For the students of Saint Sheng Music Academy, when they opened their Eyes, what awaited them was a day full of tornt.
When the two mbers of Zwings were teaching, the girls were all looking forward to it. After all, those two were world‑famous idol stars, and also their goal. They hoped that one day they could be like Zwings, step onto the stage, and beco beings admired by all.
However... Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin were a completely different matter.
They couldn’t even be set as a goal; they were utterly out of reach, beings like the sun itself. The girls were more like Fireflies—maybe in the dark night they could still shine a little. But once the sun climbed into the sky, its scorching, dazzling radiance was enough to swallow them whole.
If you’ve never seen the sun, then for a Firefly, the moon is also a fine goal.
But after seeing the sun... that’s an entirely different story.
Especially since Duanmu Huai clearly had no intention of letting them off after this.
"I don’t really care."
Duanmu Huai sat in the chair, expression cold.
"If you think we don’t fit, just replace us, or find a few people who can actually match us. It’s that simple."
"............."
Fengming Xianshiling looked utterly speechless, and the other students’ expressions were just as ugly. The aning behind Duanmu Huai’s words was obvious: if you want to play house, then swap us out. But if you want us on stage, then you have to match our level. We’re not going to lower our standards or status to play house with you, so think it through yourselves.
Fengming Xianshiling cast a pleading look at Hei Chuan Chi Yin, but faced with his gaze, she only pressed her hands together and gave an apologetic smile—she knew why Duanmu Huai was doing this. At the end of the day, it was just laziness. No matter how you looked at it, taking the two of them out was clearly much easier than getting everyone else up to their level.
If Fengming Xianshiling backed down now, then Duanmu Huai wouldn’t have to act in this bullshit opera at all.
Not to ntion he already didn’t like this script.
"..............."
Fengming Xianshiling was clearly in a real bind. He wasn’t an idiot and understood exactly what Duanmu Huai was trying to do. It was just that earlier he had underestimated Duanmu Huai, assuming the two of them couldn’t compare to professionals—only to find out they themselves were the professionals.
And at a master level.
Now look at that, he’d dug his own grave.
But what gave Fengming Xianshiling the biggest headache wasn’t this scene itself, it was the struggle over who held the reins.
As Duanmu Huai had said to Hei Chuan Chi Yin, Fengming Xianshiling’s decision to place the two of them at Saint Sheng Music Academy was in itself an attempt to seize the initiative. As long as Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin enrolled, they would be students here. And the organization was the founder of this school, with Fengming Xianshiling as the person in charge. That way, he could quite naturally use that identity to take control from Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin.
Then he could slowly, subtly negotiate and communicate with them—but at least that way, the initiative would be in his hands.
What Fengming Xianshiling hadn’t expected was that Duanmu Huai not only saw through his plan, but even turned it back on him.
If he removed Duanmu Huai and Hei Chuan Chi Yin, he would in turn be handing the initiative over to them. At that point, it might end up with his organization having to accommodate their actions, instead of the other way around.
But if he insisted on keeping the two of them, it would be tantamount to admitting that the others were definitely outclassed in terms of acting. For these girls, that would be an extrely heavy blow. After all, these two girls were just Outsiders, while his students were supposed to be the future warriors who would fight Noise alongside them and wipe them out.
If he lost faith in his own students, the impact on the organization’s future developnt would be imasurable...
Fengming Xianshiling fell silent for a mont, then quietly sighed and forced a slight smile as he looked at the two.
"My apologies. I didn’t think this through."
Then he continued.
"It seems I really did underestimate your abilities... That’s my oversight. Please forgive ."
As he spoke, Fengming Xianshiling stood up, bent low before the two of them, and bowed in apology.
Seeing him like this made the students uneasy and flustered. Duanmu Huai rely cast them a glance, then continued to stare at Fengming Xianshiling in silence. Only then did Fengming Xianshiling finally say the words Duanmu Huai wanted to hear.
"I’ll select others to join the performance."
"Mm."
Duanmu Huai nodded, not comnting further. At the sa ti, Fengming Xianshiling straightened up and looked at the two of them.
"I have one small request."
"Speak."
"............."
Fengming Xianshiling didn’t answer imdiately. He glanced around at the others, and they understood what he ant, filing out of the office one after another, leaving only the three of them behind.
"What is it?"
"Please take a look at this report."
As he spoke, Fengming Xianshiling handed over a newspaper. Duanmu Huai took it and skimd it. It was a report about a missing girl.
"Her na is Yukine Chris."
Fengming Xianshiling began to explain.
"We’ve actually been secretly observing her as a candidate. According to our investigation, this girl has an extrely high compatibility with the Second Holy Relic, the ’Bronze Snake Armor.’ So we’ve always wanted to recruit her into the organization, to have her fight Noise as well. But not long ago, Yukine Chris disappeared."
"Disappeared?"
"Yes. Her parents were tragically killed in a war while doing a charity performance. Once we learned of this, we imdiately sent people to rescue her and intended to bring her back ho. But... she suddenly vanished."
"A fourteen‑year‑old girl doesn’t just disappear into thin air like that."
"Exactly."
Fengming Xianshiling nodded vigorously.
"Before this we only had suspicions. Now we’re sure—do you all still rember that battle with the Noise at the concert?"
"Of course."
"Actually, that concert wasn’t just a concert. It was an experint to fully activate the Bronze Snake Armor through song and ntal resonance. But beyond our expectations, the Noise attacked that concert, and the Bronze Snake Armor was stolen at the sa ti."
"So you’re saying the one who took the Bronze Snake Armor is the sa person who took that Yukine Chris?"
Duanmu Huai wasn’t an idiot. Just now Fengming Xianshiling had gone out of his way to explain to him that Yukine Chris had extrely high compatibility with the Second Holy Relic, and then she disappeared, and then the Second Holy Relic also disappeared.
If you call that a coincidence, even a ghost wouldn’t buy it.
"That’s what we suspect. It’s shaful to admit, but we’ve actually been suspecting you all of being involved in this too..."
So that’s how it was; that he could understand. Duanmu Huai hadn’t known about any of this, but once he heard it he understood that their suspicion of him and the others wasn’t totally baseless.
"So now that you’re telling us this, it ans you’ve confird it has nothing to do with us. On top of that, there’s a mole in your organization, right?"
"..."
Fengming Xianshiling didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. Yukine Chris’s high compatibility with the Second Holy Relic had to be an internal top secret of the organization, yet soone had targeted that specifically. The only possibility was that soone on the inside had leaked the data.
And soone high up, at that.
"You don’t want to use your own people and spook the snake, so you want us to make a move?"
"Yes."
"Fine. This sounds a lot more fun than singing and dancing."
As Duanmu Huai spoke, he glanced at Hei Chuan Chi Yin, and she also nodded.
Then Duanmu Huai stood up.
"Settled then. Handle the specifics and just let us know. Let’s go, Chi Yin."
With that, Duanmu Huai took Hei Chuan Chi Yin and turned to leave the classroom. The others watched their backs disappear with complicated expressions, and no one spoke for a long while.
"I really didn’t expect that man to actually bow his head."
Once they stepped out of the classroom, Hei Chuan Chi Yin finally voiced her feelings quietly to Duanmu Huai. In her eyes, Fengming Xianshiling was a very imposing, burly muscleman—the straightforward type with an extrely strong need for control. Hei Chuan Chi Yin had t a few similar types on set, so she’d always thought Duanmu Huai would probably clash with him.
"A competent organizer should understand that the first priority is the organization’s continued existence, not his own pride."
Duanmu Huai shrugged.
"These little girls are all reserve troops for those so-called Magic Girls. If we beat them down so hard they lose all confidence and can’t even sing, then they’re completely finished, just scrap. As long as this guy’s brain is working, he should know which way to choose."
"Mm... but I still feel like we’re kind of doing them dirty..."
Hei Chuan Chi Yin wasn’t as cold-blooded as Duanmu Huai. Those girls were just ordinary girls, and she hadn’t had any conflict with them before. Yet they’d just been used by Duanmu Huai as hostages to make an example of soone, which made her feel sowhat guilty.
"That’s the Tribunal."
Duanmu Huai obviously had no intention of comforting her.
"The Tribunal has never been a friendly, approachable organization. We exist to make people submit, to make them afraid. Look, it’s like a gun..."
Duanmu Huai raised his hand, making a gun shape and pointing it at Hei Chuan Chi Yin.
"When a gun is pointed at you, you don’t beg the gun for rcy, because you know the gun is just a weapon with no will of its own. So you only beg the one holding the gun, because you know the one holding it is rational, soone you can negotiate and communicate with. The Tribunal is that gun. We only eliminate every enemy that tries to threaten Humans. Nothing else matters."
"But if we communicate in a friendly way, wouldn’t that make cooperation easier?"
"That only adds pointless social overhead and wastes ti. And if they think we’re easy to talk to, they might start looking for ways to bullshit us."
Duanmu Huai let out a cold snort.
"Why don’t good people live long? Because everyone knows there’ll be no real payback for ssing with a good person. But they’re welco to try ssing with the Tribunal. I guarantee they won’t walk out that door alive—then they’ll understand what it costs to play gas in front of the Tribunal. What we want is speed and efficiency, not maintaining so unnecessary, idiotic relationship."
"..."
High-handed as it was, Hei Chuan Chi Yin had to admit that there was a certain logic to what Duanmu Huai said.
It’s just that... the Tribunal as an organization really was so heavy it made it hard to breathe.
Hei Chuan Chi Yin imagined that if she had to face a group like the Tribunal—one that never listened to anyone and insisted on total control over everything—it would definitely be unbearable.
Luckily, she herself now belonged to the Tribunal.
"Xiao Ai, what do we do now?"
"First, we go to the scene and investigate."
In response to Hei Chuan Chi Yin’s question, Duanmu Huai yawned.
"Detective novels say it all the ti: the culprit often returns to the scene of the cri. Maybe if we drop by, we’ll catch them on the spot."
Then he spoke.
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