He forced down the discomfort rising in his chest, shifted forward two steps without revealing anything, and quietly steadied himself.
Pretending nothing had happened, he turned his head helplessly toward the high-spirited Aha.
A snow-laden wind from who knew where stirred the train-style robe he wore. His calm gaze crossed the pure white snow beneath the cliff and settled on Topaz, who was crouching in the woods and teasing a cub.
"No need."
Akivili spoke calmly, his gaze returning to the snowy forest.
"As Nameless of The Trailblaze, we've been through this sort of thing countless times. There's no need to deliberately target them." (?ì_í?)
It was hardly rare for the Stellaris Train to be wanted on a planet because of some misunderstanding.
It was also an unavoidable part of their Trailblazing journey.
Of course, more importantly, after spending these past few days together, he could already tell that Topaz was not a bad person.
She was not one of those cold, calculating company people who cared only about weighing costs and benefits and had no human charm whatsoever.
Hearing Akivili's answer, Aha was displeased. Holding up his telescope, he brought it back to his eye. The reflection in the lens showed Topaz gently stroking the fur of an icefield bear cub, while the gramophone continuously replayed a fragment of their recent call.
"Oh, don't be so boring! Just think about it—if I made a few little moves and disrupted their upcoming mission, wouldn't that make for a wonderfully exciting show?"
Two Emanators of The Preservation from the company! Oh, no—more accurately, two pseudo-Emanators of The Preservation from the company!
There had to be plenty of fun to find in them.
"I already said there's no need. The journey of The Trailblaze was never going to be smooth sailing. When