Girl! Sign a contract with me and become a magical... Valkyrie!

Only then did Xina get a clear look at the petite girl speaking.

Bronya had gray twin spiral curls and eyes nearly the same shade of gray, with unknown metal armor fitted on her legs.

The most incredible thing was that her feet weren't touching the ground—something seemed to be supporting the girl, letting her float magically in the air.

"Heheh! That thing looks pretty fun. After I find a chance to use the Serenity Gem to grow her legs, I've gotta get that cool toy to play with..."

Xina, her mind wandering, thought this.

Following Bronya into the Medical Room, Bronya used the equipment there to conduct a very thorough examination of Xina's body.

The moment she saw the test report, Bronya's eyes went wide. Trembling, she handed it to Himeko, who had snuck in to retrieve her hidden stash of alcohol. After a single glance at the report, Himeko wore almost the exact same expression as Bronya.

"!"

Why are they making that face? Could they have seen through my identity? No way! I hid it so well, and I've sealed the Honkai energy inside my Herrscher Core...

Watching the two whispering to each other, Xina nervously clenched her hands. In her palms, an icy blue light seemed to flicker.

Inside the Hyperion's command room, Theresa stared lifelessly at the untouched report in front of her and the half-read limited-edition manga.

She swore, one more page and she'd start writing! Really!

Rustle!

That was the sound of a page turning!

Theresa swore, this really was the last page...

"Principal? Principal, are you there?"

Just as Theresa was about to break her oath yet again, Himeko's communication cut in, perfectly interrupting her page-turning.

"Himeko, what's wrong?" Theresa asked, a little puzzled.

After all, everyone was on the Hyperion right now. If something came up, it was just a few steps away—no need for a comm call at all.

"Principal, what I'm about to tell you, don't lose your composure, and don't be scared!" Himeko said, swallowing excitedly as she looked at the test report.

"I'm the Principal of St. Freya and an S-Rank Valkyrie. I won't lose my composure, and I won't be scared!" Theresa scoffed, tilting her head back proudly as if she were face-to-face with Himeko.

But... the slap came fast. When Himeko read the report's contents line by line through the comm, the calm, unshakable composure on Theresa's face vanished in a few breaths.

She took a deep breath and said, word by word: "Himeko... today isn't April Fools' Day. You're not messing with me, are you?"

"Why would I mess with you? If you don't believe me, come to the Medical Room... Bronya can vouch for it!" Himeko couldn't even be bothered to drink the wine right in front of her. Clutching the report, she sighed softly: "That girl Kiana sure is lucky. She hit the jackpot!"

Just as Xina's heart was pounding, unsure whether to make the first move and bolt, Theresa burst through the door—literally—and temporarily made her shelve that idea...

Seriously, who enters a room like that? Compared to Theresa's terrifying entrance, Xina felt like even she, a Herrscher, was as harmless as an innocent White Rabbit.

"Hehehe..."

Skimming the report she'd taken from Himeko, Theresa wore a strange... no, a creepy, terrifying smile as she slid open the transparent glass door of the isolation area and walked step by step up to Xina.

Mom! This Valkyrie is so scary! She doesn't eat Herrschers, does she!

Xina was terrified and instinctively scooted her chair to the side.

"Hehehe~ Little girl, don't be scared! I'm not a bad person~"

Seeing the fear written all over Xina's face, Theresa quickly stepped back a few paces and coaxed softly: "Trust me, I mean no harm. I just want to ask you a few questions!"

"Y-You... go ahead!" Xina looked at Theresa with a dejected expression. She swore, if she'd known these Valkyries were this terrifying, she never should have run off with Kiana!

No, wait! She hadn't really run at all! Kiana was the one carrying her the whole time...

"Do you have any... close family left?" Theresa asked cautiously, afraid the question might hit a sore spot.

Didn't she already ask this?

Xina eyed Theresa suspiciously and shook her head: "No. Other than the dad who ran off before I was born, I don't have any family left."

"Is there anywhere you urgently need to go, or anything you urgently need to do?" Theresa asked again.

Huh? Urgently need to do!?

Does melting the polar ice caps, terraforming the planet's climate, and wiping out humanity along the way count?

Honestly, I probably shouldn't say that out loud, right?

Xina grumbled inwardly, then shook her head with a look of resignation: "No. I'm just going wherever the wind takes me."

Good grief! Orphaned, alone, no direction, no purpose—she's practically a born Valkyrie vessel!

Thinking about how absurdly high her chances of tricking... no, recruiting this genius girl were, a flicker of excitement flashed in Theresa's eyes.

She cleared her throat, coughed twice, and extended her hand toward Xina: "Young lady, would you like to make a contract with me and become a magical... no, a Valkyrie?"

"?!"

Bronya's lips parted slightly. After hearing Theresa's ridiculous words, even her usually calm expression couldn't hold up. She only managed to stay upright thanks to Heavy Armor Bunny's support.

Himeko, listening in, couldn't bear to watch and covered her face with her hand, thinking: Principal! That's no way to persuade a young girl! If you actually trick this girl into St. Freya like this, I, Himeko...

"Then can I ask why you want me to become a Valkyrie? Could it be... I..."

"Here." Theresa handed the test report to Xina. Xina couldn't make heads or tails of it anyway—she just saw a bunch of A's and S's.

"Let me explain it to you!" Theresa pointed at the data on the report with her finger: "We just ran a full assessment on you, and it turns out your Honkai energy adaptability has reached the level of an S-Rank Valkyrie. Some of the other stats are a bit lower, but they still show great potential. You could say you're a candidate for S-Rank Valkyrie."

Honkai energy adaptability at S-rank, huh?

Well, that made sense. She was a Herrscher after all. If her adaptability were low, that would be the real surprise.

"Alright, I accept!" Xina agreed without a second thought. In her view, as long as her identity as a Herrscher stayed hidden, it didn't matter. She had no one to rely on anyway—wherever she went, it was all the same.

But really, the main reason she agreed to stay was because she wanted to learn more about that... very unusual Third Herrscher.

Why was it that, as a fellow Herrscher, she could slack off and coast without a care in the world...

"Huh, you agreed?"

Theresa, slow on the uptake, seemed to realize how absurd her own pitch had been. For a moment, she lost some confidence, but what surprised her even more was that Xina had accepted so easily.

"Yeah!" Xina nodded, looking at Theresa with clear confusion. "What... did you want me to refuse? Fine then, I refu—"

Before Xina could finish, Theresa jumped up from the ground and clamped her hand over Xina's mouth. "Don't refuse! Whatever you do, don't refuse!"

"Alright..." Xina, keeping her cool, pouted slightly and tilted her head to look through the warship's porthole at the traffic jam clogging the roads below.

Sure, the 'rampaging target' had caused no small number of casualties during that time, but in the vacuum period between her and the 'target's' outbreak, over seventy percent of this world-class metropolis's population had still managed to escape.

"Principal Theresa, could you give me some time to go home and pack my things?"

"No problem! Go home and get sorted first. Once you've taken care of everything, we'll handle your enrollment paperwork—no rush!"

Theresa, convinced she'd just poached a future S-Rank Valkyrie, was in high spirits and agreed with a confident pat on her chest. What she didn't know was that the moment she agreed, the corner of Xina's mouth curled up slightly, and her peripheral gaze shifted from the traffic below to Theresa herself.

From that little test just now, Xina had confirmed her identity hadn't been exposed.

Because if it had, and the Valkyries were planning to lure her in to kill her, they would never have let her go home to pack.

But Theresa had agreed without hesitation.

Honestly, this S-Rank Valkyrie was a bit too... carefree. A Herrscher had just appeared, and she was still willing to let someone of unknown origins join them.

She was practically a big idiot!

Of course, Xina's request to delay enrollment wasn't just a test of Theresa's attitude. She was also doing it to lie low.

An incident this big—a Herrscher appearing and then vanishing without a trace—would definitely send people from both Welt's Anti-Entropy and the Valkyries' Schicksal to investigate.

But... with so many people having escaped from Singapore, even if both organizations dug deep, it would take forever to screen everyone.

As long as she waited for the initial heat to die down, enrolling at St. Freya afterward wouldn't draw nearly as much attention.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Theresa was already daydreaming about the wonderful life ahead—the Far East Branch guarded by two S-Rank Valkyries, herself handing off all the work to Xina, becoming a slacker principal who read manga all day.

She nearly laughed out loud. Pulling Himeko, who had just reached for a bottle of wine, over in front of Xina, she said, "Oh, right, Himeko! When Xina enrolls, put her in your class!"

"Huh? Me?" Himeko hid the bottle she'd just grabbed in Theresa's blind spot and gave Xina a friendly wink. "Hello there. I'm Murata Himeko. I mainly teach courses related to Valkyrie combat. Looking forward to working with you from now on."

"Hello, Himeko... teacher." Xina hesitated slightly before returning the greeting.

An A-Rank Valkyrie. Decent strength. In theory, no threat to me...

Xina recalled the power Himeko had shown when dealing with the 'target' earlier and breathed a quiet sigh of relief.