In Arknights, Starting Out as Griseo

"When the two of us came around here before, we saw a row of footprints that had appeared out of nowhere. Then we followed them and found a snow pit, but in the end, we didn't find anyone."

"At first, we both thought we'd seen a ghost."

"But now, it looked like it had been you, little one."

Though he was asking, Alexei's tone was extremely certain.

He didn't think there was anyone else in this forest capable of doing something like that.

"Mm, it was me. After I noticed you, I had Mr. Wolf carry me away."

Griseo, who had been listening intently because she thought something serious had happened, nodded her little head without hesitation after hearing the explanation and admitted it.

As far as she was concerned, since she had already been exposed, there was no need to hide such a minor matter.

"So those footprints were yours, little one. Ivan and I really thought we'd seen a ghost." After hearing Griseo admit it, Ivan abruptly straightened up and said with a helpless laugh.

"After all, I secretly followed you here."

"If I'd been discovered, I would've been scolded."

Griseo was very clear about how to define this little operation of hers.

Thanks to Uncle Tyrant, the process had become just a tiny bit high-profile, but overall, it had still been relatively low-key.

"You really are..."

?

"Crunch, crunch—"

As the group chatted, a sound suddenly came from the distance, causing everyone to fall silent at once.

They all quietly observed the situation in the distance.

"..."

However, Griseo was the first to realize who was coming, and her mood immediately plummeted again. Nervously, she shrank further into Mr. Wolf's arms.

The little girl was already prepared. It was just a scolding. She would still dare to do it again next time!

As the sound drew nearer, both sides came into each other's view, and then...

"Didn't you two run into danger?" Lois asked in confusion when she saw her completely unharmed and leisurely teammates.

Then, when she noticed the little darling being held in the arms of the enormous wolf beside them, she froze completely. "Wait! Little Griseo!?"

Lois's cry of surprise immediately drew the attention of the other two beside her as well.

"Griseo? Wait, why did the thing holding that little cutie look so familiar?"

?

"Now that you mentioned it, it really did look like the one that saved us..."

"What's going on? Why is Griseo here?"

Yelena did not join Lois and the others' discussion. Instead, she walked over to Griseo, patted her little head, and then looked at Ivan and the others with a serious expression.

"!"

Feeling the touch and warmth on top of her head, though it was still as gentle as ever, Griseo shuddered all over. Honestly, this was the first time she had felt that Yelena's hand was so cold...

After Yelena spoke, the two people who had been quietly discussing Griseo and Mr. Wolf nearby also pricked up their ears.

P.S. As usual, the second update will be a little later. Hopefully it'll be a bit earlier today, like yesterday. Send some votes my way.

Entering the Mine and the Scars

After their big sister asked, the two Yetis did not hide anything and told her everything they knew.

After listening to Ivan and the other's account and understanding the situation, Yelena once again turned her gaze toward Griseo.

"..."

When Griseo met Yelena's gaze, a trace of guilt flashed through her violet eyes.

If Yelena had learned everything and then severely lectured her, Griseo would not have thought much of it.

But that did not happen... The quieter and more silent FrostNova was, the guiltier the little girl felt.

"Sigh... So, can you tell your big sister why you secretly followed us here?"

Seeing Griseo's expression, Yelena sighed softly. Then she looked directly into her eyes and asked in a gentle voice.

Though Yelena had gained an intuitive understanding of the little girl's strength through the two Yetis' descriptions just now, she was not especially surprised overall.

She had known before that Griseo was not an ordinary child. Her abilities were unusual, and her origins were unknown.

So compared to anything else, Yelena wanted to know more why this little girl had followed them all the way here. This time, the distance had not been short at all.

"Mm, because I wanted to protect you—all of you. I don't want Sister Yelena's health to get worse again." Hearing Yelena's voice, Griseo seriously repeated words she had said before but which had been treated as a joke.

"Is that so? I understand."

Seeing the sincerity and determination in Griseo's eyes, Yelena did not blame her. Instead, the corners of her lips curled upward slightly as she gently patted the little girl's head again.

Griseo's answer did not surprise Yelena too much. Or rather, perhaps she had already known the reason from the moment she first saw the little girl here...

At that moment, Yelena completely put aside the "arrogance" adults held toward children and regarded the small, adorable Griseo before her as a little comrade who could fight alongside her.

"Eh? Sister Yelena, you aren't angry anymore?"

Griseo gently rubbed against Yelena's callused hand and asked in surprise, as if she had never expected her to calm down so quickly.

"Angry at you, little one? Not really. Even if I were to be angry, I should be angry at myself instead. After all, I failed to take proper care of you."

After saying that, Yelena blinked her beautiful eyes. Then she softened her voice again. "Besides, little Griseo was trying to help us, wasn't she?"

"Mm, I'll keep working hard. As long as I'm here, I won't let anyone hurt you."

Hearing Yelena's gentle words, the turmoil in Griseo's heart vanished completely, and her violet eyes once again filled with happiness.

"Good. We'll protect little Griseo too."

Seeing Griseo's eyes, which looked as though stars were about to spill out of them, Yelena could not resist reaching out and gently pinching her soft little cheeks.

Watching the interaction between their big sister and the little girl, Ivan quietly leaned toward Alexei and muttered, "See? I told you Big Sis would never blame little Griseo, but you said I was talking nonsense."

"Even if Big Sis didn't say anything, what you told Griseo before was definitely nonsense. There's no defending that." After rolling his eyes at the person leaning close to him, Alexei quietly shot back.

"That's nonsense! It wasn't nonsense!"

"It was!"

Not long afterward, the other members of the Yeti Squad arrived one after another. After confirming the situation at the mine, Yelena led everyone straight inside to deal with the mess Tyrant had left behind.

After entering the mine and roughly assessing the situation, confirming that most of the enemies had been dealt with, the Yeti Squad began searching for any remaining stragglers and took control of several important locations, such as the mine's warehouses.

"Sorry... It seemed Uncle Tyrant had already dealt with almost all the enemies..." Griseo first glanced at the busy Yetis around her, then turned to Alyona beside her and apologized.

Earlier, Griseo had wanted to act first and explain later, letting the Yetis see her strength so they would not stop her. That was why she had let Tyrant act first.

But because of that, there was no way to find Alyona's enemy and let her deal with him personally.

"I saw him. He was already dead, so it's all right..." Looking at the little girl beside her who was apologizing so earnestly, Alyona curled her lips into a smile for the first time in years.

"Um, you're bleeding. Right, your wounds... They need to be treated."

Though Griseo thought Alyona looked beautiful when she smiled, she frowned lightly when she noticed that the smile had pulled open the wound on her face and made it bleed again.

Staring at that streak of scarlet, Griseo remembered that the girl seemed to have wounds on her body as well... The forest had been too dark earlier, and after putting on warmer clothes, Alyona had never cried out in pain and had seemed to be in relatively good spirits.

That had caused the little girl to overlook it...

"Sorry..."

A trace of annoyance and self-reproach flashed through Griseo's eyes. After apologizing once more, she gently took the girl's hand and led her toward Lois in the distance.

"Sister Lois, Alyona is hurt... Did you bring any medicine?" Griseo asked, gently tugging on Lois's sleeve.

Lois, who was taking stock of the warehouse's contents with several Yetis, paused slightly when she felt her sleeve being tugged. Then she smiled and said, "You're in luck. We didn't bring much wound medicine, but this mine has quite a lot in stock."

"You keep taking inventory. I'll be back in a moment."

"Got it!"

"Go on, go on."

After speaking to the other Yetis, Lois picked up the medical kit they had just found and continued, looking at the two little girls, "All right, come with me over there. I'll help this little friend treat her wounds."

"Okay."

Griseo nodded lightly, then took Alyona's hand and followed Lois.

When they reached an empty corner and Lois began properly treating Alyona's wounds, the joy Lois had felt from finding so many supplies vanished in an instant.

Because Alyona was wearing Griseo's clothes and seemed to be in good spirits, Lois had thought the little girl had not suffered much harm.

She had even sighed inwardly at Alyona's good fortune in successfully escaping and meeting a little angel like Griseo.

But after treating the wound on Alyona's face and undoing the two layers of clothing covering her body, Lois's eyes twitched with rage, and her fists clenched tightly.

For a moment, she truly felt that those pieces of trash had gotten off too easily by being killed so simply by Griseo's Tyrant.

And it was not just Lois. Griseo, who was standing nearby, had her usually expressionless little face twitching as well, her mood once again plunging like a roller coaster.

At that moment, Griseo shared Lois's thoughts completely. She felt those people had gotten off far too easily...

Under the light, Alyona's condition was fully exposed before the two of them.

Not only was she skin and bones from severe malnutrition, but her body was covered in all kinds of scars, especially her back, which was densely covered in whip marks, both old and new.

Some had healed, leaving ugly scars. Some had scabbed over, only to be struck open again. Some had festered, pale yellow fluid sticking to the old clothes against her skin...

P.S. Hurry up and urge me on. Barely anyone urged me on for the last chapter, and this one's been a little slow to write.

Griseo's Anger

"..."

"It's all right. It doesn't hurt that much..."

Noticing the anger in Griseo's eyes, Alyona curled her lips again and softly tried to comfort her, wanting to cheer her up.

"Sorry... It's all my fault for not realizing sooner that your wounds were this serious." Alyona's smile and words did not make Griseo feel better at all. Instead, the little girl apologized again in self-reproach.

"I told you it's fine. G-Griseo, you saved me, didn't you?" Alyona said, shaking her head indifferently.

To Alyona, this was truly the smallest of matters. They were only some wounds. Waiting a little longer before treating them would not be a problem. She was already used to it.

"That's different... Nobody likes pain. If Mama Aponia were here, it would be nice." Seeing Alyona's attitude, Griseo felt both angry and heartbroken.

She even thought that if she could turn into Aponia right now, she could take care of these infected people...

In every sense of the word.

However, thinking of that reminded Griseo of something.

She quietly opened the panel that nobody else could see, then scrolled to Mobius's section. As expected...

Mobius had already been unlocked at some point.

This discovery made Griseo's terrible mood improve slightly.

From then on, aside from staying beside Alyona, Griseo devoted all her remaining attention to studying the panel.

Soon, she noticed many details. For instance, information about transformations that she had only discovered after unlocking a new identity.

Taking Mobius as an example, Griseo could not only transform into her directly, but could also divide her consciousness and create a Mobius "clone" connected to her mind.

The little girl found this setting extremely convenient and practical... In that case, she was essentially two people and could use different identities to do two different things at the same time.

Griseo had previously been worried that even if she could turn into Mobius, she would not have the time or a proper laboratory for research.

But now that she knew she could create a clone, she began considering where it would be most suitable to place Mobius. At the very least, she needed a laboratory she could use for free.

Besides that little detail, Griseo also found something else that surprised her greatly.

At the lower-left corner of Mobius's panel, she found two small icons: one depicting the mature big-sister snake, and the other depicting the adorable little-girl snake. Their meaning was obvious.

Setting aside whether it was cute or not, a child's appearance was not nearly as convincing out in the world.