Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

Yukinoshita Yukino noticed many unfamiliar faces in St. Freya High School. It seemed a lot of these new arrivals already possessed strong combat abilities.

However, after arriving, they weren't learning how to fight the Honkai, but rather how to handle modern weaponry.

She had never thought she would one day be able to hold such a sophisticated firearm. This thing was powered entirely by Honkai Energy; all one had to do was maintain the flow of energy within the weapon.

'Are they sending us to the battlefield?'

This thought immediately popped into her head.

However, the reality was far more outrageous and nonsensical than Yukinoshita Yukino could have imagined.

Right now, Theresa was discussing a strange "invitation" with Fu Hua and Himeko.

Theresa rubbed her temples, looking up and questioning her forty-plus years of life. She had never encountered anything so ridiculous.

Someone was actually trying to poach talent from Academy City, and they had even targeted her, Theresa.

The gist of it was that a certain resource-rich Middle Eastern country wanted to invite the marginalized St. Freya High School to set up shop there. To do so, they were willing to cede territory and make Theresa the Chairman of the Board of Directors for a Middle Eastern version of Academy City.

The letter's content was basically: 'Join me in restoring the glory of the Crescent Flag, and you shall not want for a noble title. At worst, I'll carve out a piece of land for you to be a king.'

"Why? Don't those people know I used to be the head of Schicksal's Far East Branch?"

Theresa wondered if it was because she had been too low-key, leading these people to not even consider who they were trying to recruit. Although her title as the Far East's vassal lord had been stripped, Academy City hadn't cut a single cent of her income.

Not to mention, Theresa herself didn't care about income or benefits. Otherwise, she wouldn't have used the Far East Branch's money to buy manga for herself.

Every time Himeko caught her, Theresa would cry, "I haven't read a single one of the manga on this wall, I wouldn't dare!"

Then, Himeko would sell the manga for the price of a full collector's edition set.

Later, Theresa developed the unique skill of tearing a thick manga book into shreds in a short amount of time. It was a thick manga book, too; no one knew how Theresa managed it.

"Perhaps they sincerely want you to go and work for them? Look, they even allow you to wear your Schicksal nun's habit and use your Valkyrie battlesuit. Don't you think that's a big step forward?"

Himeko believed the other party had shown great sincerity.

Theresa suspected Himeko was being sarcastic. She did have signs of being marginalized within Academy City, but it wasn't enough to make her give up her happy life to worry about the future fate of the people in the Middle East.

Although the three Abrahamic religions shared a common root, Schicksal didn't bother with such things. After all, she, Theresa, also fought while bearing a cross.

This involved the issue of religious belief, which was absolutely...

'Wait a minute, what the hell do I believe in? My grandpa is the religious leader, how could I be religious? Who becomes a bishop by being religious?'

Theresa felt her head had gone fuzzy for a moment, to even be thinking about this as a religious issue.

"Himeko, but how do I refuse this?" Theresa had actually received more than one such letter. There was even one from their brothers in the Star of David faith, who even claimed to have the support of their Anti-Entropy brothers.

Since when did Anti-Entropy support them? How did Theresa not know her allies were so awesome? Supporting outsiders to poach talent from Academy City?

"Should we hand this over to Overseer Otto, or to the Anti-Entropy Sovereign?" Fu Hua proposed a better idea. At least Otto wouldn't want his granddaughter to suffer in a place like that. And it was even more so for Anti-Entropy. As a large "entertainment" guild organization in North America, it was very reasonable for them to have one or two underlings outside... right?

"Really? Why do I suspect that a big problem will arise if I hand it over?"

Theresa instinctively felt something was wrong. She thought that if she accidentally revealed a tendency to betray, she didn't know if she would be forcibly turned into a little pony by the tentacle monster.

Every time she went to visit Kiana's place, she could see a few little ponies leisurely sunbathing in the backyard, occasionally flicking their tails over each other's bodies in cooperation.

This beautiful scene gave Theresa a huge mental shock. She was truly loyal to Academy City!

"How will you know if you don't try?" Himeko egged on her good friend to test the magnanimity of His Majesty the Emperor of Nagazora. What was wrong with just wanting to watch the drama unfold?

"Why don't you go?" Theresa handed the thing in her hand to Himeko.

Himeko quickly shook her head. "No, no, after all, they didn't invite me to build a new Academy City."

Theresa was even more certain. She handed the thing to Fu Hua and asked in a low voice, "Fu Hua, you can handle this, right? Anyway, you've already become a giant panda, so changing again won't make a difference, right?"

Fu Hua pushed up her glasses, not understanding why Theresa's mind was working so fast at a time like this.

But she had to admit that Theresa had a point. Old Lady Fu Hua honestly took the "invitations."

These things were even sent via the Far East postal service, as if they weren't worried at all about what would happen if they were exposed.

Fu Hua suddenly thought of something and asked, "Do you think, since we received these, that people in other places might have received similar things? Maybe it's not just us here who received this?"

"Think about it, whether they're willing to come or not, just send out the invitation. If one or two are willing to come, wouldn't that be a win?"

Theresa was shocked by Old Lady Fu Hua's line of thought, but after thinking about it carefully, it wasn't without reason.

The Far East had gained so many benefits just by ceding a coastal city. The consumption generated by the construction of Academy City alone was enough for the Far East government to make a fortune. As for whether it would trickle down to the common people of the Far East, that had nothing to do with Academy City.

After all, the Emperor of Academy City was genuinely giving the common people of Academy City sufficient benefits. It was inevitable that Noldrei would have a hard time understanding the long-standing traditions of governance in the Far East.

"No way? I think it's probably... not possible, right?"

Theresa wasn't sure now. She didn't think there would be such foolish people trying to poach talent from Academy City on such a large scale.

Fu Hua considered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "Principal, don't worry for now. I'll go out and investigate the situation. We'll decide how to handle these things after I get back."

With that, Old Lady Fu Hua quickly sprang into action.