Xina's Repeated Deaths

"Here! See for yourself!" Himeko dug out a student file from the desk, pressed it onto the tabletop, and pushed it toward Warith.

"How mysterious!"

Warith opened the student file, and the first thing she saw was the section on Xina's relatives.

Father: Unknown

Mother: Milian Nash, deceased due to illness.

The moment Warith looked at the black-and-white photograph of Xina's mother, she finally understood why Xina had reacted that way after seeing herself in the mirror—the makeup Warith had done for her today looked remarkably similar to the makeup in that photo.

Didn't that mean...

I'm such an awful person!

Looking at that black-and-white photo, an inexplicable guilt instantly welled up in Warith's heart. That feeling... that feeling was enough to make her sit bolt upright in the middle of the night and slap herself across the face.

"Alright." Himeko seemed to have understood something. She raised her right hand and rubbed Warith's head, comforting her. "That child won't blame you. Since she thanked you, it means she really was grateful that you did that makeup for her."

"Is that so..."

With Himeko's reassurance, Warith felt a little better, but she still decided to keep a closer eye on that poor girl afterward and see whether she could add a few points to her usual grade.

Anyway, she was declaring it unilaterally right here: even if Xina's future assessment results were barely passable, as long as she showed up for the exam, Warith would try to pull her through!

The days passed, and soon Warith got her chance to observe her.

During the second class not long afterward, Warith stood by the window and watched Xina chatting and laughing with Kiana and the others. Only then did she finally relax...

Early the next morning, Xina groggily heard a polite knock at the door.

She glanced at the time. Four-thirty in the morning!

"Mm... Herrschers should all be asleep at this hour. Why would anyone be knocking?"

Muttering as she walked toward the door, Xina's clinging drowsiness vanished without a trace the instant she opened it.

"Class Monitor! Weren't you... weren't you supposed to come back this afternoon?" Xina stared blankly at Fu Hua, who stood outside in a training outfit, and immediately had three questions:

Why was she back so early?

Why was she back early?

And what did her standing at my door mean?

"The mission ended early, so I came back early. I took the overnight flight."

"An overnight flight..." Xina's mouth twitched slightly. She could not help glancing back at the alarm clock by her bed. So you just got back? Then why aren't you catching up on sleep? What are you looking for me for? Did I get exposed...

Perhaps seeing Xina's confusion, Fu Hua did not hide anything and spoke frankly. "Before I came back, Teacher Himeko and Principal Theresa told me to take you along for morning training and help improve your physical fitness."

Xina: "..."

"Go change quickly! I'll wait for you at the door."

Urged along by Fu Hua, Xina unwillingly took off her nightgown and changed into ordinary athletic shorts and a loose T-shirt.

By the time she swayed downstairs, Fu Hua had already been practicing tai chi below for a while. Seeing Xina dragging her feet like this, the Immortal Fu Hua frowned. She felt Xina's habit of dawdling was terrible and needed to be dealt with!

"Since you're here, keep up!"

With that, Fu Hua walked outside expressionlessly.

"Then... wait a moment. I'll leave Mei a note so they won't wait for us at breakfast."

Before heading out, Xina took a sticky note from the small basket beside the refrigerator and wrote down a message.

"I've already gotten a general idea of your physical fitness level." Fu Hua stood on the path in front of the villa and looked at Xina with a sigh. "You can safely claim last place in the entire academy. Even a D-Rank Support Valkyrie responsible for logistics could leave you a hundred thousand miles behind."

"So what..." Xina pursed her lips indignantly, until Fu Hua pointed toward the enormous Lakeside Boulevard. "So we'll start from zero. Today, we'll run two laps around the lake!"

"How many? Two laps? You call that starting from zero? Why don't you just stab me!"

Xina let out a shrill cry in exasperation. She did not dare imagine what state she would be in after finishing those two laps, because she knew perfectly well that she would most likely not live long enough to finish them.

"Don't get so worked up, Xina. Human potential is limitless. Believe in yourself. Two little laps are nothing!"

With that, Fu Hua smiled very gently, but to Xina, that smiling face looked like Death reaching out a hand toward her.

Death... Oh, right, I'm the Herrscher of Death too... DAMN, that makes it even worse. I can't even die. Wouldn't that be worse than death!

For the first time, Xina loathed the authority within her body.

Led by Fu Hua, Xina finally stepped onto the track. After running barely more than two hundred meters, she was already gasping for breath as if she were about to suffocate.

Just as she thought her performance was flawless and she could head back to rest, Fu Hua, who had seen through everything, somehow pulled out a rope and tied it around both their waists.

Thus began Herrscher Miss's nightmare!

"Hey, hey, hey, Rosa, isn't that Class Monitor Fu Hua?"

A girl in a nightgown, planning to stroll off campus for breakfast, tugged at the sleepy companion beside her.

"Huh? Who else would it be? Other than the class monitor, who would get up so early to do morning training?" the other girl said without even looking.

There were not many people in this academy who could crawl out of bed early on a weekend morning.

If Mary had not complained that she was hungry and wanted to go out for breakfast, she absolutely would not have gotten out of bed before nine!

"But there's someone following behind the class monitor. She can actually keep up with her during morning training. That's such incredible determination." Mary looked moved as she watched the two runners approaching them. Just as she was about to cheer them on, Rosa immediately grabbed her. "Something's wrong!"

"Huh? What's wrong?" Mary looked at her roommate in confusion, until Fu Hua and the other girl ran past them through the thin mist.

"If I'm not mistaken... that was Xina..." Mary watched the two receding figures and could not help wiping the cold sweat from her forehead.

Rosa beside her wore a look of sympathy. "Good thing my physical fitness meets the standard..."

On the track, someone looked like she was still alive, but in reality... she had already been saved by her authority several times.

And that life state of repeatedly bouncing between life and death naturally caused Fu Hua to misjudge the situation.

In Fu Hua's eyes, the image presented by Xina repeatedly dying was simply this:

Xina was holding on!

Xina was still holding on!

Xina could keep holding on!

Yes, Xina had held on!

God! She was so incredibly determined!