The other himself stood atop the scaffold, as if understanding something after looking at the people around him, and climbed onto the execution platform with a mocking smile.
With a heavy thud, the image flickered again, this time looking like static with no signal, before displaying one final image after flickering for a few seconds.
The red guardian holding a bow, and the black guardian holding twin pistols.
His consciousness gradually grew hazy, followed closely by a severe sensation of falling.
His consciousness broke off right then and there.
Out in the wilderness, a van was moving at high speed.
Four females sat inside, and although their faces were covered in dirt and grime, their moods seemed quite pleasant.
"Once we finish this delivery, we can take a nice long break and won't have to run long distances anymore."
The red-haired female in the passenger seat said this while stretching her limbs, her body curves fully revealed during the stretch. Fortunately, everyone in the car was female; if there were any guys around, they certainly wouldn't know where to direct their gaze, would they?
It was just that the halo floating right above her head was a bit too bright.
"Ah! I'm so envious of you guys, Exusiai. I still have a few shows to run after this!"
Hearing those words, the blonde female in the back seat slightly twitched the ears on her head and replied with a thoroughly lifeless expression.
The female called Exusiai turned around to look at Sora in the back seat, responding with a wide grin.
"After all, Sora, you're an idol. Don't worry, Texas, Croissant, and I will go cheer you on, right? Don't you agree, Texas?"
"Mhm."
In the driver's seat, the black-haired beast-eared female—Texas—had a Pocky stick clamped in her teeth as she drove and nodded in agreement.
"I've got business these next few days; I've got a batch of goods to sell."
On the other side, Croissant, who sported a pair of horns, waved her hands to indicate she was very busy.
"Croissant, what did you buy to go sell this time?"
"Heh heh~ It's a secret! But I really dug up something good this time, you know?" Croissant raised her head proudly, feeling as though air was about to blow right out of her nostrils.
However, the other three only gave about fifty-percent credence to Croissant's claims—and that was out of a hundred. After all, Croissant frequently bought all sorts of weird junk, and while she did occasionally unearth genuine treasures, it happened very rarely compared to everything else.
"Don't go setting up a stall at Sora's concert, okay? The last time you got caught, it took Sora speaking up for you just to get you out of it." Texas flicked the Pocky in her mouth and issued a warning to Croissant.
"Relax, I'm setting up outside this time." Croissant wore a confident expression, showing not a shred of remorse.
"Sora, please remember to go fish Croissant out later." Beside her, upon hearing Croissant's words, Exusiai already envisioned the scene of Croissant being pinned down by concert security.
"Okay, no problem, I'll bring Croissant out safe and sound." Sora pressed her hands together, looking as though she were atoning for Croissant's sins.
"Don't speak as if I'm bound to get caught, will you?!" Croissant raised her right hand to point at the two of them, her index finger pressing downward to express her dissatisfaction.
"Shouldn't the premise be that you don't cause trouble for others?" Up front, Texas switched to a fresh Pocky stick.
Boom────
Before Texas could bite down on that Pocky, a massive roar echoed out, followed instantly by a violent tremor that sent nearly the entire vehicle flying into the air.
"Hold on tight!"
Texas gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands while the Pocky dropped to the floor from the recent jolt, and the others inside the vehicle clung desperately to anything they could grab to keep themselves safe.
The van landed smoothly, spinning around twice on the ground before finally coming to a halt.
Once the vehicle settled, Exusiai raised the gun in her hand with a resentful expression.
"By Laterano, what just happened? Did we get blown up?"
"Prepare for combat." Texas looked at the completely emptied Pocky packaging, checked out the window first to make sure there was nothing else in the sky, and then picked up her sword hilt to remind the others what to do.
Croissant snatched up her shield, opened the door, and after glancing left and right to determine where the source came from, waved the others over.
The group gathered behind Croissant, waiting for Texas's next instructions.
Texas took out a device and adjusted it. After seeming to confirm something, she nodded and said, "There's no sign of Originium concentration spiking; it's still within safe levels. It shouldn't be a Catastrophe or an Originium bomb."
"Not a Catastrophe and not an Originium bomb? Just a plain old meteorite? Longmen Curses, it sure landed with pinpoint accuracy."
Upon learning it wasn't a Catastrophe or an Originium bomb, they let out sighs of relief, finally finding the mental bandwidth to joke around.
As for being ambushed...? Setting aside the question of who would choose to lay an ambush out in this vast flat plain, stretching their gaze revealed basically no cover and no traces of dug trenches, allowing them to rule out that possibility entirely.
"Should we go close and take a look?" Exusiai showed no signs of lowering the gun in her hand.
Being careful never hurts; this land is dangerous.
"Let's see what it is. My last pack of Pocky is gone." Texas gave her right hand a flick with the sword hilt, and a light blade materialized instantly with a flash.
She was very angry right now and wanted to hack at something to vent her frustration.
"Whoa, Sora, did you bring any Pocky?" Seeing Texas's unhappy expression, Exusiai stepped back slightly and asked Sora beside her.
"I remember having some, hold on, let me rummage through my bag." Sora recalled it for a moment before responding in a soft voice. She remembered putting some in her bag, but she had already handed it over to Texas for emergencies last time, and she had forgotten whether she had restocked since then.
"Let's pray there is, or else we'll be riding the death train shortly."
Exusiai fervently hoped that Pocky existed within Sora's bag. Last time, when Texas drove long-distance, she forgot to bring Pocky into the car due to her own negligence, causing Texas to remain in an irritable state the entire trip and pressing the gas pedal down much harder as a result. While she trusted Texas's driving skills, Exusiai stated she had no desire to participate in that again.
That time, she felt as though she had caught a glimpse of the Lord.
Regrettably, she had no wish to see her Lord again through such a method just yet.
As the group drew closer, Croissant, who was walking in front, stopped in her tracks and said to Texas, "Texas, the impact crater is right ahead."
Texas nodded, gripped the light blade in her hand, and moved forward.
Smoke still billowed thickly around the rim of the crater. Texas approached cautiously and finally spotted the object inside—or rather, a person.
It should be a man, possessing a head of red hair, wearing a black and white jacket, dark blue trousers, and a pair of black and white shoes. His overall attire was very plain and common; many people in Lungmen probably dressed just like this.
The question was, how did someone dressed so plainly manage to smash down right here?
Though Texas didn't understand physics very well, she knew very well that under the impact force from moments ago, any normal person would basically be beaten out of human shape.
"What's wrong, Texas, what's with that look on your face like you just saw pineapple sprinkled on pizza?" Exusiai noticed Texas standing at the edge of the crater with a strange expression, so she stepped closer in concern.
Then she saw the person in the crater as well, joining the ranks of seeing an apple pie without any apples.
Sora and Croissant, arriving close behind, also approached and quietly gazed at the man in the pit.
The man was face-down, and the way his left hand stretched out toward the front looked truly dashing.
After a moment, Croissant spoke up: "Longmen Curses, what in the world is this!"
"It's a person." Because she had nothing to chew on, Texas bit down on her thumb to soothe her anxiety.
"Mhm, it's a person." Exusiai stared at the figure in the crater and said.
"Looks like a person indeed." Sora chimed in next.
"Of course I know it's a person, my eyes still work okay!" Croissant felt as though her own teammates were looking down on her.
"Cut the fooling around. What should we do now? Walk away or provide aid?"
Texas hesitated for a moment before deciding to ask her teammates for their opinions. If she were in the middle of an operation, she certainly wouldn't pay attention to the fellow, but right now, she could still try saving him.
It was just that her personal inclination was not to save him—and definitely not because her Pocky stash was gone on account of this guy, but because on this land, not everyone walked around with a grateful heart ready to accept the kindness of others.
After all, they had just emerged from an operation; there was no need to take unnecessary risks saving a stranger.
"Since we've already run into him, let's rescue him?" Exusiai said this while simultaneously leaping down into the crater.
"Well... since Sister Exu jumped in, let's rescue him?" Croissant watched Exusiai approach the target and also jumped down into the pit to follow along.
"Sigh... Sora, do you have an emergency medical kit on you?" Watching her already-active teammates, Texas sighed and asked Sora.
"I... I do."
Sora hurriedly fumbled through the pouch at her waist, fishing out some bandages and assorted medicines.
Texas nodded, then jumped down into the crater as well, with Sora following closely behind.
By the time the rest rendezvoused with Exusiai, she had already rolled the man over onto his back and was checking his body for wounds.
"Texas, give me a hand. I don't see any obvious external injuries."
There were no visible bloodstains on the man's body, and his clothes weren't even torn; he was merely covered in dirt from lying on the ground.
Hearing Exusiai's words, Texas set her light blade aside and began her inspection. Because Exusiai was checking the upper body, Texas started her check from the feet.
"Feet and torso are clean. Hands... the right hand seems to be wrapped up?"
She felt no sensation of fractures or swelling, but his right hand appeared to be wrapped in bandages.
Although she had already noticed a red cloth strip tied around his palm when approaching earlier, touching it revealed that the binding seemed to run all the way up to his right shoulder.
"He might be an Infected person, stay alert." Texas cautioned her teammates before removing the man's jacket and lifting his right arm.
Sure enough, a red cloth strip was tightly wound around the man's right arm. Texas looked it over briefly, intending to remove the cloth to check if there were any injuries underneath.
As long as one is careful, the Infected aren't actually terrifying.
Reaching out to gently pull it apart from the shoulder area, Texas faintly heard a buzzing sound.
She paused her movements to glance around, the ears on her head twitching intermittently.
"What's wrong?" Exusiai stepped closer upon seeing Texas stop.
"Nothing, I probably just misheard." Seeing that her teammates hadn't seemed to hear anything, Texas shook her head, then exerted some force to untie the secured section at the right shoulder.
The cloth strip appeared to be anchored from the wrist area, so she could only pull it down as far as the wrist.
"There's nothing there? Then why's he all wrapped up in cloth?" Exusiai held up the man's hand, turning it left and right, yet found neither wounds nor any presence of Originium.
"Uh... could it be non-mainstream fashion?" Sora tilted her head and offered her own thought.
"Tch, anyway, nothing's wrong with him probably. Tie up his hands and feet and let him lie in the back seat." Texas chewed her lip, and failing to find anything to bite on, she simply wound the red cloth strip back around the man's hands, then took the bandages from Sora's hands to bind his feet as well.
She didn't tie them very tightly—the ones on his feet were bound loosely enough that he could slip out with just a little bit of effort.
Afterwards, she and Croissant hauled the man out of the crater and placed him in the back seat of the car.
"Phew... Are we taking him back to Lungmen?" Croissant wiped the sweat from her brow after hoisting the man into the vehicle and asked.
"Mhm, let's take him back. The boss should find him quite interesting." Texas accepted the Pocky handed over by Sora, feeling as though she had rediscovered the tranquil peace of life.
"Indeed. Someone who falls from the sky completely unharmed—the boss will definitely be interested in that," Exusiai said, rubbing her chin.
Their boss seemed to have taken a keen interest in these kinds of peculiar individuals lately.
Changing hobbies every single day described their boss to a tee.
"Mhm... then let's hide him away a bit." Sora shifted the cargo nearby to make the man look less conspicuous.
"What if he wakes up during a checkpoint inspection?" Croissant asked.
"Then just let the Knights of the Round Table haul him away. Consider it bad luck on his part." Exusiai shrugged, and once Sora finished tidying up, she closed the car door and hopped inside.
The engine started, and the group resumed their journey back.
If anyone happened to witness this scene...
Four armed individuals, alongside an unconscious and bound person in the back seat—no matter how one looked at it, it was brimming with criminal vibes.
The vehicle smoothly entered Lungmen. After all, the group were frequent visitors to the Knights of the Round Table, and since the checkpoint inspection today was being handled by an acquaintance, they were let right in after a brief once-over.
Exusiai couldn't help but marvel:
"I didn't expect us to get in so smoothly. How lucky."
"Croissant, call the boss and give him a heads-up to clear out an empty room." Texas was dangling the last Pocky stick from her lips, suddenly realizing she ought to notify their boss to clear a space for the occupant in the back seat.
"Let's extort a free dinner out of it while we're at it, heh heh." Croissant rummaged through the seat, pulled out a phone, and dialed a number.
"...Ah! Boss! We've already arrived in Lungmen, cargo is safe... Don't worry, don't worry, ah! Hold on, would it be convenient to clear a room for us? We fished up someone very interesting on the road, you'll definitely be interested, Boss... Right, and also about tonight... What? No time tonight? Damn it!" Croissant's expression—shifting rapidly from reporting to requesting, to fawning, and finally ending in exasperation—was witnessed by everyone present.
"There, there, isn't it just missing out on a free meal? Don't be upset." Sora consoled Croissant, and the effect was remarkable.
Croissant shoved her phone into her pocket and said, "The boss says he'll get a room ready—the one right underneath our dorm building. Also, he's rather busy these next two days, so he probably won't come see this guy until tomorrow evening. As for a doctor, if it's not urgent, we won't call one yet and will wait until the boss returns to consult someone he knows."
"Yay! The boss being busy means we can take a secure holiday without having to worry about temporary work." Exusiai pumped both fists in celebration.
A normal holiday basically meant standing by; if temporary work popped up, they still had to report for duty. However, as long as the boss was unavailable and hadn't assigned long-term tasks, it meant a thorough, unadulterated vacation!
"Don't celebrate too early, we still have to take care of the person in the back seat." The ears on top of Texas's head twitched slightly, though she was likewise quite satisfied with the two-day break.
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