3:00 PM.
Two blurred, completely unremarkable figures skulked across the Fire Moth Academy campus, practically oozing suspicion.
Maybe Kiana had just eaten a bit too much of Mei's home cooking lately, because her first meal out in ages hit her like a culinary revelation. The novel flavors were so mind-blowing that she absolutely insisted on packing up extra portions to bring to Mei and Bronya.
"Didn't you just gorge yourself at a buffet in the Space of Delusion?" Shu asked. He trailed behind her, carrying two takeout containers.
Kiana marched ahead like a walking Christmas tree, adorned with no less than seven bags of food, completely ignoring his logic.
"Oh come on, can't it just be that the chef here is really good?"
Shu didn't doubt her taste in food. He just couldn't wrap his head around her thought process. They could have easily waited for Mei to get home, or for Bronya to finish classes, and then gone out to eat together.
Why go out of their way to lug a mountain of takeout straight to the academy?
As a self-proclaimed foodie, didn't Kiana know that food boxed up for an hour completely changed flavor?
Of course she knew. She just wanted an excuse to track down Mei, Bronya, Theresa, Bianka, and whoever else was currently at school.
Otherwise, how on earth were Mei and Bronya supposed to polish off nine boxes of takeout? Clearly, she was just bored out of her mind at home and wanted to crash the squad's day.
What a coincidence. Honestly, he felt the same way—
Ahem. No, he didn't. Absolutely not.
Shu firmly believed his core identity was "shut-in otaku." Actively wanting to go out and hang out with friends felt like a blatant violation of his character setting.
Oh no! I was just keeping Kiana company, but her extroverted energy must have rubbed off on me~ He felt his cheeks flush.
"Hmm... where did Bronya say her classroom was again?" Kiana stood before a campus map, weighed down by her half-dozen takeout bags, scrutinizing the layout.
In truth, the Fire Moth Academy wasn't large.
Compared to those sprawling universities that took up hundreds of acres, this place was roughly the size of an average suburban high school. It was built underground, after all. Space was at a premium, and with a sizable civilian population already settled here, the Fire Moth couldn't expand even if they wanted to.
Otto had initially drafted plans to requisition the entire 9th Underground Floor for the academy's expansion. However, his earlier move—rewarding elite Fire Moth members with residential property on that exact floor—had backfired spectacularly.
Who could have predicted a wild card like the Herrscher of the Past popping up and dropping such a massive surprise right in Otto's lap?
Don't get it twisted—it genuinely was a pleasant surprise. To Otto, the headache of expanding the academy was nothing more than a sweet little nuisance, assuming you ignored the unpaid overtime it required to fix.
You obviously couldn't evict the VIPs who had earned housing on the 9th Floor and shove them into the outer residential zones on the 5th or 6th Floors. Doing so would shatter morale.
Fire Moth's public trust was currently peaking; any higher and it would tip into fanatical cult territory, but a sudden drop in approval would breed endless trouble.
But to expand the academy, those residents had to be relocated.
Where to? The 10th Floor—the same elite tier where Shu and the main crew lived?
Absolutely not. That level was reserved for the founding stakeholders, the absolute core of humanity's resistance. Giving away perks like that was unthinkable. Which meant Otto had to weigh whether an expanded academy was truly worth sacrificing premium 10th-Floor real estate.
Naturally, Otto's capitalist brain quickly found a solution: Why not just merge the housing and the school?
Rebrand them as elite school-district properties!
He'd zone off a specific area on the 9th Floor, consolidate the residents there, and officially declare it an academic housing district. As a perk, their children would receive guaranteed admission quotas to the Fire Moth Academy, along with priority selection for the St. Freya Project if they showed aptitude.
To top it off, he would grant them full property rights—meaning they could rent or sell the houses, and the school admission quotas would transfer with the deed.
Otto refused to believe they wouldn't eat that up.
What? The underground is too dark and shady? Please, human civilization had been plunged into darkness since the Great Eruption. You're living in an apocalyptic bunker—what do you need a Hubble Telescope for?
Besides, these people had bought their homes with hard-earned merit points. If their property values skyrocketed overnight due to a rezoning scheme, wasn't that just striking it rich? It wasn't like this was a life-or-death lottery for a spot in an underground shelter!
After looping the tiny campus twice, Kiana and Shu finally stopped.
They had failed to find the classroom purely because it never occurred to them that the massive, single-story mega-structure in the center of the campus was actually a single classroom.
Having scoured all the normal-looking academic buildings, they found zero trace of Bianka and the others.
The reason they stopped now was because they had spotted a lone target.
Bronya, looking a bit fatigued, was jogging down a nearby path.
The instant she appeared, the duo's eyes locked onto her. Without exchanging a single word, they synced up perfectly, clutching their takeout boxes and tailing her in dead silence.
They didn't even make it two steps.
Bronya abruptly braked. Slipping into a defensive stance, she whipped around and swept the area like a human radar. Her eyes instantly locked onto the two figures, completely bypassing the "Mosquito's Breath" stealth modules they were wearing.
Bronya: Stares—
Shu just stood there holding his boxes, staring back calmly. He was supremely confident he looked entirely natural.
Kiana was a different story. Burdened like a Christmas tree, she had frozen mid-step the moment Bronya turned, caught in a bizarre, hilariously suspicious pose.
Bronya's gaze turned into laser beams, burning a hole straight through Kiana.
"...Kiana?" Bronya finally asked, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Shu just watched in exasperation.
He knew Bronya would figure it out. The fact that she didn't instantly drop a deadpan "Idiot Kiana" meant the disguise had at least caused a sliver of doubt.
Was the stealth module doing all the heavy lifting, or was Kiana's actual disguise not totally useless?
Shu glanced at Kiana, who deflated like a popped balloon in less than a second, and silently looked away.
Yep. As always, Kaslanas were genetically incapable of stealth.
"Whoa! Bronya, how did you recognize me?!" Kiana gasped, genuinely mind-blown. She thought her disguise was flawless. Combined with the stealth gadget, how could a mere Bronya see through it?
Shu: "A mere Bronya?"