-"So, care to share what you've been talking about before? When you were getting intimate on Eno's bed?"-Swire asked half as tease, half as real interest.
-"Why do you care?"-Ch'en didn't even look up from a menu she was choosing her meal from.
-"I already said that I won't Eno suffer the rest of his life with some cold, stiff, and inconsiderate woman like you."-She showed a smile that looked more like a challenge.
-"Do what you want, just don't get swept along or it'll be too late."
-"No need to worry."-She waved her hand, ignoring Ch'en's warning.-"Have you chosen what you want, Eno?"
-"I'll just eat whatever you recommend."-I just shrugged.
-"Good choice."-Swire stood up to order.
-"Don't forget to bring beer."-Hoshiguma reminded her.
-"Of course!"
-"This won't end well."-Lin shook her head with a slight sigh.
We didn't need to wait long for the food and drinks, and as the alcohol started to flow, everyone started to relax. Before I noticed, each of us was at least three cans deep into drinking, and while I was mostly immune to alcohol, others were definitely not.
Only Hoshiguma remained seemingly unaffected. As an Oni, she could easily drink a Ursus' patrol under the table; the remaining three girls were long past their tipsy state. Lin let go of her stoic persona, complaining about everything that annoyed her, though most of those were about Old Lin and me due to his pushing her to 'settle down', and me because I was the only man nearby.
Ch'en and Swire, meanwhile, started arguing about some trivial matters, mentioning such serious grievances as eating their food back in college or waking them up for no reason. It was quite entertaining to watch, to be honest, though their tails that coiled around my legs weren't entirely comfortable. As this chaotic situation continued, Hoshiguma watched everything with a smile, not slowing her drinking.
-"Eno, you are some kind of bigwig, aren't you?"
-"Why do you think so?"-I looked at her with surprise.
-"Because you are too practiced with dealing with women."-She joked.-"You never get flustered, know how to get close without being pushy, not to mention being a magnet for their attention, even when you are hiding behind that helmet."
-"Your description makes me a playboy rather than a bigwig."
-"No. Playboys all depend on that feeling of adventure and passion, but you are the opposite. Stable and reassuring, without hurry or excitement."
-"Thanks."
-"So are you one?"
-"Bigwig? Yes, definitely. Playboy? Most would consider me so."
-"You are here because of Reunion."
-"Yes."
-"Then, after it's dealt with, will you leave?"
-"I can't stay here permanently."
-"Then what about them?"-She motioned to Ch'en and Swire around me.-"Ch'en is one thing, but even Swire has some attachment to you; how will you resolve that?"
-"For now, I plan to be open with you all after the Reunion matter is settled, leaving the decision to you then."
-"That's reasonable, but also rather contemptible."
-"My situation is complicated, so pushing you directly wouldn't just be 'rather', but outright despicable."
-"Is that so?"-Hoshiguma shrugged.-"Well, I don't care much about that. As long as you are genuine, then you can be a little despicable."
-"Then what do you care about?"
-"Hmmm… Truth, loyalty, and companionship. And you?"
-"Truth, pursuits, and vows."
-"Vows, huh? You and Ch'en truly have a lot in common."
-"I'll take that as a compliment."
-"You should. Ch'en is a person I truly respect; she might have her faults, but I'll still stand by her side."
-"That's relieving."-I smiled slightly.-"Take care of her, despite how she presents herself; she truly needs all of you as her support."
-"I can say the same back to you. No matter how much of a bigwig you truly are, don't you dare leave her now."-Hoshiguma waved her fist at me.
-"I won't. I might not be what many would consider an ideal partner, but I certainly won't abandon people dear to me."
-"That's the spirit."-Hoshiguma finished drinking yet another can, adding to the growing pile next to her.-" Another one?"
I nodded and handed her the next can. We drank and talked about some unimportant matters, mostly about girls' pasts and their interests. I was more of a listener than an active participant, my alcohol tolerance proving better even than the Oni nearby. Soon, I was the only one still awake.
-"It would seem that you finally got better at drinking."-Mobius appeared near me and joked.
-"If you don't put anything more potent than alcohol, then I wouldn't be knocked out."-I rolled my eyes.
-"Heh. Not my fault that you can't learn how to avoid drugs."
-"And it's not my fault that all those who drug me are close to me."
-"Details."-She waved her hand.-"I'm here to talk about your wound and what I found in the R.I. database."
-"I'm listening."-I tapped the table, enveloping two of us with the power of Nigh to prevent any eavesdroppers.
-"The way to heal you that 'Old Lynx' spoke of is the Sarcophagus there."
-"Sarcophagus? Wasn't that thing researched by Ursus? A piece of junk that they couldn't utilize."
-"Not exactly a piece of junk, it was sabotaged by Lynx and her people."-Mobius handed me a short version of the information she gathered.
I read through it, my eyebrows rising the more I read.
-"This…"
-"Any problems?"
-"Quite a few. First, it was tuned to Predecessors, which I'm not. Second, what is the state 'before the injury' for me? Would the Infection be another injury? Or are we talking about reverting even before I became Sankta?"
-"That's when it gets interesting, isn't it?"-Mobius showed her crazed smile.-" Assuming that thing reverts to your best state before the injury, what is your best state?"
-"You plan to experiment on me?"-I raised my eyebrow.
-"No. I already located a perfect white mouse for this test. I just need you to be present for when the results appear."
I looked at her, trying to understand her thoughts, and a certain young terrorist appeared in my mind.
-"Mephisto?"
-"Bingo. Like you, in his current state, the Sarcophagus is his only hope."
I thought for a moment before nodding.
-"Do what you want, just don't leave traces."
-"Easy."
With that, she disappeared, leaving me alone with four 'dead bodies' . I looked at them and sighed, getting to work on transporting them to their rooms. Luckily, we were not that far from L.G.D. housing, so while it required some effort, I managed to get them back quickly.
The next morning, I was greeted by four hangover women, three of whom desperately avoided my eyes due to remembering how they acted. Only Hoshiguma laughed and behaved as if nothing had happened, trying to ignore her headache. Deciding to help them a little, I used healing miracle to help them with pain, earning me a grateful smile.
-"What a divine ability! I'm starting to get envious of Ch'en."-Hoshiguma threw her arm around my shoulder.-"So what's the plan for today?"
-"It's not up to us this time."-Swire answered, showing everyone her communicator.-"Boss is calling. We need to meet him."
-"Ugh."-Ch'en instantly showed an annoyed expression, but she nodded.-"Let's get this done quickly."
And so, Ch'en, Swire, and I left the L.G.D. to meet with Wei in his office, while Lin and Hoshiguma got to work with other matters. When we entered the office, we were greeted by a tense atmosphere. Wei sat on his chair, pipe in hand, and looked at us, while on the one side of the room, three red-cloaked censors spoke in hushed tones.
On the other side of the room, Old Lynx sat with a few familiar faces, but noticeably, neither Amiya nor that Evil Spirit was present. And little further from them were my Knights led by Lemuen and Guinevere.
-"You are here, good."-Wei nodded.
-"What can we do for you, Lord Wei?"-Swire asked him, not wanting Ch'en to start her usual arguments with him.
-"I want to praise you for how you handled the slums and Reunion along with our allies from Laterano."-Wei looked at me while he spoke.-"But we now have another issue, on a much greater scale."
He projected an image recorded by an observation team about a day of travel away from Lungmen. On it, a city plate riddled with destruction and fires was rapidly moving through the wasteland. From a few elements present in the picture, I managed to identify it as part of Chernobog.
-"This image was taken about two hours ago, and at the same time, a podcast from that city plate reached us. 'This city belongs to Ursus.' "
This made Swire and Ch'en widen their eyes.
-"And as you can guess, it's heading straight at us. Our friends from R.I. already secured some other city plates, but we identified five city plates heading toward Lungmen."-Wei looked at me as he spoke.-"We need to prevent them from making contact with Lungmen, or war would be unavoidable."
-"Yanese honor shall not be tarnished."-One of the Censors commented.-"The emperor already deployed our forces at the border, waiting for the aggressors to move."
-"My Teacher also made his will clear."-Guinevere spoke calmly. After her experiences, war was nothing to fear.-"Ursus is an enemy, and it will be defeated."
-"You want for Lungmen to be the battlefield?!"-Ch'en asked, her anger unconcealed.
-"If need be."-Censor answered flatly.
-"Our army is waiting for Ursus to make a move."-Guinevere looked at Ch'en, smiling as if to assure her.-"Son does not want to see senseless slaughter, so you don't need to worry."
Ch'en glanced at me, then took a deep breath and looked at Wei.
-"What are our orders?"
-"I hope you can cooperate with R.I. to try and secure the approaching city plates before they can endanger Lungmen."
-"We will do so."-Swire nodded.
-"Before we move on with the subject, I'd like to ask for some clarification."-Old Lynx spoke up.-"What is our and Reunion's position in this whole mess?"
-"You are our advisors and field experts hired to assist with the Infected, of course..."-Wei answered without delay.
I could feel that Old Lynx had some purpose in bringing up this subject, so I quickly communicated with Guinevere telepathically.
-"Use this chance to bring up our stance on Reunion. Point out that we have 'collaborators' inside."
Guinevere nodded slightly, waiting for an opportunity to interject.
-"… we will only act in a humanitarian capacity, as we are not mercenaries."-Old Lynx finished her speech.
-"I understand that, but in the current situation, our purposes are aligned, so I hope we can cooperate on preventing the escalation."
-"On the subject of aligned aims, we hope to help our cooperators in Reunion."-Guinevere spoke up.
-"Collaborators? Could you disclose their identities?"-Wei played along despite knowing our plans.
-"Sadly, we can't do so for a moment. If their names were to be disclosed to Ursus, their life could be endangered."
-"I see, then we can only provide basic assistance, not much more."
-"We won't ask for anything more."
The conversation continued for some time, but leaving out the intrigues and other unimportant elements, the core of the subject focused on our next moves. The five approaching city plates had to be stopped, and the only way to do so was to board them and enter each one's control center. The problem was that with our transport capacity, we could only send small units, no bigger than 20 people per plate, making us heavily outnumbered against the Reunion's forces.
But this could be remedied with assistance from people still resisting Reunion on said city plates. Due to my preventing the Catastrophe from destroying Chernobog, most of the city plates were still operational, thus five of them could head toward Lungmen, but at the same time, most people who survived Reunion's initial riot managed to regroup and form resistance cells, causing them not a small headache. R.I. reconnaissance discovered that four of the five mobile platforms show signs of street fighting.
As such, we divided our forces into four groups, planning to deal with four city plates that were engulfed in internal strife first, before converging on the last one. R.I. will deal with the first two, while L.G.D. will deal with the second pair, and after Ch'en and Old Lynx arranged everything between them, we were assigned the platforms containing Chernobog's academy and part of the noble district.
Further dividing the tasks between us, Swire and Hoshiguma will take their unit to the noble district, while Ch'en and I will head to the school one. With no time to waste, we quickly departed from Lungmen, taking the R.I. transport ship to reach the platform as quickly as possible. On our way there, we used drones to get aerial footage of the targets, allowing us to see the situation on the ground.
-"It's bad."-Ch'en commented after seeing the degree of destruction.
-"Looking by the presence of the zombies, this plate must have been under Mephisto's control."
-"Past tense?"
-"While most of your attack struck me, he shouldn't fare much better than I, meaning he needs to heal."
-"Then our job should be much easier."
-"Let's hope so, but I doubt that there won't be a leader present there. Let's hope that we will meet that crossbowman, and not Patriot."
-"Don't jinx it."
-"But look here."-I pointed at one of the buildings.
-"Barricade?"
-"Yes, and not only here. Most of that wing of the academy is also barricaded."
-"So there are our prospective allies."
-"Most likely. This should be a good spot to land."-I marked a small plaza a few streets from the academy.-"I don't see any people near it."
-"Good, I'll have the pilot land there."
-"I'll brief the unit."
Not even five minutes later, our feet touched the ground, and we started to move. With some caution, we moved through the decimated streets, avoiding any enemies on our path, managing to enter the academy grounds without any combat, but the moment we walked there, I felt a gaze on us.
-"There is a sniper, be careful."-I warned Ch'en.
She nodded, her grip on the sword tightening.
We walked into one of the buildings, where we were met by a group of five people inside. Their ages varied, but few were old enough to be considered adults, their uniforms easily identifying their status as students. I could feel their wariness and some fear, but there was also hope present; whatever they went through left a mark no person of their age should have.
I looked at Ch'en, who was also observing them, before she stepped forward and spoke up.
-"We are a special operations unit from L.G.D. here on the mission to stop this city plate from moving into Yanese territory. We hope to meet your leaders to discuss cooperation to achieve that."
-"You are speaking with them."-One of the girls on the other side answered.-"But I don't think we can help you much."
-"In about a day's time, this platform will crash into Lungmen, so there is no place for thinking, only acting."
-"Before anything else, can you explain the situation to us so that we can prepare accordingly?"-Another student asked.
Ch'en looked at me, wanting to know my opinion.
-"Sure."-I nodded.-"We are prepared to offer you our help in exchange for your cooperation, so allow me to explain what's going on."
I took over from Ch'en, briefly explaining everything that mattered.