"This Is Humanity's Legacy, an Ever-Burning Flame!" (Continued)

Blanca got up and left the theater, returning shortly afterward with a large quantity of tissues in her hands. She had a premonition ever since Himeko appeared, so she had prepared them in advance.

"Blanca, Blanca..."

Pardo took the tissues and pulled out a few to wipe her tears.

Inside the principal's office at the St. Freya Academy.

Seeing Himeko and Kiana return to the St. Freya Academy in the story, Theresa cried even harder, because St. Freya Academy seemed to have been temporarily disbanded in the story.

Himeko watched Theresa cry so hard she was almost passing out.

"Theresa, are you so sad? I'm standing right in front of you, and St. Freya Academy is thriving."

Himeko was helpless.

"That's different! Waaaaah... Damn screenwriter!"

Upon hearing this, Theresa wept so bitterly that it brought tears to the eyes of all who heard it and saddened all who listened.

"At least Kiana and Himeko had a chance to say goodbye. Lady Theresa, we should thank the writers for giving them that opportunity."

Vita's smile was very genuine.

Himeko's expression was strange. After spending the last few days together, she realized that Vita was not the naive college student she had been told she was supposed to be when she joined the company.

"Croak?"

Theresa was stunned when she heard that.

The screenwriter has torn me apart like this, and I should thank the screenwriter?

"Think about you and Lady Cecilia, you didn't even have a chance to say goodbye. Shouldn't we be grateful?"

Vita grinned wickedly, as if two devil horns had sprouted from her head.

Theresa broke down.

"Bad woman!"

Theresa's accusations were useless, because Vita had already joined the company, and was even recommended by Yaqing. She couldn't possibly go so far as to fire Vita without considering her reputation.

Walter Yang used the same tactic back then.

"Ah!!!... oooooooooooooooo..."

After Theresa screamed, she cried even harder.

Himeko gave Vita a deep look.

The last person who could break Theresa's defenses with just a few words was Rita. Sure enough, Theresa and Rita are incompatible in this life. Himeko sighed and turned her attention back to the anime.

Kiana and Himeko stroll through the St. Freya Academy.

Looking at the familiar buildings from her memories, Kiana felt a sense of disorientation, as if the experience had been a dream, and she was still a carefree student at the St. Freya Academy.

But everything had already changed, Kiana said with a sigh.

"I remember back then I always wanted to grow up quickly, but I never expected that growing up would be such a painful thing."

"If you could do it all over again, would your choice change?"

Kiana gave her own answer to Himeko's question.

"Probably not, wouldn't that be unlike [me]?"

The two strolled back to their old dormitory. Himeko pointed to her room window, Kiana sighed, noting that Himeko's room light was always on at night. She scratched her head, reflecting on how hard Himeko had worked back then.

To everyone's surprise, Himeko's answer was that sometimes she gets drunk and forgets to turn off the lights.

Himeko brought up the small tree next to the dormitory again, her eyes filled with memories. Kiana used to like to hide there when she skipped class.

Himeko suddenly pointed to the wall in the distance.

"Do you remember that wall, Kiana?"

Kiana certainly remembered that she used to climb out from there all the time.

"Theresa was really having a headache. She probably raised the wall three times, but you still managed to climb over it."

Himeko said with a smile.

"No wonder it's getting harder each time."

Kiana immediately understood.

"But she didn't add any more after that."

"Why?"

"Because she's afraid you'll fall and get hurt."

The more mundane and trivial the matter, the more likely it is to break a person's defenses.

The more heartwarming the past Kiana and Himeko reminisced about, the more heartbreaking Kiana's awakening from this dream became.

Himeko is dead, Mei is gone, and they can't even go back to the St. Freya Academy.

The audience initially found the boring school life in the second movie to be a beautiful memory that Kiana could only dream of. Perhaps one night, at the Salt Lake Base Kiana will recall the drunken Himeko, the cooking Mei, the gaming Bronya, the tutoring Fu Hua who helped her with her failing grades, and the caring Theresa who looked after her Aunt.

The audience was stunned as they recalled these events.

The boomerang is the most lethal weapon. What those viewers criticized as boring daily school life has now become the knife that stabbed them the deepest.

"Waaaaaah..."

Yaqing was genuinely worried that Elysia would cry until her tears ran dry, so he handed her a bottle of water.

But he didn't expect that his act of concern would be seen as so inconsiderate by others.

"That line, 'Because she's afraid you'll fall and get hurt...' is so devastating... Waaaaah."

Elysia pulled out a few more tissues.

Mei embraced Elysia, who was crying uncontrollably, and gently patted her shoulder.

Mei's gentleness made Elysia cry even more bitterly.

It's like someone who isn't actually feeling wronged, but if someone comforts them, that feeling of being wronged will well up in their heart, their nose will feel sore, and they can't help but shed tears.

First it was Mobius, then it was Me; Elysia truly deserves to be the group's darling.

Leaning on May's shoulder, Elysia gazed at the big screen through teary eyes.

The two walked all the way to their former training ground.

"It feels like it was just yesterday that you were having classes here."

Himeko sighed, then asked Kiana about Mei and the others.

Kiana then reminded Himeko of what had happened after the War of Schicksal, from Bronya becoming the Herrscher of Reason to Fu Hua's past. Although Himeko was mentally prepared, there were still many things she found difficult to process.

Himeko's shocked expression reminded the audience of a saying.

I woke up to find myself at odds with the entire class.

Despite being established to combat the Honkai, Valkyrie. St. Freya Academy has produced so many Herrscher, which explains why it's nicknamed the Far East Demon Cave and Herrscher Academy online.

Kiana scratched her head.

He frankly expressed his true feelings.

She always knew that she was the one who received the most help from everyone.

"Mei, Bronya, class representative, Theresa, and Himeko- sensei. I know... it's all thanks to you that I've gotten to where I am today, and that I can continue to walk firmly on this path after graduation."

Kiana stood with her hands behind her back, avoiding Himeko's gaze.

"But... I still have some concerns."

What are you worried about?

Himeko, as a teacher, felt very comforted by her students' lack of self-confidence.

"I'm worried that I'm not doing a good enough job. If I could figure some things out sooner, everyone wouldn't have to worry about me, and Mei wouldn't have gone to World Serpent."

"Sometimes, I feel like I've let everyone down..."

Himeko reached out her hand and told Kiana a story, a story about herself.

"Sigh... Is class about to start?"

Kiana made a joke.

"What, you don't want to hear it?"

Kiana smiled.

No, I want to hear it.

Himeko's story took place more than ten years ago, when she had just entered university. She had a father who worked at the Schicksal Institute. Although he was very busy with work, he often made time to be with her.

But one day, her father suddenly left, left this world.

Himeko couldn't accept it, so she joined Schicksal, underwent Artificial Stigmata transplant, and became a Valkyrie, hoping to uncover the truth behind her father's death.

In the Valkyrie unit, she encountered Captain Ragna.

Ragna changed Himeko's mindset and said to her, "Go and turn this imperfect world into the one you desire."

However, the time she spent fighting alongside Ragna was too short.

"It was that disaster in 2010..."

Kiana's voice was noticeably softer. Having learned from the Herrscher of the Void that "she" had killed Himeko's captain, she now bowed her head before Himeko.

"Kiana, it's wrong for the Herrscher of the Void to always blame you for those disasters and consequences. She can't see people's own choices, and she can't tolerate those beautiful glimmers of light."

Himeko did not blame Kiana; instead, she comforted her.

"—The story that follows is what I want to tell you."

After Ragna's death, she sorted through his belongings and found a letter, or more precisely, his will.

In his suicide note, Ragna also told a story.

That was when Ragna had just become Valkyrie. She was ambitious but lacked practical skills and didn't want to take on the task of comforting the common people. Instead, she wanted to fight the Honkai and kill the enemy, until she met Otto and mustered up the courage to ask him a question.

Otto's answer to her was no, but he quickly added, "But Schicksal has always conveyed its beliefs in this way."

After Otto's instruction, Ragna understood.

"We protect those beautiful things, which may seem insignificant, but that's only because they are still just seeds at the moment."

"These seeds that nurture beauty will one day bloom into flowers covering the mountains and fields. Although I have withered, I have become the soil and fertilizer that fosters hope."

"And the flower of hope for the future will one day find what it wants to protect."

This was Ragna's final instruction, Himeko never understood until the day she donned the Vermilion Knight Armor, at which point she finally grasped the meaning of Ragna's letter.

Upon hearing Himeko's story, only two words came to mind for the audience.

Inheritance.

Ragna will pass on the beliefs he learned from Otto to Himeko, Himeko will also teach Kiana the beliefs she has learned.

Kiana is like a seed that nurtures beauty, while Ragna and Himeko become the soil and fertilizer that fosters hope. Through trials and tribulations, she eventually grows into a flower of hope.

This is what inheritance is all about.

It is through continuous inheritance that humanity has developed civilization and society, something the Honkai cannot comprehend.

"A hypocrite can actually speak human language?"

Kalpas snorted coldly. If there was one type of person that Brother Jie hated the most, it would be a puppet, who was incompetent and talked a lot of nonsense. The second type of person would be Otto, who hated this kind of insidious person the most.

"It's not surprising that Otto said these things. He is indeed a bad person, and there's no way to whitewash him. But the Saintess he's following is someone who gave her life to protect civilians. What he wants to convey is the Saintess's belief."

Su shook her head.

"Perhaps, this is the Final Lesson Himeko will teach Kiana."

Mei sighed.

Elysia was already crying her eyes out.

Himeko told Kiana that she had read the mission report.

No one knows what happened during that disaster, but the out-of-control Herrscher was suppressed, and Ziegfried unleashed the Skyfire, survived. She believed that someone present must have made the right choice.