Narrowed irises.

  Cold sweat.

  Trembling pupils.

  A tell-tale sign of ay attacks. Aleph had seen it way too many times during his tenure as a soldier.

  ‘It’s the worst…’

  The girl’s dition was akin to a soldier who was the only one who survived. Not only would there be survivuilt, the post-traumatic stress disorder atop other things would make things worse.

  “Fu…”

  ‘That’ll take a while… to calm down.’

  It was the first time he directly ied with someone like her. It made him recall numerous memories buried in his mind.

  “I think we haven’t had mutrodu. I am Aleph, a staff member of Fire MOTH.”

  “...Fire MOTH?”

  “Yes. We set out the moment the major eruption began, but…”

  Aleph chose not to tihis topic further. He sat down on the chair.

  “What’s your name?”

  “...Kira.”

  Aleph came to a brief pause.

  ‘If there were MEI and HIMEKO, I shouldn’t be surprised there’s a KIRA…’

  “Alright, Kira. Are you feeling something wrong?”

  “...Have you… seen someone else around me?”

  Kira replied back with a question. It made Aleph pause until he made a decision.

  “Yes. It ecial undead with a scythe. There are also other corpses beside her.”

  “...I see.”

  A moment of silence swept over them.

  “You should think of your future first. Be it joining Fire MOTH… or returning as a civilian. Fire MOTH offers pensation to those rescued within the major eruption area.”

  He paused momentarily before tinuing:

  “There’s currently a projebsp;about to be announced outside. Your honkai resistahat is, your capability to resist turning into an undead, is indisputably high. You sider enlisting in Fire MOTH.”

  Aleph saw many examples of soldiers filled with post-traumatic stress disorder, more so civilians who got caught in the war. Most of the time, if they were sent to return to their normal lives…

  More than half either its a crime ives up their life.

  This problem articurly worsened inside Fire MOTH. A psych check-up doesn’t suffice when it es to experieng honkai beasts, undeads, and the likes. It was far worse than the wars of his previous life.

  It was the reason h periodically checks Kevin’s and Hua’s ditions. Even Major Himeko’s situation was ily passed onto him by the tter.

  “I… Which division do you belong to?”

  “Me? I’m from the researstitutes… but I work on the frontlioo.”

  Upon hearing Aleph’s words, the girl had seemingly made up her choice. Still, she chose to dey it. The amount of information she processed today surpassed what she could uand.

  “I will think about it.”

  *****

  The lounge on the fifth institute’s lounge opened.

  “You don’t o rush like this.”

  “I flew here as fast as I could.” Mei reasoned out to Aleph’s . “We o talk about that herrscher.”

  “About that…”

  Mei sat down as Aleph began narrating the series of events. That included how he judged her as someoh a bit of humanity, their battle, and how it ended.

  Ring-!

  The cup of coffee on the coffee maker was finished. Aleph poured out a cup and pced it into a saucer.

  “Here. You haven’t had any sleep for aire day now.”

  “Thanks.”

  Mei naturally took it from him. She watched him sit down before she noticed something.

  “Your hair…”

  “Hm..? Oh, that’s right. It grew longer.”

  Currently, his former bck hair turned into a subtle shade of dark blue. It was at his shoulder’s length. It matched with the purple irises he has.

  “I don’t recall it being blue.”

  “Well… I fot to expin this to you.”

  Aleph reted the things he told Vill-V and Mobius the moment they noticed it.

  “I experimented on myself. I’m lucky I fi before the major eruption occurred.”

  “You… what?” Mei fell to a state of disbelief. “Was it Mobius’ influence? She had prior records of experimenting on herself. You are not the type to take risky maneuvers.”

  “I had to… at least, in our current situation.”

  Mei kneh for nearly three years now—the entire duration of their highschool. Aside from his g side, she knew him as someone who articurly cautious. He wouldn’t do something he was extremely sure of doing. That was the basis of her trust in him. Even if he does something ued, she would still trust his decision.

  “Weren’t I able to fight against a herrscher alohat’s a huge improvement pared to before.”

  “...”

  Mei did not refute him.

  “...It didn’t have any bad effects. After the first surgery, I thought I would be able to go further. It only partially succeeded…”

  Aleph tinued expining his deal with [Albion’s Remains]. He didn’t hide anything except for the in of what he put onto himself.

  She could only sigh after hearing everything.

  “What do you think of the herrscher?” She asked.

  “To be ho… we o deal with the issues around her first.”

  Aleph began listing three main issues when it came to Anna’s human ego as a herrscher.

  First was her existe was extremely obvious that her existence, while beneficial to humanity’s battle against the honkai, would be ively implicated o reached the ears of the cilors. They were just doh Mei’s establishment of authority. It wasn't enough for her to forcefully trol their opinions, at least not yet.

  Sed was the existence of the herrscher core. They couldn’t simply take it out of Anna, uhe past herrschers. If they were pnning to hide her existehey had to make up for this missing point.

  Finally, there was Anna’s danger of turning against humanity. They were fortuhey were able to have bombs ohough the matter of handling it remains to be discussed.

  For a while, Aleph halted talking about this topic.

  “Hm..? What’s the matter?”

  “Let’s rest for a while.” He replied. “No buts. You haven’t undergohe surgery. You’re different from Mobius and Vill-V.”

  A sed ter, Aleph saw Mei… pout?

  It wasly that. The vibes she gave off was simir to pouting, however.

  “I … nevermind.” She stopped what she was about to say. “This reminds me of the old times.”

  “Old times? It’s just… around three years ago? I remember seeing you overwork yourself in the library.”