A day had passed since my speech at the moot, and the tide among my soldiers had completely turned. Yesterday morning, I issued what was undoubtedly one of the most unexpected orders of their military careers: to march into the outer wilderness, hunt down packs of wild goblins, and process them directly into high-protein meat paste to serve as sustained feed for the crater containment zones.
At first, the knights were visibly stunned, their faces twisting in utter bewilderment. But with a few warm words of encouragement...reminding them that every pound of monster meat harvested meant one less domestic farm animal stolen from Caria's starving refugees...they threw themselves into the task with surprising vigor. Right now, the squad was out in the dense thickets beyond the perimeter, hunting relentlessly to secure our food supply.
I stayed behind in the 8th District to address the final, critical flaw in my operational structure.
My squad still lacked four earth manipulators to raise and maintain the massive stone ramparts around the Lament of Autumn Crater. My initial thought yesterday had been to draft low-ranking Capital Knights from the municipal guard. But that attempt hit an immediate dead end; the entire Capital Knights order fell under the direct jurisdiction of Chief Roman Calico. Since he had already flatly rejected my strategy, borrowing his men through standard administrative channels was completely out of the question.
Yet, as I sat watching the morning sun rise over the fortress walls, a fresh path illuminated itself.
If I negotiate with Nautilus, there is still genuine hope.
Nautilus Cotton was one of my most trusted allies within the Bureau's high command. He was currently serving as the Principal of Caria Mastery Academy and held the official title of Commander of Branch 2, leading the frontlines at the southern borders. Because both of us walked the exact same dual path...serving simultaneously as Bureau Branch Commanders and Academy Principals...we understood each other's burdens far better than anyone else in Caria. We stood in the very same boat, bound by shared responsibility and mutual respect.
If anyone possessed the authority, resources, and vision to grant me student battle-mages or auxiliary earth manipulators without getting bogged down in Roman's bureaucratic resistance, it was Nautilus.
With my wooden staff resting firmly in my right hand, I set out from the military quarter and began the long walk toward the 2nd District.
The morning air in the academic sector was crisp and filled with the distant, rhythmic shouts of academy students undergoing physical combat drills. Massive banners bearing the granite crest of Caria Mastery Academy hung high over the broad stone thoroughfares. As I approached the central gates of the academy, the heavy iron-reinforced doors stood tall and imposing, guarded by elite martial instructors in gray granite armor.
As I walked down the grand stone hallway of the academy toward Nautilus's office, a familiar shock of bright red hair near the registry door caught my eye.
Standing beside an armored academy knight was Aisha...a student I knew very well from my time as Principal at Sisiphon Magic Academy.
Aisha turned, her dark eyes widening in complete shock as she recognized me. "Principal Elicia?! What are you doing here?!"
"Aisha?" I asked, my voice laced with genuine surprise as I stepped closer. "What are you doing here?"
I didn't feel a single shred of anger. Before the outbreak hit, I had officially declared a summer break at Sisiphon to give our young magicians a well-deserved rest. But I certainly hadn't expected to find one of my bright students standing in the registry room of Caria's primary military academy!
Seeing the transfer papers in the knight's hands, the situation became immediately clear.
"Aisha... why are you transferring schools?" I asked gently.
Aisha's hands tightened around the strap of her satchel, her expression turning solemn as she explained. During the summer break, she and her family had traveled to Lulu City for a vacation, only to be caught in the sudden, horrific outbreak of monsters. Her parents didn't make it... but in the chaos, she was rescued by a cold-eyed vanguard who turned out to be my very own little sister, Eirene! Eirene had brought her back to Caria, taken her in, and paid her full four-year tuition right here at Caria Mastery Academy so she could start a new life and grow stronger.
Hearing Eirene's name made my chest swell with a mixture of warmth and sorrow. Even through her cold, distant shell, Ren still reached out to save a helpless child.
"Oh, Aisha..." I murmured, looking down at her with deep compassion. "Are you truly sure you want to transfer here? You know Caria Mastery Academy is a military combat school. It's vastly different from Sisiphon...they focus heavily on physical dominance, marksmanship, and harsh combat drills rather than scholarly spellcasting."
"Yes, Principal Elicia! I'm positive," Aisha replied, her chin lifting with fierce, tearful determination. "I want to repay Eirene for everything she's done for me. She is my benefactor, and I promised her I will become a strong weapon to protect her and her son!"
My heart melted at her sincerity. I reached out and gently brushed a loose strand of red hair from her face, offering her a soft, proud smile.
"Then I wish you the best of luck, Aisha," I said warmly. "Train hard, stay safe, and make us all proud."
I waved at Aisha one last time, watching her march bravely down the hall behind the guard. As her figure vanished, a swirling vortex of confusion and profound realization took hold of my mind.
Why? Why would a monster like her do such a thing?
In my mind's eye, I could almost hear the crisp, hollow clink of those gold coins...the literal blood, sweat, and life of a high-tier bounty hunter. To a person as cold, pragmatic, and unfeeling as Eirene, those resources were her absolute security. Yet, without a single blink, without even a tremor in her fingers, she had handed them straight over to the academy registrar.
All for Aisha. A nameless, shivering orphan girl picked up from the dirt of Lulu City.
Am I dreaming? Is this truly the same Eirene who slaughters without blinking, who views human lives as nothing but grass to be trampled?
My heart hammered violently against my ribs. I knew what she had become. Everyone in high command knew. She walked a path stained with blood and unimaginable violence...a freezing, desolate glacier that crushed everything in its path just to move forward. If you touched her, you would freeze to death; if you crossed her, you would be ground into powder.
But look at her now.
Is a glacier truly devoid of water, or is it merely hiding a life-giving stream deep beneath its frozen crust? Is a venomous scorpion completely incapable of protecting its young, or does it simply strike at the world because the world has never shown it a single shred of mercy?
She is just like a piece of charcoal, a sudden realization struck my mind, making my spirit tremble with a profound, aching pity. Black, ugly, and dirty on the outside. People revile it. People curse it. But when the winter is at its coldest, it consumes its very own body, burning itself to ash just to provide a single spark of warmth to a freezing child!
She had practically drained her immediate wealth. She had cut off her own safety net just so this little girl could have a roof over her head, meals, and a chance to survive at the academy. To the rest of the world, she wanted to appear as a heartless devil. But this act...this absolute, quiet sacrifice...shattered the mask of a monster and revealed the bleeding, lonely soul hiding underneath.
She was a person who had suffered far too much...a person who hated the cruelty of this world so deeply that she chose to bear the infamy entirely alone, all while secretly pulling a child from the very same darkness that had consumed her youth.
The sheer magnitude of her hidden nobility suffocated me. How could I have ever doubted her true nature? How could the world be so blind to her tragic pain?
My knees felt weak, and an intense, unyielding reverence flooded my entire being. If a sister wrapped in such deep, suffocating darkness could still reach out to pull a helpless soul into the light, then what right did I have to be weak? What right did Chief Anton or the Bureau have to call her too cunning or unsentimental?
Lost in my emotional tempest, I turned the corner of the primary hallway. A girl suddenly bumped right into my side.
I stumbled back slightly, catching my balance, and looked over. Standing right in front of me in the middle of the sunlit corridor was a young woman with brown hair, holding a cooing baby tight against her chest. She wore a heavy, dark traveling cloak draped over her shoulders, and slung plainly across her back was the wide, menacing steel barrel of a heavy Death Chant shotgun.
It was Eirene. She was heading toward the main exit, ready to leave the premises.
As our paths crossed, she didn't wave. She didn't hesitate. She looked straight past me with flat, distant eyes, as if I were a complete stranger...or worse, a minor physical obstacle blocking her direct route out of the building.
Before she could brush past me, I reached out and gently grabbed her shoulder.
"Oh, little Ren..." I breathed, my voice thick with emotion. "I didn't see you there."
Eirene stopped in her tracks. She turned her head slowly, looking at my hand on her shoulder and then up at my face, her expression completely expressionless.
"Oh," she said, her voice dropping into her signature, flat deadpan. "Hey, big sister."
I looked down at the tiny bundle in her arms, seeing my nephew face-to-face for the very first time. A fizzy jolt of pure adrenaline rushed through me, and I screeched softly in sheer excitement.
"Aww! Is this baby Cliff?! Look how cute he is! Can I hold him?"
Eirene's eyes narrowed slightly with her usual deep-rooted distrust. She hesitated, calculating for a second before carefully transferring the baby into my arms.
I cradled him gently. Cliff cooed, blinking up at me with big hazel eyes framed by soft tufts of brown hair. He was so impossibly cute I just wanted to squeeze him! With his soft, delicate features, I almost mistook him for a beautiful little baby girl.
I looked back up at Eirene, who was standing there as stoic and deadpan as ever. "Little Ren, don't be so gloomy! Isn't your son the cutest thing in the world?"
"He's definitely cute," Eirene replied, her tone completely flat. "Now give him back. He's a crybaby."
She took him back into her arm...such a blunt response from a mother standing right there, but so entirely like her.
As she adjusted her cloak over Cliff, she looked up at me with sharp, assessing eyes. "Big sister... is your plan actually going to work?"
"Yeah, definitely!" I replied with a bright, confident smile. "It's going really well. We're making solid progress."
Eirene let out a quiet sigh, pulling her hood a little lower over her brow. "Well, if you have any plans of trying to recruit me for your irrational plan, I insist on refusing."
I knew where she stood. She was a single mother who had just drained her remaining gold to pay for Aisha's academy tuition. While her mastery over Blood Manipulation would make her an incredible asset on the field, I would never force her back into a messy battlefield. My conscience wouldn't allow it.
"No," I assured her gently, shaking my head. "I don't have any plans to recruit you, Ren."
"Thank you, big sister," she said softly.
She turned on her heel, preparing to leave down the sunlit corridor. But after taking a couple of steps, she paused and glanced back over her shoulder.
"Big sister... I have something to tell you."
"What is it, little Ren?" I asked, stepping closer.
"I know you're planning to recruit people who possess Divine Regeneration," she said, her voice dropping into a low, serious register.
"Yes, I am," I admitted, tilting my head. "Why do you ask?"
Eirene's eyes darkened for a split second, her deadpan expression tightening into a cold, unyielding warning.
"If you recruit Lara Meyer... do not trust her. Ever."
Without waiting for a response, she turned back toward the archway and walked out of the registry hall.