The next day was bright and sunny.
Yan Huan lightly pressed the oddly shaped metal collar with his fingertip. With a faint click, it came undone and fell from Kryudera's slender neck.
The icy touch of metal vanished, replaced by a long-lost sense of freedom.
Kryudera rolled her somewhat stiff neck, her eyes deep and unfathomable.
She said nothing. She merely picked up the list of five hundred people about to depart for Styxia and added the name "Rabinus" at the end with a feather pen.
The pen scratched softly across the parchment.
At Okhema's massive city gates, the wind swept up dust and carried a faint air of slaughter.
Kryudera wore full battle armor, her pale blue hair fluttering lightly in the wind.
Looking at the sprawling military camps beyond the city and the distant horizon, she asked in a low voice:
"Tell me again, Savior."
"Where exactly is Amphoreus's future headed?"
Yan Huan stood beside her with his hands in his pockets, his gaze likewise fixed on the distance. His tone was calm.
"Of course, toward breaking free of its shackles and entering the galaxy. If that isn't how it ends, then not only you—I'd probably die here too."
If the Iron Tomb revived, it definitely would not spare The Erudition, and the Star Rail Express could not possibly stand by and watch it do whatever it pleased.
When that time came, either the Great-Eradicator would perish, or the galaxy would fall into crisis.
Kryudera tilted her head slightly.
"You Nameless risk your lives every time you pioneer a world?"
"Then what exactly are you after? Profit, status, beauty?"
"World peace, I suppose." Yan Huan spread his hands, his tone carrying a hint of teasing.
"Speaking of which, before I came here... among the Chrysos Heirs of [Worldbearing],