Guarantee

(There will be another chapter tonight. The next chapter will explain the real reason Xiao Ran invited Luo. Hehe, look forward to it.)

Xiao Ran frowned at the Dawn Desert Resistance members who had surrounded the vehicle with weapons in hand. Luo, beside him, had already raised his hands with a shrug, looking at Xiao Ran as if asking what was going on. Xiao Ran felt a little embarrassed. After all, he had been the one to invite Luo, yet this was the reception he had received.

"It's fine." Xiao Ran quietly reassured Luo, then stepped out of the vehicle and called out to the Resistance members closing in around them, "What is this about?"

One Resistance member stepped forward and shot Xiao Ran a displeased look. "You left alone, so why did you bring someone back? Who is this person? This is our Resistance base. What if the person you brought back is an enemy, or if you were followed?"

Xiao Ran suddenly understood and slapped his forehead. Perhaps he had relaxed too much earlier, and perhaps he had never experienced the kind of hiding and running that the Resistance endured. He simply had not considered this at all. What they said made perfect sense, leaving him with no desire to argue.

He could only apologize repeatedly. "I'm sorry. I overlooked it. He's an old friend of mine, a member of the Scrap Dealer, not ZAFT. We also kept watch for anyone following us on the way back, so you can rest assured. If anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility."

"A Scrap Dealer?" The Resistance member glanced at Luo, then nodded with a frown. "If he's with the Scrap Dealer, then there's no problem. We've had dealings with them as well. But be more careful next time. You may be our guests, but if you do anything that threatens us, we'll eliminate that threat."

"I'm sorry. I truly apologize," Xiao Ran hurriedly said.

"Mm." The Resistance member nodded, then waved to the others behind him and called out, "Everyone who's free, get back out on patrol. Ask the people over there whether the ZAFT forces have made any strange moves."

Watching the Resistance members hurry away, Xiao Ran turned to Luo with a bitter smile. "Looks like I caused them a lot of trouble."

"I think so too." Luo nodded in agreement, folding his hands behind his head. "But they don't have it easy either. They're still desperately resisting ZAFT under these circumstances. Honestly, I think there's no need to fight here at all if both sides would just sit down and talk."

"If everyone thought like you, then it would be a happy ending for everyone." Xiao Ran shook his head and gestured for Luo to proceed. Once Luo followed him, he continued, "But there are always people stirring up everyone's frayed nerves for their own benefit, constantly creating small-scale conflicts everywhere, then expanding them until the whole world is dragged into war. That lets them make even greater profits."

"You mean arms dealers?" Luo asked.

"You know about that?" Xiao Ran was somewhat surprised.

Luo nodded. "Of course. Those people are major clients of our Scrap Dealer. They buy a lot of what we salvage, either to dismantle and study it or melt it down and manufacture it again."

As they talked, the two arrived at the passage leading into the Archangel. After asking Luo to wait a moment, Xiao Ran used the communicator at the entrance to contact the bridge and transferred the call to Mwu. "Captain, I have a friend. I'd like to request permission for him to board."

"A friend?" Mwu's surprised voice came through the communicator. The display in front of Xiao Ran lit up, showing Mwu looking at him strangely. "You have friends in a place like this?"

Xiao Ran glanced at Luo, who was looking around curiously nearby, then said to Mwu, "He's a friend from the Scrap Dealer. I'd like to show him around the Archangel. And the Gundam, of course."

"The Gundam!?"

Mwu had thought Xiao Ran merely wanted to let his friend take a look around the Archangel, but she had not expected him to include the Gundam. She knew Xiao Ran was not so lacking in judgment, and she also knew that this visit was not merely about looking with his eyes, but about truly understanding it. Mwu was momentarily stunned, then said with some difficulty, "Xiao Ran, the Archangel and the Gundam are Earth Force secrets. How can we allow that?"

Xiao Ran shook his head. He had invited Luo to the Archangel for a deeper purpose, but he could not explain too much to Mwu right now. He merely said, "I guarantee with my life that my friend will never reveal a single word of what he sees. If—if, before the Archangel and the Gundam are made public, or before you confirm that you've been abandoned as pawns—even the slightest piece of classified information leaks out through my friend, you can pick up your gun and shoot me dead at any time."

After Xiao Ran said this, not only was Mwu stunned, even Luo, who had seemed unconcerned beside him, turned to stare at him in shock. Though they had only met for the first time and had only just gotten acquainted, Xiao Ran's decisive, unquestioning willingness to trust him moved Luo. The doubts he had buried in his heart over Xiao Ran's inexplicable invitation dissipated at that moment.

Mwu said nothing, but she had already begun to waver, wanting to agree to Xiao Ran's request. Seeing the expression on her face, Xiao Ran softly said, "Trust me, Mwu. You, the Archangel, and Kira and the others are all very important to me. I won't let anyone threaten the Archangel, and I certainly won't let anyone treat you as abandoned pawns."

After a moment of silence, Mwu finally looked up at Xiao Ran through the screen. "Fine. I'll allow him to board. As for anything else, I know nothing."

"Thank you." Xiao Ran smiled. A hint of warmth flickered in his eyes as he looked at Mwu's image, but reason quickly replaced it. Only after the communication ended did Xiao Ran take a deep breath and turn to Luo. "Sorry to have kept you waiting. To avoid a situation like before, I thought it would be better to notify this ship's captain first."

Luo shook his head. "It's all right."

"Then come on." Xiao Ran stepped through the now-open passage door and nodded to Luo.

After the two boarded the Archangel, Xiao Ran spent nearly an hour showing Luo around its various sections. Luo excitedly held a pen and paper, constantly sketching and writing. "As expected of the Earth Force's most advanced warship. Many of its concepts are incredibly successful. It's a multifunctional warship that combines high-speed assault, mobile suit deployment, and heavy firepower. Our ship can't even compare to this one."

Xiao Ran smiled. "Heh, I'm glad it meets your approval. Later, I'll see if I can get hold of some detailed Archangel data and secretly give it to you. But you can't let it leak."

"There's no need." Luo put the pen and paper back into his pocket and shook his head seriously. "You've already done enough for my curiosity. You're a true friend, a good person. You've done so much for your friends and your students. I don't want to put you in a difficult position anymore. With what I recorded just now, even if I can't make something identical to this ship, I can at least make something close."

"So you're an excellent mechanical engineer, then?" Xiao Ran deliberately asked.

"Of course!" Luo proudly replied. "Among the people I know, if I say I'm second, no one would dare claim first!"

Xiao Ran nodded flatteringly. "A friend of mine did tell me that Luo was an incredibly skilled mechanical expert. Anything salvaged becomes as good as new after passing through his hands."

"Haha." Luo laughed heartily, then suddenly rubbed his hands together and looked at Xiao Ran expectantly. "So, shall we go see that thing?"

"Of course." Xiao Ran nodded with a smile. "And I have something prepared for you too."