Origin (24)

Nadia wore an even more serious expression than someone who'd heard the world would end tomorrow. Only after she circled me, sniffing around and twitching her nose, did she calm down.

It seemed she finally believed what I'd said. But it was too late anyway.

"I always trusted Hyun-woo! I just thought you'd fallen for that woman's fiendish schemes again!"

"You didn't believe me."

"I did! I really did!"

Then what was that expression I just saw? I furrowed my brows, but Nadia didn't even blink, merely flicking her tail.

Her ears were pointed at Licorice, who hadn't come out of the room yet—a clear sign she was still wary of her.

I was about to ask how she'd explain the bread I'd dropped on the floor, but stopped short. The bread was gone. I was sure it had been here just moments ago.

'What the heck.'

Was I still half asleep? Just as I started to think that, I whipped my head around at the rustling sound. I saw Carry sneaking the dropped bread into a storage box.

When Carry met my eyes, it slyly looked away.

【( ⚆ _ ⚆ )】

"Stop right there. Hand it over. That's important evidence."

【ε=ε=(⊃≧□≦)⊃】

Carry shot off as if my words didn't reach it. After I upgraded it with the latest cargo robot module from the container, Carry had begun using that power just to escape. Even without the thruster at max output, it was incredibly fast.

"Ah? Oh... it's gone."

"What evidence are you talking about, Hyun-woo? There's nothing here."

Nadia held both hands wide open, a shameless gesture as if to say she had nothing to hide. I thought about pressing further, but left it alone. It was probably best to treat it as a morning mishap and move on.

But Nadia couldn't resist and lit the fuse.

"So, why was that woman coming out of Hyun-woo's room?"

"Well, we slept together, so obviously we came out together. Isn't that obvious?"

"What?!"

"Wait, what are you talking about?!"

I hurriedly ushered Licorice away as she suddenly popped up to respond, catching me off guard. If this kept up, I'd be the one burned up between them.

As she was pulled away, she just smirked. She'd been so startled this morning when she woke to find me napping in a chair that she'd hiccupped—so why did she have that victorious look on her face? And why did Nadia clench her fist at that expression?

A headache began to settle in, and I pressed my forehead with my hand. I'd spent the late hours talking to Celestia using the data Licorice had shared, went stargazing, and barely got any sleep.

'Man, I could really use a smoke.'

I'd first tried smoking after watching workers puff on cigarettes when neither Carry nor Nadia were around. It was mostly out of curiosity—I'd wondered why workers, after a hard day's work, looked so blissful while smoking.

So I tried it once, but it only stung my throat, and later I found out what they'd smoked wasn't ordinary tobacco. It was something much stronger.

When I started taking Carry around, I'd smoke out of boredom sometimes, but after Nadia became my partner and made it clear she couldn't stand it, I—

'...didn't quit entirely. I still smoked a few, now and then.'

Anyway, sometimes I'd get intense cravings for a smoke, like right now. But I really shouldn't. I didn't have any, and even if I tried to get some from the store, Nadia would stop me with those pleading eyes.

Suppressing my primal urges, I looked at Nadia, who was still staring intently at me, and spoke up.

"Licorice zoned out and fell asleep in my room, so I lost my bed, and after a short chat with Celestia at dawn, I slept in the chair. That's all."

"Zoned out...? Well, that was..."

"Why do you keep making it hard for Hyun-woo to rest?!"

Flustered, Licorice's face turned bright red, and Nadia bared her teeth at her with a growl. An image of a tiny fox shimmered behind her, though it wasn't all that menacing.

"Hyun-woo already worked late and must've been tired! Don't you know for someone like him, his body is everything?! If the body's in good shape, the mind doesn't have to suffer, but now both will be exhausted! What are you going to do about that! Hyun-woo can't handle that kind of thing!"

"...."

Honestly, my heart just ached a little. We'd been through similar situations before, and whether then or now, the impact wasn't much different.

Nadia let out a serious hum, her tail moving gravely as she realized the gravity of the situation.

"Looks like I should start patrolling again. I missed just a few days, and already security's been breached..."

"Yeah, yeah, do whatever you want—let's just go. We're busy today, too."

"I thought you'd say that, so I got breakfast ready. Carry, give Hyun-woo the bread you brought."

【ヽ(≡ω≡ヽ)】

Carry, who had returned at some point, offered me some store-brand bread. Looking closer, I realized it wasn't the bread I'd dropped earlier. Seemed it had gotten me a new one. Not a trace left behind—complete destruction of evidence.

I shoved the bread in my mouth, took a drink of water, gulped, and asked Licorice.

"I'll wash up quickly and head to work. What about you?"

"Go ahead. I can't go out like this, looking like a mess."

She didn't really look that strange to me. When I gave her a close look, Licorice shrank back and covered her face. Through her disheveled hair, I could see her ears were bright red.

"Don't look..."

"Okay."

Honestly, she just looked a little messy, not dirty. But since she kept fussing with her hair, I just nodded.

'She's better today.'

She looked much better than yesterday, which was a relief. She must've slept well. I was glad I hadn't woken her yesterday.

After muttering something about how well she'd used the bed, Licorice made a quick escape, and Nadia, glaring at her rapidly retreating form, snapped her tail in the air.

"Why are you so worked up? Nadia, you've slept in my bed too."

"That's different! That was an act of God! That woman was forced!"

"Not quite sure those words mean what you think..."

Shaking my head, I quickly washed up in the sink and headed outside with Nadia and Carry. Ever since we heard about the suspicious transmission from the refinery yesterday, everyone had become more diligent. The area was already busy with all the early morning clamor.

Soon, we arrived at the workshop where Kyle was.

"Kyle, we're here."

"Perfect timing. I was about to call you over."

Looking at Nadia, who hung from my arm as if clinging to me, Kyle joked, "Something good happen this morning?"

He set down the tools he'd been holding on the workbench. He must have managed a bit of sleep himself—his dark circles were lighter today.

"... Is it done?"

Kyle replied with a curiously confident air. I looked around and lowered my voice. Feeling the tension, Nadia swallowed dryly. Carry didn't show much interest.

"No."

"Aww."

So close, yet so far.

"For now, what's finished are the gloves."

Roxy was overseeing the shuttle upgrade module, and Kyle was working on the custom suit. He was also in charge of overall gear improvements.

Gesturing for us to follow, Kyle led us over, our anticipation clear as we trailed behind. We stopped in front of a frame with the custom suit hanging from it. Even though it wasn't fully finished, it already looked impressive.

"At the cargo sector shuttle station, you ran into that weird worm, or parasite, or whatever it was. I designed this with the combat data in mind."

The overall color scheme of the suit was black. There were plates to protect the torso front and back, and the wrists were reinforced with extra armor featuring grooves.

"As you can see, the gloves aren't integrated. They have a quick-release mechanism, so you can bail out fast in emergencies."

Kyle said this was a function to be added to the ongoing gauntlet project, then pulled up a hologram. The display showed what the custom suit would look like once finished and its expected specs. When the armor was doubled up, it looked chunky—almost like a small power loader, and the look changed a lot depending on the type.

He explained that it was made from special fiber, so it was inherently durable and even bulletproof: "You won't die from a few bullets."That, while the pain was somewhat lessened, it wouldn't be completely blocked—the blows would still hurt.And with an auto-repair feature, there'd be no need to carry stitch-foam spray anymore.With each feature he listed, I just clapped politely.

Honestly, once he started using technical terms, I only understood about half of it. All I really thought was, "The materials are expensive, so it must be worth a lot."

Not that it mattered, since we'd basically snatched it from storage and didn't pay anyway.

I trusted Nadia. If I asked later, she'd explain it to me in my terms.

Once he'd received enough applause, Kyle pushed the finished suit aside.

"I'm downsizing the shockwave emitter now. If all goes as expected, it'll be about palm-sized."

"That small?"

"I focused solely on miniaturization. Here's the prototype."

"Wow..."

"With the downsizing comes—in fact, more than that, the recoil is much worse. There's no external frame to absorb it. Another downside to the reduced size is that it's switched to a cartridge-type system."

The shockwave emitter would be a part mounted on the forearm. I wasn't concerned about the increased recoil, since with my current condition, I could handle anything.

The cartridge system was fine, too. I could now see that the torso armor and belt had storage compartments for them. If I just swapped in a refined blue crystal, the cartridges could be reused.

"This isn't something I can use."

That was Nadia's conclusion after trying the shockwave emitter prototype. Even though she'd mentally prepared herself and lowered her stance as much as possible, she was nearly blown back the moment she fired. If I hadn't caught her, she would've hit a wall and ended up in tears.

I tried it, too, and of course I was fine. Just as expected, I could handle it with ease.

We then discussed the polar impactor and plasma cutter as well. The polar impactor would keep its size but focus its energy more narrowly for greater output, and the plasma cutter would be rebuilt from scratch.

Thanks to Licorice's blueprints, everything could be optimized. Plus, with Kyle's skills thrown in, work was progressing smoothly and steadily.

The only downside was that we couldn't get the heavy industrial artificial-gravity chain device, the so-called Big Hand, this time.

When we raided the containers, I tried to grab that first, but during Blue Eye's rampage with blue beams, the entire box was split open.

I nearly cried. If we'd gotten it, Nadia would've been able to flatten anything in her path, saying, "The head is high up," or something.

'It's just that I couldn't get a new one—surely there's one stored somewhere in Heaven.'

I really wanted to find one for Nadia, so I tried to comfort myself over the loss.

It was just as we were finishing up this productive session that Celestia arrived at the workshop, right on time, with Licorice. They must have met up on the way.

"I'm here."

Celestia walked in, saying something just like I would, and Licorice silently waved a hand.

Celestia glanced at Nadia, who was clinging tightly to my arm. Her gaze locked onto Nadia's soda-hued tail, flicking in the air.

Nadia was caught off guard by that oddly persistent look, cut herself off mid-chatter, and ducked behind me. Celestia looked a bit disappointed as Nadia wrapped her fluffy tail around her waist.

Celestia wanted to befriend her, but since that incident where she accidentally grabbed Nadia's tail, she'd been marked as a person of interest by Nadia. That pretty much stalled any progress between them.

I chuckled, and Celestia soon cleared her throat, getting right to the point.

"Let's continue yesterday's talk. There's a separate spot set up next door."

Blatant change of subject. Still, I pretended not to notice. Kyle said that if I came back later, he'd show me the finished product, then returned to his work, while the rest of us headed into a spare room near the workshop.

When I asked about Eric, I was told he'd been summoned by Carrot for a bit. We settled around a large table, and as soon as we did, Licorice activated a hologram on the tabletop.

"Everyone's seen the info I shared, so I'll skip that part."

I'd filled Nadia in along the way, so she caught up quickly.

We focused on what Licorice would say next.

"The main thing to consider is how much time we have left. They sent that transmission—they won't wait for us forever."

The issue wasn't facility damage, but the pureblood supremacists' patience. We'd all but confirmed it was a trap from them. If not, all the better. If yes, we'd make thorough preparations.

"I tried connecting to the refinery where Engineer Chen is, but got no response. The system's still locked down, too."

Either they couldn't answer, or they deliberately didn't. Neither was good for us.

"My guess is three days. I hate to say it, but that's counting on their mercy."

"What if we don't count on them?"

"Then they could blow up the solar furnace right now. That's the soonest, and the latest would probably be tonight."

"Hm..."

"But they might wait until today. As things stand, they seem to be wary of something."

"Wary?"

What would pureblood supremacists have to be wary of? When I made a puzzled face, Licorice tapped the table.

"They could have pinpointed this location at any time. Maybe they already have. We've been riding shuttles everywhere and even caused a few disturbances."

"... I guess so."

As much as I wanted to say it was unavoidable, that didn't change the reality.

"Instead of coming to kill us themselves, they've tried to lure us in. As if they really don't want to come."

That meant they were either looking for something from us or had something they wanted to confirm. We didn't know what that was, but the important thing was that it bought us a little time.

Assuming Licorice's theory was correct, at least.

"So we'll head to the robot manufacturing facility that's connected to the refinery first. I've come up with a plan, so hear me out."

Licorice wasn't one to get dragged around.

"... But only if you—well, if you all are okay with it."

She added this, glancing at Celestia. The words from before were clearly still on her mind.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Another mission.【(⌐■_■)-︻╦╤─】

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