ren felt grateful he hadn't directly eliminated Bronya in the real world back then, but instead chose to influence and manipulate her cognition using Jizo Mitama.
Otherwise, if he had truly physically destroyed Bronya, this beautiful girl robot who was Hare's friend's legacy, future interactions with Hare would have been incredibly awkward.
"Hare, rest assured. Although Bronya and I fought, I didn't cause her much damage. Cocolia probably won't even need to perform any particularly precise or careful repairs on Bronya. I guarantee that the next time we meet, she'll be like a brand new beautiful girl robot again!"
A smile tugged at Ren's lips as he gave Hare a thumbs-up, reassuring her.
"What?! Bronya was modified into a robot?!!"
However, upon hearing Ren's comforting words, both Hare and Seele felt their vision suddenly darken.
Especially Hare. As a cadre of World Serpent, she was all too familiar with World Serpent's biological modification technology!
It was precisely because she knew the level of World Serpent's biological modification, and knew that Gray Serpent was among the very best in that field...
Realizing Bronya had likely suffered a terrible fate, transformed from human into a biologically modified being, Hare felt her vision swim, feeling faint.