Still reeling from the shocking fact that a member of Song of the Wanderers, possibly a former Night Watcher, had been hiding by his side throughout this journey under different identities,
Fang Ran heard the sound of a woman's heels touching down behind him.
"Young Master, are you awake?"
Looking at the Second Zero Knight in her classically styled black-and-white Head Maid dress, smiling as she bowed to him beneath her amber-gold eyes,
Fang Ran was momentarily left speechless.
Although Ling had long since told him about her,
It was only after this incident that Fang Ran truly understood just how formidable the figure before him was.
If she had not existed, the Covenant might already have succeeded simply because no one could restrain the Dead Line,
Not to mention the enormous crisis when the Seventh Node had descended directly upon London.
Unlike the silent, cold, extreme lethality beneath that mask,
Her strength lay in her peerlessly exquisite framework of abilities. It was as though she could accomplish anything; like the mysterious elegance always lingering at the corner of her lips, she seemed flawlessly perfect.
Remembering how she had achieved the earth-shaking reversal of swapping London in the Roman Colosseum, and how she had instantly used an Aether Spirit at the final moment to construct an energy-consciousness transmission spanning the entire scenario,
This plan could have done without anyone else, even himself. There might have been contingencies to deal with the Artificial Numbered,
But she was the one person it could not have lacked.
Thinking that he had been unable to keep her even a hundred years ago, and that now she could probably beat him senseless with one hand,
Fang Ran felt he could hardly bear being called "Young Master" by Clotilde as she had in the time scenario.