In the early morning, the gentle sunlight slowly illuminated the earth, dispelling the darkness of the night.
Bella slowly opened her eyes and pushed Paimon, who had somehow ended up on her bed last night and was now sleeping soundly on her face, to the side.
Outside the window, birds chirped in the trees.
Bella got out of bed and walked to the window.
Opening the window, the fresh air unique to morning wafted in.
"The weather is nice."
Bella stretched lazily.
"Thump, thump, thump."
"Bella, are you up?"
A knock sounded, and Bella walked over to open the door.
It was Raiden Mei.
"How was your rest yesterday?"
Bella smiled and nodded: "I rested very well, and slept soundly."
Raiden Mei smiled upon hearing this: "That's good. Breakfast is ready. After breakfast, Teacher Himeko will take you to the classroom."
"Okay, Mei, thank you."
"You're welcome. I'll go wake Kiana now. Bella, you can go down for breakfast after you've washed up."
After Raiden Mei finished speaking, she turned to wake Kiana.
By the time Bella had tidied up and went downstairs, everyone was already in the main hall.
After breakfast, Kiana and the others left for the classroom first.
Bella, however, went with Himeko to Theresa's School Director's office to handle her enrollment.
After completing the enrollment procedures, Himeko led Bella to the classroom.
Passing by the courtyard Bella had seen earlier in the infirmary, Himeko led Bella into the medieval church-style building and arrived in front of a slightly noisy classroom.
Himeko walked in first.
"Quiet."
Himeko clapped the podium, and the classroom instantly fell silent.
"Today, we have a transfer student joining our class. Bella, come in."
Hearing Himeko's words, Bella, who was outside the door, pushed open the classroom door and walked in.
She wrote her name on the blackboard.
Turning around, Bella faced everyone: "Hello everyone, my name is Bella. I'm from Siberia. Please take care of me."
While introducing herself, Bella also sized up the people below the podium.
There were four rows of seats in the classroom, and not many people, only about twenty.
Kiana and Raiden Mei were sitting in the back of the fourth row, while Fu Hua and Bronya were in the middle of the third row.
At this moment, Kiana saw Bella looking at them and happily waved to Bella from below the stage. Bella returned a smile.
After Bella's self-introduction, everyone below the stage applauded in welcome.
Himeko gestured for everyone to stop: "Alright, Bella, you can sit in the empty seat behind Kiana."
Bella looked over. Oh, the second to last row, the protagonist's spot.
"But I'm not the protagonist. I'll just quietly get through this school life."
Bella calmly walked to the seat behind Kiana and sat down.
Seeing Bella sit down, Himeko clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention to herself:
"Alright, since we have a new classmate today, let's revisit the history of Honkai."
"Honkai is a catastrophic phenomenon that occurs periodically. No one knows why it appears."
"War, epidemics, climate disasters, comet impacts—the manifestations of Honkai are always elusive."
"And in modern times, Honkai's manifestation is—Herrschers."
"Kiana, can you tell us what a Herrscher is?"
Kiana, who had somehow become drowsy in her seat, suddenly woke up with a start.
"What's wrong?"
Kiana, standing up, looked at Himeko, who was glaring at her, with a confused expression.
Everyone around them covered their mouths and chuckled. Kiana scratched her head awkwardly.
"Kiana, this."
Seeing the small note Raiden Mei secretly handed her, Kiana felt grateful and quickly read it aloud:
"The birth of a Herrscher is a manifestation of Honkai. Every time Honkai is assigned a number, it will definitely be accompanied by the birth of a 'Herrscher'."
"When the instantaneous power of a Honkai eruption reaches above 1000HW, one person in that area will survive—the Qualified One, who becomes the Herrscher."
"Herrschers obtain corresponding Herrscher Authority by condensing a herrscher core, and possess extreme adaptability to Honkai energy. The Honkai Beasts spawned in the area of the Honkai eruption are all controlled by that Herrscher."
After reading, Kiana cautiously glanced at Himeko.
Himeko glared at Kiana exasperatedly: "Don't zone out in class. Sit down."
"Hehe."
Kiana chuckled awkwardly upon hearing this, then sat down.
She couldn't help it; she didn't know why she always got sleepy during academic classes.
Compared to academic theory classes, she preferred practical combat!
In the past, she would have just skipped class.
But today, she had to be in the classroom to welcome Bella, so she didn't skip.
Seeing Kiana sit down, Himeko continued her lecture.
And Kiana's words also cleared up Bella's confusion.
"Honkai, disaster. So this is what a Herrscher is."
Bella mused slightly.
"Paimon, so was the Herrscher of the Void I heard about last time a Herrscher born during the Second Honkai Eruption?" Although no one could see Paimon, because Bella had to run back and forth with Himeko to handle enrollment procedures that morning, Paimon was too lazy to fly around, so the little one simply returned to the system space.
"Hmm, I didn't tell you before, Bella, but in the information I received when the system connected to this world, information about Herrschers seemed to involve the core of this world, so it was all blocked. That's why I don't know."
Paimon's voice came from Bella's mind.
"However, based on the existing information, your guess is most likely correct."
"Moreover, combining it with your fainting due to soul fusion earlier, it's highly probable that you are now a Dependents of the Herrscher of the Void."
Listening to Paimon's reasoning, Bella's expression gradually became serious.
This was a bit bad.
After all, Kiana said that Herrschers could command the Honkai Beasts born with them.
This meant that if the Herrscher of the Void was still alive, and she commanded Bella, Bella might very well have to obey her orders.
Furthermore, from Himeko and Kiana's introduction to Herrschers, it was clear that Herrschers were definitely not on humanity's side.
A formula formed in Bella's mind: Herrscher's Dependents = enemy of humanity = Honkai Beast identity exposed = hunted by Valkyries = Game Over.
Thinking of this, Bella couldn't stay calm: "It seems now is not the time to think about retirement. I need to first figure out the matter of the Herrscher of the Void and her whereabouts."
"Then it seems I can't leave St. Freya for now, as nowhere understands a Herrscher's whereabouts better than an organization directly opposing Herrschers."
Just as Bella was thinking about her next course of action.
On the podium.
Himeko looked at Kiana, who had somehow become drowsy again, and then at Bella, who was currently looking down, seemingly deep in thought.
Well, there was another problem student who wasn't listening in class.
......
"Ding-a-ling!"
The sound of the class bell rang.
Himeko closed the textbook in her hand: "Alright, that's all for today's class. Class dismissed."
Upon hearing this, Kiana instantly woke up from her sleep and packed her things in less than a minute. Her speed was so fast, completely devoid of any previous drowsiness, that Bella was dumbfounded.
"Bella, don't just stand there, let's go."
Kiana had somehow already reached the classroom door.
Bella turned to look at Raiden Mei and the others, who had calm expressions, as if they were already used to it.
She shrugged.
Well, nothing to be surprised about.
After packing her things, Bella and Raiden Mei and the other two walked towards Kiana at the door.
"Bella, don't leave yet. You don't have class this afternoon, remember to come to the School Director's office."
Just then, Himeko called out to Bella, who was about to return to the dorms with Kiana and the others.