Don't Fear Poverty; Fear Inequality

Hold your breath and gather your thoughts.

Think.

—My auditory nerve should not be abnormal.

—My logical thinking should not have produced any errors.

—In other words...what I heard...was not wrong?

Miss Surtr stared wide-eyed at Kal'tsit's sleeping face in disbelief. She preferred to believe there was something wrong with her hearing or her brain than that she had actually heard those words.

—In short, let's start the time machine first...

With a slight thought, the colorless flames of burning time were about to be released from her body and spread outwards—this was her instinctive reaction. However, the moment the colorless flames overflowed from her body by a millimeter, she completely extinguished this instinctive action and thought.

—What am I doing?!

—I...I...I'm not the kind of person who would desert in the face of battle!

Breathe softly—breathe softly, then take a deep breath. Kal'tsit's hand, which was hooked around the hem of her skirt, unconsciously came to her own. The touch was warm, a faint warmth, a slight tremor hidden beneath a thin layer of sweat.

Surtr remained outwardly calm—though inwardly she was panicking—and gently sat down beside Kal'tsit's bed. She then placed Miss Lynx's hand on her knees.

Hold it tightly and place it on your knees.

"I won't leave you, Kal'tsit, I'm right here." She whispered, the sound waves projected so precisely onto Kal'tsit's eardrums to ensure the drowsy lynx could hear her clearly—she repeated this more than once. "I won't leave you, whenever, wherever."

Her voice was clear and gentle.

She could clearly feel Kal'tsit's breathing and pulse gradually calming down— Kal'tsit hadn't woken up; what she had just said was simply babbling in her sleep. Even though she remained in a dream, Kal'tsit still held her hand tightly.

Kal'tsit is dreaming. A deep dream from which she has not yet awakened.

Although her breathing had become steady, her brows were still slightly furrowed. Combined with the previous light sweat and her physical reactions, it was certain that Kal'tsit was having a nightmare.

—Nightmare, a nightmare about me.

Miss Surtr's thoughts only flowed so quickly and diverged at times like this.

—It's related to me; I had a nightmare about how I abandoned her.

—I have never abandoned her...that must be a specific scenario. A scenario where she was isolated and helpless, and needed me, or where only I could provide assistance at that time.

She seemed completely oblivious to the possibility that 'being abandoned by oneself is a nightmare in itself'—no, not just seemingly. She genuinely didn't consider that possibility at all.

—So, when will it be?

She extracted a long-forgotten memory and located it in her mind.

—Ah, yes, the battle during the Sarkaz Babel Tower era. When she was captured and used as bait in an ambush... that battle certainly took a lot of effort from me. After all, my strength at that time was far less than it had been after the fall of the Sarkaz Babel Tower.

She recalled the battle. Theresis had used a trick in the struggle for a strategic point, forcing Persephone to choose between victory and Kal'tsit's safety—of course, at that time Persephone didn't care about Kal'tsit's life or death at all, so Theresis achieved his goal after paying a heavy price. Or rather, part of his goal.

Instead of trying to extract secrets from Kal'tsit, Theresis cleverly used Kal'tsit as bait, attempting to eliminate herself, who had become a strategic stronghold at that time, with overwhelming combat superiority.

Of course, the final result was a crushing defeat for Theresis —or rather, the guy never managed to escape Persephone's scheme. His ambush was easily dismantled by Persephone, and his own power, temporarily increased by one level after the Dream Realm journey, acted as a blazing sword, annihilating the remaining elite forces and rescuing the lynx before some desperate individuals could take Kal'tsit hostage.

It was a rather troublesome battle—of course, only troublesome for myself, because I had other means to amplify my desperate struggle. But for everyone involved except myself and Persephone, that battle was like dancing on a knife's edge the whole time; if even one 'coincidence' or 'miracle' had been missing, the final result would have been unsatisfactory.

However, there was no "as long as" in reality—he could have risked being bedridden to forcibly liberate Laevateinn. Persephone could have committed suicide to reload the game and start a new chapter—but only he and Persephone, still an evil spirit, knew and understood this fact. And neither he nor she would ever say a word.

—Is it because she still has lingering fears about that battle that she has a shadow in her heart, afraid that I would abandon her and leave alone at that time?

—Ah... this really doesn't seem like an emotion you would show, Kal'tsit. In my memory, you should be much stronger. But...

She glanced at the sleeping Miss Lynx, and perhaps because she was holding a cane, her furrowed brows slowly relaxed. Her slightly rapid breathing and heartbeat returned to a steady state.

—Severe illness, psychological phenomena caused by hormonal imbalance... That's possible, after all, Kal'tsit didn't live very long. Her body was ultimately just a mortal one. It's not impossible that she couldn't control her hormone secretion, causing her glands to affect her thinking...

—But something still feels off.

As her mood gradually calmed down, Miss Surtr did consider the possibility that Kal'tsit was actually a tsundere who liked her, but no matter how you looked at it, such a thought was too much of a pipe dream and wishful thinking.

Miss Surtr disliked presumption—especially being exposed for it, because it was far too embarrassing.

But... what if?

What if it really wasn't an illusion, but actually happened?

A slight hesitation settled in the girl's heart—she recalled the wondrous encounter at the observatory yesterday, or rather, the day before. The light kiss that came her way, and Kal'tsit's unchanging heartbeat and expression.

—Perhaps her attitude towards me wasn't as bad as I expected...after all, Theresia had mentioned it twice. Even if I didn't trust others, I could at least listen to Theresia's opinion. Maybe it was just some awkwardness, some kind of reserve. And her actual attitude towards me...well, that might already confirm that she has a friendly attitude towards me.

—But friendliness and love are ultimately vastly different... If Kal'tsit fell in love with Theresia, I'd believe it a hundredfold. I could even believe she fell in love with Persephone a fifty percent chance... but I...

The girl gently shook her head, her mood gradually calming down.

—It's not daytime yet, so it's okay to take a nap, but forget about dreaming.

My thoughts calmed, and the slight restlessness within me was suppressed. Perhaps in the future, this restlessness will erupt and play its due role under the right circumstances. But for now, it will quietly slumber at the bottom of my heart.

She closed her eyes, then opened them.

Then, she leaned down toward Kal'tsit's ear and whispered.

"Rest in peace, Kal'tsit. I will be here until you wake up, always."

As Miss Surtr walked out of the ICU ward and the door closed behind her, she saw Persephone standing at the edge of the porch, overlooking the rising sun over the earth.

Three hours have passed. It is now seven in the morning.

Persephone glanced at her as she walked out the door. His gaze drifted down to her right hand, which was severed at the elbow.

"You're willing to do that too," the purple-haired Maiden Doctor said calmly, her emotions difficult to discern.

"Willing to give it up? No, I didn't give anything." The Flame-haired maiden tilted her head and raised her severed right arm. In her vision, the structure of bones and muscles was constantly breaking down and reassembling, but the overall trend was towards completeness.

"She wouldn't let go of my hand, so I had no choice but to let her have my hand."

"And I also promised her that I would always be by her side, so I spent some time researching the technology of creating clones. So far, it seems to be working quite well." She swung her right arm, the tips of her fingers slowly rebuilding over time.

Persephone blinked, her eyes reflecting the scene from the ICU's surveillance camera—she saw another identical Miss Surtr sitting quietly beside the unconscious Kal'tsit, and winking at the camera she controlled when she looked at her.