Xyrin Empire-Chapter 665: The Fierce School Festival, The Fierce Sports Day

Chapter 665: Chapter 665: The Fierce School Festival, The Fierce Sports Day

"Speaking of which, where’s Ilya?"

I looked around but didn’t spot the silver-haired loli who should be clamoring and rushing over, which seemed odd. Tohsaka Rin and the others should have come together with Ilya, right? From what I remember, that stingy Tohsaka had taken it upon herself to care for the little girl and even arranged for her education—uh oh, was it because of that reason that Demon Rin sent the poor child to work in some dark factory to earn money, and during festival celebrations like this, our pitiful silver-haired loli could only be hiding from the howling cold wind by a web-covered, cold fireplace gnawing on a half piece of hard bread she earned from a day’s hard work while carefully guarding her accumulated coins, all to buy her freedom one day?

The image of a pitiable Ilya in a dark and cold, lonely mansion played across my mind, and I couldn’t help but feel a deep respect for Miss Tohsaka: she’s truly someone who knows how to live!

...It seems the direction of my rant has subtly gone awry.

"Although I’m not sure what Uncle is thinking, the way you’re looking at me is just too suspicious!" Tohsaka eyed me doubtfully, her tone filled with annoyance, "Besides, you really are a loli fan, aren’t you? Even after abducting so many naive girls, you still can’t resist poor Ilya, can you?"

"Cough cough, I was just curious why Ilya wasn’t with you, that’s all."

With the thoughts that had just crossed my mind being morally dubious, I dared not let this bratty girl in on them and hurriedly steered the conversation back to a more appropriate track.

"The little girl is behind, just happened to come across Berserker, and the two of them started chatting—ah, there they are now."

Following the direction of Rin’s pointing finger, I indeed saw two figures, large and small, turning the corner. The latter had noticed us as well, and Berserker, acting as a mode of transportation, immediately picked up his pace, carrying Ilya and jogging over.

...Although it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, Berserker, you are still so adept at playing the mount, huh.

"Ha, it’s Big Brother~~~"

The little girl sitting atop the giant’s shoulder shouted joyfully, waving to greet me; before I could even respond, suddenly someone thumped me on the head, and Chairman’s sour voice rang out: "Stupid human! Why is she riding higher than me?"

I was stunned for a moment before suddenly realizing Mercury Lamp’s grievances came from two sources. The first, she was very unhappy with Ilya who suddenly appeared and was very close to her "adoptive father"; and the second, she was disgruntled that her own mount was shorter than that annoying little girl’s ride.

The second point left me with a sense of profound sadness.

I exchanged a sympathetic glance with Berserker, who was also a loli mount, we understood each other’s feelings: "It’s tough having a little brat riding on your shoulders, isn’t it?"

It wasn’t surprising to us that Mercury Lamp and Ilya would argue upon meeting; not to mention Ilya’s forever juvenile personality, just Mercury Lamp’s stubbornness alone meant she would never accept her stuff being taken by someone else—does she consider me her private property or something?

But despite their quarreling, with Big Sister overseeing, these little beings with a strength rating of merely five were, of course, unlikely to come to blows. While Mercury Lamp and Ilya engaged in a tit-for-tat argument on my shoulders, I took the opportunity to chat with others, like Berserker, who was also serving as a loli mount.

Lilina immediately gave us a description on the spot: "Two mounts taking advantage of the knight’s duel to socialize."

At that moment, both Hercules and I had very gloomy expressions on our faces.

"A competition?" Rin picked up on the reason why this whole bunch of Imperial Leaders had come and showed an interested expression, "Including all external aides? And even Pandora and Visca are participating? Seems quite interesting. I was a bit disappointed about missing the opening ceremony, but if I can find a good spot to watch this fascinating competition, that seems like a good trade-off."

So, our big, strange family of myriad life forms, along with Tohsaka’s group of four that we had run into by chance (Berserker still had to prepare for the afternoon’s... pfft... Sixth Holy Grail War... so Ilya was left in my care), marched royally toward the site of the Imperial Military Academy’s school festival’s athletic competition.

Although it was Qianqian’s brainstorming run wild that led to the founding of the academy, looking at it now, it had become a truly super institution. Disregarding the dizzying course schedule that could turn Ding Zhen Si into a T-800 on the spot, just look at the fierce expanse of land it occupies and the formidable club activities during the school festival to know what’s going on.

Walking through what can be called the top comprehensive academy in the Multi-universe, Tohsaka and the others were continuously stimulated by the surrounding scenes.

"The Tesla Enthusiast Club is the first club established within the Military Academy, and that kilometer-long railgun in front was handmade by them. The Sisters Misaka just fired a target drone, and they plan to destroy it with a super electromagnetic storm in three minutes to attract newcomers to join the club," Judgment Mercury Lamp explained as our enthusiastic guide.

"Over here is the Robot Research Club. Supported by an Imperial Researcher acting as their advisor, the Sisters Misaka have built a superheavy siege robot modeled after the New Eden Federation’s ’Thunder God Mecha.’ However, it’s said that there are still some issues with its fire control system, so it’s only available for static display right now," Judgment Mercury Lamp said with a hint of regret.

"What you’re all seeing now is the Astronomy Department’s event. Just five minutes ago, the Sisters Misaka here launched their own self-built spaceship—also with guidance from their advisor. Ah, the latest broadcast: it seems the spaceship has been captured by the ’uncles’ from the Imperial Army in the Cosmic Fleet... The Shadow Space doesn’t have any stars for the Sisters Misaka to explore," Judgment Mercury Lamp explained with disappointment.

"Wow... how terrifying, this place is absolutely terrifying..."

Ilya couldn’t hold back anymore and exclaimed, "Is the school festival supposed to be this terrifying?!"

"Alien Uncle, are you sure it’s okay for these 13-14-year-old girls to be studying such things?"

Tohsaka Rin’s eyebrows shot up as she looked at me with a conflicted expression.

I, too, had been scared by the horrific clubs that the Sisters Misaka had formed. I was now searching the campus for one or two more normal student organizations and actually found one: in front of the A4 building of the middle school section, a Sister Misaka was handing out flyers to passing tourists, and I faintly heard her talking about "protecting flora and fauna... Ecology Department... environmental protectionism."

Perhaps there was finally a somewhat normal club, right? At least the Ecology-conscious Sisters Misaka wouldn’t come up with such bizarre things anymore, right?

"Ecology Department, one of the most powerful student clubs at the Imperial Military Academy. Last month, they established an Ecological Dome covering the entire Northern Hemisphere on the Sixth Star of New Eden Dan Tuyin. Recently, they plan to build a second one on the Mars Sanctuary," Judgment Mercury Lamp said with a mix of envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Everyone: "..."

After a while, everyone with club experience sighed in unison: "Feels like the clubs I used to join were so weak."

"Uh, you said envy, jealousy, and hatred earlier? Did you join a club too?" I tried to divert my attention from the club activities and displays around us that were almost causing the tourists to flee en masse, focusing my gaze on the three-foot-tall guide doll: Of course, I was talking to the Sister Misaka behind her who was multitasking and remote controlling, "What does your club do?"

Judgment Mercury Lamp was silent for a moment, then blandly mentioned three ordinary words: "Physics Department."

I was momentarily stunned: With such a commonplace name, what was going on? How did such a string of outrageous super clubs precede the emergence of something so tightly bound to compulsory education? Could it be that within my Imperial Military Academy, there’s the existence of some evil organization like after-school tutoring? Are you, the Sister Misaka behind this three-foot-tall doll, the only club in this school that actually studies academic knowledge...

"Last week we made twelve Big Ivans, but the teacher confiscated them, tsk!" Judgment Mercury Lamp said, very dissatisfied.

The group fell silent once again, then Miss Tohsaka tugged at the corner of my clothes, with tears in her eyes: "Alien Uncle, I want to go home..."

Damn it, stop cutesily begging like that, you little rascal!

I had no idea that just strolling through half of the Imperial Military Academy would lead to such exaggerated events. Normally, watching the Sisters Misaka engaged in their various hilarious courses, I had no feelings about it. But seeing them showcase their skills in full force during the school festival, I suddenly realized: this doomed place is the cradle for nurturing young Saviors!

But no matter how thrilling the publicity activities of various clubs and class displays were in the first half of the event, the athletic competition held on the big playground behind the junior high school building was still within the standard specifications: considering that the Misakas could only invite aides from different worlds to compete, all contestants’ physical abilities were restricted to the range of ordinary humans. The only difference between the contestants was a one percent margin of error in physical ability and individual skill gaps, so at least I didn’t have to worry about seeing a bunch of superhumans shooting eye beams at each other in the sky.

"Suddenly, I’m reminded of the scene when Ah Jun was participating in sports day as a child," Big Sister mused, sitting in what was called the "parents’ seat"—which was actually just the best spot reserved for our First Family—while looking at the sea of people outside the sports field and the aides warming up inside, "In a flash, Ah Jun has reached the age to sit in the parents’ seats and watch the competition."

Big Sister, can your gloriously youthful self not occasionally slip into maternal mode?

Seeing the various strange looks coming from around us—especially the mocking glances from the two little demons, Tohsaka Rin and Lilina—I slapped the two mischievous girls on the head to get them in line and then shot a resentful glance at Big Sister.

"Brother! We’ve changed into our outfits!"

Visca’s voice suddenly came from behind, interrupting my friendly interaction with Lilina and Tohsaka Rin. I turned to look and saw two identical little lolis standing pertly behind me, and what’s more... they were dressed for sports.

It was the first time I’d seen the Pandora Sisters in this typical elementary school student sports day attire. Usually used to seeing the two tots in princess dresses and military uniforms, their outfit change was so unexpected, I almost didn’t recognize them!

Though they lacked the legendary sports shorts, the two little girls in sports shirts and shorts were indeed quite adorable—oh, and it’s worth noting: their size 1.2-meter clothing seemed to be specially made... perhaps because they didn’t have the physique of a schoolchild?

"Um... Brother, does it look okay?"

Visca noticed my gaze and immediately started poking her two index fingers together, her blood-red cat-eyes shining brightly from her mood, her face wearing an expectant look—Visca at this moment, cuteness level: five-plus signs!

Standing next to her, Pandora didn’t speak and her face was expressionless, but a flash seemed to sparkle in her large, grey eyes.

"Fits perfectly," I nodded solemnly, "What events are you two signed up for?"

"I’m doing a regular long-distance run, while my silly sister got paired up in a three-legged race by drawing lots, and afterward, we both signed up for the relay race!"

Visca announced proudly, tilting her little face up, full of a proud "watch me" expression.

It was such a modest competition, incomparable to marching and fighting, yet Visca was happily engaged in it.

At this moment, a Misaka led a group of other Misakas rushing over to us. Honestly, seeing the crowds of Misakas on the square—running Misakas, standing Misakas, sitting Misakas, and even jumping Misakas—well, it just felt... like these girls were fast conquering the world.

And this was only three to four thousand people; the other half of the Misakas hadn’t even come over from the other half of the campus.

These Misakas were coming to tell Visca and Pandora that the competition was about to start.

We, the parents, quickly took our seats, just as intently focused on the field as Big Sister was when she attended the sports day I had signed up for.

Lilina fished around in her pocket, magically pulling out a handful of snacks and distributing them, while Bingdisi looked around at the valleys of clones in wonder. After learning about these girls, this female hooligan had strongly expressed a desire to go and slaughter her way through Academy City, but upon finding out the place had become a puppet of the Empire from top to bottom, she settled down. Meanwhile, Monina was quietly discussing the cooking competition with Kenser. As the only contestant not exhausted to the point of bile after providing lunch for three super gluttons, Monina effortlessly claimed the championship. Kenser nodded slightly as he listened to Monina’s description of human world soy sauce, murmuring, "Very good, very good."

As for Gaia, who was experiencing our everyday life for the first time, it seemed like she had encountered too many crazy scenes she hadn’t anticipated at the start, and was now busy with a Now Loading.

"I really feel there’s no comparison," Big Sister mused as she observed the competition field. "Even with restrictions in place, Visca is definitely going to be the champion."

In the competition field, Visca, who was the first to enter, now stood at the starting line of the track. At the moment, she was quite interested in nabbing the referee’s pistol, offering her own EKN-87 standard armored military rifle in exchange for the poor middle-of-the-night Sister’s starting gun. Sensing the gaze from outside the field, Visca immediately hopped and skipped energetically, waving her little hand toward us. Among the competitors, all usually over 1.2m tall, my cat-eyed little sister looked just like a primary school student who had wandered onto the track by mistake.

...Suddenly, I started to worry about those Otherworld competitors taller than Visca, hoping fervently that none of them would turn out to be dark horses.

However, I wasn’t at all concerned about whether Visca could win. Although all participants were suppressed to the strength level of an average human under the complex Energy Inhibition System, this actually made Visca’s advantages even more evident: a million years of honed instinctual combat experience, the high-efficiency philosophy so cherished by the Xyrin Apostle, and the super energy utilization rate of a small frame—these were attributes the Energy Inhibition System couldn’t completely suppress. Moreover, as a standard model in the efficient, low-energy Pandora series, battling with control skills and energy efficiency was Visca’s bread and butter. When all the competitors’ physical abilities were leveled, relying solely on personal experience and proficiency in limb control for the competition, Visca’s victory was as good as secured.

Sure enough, when the starting pistol fired, the first to dash off the starting line and quickly take the lead was our very own Visca-chan~!!

"Well done! Let’s go, Visca~!!"

It may have been a childish sort of competition, but thanks to Visca’s enthusiasm, everyone got serious. Seeing the little girl take the lead, not only I stood up but Qianqian and Big Sister did as well, loudly cheering for the little one who was already ahead.

Whether she heard our cheers or not, the girl on the track suddenly picked up her speed another notch. Even with her machine body’s performance controlled to a human level, she was almost running fast enough to leave afterimages!

When she neared the finish line, our cat-eyed Loli had almost lapped the competition, leaving a full circle’s distance between her and the next contestant. Don’t underestimate this gap—for all competitors on the field had the identical physical condition!

The Misaka class, which had invited Visca to participate and succeeded, erupted in a roaring cheer. Though there were still dozens of meters to the finish line, it seemed Visca had already communicated her victory to them.

It was getting closer, ever closer—athlete Visca was now just a few meters away from the finish line, victory within reach. Just a little more, for the dashing Visca, the distance was only...

My enhanced eyes suddenly noticed that my beloved little sister appeared to freeze up upon seeing the finish line.

Before I could wonder what caused Visca to pause, a historic moment unfolded, a scene that would surely be recorded in the annals of history:

The little girl... ran past it...

She ran right under the finish line...

Underneath it...

Past it...

Gone...

Visca, who dashed past the finish line leaving a trail of afterimages, wore a bewildered expression as she ran a little further, then slowly turned back. The red ribbon that had just passed over her head was slightly fluttered by the breeze, then stilled.

(Okay, it’s the beginning of the month; I completely spaced out at the end of last month and forgot to ask for votes. Looks like I can only ask for votes for the new month now—also, there was a little error in the Chapter. If you see this note, it means it’s been corrected.) (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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