Lance Charge on the Arkship, but No Mount

Things became chaotic over there. Someone brought out surgical equipment, apparently preparing to perform an emergency operation.

"Doctor Kal'tsit, may I take a look?"

Kal'tsit looked at Claude in surprise.

"Mr. Claude, you... know medicine as well?"

Claude shook his head slightly.

"I don't know medicine, but I know another way that might save him. Please let me try."

Kal'tsit did not hesitate for long. For some reason, the Doctor's condition had suddenly deteriorated, and given all the strange things Claude had displayed so far, he might really have a solution.

"All right, move aside a little."

Claude came before the Sarcophagus. His tall frame let him see its entire interior with only a slight bend at the waist. Through his special vision, he could clearly see that the soul of the genderless person before him was floating above the body, giving off a faint white glow. Yet strangely, the soul had no distinct form. It was merely a mass of constantly twisting white light.

He did nothing unnecessary. Frowning slightly, he carefully examined the situation before muttering to himself.

"He needs a little stimulation, or he won't be able to return."

He took a scalpel from someone beside him. Yet under their nervous gaze, he did not skillfully cut into flesh like a doctor. Instead, he began drawing symbols on the Doctor's arm. All the operators stared in stunned silence. It now looked like some terrible sacrificial ritual. Bloody marks continued to appear across the Doctor's arm, but Claude's cuts were extremely shallow, stopping the blade the instant it broke the skin.

After finishing, Claude raised his index finger and pressed hard against the Doctor's brow. A nearly invisible golden current ran through the Doctor's body with a faint crackling sound. At the same moment, every symbol on the Doctor's arm lit up with blue fluorescence.

In Claude's vision, the white soul drifted like smoke and slipped into the Doctor's body through his palm. The machines beside them immediately began beeping as his heart started to beat again.

"His heart rate is recovering! His body temperature is rising too! All his vital signs are stabilizing!" Warfarin's astonished voice came from nearby. This time, even she had come here.

"All right, I'll leave the rest to you. I've done what I could."

Claude looked at the scalpel in his hand. He knew it had already been contaminated by the dust and bacteria on his hand and no longer met surgical standards, so he simply put it into his bag as a small souvenir.

"Doctor Kal'tsit, please notify me when your Doctor wakes up. I would like to speak with him."

"Please wait, Mr. Claude. This may be presumptuous, but I still want to ask: why are you so interested in the Doctor?"

Claude turned back, a faintly amused smile appearing on his lips.

"Just a small hypothesis of mine. I want to verify it with this Doctor."

Kal'tsit's expression grew complicated as well, and she fell into thought.

"There's one more pocket of resistance, correct?"

Claude put on his iron gloves as Char handed him the winged helmet he had been holding.

"That's right. They're a group of students, so the commander at the front didn't know how to handle them. They've been temporarily surrounded inside the school."

"Students... that is troublesome. I'll go myself."

A group of Ursus students had gathered at the school entrance, facing off against the Reunion Movement soldiers. Calling it a standoff was not quite accurate. Just as a tiger would not confront a rabbit unless it had no intention of killing it, these students might look fierce, but they were utterly incapable of standing against a real regular army. In just a few minutes, they would become corpses strewn across the ground.

Clearly, many of the students understood this. Although they gripped their weapons, their legs kept trembling, and they could barely suppress the urge to run.

The unfamiliar soldiers across from them stood in tight formation. Not one of them whispered to another. They studied the students with cold, indifferent gazes, as if looking at corpses.

An officer stepped forward, his black helmet marked with red.

"Final warning. Return to your school and stay there obediently. Otherwise, we will regard you as enemies."

"Ursus profanity! You bastards are dreaming! You won't destroy our city!!!"

A black-haired Ursus girl at the front shouted furiously. She appeared to be the organizer of these students, gripping a battle axe in her hand.

When Claude arrived and saw this scene, he could not help but marvel at how martial Ursus truly was. Even students at a school could get their hands on so many weapons. Looking at the swords, battle axes, and crossbows in their hands, they might not have been the most advanced models, but they still gleamed coldly enough to take lives.

As he arrived, the soldiers immediately opened a path for their general, looking at Claude with fervent eyes.

The officer quickly approached and reported the situation to Claude.

"General, these students attempted to break through our defensive line. We drove them back, but they still refuse to lay down their weapons."

"You did well. If these students die in a conflict with us, it will bring us a great deal of negative publicity."

Claude nodded in praise of the officer. He had fulfilled every duty expected of him and had not allowed the situation to worsen.

Leaving the excited officer within the formation, Claude walked alone to the very front of the ranks.

"Before I ask you to lay down your weapons, there are a few things I need to tell you."

Claude looked at the students across from him. Some of them were still wearing school uniforms.

"Whatever you are worried about, none of it has happened. Whether your parents or your friends, they are all safely at home. Nothing will happen to them. No one in this city will harm them."

The students immediately began to stir. They whispered among themselves, their voices buzzing noisily.

"A Catastrophe is about to arrive, and this mobile city is undergoing an emergency relocation. If you remain obediently in the school, no one will be harmed. By this time tomorrow, you will be able to go home and see your parents."

Some students even showed joy on their faces, but Claude's next words froze their expressions at once.

"However, as you can see, we are not soft-hearted people. You may choose not to believe me, but that means choosing to become my enemies. Then, with regret, I will have no choice but to treat you as enemies."

Claude narrowed his eyes slightly as he examined the students. A suffocating aura of majesty and coldness descended upon them, turning their faces pale and bringing sweat to their brows.

"So now, answer me. Will you be my enemies?"

Clang!!

The sound of swords dropping to the ground rang out with startling clarity, followed by a continuous series of the same sound.

The Rising Reunion Movement: Full Speed Ahead

His consciousness was hazy, and his whole body seemed to be floating amid dark clouds. He could not see anything. The feeling was unpleasant, so he tried to use his hands to push aside the mist before him. But after he parted it, the fog closed together again. Nothing about his situation changed. He continued floating in the air like some drifting aquatic creature.

Maybe I should just let it be. That was what he thought. Maybe there's nothing wrong with just falling asleep. That warm drowsiness seemed to be winding around him once more. A voice deep inside him strongly agreed, urging him on. Go to sleep. Hurry and sleep. Once you're asleep, nothing will matter anymore.

"Doctor!!..."

A girl's voice drifted from somewhere unknown, its lingering echo ethereal, yet it successfully caught his attention.

"Who? Who's speaking?"

"Doctor! Don't fall asleep!!..."

This time, the girl's voice carried a sob. His heart convulsed instinctively, as though her crying made him terribly worried. He began struggling, trying to break free from the fog.

But it was too difficult. The mist was as heavy as water. The slightest movement caused it to tightly bind his limbs. He felt his consciousness growing heavier and heavier. He struggled desperately. At last, he broke free from the fog, only to be dragged into the water. Icy liquid seeped into his lungs, and he could not even cough.

"He needs a little stimulation..." A young man's low voice suddenly rang out, giving him a terrible premonition.

A powerful current surged through his entire body, making his muscles spasm and leaving him numb from head to toe. The intense pain made it impossible for him even to breathe.

As if the sky and earth had flipped over, he fell out of the water's surface and plunged into a field of white light.

"Doctor! Please take my hand!!"

Through the narrow slit of his desperately opened eyes, he saw a brown-haired girl. Her large blue eyes were filled with anxiety as she stretched her hand toward him with all her strength.

Instinctively, he placed his hand in hers.

Sitting on a folding chair, he looked at his trembling hands. They were pale, slender hands, yet they shook so violently that they left afterimages. He accepted a cup of water from the doctor beside him, thanked them, and began to drink.

He slipped the straw from the cup beneath his mask and sucked in the warm liquid. At last, he recovered a little strength.

"Do you remember who you are?"

The white-haired woman in green came before him, crouching down as she spoke.

"I am..."

He froze. The answer seemed stuck to the tip of his tongue, impossible to say. A terrifying stabbing pain rose from deep within his mind and abruptly cut off his thoughts.

"If you can't remember, don't force yourself yet. Rest here for now. We'll take you away shortly."

Kal'tsit stood and instructed the medical team around her to pack up their equipment. The well-trained operators swiftly cleared away the medical waste and placed the equipment into transport cases. The combat operators also began planning an evacuation route. Though such preparations seemed somewhat unnecessary now, they were accustomed to doing so.

Ace looked at Kal'tsit with a questioning gaze. After receiving her nod of approval, he opened his communicator, adjusted the channel, and began contacting Claude.

The Doctor watched the scene before him uneasily, having no idea what his fate would be.

All the students had their weapons confiscated and were driven into the dormitories under guard. Claude entered the school and looked over its layout.

Seeing the clearly different standards of the two types of dormitories, he understood what was going on after a moment's thought. He could not help shaking his head. It really was an educational environment with distinctively Ursus characteristics.

"Tell the cooks to prepare food for these students as well."

A soldier beside him immediately acknowledged the order and began contacting the logistics unit through his communicator.

"Oh, and if any of them cause trouble or start making demands, ignore them. Let them go hungry. Assign two squads to watch this place. Don't let these hotheads get into conflict."

Remembering the especially luxurious dormitories, he turned back and added one more sentence.

"Yes, sir."

Outside, Reunion Movement propaganda vehicles passed by, using loudspeakers to announce instructions to the city's residents. Ursus people might be violent by nature, but they still did not dare gamble casually with their lives against these fully armed soldiers radiating murderous intent. The streets were therefore extremely quiet, without a single pedestrian in sight.

Coming beneath an apple tree, Claude looked at its bare branches and placed a hand against its trunk, deep in thought.

"Child, come talk to me."

The black-haired Ursus girl heard those words and immediately panicked, nearly losing her grip on the window frame. She hesitated for a moment, but her nature still made her grit her teeth. Bracing herself against the window, she prepared to jump down from the second floor.

But before she could jump, another voice spoke.

"My apologies. That was truly discourteous, sir."

A girl with long, curly white hair emerged from downstairs. Her eyes were different colors, one red and one blue. Her soft, fluffy hair fell all the way to her waist. She wore a neat white uniform, complete with a tie.

The beautiful girl approached Claude with cautious steps. The Iron Guards did not even glance at her, because they had long known she was hiding there.

"The child by the second-floor window, stop watching. I was calling you too."

A trace of embarrassed anger colored Donia's face, but she still jumped down from the second floor.

The two girls came to within two meters of Claude, then did not dare approach any closer. Claude raised his head slightly. The Iron Guards silently stepped back and waited five meters away, giving the two girls a sense of psychological safety.

"You two are their leaders, correct?"

Claude's very first sentence made their expressions change slightly. Donia clenched her fists at once, while Natalia's gaze grew even more wary.

"You don't need to look so worried. I will not do anything to you. Just as I said before, I merely want to talk."

Claude looked toward the stone bollards at his feet, which had been placed there to prevent vehicles from entering the residential area. He tapped the scabbard at his waist twice with his hand. A cold gleam flashed, and a shrill sword cry made the hairs on everyone's neck stand on end. Three stone bollards were cut through at a point one-fifth below their tops, revealing smooth cross-sections.

But in the eyes of the two girls, Claude's sword had never left its scabbard.

"Sit. Standing all the time is tiring too."

The two sat down somewhat stiffly. The white-haired girl spoke first.

"Good afternoon, sir. I am the student council president of this school. You may call me Natalia."

"I'm Donia."

"Hello. I am Claude. As you can see, I am the leader of the army attacking this city, the general of these soldiers."

"You were far too reckless earlier. If you encounter something like this again, use your heads first."

Claude's words left the two girls completely at a loss. For a moment, neither knew what to say.

"Are you wondering why I, an enemy general, would be concerned about you?" Claude smiled as he watched the two children's flustered expressions.

"You may not believe this, but I am not an enemy of Ursus. Therefore, you will not be my enemies either. You are still children. In my eyes, children should continue to grow and learn what they ought to know. You are still far too young to face death."

"But you attacked an Ursus city. Shouldn't enemies be eliminated root and branch?" Donia's expression was full of surprise, as though Claude's words contradicted some of her common sense.

"I already said it. My enemy is not Ursus. My true enemies are Ursus's injustice, decay, oppression, and evil. What I intend to do is not destroy this country with violence, but bring it new life. In your eyes, what exactly does Ursus mean? Does it refer only to the Emperor, his officials, and those nobles? Or does it refer to the people of this land and the civilization they have created amid this harsh suffering?"

Both girls fell silent.

"It seems you already have the answer in your hearts." Claude continued sitting upright on the stone bench, his back not bent in the slightest.

"Miss Donia, you seem very interested in military matters, aren't you?"

Claude looked toward the black-haired girl. Only after she nodded did he continue.

"Then, do you want to become a general of Ursus?"