"Something has indeed come up."
The conversation between Hua and her father was surprisingly smooth and concise.
After she finished explaining the matter regarding the Schicksal organization, the man on the other end fell silent for a long moment.
Finally, he spoke. "Hua, what are your thoughts on this?"
Hua froze slightly. What were her thoughts? Honestly, that was the very question she had been wrestling with.
For the fourteen years of her life, she had always assumed her future was set: she would inherit the family dojo.
She had trained in martial arts under her father since she was a child, and those techniques—along with the discipline they required—were rooted deep within her soul.
It was precisely because of this lifelong dedication that she felt so lost when her father told her he didn't want her to inherit the school.
He had sent her to Sapphire City to study, hoping she would find a new purpose in a fresh environment.
But between her ingrained training habits and even her choice of dress, she felt like a relic of the past, utterly out of place in this sleek, modern metropolis.
Her father wanted her to find a new goal, but she couldn't even manage to find a new friend.
Inexplicably, Hua thought of the sense of familiarity she felt when looking at Durandal. It was like looking into a mirror.
The only difference was the steady, unwavering light in the other woman's eyes.
Perhaps... this was the spark she needed to find that new goal.
"Father, I want to join Schicksal," Hua heard herself say into the receiver.
The man on the other end let out a soft sigh. "Hua, could you give the phone to the person in charge of Schicksal? I have a few words for her."
"Of course."
After a brief hesitation, Hua walked over to Durandal and handed her the phone. From Hua's expression alone, Durandal already knew the score. She took the device and began a quiet conversation with the girl's father.
Throughout the call, Durandal listened with patient grace. At the end, she simply replied, "Rest assured, sir. I will look after Hua."
With that, Durandal handed the phone back. After a few final words with her father, Hua hung up.
"My father... what did he say to you?" Hua asked, biting her lip.
Durandal shook her head. "I made a promise to your father. Until you meet the conditions he and I agreed upon, I can't tell you the details of our conversation."
"I see." Hua nodded. That certainly sounded like her father's usual way of doing things.
Durandal turned her gaze toward both Hua and Carole. "So, Miss Hua, Miss Carole—what is your decision?"
The two girls shared a look before answering in unison, "We're in."
"Excellent. Welcome to the fold. Welcome to Schicksal."
Durandal nodded with satisfaction. She then stepped into the adjacent room, requesting the school administration to summon the rest of the candidates she had scouted to the office.
The process repeated itself, and in the end, every single one of them chose to join. Including Hua and Carole, Durandal had recruited twelve fresh faces from Sapphire City High School alone.
Himeko, watching this unfold, couldn't help but feel skeptical. In her mind, Schicksal should have been aiming for an elite, small-scale force.
But if they took twelve people from just one high school—and there were still nine more high schools and two universities to go—they'd have over a hundred recruits from Sapphire City alone.
That was practically the size of a full company.
Had she read the situation wrong? Himeko wondered. Does Schicksal intend to build a massive, structured army just like Fire Moth?
As they left Sapphire City High and headed toward the next school, Himeko voiced her doubts.
"First of all, Sapphire City High is an exception," Durandal explained.
"It's a top-tier school. The students there are either academic geniuses or possess unique talents. Out of a school like that, I only hand-picked twelve; that's actually a very high bar."
"In other schools, we'll be lucky to find two or three who meet that same standard. The final numbers for Schicksal will be much smaller than you're imagining."
She continued, "Secondly, Schicksal is indeed focusing on an elite path. But 'elite' doesn't just mean few in number; it means superior in quality. Give it another two weeks. Once our engineer finishes her current project, Himeko, you'll see exactly how we equip an elite soldier."
Durandal hadn't even factored in Mobius's research yet.
Just the batch of armor and weaponry Vill-V was crafting would be enough to kit out a soldier with combat power rivaling the B-Rank Valkyries of her memory.
While much of this was thanks to Vill-V's sheer genius, it was also bolstered by the future Schicksal technology Durandal had brought back from fifty thousand years in the future.
The Bright Knight: Excelsis armor, for instance, was a fourth-generation Godsbane Suit. It was the culmination of three previous iterations of hard-won experience against the Honkai.
With a master of engineering like Vill-V handling the mass production, the result was bound to be a case where the whole was far greater than the sum of its parts.
In fact, Durandal was confident that the equipment alone would be enough to tempt Himeko and Dystopia away from Fire Moth.
After all, Fire Moth didn't seem to have incredibly strict rules about members leaving—she recalled that Kosma had quit once before.
Of course, it was unlikely that Fire Moth would just let people leave without a fuss, or leave Schicksal alone entirely.
But having decided to poach from their ranks—and having already succeeded more than once—Durandal had nothing to fear.
Besides, even if she hadn't done any of this, the mere existence of another organization dedicated to fighting the Honkai would be enough to make certain factions within Fire Moth restless.
Since a conflict was inevitable anyway, Durandal didn't mind if the friction turned into a full-blown spark.
It would be for the best if those within Fire Moth who weren't focused on the Honkai showed their hands all at once. That way, she could clean house in one fell swoop.
A true angler never goes home empty-handed, she thought, though technically her only experience with "fishing" was in video games.
Himeko arched an eyebrow. "Is that so? Then I'll look forward to seeing it."
Truthfully, Himeko remained unimpressed. Fire Moth had already gathered a massive pool of elite researchers working day and night to develop anti-Honkai gear.
Even so, the equipment for their rank-and-file soldiers was mediocre at best; only specialized squads like theirs had gear that was even remotely passable.
She found it hard to believe that Schicksal—an organization less than two months old with barely a handful of members—could produce anything superior to what Fire Moth had to offer.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.