Auralis Empire

Fifteen minutes—it's not too long, not too short. In those fifteen minutes, I witnessed a scene that could have been straight out of a futuristic sci-fi blockbuster. I reckon I won't have much interest in Hollywood for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, the three unlucky criminals underwent a transformation, going from fierce thugs to absolute idiots. Just thinking about the moment when Bell forcefully jammed that long metal probe into one of their brains makes me feel a bit nauseous...

With a slight hum from Bell's body, the time stop effect ended. The crowd scattered in all directions, paper bits continued to whirl in the air, and dust that had been frozen in mid-air resumed its descent, like particles in a background effect. At the same time, the silent world was suddenly filled with noise—the screams of students, the screams of students, and more screams of students...

For a moment, I felt like my head was about to explode! The contrast between the silence and the chaos was so stark it was almost overwhelming.

But soon, the screams faded, because some students noticed that the three previously arrogant gunmen had collapsed on the ground, drooling and staring blankly, like idiots biting their fingers...

If anyone had been observant, they would have noticed the discord in the scene. Even though Bell had tried to position the three criminals carefully, the discontinuity in time had caused some visual inconsistencies. It was as if a segment of a video had been deleted and then pieced back together, giving a very obvious "frame jump" effect.

But of course, everyone was too busy running for their lives to notice such small discrepancies.

According to the usual script, the police should be coming to clean up by now.

But I had no interest in what was to come. Right now, I just wanted to leave this chaotic place as soon as possible.

I grabbed Tina's hand and quickly walked toward the campus. She was still a bit dazed, stumbling behind me. Normally, Tina was carefree, but she was clearly still rattled by what had just happened. After all, she's not yet at the point where she can remain unfazed by a school shooting.

No one noticed that among the noble students on the other side, a pair of bright eyes were watching us leave, filled with uncertainty.

After resting in a teaching building on campus for a while, Tina finally snapped back to reality and let out a long breath, patting her chest and saying, “Phew— that scared me! I never imagined something like this would actually happen. I’ve only seen school shootings on TV before, but to see it happen in real life! By the way, Blair, when do you think the TV people will show up?”

I gave an awkward smile. Compared to what I just witnessed, this situation was nothing unusual.

“Hey, Blair, why do you think those three guys did this? Was it for money? I guess it makes sense—they were targeting those rich kids over there, so it's probably normal. But how did they all end up like that? Did they all have heart attacks at the same time?”

Looking at Tina, who had already recovered, I couldn’t help but sigh. "Tina, your nerves are so tough. You’ve already recovered this quickly?”

“Well, it was just a false alarm, right? No need to go overboard and get a psychological trauma, right? By the way, Blair, you still need to take Lilith to register, right? It's getting late…”

Tina’s last sentence suddenly reminded me of something important!

Bell! I had been so busy pulling Tina along that I completely forgot about Bell. Was she still quietly following us?

I turned to look at the silent little girl dressed like a blind person, giving her a complex look.

Originally, even though I knew she wasn’t human, since her appearance was identical to that of an ordinary person, I couldn’t help but think of her as an odd little sister. But just now, Bell’s transformation into a humanoid weapon had once again brutally reminded me that the girl I called my sister was not human—she was a war machine from the distant Auralis Empire.

For a moment, I didn't even know how to face her.

I didn’t dislike her; on the contrary, I often felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to her, the only one who knew my secret, even though she was a bit cold. Maybe that was why I found it so hard to accept that she was just a weapon.

“Blair, what’s wrong? Are you spacing out? Was the whole thing just now too much for you?” Tina asked, noticing I was staring at my “sister” without saying a word. Her tone was full of concern, almost as if she assumed I had been completely overwhelmed by the whole event.

It was a blow to my pride, but also, could she stop treating everyone like they have nerves as tough as hers?

“I’m fine. I was just wondering if Lilith was frightened... You go ahead to class. I’ve already talked to the teacher, and once Lilith’s in her new class, I’ll head over.”

Tina shot me a worried look for a few seconds, but when she saw I didn’t seem abnormal, she finally replied, “Oh, okay. I’ll head off then. You hurry up and come to class later.”

Honestly… even though she’s a few months younger than me, she always acts like she’s the one taking care of people…

“Emperor…”

“Don’t call me that anymore.” I suddenly said firmly.

Bell seemed surprised by my words. Her face, which usually didn’t show any expression, now had a slight hint of surprise, her gray eyes widening just a bit, which made her seem oddly cute.

After a few seconds, Bell regained her composure and replied indifferently, “Emperor is the universal term for the highest authority individual in the Auralis Empire. If you don’t like it, I can add ‘Your Majesty’ after the title, following the customs of this world.”

“No, that’s not what I meant… Call me ‘brother’ from now on. Let’s stick to that.”

Bell quietly looked at me. Then I heard a “zzzz” sound, like high-voltage electricity flowing through a transformer, and before long, a small wisp of white smoke rose from the top of her head…

Hey, hey, hey, I just told you to change the title. Did it really cause a logic malfunction in you?

“Database comparison complete. Changing to this title does not violate Auralis law. The default title has been updated. However, in battle form, the original title will still be maintained.”

Bell quietly reported the result of her thinking process, then suddenly pointed to her head and said, “Brother, I’m overloaded…”

This is so cute!

Introducing Bell to her new class went even smoother than I had expected. The story of a strong blind girl who overcame great difficulties to reunite with her long-lost brother immediately drew sympathy from the pure-hearted first-year students. Little Lilith became the sweetheart of the entire class. The students were eager to show their kindness, and their enthusiasm made Bell feel slightly overwhelmed.

Now I can relax. At least I don’t have to worry about some clueless student bullying Bell for being a “blind girl” and getting vaporized by a phase cannon.

After all, Bell had made it clear to me that if anyone tried to offend her, as a senior officer of the Auralis Empire, she had to maintain the honor of an Imperial soldier. And the way she would do that… was with force.

The upper limit of that force was pretty terrifying, and it even included options to use planetary weapons!

So my biggest hope was that no one would anger Bell.

Of course, since I currently have zero command capability over the Auralis Empire and Bell doesn’t have support from an Auralis outpost, using planetary weapons is pretty unlikely. At most, she’d probably deploy some legion-grade weapons…

So, Bell’s classmates, don’t be fooled by this little girl’s harmless appearance!