The lifetime's nutrition nurtured...

Cipher Pol Agent Academy's educational stages were brutally simple: only two—junior classes and senior classes.

Because of Cipher Pol's special line of work, the World Government needed to ensure its agents' purity and loyalty. The best approach was naturally to train them from ignorant childhood, subtly brainwashing them and instilling its ideology;

As for selecting children, nothing was more reliable than the descendants of agents already bound to the World Government's war chariot, orphans with no attachments and no one to rely on.

The agents' descendants were better off. Though agents were endlessly busy, their children at least had other relatives and would always learn some knowledge. Most orphans, however, had tragic backgrounds. Every day, their only worries were avoiding starvation and finding somewhere to survive another difficult night. They had no opportunity to absorb knowledge at all. Thus, the first stage of education at Cipher Pol Agent Academy was commonly known as literacy: recognizing and writing words, understanding their meanings, and receiving a basic education in life in the world, geography, history, and so on.

Only in the second stage did Cipher Pol Agent Academy teach students how to gain strength, along with professional skills related to being an agent, such as intelligence analysis, disguise and infiltration, assassination tactics, and the like.

In the end, the students would be thrown into the great crucible of the world. Veteran Cipher Pol agents would guide them through practical combat, and only after repeated tempering would they truly take shape and become part of Cipher Pol.

Brad also had to attend the "literacy class." Even though he was mature enough on the inside, he had inherited the memories of a six-year-old child. His knowledge was not much better than that of someone with an empty head. He had to familiarize himself with a new writing system and a new world environment.

It took Brad around five minutes to learn all this. The source was the teacher leading him to the classroom, a warm and chatty middle-aged, plump woman in charge of the "literacy class."

"So adorable—such a serious little grown-up, Brad~" Teacher Linda loved Brad's delicate appearance and praised him endlessly.

Brad's mouth twitched. His golden eyes shifted as he put on an innocent expression. "The two big sisters in the office were so fierce~"

"Esdeath and Tornado? Haha, don't worry, Brad. They're both good children, very talented good children..." Seeing Brad's doubtful expression, Teacher Linda paused. Then, as if speaking to Brad and also to herself, she sighed. "All right! She really isn't a good child. She's nowhere near obedient enough. But believe me, they absolutely aren't bad children either. They just... they were deeply hurt by this world once, and had no choice but to force themselves to become difficult to mess with."

Brad raised a brow almost imperceptibly. I smell a story.

"Anyway, their situations are different!" Teacher Linda recovered her cheerfulness and smiled. "You won't have much contact with them for now."

Very soon.

"Children! Children!"

Brad was led into an enormous classroom. Teacher Linda stepped onto the platform and loudly stopped the children's noisy commotion during the break.

"Huh? A new classmate! He looks..."

"Why are you blushing?!"

"What's with the bug behind him? That's disgusting!"

"A monster?!"

"..."

Most of the children were under ten and spoke without any restraint. The girls' attention was fixed on Brad, while the boys were drawn to Mosquito Girl.

"Introduce yourself, Brad," Teacher Linda said with a smile.

Brad did not panic at all. He spoke generously. "My name is Brad Hyman." It was an exceedingly brief introduction. Then he pulled Mosquito Girl over. "She is my older sister, Joanna Hyman. I don't want to hear words like 'bug' or 'monster' again. Otherwise? Don't leave after school. The restroom? The woods? The school gate? Pick a place, and I'll smash your dog heads whenever you want!"

"..." Teacher Linda thought, Why is he so familiar with the academy's rules? This has to be fake!

Brad was naturally bluffing. What could his arms and legs possibly beat? He was merely trying to raise Mosquito Girl's favorability. Besides, if a fight really broke out for now, Mosquito Girl would be the one fighting.

"Brad~"

Mosquito Girl crouched down and hugged Brad, simply moved by his gesture of protecting her.

"So cool~"

"What an arrogant little bastard!"

"Blondie!"

"..."

Cheers and complaints erupted in clearly divided camps, but they immediately fell silent. More than a hundred children were like mice that had seen a cat.

Tornado floated in through the doorway. She arrogantly swept her gaze over the quiet room before greeting, "Teacher Linda."

"What a rare sight, Tornado!" Teacher Linda teased in delighted surprise. "Why have you come to the junior class? Did you remember that you still have unfinished studies?"

Tornado pouted. "If the senior class hadn't been suspended, I wouldn't have wanted to come! Hmph~ Those boring books give me a headache."

Brad rolled his eyes. Wasn't it all your own doing? You beat every classmate to the ground. Of course they suspended classes.

"All right, Brad, find an empty seat for yourself. I'll ask the next teacher to bring you your textbooks." Teacher Linda clapped her hands. "Get along well, children!"

The moment Teacher Linda left, Tornado immediately descended from the air to Brad's side. She held out her hand to compare their heights and was immensely satisfied, muttering, "Hehe~~~ It was worth tricking that stupid teacher and admitting my mistake on my own for the first time. Sure enough! There's finally someone shorter than me! This is wonderful!"

"Hello, I'm Brad, and she's Joanna," Brad calmly introduced them, though inwardly he could not stop mocking her. You care that much about height? The more you care, the more disappointed you'll be. The harder you try, the sadder it's bound to be. When you find out that you'll be stuck at this exact size in the future, and all the nutrition of your life only grows two A-cup fried eggs on your chest, will you be desperate or not?!

Tornado froze. "I'm Tornado."

Their gazes met for a moment.

Brad started walking, looking for an empty seat.

"Don't go, Brad!" Tornado happily followed him. "Let's be friends, okay?"

In a place like the academy, if one wanted to get by well, one had to gain the protection of the "strong" children and become friends with them. Clearly, Tornado, who looked like the type that could do whatever she wanted in the academy, was absolutely one of the "strong" children, even if she really was short;

Brad had no reason to refuse Tornado's "kindness." He understood that Tornado wanted him to stand beside her and highlight her height. But he also had one concern—what if he grew too quickly? If, in a month or two, or even two or three weeks, he erased their nearly negligible height difference and surpassed Tornado, would she become angry out of embarrassment?

After weighing it over and over, Brad turned around. "Okay."

"Hehe~" Tornado grinned, raised her chin, and looked around the room as she announced, "Did you hear that, idiots? Brad is my friend!"

Everyone: "..." One hot-tempered shorty had become two hot-tempered shorties?

"This is a nice seat. Could you give it to me?"

PS: Newbie here, please support me.