Arknights, But the Family Has Fallen Again and Again and Again

"Oute, that deer last night... how much of what she said was true?"

Sitting atop a stretch of ruined wall, W looked up at the sky.

December's cold wind swept freely through Chernobog's ruins, letting out eerie shrieks amid the empty buildings.

"Once you start agreeing with him, you become him... That sounds exactly like a horror story you'd hear before bed."

After Oute helped Alina regain her senses, she opened up to the group and truthfully revealed her identity.

And before W, a Reunion Movement member practically guaranteed a cadre position, she desperately divulged a secret.

It was the twisted adoptive relationship between Talulah and Koschei.

Oute said in surprise, "You've heard bedtime stories? Besides, she's inside you right now. Even though she hasn't woken up yet, I'd advise you not to slander her so casually."

"O! Ute!"

W abruptly rose to her feet, causing her subordinates to look over.

Her eyes shifted as she said, "Remember, we're only working for the Reunion Movement! Just look at the state Chernobog's in! They're finished! If those brothers don't want to leave with Garson..."

A centurion scratched his head. "Boss, are you saying we let them go?"

W flew into a rage. "Who said we're letting them go!?"

"So we're not?"

"Who the fuck said we're not letting them go!?"

"Boss..." The centurion looked utterly dumbfounded. "Could you just give us a straight answer..."

W kicked him in the ass. "Who are you calling old!?"

"It was that idiot caster trying to show off, launching an assault before reinforcements arrived!"

Was that true?

By the time W got there, it would be.

"Why didn't you say so earlier? Boss, are you still only taking thirty percent of the spoils?"

W nodded.

The centurion raised both hands and shouted, "Long live W! Long live Hedley! Long live Ines!"

The other Sarkaz mercenaries happily joined in, shouting together, "Long live W!"

Watching the Sarkaz mercenaries act like this, the radical Sarkaz girl suddenly felt like laughing.

She did not know why she wanted to laugh.

These mercenaries... these Sarkaz... these subjects nominally under Theresis... had submitted to her so easily?

Just like how, after Theresa died, those people smoothly pledged themselves to the Regent...

Love soldiers like your children, use soldiers like mud... But were these people truly worth His Highness's love?

She fell into a vicious cycle of cynical resentment.

"Haha, hahaha, hahahaha!"

"If you want to cry, then cry," Oute said. "There's nothing shameful about it for a girl your age."

Whether it was because she now had another person to bear, or because she disliked Oute yet trusted him, once Oute took control of W's body through the Proxy Protocol, her stress rapidly mounted.

It could not really be because her girlish heart had stirred, and she felt Theresa was unworthy of these Sarkaz who would call anyone mother as long as they had milk, could it?

Was that really necessary?

Fuck you, Oute!

Fuck you!

The Sarkaz girl was somewhat too exhausted. Alina had also imposed no small burden on her, while the mental link gave her a strange sense of security.

Beneath that sense of security, her fragile emotions no longer had to remain hidden, and were able to flow in a more blazing manner.

Then, W's cuff was stained with a little something... something she would rather call snot. Those tearstains vaguely formed an arc of light.

Tolerance!

On the outskirts of the city.

"What a bore... Caster, where are your reinforcements?" Flamebringer rested his greatsword on his shoulder and lazily said, "If they don't get here soon, I'm leaving."

"My new employer won't wait around for me forever."

The Reunion Movement caster, lying on the ground with his eyes shut and mouth open, shuffled backward and cursed inwardly: W, where the hell are you?

To be precise, W was already asleep.

After two deep dives, Oute had reached a conclusion: there was a "time difference" between the Interstice itself and the real world. Coupled with the brain's excessive activity, going to Hamlet not only failed to provide rest, but further drained physical strength.

If she continued sleeping properly after leaving the Interstice, however, the deep sleep that followed could effectively restore her energy.

Even setting Alina aside, W had been utterly exhausted last night—busy sneaking bites of Garson's offerings and reorganizing the Sarkaz mercenaries.

After just now... blowing her nose, she had dumped the mess on Oute, saying with perfect confidence, "I gave you my body, so shouldn't you do something for me?"

Her self-defense dagger soared high into the sky, then the Sarkaz girl's slender hand caught its hilt.

Oute obtained another piece of intelligence that was temporarily useless: controlling someone's body through the Proxy Protocol did not require them to be conscious.

It was just that if Oute did not awaken her brain for his own use, the body would be somewhat sluggish.

For the time being, it was unclear whether Oute's actual body was too far away to serve as a "base station," or whether W's body needed new operating software.

"Boss, take a look..." The centurion held up binoculars and grinned foolishly. "Those masked guys are all down! But that Sarkaz looks familiar... Is he from the logistics unit?"

The Sarkaz girl reacted half a beat late and nodded. "Spread out to the designated positions. Cut off his retreat."

"But, Boss, we can't exactly know what you're thinking... What if he gets himself killed?"

"The Reunion Movement people are all down."

They were still breathing... Oh, got it!

The centurion grinned even wider. "Understood!"

Watching the Sarkaz girl stroll leisurely toward the caster, Flamebringer was somewhat surprised as well. "Seriously? The reinforcements he mentioned are under your command?"

"If you listened carefully during last night's chaos, you should have heard the name W."

"What? So that was your doing?"

"In public, all you'll hear is that Garson enraged everyone and died in a mutiny."

"We're all veterans. That might fool other people." Flamebringer drew the katana at his waist, gave it a slight shake, and held a blade in each hand. "A mutiny? And only this many died? The Sarkaz are really damned lucky!"

A nighttime mutiny could easily escalate into a camp-wide riot.

And the Sarkaz had never been lucky.

Many times, you did not need evidence to tell whether someone's hands were dirty.

But unfortunately, Flamebringer really did have evidence that W had ulterior motives. Back when W intended to make a deal with Scout, Flamebringer had only watched from afar. He had not heard what exactly they said to each other.

"Blademaster, don't make things difficult for W," the Sarkaz girl said. "W's work in the Reunion Movement still has meaning."

The tall Sarkaz man frowned, somewhat uncertain. "You... when you say that word, it sounds like you're saying someone else's name?"

W nodded faintly. "You'll know soon enough."

Then the girl snapped her fingers.

Several crossbow bolts flew toward Flamebringer's surroundings.

The attack was far too obvious, and none of the bolts were aimed at the blademaster himself. It left him genuinely puzzled. "Are you letting me leave?"

That finally made the Reunion Movement caster lose it. He cursed loudly, "W! You cold-blooded, heartless—"

Squelch.

A flash of silver light streaked past.

W's self-defense dagger, used as a throwing knife, pierced the caster's throat.

"His unit advanced too aggressively. Before W could lead her forces to reinforce them, they were ambushed by a rebel Sarkaz blademaster and wiped out."

Flamebringer sheathed his sword through gritted teeth.

"I thought this would be a fight... Was that really such a letdown?"

"You'll have plenty of hard battles to fight from now on."

The centurion pulled out the dagger, wiped it clean, and presented it to W.

At the same time, he muttered, "Boss, we've been hitting friendly forces pretty hard... Isn't this a little too obvious?"

"What if Talulah finds out? That dragon woman can really fight."

"It's better to use merit than fault. She's a boring conspirator. First, she'll smugly pretend she knows nothing, then she'll bring this up every now and then to keep W in line."

Hedley, Your Imagination Is Incredible!

No matter how much powder conspirators smeared on their faces, in the end, they were still rats in the gutter. When an owl let out a possessive shriek at a phoenix, conspirators might even take pride in "having provoked a war between them."

That was the limit of their vision.

"Clean up the spoils. Time to go back and catch up on sleep."

The Sarkaz mercenaries immediately began looting with tears in their eyes.

The dagger flew high, and W's hand caught the hilt once more.

The smooth blade reflected, like a mirror, the gaze from Oute within W's eyes.

The mirror reflected a face covered in stubble. Hedley was trimming his chin in front of it. As a mercenary who lived rough, Hedley usually lacked the supplies needed to tend to his appearance.

But once those conditions were met...

The door suddenly opened, and cold air and sunlight invaded the room together.