Chapter 14 - Life goes on

"You know, now I'm starting to think that what happened to Lex was his stupid and not funny joke. " said the tired sister, sitting at the table buried under a lot of waste paper.

"I don't think he would joke with his company." I replied, looking through another report from the newly built LexCorp complex in the biotechnology sector.

Moreover, Lex himself hoped to get Superman's DNA, but so far he has not succeeded, but various strange meteorites are already in the laboratories. These "strange" meteorites are green in color and were found in the town of Smallville, which is not too far from the Metropolis.

"There is so much money spinning around here, I've never thought about such figures in dollars. Hundreds of millions of dollars for military fighters, tens of millions more for building maintenance... my head is spinning." the girl confessed.

"So I would leave most of the work to the secretary."

" Did you see her look? I think if she had her way, she would have torn us apart on the spot… this Mercy obviously doesn't like us very much. Maybe she and Lex had an affair." Lena said, exhaling heavily. "Although even so, she does her job well."

The first day of my sister's and my "infusion" into the company's work was quite difficult, if not for Stark's knowledge. After university, straight into big business, it's somewhat confusing. Fortunately, we both quickly adapted to this and even began to partially understand what was going on and what we needed to do.

My sister officially continues to study at the university, but she had to skip it, however, not that she lost much. As I said, she has more than a good head and she could have finished her studies earlier.

LexCorp worked in many directions, but the most important thing for me is that the company's engineering was poorly developed. More precisely, there simply weren't enough specialists, and everyone who could work in this department was now working on military orders.

The company had contracts with the US Army, the benefit is that the contracts have almost come to an end and we did not think about the extension. However, now they may not want to renew other contracts with us either because of the uncertainty of how we will manage the company.

It was for this reason that I decided to occupy the engineering department, it was just not far from the main building in the center of the Metropolis, literally a street away from our place of residence. And since I am now one of the two owners of LexCorp, I can rebuild everything here to my taste. And it is desirable to build a place for experiments somewhere else, not in the city center anyway. Well, or underground… In general, I still have a lot of work.

***

"Beam of Destruction!" there was a flash between the hands of the red-haired beauty and soon the black-red energy in the form of a ray at a stunning speed traced its way to the hill.

The contact of the beam with the rock caused an explosion and raised dust, and when it descended, you could see a hole with a diameter of tens of meters, which comes out from the other side of the hill.

"Fu-fu." the black-haired beauty with purple eyes laughed in her hand. " Rias learned a lot from her chat boyfriend." the girl said ambiguously.

"Well, Tony-kun really helped me with that." either not understanding the ins and outs of her friend's words, or simply ignoring them, the red-haired woman said.

"This week you train a lot, literally every day after class." Rias's Queen said in a more normal voice. "And looking at you, I don't want to just stand around now either."

"You've been practicing, too." Rias didn't quite understand.

"Yes, but not like you." Akeno's gaze changed to serious for a moment, but after that, the girl covered her mouth with her palm and laughed a little again.

"And I need to stretch my wings a little." the girl began to release demonic power, which swirled around her like a whirlwind and lightning began to sparkle in this vortex. Two wings appeared from the girl's back, one black with feathers showing that she definitely has Fallen relatives, and the other bat wing is demonic. Rias knew that her queen hated and despised her side of the Fallen Angel, just as she had the same feelings for her father and other Fallen Ones.

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

"I may have to turn to my brother." a little later the girl said. Her pride did not want this, but she is not the same as she was before, you can say her eyes have opened. She has been training well all this week, but she is not sure about her servants exactly how to train them because they have different fighting styles and strengths.

***

In the classroom of one of the last human settlements, a green-eyed boy was sitting, sighing heavily and quietly banging his head against the window. It was clear from his face that he didn't like being here.

"Yuichiro Hakuya, it's not easy being your army instructor. And how will he ever be able to find at least one friend with such an attitude?" A thought flashed through Shinoa, who was sitting just behind him.

She doesn't like sitting in this class either, because she already knows all this. The life of the outcast Hiiragi family left her a lot of time for self-reflection and reading books, well, for self-pity. At the last thought, the girl chuckled.

The order to follow this guy was more than easy, he didn't even notice her appearance in class. More precisely, he rarely comes here himself, so he didn't pay attention. Most often, he hunts Horsemen together with members of the Imperial Army, but he wants to hunt vampires... fool.

If even an ordinary vampire gets caught, it will be hard for him, yet they are all much stronger than ordinary people. But recently he disobeyed a direct order and rushed into battle, for which he was punished, and now he was sitting here.

Hermione Granger: I can't believe that a virus could do this... most of the world's population.

Hermione Granger: We've also had various outbreaks of the plague, but there's never been such a huge number of deaths.

Shinoa Hiragi: It was an unusual virus that swept the whole Earth.

Hermione Granger: And that no one had time to react in time? What about the World Health Organization? The authorities?

Shinoa chuckled again at Hermione's words. Not because of ridicule or some kind of malice, just because of the naivety of that. She grew up with loving parents and became a sorceress, and even though she passed some tests at her school, all this pales under the story of Shinoa herself, who, despite her age, is already quite an adult person, albeit with some reservations. Her story was much more complicated and sadder, which is why she looks at the world differently, without this naive shade.

Anthony (Administrator): Hermie, I like your naivety, you are very charming when you say that, but everything is more complicated than it seems. Do you really think that a common virus can cover the whole Earth and kill most of the population so quickly?

When this message appeared, Shinoa slightly furrowed her eyebrows. In their world, this is simply called a "Catastrophe" and there are not many explanations, just a virus that appeared out of nowhere. Tony-kun obviously knows about her world, which means he knows about the history... and about her, which has been clear for a long time. Of course, a worm of doubt gnawed at the soul of a young girl and she had an interest in the "Real Memory" of her world, but ... meaning?

Hermione Granger: What do you mean?

Anthony (Administrator): I'll say this ... in her world, very "smart" people decided to do something that was not worth doing without proper preparation and confidence ... in general, everything went through one place, as people usually do.

Hermione Granger: Are you saying that this virus was created by man? But why would anyone let him out?!

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

At Tony-kun's last words, the girl's heart sank, Shi, the demon inside her, must have felt her sharp excitement. She knows that the world is not so simple and there is definitely someone behind everything that is happening... but what kind of vampire is an experimenter? Every day she wonders if her older sister knew something, because of which everything happened.

***

It was not new for Hermione to follow the events about which you know something, to remember at least the previous year and the flywheel of time. But there she used a magical artifact with the permission of Professor McGonagall and she used it for studying, but now everything is different. When students from other schools arrived Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, the girl once again confirmed that everything is more or less going according to "Real Memory".

The fact that she once again tried to prove to Professor McGonagall that she knows the future and that Professor Moody is actually a dark magician only led to her being put in the hospital wing, as they suspected overwork.

Since she wanted to prove that she wasn't a liar, she told Harry and Ron that students from other schools were coming and she even explained exactly how. That is the first on a carriage in the sky, and the second from under the water on a ship. And if Harry still decided to believe her and began to watch Moody more closely, then Ron still thinks that she got insider information somewhere... if he even knew what it was.

Director Dumbledore is a very busy wizard and is often absent due to affairs at the Ministry or somewhere else, so the girl decided not to interfere with the old magician's work. But it had been almost all the time allotted to throw her name into the Goblet of Fire, and she was worried about her friend. She often came to the main hall and tried to make sure that Moody did not approach the Cup, but even so, she understood some futility of actions. Recently, she has been squinted several times more than before because of her behavior, she does not want to worsen the situation.

"Hermione, you're doing boredom, here again, let's go to The Great Hall there Viktor Krum !" Ron exclaimed as soon as he entered the library.

"Silence." Madame Pince did not like that he was shouting.

"S-sorry." he got scared, looked at the woman and waved his hand, and quickly headed back ... well, yes, a conversation with an idol is more important than a friend.

"Forgive him, you know he's a fan of Victor. " said Harry, who came up, who was following Ron and after he ran away, he decided to come up.

"And you're not?" she asked him in a whisper, raising an eyebrow.

"I..." he swallowed and his gaze ran, besides, he somehow mechanically presented his hand to his forehead, or rather to the scar, and the girl immediately realized what was happening.

"Those dreams again?" she asked anxiously. Hermione couldn't help but worry about her friend because she only had two of them. She knew about the strange dreams that torment him, and after viewing the Memory, she knew about how he lived.

She has already talked to him about it, but he evades questions ... it is clear that he is uncomfortable talking about it with a girl. Remembering what Shinoa had offered her to help him, she couldn't help but blush... that pervert. She and Harry are not in such a relationship! She tried to prove it to her in the Chat, but she was constantly laughing at her!

"Yes, you know... they come and go. I've seen... strange pictures." not very informative, he said.

"Maybe you need to drink dreamless sleep again?" she suggested.

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

"What you and Ron prefer not to do." the girl said with a slight condemnation. "I study and getting new knowledge."

"Yes, yes. I wanted to ask... did you tell me that Moody…"

"Professor Moody." she corrected him, and then realized that he was like, like, not a professor at all.

"... that he's a dark magician. In the first lesson, he used unforgivable spells, how could he do that?"

"Professor Moody is the most experienced obscurantist, but yes, you're right. I've already told Professor McGonagall about this... and she said that he couldn't do that and started looking at me again as if I was sick of something." she said a little displeased.

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

"You didn't believe me too much about the possible future either, and I don't communicate so well with the others. I think they would be afraid to get on the bad side of Moody." the sorceress answered him.

"And... well, what's the possible future there?" Scarhead asked curiously.

"Harry James Potter, you finally deigned to believe your friend." adding a little more imperious notes to her voice, she said. According to Tony, in her world, it's better not to tell anyone about the Chat, because it's too fantastic... which she agrees with, but she doesn't like to lie.

However, to say that she received a vision would not be a complete lie. And the fact that who-must-not-be-named might soon be reborn weighed heavily on her. Moreover, she found out about the ability to read minds and she was just looking for books about this ... maybe it's worth asking the director to count the knowledge about the possible future?