"Haah~" A puff of hot air, tinged with the scent of alcohol, escaped from her crimson-painted lips. A white mist formed in the cold air. Murata Himeko, wearing a red leather jacket given to her by Theresa, rested her chin on her hands and leaned against the balcony, watching the fireworks that occasionally bloomed in the night sky.
"Boom! Boom!" In the black night sky, fireworks with trails of flame shot up and then exploded, blooming into colorful displays that lit up the dark world, their light fading in an instant...
"Clang! Clang!~" Murata Himeko casually tossed the empty beer bottle in her hand to the ground. The metal can clinked against the ground, and the sound of Christmas carols drifted on the Christmas Eve air...
"Phew~" Murata Himeko fumbled in her clothes and pulled out a ladies' cigarette. The lighter in her left hand sparked with a 'click', lighting the cigarette she held between her lips. The glowing tip of the cigarette brightened and dimmed on the somewhat dark rooftop...
"Himeko... didn't I tell you to smoke less?" Theresa, holding a drink and sipping it, said as she looked at Himeko's somewhat lonely back.
"You know your body can't hold on for much longer..."
"Don't worry, I won't die before I find that man..." Murata Himeko said with her eyes half-open. However, she still tossed the still-burning cigarette aside. The burning butt traced an arc in the night before landing in a snowdrift in the bushes below...
"Sigh~" Theresa sighed softly. There was nothing she could do to persuade her... After all, those were living, breathing lives that had died senselessly at that person's hands, with only Himeko luckily surviving... To see one's comrades and sisters die before one's eyes—this was a blood feud...
"Don't worry, the organization will find new Stigmata samples for you and do its best to compensate for the deficiencies of the Artificial Stigmata to extend your life..." Theresa could only say this.
"I know...." Himeko lifted her head to look at the moon, the only source of light in the night sky, and said softly. ".I also want to live to see the day when the Honkai is completely eliminated......"
"......" The two of them watched the fireworks crisscrossing the distant sky, silent...
"Hey... Principal, to be honest, before I met that kid Li Xuan, I never thought there would be a male Stigmata wielder in this world," Murata Himeko said in a slightly shocked tone.
"Indeed... I never thought that besides disappearing or becoming a Herrscher, men could also awaken Stigmata in the Honkai," Theresa also said with some surprise.
"By the way..." Theresa suddenly changed the subject, nudging Himeko's slender waist with her elbow and saying teasingly, "You, this bombshell of a thirsty woman, are always clamoring for a man. Haven't you made a move on that kid Li Xuan?"
"......" Murata Himeko was slightly taken aback, and she looked up at the sky, her eyes a little moist. "Sigh~"
"I did..." she admitted frankly. ".But the women around Li Xuan are too formidable, especially that maid... I couldn't even launch a night raid... I almost lost my life."
"Tsk tsk~ A night raid... As an instructor, you're really going all out to escape singlehood~" Theresa said, looking at Himeko with an unreadable expression.
"...At least I'm better than that cute, foolish niece of yours, Kiana," Murata Himeko retorted without backing down. ".Look... she's hugging that girl Mei again."
"......" Theresa didn't turn around. She was speechless... Who knew what Kiana had experienced during her years of wandering to become such a perverted, obsessed yuri fan... And she had even fallen for the Third Herrscher, Raiden Mei. Fortunately, as the commander of the Far East Branch, she had managed to keep this matter from being exposed...
"It's all Kiana's dad, Siegfried's, fault!...." Theresa muttered. "He didn't teach his daughter properly..."
"......" Murata Himeko leaned down to look at the distant starry sky and said as if to herself, "If only... there were no Honkai in the world..."
"I would have just become an ordinary scientist..."
"Alright, alright~ You're already an old woman, don't be so melancholic on Christmas. Come in quickly and help me carry Kiana and the others back to their rooms..."
"Li Xuan has already been carried back by his maid, Liv, and those two kids, Yae Sakura and Yaoye, have also gone back... Hurry up and tidy up the room and go to bed. You have morning classes tomorrow!" Theresa stood by the French window, waving the bitter melon juice in her hand as she called out.
"Oh~ I know..." Himeko rubbed her red hair, which was tied up in a bun, and replied, walking towards the warm room.
"......" She suddenly stopped and looked sharply towards the woods next to the balcony... but there was nothing in sight. "Was I seeing things?...."
"Hmph..." Himeko glanced one last time at the lights and singing coming from the school dormitory and said softly with a self-deprecating tone, "Christmas, Christmas, the festival of God's birth... We Valkyries celebrate this day of God's coming..."
".But we also use our lives to resist the will of 'God' (Honkai) in every possible way... How ironic."
"Clack, clack..." The sound of high heels on the cold floor faded into the distance as Himeko reached out, closed the French window, and entered the room to help Theresa clean up the aftermath of the Christmas celebration.
Outside the balcony, snowflakes drifted down from the sky, and the Christmas carols in the distance could still be heard.
"Rustle~" The tall tree near the balcony rustled slightly.
"I'm sorry... Himeko..." a male voice said softly from within. A hooded man gently leaped down from the tree. He seemed to glide down, his body strangely suspended in the air just before touching the ground, and then he silently moved away.
Under the bright moonlight, the snowflakes continued to fall, piling up into white mounds. On this day, people celebrated Christmas with hope in their hearts...
Merry Christmas...
(End of Chapter)