Sahar was at a loss.

He had been freed from his shackles and stood in a bright, clean, white hallway. There were still wounds on his body, not just from the ones caused by Sevita, but also from the location of some of the earlier Dark Diseases. However, the pain was not worth mentioning to Astarte, and Sahar's empirical instincts told him that the wounds were healing.

The main reason for this confusion is that he doesn't understand what is happening now, how it is happening - everything seems normal, but the logic behind them is something that Sahar cannot understand.

The world he had ever seen in his life had never run with such logic.

He was at a loss for the fact that what was happening that was too contrary to his experience. He had a conversation with Rika Fujimaru, which could hardly be considered calm, given his own resolutely confrontational attitude. He did answer the other party's question, but he did so in a provocative manner. He didn't think that these things could come true, so he showed far more aggression than necessary in his statement, and even Saivita, who was listening from the sidelines, seemed to want to get past Fujimaru Rika and torture Sahar again - but he didn't.

Sevita stood still, and the silver-haired woman next to her only smiled mockingly at Sahar in this way. Fujimaru Rika squatted on the ground and listened to the whole process with her head up, and then calmly confirmed to him whether she had finished speaking, and then Shi Shiran stood up from the spot and patted the hem of her skirt habitually. Sahar thought she was going to be in trouble, and she was ready for the next kind of torture—but she didn't.

Rika Fujimaru snapped her fingers, and all the runes on the iron shackles that bound Sahar were extinguished, and the locks naturally popped open. All the physical restrictions imposed on him were lifted in an instant, and Sahar, as the person concerned, did not anticipate this development at all, so he was caught off guard and did not have time to adjust his center of gravity too far forward, and planted directly on the cold and damp ground. Face to face.

The silver-haired woman laughed loudly at this, and Savita probably laughed too, but Sahar didn't pay much attention to it. He was so confused that he couldn't even remember for the first two seconds that he was supposed to get up from the ground. Such sluggish reflexes shouldn't have been on a Space Marine, and as a Midnight Lord, the most important thing he should have done in that moment was to pounce on the other man's head and screw it off, and then kill it out of the cell while the dragons were leaderless - but he didn't do that, not because he realized he couldn't win, but because he was stunned and didn't remember for a moment.

As he got up in a daze, he heard Rika Fujimaru give a command to the people around her: Saivita is going to be freed (so simple?). It's suspicious, so suspicious) Sahar retrieved her power armor, and she herself went to discuss Mita Ashern with Inquisitor Hastings.

"Of course, it is best to be able to extradite the person through negotiation, and even if it can't be done, at least the current state of the psionic acolyte should be confirmed in the process."

Rika Fujimaru made a decision that was commensurate with her age on the outside, sounding overly naïve and taken for granted. Sahar didn't think anything of what she had said in those few seconds would come to fruition—even in the most superficial way, in order to prevent he, the prisoner, from randomly breaking off a few fingers of the little girl, at least the people around him should stop it, right? But when Sahar finally remembered to get up from the ground, he realized that Sevita was ready to carry him on an order that didn't seem right.

He might have really rushed over at that moment and at least strangled the girl's neck. This is obviously not wise, but it is a more psychologically "safe" option for Sahar. Unfortunately, Sevita was standing right in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder. The sixth sense, honed in the battle, screamed sharply, advising Sahar not to act rashly, so in the end, he just stood quietly in place, watching Fujimaru Rika leave the simulated cell first, doing nothing.

Now, Sahar, who was still theoretically just a prisoner, stared blankly at Sevita walking in front of him, instinctively gauging the chances of success if he launched a surprise attack on him from this position. And the next second, he came from the side and back with a poke that was only for the purpose of warning, but it was really painful - it was called Joan of Arc. Alter's silver-haired woman had somehow already held a flagpole wrapped in war chess in her hand, and was brazenly using this thing that appeared out of thin air as a weapon:

"Don't think about anything." "Even if you can take down that useless guy in front, don't forget, I'm keeping an eye on you from behind," she warned. ”

Before Sahar could react, "the useless guy in front" retorted faster than him: "Hey, with his virtue, I can't beat me with one hand now." ”

Sahar raised his eyebrows, and under the instinct of his instinct, some words that only walked to the medullary reflex had come out of his mouth: "So, you don't refute that you are a 'useless guy'?" ”

He thought it would start another round of personal injury, but Sevita just smiled meaningfully at him, "It's okay, after all, you're more 'useless' than me." ”

The previous company commander turned around in the inevitable anger of Sahar, who was easily provoked, but inevitably mixed with a little inexplicable surprise, and continued to walk forward: "It's too troublesome to explain everything from beginning to end, I'll give you a piece of advice that can be used without understanding the cause and effect: don't try to use your logical thinking, just go with the flow." As long as you don't do anything beyond the scope of the eldest lady's expectations, she will be able to take care of everything in order. ”

"I beg not to differ." Sahar sneered, calculating whether he should strike backwards first - he didn't have the plan to give up the initiative to a little girl who looked completely underage when he seemed to have a "choice".

"It doesn't matter if you don't agree, from the moment Fujimaru Rika gave the order, this matter has already been decided." Sevita paused again, patiently—or, apparently, forcing herself to feign a look of patience," said, "This is Chaldea, so what the Chaldean Mistress said is absolute." ”

Joan of Arc S. Alter poked Sahar in the shoulder with a flagpole in his back, urging him to keep going: "It's not always like that, but in this matter alone, I agree. Hurry up and go to the equipment depot to get your power armor, and then the old lady will go back to rest after work. ”

"Why?" Sahar suddenly jumped and asked, "I was caught in the middle of my mission, but I didn't die, and now you still want me to get my armor back - why?" ”

"There are so many 'whys'." Sevita, whose patience was approaching the end of the house at a speed visible to the naked eye, replied angrily, "I'm too lazy to explain it to you, but this is how things are happening now, so accept it." If you had to find a reason for the unlikely event that you were still alive, it would be that I saw an omen that you should not be dying: sooner or later, you will change your Power Armor back to the Night Lord's livery and scream louder than a milky little hairy child in a small space like a jumper torpedo or an airdrop pod! ”

His voice was accompanied by a loud bang. If I had to say anything, when it came to the position of the "jumping torpedo", Sevita was already aware of what was happening, but he still chose to finish his so-called "prophecy" regardless of it. There was a bit of schadenfreude in this decision, because after the loud bang was over, Sahar, who had made some "useless struggles" in his situation, was almost embedded in the decorative pillars by the wall.

"Not long-eyed." Joan of Arc A· Alter sneered and shook the flagpole in his hand.

"I warned you, don't think with your logic. Guess why I didn't contradict what she called me? Sevita is half sad and half gloating, "Maybe with normal logic, it looks like the mortal side would be better than an unarmored Space Marine, but normal logic doesn't work on the Storm Border. But in the past, you won't be eating food on the ship—now you'll have an extra job repairing the corridors. ”

At this moment, Sahar believes that he has deeply understood this by himself.

——

Although "the side that looks like a mortal" is difficult to break through, it does not mean that "an unarmored Space Marine" is easy to deal with. Ten minutes later, Sahar paid some bloody price for realizing this reality, but what was more unbearable than the physical pain was that Sevita actually gave him a hand.

is also a company commander, and he lost on the premise of being given a hand by the other party, which is a great shame!

Sevita, who has become refreshed again after venting her violence, has another "practical" piece of advice: "If you want to make a fuss, save your energy." Almost every day on this ship, something strange happens, and one by one you may be exhausted. ”

Sahar felt that the other party was obviously exaggerating, but the situation was stronger than people, and he finally chose to swallow back the questioning words. He thought that "take him back to his power armor" was some kind of euphemism for "scrap", and he was mentally prepared to be taken to some corner room and face one or several blasters with his flesh - he didn't intend to sit still, but he did think that he might die today, but in the end, the place where they arrived was still unexpected:

Sevita literally led him into a warehouse where the Power Armor was kept, and his Death Watch Black Shield-painted armor stood out among the Midnight Leader Power Armor of Izumi.

This is not only due to the painting, but also to the model and condition of the equipment. The marks of dismemberment and wear on Sahar's armor are very visible, but it does seem to have been during the time he lost consciousness...... Got a little cleaner? Sahar is not very sure.

In this warehouse, the armor of the Space Marines is not done by servants or slaves, but by a set of fully automated assembly stations. Sahar thought it was a novelty, but he was also skeptical about the fully automatic mechanics: who knows if a blaster might suddenly burst out of nowhere and fire at his head at a certain step, or a chainsaw sword would slice him in half along with his armor.

Again, the situation is stronger than the man, so Sahar realizes once again that he is faced with a situation that seems to have a choice, but in reality there is only one way to go. Reluctantly, he stepped onto the workbench and let the mechanics put his patchwork armor onto himself (and made sure they had been somehow cleaned out of his absence), then retrieved his barely configured blaster and fragmentation grenade, and finally began to look at Sevita, who was still unarmoured.

"I advise you not to do anything crooked." The previous company commander warned, "You'd better not think that you can gain any advantage by wearing the power armor. And I don't think you have the power to fix the automated machinery in this room. ”

"But I really want to punch you-"

Sahar stepped forward in a menacing manner, but—in the literal "blink of an eye", the Savita in front of him had transformed from an unarmored state to an Iron Rider Terminator Giant. Theoretically, this model of Terminator armor would look bulky in close combat, but in reality, Sahar barely reacted, and the Terminator's iron claws were already pasted on his face-

There was another loud bang, and Sahar, who was lying on the ground, began to reflect in a daze: they were also a company commander, why was there such a big gap between him and Sevita.

Although the question of how exactly Sevita managed to hide in the Terminator armor in the literal blink of an eye, it is still second to Sahar's importance after "why can't I beat Savita".

"I think it's better to stop here." He heard Sevita's armored urn sound behind his tinnitus, "I don't think Madam would be happy to find out we're fighting in the arsenal." It's been exactly half an hour since she'd left the simulation room, and I'm guessing the next order to us should be almost there. ”

Sahar didn't know how many times he had gotten up from the ground today, and was annoyed to find that the edge of his breastplate had been dented in an inconspicuous place, and the servo system in his helmet was frantically reporting errors for that part of the breakage. He took a moment to turn off the damn beeps that only he could hear, and asked rhetorically, "What 'command'?" I don't think I'm obligated to follow it. ”

"But you don't have the freedom not to follow it." Dressed in Terminator armor, Sevita held his chainsaw halberd in one hand and said with little manners, "Anyway, no matter what kind of situation you are forced to, you will have to obediently listen to that lady in the end." Since none of us know what the so-called 'next step' is, I advise you to save some effort. ”

"How can you be sure that there will be a 'next step'?" Sahar asked mockingly, pretending he hadn't noticed Joan of Arc. Alter vanished from where he was, and continued to look for a flaw in order to make plans for the next armed resistance escape, "That little girl can just ask you to return the power armor to me before leaving." ”

"Little thing that doesn't know the height of the sky, just for a moment, you forgot that you were a prisoner?" Although Sevita's voice was strange, there didn't seem to be any dissatisfaction in her feelings, "When will the guilty man get his arms back?" Of course, it's time to be used. ”

Sahar tried to retort, but at that moment, he heard a discordant murmur coming from the ceiling above him.

For a moment, he suspected that it was Joan of Arc who had just disappeared. Alter got into something like a hidden access pipe when he wasn't noticing, and hesitated for a moment to pretend he didn't hear it. But Sevita raised her head generously at this moment, and muttered suspiciously: "Ventilation pipes? ”

Then, as if he was questioning his own judgment, Sevita ignored Sahar, who was left to dry, and looked up into the vent. After a few seconds, he suddenly smiled, turned his head and repeated to Sahar: "What do I say, something strange happens every day on this ship—it seems that I see the Chaldean mistress climbing the ventilation pipe." ”

With a clang, the iron bars on the vents fell halfway from the ceiling, and an orange head protruded from it: "Who is the 'Mistress of the Chaldees'?" Have you figured out what's going on? I listened to Asclepius what I ate and drank every day, Vasilian what I saw every day, and Sigismund where I went and what route I took every day—and now these three were ready to fight over what I should wear in my daily life when I was a little free, and how could there be such a 'mistress' who could not talk about the slightest freedom at all! ”

Rika Fujimaru, who was hanging upside down on the vent, complained as she followed Sevita's words.

(End of chapter)