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Befa couldn't tell what had just happened. Her white hair was dancing slightly, and she appeared quite calm:
“But I didn’t experience the feeling of being watched.”
"Most people are not necessarily aware of being watched. This power of yours..."
Kong scratched his head: "I have never been blessed by a similar destiny power, so I can't analyze who recognized you."
[It may be that fate itself recognized Belfast. According to the data analysis provided by Party A, it is very likely that the "mutual" or "cooperative" fate gave her power. 】
"How do you feel now, Befa? Has your energy recovered?"
"The ammunition and fuel have been replenished. There should be enough for one more battle." She tapped her toes lightly, and the smile on her face that seemed to be always appropriate became visibly brighter.
“…Although it’s not much, it’s a pleasant surprise.”
Sora was equally calmly happy.
"It seems that even the fate here doesn't want you to leave my side."
"Beffa is honored."
……
"Good morning, teacher—you look so energetic!"
"It's already afternoon, Asuna?"
"Hello, teacher. Did anything good happen to you today?"
"Hmm? Is it written all over your face? Your Befa-senpai just got his fate confirmed - Hana Rin, did you get enough rest?"
Sora pinched his cheeks to suppress his unbridled smile.
"I'm in good shape and ready to go."
"Don't worry. It's not time for the shift change yet. After today, we should be able to smoothly switch to two shifts. We need to make sure there are people on the ground following up on the situation at all times."
Paimon was still resting, and leaving the room to go to the observation car would not trigger the "auto-tracking" function. So Kong planned to ask the students about their thoughts on their first internship before departure, and continue to assign them some simple tasks to help them integrate into the rhythm of the Nameless Guest.
"March and Danheng both plan to use the Goethe Hotel underground as their base to help Dihuo solve the public security problem. We won't go back to the car for now. After discussion, we decided to split up our forces... Today, our main task is to go to the upper area of Beloberg to find intelligence officer Perla and bring her safely to Jeppard's camp. By the way, we will find their sister Lingke Landau based on the information provided by Shiluwa and Jeppard. If conditions permit, we will protect her to prevent the Cocolia government from taking action against her after noticing the rebellious behavior of the Landau family."
Sora placed an information sheet in front of the students, with the portraits of two "cute girls" drawn on it.
It is called "cute girls" because the painting is extremely abstract and vividly shows the characteristics of the two girls.
The first is a girl wearing round-framed glasses and an intelligence officer’s hat. Her twisted and unruly lines suddenly become rounded around her glasses, as if all the essence of her body is concentrated on her big, expressive eyes and lenses. She looks like a little adult, and the artist also drew a twinkling star next to her glasses to highlight her calmness and wisdom... Even though this overly cartoon-like artistic expression is not suitable for appearing in serious portraits...
Another girl is wearing a snow hat, her golden hair outlined like a comet's tail, almost leaking out from the edge of the drawing paper. She holds an ice pick in her right hand and a can in her left hand that looks like it has been opened, like Beloberg's own "Statue of Liberty" - there is a logo on the can that may be a fish, and the contents are emitting a chaotic purple light and a wavy "strange smell" outward.
To be honest, there is no shortage of art forms in the Earthly Mansion in Kivotos, but they have no idea how the contents of the cans in the paintings can emit such a magical artistic effect of strange purple light without using luminous paint. They can't say that this painting technique has been cursed by the star god, right?
For a moment, Asuna and Karin didn't know whether they should complain to Sora about the level of the portrait provider, but overall, the facial recognition ability of this painter is still a little better than that of Arona's cutting-edge AI...
"Hey, I think I saw a girl dressed like this in the square yesterday. She was introducing the City Builder Statue to the children, and I listened to her introduction for a while!"
As a result, Asuna immediately used her beast-like intuition to connect the abstract painting with the person she had met.
205. Pera and Lingke
"Eula-senpai, aren't you coming with us?"
"We need to give her a longer break. It doesn't matter. The three of us can handle today's internship."
Sora and Karin, who were hiding on the eaves, were protecting Asuna from two different directions.
After adjusting the surveillance tablet, Sora shared his view with Hana Rin - it was time to take care of the baby again.
Although he wanted to continue treating his students as children, but as expected... after that layer of relationship was established, it was difficult for Kong to regain the mood he had when teaching in the past.
Asuna and Karin are already considered members of society - the key is not whether they are adults or not, but whether they have a sense of responsibility and whether they have a "sense of survival".
In Kivotos, no matter how things develop, students can at least survive with their teachers as their support. But in Beloberg, in the ruthless galaxy, people have to worry about their own survival at all times and even be prepared to pay a high price. This is the true face of the world.
When the moment of the fairy tale being shattered came, Karin and Asuna passively accepted it all. They said nothing and did not complain, but Sora knew that the turbulent emotions beneath the calm were constantly torturing their inherent cognition.
The erosion of the Rift was still spreading in the urban area. When Asuna strolled near the interception net, she saw a lot of wounded Iron Guards and a small number of corpses, as well as... family members who came to claim them.
The victims had not yet been covered with white cloth. The cold environment made their faces appear rosy, unlike the one they had lost. But after the water was analyzed, frost appeared on every hair, ruthlessly shattering the hopes of their families.
This is the closest the students get to the concept of "death".
The mournful cries of the Beloberg people penetrated Asuna's eardrums, making it impossible for her to keep her signature carefree smile, and she could only hurriedly walk past the interception net.
"Teacher...is this caused by us?"
"No, these people should have just returned from the battlefield outside the city. Befa did not cause any accidental injuries last night. Those cuts seemed to be caused by the afterimages."
Sora said calmly in the frequency band: "Don't feel sorry for the victims, Asuna, you need to understand your responsibility, which is our position in this catastrophe. All we can do is to continue to expand the team against Cocolia. The death of these Iron Guards has nothing to do with us."
"I just heard that Saint Ya of Holy Trinity was almost assassinated... But the death caused by the destruction of the halo turned out to be like this..."
Through the camera on Asuna's clothes, Karin clearly saw the appearance of the dead.
"Not everyone has such a precious 'mystery' as the Halo, Karin. You need to get used to it as soon as possible."
"If we complete this mission quickly, can we prevent the Iron Guards from getting hurt further?"
"I'm afraid not. Asuna, haste makes waste - whether it's Bronya or Oleg, they need time to adjust and allow the upper and lower powers to achieve a certain degree of integration."
Sora turned the position of his gun:
"The mobilization of materials and personnel can be accelerated by completing the task quickly and well. However, the accumulation of public sentiment and the integration and mediation of interests are the most time-consuming. This is not a problem that soldiers can solve, and sometimes even the top politicians cannot do it."
"So what can we do?"
"Wait in an orderly manner - rest and regroup immediately after completing this task, and recharge your energy to wait for the next task, just like your life in school. Leave the rest to me and a few local adults."
Sora turned his gaze towards Kburg: "...We also have to wait for the situation to develop."
"Just like when Hina ran for student council president?" Asuna looked up.
"What happened during her campaign?" Sora was very curious.
"When I came to Nero-senpai to reserve votes, she said that she would wait until everyone's longing for the teacher had accumulated to a certain level and was about to explode, and then she would propose that 'the core goal of joining the student union is to find the teacher' to attract more votes."
"Haha...yes, that's also a way to take advantage of public opinion. Hinata is very smart."
Kong was delighted when he heard this: "Also...reserving votes. Tsk tsk, this is also a 'skill' that adults use."
"Although it's different from what Chairman Sorasaki is good at... Teacher, please give the order and use us as sharp knives. We are ready for this."
"Of course, I won't be polite. This is related to your internship score. But the key to breaking the situation in Beloberg is not fighting, Hua Lin, but 'using force to suppress others'. Even if we support the opposition and prepare for the worst with the premise of war... we still have to remove the nameless guest where it should be removed."
By lecturing in a casual way, answering questions, and providing some relatively practical but not overly dirty ideas, Sora successfully diverted Asuna and the others' attention from the gloom of witnessing the remains of the Iron Guard.
He knew that the students had a simple sense of righteousness, and he was afraid that a few words would not be able to destroy this youthful persistence - after all, understanding everything they saw and experienced, and trying to deal with specific problems with methods that they recognized, is also part of growth.
"It's right here... It looks like the Kburg guards haven't come to find us yet."
By the time she arrived at the intelligence officer's doorstep, Asuna had regained the smile she had when she first landed, which increased the number of people turning their heads to look at her by thirty percentage points when she walked down the street.
Fortunately, the security in the core neighborhood of the upper class of Beloberg has always been good, and there has never been a situation where girls are stopped and approached just because they are too pretty.
She rang the doorbell of an insignificant-looking building.
Maybe because the whole street is inhabited by people related to the Silver Mane Guards, this place is particularly deserted in the afternoon.
"Hello, is Intelligence Officer Pella home?"
"..."
About ten seconds later, the door slowly opened.
The room was slightly dark, and a pair of vigilant blue eyes lit up. The safety chain was still tied to the door, preventing outsiders from suddenly breaking in.
"Hello, who are you?"
"I was asked by Jeppard to protect you and take you to the First Guards Regiment. The specific contact information and secret key are in this terminal."
There was no need to match codes or anything like that, and there was no need to worry about it either - Asuna could easily identify Intelligence Officer Pella because of her huge round-framed glasses...
Cocolia didn't seem to consider her as a threat, or she simply didn't have the time to care about her.
"…You are a visitor from outer space, right?"
After seeing Asuna's face clearly, the intelligence officer's expression suddenly became very interesting.
"Eh? You saw it right away?"
"There's never been a girl as beautiful as you in the troupe - you should be in the theater. It's too conspicuous to hang around here... Are you being followed?"
"Hehe, just like the teacher said, I was exposed immediately. Don't worry, no one is following me, okay?"
"This is not something to be happy about! The reason you were not questioned by the Iron Guards is because you are too good-looking! They might be embarrassed... Alas..."
The girl wearing round-frame glasses took the terminal handed over by Asuna with a cautious attitude. She did not check it immediately in front of her, but apologized to her and asked her to wait outside for a few minutes so that she could confirm it.
After closing the door, she gestured to the other blonde girl hiding in her room to keep quiet, and the two of them tiptoed into the bathroom and turned on the local terminal that looked like a retro videotape.
Jeppard's resolute holographic image suddenly appeared -
"Intelligence Officer Pella, due to personnel changes, the First Guard Regiment is now under the command of Bronya. The emergency plan has been activated, numbered #227. After the terminal command is activated, please report to the base immediately with the contact personnel. The reporting time limit is 8 o'clock. No one will be accepted after the time limit."
“Ah…Brother…?”
The blonde girl in the snow hat let out a faint cry of surprise as soon as she saw Jeppard.
"Shh, Lingke, people outside don't know you're hiding in my house - don't let her find out."
Pera raised her finger five or six times in a row, which frightened her.
"This is a transfer order from the Garrison Regiment. I am the only one who can go. Those outsiders were expelled before, and I was immediately cut off from contact with Commander Jeppard and the Acting Grand Guardian by Kburg. I am afraid that things are more complicated than I thought..."
"You mean... my brother?"
"Not necessarily. Commander Bronya has also been 'sent' out. Maybe it's just a secret dispatch. Now Commander Jeppard asked me to return to the team. There is no one guarding us outside. Even the liaison personnel are outsiders. Maybe Lord Cocolia has some actions to hide from those nobles..."
"...but the big ship that appeared in the square area last night...and the exile..." The girl named Lingke was still quite worried.
"...I only know that I received an order to return to the team. Although Commander Jeppard's communicator was lost, he has not been removed from the Kburg. This is good news..." Pera put her hand on Lingke's shoulder and said with confidence:
"But to be on the safe side, you should hide in my house for a few days. There are enough supplies in the basement for you to live for a month... When I'm not back, you can slowly move the supplies according to the situation and hide in our campsite or somewhere you think is safe... But you must remember, no matter whether it is the Iron Guard or anyone else, if anyone breaks into my room, you must run away immediately."
"Pella, I'll go with you... I also want to find out what happened to my brother - my sister closed the store this morning. Normally, she would at least put up a sign saying she was out for something..."
"No, if three of us act together, our targets will be too conspicuous, and I may still be under surveillance. But if things don't get too bad, and there's no need to keep it secret, I'll send you a message..."