Humans are in chaos, despicable outsiders.

The gray cat, nestled peacefully in the girl's arms, lay curled up on her chest, its emerald-like eyes narrowed into slits, seemingly quite content.

"So, new guest, how should I address you?" the blue-haired woman asked the girl, maintaining her gentle smile.

"Snow, just call me Snow."

"Snow...snowflake, that's a nice name," the blue-haired woman nodded approvingly.

"So you must be the Miss Aria that Himeko mentioned?" Snow asked the woman before him, his tone precise.

"You should call her Aria-neechan~ Oh, so Himeko brought you here. Hmm...would you like something to drink?" Aria handed over a menu.

"Uh... a macchiato, perhaps?" Snow looked at the numerous varieties and, based on his past memories, chose a coffee that leaned more towards a sweeter flavor.

"Macchiato? I understand." With a warm smile, Aria lowered her head and began to work.

The freshly ground coffee was mixed with milk, topped with a layer of freshly whipped milk foam, and drizzled with caramel syrup. The caramel syrup created a grid-like pattern on the rim of the cup, and soon a macchiato was ready in the blue-haired woman's hands.

"Here you are, sir, your macchiato." Aria placed the coffee on the counter and pushed it towards the blonde girl sitting in front of it.

"Hmm...not bad," the girl commented after taking a small sip.

"Thank you for the compliment... Since Little Snow is a guest brought by Himeko... then where is Himeko?" Aria asked, watching the girl sip her coffee.

"Himeko?... She ran into the coffee shop earlier... saying she was here to catch the headmaster who was slacking off... Didn't Aria-nee see her?"

The words had barely left his lips when a series of loud crashes and shattering sounds, along with the thud of heavy objects hitting the ground, echoed from the second floor of the coffee shop.

"...Himeko!" The gentle smile on her face crumbled the moment the voice came, and a furious roar echoed throughout the first floor of the coffee shop.

"What a peaceful day, slurp~" Snow sipped his coffee, watching the manager, whose persona had completely crumbled, rush upstairs with a broom, ignoring the escalating commotion upstairs.

"Meow~" The cat lying on her lap echoed the girl's words, rolled over contentedly, and continued to doze off with its eyes half-closed on her thigh.

--

"Miss Aria, I'm so sorry!!!" Snow sat to the side, watching with great interest as Aria scolded the two people, one big and one small, whom she had just dragged down from upstairs. Himeko and Theresa's heads were bowed like defeated roosters.

"In short, slacking off at work is wrong. Dean, have you finished processing your documents? Did you hand them over to your adjutant again?!"

"And you, Himeko, isn't this class time? Don't you feel any remorse for leaving all the students to that kid Fu Hua?"

"That kid Fu Hua..." Snow, who was watching from the sidelines, twisted his expression.

The scolding continued, while the blonde girl licked the last bit of milk foam from her cup. Then, the school bell, signaling the end of lunch break, rang throughout the academy, bringing Miss Arya to the end of her long lecture.

"Alright... I won't talk to you anymore. It's already this late. Let me prepare something for you to eat," the blue-haired woman sighed and returned to the counter.

"Yay, Arya's the best!" Theresa jumped excitedly onto a nearby chair, then met Snow's strange gaze.

"Uh...you're here too?" Theresa said awkwardly, facing the gaze of the blonde girl in front of her.

"...I was here before Manager Aria dragged you and Himeko downstairs."

"Hahaha... Let's not talk about that, let's not talk about that. Snow, what do you think of this place? It's quite nice, isn't it? This is a place I personally chose for Arya." Seeing the situation was turning sour, Theresa quickly changed the subject to preserve her last shred of dignity as the headmistress.

Upon hearing Theresa's question, Arya temporarily stopped what she was doing and looked at Snow with some anticipation.

"Hmm...? The coffee is delicious, the manager is very kind, the cat is adorable... and I didn't realize you had such a keen eye for military matters, Dean?"

"Huh?" Theresa seemed somewhat confused by Snow's final compliment.

"Although Sister Arya's café is exquisitely decorated, it cannot conceal its true nature."

"Hmm... all we need to do is put sandbags here, pour concrete, and add two heavy weapons squads."

"I can block off the entire block," the girl said, squinting as she looked out the window, seemingly assessing the weapon's field of fire.

"...As a permanent fortress on the street...I would give it a perfect score of 100."

"Don't display your weird knowledge in weird places, hey—!" The three remaining people in the shop twitched as they stared at the girl in front of them, who was seriously considering the possibility of turning this place into a bunker.

Chapter Twelve: What does "connections" mean? (hands on hips.jpg)

Inside the coffee shop, a group of people sat at one of the tables, whispering amongst themselves. The once empty shop became lively after the school bell rang at noon.

........

"Then it's settled. Snow, you will join our St. Freya Academy as a part-time student and teaching assistant, and we will help you find any clues about your adoptive father."

"As for your status... I'll apply for an A-rank Valkyrie position for you. As the head of the Far East branch, I certainly have that kind of privilege!" Theresa slammed her hands on the table, stood on her chair, and shouted loudly.

The crowd in the coffee shop fell silent; they seemed to have heard some incredibly exciting news.

The other two of the three at the center of the café looked at the smug headmaster with eyes that seemed to regard him as an idiot.

“Ms. Theresa… I need to remind you… about your statement just now, which included the phrase ‘privileged class’ and ‘the infamous connections’…”

"The whole coffee shop heard it—"

Theresa, standing on the chair, stiffly turned her head; the eyes of the entire world were now focused on her.

"Gah... Oh..." Theresa managed to utter a strange sound from her throat, standing on the chair, abandoning all thought.

"Himeko...we should slip away before the riot at the café buries us both alive..." Snow nudged Himeko Murata with his elbow and whispered.

The red-haired Valkyrie nodded to her companion, pointed to the counter, then to the door. The two looked at Theresa and shook their heads together. Though they had never fought side-by-side before, they now shared a tacit understanding and perfect harmony.

"I'll go pay the bill and cover for you. You go open the door and prepare an escape route. Don't worry about Theresa," Himeko said to Snow with a glance.

"No problem, I'll just draw everyone's attention to the headmaster, then we'll turn around and run away," Snow replied with a look and gesture.

Then the two exchanged a glance and quietly left their seats while Theresa was drawing everyone's attention.

Shop manager Aria quickly and efficiently settled Himeko's bill, then waved goodbye to Snow, who had already quietly made his way to the door. The blonde girl nodded in return.

The gray cat climbed off the warm thigh-high sock and gently placed itself on the floor. It then jolted from the cold floor, its bewildered and disgruntled emerald eyes opening as it surveyed the café's surroundings.

A short, white-haired man stood frozen in his seat, while the rest of the café crowd resembled an old-fashioned movie projector cassette. The cat's little brain raced, and she gradually came to understand everything.

The gray cat crouched on the ground, raised its paw, and waved goodbye to the blonde girl at the door, then—

"Meow—!" A sharp meow brought the cassette café back to its broadcast.

And the devil's words coming from the doorway

"The Dean didn't bring Judas with him today—"

The coffee shop was in chaos.

"Dean! You just mentioned applying directly for an A-rank Valkyrie qualification! Who is so lucky?!" This was a Valkyrie eager for promotion.

"Ms. Theresa! What do you think of your own behavior as the granddaughter of Archbishop Otto, and the wanton actions of the privileged class of Destiny?" This was the question posed by a trainee reporter from the academy's newspaper, who never missed an opportunity to stir up trouble.

"Tereri! I'm your biggest fan!" Hmm... please ignore this... uh? A naive and innocent girl (age) who is actually 40 years old but is captivated by Theresa's cute appearance?

"Whoa! Don't come any closer!" Oh, this is Theresa.

--

"Hopefully everyone is alright" *2

The two who had made a lightning-fast escape from the coffee shop looked back at the nearly chaotic scene behind them, clasped their hands together, and said in unison, then exchanged a knowing smile, their eyes revealing undisguised schadenfreude.

"But speaking of which, is an A-rank Valkyrie appropriate...? It's almost like parachuting someone into a company who's never even met the management..." The girl's smile faded, and she touched her chin with her right hand, asking her companion uncertainly.

"What's inappropriate about it? Purely based on your achievements and strength, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to classify you as S-rank. Besides, Theresa also said that you're practically a student; you can learn the knowledge about Honkai needed by the Valkyries at the academy."

"Of course, the academic courses offered in regular academies also exist at St. Freya, so don't even think about skipping them."

"Uh... what's there to run away from?" Snow asked Himeko Murata, whose expression was somewhat mocking.

"Ahem, remember Kiana? Theresa is her aunt. When the headmaster first invited her to join St. Freya, she was dreaming of not having to take those academic classes anymore..."

"And then when Kiana saw the class schedule after officially enrolling, her face turned green...right?" Snow picked up where Himeko left off, drawing the conclusion she had anticipated.

"...No."

"Oh? Well, her determination is quite commendable," Snow nodded.

"No, I mean... the moment that brat saw the class schedule, she picked up Raiden Mei and rushed towards the academy gate, shouting something like, 'Mei, let's elope!'... and kicked the gate open..."

"Uh...as expected of her...and then?"

"And then? Then Theresa brought her back bound like Judas... and incidentally, she had all her allowance for the month taken away..."

"Tut tsk tsk..."

"So, back to the main point, you don't need to worry so much. Snow—the A-rank Valkyrie assessment is an evaluation of a Schicksal Valkyrie's strength and achievements in all aspects, and your defeat of a Herrscher in Changkong City was witnessed by the entire crew at the time."

"Although Theresa suppressed the matter and did not report the true situation to the Schicksal Council, the official Valkyries of the Far East Branch certainly will not have any objections to you."

"Under normal circumstances, the final review stage at the Destiny Headquarters wouldn't be a problem for Theresa. Although Archbishop Otto wasn't to Theresa's liking, he himself doted on her."

"Furthermore, Snow, if I may be so bold, based on the information I've gathered, your adoptive father's identity points to those cardinals of the Council of Destiny... although I don't know exactly who it is, it's highly likely to be one of them."

"Your application for direct admission was processed without any obstacles..."

"My adoptive father is a high-ranking member of Schicksal? Hmm... that's a reasonable deduction, but whenever I try to recall his appearance, my memory becomes very blurry..."

"...So even if you stood right in front of me, I probably wouldn't be able to recognize you."

[My memories have been tampered with... In a way, Father, your actions are really unpleasant....]

"If I see you again, I'll give you a good beating first, without mercy." Snow's face darkened.

"It's alright, there are always pitfalls along the way, but you'll find the answer eventually. Besides, your adoptive father told you that you would meet again. You're in Destiny now, so you'll have a chance to meet again someday," Himeko comforted the blonde girl whose face had turned somber.

"Um... thank you, Himeko."

Hmm... I think I'll give them two beatings!

Chapter Thirteen: The Fire Chasers

The enrollment and onboarding procedures were not complicated. Having successfully slipped away from the crowd, Theresa awkwardly made her way back to the dean's office. The two who had arrived earlier had already filled out their application forms and were waiting for the dean's return to stamp the two thin application forms.

"You two! You actually abandoned your dean and left! Is this outrageous?! This is the river!"

"If Theresa hadn't gotten carried away and jumped onto the chair and yelled—ignoring the almost packed cafe during lunch break...that would have been pretty unbecoming," Himeko said, adopting a serious, apologetic expression before drawing her conclusion.

"Himeko, you!"

“Indeed, according to universal reason.” Snow stood beside Himeko and nodded solemnly.