Arknights, but the Family Has Fallen Again, Again, Again

"The weather's getting cold. You still haven't answered me directly."

Hedley breathed a stream of white vapor into their clasped hands.

"It's not often you see a captain living inside the city while the members live outside it."

Hedley let go, and the warm ashes scattered as well, some of them nearly landing on Ines.

"You!"

"It has nothing to do with me. It's ash. The wind blows, so naturally it drifts."

Hedley chuckled. "The water's almost boiled dry. W's salted potatoes should be nearly done."

By the campfire, W held a potato with white frost clinging to its skin, savoring what she understood as "love your soldiers like children, use your soldiers like mud."

The Sarkaz outside the city might have grown accustomed to merchants traveling with the army, and were used to secretly ambushing those merchants for extra money... but Garson's bringing his trusted men to "garrison" the city still left many Sarkaz deeply dissatisfied.

So far, that dissatisfaction was merely dissatisfaction.

But if Garson forced them to assault fortified positions again, then a lot of things could begin.

Seeing the two of them walk over all lovey-dovey, W rolled her eyes and kicked the pressure cooker over in front of them.

What a pair of busybodies!

"There are two left. Help yourselves."

The other Sarkaz shifted aside slightly, making room for the other two leaders of this small group.

"Help ourselves..." Hedley grabbed both salted potatoes in one hand and handed one to Ines.

He pondered for a moment, then sat down.

"You know..."

W frowned. "Go find someone else to teach your history lesson!"

Ines burst out laughing. "Hahaha!"

Hedley shrugged and sat down where he was.

Fine white salt formed a frosty layer over the potatoes' skins. This white salt from Chernobog was also one of Terra's modern industrial products.

A dagger split the potato in half, and its aroma immediately wafted out.

"W, your salted potatoes are so much better than someone else's!"

"Hey!" Ines protested.

W snorted. "Hedley didn't name anyone. Who could he possibly mean?"

The other Sarkaz burst into laughter as well.

Salt...

The wild historian carefully savored the simple salted potato. The soft, slightly salty flesh was ground into paste between his teeth, beginning to break down under the effects of salivary amylase and faintly revealing a hint of sweetness.

"A very, very long time ago, salt was an extremely precious thing."

W propped up her chin and shot Ines an eye-roll: See?

But Ines mistook it for a challenge to her cooking and glared back: What are you looking at?

"No, that's not quite right."

Hedley looked into the campfire and rubbed a few grains of salt from the potato's skin.

He put the salt into his mouth, tasted it, and said, "Even now, in many places far from mobile cities and far from salt-producing regions, salt is still extremely precious."

"In the distant past, salt could even rival red gold in value! Controlling a salt mine was no less valuable than controlling a gold mine."

"But the Originium industry changed all that..."

"Along the tracks of mobile cities, cheap white salt flows across the world."

"The nobles who once won power and status through this white red gold were crushed beneath the tracks of mobile cities one after another, their territories reduced to dumping grounds..."

"Even here in Kazdel, the white salt we use could very well come from Laterano."

Hedley raised his head and looked at the two moons, one large and one small, one bright and one dim.

Mastering such technology, possessing such cities, would only mean returning to the starting line.

Such cities, such nations...

They were all enemies of the Sarkaz.

They could not win against them.

Perhaps there had once been a chance, but now they had long since lost any hope of victory.

With a historian's rationality, Hedley saw the truth clearly: the war and conflict between the Teekaz—or rather, the Sarkaz—and the other races would inevitably end in the Sarkaz's destruction.

On this mad road to ruin, the best possible outcome was merely for the Sarkaz to drag everyone down with them through ancient sorcery.

So what?

It looked satisfying, looked heroic, but in truth it was nothing more than cowardice—a refusal to face reality. The age of the Teekaz had ended long ago.

It was hard to say whether W's choice came from careful consideration or blind rage, but in the end, she was right—though Babel had already fallen once, it was still the Sarkaz's only way forward.

W poked Ines's pale leg and whispered, "No one wants to hear his lesson. Did he shut down?"

Ines poked her back irritably and whispered, "He's probably thinking about your plan."

Hedley laughed. "Hah! More or less."

The potatoes had been exposed to the cold wind for a while. They no longer gave off that appetizing aroma, and without their warmth, their soft texture had turned sticky and rough.

Hedley shoved the whole thing into his mouth, then said, "Even salted potatoes have to be eaten quickly."

Garrisoning outside the city meant even salted potatoes had to be eaten quickly.

People did not fear scarcity; they feared unfairness. At this rate, mutiny would not be difficult to stir up.

Cat Paws

"How is it?"

Oute asked softly.

Folinic was holding the freshly produced scans, assessing Oute's physical condition.

"There's no displacement. With the stimulation of medical Arts, it should heal enough not to interfere with speaking very soon."

Folinic looked at Oute, who had practically been kneaded into Specter's embrace, and barely stopped herself from laughing.

Then an electronic voice came through the earpiece. "Go ahead and laugh if you want."

"Pfft."

The evacuation accessory had forcibly severed the connection, but that in itself had not caused Specter any harm.

However, she had become extremely unsettled when her "Lord" suddenly went offline...

Driven by that feeling, the nun had nearly rushed straight out of the bathroom.

Fortunately, Oute had immediately realized from the change in pressure just how distorted Specter's dependence on him had become. He promptly equipped the Sun Ring on her again and did his best to soothe her.

Otherwise, who knew what might have happened?

Even so, after the bath was over, Specter had continued following Oute closely as if afraid he might run away, until now, when she was forcibly hugging him.

Oute rolled his eyes. The experiment had shown that outside of combat, it was best not to use the Proxy Protocol on Specter to take control of her body.

It was smooth enough in combat, but in everyday situations like this... all he could say was that religious fanatics were impossible to understand! Now my stress level's gone up too!

After reestablishing the mental connection through the Sun Ring, Oute wisely refrained from using the Proxy Protocol to take control of Specter's body again. Instead, he chose the method most effective on the nun—giving direct orders.

Sure enough, things became much more efficient.

Specter obediently let Folinic handle her, and the bath was quickly finished in around ten minutes.

Considering that repeatedly forcing the nun to go against her own wishes might have an even more negative effect on her mental state, Oute hesitated again and again before deciding not to order her to let go.

"It may be because you've remained in a particular state for so long... Doctor, your physical fitness has declined severely. Further testing requires Doctor Kal'tsit's authorization. I'm sorry, Doctor, but that's all we can do today."

Could it be that compared to you animal-eared girls, my physical fitness was just terrible to begin with? No need to blame that home physiotherapy machine, thanks.

Oute did not say it aloud. It would have been a little too humiliating.

Soon, as Folinic's examination concluded, another problem presented itself before Oute, aside from the death sentence passed on his physical fitness.

Specter was unwilling to part with Oute again.

Outside the safe room prepared for severely dangerous psychiatric patients, the nun reluctantly clutched Oute's sleeve.

Perhaps because Folinic was beside them, or perhaps because her mental state had undergone another subtle shift, she was unwilling to put those feelings into words.

But the nun's eyes were already close to turning wine-red—their depths clouded with damp mist.

This is trouble!

At this rate, if the Doctor softened, they would be sleeping together tonight!

I have no right to defy the Doctor's decision, but if my teacher finds out I was here—

Folinic held her breath, intending to use a feline's agility to slip away from Oute's side.

But Oute mercilessly grabbed the tail that brushed past him.

"Eek!"

The fur along Folinic's ears and tail suddenly stood on end, making her whole body puff up.

"Miss Folinic, do you have any suggestions?"

The Feline woman awkwardly pulled her tail from Oute's grasp. "Ahaha... I have no idea what you're talking about, Doctor."