"Hit her! Good! Punch! Don't worry about getting hurt, use a headbutt! Beautiful! Knock her teeth out!"
Manabu Horikita silently watched the scene before him.
He had still underestimated what Teacher Otto had called strange.
Most of the people watching the student matches were young people. These people joined in the commotion, making the atmosphere of the battle in the arena even more intense.
And what about Noldrei?
'He looks like a high school boy, but he's actually watching two women beat each other's brains out.'
On the big screen, the teacher punched her student in the head, instantly distorting her face. Her teeth and blood went flying. The blood was as intense as their emotions!
Although he had long known that the Kengan Association fights were quite bloody, Manabu Horikita had still underestimated the degree of the bloodiness.
"I already know about what you've said. Don't be in a hurry, let's finish watching this match first."
What Noldrei liked to watch wasn't how intense the fight was, but the kind of fight where there was a difference in strength, but it wasn't too big, the kind of fight where it was possible to turn things around with enough skill, patience, and a little bit of luck.
This kind of fight could give him the most enjoyment.
A high school girl who had been bullied wanted to become more righteous and stronger, so she took the path of becoming a Valkyrie.
As for the teacher? The teacher's motivation was even more pure. She simply liked the feeling of punching others.
This teacher and student's fight was truly bloody.
Manabu Horikita looked at the enthusiastic Noldrei and silently watched the fight in the arena with him.
In just a few words, the young girl named Yukino Yukinoshita had caught the opportunity to punch the teacher in the eye, directly making the eyeball explode.
'The power of the Stigmata battlesuit is truly amazing. Both strength and endurance have been enhanced. I heard that some Valkyries will have their bodies modified by the Stigmata, and some Valkyries have naturally awakened their Stigmata power. I don't know what level their fighting power would be.'
Manabu Horikita didn't think that the Kengan Association battles represented the full combat capabilities of the Valkyries.
The main reason was that the fights against the Honkai beasts were witnessed by many people. The light across the sky was completely a form of slaughter, completely different from the current fistfight between these humans in the arena.
That level was like a walking nuclear bomb.
"That girl is going to lose. Her fighting will is shaken."
Noldrei sighed. It was a pity that Yukino Yukinoshita wasn't able to take a few more hits from the teacher.
"Age is an important factor in determining the willpower. The ability of human beings to remember pain determines their will's limits. The young girl was still lacking in experience. She couldn't resist the teacher's fake openings. Her determination was shaken after several failed attacks."
He sat down and watched to see if the young girl still had a chance to turn things around.
Although her fighting will was shaken, she hadn't given up yet. So what if she lost a few teeth and her nose and mouth were crooked? She could recover almost completely in just two days.
Even without Noldrei's help, the treatment system of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy would be enough.
"That's true. She seems to be hesitating. She seems to be getting cold feet."
Manabu Horikita had also discovered Yukino Yukinoshita's problem. He just briefly commented and stopped talking.
"It's at a stalemate now. There's nothing good to see. You said that Otto told you to come to me for help. What kind of help do you need?"
Noldrei didn't care what Otto was planning. Whether he would help or not depended on the current situation.
"The administration of Academy City has become distorted, and a lot of the poor implementation in the process has led to a huge waste of resources. We need to introduce more new people, and we could also bring together the local schools. Tie all of the schools to the research and educational institutes."
The waste that Manabu Horikita was talking about was that the research institutes would throw out a lot of money but couldn't achieve any results. If it weren't for the fact that there were many people working there, then the operations of those funds would have become a problem.
"It's very dangerous to constantly give out funds without any results. The educational industry needs ten to several decades to produce results, and being too impatient will affect the profits of many people."
Manabu Horikita didn't want Academy City to collapse. It would not only be a huge waste of resources, but it would also put Japan in a dangerous position.
Noldrei agreed with his reasoning.
But the problem was that the ones who were impatient weren't him, but the people who were trapped by him.
"There are always people who think that they can use development technology to solve problems in development. Actually, that's just wishful thinking. It's like they think that going to the next era will stop people from feeling pain. But actually, as long as life continues, the pain will never stop. If you're not able to accept pain, then the future after this will be very difficult for you."
"But those problems aren't big. People will die of suffering soon enough anyway."
Hearing Noldrei's dark humor, Manabu Horikita just pushed his glasses up.
'You are too humorous.'
Manabu Horikita said, "There's no going back. All pain is only temporary. What I want to know is how to move forward and preserve Academy City."
Manabu Horikita didn't care about the problem of development. What he wanted to do was preserve this place.
Noldrei said nonchalantly, "This place was only built six months ago. Its existence is actually not completely necessary, and even the port has better locations than this place. There's no point in trying to preserve this small place."
Noldrei's tone further confirmed Manabu Horikita's thoughts.
'This person, who looks like a teenager, doesn't even care about the existence of Academy City at all. It's like everything here appeared as a matter of course…'
'It doesn't even need to be Academy City.'
But that wasn't what Manabu Horikita cared about. He cared about the new technology and new atmosphere that Academy City had brought. Academy City was full of vitality. Even though it was crude and unsightly, it was full of upward vitality and the anticipation of many people.
Unlike the lifeless world outside, Manabu Horikita cared about the change that this place had brought to the world. He absolutely couldn't give up such a good historical opportunity.
"I really like it here, so I want to try and do something."
That was Manabu Horikita's answer.
Noldrei said thoughtfully, "I see. So you're something like a believer of the earth."
In the future, humans could travel through space. At the same time, cradle planets became cheap. Because human beings had the ability to modify ecosystems, all they had to do was find suitable planets, change their orbits, and determine their planetary mass again. Then, they could create a place that they liked according to their wishes.
And those kinds of people were often believers of the earth. They believed that the sky was not the sky, but the light that had been changed by the earth's mass.
[Everything in the world is the conservative movement of mass.]
These people were called "cosmic farmers," or they were called "believers of the earth."