"Those Anti-Entropy dogs biting each other—what does that have to do with this Principal!"
Theresa flipped her white hair disdainfully, then with a 'heave-ho', hopped onto the railing at the edge of the deck and dangled her small feet.
In a country with a total land area of less than 380,000 square kilometers, where everyone runs into each other eventually, claiming that St. Freya didn't know about the recent upheavals in Nagazora City, especially given the commotion caused by Raiden Ryoma's corruption case, would be nonsense.
However, as described before, in the Far East, matters related to the Honkai fell under Schicksal's jurisdiction, while worldly affairs belonged to Anti-Entropy.
Nagazora City was the latter's private territory, built up over many years. As long as nothing world-shattering happened on this land, Theresa had neither the interest nor the reason to intervene.
Moreover, she was well aware of Cocolia moving the ME Corp production lines away. This act of handing over influence had St. Freya practically laughing themselves to death.
Because of this, no matter how many times people from the Far East came knocking or how many benefits they promised, Theresa turned them all away with various excuses, sticking to the principle of "standing firm as a mountain while allies are in trouble."
Who wants to help these disgusting people for no reason! Not letting you bunch of treacherous villains commit suicide by stabbing yourselves thirteen times in the back with obsidian spears is already me being in a good mood lately!
Nevertheless, upon receiving Susannah's notification, Theresa still rushed over on the Hyperion without stopping.
Officially, as a world-class mega-organization, fighting the Honkai was Schicksal's natural duty.
Eating the ruler's grain means being loyal to the ruler's affairs. With the massive tax revenue collected from countries around the world and branches established across the seven continents and four oceans, they had the obligation and responsibility to step up at critical moments.
Privately, as a former S-rank Valkyrie who had experienced the Second Eruption and established St. Freya Academy, Theresa couldn't bear to see more lives plunged into misery.
Saving one was better than saving none.
"Thanks to Little Susannah's prophecy not coming true," Himeko, leaning back against the railing, teased, "otherwise, the current me would probably have already died in battle against the Herrscher of Thunder."
Theresa retorted unhappily, "Pah pah pah! Such unlucky words! With this Principal, a natural S-rank, here, how could you die so early!"
Among the Valkyries who came to Nagazora City this time, they were the only two above A-rank. Another student named Fu Hua was currently on a classified mission and wouldn't be able to make it back regardless of whether anything unexpected happened.
"Is a 'Critical-Class + Judah' S-rank really an S-rank?"
Himeko, whose strength had just recently stepped into the Critical-Class, joked, "Speaking of which, your exclusive 4th Generation Godsbane Battlesuit is already under development, right? It must be nice having a Grandfather who's the Overseer."
The Judah Launcher rolled her eyes at her. "First of all, the St. Freya textbooks clearly state that equipment is also part of one's strength! If you don't accept this, why don't you ask human ancestors from millions of years ago to fight mammoths with their bare hands? Second, the reason this Principal can currently only exert Critical-Class combat power is entirely due to the memetic restrictions of the 'S-rank Restriction Treaty'. If we really encountered a birthed Herrscher, I'd unlock S-rank combat power on the spot and perform a 'Return of the King Teriri' for you!"
"Yes, yes, yes, we know our Branch Leader is battle-hardened."
Himeko teased. Seeing Susannah dazing off nearby, she spoke up again, "What, does Little Susannah have something to say?"
Himeko was quite interested in recruiting this high-potential stock (a battle record given for free by Fuli's modification) who had single-handedly subjugated a B-rank Honkai Beast before even officially joining the Valkyrie academy.
Other branches' crash-course, force-feeding methods of Valkyrie training could indeed make trainees' strength grow rapidly, but that would only waste their potential prematurely.
Just look at St. Freya. Established only a few years ago, it had already cultivated a super A-rank ace like Wendy who was destined to reach S-rank. Even Murata Himeko herself had benefited greatly from the research team's increasingly refined therapeutic technologies in recent years. Not only had the side effects of transplanting artificial stigmata been mostly cured, but her strength had even improved further.
Then look at Rita Rossweisse. How stunning was she as a Critical-Class for six years? In the end, her potential ran dry and she got stuck there, only barely squeezing into the S-rank category with the enhancement of the 4th Generation Godsbane Battlesuit.
—What? Durandal was also a product of HQ's force-feeding education?
That's Durandal!
That name is excluded from the discussion.
"Ah? Yes!"
Seeing that she hadn't been punished despite reporting false military intelligence, Susannah clicked her heels together and saluted.
She asked curiously, "Is a Herrscher's combat power really that terrifying? Even with S-rank Lord Theresa as the main force, Teacher Himeko would still have a narrow escape?"
"You have to understand, Little Susannah."
Himeko said earnestly, "The main reason we dared to come over on the Hyperion as the vanguard after receiving the intelligence is that the 4th Divine Key is currently sealed in the Magma Laboratory in the offshore waters of the Far East."
Theresa didn't say a word. Her tender fingers tapped a few times in the void, and a light screen woven of threads slowly unfolded before the three of them.
On it was a giant Killing Stone wrapped in red and white ropes, with its origin and function introduction below:
—4th Divine Key, a Previous Era general-purpose weather control combat weapon obtained by Schicksal through archaeological excavation (grave robbing) in Izumo, Far East. Driven by a substance similar to a Herrscher Core, its structure cannot be analyzed by existing technology.
The core ability of this Divine Key is weather manipulation. By utilizing this ability, the operator can manipulate rainfall, lightning, and air currents on a city scale, generating rainstorms to erode and weaken enemy stamina, using lightning to instantly carbonize and vaporize enemies, or creating tornadoes that sweep through military formations and tear everything apart.
The output power of this Divine Key can be adjusted at will according to the user's needs. Taking rainfall as an example, it can be a torrential downpour sufficient to cause floods, submerge enemy forces, and destroy cities, or a drizzle that merely moistens flowers and grass and brings sweet rain to farmland.
All weather changes created by this Divine Key contain Honkai energy. Therefore, individuals with keen perception can detect anomalies in natural changes. Influencing enemies by adding Honkai energy to weather changes is one of the functions of this Divine Key itself.
"Wow! So amazing!"
Susannah's eyes sparkled.
"Haha, right?"
Himeko laughed heartily. "Before Theresa and I came, we specifically applied to deploy this thing to check the Herrscher of Thunder's symbolic authority—electromagnetic force, one of the four fundamental forces!"
Susannah was naive, but not stupid.
Realizing the problem, she raised her hand. "Question!"
"Speak!"
"Using lightning to check the Herrscher of Thunder... is that possible?"
"Ordinary lightning naturally won't work, but the Divine Key can."
Theresa, sitting on the railing, kicked her little legs huffily. "The core of the Divine Key is a unique synthetic substance similar to a Herrscher Core. The energy transformed by this substance has a very strong resistance to Herrscher authority. The Previous Era also relied on these Divine Keys to allow armies to fight against the succession of Serial Herrschers before powerful individual forces emerged. How! Ev! Er!"
"However, even though the application to deploy the Divine Key was already sent out, the special agent in charge of this matter was dawdling and not getting things done."
Himeko couldn't help but complain, "Our deployment this time indeed didn't follow relevant procedures, but a joint application from a Branch Leader and an A-rank Valkyrie with Critical-Class combat power was actually delayed! It's a good thing the intelligence was false this time, otherwise I wouldn't let those bureaucratic good-for-nothings off even as a ghost!"
Theresa pursed her lips. "You know what those bureaucrats are like. How does the saying go? 'Immovable as a mountain when allies are in trouble; swift as the wind when retreating; slow as a forest when flanking; aggressive as fire when looting money.'"
"Right, right, right! And 'hard to know as shadow after three cups; moving like thunder when getting promoted and getting rich!'"
This was Big Sister Himeko joining in to vent her grievances.
'Is, is it really that exaggerated?!'
Susannah was dumbfounded.
The phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated.
She took it out, used the fingerprint unlock on the smart key, and tapped the screen.
[Actually, it's not as exaggerated as Master and the others say.]
The girl was stunned, looked up, and scanned her surroundings.
Sure enough, she saw a slender figure in the distance, hiding most of her body behind a trash can, with only half her head exposed observing them.
Noticing Susannah's gaze, the eccentric person, who had a Western-style paper bread bag over her head with two holes cut out for eyes, trembled violently and vanished without a trace.
'A-Asakura Miyuki-senpai is still so unique...'
Susannah put down her phone awkwardly. Himeko, noticing this, chuckled cheerfully.
She reached out a hand, and before Susannah could react, the bread-bag eccentric carrying a huge guitar case appeared in her grasp.
The eccentric froze, then began struggling with both hands and feet.
Because Himeko held her high up by the collar of destiny, she looked like a small cat being dangled in mid-air, claws flailing.
Theresa, sitting on Judah, rested her chin on her hand. "Has Miyuki not yet adapted to the hair and eye color changes after awakening her natural stigmata?"
"Obviously, that's not the problem."
Himeko put down the bread-bag eccentric and raised her hand to pull off the bread bag she was wearing.
Cherry-blossom pink long straight hair, which had been forced to curl up in the small space, cascaded down. The flowing brilliance was like starlight. Her delicate, soft oval face carried a unique maidenly purity; seeing her was like seeing all the beauty in the world.
"Wow!"
Susannah, possessing certain (yuri) potential, immediately had stars in her eyes. "Asakura Miyuki-senpai is actually this beautiful? Then why hide your face?"
"P-Please give it back to me..."
The sakura-haired girl called Asakura Miyuki didn't answer her. Instead, with a gloomy face, she reached out her small hand, trying to snatch back her shelter from her master.
"I say, Miyuki."
Himeko raised her hand to block. "If you want to be this gloomy elsewhere, I won't stop you, but this is Nagazora City!"
She leaned into the ear of the pitifully moving, pure girl, her low, tempting tone like a demon. "That boy who saved you... I remember his name is Fuli, right? He is in this city right now! Don't you want him to see how you've been reborn?"
Asakura Miyuki, the girl Fuli encountered when he first arrived in Nagazora City.
Subjected to long-term bullying, she was being dragged by her hair into a deep alley by a group of scum that day, about to fall into a boundless purgatory with no escape.
Upholding a childhood promise with [Kiana], Fuli, who was passing by, didn't think twice. He picked up a steel pipe he found nearby, charged in, beat everyone up, and brought the girl out safely before she could be harmed.
Perhaps the mental shock at the time was too great, but during subsequent psychological treatment, Asakura Miyuki was detected to have awakened a natural stigmata. Because of this, she was taken in by Murata Himeko, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, becoming her disciple and joining St. Freya.
The sakura-like hair and azure beautiful eyes were side effects of awakening the natural stigmata. According to the investigation by the intelligence department belonging to the Far East Branch, the Asakura family's ancestors were connected to Yae Village, which had mysteriously perished five hundred years ago, and were distant cousins of one of the Yae Shrine maidens.
Legend had it that the women of the Yae clan all had sakura hair and exquisite swordsmanship, and the Heretical Ninja Scrolls inherited through their bloodline made them peerless in the non-human realm.
Asakura Miyuki undoubtedly experienced an atavistic phenomenon. Considering that the essence of a natural stigmata is a special segment of genes, this wasn't hard to understand.
However, even becoming a one-in-ten-thousand stigmata awakener couldn't easily heal the scars on her heart.
Asakura Miyuki, having suffered long-term school bullying, would instinctively distance herself from others, running away the moment someone approached.
This was fully reflected in her awakened stigmata ability:
Path of Deva, a top-tier stigmata under the Herrscher of Death sequence, symbolizing the concept of life and undying.
Its specific effect is to accelerate the target's regeneration and Honkai energy recovery speed. When first awakened, its efficiency was already close to the first rated power of the 6th Divine Key, [Key of Creation] Abyss Flower. Describing it as "flesh on white bones, bringing the dead to life" would not be an exaggeration.
Yet, such a god-tier wide-area support skill could currently only be used on Asakura Miyuki herself. This fully demonstrated the girl's rejection of others from the bottom of her heart.
Curing stubborn illnesses required long-term counseling from a psychiatrist and some special encounters. That was why Himeko used Fuli's name to test her foolish disciple.
Sure enough, hearing the boy's name, the Asakura kitten struggling in mid-air clearly froze, her frantic movements stalling.
A moment later, she curled up into a ball in the corner, holding her head.
Just like a Bocchi.
Susannah's phone screen lit up again: [Schicksal's organizational structure is composed of the directly subordinate Finance Department, Organization Department, and Management Department; and the affiliated institutions including the Tribunal, Observatorium, Valkyrie Training Institution, and the 4th District Research Department. Among them, the Supervision Office under the Management Department is the administrative organ responsible for monitoring the organization's daily internal activities.]
[Regarding Ms. Theresa, who simultaneously holds two important positions as the Principal of St. Freya Academy and the Branch Leader of the Far East Branch among the seven major branches, the review commissioners sent by the Management Department will certainly be stricter than other departments. Moreover, what is being deployed this time is the Divine Key series, whose importance is second only to the Divine Keys. Without discretionary power and with vague intelligence sources at the moment, it is also very difficult for the commissioner to get things done.]
Susannah was stunned for a moment before realizing this was the answer to her previous question.
She glanced at Asakura Miyuki, who was still curled up in a ball in the corner, and excitedly typed a reply on her phone: [Can't Lord Theresa ask the higher-ups to make an exception? Isn't she the Overseer's granddaughter?]
[Precisely because she is the Overseer's granddaughter, certain people are even less likely to make an exception.]
...