Chapter 184

"So, do you want to live as the corpses of those three... no, those four people, or do you want to live as a completely new being?"

As he spoke, he opened his original briefcase and handed it to the Sacred Remains...

Among them is a magical Terminal belonging to a certain agent. What Nana doesn't know is that the personalities of the Kitty Agent Squad are locally backed up in the magical Terminal... This is why Number One through Number Four didn't waver even when they Empathy with Nana.

They not only use the best equipment, but also possess the most powerful personality anchors.

Sacred Remains has always wanted is the 'remains' of someone who was first eliminated by Nana and has never been able to rejoin the group of four.

As the crystalline monster swallowed the spell Terminal, a fourth Halo appeared among the three halos above its head... But for some reason, the fourth Halo kept flickering and looked unnaturally incomplete. Nana had already drawn her gun, preparing for the final battle of the 'The Dominion,' but unexpectedly, as the previously stable three Halo gradually developed a gap and slowly shaped the fourth, unformed Halo into a triangle centered in the center, the Sacred Remains stabilized once more.

The chaotic magical fluctuations began to settle, and even the Kitty Army itself seemed to have instantly learned several spells... Nana recognized it; it was the fluctuation of SHD magic.

[Thank you.]

The voices of the four people seemed to reverberate from within the Sacred Remains.

We are one again.

"Monsters... no, the best four-person squad of the Kitty Army said this to Nana."

[Regarding your question... we understand that we cannot treat it as a normal life right now... although it feels strange from our background, we do have common sense after all.]

So... what's your decision?

The Sacred Remains with its complex Halo above its head lowered its body, making sure it was at Nana's eye level, while the four voices continued in unison:

Of course we want to live... We've only just gained our freedom...

"You should understand that as long as you live on this land, there is no such thing as absolute freedom... because you your very existence violates the current order... I hope you understand the price of freedom and have carefully considered this before saying this."

Seeing Nana sadly point a pistol at him, the black aura emanating from the gun exuding an ominous aura, he felt a sense of foreboding.

Nana was certain that her normal power was no match for this aggregate, so this shot was her full strength... It was enough to transform an entire area into another world and lead it straight to the end of chaos, a fast track to the realm of 'nothingness'.

If the Lord of the Tower of Leithanien, who has the deepest understanding of magic, were here, he would probably exclaim in surprise... This spear of Narilin II: Three Deaths of Baba Si Nai is already the 'ultimate' that can annihilate everything.

Even when faced with a spell that terrified and forced the surrounding Kitty Army to retreat, the crystallized four-person aggregate still adopted a stance of fighting to the bitter end based on its own consciousness.

[I, we... will never live according to someone's arrangements again... this is what you taught us.]

"Really? That's great... and..."

Amidst the Empathy sorrow, Nana slightly curved the corners of her mouth. These children were indeed free.

"It's a pity."

PS: Waaaaaaah!

Nana has finally finished dealing with the lab part; now it's time to wrap things up...

By the way, the final Halo of the Cat Agents team is the emblem of Trinity College London, which looks something like this ↓

From now on, the staff at Lycoris Cafe will wear this logo... after all, they were originally a tea party for the Trinity.

5th Laytonson's Ghost Assassin: 200 Loneliness

Once the trigger is pulled, there is absolutely no chance of the shot going astray.

Nana won't bother with the Artificial Angel Little Cat, because those Little Cat really aren't a problem... They won't get out of control, they won't become a disaster. As long as the government doesn't have any more brain farts and do anything to these children who are already rebelling against injustice, they will naturally integrate into the 'order' called Columbia.

Whether it's Nana herself, Kal'tsit of Rhodes Island, or her agent, they all have their own channels to participate in the operation of this 'order,' and these children will be properly taken care of.

However, the same theory doesn't work when the object is 'Sacred Remains'.

Although Nana knows that He is essentially a continuation of those four little agents, He is now essentially a crystal monster... a 'mysterious structure entity' recognized by His own Halo.

No matter how eloquent Nana and her ilk may be, Columbia society, the order that defines this land, could never point to His appearance and say, 'This is a human being.'

Nana gave them a choice... Just as a person must abide by the rules of a group if they live in one... The birth of the Sacred Remains stemmed from Columbia's inadequate management of the rules, so the Sacred Remains was fundamentally an individual that should not have existed.

For such uniquely born individuals to integrate reasonably into the order, then it is necessary and essential to rely on strong management... Regardless of whether the manager is Columbia, Rhodes Island, or even Nana herself, the four junior agents' answer was already resounding.

"I will never live according to someone's arrangements again... What a pity, I was hoping... to have Dr. Kal'tsit see if you have any solutions."

Watching the green crystals be banished and annihilated in the black mist-like otherworld, Nana put the Silver Dancer back into its holster. This time, it's truly all over.

[High-purity mysterious substance detected. Please replenish offline units promptly.]

"... No, Halo... Command System, you're not offline, you're not lacking in emotional intelligence. Can't you see the atmosphere here?"

Even though Nana complained like that, the cursor in front of her kept blinking on its own.

The constant voice announcements from the cross- Cross-Star Halo and the 'supply points' marked with arrows in her vision gave Nana the feeling that she couldn't do anything else without following their instructions.

Of course, Nana has no intention of eating people... If this 'Command System' were to force her to eat the remains of those four little agents... even if her Halo turned into a headband and the Command System chanted a mantra for her 24/7, Nana would absolutely not comply.

The so-called freedom might not be entirely accurate in terms of simply doing whatever one wants, but it absolutely doesn't mean doing things one doesn't want to do... that much is certain!

But when the assassin turned around, she was surprised to find that something seemed wrong.

In that otherworldly realm, where the sun shone yet the sky resembled a night sky, the dark green crystals had vanished, but the strange Halo composed of three rings and a perfectly aligned triangle still stubbornly shone.

Clearly, the Sacred Remains, having undergone a massive 'Collapse,' were essentially 'annihilated,' leaving no physical form. However, the Halo they emitted were marked as 'high-purity mystery.'

The 'mystery' cannot be extinguished, which means it is not a physical entity in the current material world... And setting aside these so-called academic speculations, she can still Empathy with that unfounded Halo, which is why Nana hesitates so much.

"They... should already be dead..."

[Hostile individuals, tagged 'Number One' through 'Number Four'... confirmed dead around 5 AM this morning.]

"Then... what exactly is it that Empathy with me... is it the Sacred Remains?"

The Halo didn't answer Nana's question. Was it because the question was meaningless to it, or because it couldn't answer a question that Nana herself didn't know the answer to?

This thing, which called itself an 'Offline Command System,' was just urging Nana to act quickly.

[The matter 'annihilation' reaction is complete, confirming the iteration of 'mysterious' information.] Qi

[Foe identification system unresponsive, thought interface confirmed to military standard, previewing initiated... Confirmed no abnormalities in unsigned personality and thought information operation, number of participants: four.] (隨)

[Please retrieve the 'mysterious' unit to complete resupply, and back up the information of the deceased. Wait for the Command System to log in and transfer the information to the municipal system for further processing.] Medical

'Really? That's great... But... what a pity.'

The sounds around him seemed to still linger, while Number One silently stared at the pure white space before him, his mind blank.

Beside him, his own hands and body still retained a familiar warmth... Looking down, he saw his 'family' whom he had sworn to protect even at the cost of his life.

Number Two is a bit of a clingy person and always likes to occupy the left side. Number Three, having just restarted, always clings to his right arm and refuses to let go, no matter what.

As for himself... he was the one in charge of the team's medical survival rate, and also the one with the longest time since the last reboot, but also the most pessimistic.

After trying to figure out the situation, Number One let everyone hug him while he began to assess the situation... It wasn't cold here, he wasn't hungry, and he didn't need to attend those dreaded classes... but in the end, he was indeed killed.

The problem is that his memories didn't stop upon death. He then transformed into a monster, was defeated, and then fulfilled his duty as the squad's Number One Shieldguards, protecting everyone... until finally regaining consciousness and being destroyed by No. 0 Prototype...

"... So, this is the afterlife?"

"Well... rather than the afterlife, it's more like the space between life and death."

"Who!"

Even in death, the experience gained from training did not diminish, and even becoming a monster would not change the fact that Number One was everyone's shield. So even with three confused companions on his back, Number One still managed to shield everyone with a sideways movement while assuming a fighting stance.

But this person before him didn't seem to have any ill intentions... Compared to the officers of the Instruction Corps, this white-haired Feline had a gentle expression and didn't exude any military aura... Was he Angel from the afterlife?

No, no, no, the other person said this isn't the afterlife at all, right?!

This cleared his mind of all the jumbled thoughts, but then, Number One was gently patted on the head by the white-haired Feline:

"It must have been tough in the past... Although life in Nana's mental world is tough too, compared to your past, this place is quite peaceful... After all, before you came, only the Bruce family was here."

The gentle touch on his head immediately dispelled Number One's hostility. After all, it was pure gentleness, which was clearly different from the researcher's gentle touch, which always carried a strange purpose.

Number One hesitated for a moment, then asked somewhat helplessly:

"Um... who are you?"

"Cole Bruce... You can call me Cole or Bruce, it's up to you."

Cole's maternal instincts were overflowing as she looked at this child, who was actually younger than her own youngest daughter Narcissa, but faced a crueler fate than Narcissa.

"I know you still have a lot of questions to ask, but there are many things I can't explain clearly either. Even though I witnessed the whole thing and had Nana's explanation, I still find things very ambiguous... But it's okay, Nana will probably come here in the future, and you can ask her directly if you have any questions then."

"Um... Nana... could it be...?"

Nodding, Cole looked at Number One, who seemed quite shocked, and then touched the little Feline that looked exactly like Nana with heartache.

After being embraced from behind by Cole, Number One, who had been stubbornly protecting the other three despite his exhaustion, finally relaxed and quickly closed his eyes, only hearing Mrs. Cole's voice fading into the distance.

"Rest in peace... At least for now, you don't have to fight anymore..."

Listening to Kate tell her about the mental world she could only enter during deep sleep, Nana sighed... The Halo above her head, which had just been replenished, seemed to echo her sentiments, rising in waves in sync with Nana's voice.

"That works out well... but it'll just mean more trouble for Cole again..."

'No, Mom is heartbroken, but judging from her actions, she seems quite happy. It's probably because Narcissa has been making her angry for the past few years... Even Kevin and Dad are happy, because even if you can live peacefully in your mind, it's boring if everything stays the same.'

As she spoke, this woman, who looked like an eighteen-year-old version of Rosemary, stretched lazily in front of Nana without any sense of distance, patted her exposed belly without any ladylike manners, and then lazily draped herself over Nana.

'Although we're still far from the [Dead Soul] described in books, if we always lack stimulation, won't we eventually become those stubborn, obsessive the Demon?'

"I have no idea."

Seemingly in a hurry, Nana was rather perfunctory in answering Kate's questions. As Nana's spirit, Kate wasn't seeing Nana's slow-witted side for the first time; she simply floated beside Nana, watching the sun briefly appear and then disappear in the sky, and pursed her lips.

But soon, as Nana hurried towards the city, she continued:

"However, I will always be with you."

'Oh~ Nana, you do say things that make people happy sometimes~'

"I'm very serious."

Hearing Nana's somewhat unusual tone, Kate nuzzled Nana's cheek curiously.

'What's wrong? Is Nana acting like her little sister today?!'

"But after seeing that lab, I felt a bit..."

Seeing that Nana was stuck on the word for a long time, Kate touched her lips and thought for a moment, then tapped her palm:

'Lonely?'

Seeing Nana slowly stop, and then, as if to hide her obvious shyness, the Kitty Killer expressionlessly took out a lock pick and unlocked a family car parked on the side of the road.

But Kate had been inseparable from Nana for years... like souls... and there was also Thought Chain Ring created a kind of Empathy, so Nana's sudden abnormality was all too obvious to Kate.

Of course, as Nana drove to the Lycoris Church Academy, Kate stopped teasing her and instead hugged her from behind, just like her mother had done years before.

So many years have passed, Nana in his arms remains unchanged, even though he has been dead for quite some time. Time seems unable to leave any trace on Nana.

Coupled with her background and experiences, which seemed like something out of myth or science fiction to Kate understood... how heavy and serious Nana's promise to "always be with you" was.

Even if you include the final madness of the Dead Soul, one's own life is only a thousand years... But Nana's 'forever' will probably continue until the earth is devoured by Originium, and until all of humanity is wiped out.

It's not surprising that Nana would feel lonely; in fact, Kate finds it quite normal.

The white-haired cat, taking advantage of the fact that its mother and sister were not around and that no one else could see it, rubbed its face against Nana without restraint... She knew that this was one of the few effective ways she could comfort herself.

"...Zero's data...it looks like a completely different person's life... Kate, would you say that's 'me'?"

'Is it possible? It can be, and it can not be... Or are you just starting to think about Diana from reading the text? What happened to you being attracted to us first?!'

Hearing Kate start to confuse the issue, Nana hesitated for a moment, then quietly corrected her:

"The first person to make me pay attention to emotions was my agent... The first person to catch my eye was Rosemary, and you were the one who took the initiative to talk to me outside of work hours, but... the first person to make me actively care and want to get closer to... was Cole, right?"

'Eh... that seems to be true, damn it... Is it really because Mom is more attractive?!'

Kate playfully lay down on Nana's lap again, and while idly playing with the ends of Nana's hair, she said helplessly: