For the next few days, Lin Wei's life became simple again, much like the time he spent with the children in the ruins of Nagazora City, perhaps even simpler.
At least, this time, firstly, Yae Sakura wouldn't urge Lin Wei to wake up early for various training sessions every day. Secondly, Raven wouldn't assign Lin Wei various trivial tasks like climbing high and low, as if he were truly just a guest staying over.
After being away for so long, the children were also very happy to see Lin Wei return. They were about to flock around him when, after he spoke his first sentence, they instantly scattered—
"It's been so long, have you all been studying diligently?"
Lin Wei revealed an extremely wicked smile.
"Come, bring out your homework books for me to see~"
Thus, however much the children liked Lin Wei in the previous second, they disliked him just as much in this second...
"Hahahaha..."
Seeing these little ones look so dejected, Lin Wei laughed wickedly. How can children just play all day?
So, with the tacit approval of Raven, the head of this big family, Lin Wei roped in Sora and Yuno to restart the "education business" that had been suspended since he left. Fortunately, the textbooks and exercise books collected in Nagazora City had been properly kept by Sora, so this "reboot" could proceed so smoothly.
"Sorry, Big Brother Lin Wei, I always forget things."
Sora said apologetically.
"After you left, I originally wanted to follow your example and continue teaching my younger brothers and sisters to read and write. But I'm always so scatterbrained, I simply can't do such difficult things, so I had to put these things away again..."
"It's okay. I just wanted to find something for the children to do back then."
Lin Wei patted the head of the somewhat uneasy girl and smiled.
"Next, you continue to help me maintain order among the children, okay?"
"Mm!"
Sora nodded happily, as if being needed was a very happy thing.
And so, the children who had once again fallen into the "devil's clutches" naturally wailed in misery, though of course, there were no complaints. Because the cunning Lin Wei had long since collected the children's "wish lists," promising them that if they studied well and behaved for the next few days, he would give each of them a gift they desired.
Lin Wei was already very skilled at this—in Nagazora City, facing these children with different temperaments who had all experienced great trauma, Lin Wei had also used various gifts to gradually dispel their resistance. He then used this method as small rewards during the learning process.
Lin Wei's promises were never discounted, so although the children felt a bit uncomfortable being restrained during that time, they didn't have much resistance because of these tangible rewards.
At that time, Lin Wei was just using this method to pass the time. After all, living in such a desolate wasteland, it was really easy for people to slack off, become decadent, and fall into depravity.
But now, Lin Wei wanted to use it to achieve some additional goals...
"What? Me?"
Yuno pointed at her own bewildered face, as if she had just heard something incredible.
"That's right. I see you get along quite well with these children, so the task of teaching them these lessons is up to you."
Lin Wei repeated what he had just said and smiled.
"After all, you're a student of Chiba Academy~ Although you didn't get to graduate, teaching these children who are much younger than you should be more than enough, right?"
No matter what, Yuno was the same age as Kiana, Raiden Mei, and the others. Even Sora, the oldest here, was several years younger than her, let alone the other children.
"Big Sister Yuno was a student at Chiba Academy?"
Sora, at the side, heard this and couldn't help but be a little surprised.
"I heard before that the students who can enter that school are all exceptionally good students!"
"Mm... Not necessarily."
Lin Wei thought of a certain white-haired dumpling who had transferred in and couldn't help but purse his lips.
However, he didn't plan to explain too much. After all, as a prestigious school, connections were more important than grades there. There was no need to tell the children these things.
"..."
Hearing Sora mention her past, Yuno's mood couldn't help but sink.
"Ah! Sorry, Big Sister Yuno, I shouldn't have brought these things up..."
The thoughtful Sora noticed Yuno's dejection and hurriedly apologized, as if forgetting that she herself was also a victim of that Honkai Eruption.
"Alright, Sora, it's okay."
Lin Wei gently pulled her away slightly, then said to Yuno,
"Go try it. It's not that difficult—if it really doesn't work out, how about starting by explaining practice problems to the children?"
"But!"
Yuno still didn't want to, but facing Lin Wei's gentle yet unquestionable gaze, she finally gave in and nodded dejectedly.
"Alright..."
So, that afternoon, in the room where those children usually told and listened to stories, Lin Wei watched Yuno, flustered and sweating profusely, explain addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division for an elementary school math problem to a child.
It was unknown whether it was because she had never done this before, or for some other reason, but Yuno's performance looked extremely nervous. She stumbled over her words even when explaining those supposedly very simple elementary school math problems, making the child sitting opposite her also become particularly nervous, her train of thought muddled by Yuno.
Thus, seeing that she couldn't explain it clearly no matter how she tried, Yuno was anxious, angry, and embarrassed all at once. Her eyes couldn't help darting around, and she happened to see Lin Wei not far away, looking at her with a smile, and Raven standing beside him.
She became even angrier...
"Alright, it's okay. Go play for now."
Lin Wei walked over, gently patted the child's head, and gave her a break. Watching the child run off as if granted amnesty, he then smiled and asked Yuno,
"You did pretty well just now~"
He actually gave a small compliment.
"...Are you deliberately trying to make a fool of me?"
Yuno pouted and complained. Goodness knew how much pain she had endured in those ten-odd minutes.
"Make a fool of you? No, how could I? You already did very well just now."
Lin Wei reached out and picked up a piece of scattered draft paper from the side, admiring it carefully.
The paper had the characteristic tender handwriting of a child, but more of it was the delicate small script unique to a young girl. It was just that perhaps she hadn't written for too long, so it looked a bit messy.
"At least, you didn't fly into a rage and tear this fragile little table to shreds, nor did you violently wave your vines around the room—weren't you trying very hard and seriously to explain the problem to her?"
Like a somewhat clumsy older sister.
This sentence rolled around on Lin Wei's tongue before he swallowed it back. It was better to offer more encouragement for now.
"I..."
Lin Wei's words gently touched the girl's heart, but for a moment, she didn't know what part of her had been touched.
"Alright, go rest for a bit."
Lin Wei didn't explain too much. He handed the draft paper in his hand to Yuno and said with a smile,
"That's it for today. Continue tomorrow~"
"..."
Yuno reluctantly took the draft paper with her messy handwriting, glanced at Lin Wei, and turned to leave.
Raven walked quietly behind Lin Wei, looking at Yuno's receding figure from afar, and said in an inscrutable tone,
"I really didn't expect you to be so concerned about her."
"Of course. Time is limited, and I don't have much I can teach her. Letting her try to slowly relearn how to 'live' first is already very good."
Lin Wei said calmly.
"No matter how outstanding the talent or how powerful the strength, those are merely tools for forging a path in life. Her past life has already been destroyed by the Honkai. And her future life shouldn't just be about 'revenge against the Honkai.' That would be too tragic, wouldn't it?"
Excavating talent, controlling power—the Flame-Chasers in the Elysian Realm can easily help her accomplish these things. But, after that?
Compared to a dull and efficient humanoid weapon, Lin Wei hoped she would become a vibrant human girl, at least able to find a place for herself somewhere other than the battlefield.
It was clear her handwriting used to be very beautiful. What a pity, Lin Wei thought with considerable regret.
"...Learn to live? The idea is good, but are you sure this method will work?"
After a moment of silence, Raven asked again, feigning calmness.
"Starting by tutoring the children? Isn't that taking too long a detour?"
"There has to be a starting point, right? It's not like I'm really asking her to be a teacher. A little experience is enough."
Lin Wei shrugged and said.
"At least, using this method to slowly learn how to communicate normally with people, at least to be able to communicate with children—look at how she interacted with these children yesterday, it was too passive and reserved."
It's a good thing these children aren't afraid of or disgusted by the vines on her, and some are even bold enough to use them for games. Otherwise, she would probably be all alone again. How could that be acceptable?
"Just this request?"
Raven was surprised. In her impression, this fellow Lin Wei had always had "lofty goals." She couldn't help asking,
"Then what?"
"Then? There's no then."
Lin Wei stretched and said.
"The task of making her a qualified warrior can be left to the Flame-Chasers in the Elysian Realm. As for what kind of life she can live in the future, that ultimately depends on her own efforts."
"You're not going to manage it?"
"Can't manage it!"
Lin Wei spread his hands and said.
"In these two days, after Gray Serpent is ready, I will borrow World Serpent's laboratory to make the potion to solve Yuno's physical defects and help her get rid of her biggest trouble. As for what happens after that... Heh, I can probably only ask you to help look after her, Natasha."
When he said Raven's name, Lin Wei looked her seriously in the eyes.
"...What, you're really just dumping her on me like this?"
Raven pursed her lips, averted her gaze, and said with a look of disgust.
"I've already said, this isn't a daycare center. Besides, at that girl's age, she's probably already beyond the age range for daycare."
"I don't want to either, but I have no choice. I also have my own path to walk. Yuno is willing to trust me and entrust herself to me. I have to find a place where she can settle down."
Lin Wei smiled helplessly.
"And the only people I can find to trust are probably you and these children..."
"...Do you say this to others often? You're a bit too practiced, aren't you?"
Raven was slightly flustered by Lin Wei's direct words and said irritably.
"What do you think?"
Lin Wei also replied irritably.
"In this world, how many trustworthy people can a person find in a lifetime?"
"..."
Raven was speechless. After a long while, she suddenly sighed, waved her hand, and said,
"Come with me somewhere."
Lin Wei readily complied and followed Raven away.
Little did they know that a good while after they left, Yuno carefully pushed open the door and came back. After looking left and right to confirm no one else was there, she breathed a sigh of relief and walked straight to the few simple potted plants by the window...
...
The place where Raven now lived was a rather large courtyard, nestled against a mountain and by the water, also bordering a bay. The straight road from the main entrance led to a nearby town, but unfortunately, it had long been abandoned.
"This used to be a resort. The environment is quite beautiful, and there were plenty of residents and tourists before."
Raven led Lin Wei up the steps of the small mountain, still speaking.
"It's just a pity that a very small-scale Honkai Eruption destroyed everything here... Life is truly unpredictable, isn't it?"
There was emotion in her tone, but not much. Perhaps she had seen too much of this kind of thing.
"So this place belongs to you now?"
Lin Wei said cooperatively.
"Now it has a new name: [Cioara's Home]. It sounds better than [The Nest]. It's a place to shelter these children from the wind and rain."
The mountain wasn't high, and the two soon reached the summit. Raven pointed far towards the other side of the sea and said with a somewhat longing tone,
"From here, you can vaguely see a small island. That is the place in my heart that can truly be a 'home' for the children..."
This keyword was too attention-grabbing. Lin Wei couldn't help but look in the direction she was pointing. Indeed, in a very distant and blurry place, he saw a hazy patch of green.
"That place has already been bought by me, but it really wasn't cheap! Almost all my savings from so many years were spent on it. Next, I still have to find people for exploration, design, and construction, which is another significant expense."
Raven spoke of heart-wrenching things, but the expression on her face showed no pain at all. She smiled and said,
"Next time you come, I can probably invite you to my home as a guest."
The words "my home" came out of her mouth so naturally, so enthusiastically, for the first time.
"..."
Lin Wei looked up at the sky, speechless.
You really chose such a godforsaken place?
North Africa, Mediterranean Sea, next to World Serpent headquarters, directly under Schicksal's floating island?
The buffs are stacked to the max!
"Life... isn't it?"
Facing the sea breeze, Raven took two slow steps forward, then unexpectedly raised her hand and gently lowered the hood that seemed to have never been taken off. She slowly turned around and smiled gently at Lin Wei.
"Is it pretty?"
Gray hair, red eyes, and a youthful, pretty face with some baby fat still on her cherubic cheeks. Indeed, it wasn't an intimidating appearance.
"Pretty."
Lin Wei nodded, then asked doubtfully,
"But, why?"
He didn't understand why Raven was doing this.
"Is it strange? Wearing such a hat all the time, I get hot too."
Raven, with her hood off, shrugged easily, as if she had completely let go of her final burden, and let out a long sigh.
"I never liked this life of scheming and fighting, which is why I chose to resign from World Serpent. But that experience is still etched into me, just like this hat. It was originally worn just to hide my appearance, but after wearing it for a long time, it felt like this was the real me. It actually took effort to take it off..."
Saying this, Raven gave a wry smile, glanced back at the small courtyard where the children were gathered, and then continued to gaze at the distant island.
"Only by watching the children's laughter and looking at my own home being built brick by brick in the distance, did I finally slowly remember that I didn't actually need to wear this hat, that I could have a completely different kind of life..."
Lin Wei listened quietly. Raven had probably been suppressing herself for too long and unexpectedly had a rare desire to confide.
After a good while, Lin Wei weighed his words and asked,
"Isn't it a bit inappropriate for you to set up home in this place?"
Let's find another place. With your current psychological state, I'm afraid if something happens, you might suddenly not be able to think straight...
Lin Wei understood Raven's thoughts very well, even empathized quite a bit. But Raven's current mentality was already somewhat desperate for her dream life, regardless of everything else.
In that case, when the dream was shattered, wouldn't it be earth-shattering?
"You seem to have reminded me of this many times."
Raven shot him an irritated look, then sighed faintly.
"Actually, I know all about what you said. There will always be disputes between World Serpent and Schicksal. Setting up home in this place, I admit, is indeed a bit risky."
"Then you still..."
Lin Wei was even more confused. Isn't this knowingly breaking the law?
"Even if the two major organizations really go to war, they won't throw every inch of land into it. They won't bother an ordinary orphanage like mine."
Raven said with considerable confidence.
"Besides, even if trouble really comes knocking, I'm still confident I can protect these children."
"..."
Lin Wei was speechless.
Too reasonable, irrefutable!
But, the problem is...
"Compared to these man-made disasters, natural disasters like Honkai Eruptions, which are unpredictable, are the most terrifying enemies, right?"
Raven shrugged, sighed, and said.
"If setting up home at the doorstep of Schicksal and World Serpent can't even let me escape the ravages of the Honkai, then what place in the world can be called safe?"
"..."
Lin Wei slapped his forehead.
It's over. The logic is a closed loop. There's nothing more to say...