Chapter 14: Grind

Words: 2,078

...

"You know, now I'm starting to think that what happened to Lex was his stupidity and not a funny joke."

Lena said this while sitting at the table buried under a pile of paperwork.

"I don't think he would joke about his company."

I replied while reviewing another report from the recently built LexCorp complex in the biotechnology sector.

Lex himself planned to obtain Superman's DNA, but he hadn't succeeded yet.

However, various strange meteorites were already in the labs.

These "strange" meteorites were green in color and were found in the town of Smallville not too far from Metropolis.

"There's so much money involved here. I never thought about dollar figures like these before. Hundreds of millions of dollars for military jets, another dozen million for building maintenance—it's mind-boggling."

Lena confessed.

"Then you should've left most of the work to the secretary."

"Have you seen her glare? I think if it were up to her, she would tear us apart on the spot. Mercy clearly doesn't like us very much. Maybe she and Lex had a relationship."

Lena said while exhaling heavily.

"Even so, she's doing her job pretty well."

The first day of our "immersion" into the company's work with Lena would have been quite difficult without Stark's knowledge.

It can be disorienting to go from a university to a big company immediately.

Fortunately, we both quickly adapted and even started to understand what was happening and what we actually needed to do.

Lena officially continued her studies at the university, but she had to skip classes, and she didn't need it that much.

As I mentioned before, she's very smart and could easily finish her studies earlier.

LexCorp operated in many divisions, but the engineering department was poorly developed.

More precisely, there weren't enough professionals, and everyone who worked in that department was currently working on military contracts.

LuthorCorp had contracts with the US Army, and those contracts were almost over, and we didn't think about renewing them.

However, other businesses may not want to renew their contracts with us either because they don't know how we would manage the company.

That's why I decided to take over the engineering department myself.

It was conveniently located near the main building in the center of Metropolis a street away from our home.

I can move things around here, but I like now that I own one of LexCorp's two shares.

It's to build myself a place to experiment somewhere else not in the city center at least.

Well, or underground but I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

...

[3rd POV]

"Extinguished Star!"

A flash of light erupted between the red-haired beauty's hands, and soon, there was a black and red energy beam tearing through the hill at an incredible speed.

It hit a rock and exploded while sending dust flying.

After the dust cleared, a gaping hole dozens of meters in diameter appeared on the other side of the hill.

"Phew."

Akeno chuckled into her hand with purple eyes.

"Rias has learned a lot from her Group Chat buddy."

Akeno said it ambiguously.

"Well, Tony-kun did help me with that."

Rias replied.

"You've been training a lot this week, literally every day after classes."

Akeno spoke in a more usual tone now.

"And seeing you, I don't want to just stand idly by either."

"But you've been training too."

Rias didn't quite grasp it.

"Yes, but not like you."

Akeno's gaze momentarily turned serious, but then she covered her mouth with her palm and chuckled again.

"And I need to stretch my wings a bit."

Akeno began to unleash the demonic power that whirled around her in a vortex crackling with lightning.

Two wings emerged from her back, one black with feathers indicating her Fallen heritage and the other resembling a bat's wing—demonic.

Rias knew that Akeno hated and despised her Fallen Angel side just as she felt the same about her father and other Fallen.

"Ara-Ara, I'll try something new too."

"Maybe I'll have to turn to my brother."

Rias said after a while. Her pride didn't want that, but she was no longer the same as before, and her eyes had opened.

She had been training pretty well all week, but she wasn't sure about her servants or how exactly to train them as they had different fighting styles and strengths.

...

The green-eyed boy sighed deeply and quietly hit his head against the window while sitting in a classroom in one of the last human colonies.

It was clear from his face that he didn't want to be here.

"Yuichiro Hyakuya, it's not easy being your army instructor. How will he ever find even one friend with such an attitude?"

A thought flashed through Shinoa's mind, who was sitting right behind him.

She didn't particularly like being in this class either as she already knew all this.

The life of the Hiragi family outcast left her with plenty of time for reading books and self-pity.

The order to keep an eye on this guy was more than easy. He didn't even notice her presence in the class.

More precisely, he didn't pay attention because he rarely came here.

Most of the time, he hunted Horsemen with members of the Imperial Army, but he clearly wanted to hunt vampires.

He would have difficulty with any vampire because they were all so much stronger than ordinary people.

He recently disobeyed a direct order and rushed into battle. This got him in trouble and now he was sitting here.

Hermione Granger: I can't believe the virus did this to most of the Earth's population.

Hermione Granger: We also had various outbreaks of plague, but there were never so many deaths.

Shinoa Hiragi: It was an unusual virus that destroyed the entire Earth.

Hermione Granger: And nobody managed to react in time? What about the World Health Organization? The authorities?

Shinoa smirked again at Hermione's words.

Shinoa's smirk was not out of mockery but because it was so naive.

Hermione grew up with loving parents and became a witch. She went through some tough times at school, but nothing compared to Shinoa's story.

Shinoa was still young, but she was already mature even though she had some doubts.

Shinoa's story is many times more complicated and sad, which is why she looks at the world differently.

Anthony (Administrator): Hermione, I like that you're being innocent. You're very charming when you speak like that, but it's all more complicated than it seems. Do you really think an ordinary virus can destroy the entire Earth and kill most of the population so quickly?

When this message appeared, Shinoa furrowed her brows slightly.

In their world, this is simply called a "Catastrophe," and there aren't many explanations just a virus that appeared out of nowhere.

Tony-kun clearly knows about her world, which means he knows about its history and about her which was already well understood.

Of course, there is still doubt, and she was interested in the anime or manga of her world, but what's the point?

Hermione Granger: What do you mean?

Anthony (Administrator): Let's put it this way, in her world, very "smart" people decided to do something that shouldn't have been done without proper preparation and confidence. In short everything went through one place as usual with people.

Hermione Granger: Are you saying that humans created this virus? But why would someone release it outside?!

Anthony (Administrator): Human stupidity and the manipulations of an old experimenter-vampire with a god complex.

At Tony-kun's last words, Shinoa's heart tightened, and the demon inside her probably felt her sudden excitement.

She knows that the world is not so simple and that there is definitely someone behind everything that happens... but who is the vampire experimenter?

Shinoa wondered if her older sister knew something that caused it all to happen with each passing day.

...

After events that she already knew about, Hermione didn't learn anything new.

Hermione used a magical artifact for study with Professor McGonagall's permission, but now everything is different.

When students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived, Hermione confirmed that things were going as planned in Harry Potter.

After trying again to show Professor McGonagall that she can see into the future and that Professor Moody is really a dark wizard, she was sent to the hospital wing because they thought she was too tired.

She told Harry and Ron that students from other schools should arrive and even gave them specifics on how to show that she wasn't lying.

The first ones are by carriage through the sky, and the second ones by ship under the water.

Harry might still believe her and decide to watch Professor Moody more closely.

Ron still thinks she got inside information if only he knew what it was.

Headmaster Dumbledore is a very busy wizard and often absent due to business at the Ministry or elsewhere.

Hermione decided not to disturb the old wizard's work.

She was worried about Harry because she almost always had to throw her name into the Goblet of Fire.

Hermione often came to the Great Hall and tried to prevent Professor Moody from approaching the Goblet, but she understood that her actions were meaningless.

She doesn't want to make things worse because of the way people are looking at her more suspiciously than they were before.

"Hermione, you're bored here again; let's go to the hall; Viktor Krum is there!"

Ron exclaimed as soon as he entered the library.

"Shhhhh."

Madam Pince clearly didn't like the shouting.

"S-sorry."

Ron stammered while looking at Madam Pince. He waved his hand and quickly turned back.

"Forgive him, you know he idolizes Viktor.

Harry said, approaching Ron, and Harry decided to join after he ran off.

"And you don't?"

Hermione whispered while raising an eyebrow.

"I..."

Harry swallowed and looked away.

He then brought his hand to his forehead, or rather to the scar on his forehead and Hermione immediately understood what was happening.

"Those dreams again?"

Hermione asked with concern. She couldn't help but worry about Harry since she only had two of them.

After seeing the movie and book, she knew about the strange dreams that haunted him and his life.

Hermione had already talked to him about it, but he avoided the questions. It was clear that he was uncomfortable talking about it with her.

Remembering what Shinoa had suggested to help him, she couldn't help but blush... What a pervert!

She and Harry weren't in that kind of relationship! She tried to prove it to Shinoa in the Chat, but she constantly laughed at her!

"Yeah, you know they come and go. I've seen strange pictures."

Harry said it was not very informative.

"Maybe you need to take the dreamless sleep potion again?"

Hermione suggested.

"N-no, I'm fine. What are you doing?"

"What you and Ron don't want to do."

Hermione said it with a slight guilt.

"I'm studying and gaining new knowledge."

"Yeah, yeah. I wanted to ask... you mentioned that Moody..."

"Professor Moody."

Hermione corrected him and then realized that she wasn't really a professor at all.

"That he's a dark wizard. In the first lesson, he used unforgivable curses; can he really do that?"

"Moody is the most experienced dark wizard hunter, but yes, you're right. I've already talked about it with Professor McGonagall, and she said he couldn't have done that. She started looking at me again as if I were sick."

Hermione said she was slightly displeased.

"Why didn't you call Ron and me? Or the others? We would have confirmed it."

"Back then, you didn't believe me about the possible future, and I don't get along with the others that well. I think they would be afraid to go against Moody."

Hermione replied.

"And well, what about the possible future?"

Harry asked.

"Harry James Potter, have you finally decided to believe me?"

Hermione added a bit more of an of an authoritative tone to her voice.

According to Tony, it's better not to tell anyone about the Group Chat, as it's too unbelievable which she agrees with, but she doesn't like lying.

However, it wouldn't be a lie to say she had a vision.

The fact that the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could soon return weighed heavily on her.

Moreover, she learned about the ability to read minds, and she was just looking for books about this... maybe it's worth asking the headmaster to consider knowledge about a possible future?

...

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