"Has the fight inside the clothing store ended as well?"
The confusion in Hua's eyes had yet to fade.
Only when two bodies fell from inside the clothing store with two loud thuds did she belatedly come to her senses.
So everything just now had also been part of Vill-V's improvised performance.
It had been done to cooperate with Inori... and assist the shop owner's actions.
Kowloon Stronghold had truly kicked an iron plate this time when collecting rent.
But since they had run into Mad Hatter Party, they had it coming.
Although there was a trace of dissatisfaction in Inori's gaze toward Vill-V, she immediately broke into a bright smile as she moved closer to Hua.
"Senior Hua, it's been a long time! It's been almost half a year since the midterm comprehensive test, right?"
"Uh, hello... you are?"
Hua didn't have much impression of the girl in front of her.
"Oh, right—I'm Inori."
Seeing the two shake hands, Conductor couldn't help but feel sincerely happy for Hua.
For Hua to make new friends within the organization was something worth celebrating.
To be honest, even after sending Hua into St. Freya Academy among peers her own age, Vill-V never expected Hua to take the initiative to interact with others.
With Hua's reserved personality, she would definitely think something like, "Ah, I won't be staying long anyway, better avoid interacting with others as much as possible."
Unless she was given a task—but Vill-V wouldn't force Hua to do something like that.
"Mm," Hua nodded. "I once served as a temporary instructor at St. Freya Academy. Of course, during that time I mainly focused on improving my martial arts. As you know, a martial artist's skills aren't really suited for dealing with Honkai Beasts."
Oh, no wonder Inori knew Hua's family martial arts—she had been guided by Hua before.
As if recalling something amusing, Inori laughed. "Don't say that, Senior Hua. Your family martial arts even made our academy's 'Iron Lady'—Coach Nukas—cry."
Hua scratched the top of her head modestly. "Haha, that's an exaggeration. Coach Nukas just didn't go all out back then."
The more Vill-V listened to their conversation, the more something felt off.
Without needing Inori to elaborate, the socially adept Conductor could already tell how poor Hua's social situation at the academy had been.
So much for thinking Hua had made a new friend—turns out she had caused such a shocking incident that every student at St. Freya Academy now knew her.
Most likely, the coach had asked Hua to demonstrate something... and Hua, without giving the coach any face at all, went all out and unleashed a full-powered inch-force strike in front of the entire school, knocking the coach flat on the ground.
When I spar with you, I hold back—but when you spar with me, you go straight for a finishing blow.
If you lose a normal spar, you'd just admit inferiority. If she hadn't truly felt wronged, why would she cry in front of the students?
Not only had student friendships failed to begin, even relationships with teachers had already capsized.
I really should take Hua around more, let her observe normal interpersonal interactions.
She's probably been influenced by Magician.
"Sigh, I'm not exactly normal myself... at least I'm self-aware. Forget it, I'll have Su guide Hua more in the future."
Thinking about it carefully, among the people she knew, Su might be the only normal one.
Even though Pardo claimed to be an ordinary person, the things she did were anything but ordinary.
"But being able to defeat Coach Nukas at St. Freya Academy, it seems Hua's family martial arts are no simple matter. Unfortunately, they're indeed not very useful against the Honkai."
Coach Nukas was a retired world-class athlete hired by Mad Hatter Party. During her career, she had been renowned worldwide, known as the "Muscle on the Crown."
Because many of St. Freya Academy's students were people she had personally brought back from various Honkai incidents, she willingly stepped back from the front lines to teach them.
When fighting the Honkai, compared to technique, physical qualities like strength, speed, and reaction were far more important.
Rather than teaching techniques, St. Freya Academy was essentially training super soldiers.
Students would undergo cutting-edge technologies such as gene editing, neural modification, and biofeedback systems, increasing muscle density, strengthening bones, and even gaining special abilities—such as basic danger perception.
The younger the age, the better the results.
This was also why most students at St. Freya Academy came from orphanages.
Of course, there was no need to worry about bodily mutations, because all of these were stable solutions already validated in the Three-Body world.
This was also why St. Freya Academy needed to hire athletes as instructors.
Compared to soldiers fighting on the battlefield, these athletes better understood how to stimulate the body's potential and develop physical capabilities through daily training.
Moreover, compared to MOTH directly throwing new recruits into near-certain death against the Honkai to awaken their potential, people found Mad Hatter Party's gentler approach far more acceptable.
There had never been any rule that only by facing life and death could one grow stronger. Time spent on the battlefield was limited, but daily training could continue endlessly—training for a lifetime.
Furthermore, St. Freya Academy's method could grant a kind of strength that MOTH's death-training model never could.
As the academy's philosophy stated: understand what makes the world beautiful.
Through studying and training together, students would find love, hope, companionship, and purpose. Only by possessing these could one's heart become strong enough to face the Honkai.
In contrast, MOTH's death training only showed soldiers coldness and despair. Their hollow hearts were easily exploited by the Honkai.
Power was not everything.
In this regard, Otto and Theresa had done very well.
This was also one of the reasons humanity was able to defeat the Honkai in that era.
If the mindset of the Previous Era were repeated, it would likely still fail to overcome the Honkai.
At best, it would end like Kevin's Project STIGMA—sacrificing the majority to preserve the concept of civilization, lingering on in a dream.
It could be said that the success of Project EMBER, represented by Kiana, was a manifestation of inner strength.
Love could awaken miracles.
The greatest power of humanity came from humanity itself—not from cold, external laws.
This was also the original intention behind Vill-V funding the establishment of St. Freya Academy.
It definitely wasn't because she wanted to see lilies blooming all over the academy.
...
"Let me reintroduce myself."
The beautiful shop owner, who had previously claimed to be an intelligence agent of National Boundary Guardian, lazily sat on the dismantled sofa leather.
She gathered her messy brown hair behind her head, revealing a pair of faintly melancholic eyes beneath.
Her exquisite legs crossed elegantly.
"Liora—Mad Hatter Party's Queen of Hearts. I believe you've heard of me. After all... I'm considered one of the more active cadres within Poker."