For half an hour after slaying the giant stick bug, Zora and the others did nothing but sit in a circle at the edge of the hole, resting their battered bodies and watching the flames burn on the ground floor.

Zora explained everything he’d heard from the stick bug, of course, sparing no detail regarding what Nona was searching for to the exact species of moth Emilia had been eating. They needed a break after exerting half of their energy on the bug, but truth be told, the information might be actively preventing them from relaxing—save for him and Emilia, who was utterly engrossed with the flames beneath them, all of them wore dark, nasty frowns on their faces as they listened. He’d never seen them so focused nor serious before.

“... So it’s a wand Nona’s looking for,” Marcus summarised, arms and legs crossed as he dipped his head in deep thought. “And if she gets it back, she’ll truly become invisible? That’s–”

“–you mean ‘invincible’–”

“No good at all,” Marcus grumbled, smacking Zora on the head with an irritated click of his tongue. “All the more reason to get to mom, then. Whoever has the magicicada wand gets the ability to beat the Witches.”

“And once we get mom back, I can start work on an antidote,” Julius said, tucking his chin between his fingers as he mumbled to himself. “A ‘silkmoth’... that’s new. I’ve never heard of a bug like that before, but if that Greater Insect God of the East is also a silkmoth, then this is incredible information that we’ve just learned.” He glanced up at Zora, eyes twinkling. “D-do you reckon the militaries already know what that Greater Insect God is? Because I’ve… never heard of silkmoths before, and if I haven’t heard of it, would any human know? Isn’t this the type of information that can turn the tides of war?”

Zora didn’t show it, but it was like a heavy weight lifted off his shoulders at just the mention of Julius being able to brew an antidote for Emilia. All four of them peeked at the little girl sitting off to the side, all sorts of small, hopeful smiles crawling over their faces.

“Can you really stop her mutations?” Zora asked, whipping his head back to stare Julius in the eye. “Can you really save her?”

Julius scratched the back of his head. “I’ve never had to halt or revert silkmoth mutations before, but… I’m the man of a hundred venoms. Give me two… no, three days on the road with my research books and alchemical equipment. I'll find some information about silkmoths, and then I’ll definitely be able to to–”

He couldn’t hold it in anymore. Zora let out a huge, stuttering sigh of relief as he leaned forward, clasping both hands on Julius’ shoulders.

His hands were shaking terribly so, and he was glad Emilia wasn’t looking their way.

“Thank you,” he whispered, voice cracking a little. “Please don’t… mess it up, crystalblood. She needs the antidote. She needs to live.”

Julius blinked, looking almost surprised, but then he nodded firmly and gave Zora a trembling thumbs-up.

“First things first, though,” Julius said, before peering down the hole they were sitting next to, “I’ll need a few parts and insect flesh… from that stick bug down there to refill some of my syringes. It’ll also be for experimenting with… the antidote… so if I have a ton of insect flesh to work, I can make it faster–”

“No time to waste, then.”

Legs still aching, back still creaking, Zora pushed himself to his feet and pulled Marcus up with him as well. Julius jumped as well—if not only because he was swept up by the boys’ sudden movement—so before either of them could complain about wanting to rest a while longer, Zora began pushing them towards the edge of the hole.

“We’ll get as much insect flesh as you need, crystalblood,” Zora said, his heart hammering excitedly in his chest as he glanced around, nodding at Cecilia curtly. “We’ll be back in thirty or so minutes once we fill our satchels to the brim, and then we can continue looking for mom. Can you–”

“I’ll watch over her,” Cecilia reassured, smiling softly in Emilia’s direction. “I’ll try to start a fire as well. We’ll want to eat one last round of insect flesh before we head off, won’t we?”

His lips arched up into a smile as he shoved Marcus and Julius off the edge, hopping off right afterwards himself with his hyaline wings fanned out.

----------------------------------------

… And as all of them roasted skewers of excess bug flesh over a small fire pit under brilliant moonlight, chatting the night away without a care in the world, Cecilia hugged her knees where she sat with a distant look on her face.

Everything was going as ‘right’ as it could be. In one fell swoop, they’d figured out Nona’s weakness, practically confirmed the Headmaster’s survival, defeated the giant stick bug, and discovered the species of moth Emilia had been eating. The fact that they’d made such a ruckus killing the giant bug and Nona still hadn’t come over to kill them even lent weight to the possibility that Nona was already dead—for all they knew, the Headmaster had already trapped and killed her with her own wand. Save for the few giant bugs that were surely still skulking around in the shadows, Amadeus Academy could already be ‘safe’.

Maybe they wouldn’t even have to evacuate from the dorm tomorrow morning.

But… is it really going to be that easy?

While Marcus grabbed Julius in a headlock and Zora laughed—the boys being boys as usual, with Emilia sitting in Zora’s lap adding to the boisterous sounds—Cecilia couldn’t help but chew her nails and stare blankly at the crackling bonfire in front of them.

She’d always been a worrywart. It wasn’t a good trait to have, especially for a teacher, but she just couldn’t help herself. She’d have to see Nona burning in flames before she could confidently say they were safe, and even then, her irrational fear of bugs probably wasn’t going to let her stare at Nona’s corpse so easily.

She wasn’t like Marcus, who could crush a giant bug’s skull with his bare fists and not fear the blood on his hands.

She wasn’t like Julius, who could teeter on the line between life and death with a dozen bug venoms coursing through his veins.

She wasn’t like Zora, either, who could stand in the face of a giant bug and negotiate with it despite hating every second of it—and she knew he hated it, because even if she couldn’t speak the tongue of the bugs, she’d seen how dark his face was as the bug screeched out its dying throes.

And all of them had heard the bug saying ‘Fabre’.

No doubt about it, she thought glumly. He’s never talked about it, but I’ve read his background in mom’s reports a long time ago.

Between what that katydid said and what this bug screamed at him, he’s probably been reminded that it was people from his own family who sold their household out—that the Fabres attempted to betray humanity.

…

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But looking at him laughing cheerfully with Emilia now, she couldn’t even fathom that was what he was worried about.

You’re strong, after all.

All of you are strong.

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words never will–

“Um!” Emilia said, coughing and clearing her throat in a loud, exaggerated manner. “All of you… were very cool! Back then! When you worked together to kill the big bug!”

It came out of nowhere, but Zora and Julius were still giddy—maybe it was the insect flesh skewers they were wolfing down alongside the vials of anti-food-poisoning medicine that was making them extra happy—and they rubbed Emilia’s head at the same time.

Marcus, on the other hand, puffed out his chest and gave her a smug smirk. “That’s right,” he said. “I’m the coolest, strongest teacher in the world. Ain’t another teacher out there who’s got more power and stamina than me–”

“Why’d you become a teacher, Mister Zora?” Emilia asked, ignoring Marcus as she looked up at Zora. “Actually, why did you all become teachers?”

Everyone thought about it for a moment. Hurt, but not defeated, Marcus was the first to answer.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” he said, waving his hand absentmindedly. “I’ve been good at physical activities for as long as I can remember, since I come from the far north where every man is a warrior, so it’s only natural that I went on and tried my hand at being a fitness teacher. If nothing else, muscles will never fail you. Making all of you kids as strong as I am is the least I could do to repay the Headmaster and the academy.”

“I am… frail,” Julius mumbled, hands rummaging around the insides of his lab coat pockets as he searched for something to inject himself with; probably self-enhancing drugs of some sort. “But I’ve always liked… plants and… bugs… and the old physician who was my mentor really wanted me to take his place so he could retire, so I thought… you know. I wanted to give back to the academy as well.”

“And I speak a thousand tongues,” Zora said softly, still caressing Emilia’s head as he stared into the crackling bonfire. “Frankly, there’s not a lot of places outside the academy where translators and interpreters are much needed anymore. Relations between the different military fronts are growing worse and worse by the year, so nobody would hire me. I may as well get paid for doing what I’ve been doing since I was a student here–”

“Starting arguments,” Marcus interrupted.

“Sowing discord,” Julius interjected.

“–serving as an intermediary between children of different tongues.” Zora scowled, flicking a skewer at the two of them before smiling down at Emilia. “Besides, I do owe the Headmaster my life for taking me in, and while my salary is rather low, it’s a stable job. Stable life. In fact, most of our classmates back then also ended up working in the academy one way or the other, either as research staff or administrative faculty or even as scouts to look for orphaned children.”

Emilia’s ears perked as she craned her head back, staring upside-down at Zora. “Really? So… we can grow up, and we won’t be kicked out?”

“Of course not. The academy’s always in need of more staff.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. Do you want to grow up and become a teacher here as well?”

“Um…” she trailed off, looking left and right at Marcus and Julius, and then straight forward at Cecilia. “Miss Cecilia! What about you? Where were you from before you came to the academy?”

Emilia was the only one who was still grinning with pearly white teeth. Everyone else was looking quietly at Cecilia, and Zora shook his head—as though telling her it was okay to lie if she wanted to—but Emilia, though blind, was looking at her with such pure and honest eyes that she couldn’t bring herself to say something meaningless in response.

So Cecilia gave the girl a small, wistful smile as she continued hugging her knees.

“I’m not from anywhere,” she said plainly. “Unlike Zora, Marcus, and Julius, I’m not an orphan. The Headmaster’s my mother, and I was born alongside the Magicicada Mages before they even established this academy fourteen years ago.” Then she looked up at Zora, tilting her head quite evenly. “Since the mages wanted to turn a portion of the castle into an academy for orphans, I was just told to study with everyone else. Of the two hundred and thirty-one graduates in this academy’s fourteen-year history, I believe I am still the only non-orphan amongst their ranks.”

Emilia raised her brows. “Oh! So the old lady is… your mama?”

“Yep,” she said, “and unlike the others, I’ve had a very blessed childhood with the mages. Though I spent the first ten years of my life wandering around the continent with them, they always kept me out of the fighting, and once the academy was established, I was allowed to do… whatever I wanted, really.”

“Whatever you wanted?”

“All sorts of things,” she agreed, nodding slowly. “I had no talents, so I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. I practised swordplay, I brewed medicines, I archived old books, and I tried everything to see if something interested me—but I suppose my blessed childhood meant I had dainty and delicate fingers, and that meant I was decently good at playing instruments.” Then she patted the little conductor’s baton on her wand. “I was told by the mages that my voice was rather smooth, and my mom even gave me this conductor’s baton as a birthday gift when I was young, so I could sing while I played instruments and pretended to be a conductor–”

“Is that why you became a music teacher?”

She paused, Emilia’s question catching her off-guard.

She was about to finish her sentence with exactly that, but… was that really the case?

Did she particularly like playing instruments and being a music teacher, or was she here for another reason?

“... I guess not,” she said, shooting Emilia a sly smile as she did. “I wouldn’t be able to stay here if I didn’t work here, and I wouldn’t be able to talk with my friends as much if I didn’t become a teacher while they all got their certifications, so…” she trailed off again, and this time she looked at Julius, Marcus, and Zora in that order. Her brows knitted, her mouth twisted—then her face cleared and she laughed. “I guess I just wanted to stick with my friends after graduation. Is that something you want to do after you graduate, too?”

Emilia answered without thought, the brightest of smiles curling her lips. “Yes! If I… um, if I can, I want to be here! With Mister Zora! And I want to… play with Titus and the others more!”

With that, she launched into another rhapsody about the sparkler fireworks she’d played with earlier this evening, and Julius reached into his pocket to pull out a single sparkler. Her antennae immediately swerved over, and while Cecilia had half a mind to ask where he got that sparkler from, she felt she already knew the answer—he’d probably made it on the fly while the rest of them were eating skewers and reminiscing about the good old times.

All three of you really are strong, she thought, watching longingly as Julius handed the sparkler to Emilia, lighting the fuse with a snap of his fingers. The little girl looked at him, then at Marcus, and then she raced off around the hallway after an ‘okay’ pat on the back from Zora; her giddy laughs were adorable as ever, and Cecilia couldn’t remember the last time she’d made a student of hers laugh that hard.

… Good on you, Emilia.

But I’m just no good as a teacher, huh?

Even against the giant stick bug, I was useless and–

While Emilia ran around the hallway, still in line of sight, the three boys shuffled over to her to hit her hard on the back—and she lurched forward, almost spitting out the skewer she was chewing on mindlessly.

She whirled around to scowl at them. “What was that for–”

“Do only moths who have been burned by flames understand its glow?” Zora said, shaking his head in disappointment. “You’re no less a teacher just because you had a slightly more peaceful childhood. If not for you, I’d have died in every bug encounter starting from the katydid.”

Marcus grunted, hitting her back again. “If you’re not here, I’d have nobody to complain about skellyman and crystalblood to.”

“And… if you’re not here, nobody’s going to protect me from Zora and Marcus,” Julius mumbled, gulping aloud as the two boys glared at him. “W-What? It’s true. I don’t wanna… drug myself… every time I want to fight back–”

The petty squabbles began anew. Someone punched first, but with her eyes so teary, she could barely tell if it was Zora or Marcus who jumped on Julius. Probably both. Realistically, all three of them were slugging each other behind her, and even the two who were supposed to be on the same side weren’t. Marcus was too big, so his swings hit both friend and foe, enraging Zora. Julius was small and slippery, so he was hard to catch as well. None of them were a proper match for each other.

At the end of the day, they were still just children at heart, and… she supposed she wasn’t much better, either.

“Thank you,” she whispered under her breath, chuckling softly as she turned around to watch them fight, putting her chin in her hands. “But if you have energy to be fighting like that, we should probably head up now and look for mom.”

The Headmaster wasn’t their birth mother, but she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Headmaster was everyone’s mom—and for how nervous and anxious she was to be reunited with her sole family member again, she was sure the boys were just hiding their anxiety, too.

Zora had said as much, after all.

… Wait for us, mom.

We’ve slaughtered every bug standing between you and us.

We’re coming for you.