The warm midday winter sun shone into the principal's office at St. Freya High School, casting mottled patterns of golden light on the marble floor... The curtains by the window fluttered from time to time because Adjutant Yuudachi had opened the window for ventilation...
In the principal's office of St. Freya High School, Principal Theresa sat at her desk with a frown on her delicate face, reading a report. On the living room sofa in front of her desk, Li Xuan and the others sat listlessly, like fish on a chopping block...
"So, the Honkai energy reaction was caused by the Honkai Beast Egg that you, Li Xuan, secretly brought into the academy, hatching... is that right?!" Theresa summarized the incident in one breath.
"Hmph~" She sighed softly, seeming a little thirsty. She picked up the teacup in front of her, took a small sip to moisten her throat, and then continued her lecture with wide eyes.
"Do you have any idea... how much trouble I went through to quell this incident?!" Theresa said with some emotion. "Not only did I have to suppress the rumors about this incident, but also deal with some miscellaneous damages..." Theresa paused, her expression becoming a bit lifeless...
"And... at that time, because of an accidental power outage, the geeks in the St. Freya High School science department who were playing ranked matches in [Honkai Alliance] got disconnected..."
"Now, the geeks in the science department are writing 2,000-word petitions every day demanding severe punishment for the culprit who caused the Honkai reaction..." Theresa said helplessly. "I finally managed to suppress it..."
'Otakus are truly disgusting...' Theresa thought to herself, picking up her teacup again for another sip.
"So... Classmate Li Xuan, do you know how much trouble you've caused..." Theresa said, looking at Li Xuan with the gaze of an elder caring for a junior.
.…. Li Xuan kept his mouth shut. This was the time to play dumb...
.…. Liv and Yaoye, sitting on either side of Li Xuan, also didn't dare to speak.
"...Don't you think you should say something, Classmate Li Xuan?" Theresa said, looking speechlessly at Li Xuan, who was intent on playing mute.
"..." Li Xuan was taken aback for a moment, then opened his mouth and said, "Sorry for the trouble, Principal Theresa..."
"Hmph~" Theresa crossed her arms, puffed out her cheeks, and leaned back in her leather office chair with a tsundere snort. With her eyes closed, she said in a textbook tsundere manner, "It's not like I did this because I like you, Classmate Li Xuan!"
.…. You already said it.... Li Xuan thought to himself.
"But, thankfully..." Theresa seemed to have lingering fears. "After inspection, that Honkai Beast isn't a pure Honkai Beast... but a creature similar to a Familiar... It actually has a Familiar Core inside!" Theresa said in amazement. She felt like no one around Li Xuan was normal....
Li Xuan's Familiar is bigger than a normal one, and the Honkai Beast hatched at home isn't a Honkai Beast but a creature similar to a Familiar...
"Fortunately... otherwise, just the crime of secretly bringing a dangerous creature like a Honkai Beast into the academy would have been enough to get you in serious trouble..." Theresa said with a sigh. If Li Xuan had really done that... the lightest punishment would be a major demerit, and the heaviest would be expulsion... After all, even the principal couldn't completely cover things up at the academy.
"Then, is it okay?..." Yaoye, seemingly still afraid of strangers, tugged on Li Xuan's sleeve, poked her head out, and asked Theresa hopefully.
".Rest assured, child... it's fine." Theresa said, looking with interest at the certain golden-haired loli hiding behind Li Xuan. "Yuudachi... go get that Honkai Beast~" Theresa turned and said to her adjutant, Yuudachi, who was standing beside her.
"Yes..." Yuudachi glanced at Li Xuan and the others, blushed, nodded, and walked out.
"By the way... Principal Theresa." Li Xuan raised his head and looked at Theresa. "There's something I'm not sure if I should say..."
"What is it?" Theresa stirred the milk tea in her cup with a small spoon and said, confused, "Go ahead..."
"When are you going to return the ten thousand Honkai energy Crystals you owe me?..." Li Xuan asked Theresa with an innocent look. He was really short on Crystals recently... It had been a long time since he'd made a wish...
"Pfft!" Theresa, who had just taken a sip of her milk tea, nearly spat it all out.
"Ahem... About that, I'll give it to you in a few days... Haha~" Theresa said with a guilty laugh. Ten thousand... No choice, I guess I'll have to do *that*...
"Principal... I've brought it." Yuudachi was holding a small cage. Inside was the Honkai Beast, curled up in a ball, looking wilted and nothing like its previous sacred and noble self...
"Squeaky!" Yaoye was the first to jump out, snatching the small cage into her arms and looking at the Honkai Beast inside with pity...
"Squeak squeak~" The Honkai Beast in the small cage seemed to hear Yaoye's call and let out a cheerful cry. The wings covering its body instantly broke open the small wooden cage, and it stretched its body and floated in mid-air, shimmering with a golden glow...
"Squeaky?!" Li Xuan looked at the happy Yaoye hugging the Honkai Beast, and asked in confusion, "Yaoye, did you name it?"
"Yes! Squeaky, who goes squeak squeak!~" Yaoye said with a gentle smile, her eyes narrowed.
"By the way... Yuudachi, where did you find that cage? It broke so easily?!" Theresa asked in a low voice from the side.
"No, I didn't find it..." Yuudachi immediately waved her hands to deny it. "The people from the science department thought this Honkai Beast had no aggressive tendencies, so they just found a pile of branches and made a cage on the spot..."
.…. Cas-casually... Theresa's eyes widened in disbelief. The geeks in the science department really lived up to their name as tech otakus... Making a cage on the spot... Well, she did remember a guy from the science department named Liu Wei who had even made a 1:1 scale figure by himself...
"Ahem... Principal Theresa, we've troubled you enough... Yaoye and I will be leaving now..." Seeing that Yaoye had gotten their Honkai Beast back, Li Xuan planned to go home quickly. To be honest, he was still a bit shaken today... He was just peacefully watching a Honkai Beast's birth... only to have the door kicked open by a group of heavily armed Valkyries pointing guns at him...
"Go on, go on..." Theresa waved her hand, not caring about Li Xuan and the others' hasty retreat. Instead, she sat down, feeling a bit unwell, her small body sinking into the leather office chair.
"My head is starting to hurt again..." Theresa said helplessly, rubbing her temples.
"Principal... The medical department said that your headache is because you received a lot of memories along with the power of the 'Stigmata'. It should be fine after a few days of rest..." Yuudachi said considerately.
"Mm... [Memories of the Stigmata]..." Theresa closed her eyes slightly, and a blurry figure seemed to appear before them...
'It seems I'll have to go to that place after all...' The sunlight shone on Theresa's snow-white hair as she closed her eyes, making her delicate face look even more fair and lovely...
(End of this chapter)