After saying that, she glanced at Kiana, who was still spilling secrets. She took off one of the masks she carried with her, left a note on it, and quietly slipped away while everyone was distracted. She placed the mask and note on Kiana's bed at the Goethe Grand Hotel before leaving the planet.
March 7th had always felt that the person Kiana was talking about sounded rather terrifying. Since Uncle Yang might have come from the same place as Kiana, she took out her phone and sent Kiana's story to the group chat.
After Pom-Pom saw the message, another person was added to the Express crew's blacklist. However, when Ouyang recalled that Kiana might have been referring to one of the Flame-Chasers, he hurried to find Pom-Pom and stopped the blacklist from gaining another name.
Once the battle ended, Seele panted heavily. Then she glared viciously at the three members of the Express crew who were still gossiping behind them and plopped down on the ground.
Svarog also honored his promise, bringing over the sealed records and all the records concerning the Supreme Guardian and the Stellaron.
To be honest, apart from Bronya, no one really cared that much.
For the Express crew, the point of trailblazing was everything they experienced along the way. As for Seele, what did the Stellaron and the Supreme Guardian matter?
Rather than thinking about all that, they might as well think about what to eat tonight.
"So we're going back to the Upper District now to confront Cocolia? Great! It's finally over."
March 7th was already getting bored. Aside from the heating equipment, there was no scenery worth seeing in the Lower District. The people around them all looked listless, and March 7th even felt that she had been affected by them.
However, if they wanted to go to the Upper District, they could only find that blue-haired guy again.
"Sampo!"
Hearing that name, Svarog remembered that, after being interrupted repeatedly, he had nearly forgotten his original purpose.
The Upper District knew little about this sudden newcomer, but in the Lower District, at least half the people had been tricked by him. Although the Mechanical Settlement had not been driven mad by him, Svarog had heard that the man had secretly photographed Clara and was planning to sell the pictures.
Svarog had already put him on his blacklist.
When people discovered that Svarog had arrived in Rock Town, many of them immediately became nervous. Even Natasha picked up her grenade launcher.
If Svarog intended to attack this place, she no longer planned to hide her identity and keep pretending to be a doctor.
After all, studying medicine could not save Belobog, but a grenade launcher could wake some people up.
"I'm here to find Sampo. I'll leave once this is over."
Seeing Clara timidly hide behind Svarog, and noticing that Seele and a certain Saintess were there as well, with Hook also among the group, some people waved Hook over and asked what had happened to make Svarog come personally.
"Could that hunk of scrap be planning to fight the Underworld Fire head-on?"
"No. It seems Sampo secretly photographed Clara and planned to sell the pictures, so Svarog came to have a little talk with him."
"Oh, is that all? Then there's no problem. Do you want us to show you the way?"
The people of the Lower District united like never before. They had apparently all been cheated by Sampo at one point or another. Through everyone's word-of-mouth, the news that Svarog had come to take revenge on Sampo quickly spread throughout the Lower District.
Normally, Sampo would have received the news early and avoided Svarog, only appearing after everything had ended.
But because he was heartbroken over the sudden disappearance of a huge sum of money, Sampo had not left the house that day. When she opened the door and saw a gigantic figure standing outside, Sampo was dumbfounded.
"Isn't this Svarog? What kind of wind blew you here?"
Sampo took two steps back. Looking at the crowd behind Svarog, she wore a bitter expression.
"Everyone, could you give me a chance? I don't know why I've angered everyone, but I want to be a good person now."
"Heh."
All she received in response was a series of contemptuous snorts.
"Stay away from Clara!"
Svarog gave Sampo a beating before leaving.
Sampo had barely relaxed when she saw Oleg, the leader of the Underworld Fire, arrive at her door with Natasha, the Underworld Fire's true leader.
She had thought that her "friend" and customer had come to help her get revenge or comfort her, but she had guessed wrong.
"You! You knocked me out and tied me up, then used my name to get Seele to bring people to Svarog."
Natasha merely smiled and raised the grenade launcher in her hands.
Boom!
However, neither of them really intended to finish Sampo off. Although Sampo caused trouble for people sometimes, the Lower District had also been able to obtain all kinds of supplies thanks to her.
After a little punishment, the two leaders of the Underworld Fire, one public and one hidden, let Sampo off.
Sampo lay on the ground pretending to be dead. Only after everyone had left did she spring up like a fish, dust off her clothes, and complain.
"Who made old Sampo take the blame for so many things? Should I find those fortune-tellers and have my fortune read? It feels like I've been having terrible luck lately."
"No. We can discuss whether you should get your fortune told later. Come on, let's go back aboveground first."
March 7th, Shall We Make a Bet?
Sampo glanced at the fully prepared group. Only then did she put on a smile, rub her hands together, and assume the air of a merchant.
"Are you folks heading back? But this is old Sampo's secret for traveling between the Upper and Lower Districts. I make my living from it, so..."
Sampo habitually rubbed her hands together, hinting that they would need to pay some compensation before she was willing to take them back to the Upper District.
Kiana did not say another word. She simply turned around and pretended to leave.
"Please. Did you forget that I know the way? Once we're back in the Upper District, I'll have Bronya send people to seal off your business. Let's see how you make money then."
Hearing Kiana say that, Bronya remembered the problem. Regardless of whether Cocolia's orders were harmful to Belobog, Sampo's actions were definitely illegal.
"Right. Sampo's wanted notice should be updated too."
Watching Kiana and Bronya talk, Sampo instantly went pale. Her entire body seemed to turn gray.
As everyone turned around and had only walked a few steps, they heard a thud behind them.
When they looked back, they saw that Sampo had thrown away all her dignity and knelt down, perfectly demonstrating what it meant to prostrate oneself completely.
"Please, I beg you! Give old Sampo another chance!"
But seeing Sampo's pleading expression and her kowtowing, everyone's faces darkened.
Because with each kowtow, after she had become Aunt Sampo, her extraordinarily ample bosom swung wildly with her movements.
Her actions made everyone feel mocked.
Seele: "Useless fat. What a waste of fabric."
Bronya: "I still have room to grow. Yes, I'll go back and ask Serval and Mother for some advice."
March 7th: "Kiana, please! Give me this curse too. It's my lifelong wish!"
Kiana: "Strange. Why has the effect lasted so long on Sampo?"
Seele ultimately did not return to the Upper District. However, before leaving, she seemed to have a private conversation with Bronya. Seele gave up on going to the Upper District, and her attitude toward Bronya also changed.
"Hmph. Don't forget your promise."
"All right, Seele. I'll keep my promise."
Watching the two of them go from being inseparably close and trading barbs to seeming reluctant to part, Kiana felt as if the flow of time had been different for her and them, even though not much time had passed.
"As expected of a specialty of Yarilo. Truly terrifying."
"A specialty? What specialty?"
The moment she heard the word "specialty," March 7th, who was packing up, became excited. She had stayed in the Lower District for so long without finding anything she could bring back to the Express crew.
Thus, upon hearing about a specialty, March 7th immediately pressed herself against Kiana and began asking questions.
"Yuri."
March 7th: ?
March 7th looked around but could not find the lily flowers she had imagined. Then she heard a cough from behind and seemed to understand.
Fortunately, the group had nothing that needed packing. When Kiana returned to her room, however, she found a mask and a note on her bed.
See you next time. I'm sure it won't be long.
Kiana had just finished reading when the note in her hand spontaneously combusted. Yet it seemed to have been an illusion: it left no ashes, and she felt no heat.
Thus, Kiana put the strange woman she had met twice out of her mind, tossed the mask into her spatial storage, and returned to the group.
"Stelle, why are you carrying a trash can?"
"A specialty."
"Don't take a trash can from the Lower District! And why would you choose a trash can as a specialty?"
When March 7th saw that Kiana had also returned, she hurried over and dragged Kiana along to help.
Bronya watched the group playing around and suddenly felt a little envious.
After they reached the Upper District, Bronya told them not to act rashly and first arranged places for them to stay.
However, to prevent everyone from being exposed at once in case of an accident, Bronya took them to three separate locations.
Dan Heng blended into the backstage area of the Opera House, hiding in a small room reserved for Serval to rest before her performances.
At night, Stelle went to the Mechanical House, where Serval took her to the second floor.
March 7th and Kiana stayed at one of Bronya's properties.
Bronya, meanwhile, had to go to Kliperburg. On one hand, she needed to revoke the wanted notices against them. On the other, she needed to ask Cocolia whether everything she had learned was true—and if it was, why Cocolia had done it.
Kiana: "Bronya, I don't recommend going. If you really go there and question her, there are only two possible outcomes. Either you'll be imprisoned until everything ends, or you'll be affected by the Stellaron and become another victim."
"No. I believe the Supreme Guardian will make the right decision. Even if the worst possible situation really occurs, I'll personally step in and bring her back to her senses."
No matter how much they tried to persuade her, Bronya remained convinced that her actions were meaningful. As a result, after she left, several days passed without any news from her.
"Oh no. She went to throw her life away again. Stop throwing people away! We didn't have many companions to begin with, and now we've lost another one."
"What should we do? Should we rescue Bronya? What if Bronya has been controlled too? Wouldn't that mean we've lost all our support?"
"But aren't we wanted? How are we supposed to go outside?"
At that, everyone's eyes turned toward Kiana in unison.
Among the members of the Express crew, Kiana was the only one who had not been wanted. In fact, the image on her wanted notice still showed her duck-like form from the beginning. As long as she did not happen to run into the people who had initially come with Bronya to arrest them, she had nothing to worry about while going out like this.
"All right, I'll go. But perhaps we can all go together. The wanted notices might not have any effect."
"How could that be? The wanted notices were issued by the only authority on this planet to arrest us. How could they possibly be ineffective?"
Sensing March 7th's distrust, Kiana puffed out her cheeks.
"Fine! Little March doesn't believe me. I'm angry. Hmph!"
Kiana crossed her arms and turned her puffed-up face away.
"All right, Kiana. I was wrong. I shouldn't have doubted you. But I was only stating the facts. The Silvermane Guards can't be that unreliable. They couldn't even get a wanted notice right, could they?"
"March 7th, since you put it that way, how about we make a bet?"
Yes, Mother Cocolia
"A bet?"
March 7th looked at Kiana, who had already changed her clothes and taken a seat across from her, confused.
"Yes, a bet. We'll bet on whether the wanted notice is useful. If I win, March will grant me one wish. If I lose, I'll grant one of your wishes. How about it? Do you dare?"
"Hmph, fine! I refuse to believe they're that embarrassing. Just wait until you come back so I can wash you clean."
Faced with Kiana's provocative challenge, March 7th also got carried away. She agreed to the bet without hesitation.
Kiana was certain that the wanted notice alone would be useless. Even if they stood beneath it, those people probably would not recognize them.
But when she saw March 7th's gaze repeatedly sweeping over her, as though she were considering how to deal with Kiana after winning, Kiana still felt that something was strange.
Especially that final remark about washing her clean. Even after Kiana left the room and walked through the streets of Belobog, she kept thinking about March 7th's odd expression when she had said it.
"Boss, I'll take these books. Ring me up."
Using the Winter City Shield she had received from a kind stranger, Kiana searched for the wanted notices while examining her surroundings to see whether anything strange was happening or whether there was anything fun she could buy.
Looking at the two books in her hands, Kiana seemed to understand why Belobog had so many lesbians.
In simple terms, this was a CEO romance novel. Judging from its publication date and number of reprints, it seemed to be a fairly famous CEO romance novel.
After reading only two lines, Kiana wished she could gouge out her eyes, wash them thoroughly, and delete the memory from her mind.
"How could a book like this become popular, and even get reprinted? Is this planet's literary taste seriously defective?"
Before you continue