Hearing that, Ren Yu immediately raised an eyebrow.
How old am I? What kind of phrasing was that?
"I'm nineteen right now, and I'll be twenty soon."
"Nineteen?!"
The girl froze as if she had heard something utterly unbelievable.
Had she misheard? Was it nineteen or twenty-nine?
She swallowed and gathered her courage to confirm it again.
"You... you're twenty-nine this year?"
Ren Yu smiled. Knowing his age was indeed rather unconvincing, he simply admitted it to tease her.
"That's right. If you say I'm twenty-nine, then I'm twenty-nine this year."
Just as he finished speaking, the watch on his wrist gave a faint vibration. Ren Yu glanced down at it and quickly said, "Sorry, I'm short on time, so I need to get going. We can chat again if there's a chance."
As he spoke, he grabbed the handle of his suitcase again, waved with his other hand, and strode away.
Ten minutes later.
Ren Yu arrived outside the so-called "Principal's Office."
At that moment, a delicate girl who looked eleven or twelve years old was lying sprawled across her desk. Dressed in a black nun's habit, with long silver-white hair casually draped over her shoulders, she stared blankly at the clock on the wall.
"Four minutes until work ends... no, I'll be free in three minutes and fifty-six seconds."
A knock suddenly sounded at the door.
Knock... knock knock...
"Who is it?"
Theresa called out instinctively.
Why was someone looking for her at this hour? Could it be that her niece Kiana had gotten herself into trouble again?
"I'm here for the interview we arranged yesterday."
A response immediately came from inside the room.
"Coming. Wait a moment."
Theresa jumped down from her chair and hurried toward the door.
"Come in."
Theresa opened the door and ushered Ren Yu into the office. Once he had entered and taken a seat, she asked curiously, "You're the guy who fought the Honkai Emperor for nine days and nine nights without falling behind?"
"That's me."
Ren Yu admitted it openly.
"Then your fighting skills must be pretty impressive, huh? You're practically on par with Valkyries like us, who rely on Stigmata to fight."
"Mm."
"Later, you'll prove your strength in a simulated battle. Can you do that?"
"Sure."
"Alright, let me find your employment file. I clearly left it here yesterday. Seriously, where did it go...?"
"Okay."
While waiting, Ren Yu casually looked around the office.
—It had a typical Nordic style. There were none of the manga supposedly tossed all over the place, nor were there any of those rumored giant magical girl posters.
It seemed this Theresa was fairly serious after all.
"Phew, finally found it!"
At last, Theresa dug Ren Yu's contract out of the pile of documents.
After giving it a quick scan to confirm there were no problems, she handed the file over and pointed at the signature line.
"Take a look. If everything's fine, sign it."
Ren Yu accepted the contract and quickly read through it. It matched what they had discussed before, except for one small change to the position—his close-combat instructor post had become Assistant Teacher, while only the psychological counselor position was official.
The rest covered benefits, weekends off, and nine-to-five hours. Those had all been agreed upon beforehand, so Ren Yu naturally had no objections.
"No problem."
He smoothly signed his alias in the signature field.
—Yang Chengwen
After taking back the contract and filing it away, Theresa nodded in satisfaction. "I'll find someone to take you to the dorms... Oh, perfect. Kiana, why are you here again? Come help me out!"
Theresa pointed toward the doorway with a fair, delicate finger and shouted loudly.
Kiana?
Ren Yu turned around and saw a girl with two white braids standing at the office entrance.
Kiana looked awkward, her hands hidden behind her back and her head lowered as she stared uneasily at the floor.
"My dearest, dearest, dearest Auntie, can we talk about something?"
Her tone sounded less like she was asking for a favor and more like she was acting cute.
Theresa frowned. Just as she had expected, whenever Kiana came to see her, it was never for anything good.
Last time, she had broken the equipment in the training grounds. What was it this time?
Suppressing her doubts, Theresa tried hard to maintain what little authority she had left. With her hands on her hips, she shouted, "I've told you already, don't call me Auntie at the academy. Call me Principal."
"Come on, what you call me doesn't matter."
Kiana suddenly put on a pitiful expression.
"If you won't help me, Auntie, I'll be demoted to a C-rank Valkyrie and transferred to the logistics unit. I'll never get another chance to go to the battlefield!"
Before you continue