"What happened?"
When Fang Zheng arrived at the infirmary, he immediately saw Julie, Tachibana Tomoe, and the others lying in hospital beds. Julie and Hotaka Gya were the most seriously injured, while Tachibana Tomoe and Nagakura Imari looked equally bedraggled. Only Katou Kirin seemed to be in slightly better shape, though her face was deathly pale and she looked utterly exhausted.
When they saw Fang Zheng return, all the girls breathed sighs of relief. Katou Kirin hurried over and threw herself into his arms.
"Brother!!"
"It's all right, I'm back. Don't be scared..."
Fang Zheng smiled slightly and stroked Katou Kirin's head. Feeling his touch, she gradually calmed down, then tearfully began recounting what had happened.
It turned out that after Fang Zheng had gone to Hagun Academy, Nishikyo Neine had begun giving the girls special lessons. According to Katou Kirin, Nishikyo Neine had ordered them to train in the woods on the western side of the island, claiming that intruders had arrived and that their mission was to defeat and eliminate them.
Dead or alive.
That had given the girls quite a fright. Haoling Academy had always provided combat training close to real battle conditions, but this was the first time they had been told to fight without regard for life or death.
Nishikyo Neine clearly did not care. She had placed third in the Blade Breaker KOK tournament. Unlike the relatively peaceful Star Martial Festival, the Blade Breaker KOK was a competition where losing arms and legs was perfectly normal. There were plenty of Espers and devices specializing in healing, so as long as no one had their head cut off or their heart pierced and died on the spot, even severe injuries could be treated.
As far as Nishikyo Neine was concerned, this sort of training and