Why was Bianka also a student?
Shu genuinely didn't know the answer to that.
He wasn't the one who handled her enrollment, he wasn't the one who proposed she join, and he certainly wasn't the one who set the admission criteria. He honestly had no idea why Bianka was here.
But why hadn't he found it strange that she was here?
Shu looked down at the girls celebrating their victory in the arena, feeling increasingly perplexed by his own reaction.
The strangest part was that he hadn't felt it was strange at all. It was as if he subconsciously believed that this exact roster was exactly how a class should look.
"Maybe because... her physical age is actually appropriate for attending school?" Shu suggested, a faint smile tugging at his lips as he watched the girls cheer and crowd around Bianka.
Joachim half-lowered his eyelids, his voice flat with deadpan disbelief.
"I've seen that child's other form. If you told me she wasn't of legal age yet, I'd believe you. But if you're trying to tell me she belongs in the same grade as these kids..."
He looked down at the energy-saving-mode Bianka and shook his head. "I don't buy it for a second."
"Perhaps this state is actually her original state?" Shu raised an eyebrow, offering a hypothesis.
"Impossible," Joachim denied instantly. "She isn't even accustomed to fighting in this body.
"Take that final punch she used to finish off the construct, for example. Given her trajectory and the angle of force, she was clearly aiming for its head. However, she misjudged her own height, which resulted in the blow landing squarely on its chest instead.
"Furthermore..."
Joachim rattled off a list of minor mechanical errors Bianka had made during the fight, then fixed his gaze back on Shu. "How could this possibly be her true state?
"Be honest with me. Exactly how old is she?"
"How old do you think Bianka is?" Shu countered.
Joachim tilted his head slightly, a sharp glint reflecting off his glasses.
"From what I can tell... that child is two, maybe three years old at most."
Shu whipped his head around, staring at Joachim in genuine shock. "Why on earth would you guess that?"
Even though Joachim's guess was frighteningly close to the truth, Shu still had to question if the man's thought process was clinically insane.
Hearing Shu's reaction, Joachim immediately knew his deduction was correct. The gleam on his glasses seemed to shine even brighter.
"It wasn't a difficult conclusion to reach." His tone was perfectly calm, like a professor explaining a relatively simple reading comprehension question to a student.
He held up a single finger.
"First, her general common sense is severely skewed.
"I can tell that her understanding of a 'school' is completely off. In her eyes, a school isn't a place to learn academic knowledge; it's more like a trial ground where one must fight life-or-death battles.
"This is not a cognitive bias that a normally raised child would ever develop. Hell, if anyone could successfully educate a normal child to hold that kind of view, I'd concede defeat.
"Anyone who has actually experienced a genuine childhood—even if they never attended a day of school in their life—would never interpret a school purely as a battlefield.
"This proves that her experiential understanding of basic societal concepts is practically zero. All of her information input has come exclusively from... what others have told her."
"Hmm..."
Shu pressed his lips together and nodded in agreement.
Which begged the question: Who exactly drilled that concept into Bianka's head?
How strange... Well, throwing Otto and Rita in jail for it is definitely the right call regardless.
Joachim then extended a second finger.
"Second, her combat patterns.
"Her fighting style lacks any profound or sophisticated technique. It relies far more on instinct, much like the traditional Kaslana combat method.
"And as I mentioned earlier, there were several instances during the fight where she misjudged her own proportions, causing her strikes to deviate from their intended targets.
"Mistakes like that shouldn't happen with a seasoned warrior who possesses such an absurdly high level of talent. Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that she lacks genuine combat experience. Even now, she's essentially fighting purely on instinct."
"Hiss..." Shu sucked in a sharp breath.
He had honestly thought Bianka was fighting incredibly well... Sure, she was a bit reckless, but Shu had just assumed that was her personal style—always ready to just blow herself up along with the enemy...
So she actually had no idea how to fight, and was just brute-forcing her way through these battles with raw stats?
Joachim, ignoring Shu's internal revelation, held up a third finger.
"The third point is a reverse-deduction based on her abilities.
"We know for a fact that she can actively switch between two different physical forms. That is obviously abnormal, so I can attribute it to a unique power she possesses.
"Combining the previous two points: she possesses astronomical talent, yet completely lacks corresponding combat and social experience. This child is essentially a completely blank slate.
"A situation like this can only occur in two types of people: amnesiacs, or children who haven't experienced the world yet.
"Rather than assuming she has amnesia, why shouldn't I assume that she is, in fact, a young child whose body was artificially accelerated to maturity? Doesn't that perfectly align with the abilities she's demonstrated?"
Huh... That actually makes perfect sense.
Shu traced Joachim's line of logic and found that it was entirely sound.
But it wasn't foolproof.
"Did you not consider the possibility that the Book of Time might have altered her memories?" Shu asked, tilting his head curiously.
Joachim: "...The Book of Time actually has that capability?"
Shu nodded solemnly. Joachim's expression visibly soured a fraction.
However, he still had an out-of-bounds maneuver.
"The fact that you're asking me that proves my deduction was correct, doesn't it?" Joachim shamelessly chose to read the room, gleaning the final answer directly from Shu's reaction.
Shu gave a noncommittal nod.
"Yes. Your deduction was spot-on.
"Even though Bianka's mind is already quite mature, in reality, she's only a few months old." Shu let out a soft sigh, a trace of heartache flickering in his eyes.
"We don't usually call someone who is a few months old a 'child.' We call them 'infants.'"
Joachim corrected Shu's terminology without a shred of mercy. "Your Fire Moth organization isn't just employing child labor anymore..."
Shu choked, glancing guiltily at the several highly decorated minors currently standing in the arena, and quickly averted his gaze from Joachim.
"Haha... I suppose you're right..." Shu scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well, those were special circumstances... And aren't we sending them back to school now?"
"..." Joachim stared at the guilty-looking Shu, then silently withdrew his gaze.
"That child is a clone, isn't she?" he asked in a low voice, watching Bianka grow increasingly flustered under the barrage of praise from her teammates.
"Yes."