About Being Found and Adopted by Talula

W raised an eyebrow and pressed Orson further.

"I'm a mercenary who's personally killed countless people—those who deserved it, innocents, and people I knew nothing about. I couldn't even be bothered to remember the names or faces of those who died beneath my bombs. Do you think someone like me—"

"My hands are stained with many lives too."

Orson interrupted W. His words made W's smile fade for the moment.

"I once slaughtered an entire village. Though I wasn't conscious at the time, though those people were trying to wipe out both me and those unarmed Infected, I never felt I had the right to judge them."

Orson looked at W without averting his gaze.

"The people who died by our hands—those are established facts, sins we both have to bear. I have no right to condemn you over that."

"Ha, should I call that childish or naïve?"

"Naïve—yes, Miss W, your injuries were caused by your own 'naivety.' And the leader I follow also possesses a naïve ideal."

When Orson said that, W's eyes widened slightly. In that instant, she thought of that pure-white Princess, warm as light itself.

"I won't question or mock that naivety. On the contrary, I'll follow her childish innocence to the end—so, if you don't have an organization to go to for now, Reunion will always welcome you. I believe we have far more to talk about together than you imagine."

Orson smiled as he invited W, while W unusually let out a sigh.

This boy acted like an idiot in many ways, but he knew plenty too. And besides—this completely unvarnished invitation did carry a bit of that Princess's flavor.

"I got carried away talking for so long. Sorry... Anyway, let's change your medicine first, Miss W."

"Drop that ridiculous 'Miss.' It makes you sound like an idiot. More importantly, why are you the one holding the medicine?"

W waved a hand, signaling Orson not to call her that, then curiously asked why he was the one changing her dressing.

"The private doctor ran off, after all. Out of everyone here, my Field Emergency Medicine is the least terrible. All right, W, take off your clothes and lie back down on the bed."

Orson made an outrageous request with a bright, cheerful expression.

"—"

"Don't worry. I already saw everything when I treated your wounds before."

Orson remained utterly cheerful.

"—"

"Uh... Well, I swear on my character that before the surgery, I attuned my soul first. I guarantee I had the pure sage's mindset of a proper doctor!"

Vaguely realizing that he might have said something wrong, Orson began explaining himself.

"—"

"I, um... I didn't have any weird thoughts at all...!"

Orson blushed slightly as he stammered.

"All right, you don't need to say any more."

W smiled and interrupted the blushing Orson, all while holding a bottle of Liquid Explosive freshly mixed from infirmary supplies.

Boom!!!

"—You idiot!"

W raised her middle finger at the blasted-away Orson and cursed.

"Next, let's discuss how Duke Baikal will start the war—Orson?"

There was an illustration here. It can be viewed after updating the version.

Inside the meeting room, Talula curiously looked at the soot-covered Orson.

"Just a medical dispute. Nothing serious."

Orson answered quietly.

"Mm... Forget it. The situation is urgent. The enemy of our enemy may not become our friend, but they have some value we can use."

Talula glanced at W. The latter merely waved at Talula, wearing an unreadable smile.

—There was no need to worry about a mercenary picked up from who knew where.

Talula confidently removed W from the list of people who needed watching out for—meaning Orson's social circle.

"Let's start with the conclusion. Duke Baikal will definitely bring in an army within the next two days. He should have noticed by now that the Rostov family is seeking aid. The question is, what excuse will he use to mobilize the army?"

Talula raised the issue.

"An excuse isn't hard to find. Find a puppet to make a forced declaration, forge an imperial order, or simply massacre the city." Lumen replied with a frown.

"Those all risk being exposed. If I were that guy, I'd use a simpler, more convenient method."

W voiced her opinion from the side. Under Orson's personal guarantee, this cockroach-haired mercenary he had brought back had temporarily joined the Rostov camp.

"A simpler, more convenient method?"

"Create an enemy. Isn't that obvious? And if I'm not mistaken, my squad is probably carrying out that operation right now."

W spoke lazily. As if to support her point, the television program beside them was suddenly interrupted by a news report:

An emergency bulletin follows! An explosion occurred at Peterheim Middle School in the Chernobyl city-state five minutes ago. The school has reportedly been occupied by a terrorist group seeking an enormous ransom from Chernobyl's nobility. Chernobyl police are heading to the scene to contain the situation. At the same time, the Third Army Group has stated that if the situation continues to worsen, it will enter Chernobyl and use force to eliminate the terrorist threat.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Ha, called it~"

Watching black smoke billow from Peterheim on the television, W smiled—a smile that sent chills down the spine.

Sweet Duos Queueing with W

Earlier, at Peterheim Middle School—

"Natalia and Orson didn't come today. Did you get into an argument with them, Sonia?"

Inside the club activity room, Gummy watched the famous Terra cooking show Daily Drink Stone while asking Lumiere beside her.

"Huh? What does that have to do with me? Those two were weird to begin with. I wouldn't even be surprised if someone told me they suddenly transferred schools."

Lumiere answered carelessly, yet she looked somewhat conflictedly at the empty seats.

Although Lumiere had never heard Lumen talk about the Rostov family's situation, the streets had been full of rumors about old nobles and new nobles over the past two days. The entire city was in an uproar. Lumiere found it hard to convince herself that the Student Council President's Truancy had nothing to do with her family.

"If Orson isn't here, then it'll just be the two of us sparring today! General Winter, I'll definitely knock you down today!"

Summer eagerly challenged Lumiere, but to General Summer's surprise, Lumiere—who normally never refused a fight—waved her hand this time.

"Sorry, Rosaline. I'm not really in the mood today."

"Wha—! Sonia isn't fighting? Th-this is an anomaly, Anna!"

"You're so noisy... I'm still trying to deduce why Orson and Natalia didn't come to school based on our last Club Activity."

Truth pushed up her glasses, veins bulging on her forehead.

Although Orson had cobbled this club together by dragging Lumiere in, everyone unexpectedly got along quite well.

"Hey, Anna, we don't have any strange activities scheduled today, right?"

Lumiere, who had been looking out the window, suddenly noticed something and immediately asked Truth.

"No. What's wrong?"

"If not—damn it, come with me!!"

Without another word, Lumiere dragged the Bear Squad members out of the club activity room. At the same time, a group of masked Sarkaz mercenaries in black coats slowly approached Peterheim.

"Leave those mercenaries to me."

"I can't promise that, W. In this situation, I might not have the spare capacity to hold back like I did before."

"Ha, so there are times when you can't handle everything with ease?"

On the way to Peterheim Middle School, Orson and W talked. Because Orson could not promise to leave the Sarkaz who attacked the school to W, she mocked him.

Their current goal was to deal with the terrorist attack at Peterheim Middle School as quickly as possible and prevent the situation from escalating further.

Orson was worried about the Bear Squad's safety, while W had to personally deal with the mercenaries who had originally belonged to her squad. Thus, they had temporarily formed this two-person team that was strange in every possible sense.

After arriving near Peterheim Middle School, W checked the blind spots in the sentry Sarkaz's vision, loaded a grappling claw into her grenade launcher, aimed at the top of the school building, and pulled the trigger.

Orson followed the rope up to Peterheim Middle School's high ground. He knelt on one knee and lightly placed his left hand on the concrete slabs of the rooftop.

Low-Frequency Exploration—

Originium Arts manifested from Orson's palm as invisible ripples. The ripples spread continuously through the walls, bouncing back after encountering people and returning to Orson's hand.

Within seconds, a colorless 3D Map had formed in Orson's mind.

"The good news is that almost all the students have been gathered in the gymnasium. The bad news is that every one of these Sarkaz mercenaries has a High-Concentration Originium Bomb strapped to them. Are all your squad members lunatics?"

Orson looked at W in confusion, asking why these people would take on a mission that was clearly suicidal.

"Ha, bingo~ Most Sarkaz are completely insane. They believe that crossing a certain-death abyss will bring them closer to that ancient and enduring Sarkaz Bloodline."

W explained with a smile, though her tone was full of disdain and mockery.

"And your goal is to free them from the madness they have to bear as Sarkaz."

"...Save the chatting for after the mission. Or are you looking forward to watching those little brats get blown into the sky?"

"No. I'm confirming the identities of another group of signals. They're in an underground storage room near the gymnasium. I don't know what they're doing, but they don't seem to be Sarkaz mercenaries."

Orson frowned. The few indistinct frequency responses left him unable to make sense of them.

Aside from those unidentified signals, Orson had basically finished locating the Sarkaz mercenaries inside the gymnasium.

"There are seven mercenaries in the corners, five patrolling among the students, and roughly ten more scattered around the outside of the gymnasium. It's a little inappropriate to say this now, but your soldiers have quite good tactical discipline..."

Orson sighed. These mercenaries who had once belonged to W's squad were indeed far more professional strategically than the Enforcement Team members or assassins he had encountered before.

"Ha, these were originally gifts prepared for you. So, what are we doing?"

W took out several C4 charges awaiting activation and looked at Orson.

"We'll launch a surprise attack from the top floor using your Shaped Charge. I'll use Rest Note—meaning that shadow—to precisely deal with the mercenaries mixed in among the students. You handle the ones standing away from the students in the corners. We only get one chance. Those Originium bombs are direct-trigger devices, and my ability can't silence them."

As he spoke, Orson marked the mercenaries' approximate positions for W from the top floor.

"So all I need to do is use completely ordinary C4, without any Originium-based trigger, and I can blow you away?"

"Theoretically, yes—those unknown signals have started moving. They're heading straight for the gymnasium...?"

Faced with Orson's unreserved answer, W sighed. She could not tell whether he trusted her or was simply an idiot. He had so easily revealed the Shortcoming of Originium Arts to her.

"These signals—Sonia...!!"

On the other side, Orson finally confirmed the signals' true identities—the Bear Squad, who had avoided capture when the Sarkaz mercenaries raided the school and had decided to help the other students escape from the gymnasium.

"Damn it, get ready to move, W!"

"I've been waiting."

Orson shouted to W. She grinned and lightly pressed the remote in her hand—

There was an illustration here. It can be viewed after updating the version.

Bro, They're On Our Side!

Lumiere's plan was for her to charge into the gymnasium from the front and draw everyone's attention, while Summer and Gummy used crossbows found in the basement, wrapped in oilcloth, to take down the Sarkaz mercenaries stationed at the entrance. Then Truth would seize the walkie-talkie equipment from the mercenaries and call the outside world for help.

Their initial goal had only been to obtain a means of contacting the outside, because Orson had once said that when the gap in strength between friend and foe was severely uneven, "information" was the most important weapon.

But what Lumiere had not expected was that only the first step of her plan went according to plan—drawing attention.

"Hey! You mercenaries, if you've got the guts, fight me fair and square!"

Lumiere ran out from the blind spot of the basement, shouting to provide Gummy and Summer with cover. Then she kicked open the gymnasium doors and hurled the Molotov Cocktail she had prepared beforehand at the fire alarm in the corner.

Boom!!!