Surtr did not really want to answer that question.
"Let's get back to the point, Persephone. We've strayed too far from the topic."
However, a soft laugh came from the other end of the communicator.
"Interesting. Was I not clear enough, Surtr?"
"Your subconscious is telling you that something was still missing from that list."
Miss Surtr shifted her gaze and noticed that the observatory was actually not far from her. Faint sounds of fighting and explosions came from the research-style building. Her dynamic vision caught sight of a window, where she saw the movements of a Bladeworks Master dressed in red and black.
I see.
There really was one person still missing from the list.
The girl stuck out her tongue and thumped her head. Although she had never been interested in training operators obtained from event rewards, and was not particularly interested in them either, since they were also members of Rhodes Island, she still could not simply pretend they did not exist.
--Yan Ke.
That makes 4,000. I have to go out and take care of some errands this afternoon, so let's call it two sections anyway. _(:з"∠)_
Section Thirty-Eight · Employment Assessment
Yan Ke.
Yan Ke's name was Yan Ke.
To the Sarkaz, names and codenames were not very different. In the eyes of most Sarkaz, there was not much difference between people and objects, either.
For convenience, objects could be given many names.
For practicality, people could also have many alternative names.
On the land called Terra, the Sarkaz were a special race—they embraced Originium instead of fearing or rejecting it. They were incompatible with the world, yet they did not care about the malice and hostility that the entire world hurled at them. It was unknown where this belief had originated, but it had long since taken root in the depths of the race's blood as the Sarkaz continued to endure.
In the eyes of the Sarkaz, a person's life was equivalent to an object's service life, and they rarely believed that their philosophy contained any errors.
Thus, Sarkaz mercenaries had always been different.
They treated life with indifference, whether it was the lives of enemies, comrades, or themselves.
They yearned for war, whether it was war against enemies, allies, or themselves.
Yan Ke was a qualified Sarkaz, and also a qualified Sarkaz mercenary. Compared with these two identities that defined his very nature, the supreme Bladeworks he wielded with one hand was of little importance.
Yes, it was utterly insignificant.
Ever since the Sarkaz civil war ended, this Bladeworks Master who had once wandered across its battlefields had often been bound by an old dream. More than once, he returned to that battlefield, to those ruins. Then he faced enemies surging in from every direction, the betrayal of his superiors, hunger and thirst, dwindling ammunition and supplies, and... the occasional glance from the Queen of the Underworld beyond the fog of war.
He had once had a squad, brothers-in-arms, and comrades to whom he could entrust his life.
Yet all of that vanished when he became opposed to Sarkaz Babel Tower—all it took was a piece of intelligence, a redeployment, and an utterly ordinary escort mission. The evil spirit of Sarkaz Babel Tower had used a simple trolley problem to force his superior to turn against him and his squad. It took him half a year to reconstruct the full picture of that battle from piles of wastepaper and the mouths of the dead. Only then did he learn that his squad had played a completely insignificant role in it.
The Queen of the Underworld's carriage had trampled Theresis's army, with no more difficulty than harvesting ripe wheat with a sickle. Yan Ke and his comrades were merely one unremarkable stalk among the wheat.
He did not hate the evil spirit of Sarkaz Babel Tower—why should a piece hate the player moving it? The moral outlook of the Sarkaz meant that he would not easily lose himself to a simple emotion like "revenge." After all, human lives were merely numbers, and the number represented by the evil spirit of Sarkaz Babel Tower was far greater than the total of his and his comrades' lives.
He was merely curious.
If he and his squad had joined Sarkaz Babel Tower's side back then, would the number he possessed now have been much greater than it was at present?
With that thought in mind, he joined the Reunion Movement.
With that thought in mind, he betrayed the Reunion Movement when Twilight Flame appeared.
He had a theory, and it was gradually confirmed after he saw an old acquaintance in Chernobog. When the armband, roughly similar to Sarkaz Babel Tower's, worn by Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals appeared before his eyes, he acted without thinking.
His memories and reflections ended there. When he recovered from his melancholy reminiscence of the past, he discovered that the longblade in his hand was already pressed against the throat of a Lupo Cataclysm Messenger belonging to Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals.
He regretted it somewhat. This was not what he had intended to do. Moreover, attacking a messenger on the eve of a Cataclysm's outbreak was clearly not rational.
But...
He turned his head, and at the edge of his vision, he saw an entire sturdy defensive wall being torn away by a slender hand as easily as bread, steel bars and carbon framework coming away with it. He saw the churning flames, and the humanoid silhouette surrounded by crimson radiance.
Ah... his guess had indeed been correct. The strongest "power" once possessed by Sarkaz Babel Tower was indeed the greatest nightmare now enveloping the entire land of Terra.
He struck the messenger with the back of his hammer, knocking her unconscious.
Then he raised his longblade.
Miss Surtr felt somewhat perplexed.
She could not quite understand why one of her operators and someone who was about to become one of her operators were fighting here. Even more incomprehensible was why Persephone had not told her about such a minor matter.
"I have real-time surveillance in this area. I determined that the Sarkaz Bladeworks Master harbored no hostility toward Operator Provence, and that the Bladeworks Master might be on your list. Therefore, I left this matter for you to handle."
All right, one problem solved. Persephone could determine hostility through surveillance cameras... If she said so, then so be it.
Then—
She glanced at Provence. She saw no injuries or unusual fluctuations of vitality on the big-tailed wolf. It seemed she had merely been knocked unconscious, perhaps without even suffering the aftereffects of dizziness for half an hour.
Then she shifted her gaze.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"Yan Ke." Ten meters away, the man holding the blade replied in a deep voice. "I want to join you. I want to witness swordsmanship without equal under heaven."
Among the Sarkaz, announcing one's name while holding a weapon was equivalent to issuing a challenge.
He was Sarkaz, and Surtr, ten meters away, was Sarkaz as well.
"If you had not harmed the messenger, I would have been happy to grant your wish," Surtr replied, her brows lifting slightly as a sharp aura spread like the edge of a blade. "But you did something wrong, so I'll teach you a lesson."
"Wrong? Wasn't it help?" The Bladeworks Master stepped over the unconscious Cataclysm Messenger, reducing the distance from ten meters to nine.
"Many people know that Sarkaz has a powerful swordswoman within Sarkaz Babel Tower. Many people know that the Sarkaz swordswoman became the famous legendary mercenary Fire Giant King after leaving Sarkaz Babel Tower. Everyone in this city knows that Hunter King arrived in Chernobog and destroyed the Reunion Movement. But very few people know Fire Giant King and know that she and Hunter King have appeared in this city at the same time."
"You're concealing your identity, and I can guess what you intend to do next—in fact, this messenger had already completed her work before I took action. From that, I concluded that you probably did not want her to learn this secret." He raised a hand and displayed a draft whose ink had not yet dried, but which contained definite figures.
"I guessed that you would knock her unconscious or send her away, so I did it for you. And if you accept this bargaining chip, then I expect a duel with you as my payment."
Before you continue