Chapter 114: A Long Bet

"...This is... really a surprise..." I look at Astrid, who called me over as soon as I returned to the island with my students. Aurora Island has started moving again, and it seems like tomorrow the Ship will return to the island along with Nadir and the others.

"What’s so surprising about it?" she asks while I stare at her stomach. I can pick up a faint scent of blood. She doesn’t seem to be doing too well. Makes sense—she’s already old and she was eviscerated. The fact that she’s even alive is the real surprise.

"I didn’t expect to see you. Shouldn’t you be on vacation or something?"

"...I should be... but one of the people I hired turned out to be a problem, so they forced me to come back. Wonderful, don’t you think?" The sarcasm drips from her voice. Seems like she really didn’t want to return.

"Well, it’s all your fault. Hiring someone with no background?! That’s just reckless."

"You and Nadir don’t have backgrounds either, other than being street rats. You can’t judge my choices. Delilah was good with technology, and that was valuable. I took her in. There was no way to know she was an enemy—she passed every test I gave her."

"Hahaha, seems like you forgot the appearance test. Because Delilah looked like a zombie, but she was always cheerful with that animated smile on her face. She practically screamed ’I’m suspicious’ with that attitude of hers." I say it with sarcasm. I never trusted her.

"How judgmental of you, Zenith. Are we judging people based on looks now? You look like a delinquent, and that didn’t stop the military from taking you in." She lets out a pained sigh.

"..." I stop provoking her, realizing the topic is a bit more serious for her. Being pressured can’t be good for her health right now.

"You shouldn’t be getting stressed. I know how bad stress can be for recovery," I say in a more serious, formal tone. I may not like her, but I respect her past as a skilled veteran.

"..." She wipes her lips with a handkerchief, and I catch a glimpse of blood. No matter how advanced current medicine is, or the powers that assist in healing, there are some things that just can’t be cured.

A wound that deep and dangerous, combined with massive blood loss, is a problem for anyone. On top of that, vector powers don’t create things out of nothing. Powers used in medicine still mostly depend on matter, blood, and the body’s own energy.

I’ve seen Kairas who accelerate natural regeneration, others who rebuild tissue using tissue from other parts of the body, and so on.

"Don’t look at me like that. I’m not so old that I’d die from a little scratch like this," she murmurs, letting out a sigh to regain her composure.

"Well, you can be proud of yourself. You survived an encounter with humanity’s greatest enemy. That’s a rare feat, even if she wasn’t really actively trying to kill you." It really is incredible, in my eyes.

"...I can’t tell if you’re being sincere or sarcastic... but let’s leave it at that. I called you here because I have a few things to question about what you’ve been teaching the students at this academy, and there’s another matter too."

’I knew this would come eventually... what timing...’ I let out a sigh. It was pretty obvious that my teaching methods are a problem, in a way.

"What do you want to know?"

"..." Astrid picks up her phone and crushes it right in front of me. I’m confused by that while she just smiles.

"Ignore that. Zenith, I know you’re hiding something. Did you forget who I am? I have access to all military recordings below Absolute Government Secret. I’ve seen some things..."

"I know something about all of this has to do with you. I’m not an idiot. But I won’t say anything. The point is... you’re trying to use those six for something, aren’t you?" She hits the nail right on the head.

"...Not exactly use... but yes. I want them to get stronger so they can deal with the problem that’s coming in the future." Honestly, I don’t see a scenario where I beat Nemesis in a serious fight.

But if it’s me, Nadir, all my students, plus some powerful Kairas, we could create the perfect opening to kill Nemesis. One well-placed physical blow that destroys her head or splits her in two might be enough, since her weakness is precisely attacks without any influence of vector energy.

"...That’s very selfish, Zenith..." I just stare at Astrid, who seems to be thinking about what to do.

"Are you really willing to put your students at risk for your own sake?" Now I feel like she’s gone too far. My students will be at risk no matter what I do.

"...They’ll be at risk regardless, Astrid. What I’m doing is giving them a good chance to live and fight. I’m not leading them into danger—the danger is coming on its own, and it won’t wait. I’m trying to help them avoid as much trouble as possible with the chaos we all know is coming."

"This has nothing to do with my selfishness or with hiding things. The government itself already knows something big is going to happen. Our greatest enemy was living among us, studying humanity, and trying to create monsters."

"..." Astrid goes quiet.

"Yes, you’re right, Zenith. You do seem like the type who’d do this selfishly, so I generalized a bit... Are you really betting that much on the future? I can see you’ve saved yourself."

"What do you mean?" I ask, confused by this talk of me having ’saved myself.’ I really don’t understand what she’s getting at.

"When you’re a veteran like us, you end up becoming pessimistic. I don’t see a good future in those girls. I just see more of the same as always. But you, who went through the same hell I did, you still have hope. That’s rare."

"..."

"They have talent—"

"Talent doesn’t matter. You know that. It’s not the most talented who survives. If it were, you’d already be dead. You have no talent—just a faulty power that fails you and a dirty mind that makes you use dirty tricks." She cuts me off and honestly insults me, even if it’s true that I’m no promising talent.

"Me, you, and Maya have watched plenty of talents be born and die within a single year. Talent does help—Maya is talented and she’s at the top—but thinking your students will get anywhere just because they have talent is unrealistic."

"Tanya is probably one of the first to die, along with Eirwen, because both of them are impulsive. Rouge will also die early because of her attitude of only seeing strength as a path."

"Ashlyn is a coward, and cowards die young, because you can’t hide from monsters and expect someone else to solve the problem. Edith will easily be killed by some ally who can’t stand her rotten attitude. And Charlotte will probably be the only one to live, because she’s just like you, Zenith—a dirty, manipulative rat with spatial powers."

"..." I understand what she’s saying, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought the same in the past. But after spending an entire year teaching them, I’ve seen that they do have a future. They just need to work on their flaws.

"Come on, Astrid. If you called me here, it’s because you want something more than this pessimistic talk, right? What does their future matter in this context?"

"...Fine... then let’s get to the point, Zenith. Are you going to betray humanity?" Her question catches me off guard.

"What?"

"Answer."

"Of course not. What’s the point of that question?" It doesn’t even make sense on several possible levels.

"...I’m going to give you more freedom to teach your students. Forget the restrictions I placed on you."

"...I don’t understand—"

"If you plan to use those girls to be the ones who become humanity’s heroines—the ones who kill our greatest enemy, whoever it may be—then make those girls into weapons strong enough for it."

"But if you fail at that, then die. Don’t even think about coming back alive if you fail. Understood? That’s why I’m lifting the teaching restrictions. You can teach however you want, whenever you want, with whatever schedule you want, and whatever subject you want. But in return, I expect the necessary results."

"No one has noticed anything about you because the military doesn’t care about you, so no one connected the dots. But I know something is wrong with you. The ’hooded woman’ has appeared to you two or three times now, and every time she let you walk away alive and unharmed. And knowing she’s Nemesis, it’s obvious there’s something between you two."

"So you’d better be our ally. If you fail to kill Nemesis, you die as a hero. And if you betray us, I swear, Zenith, I will cut your throat myself."

"...Hahaha, now that’s the attitude of someone who’s been at the top. You can be sure those girls are going to show you something incredible." I say it with confidence in my ability to make those girls far stronger.

"...Haa... fine. Then you can leave... If you’re that confident, I’ll give you my vote of confidence too..." I’m genuinely surprised she wants to help, but I’m not about to complain.

’Without having to follow her demands, I can ignore all that tedious stuff I was forced to teach...’ I head for the door to leave, but before I do, she calls my attention.

"Zenith..."

"...What is it?" I stop at the door, looking at her as she tucks the handkerchief away.

"I hope the future is promising for us." It takes me a few seconds to understand what she means, until I realize she’s talking about humanity as a whole.

"Of course. I hope so too. All we can do is wait, either way."