Aya Tone opened her mouth. “How about you two continue?”
‘Actually, she was quite curious if the two of them would eventually come to blows.’
‘It wasn’t that she wanted to watch women fight.’
Despite her focus on her phone, her powerful mental energy allowed her to hear every word of their conversation.
In essence, Li Jia had bought the President’s house.
With nowhere else to live, the President had come to her, seeking to share a rental.
‘Wow, this was a grudge over a stolen home.’
‘How could they not fight it out?’
Then there was Li Jia…
‘Was she really thinking of tying me up!?’
‘Honestly, that expression truly held the potential of a yandere.’
‘Perhaps I should just go along with it,’ she mused. ‘After all, she’s a young lady of means; it wouldn’t be a loss.’
While Aya Tone was lost in these wild thoughts, Fire Finch had already pulled Li Jia back to her own room.
Aya Tone: “???”
She stared blankly at the living room, now empty save for herself. ‘What just happened?’
****
Inside the room, Fire Finch paid no mind to Li Jia’s strange gaze. She simply sat on the bed, making herself comfortable.
“Just find a place to sit.”
“Is this your room?” Li Jia covered her mouth, a hint of disbelief in her voice.
‘How could Fire Finch live in such… poverty?’
‘There wasn’t even a decent dressing table. How tragic…’
“Of course,” Fire Finch retorted, gesturing irritably towards the room’s sole chair.
“Either sit there, or sit on the floor.”
Li Jia, however, never listened to her. As always, she walked straight to Fire Finch and plopped down beside her.
Then, as if she had no spine, she leaned straight back.
Seeing this, Fire Finch complained, “Hey, that’s too much!”
She had brought Li Jia in for something important.
Their playful banter was over.
But Li Jia seemed not to hear the complaint, pulling Fire Finch down with her into the bedding.
Her body suddenly tilted backward. In a mere 0.0001 seconds, Fire Finch, relying on her powerful physical control, halted her backward motion.
“Tch, didn’t you pull me in here? What are you scared of?” Li Jia scoffed lightly.
‘She was very picky; an older sister type like Fire Finch wasn’t her cup of tea.’
“Stop with the chatter!”
“Instead of wasting time here, you’d be better off fully mastering the magic within you sooner.”
The situation in the Imperial Capital had been unstable recently. Even though Aya Tone had eradicated the cults within Yan’an City…
…the darkness in human hearts could not be so easily removed.
Qian Mian was not one person, but the convergence of countless darknesses. Their codename was Qian Mian!
This information had come from Old Hu, the one who’d initially brought Aya Tone in for her part-time job.
The turmoil in the Imperial Capital might cause this dark seed to sprout once more.
At such a time, an S-rank spatial ability user would be exceptionally crucial.
They needed to tear apart all those ‘faces’ in an instant!
“Is there something you need me to do?” Li Jia, understanding Fire Finch’s underlying meaning, asked seriously.
“Killing people, can you do it?”
****
From that day onward, Li Jia officially became Aya Tone’s neighbor.
During her leisure time, or at mealtimes, she would always knock on the door promptly.
As the occurrences grew frequent, Big White habitually cooked an extra portion of food. After all, if her owner didn’t mind, she certainly wouldn’t have any objections.
Aya Tone: “Cough, cough, she pays for her meals, you know.”
There was a saying: ‘many a little makes a mickle.’
While the money for a single meal wasn’t much, over time, it accumulated into a considerable income.
Besides, having an extra person at home made meals much livelier.
After dinner, Li Jia would rush home. This pattern continued for several days, as if she had become a completely different person.
Still, this was for the best; at least Aya Tone wouldn’t be constantly scrutinized.
“Aya,” Fire Finch said gravely, leaning against the sofa after Big White had taken Aya Jiu to bathe. “For a while now, I’ll have to trouble you to clear out most of the dangerous dungeons.”
Her serious demeanor surprised even Aya Tone.
It was as if she was seeing Fire Finch from three years ago, devoid of her usual carefree attitude. Now, she was meticulously focused.
“Alright,” Aya Tone agreed without a hint of disagreement.
Fire Finch undoubtedly had her reasons for asking her to do this.
If she could act, she generally wouldn’t overthink things.
Yet, she knew this matter was undoubtedly connected to Li Jia’s recent unusual behavior.
To clear dangerous dungeons, she alone was sufficient.
“Aren’t you going to make any demands?” Aya Tone’s decisive agreement caught Fire Finch somewhat off guard.
Dangerous dungeons were not mere E-rank instances.
They were at least C-rank or higher.
Their value far exceeded 150,000. ‘Had Aya Tone really agreed so readily?’
Fire Finch had prepared herself for negotiations. ‘Now that her pants were off, was Aya Tone saying she wasn’t in the mood?’
‘Was the sun going to rise in the west?’
“Demands?” Aya Tone paused slightly, pondering for a moment.
She then stated, “If there’s enough time, lend me your sister to play with for a bit.”
Since those dangerous dungeons were being handed to her, she might as well use this opportunity to push the four girls hard.
She always felt that their pace of power improvement was too slow.
Their innate abilities hadn’t been fully developed.
“Wushuang?” Fire Finch questioned, ‘Why bring my younger sister into this?’
‘Could she prefer younger ones!?’
She watched Aya Tone warily. If she saw any unusual glint in the other’s eyes, Aya Tone shouldn’t blame her for being ruthless.
But it turned out, she had overthought things.
“I want to take them to train in dungeons,” Aya Tone explained without hesitation. “Their abilities are the same type as mine, you know that.”
“Doesn’t the country need people? I was just thinking if we could raise them up.”
She wasn’t clear on other abilities, but when it came to magical girl series abilities, she understood them perfectly.
Reaching S-rank in a short time wasn’t a dream for them.
‘How could a group of idealists be viewed with ordinary eyes?’
Most importantly, cultivating an A-rank ability user would earn the school and the country a substantial bonus.
‘If she could cultivate four at once!’
‘Oh ho ho ho ho, I’m gonna get rich!’
Fire Finch replied, “You’ll have to ask her yourself. Wushuang is an adult; we can’t decide everything for her.”
“As for the other three girls…”
She paused, then slowly added, “I suggest you ask their parents first before making a decision.”
Everyone’s family situation was different, and she wouldn’t presume to speak for all of them.
With her identity as an S-rank academy instructor, Aya Tone quickly found the parents’ phone numbers in the student archives.
****
Inside the Dragon Court Academy office, Aya Tone sat before a clean, new desk, upon which only a single phone rested.
She let out a long breath.
‘As expected of parents from the Imperial Capital; their values were truly different.’
The three parents she contacted had all readily agreed to let her take their children for training.
She had initially prepared for a lengthy persuasion, but had not expected the parents to be even more insightful than herself.
In this world of awakened abilities, strength might not be everything…
…but those who stood at the pinnacle invariably possessed immense power.
With the undercurrents swirling in the Imperial Capital, they naturally hoped their children would have the ability to protect themselves in the future.
They wouldn’t be so foolish as to cut off their daughters’ opportunities, especially when an S-rank powerhouse was offering guidance.
“Teacher, were you looking for us?” The four girls gathered around the desk in unison.
It wasn’t their first time in the teachers’ office, but it was their first time seeing Aya Tone there.
Moreover, today wasn’t even a practical combat lesson day.