All yesterday

End of the Final Exam Season

The final class of the semester's exams came to an end, bringing the second year of Artheris Academy to a complete close.

The bell rang, signaling the end of classes.

The first-year students cheered outside the academy gates as if they were throwing a party to celebrate winning a war.

As for the second-years, already accustomed to the system, they simply walked out through the gates, splitting up or going off to celebrate the end of their exams as they pleased.

But for Princess Nora, what came after the exams was a little different.

Tennis Court

The green ball bounced back and forth across the court.

Princess Nora Ophilis and Dan Burn ran left and right, returning each other's shots until they were both covered in sweat.

The racket struck the ball with a solid thwack.

The ball flew so quickly that even Dan's Speed couldn't follow it with his eyes. It struck the boundary line and bounced out.

Game.

Another beautiful victory for Nora Ophilis, in the sport she loved most.

Cut to the next scene.

The two of them walked out of the indoor sports facility, each carrying a racket.

"You're getting better at this, Mr.Fury."

"Really? You're not just flattering me, are you?"

"You are getting better. Though you're still hopelessly worse than me."

"Oh, I see. Lift me up only to push me back down. Is this the true nature of the Ice Princess?"

He nudged Nora's shoulder with the racket, making her move aside, before the two of them headed straight toward the Magic Engineering branch building.

They were on their way to meet someone in a private conference room somewhere on one of the upper floors.

And when they arrived at the appointed time—

they opened the door.

Senior Thomasin Mayfield, Totti, and two other engineers were waiting inside, with the room fully prepared for a presentation.

Princess Nora locked the door without being told, flipped the sign outside to "DO NOT DISTURB," and set her racket down.

"Hello, everyone."

He greeted them.

Princess Nora gave a nod to Thomasin and Totti before following closely behind Dan to look over the blueprints the Mathema engineers had brought for them.

"The first submarine of this project has now been fully developed and has successfully passed testing."

"That's fantastic news."

Dan placed a hand on the blueprint.

The two-dimensional drawings showed the dimensions of the invention in meticulous detail—the very machine he had encouraged them to build with what was essentially an unlimited budget.

"Testing at a depth of 1,000 meters went smoothly. It can remain submerged for around two hours, which is 25% longer than we originally expected."

Dan and Nora sat through the submarine presentation to the end.

And today was the day Nora discovered that such a thing even existed in this world.

A machine built to explore "the sea."

As someone who had never been born into a world where anything like this existed, Mathema's engineering had opened a third eye for the princess.

This was on an entirely different level from an ordinary ocean-going vessel.

She glanced at Fury in disbelief...

and saw a little boy with sparkling eyes, absolutely glowing with excitement.

When she met Totti's eyes across the room, he gave her a small nod, signaling that...

he had noticed the same thing she had.

"The F-01 submarine is now ready for its mission. We can kick off the exploration immediately."

"What's the earliest we can start?"

"We'll need two weeks to transport it from Mathema to Diablo and have it disassembled and reassembled there."

"Start immediately."

"Understood."

She turned and gave the engineers a hand signal.

They nodded, gathered up the blueprints, and said their goodbyes before leaving to begin work at once.

That left only Thomasin.

"As for Warehouse 1, it is currently 90% complete. The excavation site is also progressing smoothly, Your Highness."

She switched to the next slide.

"However, Diablo is an enormous territory, so we require additional manpower and drilling equipment."

"Approved."

"Mr.Fury... immediately?"

"I'm a simple man. What she said is true. Diablo is far too vast for fifty humans to handle on their own. We need to recruit more."

"Um... Prince Fury..."

Thomasin asked to speak.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to propose that we use labor from the Diablo people living in the area... should Your Highness deem it appropriate."

"Huh? Seriously?"

Dan raised one eyebrow.

"According to the latest report, the exploration team has already adapted to living in Diablo. However, Professor Pi'erre, who is overseeing the mission there, suggested that if we could use the physical strength of the Diablo people to assist with transportation and breaking through layers of rock, it could significantly accelerate our progress."

"What concerns me is how both your people and mine will adapt to one another. But since you put it that way, I'll consider Professor Pi'erre's proposal. I'll tell Dominic to select Diablo people with exceptional physical strength to assist your team. Let humans handle the delicate work and let them handle the heavy work. I don't think that's a bad arrangement."

Dan nodded.

"And what about the discoveries? Have you found anything around the coastal excavation zone?"

"We've discovered a large number of trilobites in the ancient cliffs of Diablo. There are more than 23,000 species in total, and 300 of them are completely new species that have only just been discovered."

She spoke with considerable excitement during the presentation.

"It further confirms that my country really was beneath the sea in the distant past."

Senior Thomasin advanced to the next slide.

"Prince..."

"?"

"This discovery was made two weeks ago... I believe this may be... the greatest discovery we've made so far."

When the image appeared,

Dan leaned forward from his chair, his eyes locking onto the display, unable to look away as they slowly widened.

Even Nora's eyes gradually opened wider and wider.

Because what Senior Thomasin had put on display was...

an image of a fragment of an "insect shell," sharp and jagged, embedded seamlessly within the rock strata of the cliff like an ancient painting.

Its appearance was strikingly similar to the hardened shells of the Diablo people living today.

It was not smooth like their modern shells, but rough and jagged, almost like volcanic rock, with countless sharp edges.

Prince Fury...

Based on its age, as determined through the mana currents...

this may be a fragment of a "Diablo-like organism" that once lived 50,000,000 years ago.