———Wiina———

  <11: 37 pm>

  “Ahahaha… I am fairly confident I am not doing anything nefarious, let alone such an act.” She bluntly answered with her tone briefly turning grim. I initially doubt that she does have something so disturbing in mind. Maybe unintentionally due to her origin, but that’s something that needs more time to assess. But that response was a bit suspicious… “What we want are those with both the strength and the right mindset. This is simply a pce to cultivate those individuals.”

  “Honestly, that seems way too convoluted when you and your colleagues can easily set the world straight pretty easily…” Their strengths are unparalleled and live with indeterminate lifespan. Most of these kids she puts her resources in would’ve kicked the bucket long before she does anyway, and with less than a fraction of her strength and wisdom needed to lead.

  “As I have said before. Most of us don’t really care about causing reforms or ruling. Many got pretty bad experiences from that, or simply that they are content managing the small area they already have.” She reiterates one more time. It still feels rather… weird. From how she worded it this feels more like a side project to her, despite the all implications and possible ramifications.

  The conversations with these people have always felt oddly eerie and bizarre. Not always with a sense of dread, but it does still feel like we’re having two different conversations sometimes. Why you’re doing this or that, and new words come out that you’d never expect.

  I guess the best way to describe it is like trying to comprehend the reasoning of a deity. With great power and vast pool of knowledge and wisdom, they were rarely caught cking. Things they do either have a reasoning on a much rger scope most don't care to think about, or it was all ultimately a resource drain meant to do nothing more than to fulfill their morbid curiosity or to lift themselves out of their boredom. A god’s whim.

  “You know. I don’t think most people would’ve been so half-assed about it.” I really don’t feel like dancing around how I’m feeling at this point.

  “Half-assed? I guess I haven’t been the most involved in this whole ordeal. Aside from pnning and setting things up, most of the school curriculum remained the same with some obvious advancement due to newly introduced technology.” She said rather sarcastically. It seems like she sees all of this as enough. I’d be inclined to agree with her on that front, but with how she’s treating it, it’s clear she could’ve done a lot more. She doesn’t do more, why is that?

  I know things are sometimes best done in moderation. Trying to optimize everything will usually result in a bunch of redundancies, becoming a waste of time and resources. Does someone like her even need to care about either?

  “Isn’t there more than a few ways you could’ve hastened the progress, or even made the whole deal much easier?” I asked, just to see if she’ll bite.

  “I suppose so, but ultimately, humans have a hard time processing all the necessary information and adapting to it. Trying to hasten such a process would’ve left them confused and directionless.” She answered, not bothering to give me examples. “Trust me, during my time when I was still human, being raised and working to the bone as a kid left me rather incomplete as a person, spending all the time doing something to improve myself in some way, yet left me with a crucial fw. I might be strong and capable when I reach my adult years, but I cked a few traits that led to a few… unfortunate incidents down the line.”

  “So this is from experience then?” I think this conversation has started to shift a bit, but this is still something I’m quite curious about. She has only ever briefly alluded to her early years, within the timeframe of a normal human lifespan.

  “That is part of the motivation to not start nor end early.” She said, making it clear that it’s just one reason out of many. “I guess I should answer the main point succinctly. To simply put, much like your showing during that incident three months back, when we put our minds to it, we could completely reshape the world in a fsh. The Mythical Eclipse was an attempt made by two gods, as you have already known. It was quick and unavoidable with many sudden changes to the world. When it comes to things we do with our own two hands, we tend to be quick and precise. It’s hard not to be with so much at our disposal. Doing things in a roundabout way is in part a way to not give in to the urges to be so uncompromising.”

  “...Basically you guys have no self-control.” No need for all those flowery nguage, I understand it for what it is. It’s not inexcusable as far as reasoning goes. It is tempting to get rid of problems in one fell swoop, no matter how small or inconsequential in their eyes. It’s clear they still find something about the current civilization to be annoying or cumbersome, but not enough to feel like getting rid of it quickly. The problem here is that from the perspective of the public at rge it is an unavoidable and massive issue that they know need a long time to resolve. If the former group gets even a little bit too bothered and invested in that issue, they’ll try to clean it up in no time ft, which will leave the tter group confused and unsure of what to do next.

  “Not really a dignifying way to summarize it, you know?” She compined. “It’s like getting hyper-focused on something you don’t need to. Moving too quickly on these kinds of things is not the best course of action, but when we’re really into it, when are we supposed to stop? We need to limit our scope quite a bit.”

  Of course it is not simply due to the swiftness of such an action alone that is the problem. She doesn’t mention it, but even these guys have fws attached to them. They are no perfect beings. Even if they could do something to change the world in a more positive direction, they are not omniscient. Their power is great and vast, and the many centuries of knowledge and wisdom can do a lot of good, but it does not equate to the ability to foresaw everything and the possible consequences. Even they have to take it slowly and take time to consider, but they find it hard to do so when they’re so focused on something, because it feels more pressing than ever the more they think about it. It is like a light source they are allured by when they’ve been long basked in the dark night. It’s a way to break their long life mostly without urgency with something interesting to do, but to be so invested lead to them completing it so unceremoniously quickly it became a tiny footnote that would be lost to the fog of ages.

  They need to temper themselves from such a temptation and py the long game, be it for their amusement or what they see as the more beneficial long-term result.

  “Say. Has Mana ever asked you about these things?” I asked, wondering if someone so close to her ever bothered her with these kinds of questions.

  “No. She has always been rather considerate of my secrets… Or perhaps it is better to say she doesn’t want to bother me.” She answered, removing the pretense in the tter half. “Seeing as I have no problem telling you these things now, obviously I’m not opposed to her asking a few sensitive questions of her own, but she chose not to.”

  “That bond in itself can cause unnecessary hesitation…” I can’t help but remark. It’s probably also why Karra is so hesitant in talking to me about her own path and future career. She doesn’t want to bother me with it if she can help it.

  “But onto the original topic itself. At the end of the day, I do not pn to use anyone for any scheme of my own. I just want to see where all of you will go after all of it.” She said, bringing the conversation back to where it started. “Trust me, you would all be redundant and set dressing at best.”

  “I guess it’s nice to know for sure that you really don’t mean to turn kids into child soldiers. Even if I know it’s a ridiculous theory from Useph.” A doubt will always exist no matter what, even the most illogical of thoughts.

  “Trust me, I don’t intend on anyone having that kind of childhood.” She bitterly said. Considering all that she has said so far, it’s clear that this accusation is a rather personal insult to her, which does expin the brief showing of hostility in her voice at the beginning.

  To think I actually touched a nerve with that particur question. Wonder how things would’ve gone with others had they known to ask her. I tried to be a little bit tactful, knowing a bit of her history, but others wouldn’t have that kind of context.

  I doubt she would choose murder, but if pressed hard enough, I could see a few broken bones.

  She turns her head and gazes out, looking at the night sky through the window.

  “Honestly. I had no idea how much shit I’m gonna be on the receiving end of until it’s too te…” She said while pressing her hand on the gss, probably reminiscing on old tales. It does seem like she has a vivid recollection of it, despite how long of a life she lived. “But this isn’t my pity parade now is it? What’s important is that you’ve gotten your answer. What are you going to make of it?”

  “Not much. I just want my own personal validation, so to speak.” I answered with no bells and whistles. It’s not something that I pnned on leveraging or conveying in its entirety. “But speaking of all of this… I don’t think you can guarantee that the students here will all become role models in the future, can you? Even if you sanitise this pce in every aspect, the outside world would still be harsh and pessimistic. Unless you also control the outside world, all this effort might be meaningless, or at least nowhere near as effective.”

  “That much is undeniable, but such a sentiment can be applied to a lot of things.” She said, trying to make it sound like that’s a good excuse. “But I’m sure you’ve heard that kind of logic enough from me at this point. If I were to be more transparent about it, it’s that because you can’t control everything, it means that you don’t have to. The same could be said about that long tangent both of us go down on.”

  …Would that be a good excuse? I guess it depends on the person, and for me… Well. I don’t think it’s a wrong mindset exactly. Trying to be perfect is a way to set up for disappointment.

  “I suppose that is a defense one can always default to.” Of course, it is also a common excuse, regardless of validity, so it is hard to take as the sole defense. “At this point. I think I’ve wasted enough of your time with these questions. Unless you have something else to impart.”

  “If I had something to say, I would’ve been…” She then stopped in her tracks for whatever reason. “Actually. There’s one thing I almost forgot to ask you.”

  “Oh boy. What is it?” With the sudden pause it’s clearly not a minor request. Got me a little bit worried with how sudden the reaction was.

  “It’s nothing massive. It’s not like I’m going to make you make me another castle.” She jokingly said, noticing my less than confident expression.

  “That kind of task is on such an inhumane scale that nothing else is ever going to come close.” I exasperatedly pointed out. Building such a rge structure in less than half a day doesn’t take away from the fact that it is a daunting task, if anything it just adds to the scale of the achievement.

  “It’s convenient that you basically act as our building supplies, but this is getting even more off track by the seconds.” She remarked before going back to what is on her mind.

  Right. Using my biology to synthesize and replicate highly durable material needed to create one of the most impregnable buildings to ever exist, most likely. Almost everything is made of material harder than diamond, and obviously way tougher as well. It would need… something akin to a missile for there to be any visible damage, and that might be underselling it a bit. Basically, very little can even leave a scratch on most of the things in here. It would be impossible to accidentally cause a crack in the wall or floor.

  This pce also has the defense system providing things like anti-air weapons or magical barriers, just so any outside attack wouldn’t even get inside the campus itself.

  “It is a bit weird to call me that, don’t you think?” And it’s not like they can’t conjure up materials out of thin air. It has disproportionately high mana cost compared to conjuring something that only exists within reality temporarily, but these guys aren’t cking in fuel.

  “There are way worse things you could be called, you know?” She said, not taking my point seriously. “But I digress. Back on topic, you remember that the next week's schedule is oddly light, right?”“Yeah? Did you have a grand show in mind already? On the fifth week?” I said, wondering what she is pnning.

  “It’s not a grand show per se. I would call it a demonstration…” She said with a small smirk on her. Just where is she going with this?