Time Flies, and the Situation at Home and Abroad

No one knew what John and Fanny had talked about that night.

But afterward, Faoken's officials noticed that Fanny, already a recluse, became even harder to find. Before long, John relocated her laboratory, damaged in the riot aboard the Rusted One, to an even more remote site and stationed a large number of soldiers around it. Security was so tight that no one could investigate it; not even a mosquito could get inside.

Everyone was curious, but since John said nothing, they tacitly refrained from asking. They assumed Fanny's risky actions had angered the governor and that he had punished her. Quite a few people even spoke up for Fanny and privately comforted the chief designer, afraid the two might fall out.

Only when Fanny clarified that the laboratory had been moved not as punishment, but because she had confidential research to conduct, did everyone put their suspicions aside. Later, as the territory's development brought one issue after another and everyone's workload kept growing, her secret research gradually slipped from their minds. Wendy spent her days lifting weights and dieting hard to regain her former figure. Samantha sparred with Balga from time to time, trying to break through to Crown Tier. Laiya diligently trained soldiers most days and occasionally went fishing by the sea with John. Meyer shuttled endlessly among three clans, looking ready to cry, and kept complaining over their nightly communications that she wanted to return to Faoken for grilled fish. Marda grumbled about being pulled off shell research and sent back to construction work. Miles busied himself with trade between clans and made so much money he could barely stop grinning. Igonila occasionally complained to John that patrol duty was too boring and asked to pose as part of the Allied Forces to stir up trouble in