Aurora Over a Dead World

"..." Ashlyn is just staring at me again, and I can see the dark circles under her eyes looking even deeper. I guess having the chance to sleep once made not sleeping even worse. After that day, she never came to me directly to ask for it again.

But it’s obvious she wants it, and honestly I’ve started to feel sorry for her, because every day her gaze seems more desperate, and it’s been over a month now.

’Haa... Eirwen’s busy with everything involving her father, the recordings, and controlling her powers. I think it’s better if I call Ashlyn to go on missions with me...’ I glance at the other students training with the moves Nexus displays on the monitor.

"Ashlyn, come here." Ashlyn, who had been resting on the bench, approaches while averting her gaze.

"D-Do you need something?" She seems tense as she asks, which doesn’t make much sense to me.

’Introverts are so complicated. She clearly wants to ask for something, but she just stares at me like I’m supposed to predict exactly what she wants...’

"You’re going to come train with me every night. I’ll take you to explore the city a bit, maybe fight some monsters, and if you do well, I can help you sleep again." I offer the possibility of sleep as a reward to motivate her.

"...I’ll go." She accepts without giving it much thought. I look at Eirwen, who glares at both of us and then turns her face away. She seems kind of angry. I wonder if it’s because she’s been replaced, since she was the one who was supposed to train with me during the nights.

Unfortunately, our nighttime training barely lasted three days. All that mess happened, so even though the training helped her, it never moved forward.

’It doesn’t matter. There wouldn’t be any merit in taking Eirwen for individual training right now. It’s better to focus solely on Ashlyn and then see about the next one...’

"I’m glad you decided to be cooperative. I have a lot of questions about your powers and how you use them... Besides... I have some useful things I want that maybe you could help me with, just like I have many things to teach you... And of course, there’s still the matter of the cube. I might ask you a few things." I’ve thought about it a lot since I met Nadir and we went on our outing.

Maybe these girls are what will finally give me the chance to learn more about the past. Clearly, some of them have relevant families, and others have powers useful enough to help me.

Like Charlotte, with her movement through the fissures in space that allows her to go from one place to another, literally meaning she can leave and enter Aurora Island without being detected at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ashlyn’s power is perfect for gathering information from certain people. Of course, I won’t force any of them to do anything. These are just possibilities I ended up thinking about. For now, I’ll focus only on what my job requires.

"Teacher, can I skip the rest of this class?" Ashlyn pulls me from my thoughts. I look into her eyes, seeing that she seems quite tired. I glance at the others, who are paying close attention to this.

’Just letting her stop wouldn’t be fair... but considering I’m going to force her to train with me at night, it’s a fair trade.’

"Considering you’re going to be forced to come with me for individual training over the next few nights, I’ll grant your request. You can leave, but be at the door of the teachers’ rooms near nightfall." She grabs her things and starts to leave.

"That’s so unfair!!" Tanya complains, stopping what she’s doing.

"Why does she get to leave early? Is there favoritism going on? Is it because she’s quiet?" Even though Tanya heard that she’s going to train with me, she still complains.

"...Favoritism? Then how about you come with us? But know this — it’ll be training far worse than just this practical physical training you’re doing right now. On top of that, it’ll take up almost the entire night for several days."

"...I don’t—"

"No! Didn’t you want to go? Or can the princess not live without her ten hours of sleep a day?"

"..." She turns red with embarrassment while the others stare at her, and Charlotte secretly tries to hide a smug little smile.

"You’ll have your turn too, so go back to your place. You’re not the sun for the world to revolve around you. Be less loud, princess."

"Whatever!!" She turns around and leaves without me even allowing it. I just sigh. It’s going to be hard dealing with this annoying, insufferable girl.

’I think the worst part isn’t even that attitude — it’s the absurd talent she has paired with that attitude...’ Tanya was the only one I’ve seen use her powers extremely freely in all the simulator training sessions.

That doesn’t just indicate arrogance. It indicates absurd control and an absurd natural ability to withstand the core’s pressure. No matter how stable it is, her usage is almost reckless, yet she doesn’t show even a hint of exhaustion.

It’s very rare to find people who have so much freedom with their powers without excessive costs. So even with this shitty attitude, her talent makes me want to know how strong she’ll become in the future if she changes her attitude and takes training seriously.

’It’s better not to think about that...’ I turn my focus back to the students who stayed, helping them adjust their posture and how to shift it with the least possible cost, as much as I can.

"Hey, hottie, I don’t really know the posture. Could you help me?" Edith calls me over, creating a situation where I have to touch her. I go behind her, taking her hands and adjusting them while pressing my hips against hers and my chest against her back, pushing into her spine.

"It’s like this. If you keep your spine so far back, it’ll mess up your posture. And keep your hands higher. What I’m teaching are basic strikes from fighting styles. I don’t have very concrete training myself, so some strikes won’t be good for your builds."

"You... have a build similar to mine, even though your tits are way bigger, so you’ll be able to pull off most of the strikes I’m teaching... Rouge could too. Now, Charlotte and Eirwen will have some extra difficulty, same as Tanya since she’s short." I explain it in a way so Edith understands she’s not unique here.

"Hmmm, sounds great. Teacher, when are you going to give me private lessons? I... I’m looking forward to it. And maybe I could teach you a thing or two about women." She looks back with a ’seductive’ smile.

"Gaah!! Y-You bitch!! Kyaa!! S-Sorry!! D-Don’t push..." She lets out a little yelp when I press her body in a way that makes her bones crack.

"I told you to adjust your spine." A tear rolls down her cheek from the slight pain of the movement as she fixes her posture.

"Looks like you learned. Or do you need something more? I can crack a few more things to improve your posture."

"N-No... I learned." She mutters an offense under her breath that I can’t make out, but I decide not to scold her for it as I step away.

"Is anyone else having trouble?" No one says anything as I move away from them, grabbing my phone and opening the support file Nexus made for me. It shows everyone’s heart rate rhythm and some other real-time data about their bodies with just a three-second delay.

’They’re doing well, even though they’ve been at this for hours...’ Even though the chip and cores increase physical strength and bodily output, it’s not without cost. Our hearts beat much faster, our bodies get much hotter during constant exertion, and the physical wear ends up being greater. We’re like machines in that sense.

’Rouge is obviously the one performing best in terms of physical stability, but Eirwen is using her cold to regulate her temperature, so she’ll last far longer than all of them... very good.’ I give a small smile, because this shows just how much Eirwen is improving in the more stable control of her power.

"Charlotte, fix your posture. Your breathing is too unstable. You’re a feline. It makes no sense for you to be the one with the highest physical output when your mutation should be helping you with that."

"...Sorry for being a useless feline." When she says that, I raise my head in surprise, because the tone she used and the apology seemed strange — not exactly mockery.

"Did you say something?"

"...No." She just turns her face away as she continues the training.

’Strange...’ I decide to just keep analyzing, but her results are something I can’t stop looking at. They’re terrible. She’s too hot with little effort, her heart is beating way too fast as if she were running a ten-kilometer marathon with no rest at all, and her physical wear is staggering.

To a level that surpasses any other physical wear I’ve ever seen. It’s almost abnormal — a complete lack of talent when it comes to physical capabilities.

’Maybe it’s just that her physique is bad in terms of general capabilities. It’s not uncommon, even though hers is exaggeratedly bad... I need to assign her a more intense training regimen to do at home...’ For now, I’m just satisfied that Charlotte decided not to be sarcastic. Maybe because the others are here and she can’t drop her facade of a cheerful, trustworthy girl.

"As soon as you finish this part of the training, we’ll go into a sixty-lap run around the court so I can get proper data on the muscular power of your legs. After that, we’ll end physical classes for today." I give them a wave of my hand while Nexus activates a ten-minute timer for this training.

’I think this is fine. I don’t really know how I’m supposed to teach combat to such different girls, so I copied part of what I saw in the past. I hope I’m doing this right...’

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