Without a doubt, this weathered middle-aged man was the former head of the Caslana family, Siegfried, who had secretly protected Kiana all the way from Russia to the Far East.
Perhaps he had never given it much thought before, but when Otto played the family card, Siegfried finally realized that he was not only an unqualified husband and father, but also an unqualified clan head.
Aside from his wife and daughter, he had also let down his mother—
Though he had had no choice, the Caslana family's centuries of glory had indeed been utterly squandered by him.
Thus, while Siegfried was furious at Otto for toying with the Caslana family like this, he unexpectedly felt little ill will toward Gwen. He even sympathized with him—
In Siegfried's eyes, whether Gwen was truly a clansman who had been stranded outside or merely an Experimental Subject created by Otto, he was only a pawn meant to deal with Siegfried. He also had to bear the Caslana honor that Siegfried himself had lost. He was just a pitiful child.
Siegfried even hoped that those unverified claims in the intelligence reports were true.
That way, at least Gwen could once again shoulder the Caslana family's glory—
Though Siegfried had been rebellious since childhood, the family's honor was just as deeply rooted in his heart. Whether it was his righteous deeds while running away from home or his teachings to Kiana, the glory of Caslana had influenced him.
Theresa: This Is Too Hard
Running away from home to evade responsibility in his youth, shamelessly returning to the family as a young man, drowning himself in alcohol after his wife's death, and finally defecting with great fanfare...
Even if Siegfried could console himself by saying that he had raised the artificial Herrscher Otto cultivated into a Caslana with a sense of justice, that he had done nothing wrong, and that allowing Otto to continue his experiments would only bring greater disaster upon the world, he could not deny that, by conventional standards, he had utterly discarded Caslana's thousand-year glory!
As the saying went, "Some things weigh less than four ounces until you put them on the scale, and then even a thousand pounds cannot measure them." When no one brought it up, Siegfried, who instinctively avoided thinking about it, would not even remember it.
But when Otto played this card of family honor, it nearly crushed the man who had once almost torn apart the Second Herrscher, and who had forced the revived Second Herrscher back down even while in poor condition.
Within this tiny, cramped apartment, Siegfried's powerful body curled into a ball. It was as though the person here was not the strongest man in the world today, but the little boy who had not yet begun to think of running away from home...
Under that immense pressure, Siegfried was already dead drunk after two bottles of beer. He lay on the tatami, clutching the pair of Dual Pistols he had taken with him when he defected.
In his haze, Siegfried seemed to return to the day he had first seen this pair of Heavenly Fire Judgment in his mother's hands. He saw that figure he could now only seek in dreams—
"Mom... I miss you so much..."
This time, the scarred man did not dream of his fallen wife. Instead, he dreamed of his mother, who had died young, as if he had become that child once more...
Meanwhile, at the airfield of St. Freya Academy in the Far East, a cute doll-like girl with white hair and blue eyes, dressed in an exquisite nun's habit, stood before several outstanding students and Valkyries selected through multiple rounds of screening. She waved her little hand at the red-haired mature beauty who had come to see them off.
"Himeko, I'll be counting on you to take care of St. Freya Academy while I'm gone!"
It looked like a heartwarming scene of a girl leaving home to study and waving goodbye to her family, but the smile on the lips of one of the main figures, Himeko Murata, carried a hint of helplessness no matter how one looked at it.
Still, though her smile held a trace of reluctance, Himeko chose to give Theresa plenty of face in front of the students and her subordinates—
"Mm. While you're gone, I'll manage St. Freya Academy properly.
This time, every branch selected its finest Valkyries to undergo training at headquarters. Theresa, when you get there, remember to keep an eye on the children. Don't let them be bullied."
Though Himeko believed her students were outstanding, she also knew that compared to the rising Valkyries from other branches who had undergone high-intensity military training, the children of the Far East Branch were still too inexperienced.
Young people were bound to be hot-blooded. If any conflicts broke out, the Far East Branch's children would probably be the ones at a disadvantage. That was why Himeko had not stopped Theresa, even though she knew Theresa was personally leading the team partly so she could dump all her accumulated work on Himeko.
"Don't worry."
Hearing that, Theresa puffed out her little chest and gave it a firm pat, a smug smile appearing on her lips.
"At headquarters, who would dare bully my people? Don't they know who I am?"
"Sure, sure. Principal Theresa is invincible under heaven. Happy now?"
Himeko could only laugh and tease her before glancing at the time.
"It's about time. Hurry and board the plane. I should head back and get to work too."
"Everyone, say goodbye to Teacher Himeko."
At those words, the momentum Theresa had just built up immediately weakened. She turned to the girls behind her and spoke.
The girls immediately said in unison,
"Goodbye, Teacher!"
It was not earth-shaking, but it carried the distinct bearing of soldiers.
Yet amid that momentum was one discordant note—
Among the energetic voices was one that sounded somewhat cold. Even Fu Hua's steady voice beside her could not drown it out.
"..."
Seeing the black-haired girl in the lineup, whose body radiated an aloof aura and whose expression was icy, Theresa habitually started to lecture her.
"Hui Huo..."
However, after merely calling the girl's name and meeting her red eyes, filled with stubbornness, Theresa chose to give up. As though nothing had happened, she waved her hand.
"Move out!"
At Theresa's command, the ten Valkyries and reserve Valkyries selected by St. Freya Academy began boarding the aircraft in formation.
Even the black-haired girl who looked so cold did not cause any more trouble. She boarded behind Fu Hua.
"Sigh..."
Only after all the girls had boarded did Theresa let out a long sigh—
Being the principal was simply too hard. She had to rack her brains to squeeze leisure and relaxation into training schedules that still met standards. She had to painstakingly coordinate the students' relationships and do her best to prevent the campus bullying prevalent in the Far East from spreading to St. Freya Academy and creating troubled children. She also had to look after those troubled children. Every day left her exhausted in body and mind, and even when she rarely found time to read some manga, she had to watch out for Himeko...
"Theresa, keep an eye on Hui Huo. Her personality makes her an easy target for exclusion."
Unaware that Theresa was mentally grumbling about her, Himeko glanced behind Theresa and confirmed that everyone had entered the cabin. Only then did she step closer and speak quietly.
"Mm, I'll keep it in mind."
Theresa nodded, her little face completely serious.
"I'm also going to ask Grandpa whether he has any ideas while I'm at headquarters.
After all, he's best at manipulating people's hearts."
Though throwing the problems of one of her troublesome students at her own grandfather was dangerous as well, Theresa had no other choice. She could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive—
Theresa herself had also been excluded when she was young, but after she met Cecilia, all those problems had been resolved with ease.
Theresa had plenty of experience being excluded, but as for how to resolve it, she had a few ideas. Their effectiveness, however... at least none of them had worked on the black-haired girl in the group—
The girl's full name was Wuse Huohuo, and she had been born into an ancient family in the Far East.
It was said that the family had once been a renowned lineage of demon slayers in Shinano, but it declined because of the calamity known as Honkai and was gradually forgotten. Only when Destiny's influence formally extended into the Far East did the family recover under Destiny's patronage, joining Destiny and changing its surname to Wuse.
Due to her family background, Wuse Huohuo had been disliked and excluded by some students from lower-class backgrounds, gradually becoming cold and detached as a result.
Theresa: The XXXXth Day Without Cecilia, I Miss Her
If not for the care of Theresa, the principal and Far East Branch director who devoted her energy to students' mental well-being, as well as the comfort of a good teacher like Himeko, Wuse Huohuo would likely have developed serious psychological problems under the tangible and intangible exclusion she faced, rather than merely becoming cold as she was now.
Of course Theresa had thought about resolving Wuse Huohuo's predicament, but Theresa, who had suffered exclusion herself, also understood that such problems could not be resolved through mere administrative measures.
After trying all the methods she had used in the past without success, Theresa, already at her wits' end, decided to recreate the experience she had once shared with Cecilia.
But the very first step stumped Theresa—
She could not find someone like Cecilia, someone gentle yet powerful and possessed of lofty prestige, to help Wuse Huohuo escape her predicament.
Theresa knew that without those qualifications, the child brought in to help would only end up in an awkward position as well.
But how could someone like Cecilia be found so easily?
Thus, Theresa could only shelve that plan for the time being.
Later, Theresa barely managed to find a youthful, energetic substitute—
Fu Hua, a student from the Divine Land. Though she was far from as gentle as Cecilia, her strength was enough to make the main perpetrators excluding Wuse Huohuo hide their intentions. Furthermore, her handsome and androgynous appearance, along with her steady and dependable personality, had earned others' trust. She could barely be considered a youthful, energetic version of Cecilia.
However, though Fu Hua agreed to Theresa's request, her personality also meant that she could not give Wuse Huohuo the same degree of comfort Cecilia had given Theresa. She could only offer Wuse Huohuo simple goodwill as she did everyone else and reduce some of her troubles.
As a result, half a year had passed. Wuse Huohuo's circumstances had improved slightly, but they were still far from encouraging. Her personality had not changed much either. She had merely gone from being alone to having Fu Hua as a friend she could speak to—
Just as Fu Hua treated everyone around her: neither close nor rejecting.
The outcome left Theresa both amused and helpless. She abandoned her plan and once again began to miss Cecilia.
Just then, headquarters sent word about opening an advanced training class, and Theresa began considering asking whether her no-good grandfather had any solutions—
In Theresa's view, if Wuse Huohuo entered active service with her current personality, it would likely cause even greater problems. Compared to that, begging her grandfather was not much of an issue.
Besides, if they were talking about privileged connections, headquarters had the most—
Leaving aside the three great families, which of the families that had survived her grandfather's major purge had not obediently sent their talented members to headquarters?
Perhaps at headquarters, surrounded by people of a different sort but similarly privileged background, Hui Huo's personality problems might improve?
With such expectations, Theresa bade Himeko farewell and boarded the plane bound for headquarters.
On the plane, the small principal watched the leisurely white clouds drifting past the window and silently sighed again, troubled over how she should educate her problematic student.
Though she placed great importance on her students' mental well-being, Theresa's return to headquarters this time was not solely for Wuse Huohuo, the student she thought highly of—
Theresa had naturally received the information that even Siegfried had obtained through Anti-Entropy.
Theresa remained suspicious of this news, which her grandfather had likely deliberately allowed her to learn.
She doubted both the claim that Gwen had advanced to A-rank in less than two years and Gwen's identity—
Theresa herself was a product of genetic engineering. That made it difficult for her not to suspect that this supposedly miraculous genius stranded outside might share the same origins as her, someone her grandfather was using to play the Caslana card.
Beyond that, Theresa also strongly suspected that her grandfather was preparing to make an issue out of this matter and bait Siegfried, wherever he might be.
Whether Otto was preparing to toy with what little honor the Caslana family had left or seemingly intended to make a move against Siegfried, both gave Theresa the urge to return to headquarters and meet the grandfather she had not seen in years.
The three matters combined finally made Theresa decide to return to headquarters—
In Theresa's view, Wuse Huohuo had the potential to become a new S-rank in the future. If possible, it would be best to resolve her personality problems and avoid an even greater tragedy on the battlefield someday.
Though Theresa, as the head of the Apokalips family, had no interest whatsoever in family matters, she knew history and did not want the Caslana family, which had guarded humanity for generations, to be toyed with by her grandfather after declining to such a state.
As for Siegfried... if not for Cecilia's sake, Theresa would not want anything to do with him...
Filled with worry, Theresa stared at the white clouds outside the window as her thoughts gradually drifted away...
"Principal?
Principal?"
A calm voice accompanied by a gentle shake woke Theresa, who had closed her eyes at some point.
However, such a gentle wake-up was clearly not enough to make someone instantly come to their senses. Theresa rubbed her sleepy eyes with her little hands and muttered, "Cecilia, are we there...?"
"Principal, we have arrived at headquarters. Everyone has already disembarked and is waiting for you."
Watching Theresa behave like a child matching her appearance, Fu Hua's expression remained calm as she reminded her.
"Huh?
Ah!"
Theresa finally came to her senses and let out a startled cry, but she covered her mouth before the sound could fully escape, her eyes widening nervously.
Only after discovering that the only person before her was Fu Hua, whose expression remained calm, did Theresa let out a breath of relief. She straightened her clothes, stood up, and waved her little hand.
"Let's go."
Theresa considered herself fairly familiar with Fu Hua. She was not the sort to spread rumors.
Around someone like that, rather than explain herself and make things unbearably awkward, it was better to pretend nothing had happened.
After disembarking, Theresa tirelessly repeated the precautions once more before leading the students toward the dormitory arranged by the system for the Far East Branch's advanced trainees.
Having seen few familiar faces along the way, Theresa inwardly lamented how things had changed. But when she reached the front of the dormitory building, her pupils suddenly contracted—
At the intersection ahead, a white-haired, blue-eyed young man in black training clothes was strolling over, carrying two plastic bags.
Comparing him to the photo she had seen, Theresa immediately confirmed his identity. He was Gwen, one of the reasons she had come to headquarters.
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