"Not bad at all." Irene leaned against the wall, scanning through the docunts Theresa had finished reviewing. Every single one had been properly addressed — no cutting corners.
When all was said and done, Theresa was the Director of the Far East Branch. She couldn't rely entirely on Grandpa Otto, so even if she played slacker most of the ti, she was perfectly capable when it ca to paperwork.
She was just usually too lazy for it to show. Apply a little pressure, give her a push, and she handled things just fine.
"Alright, how long are you going to stay slumped over like that? You just processed so docunts. That's all." Irene looked over at Theresa, who was face-down on the desk, visibly expelling her soul.
"'Just processed so docunts'?" Theresa lifted her head, soul reluctantly recalled, and fixed Irene with a look of pure indignation. "Can you even imagine how much I suffered? I was lying down perfectly fine, minding my own business, and then you waltz in and dump this entire mountain of paperwork in front of ?"
"You were going to have to do it eventually." Irene shrugged. It wouldn't be long now — their fifty-year-old Theresa was going to inherit the grand legacy of Schicksal before she knew it.
If she didn't start learning managent from the Anti-Entropy side now, the suffering that awaited Overseer Theresa's overti-laden future would be arriving at her doorstep very, very soon.
"Even if I have to do it eventually, I don't want to do it right now!" Theresa clutched her head. "Let's push this to tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow. Better yet, let it never co at all."
"That might not be up to you." Irene shook her head, reached out, and gave Theresa's head a pat. "Get used to it sooner rather than later, Theresa. This is a friendly warning."
"Hm?" Sothing in Irene's tone made Theresa pause. She looked up with a puzzled expression. "Wait — Irene, what did you an just now?"
"Exactly what I said." Irene t her gaze. "You'd better start preparing early, or things are going to be very rough for you later. Don't forget — you're Theresa, after all."
"..." Theresa narrowed her eyes at Irene. "When you say 'you're Theresa' — do you an I'm Theresa, or that I'm Theresa Apocalypse?"
"Well, don't you already know the answer?" Irene shrugged. "You have a very strong claim to Schicksal, you know. Once Otto is gone — who else would it go to but you?"
"Hold on, hold on." Theresa shot to her feet. "Now I understand even less. Are you all going after Grandpa? Already? That can't be right — I haven't heard anything."
"Of course not. We're not going to lay a hand on Otto." Irene shrugged. "Killing Otto? That'd be easier said than done."
And that was the honest truth. Who knew how many contingencies Otto had prepared for himself? Sure, she had two Herrschers of Corruption on her side right now, but if Otto decided to defend against Irene specifically, she genuinely wasn't certain she could outmaneuver him. That was Otto — his sheer intellectual pressure was simply overwhelming.
But as it happened, this ti Otto was the one walking willingly toward his own end. And afterward, only Theresa could naturally and legitimately inherit Schicksal — it couldn't pass to just anyone.
Theresa studied Irene's face, as though trying to read sothing from her expression. "You're really not going to make a move? Then why did you just say I'll have to do this sooner or later?"
"Otto won't stay in that position forever." Irene leaned against the wall and looked at her steadily. "He's going to go after his own goal — a goal he has waited five hundred years for."
"All the conditions have more or less been t now. Nothing and no one can stop him from doing what he's set out to do."
Theresa listened, opened her mouth, then closed it again. She didn't fully understand what Irene was saying — but she had understood one thing: Grandpa was about to step down?
"But... what is it he's trying to find?"
"To make ands for an old regret." Irene looked at Theresa quietly. "Everyone carries regrets. Otto is simply the most... extre about his."
Theresa stared at her, still dazed, on the verge of asking more — but Irene got there first, giving the top of her head a light pat. "Do what you need to do. Right now, what you need to do is learn how to handle paperwork."
As she said it, Irene set down the next stack of unprocessed docunts on Theresa's desk.
"As the saying goes — there's no such thing as a crown prince at fifty." Irene ruffled Theresa's hair gently. "Maybe it's ti, don't you think? Theresa."
"..." Theresa was silent for a long mont. Then she sat back down, pulled the docunts toward her, and began to work. Irene stood beside her for a mont, watching, then smiled softly, turned, and walked out of the room.
Theresa looked up at Irene's retreating back. Just as Irene was stepping through the doorway, Theresa spoke. "Irene... is it really ti?"
"Yes, Theresa." Irene turned back, eting her eyes, and gave a slow nod. "It is. I'm sorry — the old magic is finally wearing off."
"...I understand." Theresa nodded, said nothing more, and turned back to the papers. Her pace, now, was quick and sure.
Perhaps it was just as Irene had said — Theresa had always been capable. Because soone had always been there, teaching her how. She simply hadn't needed to do it before.
And Irene had told her: a certain mont was coming soon. When it ca, if she could no longer afford to be idle — then there was nothing left to do but get to work. Right?
After leaving the room, Irene went to find Joyce and the others. Joyce was sitting in a chair looking thoroughly worn out. Irene took one look at him.
"Well, well — looks like our esteed Sovereign of Anti-Entropy has already made the rounds."
"Hm? Oh — Miss Irene." Joyce looked up as she arrived, let out a relieved breath, and gave a slightly helpless nod. "How do I put this... it just feels a little strange. I genuinely never actually served as Sovereign, you know."
"It couldn't be helped — at the ti, having your na out there alive was the only thing that could hold Otto in check." Einstein shrugged. "Without that na, Anti-Entropy never would have grown to what it is today."
"Co on, enough of that face." Tesla reached over and rapped Joyce lightly on the head. "Moping around like this — what does that look like?"
Having set Joyce straight, Tesla glanced up at Irene. "Speaking of which, Irene — what brings you here? Didn't you say you were going to supervise Theresa's paperwork? Did you give up already?"
"I already got her through one batch." Irene pulled out her tablet as she spoke, calling up the docunts Theresa had reviewed and handing it over to Tesla and Einstein. "Want to take a look?"
Neither of them stood on ceremony — they took it and started reading. It didn't take long before Tesla looked up with a puzzled frown. "Irene, you really didn't help her with these?"
"Don't underestimate Theresa." Irene smiled. "She is Theresa Apocalypse, after all. And the Director of the Far East Branch on top of that. You don't hold a position like that without basic administrative competence — she just never had to use it before."
"That is... genuinely a little surprising." Einstein handed the tablet back to Irene. With their level of expertise, they could tell plainly enough that Theresa had genuinely engaged with the work, not just phoned it in.
But that already put her ahead of the two of them by a fair margin. As for whether the results were actually good? Perhaps they really should let Theresa try her hand at it properly.
"We should probably spring Ryoma," Tesla said, scratching her head. "Poor old guy has been sitting in that cell long enough. Ti to fish him out."
At that, Irene turned to Tesla with a look of genuine bafflent. "Co to think of it, I've been aning to ask — you really never got him out? You can't be that powerless."
When you cut through it, the whole reason Ryoma had been arrested in the first place was a flimsy embezzlent charge — Cocolia had needed a pretext to shunt him out of Corp and seize control for herself. That was all.
Granted, Ryoma had embezzled funds to build things — the Plasma Yin-Xiu, for one — but that weapon had never even seen use, seeing as Ryoma himself had been locked up before it got the chance.
But now Cocolia had been apprehended, so Irene genuinely had not anticipated that they still hadn't gotten him out. She'd forgotten about it herself, since nobody had brought it up — now that it was ntioned, the realization hit her.
"Well... we've been a bit busy, haven't we? Dealing with the Honkai eruption and everything. We just... sort of... forgot." Faced with Irene's question, Tesla and Einstein both turned their heads away in unison.
Irene nodded, with genuine sympathy. "Ryoma is going to be devastated when he finds out his two teammates forgot him in a prison cell."
Honestly, even the Conservative Faction — which had been thoroughly steamrolled by Cocolia — could have pulled Ryoma out without too much difficulty if they'd wanted to.
Cocolia herself had probably never expected things to go this way. She'd only wanted a temporary excuse to kick him out of Corp and take the reins — once she had power, his coming back wouldn't matter anyway.
What she almost certainly hadn't anticipated was that right up until the mont of her own arrest, the Conservative Faction hadn't even made plans to retrieve Raiden Ryoma from prison. And naturally, Cocolia hadn't been in any mood to remind them.
And then afterward, Tesla and Einstein had forgotten about him entirely.
And so the poor man — Raiden Ryoma — had been simultaneously forgotten by both the Conservative and Radical Factions, left to languish in his cell to this very day. One could only imagine what was going through his mind.
"Thank goodness i isn't here to see this." Irene shook her head at the two of them, then glanced over at Welt. She paused for a mont, then looked away again.
Nevermind. Welt was another story entirely — the man had spent a year in the Sea of Quanta. That he could rember anything at all was already impressive.
"Is it hard to get him out?"
Welt gave a light cough. "Not particularly. It'll need to go through proper channels — we can't just barge in — but it won't take long. Ryoma will be out soon."
"Good." Irene nodded, giving the group an exasperated look. "I don't even know what to say to you lot."
All three of them — Joyce being the only one who had no idea what was going on — turned their heads away. The awkwardness was palpable. They knew they hadn't exactly covered themselves in glory here.
"Alright, sort it out yourselves." Irene waved a hand and turned to leave. "Get him out sooner rather than later — because the day i rembers on her own and cos to ask you about it, you'll be in for sothing far more uncomfortable."
"Of course, of course." All three nodded vigorously. They needed to get on that right away.
Irene left them to it and headed for the newly set-up dormitory block — a section specifically cleared out for the newly-revived Fla-Chasers. The reason was straightforward: having them live together with everyone else was causing problems.
They were still adjusting to their new bodies, which ant occasional unexpected accidents. Worth noting, though: the one causing the most destruction was not Kalpas.
Quite the opposite — it was Eden, who looked the most poised and graceful of them all, who had stepped on a staircase and caved it straight in. Not because Eden had gotten heavier, mind you.
It was simply that her strength was enormous, and she hadn't fully recalibrated yet — one unguarded mont, and it had all gone very wrong. As for Elysia, who had been laughing herself to pieces over the whole thing — we won't go into that.
Even more counterintuitively, Kalpas was among the least destructive of the group. He had gotten a handle on his current strength remarkably fast, figuring out precisely how to keep it under control.
Before Irene could even step inside, a fragrant breeze swept past and Elysia ca flying into her arms. Elysia had also gotten the hang of her body quickly — she wasn't causing anyone trouble anymore.
"Irene, you actually ca to visit us! What's the occasion?"
"I just wrapped things up and ca straight over." Irene patted Elysia gently until she stepped back. "How are you all settling in? Comfortable?"
"Conditions are acceptable." The voice that answered wasn't Elysia's — it was Mobius, drifting along on the custom levitating chair she had already gotten built, which kept her from causing much damage.
Mobius was the sort of person who didn't ask much of her living environnt — as long as sowhere was livable, it was fine. Haiyuan City had a bit of a dampness problem, but nothing worse than that.
After everything they'd lived through — the end of the world — she'd long since gotten used to roughing it. Pampered? That luxury had dried up in the Previous Era long before the end, especially for those who had survived to the last.
So Mobius cared far more about research conditions. But Haiyuan City had originally been a research outpost, and with Anti-Entropy's years of developnt layered on top, the research facilities here were among the finest the current era had to offer.
"Glad to hear it." Irene nodded. "So how's everyone doing? Have you all got a handle on your bodies? Or do we need to set up so combat training to get the rust off?"
"Kalpas will be absolutely delighted to hear you say that." Mobius shrugged. "But apart from Eden, everyone's pretty much gotten themselves sorted."
"Don't worry though — it won't be an issue for long. She's been through sothing like this before."
When Eden had undergone the MANTIS procedure, it had been much the sa situation. She just needed to find her footing again, and her past experience would guide her back to mastering her current strength.
"Good," Irene said. "That's good."
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