"Mm, if Seele is willing."
Bronya didn't refuse. After all, the environment at St. Freya High School was indeed much better than the orphanage, and she certainly didn't want to be separated from Seele again.
[This session of questions and answers has concluded. The next round will be held in ten days.]
The system's cold, mechanical voice echoed in their ears. The next second, a white light flashed before their eyes, and they exited the system's space, returning to Himeko's dormitory.
"We're back already? Phew... If I weren't with all of you, I'd almost believe everything that just happened was a dream."
Himeko looked around. The room was exactly as it had been before they left, and no one had even changed their seating positions.
"Bronya, Kiana, Mei, you three should get some rest. You can skip the afternoon classes. I'm going to take Himeko to the infirmary for a check-up. We can discuss the rest in detail tonight."
Theresa said, eagerly pulling Himeko up and rushing towards the St. Freya infirmary.
---o---
"Mei, I'm going to the training grounds. Do you want to come with me?" Kiana asked, looking at Raiden Mei.
"Eh? Didn't the Principal just say we could skip our afternoon classes? Kiana, you're not going back to your room to sleep?" Raiden Mei said with some surprise.
"Did the sun rise from the west today? The Kiana who always slacks off and skips class is actually volunteering to train?" Bronya also stared at Kiana with astonishment, feeling as if Kiana had suddenly become a completely different person.
"Can't I? Hmph!" Kiana pouted her lips, sounding a little displeased. "In your eyes, is this young lady just a lazy idiot?"
"Err..." Raiden Mei gave an awkward smile and said nothing, but Bronya was much more direct.
"How rare. The idiot Kiana has finally admitted she's an idiot. It seems the sun really did rise from the west today."
"Bronya!"
"Alright, alright, Kiana, I'll go with you to the training grounds," Raiden Mei said with a wry smile, stopping Kiana before she could start arguing with Bronya. After agreeing to her request, she voiced her own question, "But how did you suddenly become so motivated?"
"...Well, it's nothing, really." Kiana fell silent for a moment, then lifted her face, her expression filled with seriousness. "After seeing my future self, I started to think... if I had been stronger, would Teacher Himeko still have died? Would my body have been taken over so easily by the Herrscher consciousness?"
"Bronya said the future can be changed, so I want to start from now on. I'll train harder every single day to make myself stronger. That way, I can protect the people around me."
"Mei, Bronya, I actually have a secret that I've kept buried in my heart, something I've never told anyone."
"Ever since I was little, I've noticed it. There's something hidden inside my body that doesn't belong to me."
"I still remember when I was twelve years old. I woke up one day and found myself in a forest that had been scorched by fire. There were signs of a battle everywhere, and some people were lying in the snow, no longer breathing."
"That stinky old man held me, trembling, telling me over and over that everything was alright. But I noticed... one of his arms was gone, and blood was dripping endlessly from the wound..."
"Back then, I had no idea what had happened. It's only now that I'm beginning to understand. That Herrscher consciousness... it had already appeared when I was just a child."
"I don't want to see the people around me get hurt because of me ever again. Mei, Bronya, Auntie Theresa, Teacher Himeko, Class Monitor, and all the other students at St. Freya... For all of your sakes, I have to become stronger, just like my future self, and master the power within my body!"
"Kiana..." Raiden Mei stared blankly at Kiana, whose serious face and solemn tone were completely devoid of her usual carefree demeanor.
In a daze, she could almost see in Kiana the indomitable warrior who endured immense suffering to become the Meteoric Salvation of Arc City!
Indeed... Kiana is Kiana. Whether it's the Kiana of the future, the present, or the past.
Even if she changes, her essence remains the same.
"...I never thought Kiana could say something like that."
A small smile touched Bronya's lips, and she looked at Kiana with a gentle gaze.
"This time, Bronya supports you. Because Bronya must also become stronger! For everyone at St. Freya, and for Seele, Bronya must work harder than ever before!"
"Haha, then let's work hard together!"
Kiana grinned broadly and took the lead.
"Let's go! Time to train!"
Raiden Mei and Bronya exchanged a glance, smiled in unison, and followed after Kiana.
---o---
Fu Hua felt that something about St. Freya High School was strange lately.
No, it wasn't that the school itself was strange. To be precise, it was a few specific people who were strange.
She had been sent by Otto to monitor Kiana, so she was, without a doubt, the first person to notice any change in her.
She had observed that for the past few days, Kiana had been training significantly harder than before. She was even staying awake during her most hated academic classes—a rare sight—and was actually trying to study.
Even when there were many things she didn't understand, she would take the initiative to ask Mei or Bronya for help after class.
Honestly, if she hadn't been monitoring Kiana around the clock and wasn't certain that she hadn't been replaced, she would have been tempted to use Fenghuang Down to take a look.
The most outrageous thing was when Kiana suddenly ran up to her one day and asked if she could transform into a white-haired figure in red clothes. The question had startled Fu Hua, making her think her identity as a special agent had been exposed. But looking at Kiana, it seemed she didn't know anything at all and was just asking casually.
Compared to Kiana's transformation, the changes in the others were slightly less dramatic.
Bronya, for instance, usually loved playing video games. Fu Hua would often see her at the arcade when she went there to unwind.
But over the last few days, she had rarely seen Bronya playing games. More often than not, she was either at the training grounds working out with Kiana or in the library, reading books on something called quantum physics that even Fu Hua couldn't comprehend.
Then there were Raiden Mei, Theresa, Himeko...
Their changes varied in scale, but they were all present, and they were all part of Kiana's closest circle of people.
Fu Hua was greatly perplexed by this phenomenon, but she didn't rush to report this intelligence to Otto.