A day passed quickly, and night began to envelop St. Freya High School... The streetlights on both sides of the academy's paths lit up one by one, emitting a hazy yet bright glow...
Most of the buildings in the academy had already turned off their lights... The day's classes had ended early, and even the most important 'Infinite Abyss' preliminary selection was over... This seemingly cruel preliminary selection, after one round, had simply and brutally eliminated the 400 students down to just over 20...
After all, even small groups would eventually face a shortage of points... Each person needed 10 points, and small groups with uneven distribution or insufficient strength naturally started to have internal strife... Of course, the students were still classmates, so no major problems arose...
Although the preliminary selection had some flaws in its mechanism, it ensured that those who stood out all possessed a certain level of strength... Even in a small group, the leader naturally had some skills... otherwise, how could they command respect?!
"Cheers! []~(￣▽￣)~*" Theresa was the first to raise her glass, standing up from her seat cushion with a grin.
"Ooh ooh ooh!~~" Everyone else followed suit, raising their glasses filled with juice and cheering loudly. Under the bright lights of the room, everyone was happy, and even Bronya showed a hint of a smile through her glasses.
"Congratulations to everyone for advancing!~" Theresa said excitedly, downing the bitter melon juice in her cup in one gulp. To be able to advance safely from among more than 400 students also meant, in a way, that the children before her were truly outstanding.
"Great-Auntie, why are you drinking bitter melon juice again?" Kiana looked at the little bit of green juice left in Theresa's cup with a mixture of confusion and fear... She had been tricked by Theresa into drinking this stuff once before...
"Hehe! It's delicious... Kiana, want some?" Theresa picked up a brown bottle and poured some more bitter melon juice into it, offering it to Kiana.
"No, no thanks!" Kiana refused Theresa's offer without hesitation, firmly stating that she would never drink that disgustingly bitter beverage!
"Principal Theresa, could you reveal something about tomorrow's competition..." Li Xuan, who had picked up his teacup and taken a light sip of juice, softly asked the playful Theresa.
"Hehe~ I didn't expect that you, Li Xuan, would actually revive Miss Yae Sakura..." Theresa said, completely off-topic. Her gaze lightly swept over Yae Sakura, who was sitting gracefully beside Li Xuan with her long, sakura-colored hair. Her expression was somewhat complicated, and she felt a slightly sour feeling in her heart... as if something had been snatched away...
'How nice...' Theresa sighed from the bottom of her heart. She had only felt this kind of complicated emotion before when Cecilia married Siegfried...
"I'll be in your care from now on, Principal..." Yae Sakura said softly with a smile and a slight bow. The strands of pink hair that fell as she bowed and her sun-like smile made everyone naturally want to get closer to her...
"..." Theresa stared blankly at Yae Sakura's smiling face, her mind suddenly going blank... Countless fragments of light and images flashed before her eyes like hallucinations...
"Great-Auntie! Have you gone stupid?" Kiana's carefree pat brought Theresa back to her senses.
"....Kiana, you little rascal, don't be so rude!" After a brief moment of silence to compose herself, Theresa suddenly got angry and patted Kiana on the head, saying, "What 'Great-Auntie'?!"
"Ahem... Um, Miss Yae Sakura, we naturally welcome you..." Theresa turned her head and glanced at Yae Sakura somewhat shyly. She lowered her head, took a deep breath, and then revealed a smile.
"Alright! I'll be merciful and reveal a little about tomorrow's competition..." Theresa tilted her head back and drank the rest of the bitter melon juice, saying.
"Actually..." Theresa paused, letting everyone's eyes focus on her before saying mysteriously, "Today's competition doesn't even count as the 'Infinite Abyss'!"
"The so-called Infinite Abyss... is not about students fighting each other..."
"St. Freya High School is a place to fight against the Honkai, not a place for humans to kill each other... So... the real challenge in the 'Infinite Abyss' is to fight against the [Honkai]~" Theresa said with an air of wisdom, picking up a piece of food with her chopsticks and putting it into her small mouth.
"So... you'd better be prepared for a tough fight," Theresa said with a hint of slyness. "If you're not careful... you might 'die'!~"
"Die?!..." Everyone was stunned... A competition could actually be life-threatening?! That's too much of an exaggeration, isn't it?
Perhaps because of the words Principal Theresa had intentionally or unintentionally said, the whole small gathering became somewhat heavy... Only Theresa, Kiana, and Murata Himeko continued to eat and drink without a care in the world. Mei, Li Xuan, and the others frowned with some strange confusion...
"By the way, Li Xuan... there's something I want to talk to you about..." As the party was about to end, Theresa, letting out a burp, suddenly stood up and walked towards the door. She turned and said to a bewildered Li Xuan.
"Oh, okay..." Although Li Xuan didn't know why he was being singled out, he obediently followed Theresa. After all, she was the big boss...
"..." Unlike the brightly lit interior, the corridor outside was much dimmer. Theresa leaned against the wall, looking at the twinkling stars in the night sky, somewhat silent.
"Principal Theresa, what did you want to see me about?" Because of the slight chill of the night, Li Xuan had his hands in his pockets and asked the leaning Theresa with some confusion.
"...There's something I think I should tell you." Theresa turned her head, her pair of azure eyes staring intently at Li Xuan as she slowly began to speak. "...Kiana is very strong."
"Huh?!" Li Xuan was stunned. He completely didn't understand what Theresa meant... After saying this out of the blue, Theresa immediately turned and walked back into the room.
Just as Theresa passed by Li Xuan and was about to step inside, she reached out her small hand and forcefully pinched the soft flesh of Li Xuan's waist, whispering with a slight threat, "Treat Yae Sakura well... Don't let her down again."
"..." Li Xuan thought for a moment in silence, then couldn't help but reveal a smile... He faced the floor, which had turned silvery-white from the moonlight, and said as if talking to himself in the empty corridor, "But of course..."
Unlike the slightly chilly corridor outside, inside the room, Kiana was hugging Mei and begging to be fed, Yae Sakura was helping Yaoye get some food at her request, Liv was pouring juice for Bronya with a smile, and Theresa was being forced to drink a glass of beer by a slightly tipsy Himeko under a futile struggle...
The full moon, hanging high in the night sky, quietly sprinkles down its eternally pure moonlight...
(End of Chapter)