Arknights, but the family has fallen into decline again and again and again, section 48

That deceased person Talulah had carried back...

Was also the starting point of Talulah's drastic change in temperament.

But...

A dead person was talking?

Then... was I dead too?

The horrifying possibility made FrostNova tighten her grip on her crystalline ice dagger.

It was possible.

She was a "severe" case of Originium Infection...

Dying in her sleep was not entirely impossible. It might even have been a good thing—a painless death.

No, that wasn't right!

FrostNova looked at Oute.

That hooded man! He was a psychic caster!

Be careful!

But this was his home ground. I had to play along for now...

FrostNova then pretended to dismiss her ice dagger and said, "I remember you."

"That's wonderful!" Alina was quite delighted. "Everyone, this is Miss Elena! She's an incredibly skilled ice caster! Talulah spent a great deal of effort getting in touch with her and the Yeti Squad!"

"This lady is Skadi, a bounty hunter who uses a greatsword! She may seem very aloof, but she actually cares deeply about people!"

"This is Dr. Oute. He's very smart, and he cares deeply about people too!"

"This is Dr. Kal'tsit. She's hard to understand when she talks, and she can summon Miss Mon3ter, who isn't ferocious but is very handsome! But she's smart too, and she cares deeply about people!"

"This is Miss Specter, she..." Alina hesitated before saying, "She's Dr. Oute and Dr. Kal'tsit's patient. She doesn't talk much, but she looks really cool when she fights, and she cares deeply about people too!"

"This is..."

"W." The Sarkaz girl interrupted Alina's introduction. "Just as you can see."

Why could everyone be described as "caring deeply about people" in your eyes?

W frowned, refusing to let Alina give her that assessment.

She said to FrostNova, "That's the basic situation."

FrostNova frowned. What situation? You haven't said anything at all!

Oute straightened his collar and said evenly, "In short, I summoned you here specifically to prove something I already told you once."

"Talulah is not Talulah."

Alina turned her face away, her expression dimming.

"After Alina's death, Talulah's mind suffered a brief collapse. But Koschei's long-standing Arts corrosion took effect..." Kal'tsit sounded somewhat impatient, but her pretty face soon took on Oute's expression.

"That vile Black Snake was reborn inside his adopted daughter's brain." W rolled her eyes as well, wearing Oute's cold expression.

"The so-called heir of Duke Koschei is Duke Koschei himself." Specter released Oute's left arm and spoke blandly.

No, actually, she's a bit more useful than you

FrostNova quickly noticed the strange part of the scene before her: their faces were different, yet their expressions were identical.

"Just what is going on with you people!?"

W played with the ends of her hair, then lightly jumped onto the carriage. Her delicate feet, wrapped in black stockings, swung back and forth with a hint of playfulness.

She snorted. "As you can see, at the request of a certain stinking otter, we're demonstrating the Arts that steal other people's bodies right in front of you."

Kal'tsit crossed her arms, clearly resisting the idea. "Controlling three bodies at once for this sort of performance, Oute—your desire to show off certainly matches your current mental age."

Specter's expression also turned wine-red as she said mournfully, "My lord..."

Meanwhile, Skadi wore a blank, bewildered expression.

What happened?

What was this? She was clearly Aegir, not Liberi!

This feeling of being completely left out...

Because of Ishar-mla's presence, Oute would not casually attempt to use the Proxy Protocol on the orca girl.

"This way, we can quickly skip a great deal of unnecessary communication."

Oute said this without realizing anything was amiss.

FrostNova truly was frightened.

Including Oute, four people had suddenly taken turns speaking to her with the same expressions and the same choice of words...

She was beginning to waver.

Or rather, when the possibility that "Talulah had actually been possessed by a demon, so those things had nothing to do with Talulah" was placed before FrostNova, she... wanted so badly to believe it.

After seeing with her own eyes how Oute had "taken" the other three people's bodies, FrostNova even had a moment when she wanted to cast aside her intention to merely play along.

But she still calmed down.

This could all be an illusion!

That hooded freak was a psychic caster. Everything in front of her might be an illusion!

So she nodded and said, "I understand completely now."

She intended to keep watching and see what other tricks this "Dr. Oute" had.

"Making you believe it certainly won't be easy."

"But unfortunately, I can't exactly bare my heart to you through swordplay."

Oute extended a hand toward her and said, "However, since you have seen this with your own eyes, go ask your... father."

Oute had originally wanted to use the more precise term "adoptive father," but after giving it some thought, he changed it to "father."

The world spun.

Elena walked out of the room.

Though Chernobog had suffered a Catastrophe, quite a few buildings had survived. This time, she and the Yeti Squad had made camp in an industrial district.

If there was one advantage to the place, it was probably that the waste heat from the operating machines could keep the other members of the Yeti Squad a little warmer. There might still be people in Chernobog who knew how to operate or shut down these machines, but they would most likely not come to help the Reunion Movement.

The machines roared. They could once have produced something, but now they served only as an incredibly wasteful heat source.

Elena stared at them absently.

A person had countless dreams during sleep, proof that the brain was sorting through memories again.

Elena knew nothing about such "obscure knowledge." Yet from life experience, she knew one thing: not every dream would be remembered.

And everything that had just happened... had been so vivid.

And Dr. Oute's phrasing was like the machines before her... cold, yet governed by some pattern she did not understand.

Elena clenched her left hand, then released it. Originium seeped from her body and served as a condensation nucleus, shaping itself into a black crystalline ice dagger.

This pain... was exactly the same inside and outside the dream.

Yet she could not see that her stress meter had not moved at all.

The ice crystal dispersed, becoming flakes of black snow.

Elena decided to seek answers from Patriot.

FrostNova now truly believed that there was an Originium Art capable of taking other people's bodies, but...

She had another question: why hadn't Oute used a more direct method to show her all this?

For example...

"I can't casually take her body—she has other uses. Direct possession would damage her value to me."

W's veins immediately bulged. She grabbed Oute by the collar and cursed, "Damn you! That's exactly what you told me earlier!"

A little too close.

Oute's nose could almost catch W's scent.

No, she was a mercenary. Her washing conditions probably weren't that good... and she didn't smell like soap either...

Hormones?

Oute pondered this.

"So she and I are the same to you, is that it!?"

If he had to put it bluntly, she had a Yeti Squad, making her more useful than W when it came to climbing the tech tree.

But even Oute would not casually say something like that aloud.

"Huh!? Stinking otter! Say something!"

But Oute's attention had shifted to a subtle detail. "Stinking otter... is that a nickname?"

W immediately froze.

"W, stop. His body is still weak."

Kal'tsit's words were worth pondering as well.

She said Oute's body was "still weak," yet she had no objection to W's act of "punishing Oute" itself!

Out of habit, Oute began changing the subject. "Now that the experiment is complete, it's time to begin tonight's exploration."

"Experiment?" Skadi tilted her head.