Fire-Moth Academy. It was the very first educational institution established by human civilization after the Great Eruption.
Hearing the name "Fire-Moth," one might assume it was some ultra-elite prep school meant to churn out top-tier operatives—an Ivy League pipeline. But in reality, when the academy was first founded, humanity hadn't yet seen the dazzling hope they possessed today.
The academy's primary function was meant to be a comfort to the adults, and a final, soothing "hypnosis" for the children.
Much like the mother trapped below deck on the Titanic coaxing her two children to sleep, it was fundamentally just a lullaby sung in the face of inevitable doom.
But now, with a genuine future for civilization on the horizon, the next generation's education had finally been put on the agenda. The kids needed a place to grow—and Otto immediately locked his sights onto the Fire-Moth Academy brand.
Yep. Those ultra-elite "stereotypes" generated by the name were exactly what Otto hoped to turn the school into.
That scheming bastard even wanted to exercise his old aristocratic habits, using his authority to parachute in his own handpicked principal to completely take over the school—no doubt to facilitate some future embezzlement or corruption down the line.
Fortunately, Natasha Cioara—one of the absolute founding pillars who joined Fire-Moth at its inception—smacked Otto's little scheme out of the sky. She firmly insisted on taking the position of principal herself.
A school is a sacred place where the future flowers of Fire-Moth would bloom. If these kids grew up under Otto's thumb, Fire-Moth would be utterly doomed.
"Since when did I ever say that?" Natasha sat in her luxurious office, hands steepled beneath her chin as she rested her elbows on a heavily carved, solid mahogany desk. She struck the perfect anime villain pose while uttering the most genuinely bewildered sentence of her life.
"Mmf, that's what Grandpa told me." Theresa dumped an armful of snacks onto the massive desk—wherever Natasha had scavenged it from—then stuffed a steamed bun into her mouth, speaking with surprising clarity despite her full cheeks.
Natasha plucked her own share from the pile of food, took a bite, and fell into deep thought.
It wasn't entirely surprising that Otto would pull a stunt like that, and her refusing him was par for the course. But considering the "handpicked principal" Otto had wanted to parachute in was likely the former principal of Chiba Academy sitting right in front of her... she figured the odds of her actually refusing weren't quite zero.
The whole reason she shot him down in the first place was to personally oversee the safety of these children and ensure they had a healthy environment to grow up in. She couldn't trust Otto as far as she could throw him, but surely she could trust Theresa?
To be blunt: she firmly believed that the moment Otto tried any funny business, Kallen would go berserk and beat the living daylights out of him long before Shu even noticed something was off.
Never underestimate the absolute weight of the saying: Where there is a Kaslana, no filth shall remain!
Especially since, in this timeline, Otto didn't have the luxury of a five-hundred-year head start to amass an overwhelming disparity in resources. Competing on an even playing field against a bunch of Kaslanas? How the hell was he supposed to outmaneuver their supernatural intuition?
Between Kallen, Siegfried, Kiana... and the honorary Kaslana, Theresa—Otto would probably be diced into mincemeat before he even made a move.
"So, what brings you here this time?" Looking at the white-haired brat treating her office like her own living room, Natasha sighed helplessly. There was no way this was a simple visit.
"Ah, it's really nothing much," Theresa said, waving a hand dismissively. "Grandpa just wanted me to attend the opening ceremony. He said the children's loyalty to Fire-Moth needs to be cultivated from a young age..."
"Does he think this is a training camp for child assassins?" Natasha's expression darkened.
Out of everyone in Fire-Moth, Natasha had arguably waded through the deepest darkness. The malice she and her brother had endured could easily be classified as the most horrific torture humanity could inflict upon its own kind.
While Natasha wasn't so completely prejudiced as to blindly hate any scheming aristocrat like Otto right off the bat... sometimes, stereotypes existed for a reason.
Even though she knew Otto's actual intent was simply to instill a proper moral compass in the kids so they would voluntarily uphold this harmonious world—without any actual coercion—this "deliberate shaping" of minds still violently triggered her PTSD.
"Obviously, Grandpa didn't mean it like that." Theresa was genuinely speechless at Otto's abysmal reputation.
He definitely knew Natasha would have a visceral reaction to that exact phrasing, yet he still made Theresa relay the message verbatim... Honestly, Grandpa's whole image was supposed to be the calculating, cold-blooded, iron-fisted mastermind who treated human lives like grass.
Why did it feel like he was just letting his inner internet troll loose more and more these days?
"I know that." Natasha huffed, annoyed but powerless.
At the end of the day, the man was her direct superior; he just happened to have an atrocious personality and a penchant for sick jokes.
Fire-Moth should just fold early, Natasha thought dryly. This organization's future is pitch-black.
"So, what are that guy's actual instructions?" Setting her annoyance aside, Natasha looked at Theresa with genuine curiosity. "Am I finally getting an honorable discharge so you can claim the academy you've always wanted?"
"Don't treat the Principal... uh, don't think of me as the bad guy here!" Theresa puffed out her cheeks and grabbed another steamed bun. "It's just a speech! A single speech."
"You're giving a speech on behalf of Fire-Moth?"
"Yep." Theresa nodded, looking incredibly smug as she casually whipped a rolled-up manuscript out from under her skirt, causing Natasha's eye to twitch. "I prepared for a very long time! I'll definitely leave a profound impression on the students!"
No kidding... Natasha thought. Seeing a pint-sized loli get on stage and speak to them in the tone of a venerated elder is already going to leave an indelible impression.
"Is that all?" Natasha asked, taking the manuscript and skimming through it.
"Oh, one more thing." Theresa raised a finger, looking extremely wise. "Shu and his crew are coming too."
Natasha froze. "...Is Shu... giving a speech too?"
The image her brain conjured up was a little too beautiful. Natasha highly doubted that would end well.
...
"Can I decline?" Shu sat deadpan across from Otto, staring flatly as the man took a slow, languid sip of black tea.
Despite Otto's relaxed facade, the haphazardly stacked files across his desk and the heavy, unhideable dark circles under his eyes made it painfully obvious that the man was hanging on by a thread.
Sure, Otto could steer the future of humanity, and he was more than capable of obsessing over a single person's life and death to the point of madness. But expecting him to micromanage the daily livelihoods, dietary needs, and plumbing of tens of millions of people?
Otto was practically ready to start mass-producing Soulium clones just to handle the paperwork.
He was already daydreaming of retirement and dumping the entire workload onto his precious, adorable granddaughter.
"Of course. Your refusal is exactly the validation we need." Otto took another sip of tea. Frankly, he believed the smartest thing Shu had done so far was poaching Schrödinger from Future City, which single-handedly relieved a massive chunk of his R&D pressure.