Barefoot Girl

Milluki sulked in silence for two seconds, his keyboard clattering away.

"Are you telling me how to do my job?"

"What's wrong with supplementing the user's requirements and offering a few suggestions?"

"You're the most annoying client I've ever had."

Bai Zhu chuckled softly and said nothing more, though his pace quickened in earnest.

Rather than cutting through the town, he followed Milluki's route exactly, making a swift detour along the edge of the deeply snowbound forest toward the North Warehouse. The earth-shattering explosion earlier had wiped out the Holy Knights, temporarily turning this area into a safe zone, but Bai Zhu did not dare stake his life on anything so "temporary."

Milluki's voice suddenly lowered in his earpiece, carrying a hint of reluctance.

"Bai Zhu, there's something I need to tell you in advance."

"Go on."

"There aren't many explosive bugs left."

Bai Zhu's brow immediately rose.

"After that swarm that blacked out the sky, you're telling me there aren't many left?"

"That huge batch just now cost me more than half my stockpile!" Milluki spoke rapidly, as if venting his frustration. "Most of the Mechanical Bees left are reconnaissance and interference models. Those Metal Earthworms from before are single-use and basically can't be recovered. You still have two Exploding Beetles in your pocket, so use them sparingly."

Bai Zhu instinctively patted the cold metal box in his pocket, his head beginning to ache. "Stop trying to make me gamble all the time!"

"Aren't you the one who loves gambling on odds like this?"

"I like gambling with other people's lives!"

"...Fine, forget I said anything. Your supplies are plentiful now, so go wild."

Milluki gritted his teeth at the retort, but he continued sincerely.

"Anyway! I can't give you fire support on that scale for the next wave!"

Hearing that, Bai Zhu actually relaxed.

"Got it."

"You're not nervous?" Milluki's tone was full of surprise.

"Nervous about what? If you could unleash another bug swarm, I'd be afraid you'd get carried away and blow up the vehicles carrying pregnant women too."

"Get lost!"

Bai Zhu skirted a snow-covered broken slope, and the lights of the abandoned North Warehouse finally appeared at the edge of his vision.

Several rows of dilapidated wooden sheds were crammed together haphazardly. A few enclosed buses were parked in the open space between them, alongside two black cargo trucks like sealed cans.

Several caretakers in gray-white short robes were carrying boxes, moving efficiently.

Faintly, suppressed sobbing could be heard from inside the buses, but it soon went silent, as though someone had stuffed their mouths shut.

Clearly, these pregnant women were not treated as well as Ella. They seemed more like trafficked victims.

Bai Zhu lowered himself and lay behind the snowy slope, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"I see them."

"Don't get too close." Milluki immediately synced the reconnaissance feed. "I'm sending the little ones in."

Several Mechanical Spiders that nearly blended into the snow silently crawled toward the North Warehouse.

From Milluki's description, Bai Zhu learned clearly that the gray-robed people standing at the entrance to the North Warehouse included no black-armored Holy Knights and no bishops. Yet every one of them wore a faintly glowing Black Crystal Collar around their neck and carried a medical case.

Just then, a woman with an obviously swollen belly was helped down from one of the cargo trucks.

Without a word, a caretaker beside her pulled a syringe from a box and jabbed it directly into her arm.

The woman instinctively struggled, only to be pinned down by two others, unable to move.

Bai Zhu's hand around his sword hilt tightened inch by inch.

"Don't lose your head." Milluki's warning immediately sounded.

"I'm not losing my head."

"Your hand's already on your sword."

"I'm touching my fire poker to calm down."

"You call that calming down?"

Bai Zhu did not answer again, but his gaze turned as cold as the snow beneath his feet.

At that moment, Illumi's icy voice suddenly cut into the earpiece.

"The time for the Pre-Sanctification Descent has been confirmed."

Bai Zhu froze. "What's happening on her end?"

Extremely faint noise from the underground lounge came through the communications channel.

"She's all right. But there's a woman designated Number Nineteen on the transfer list."

"Ella reacted to her."

Milluki quickly pulled up the information. "Number Nineteen, one of the altar's auxiliary mothers. The records show that she underwent the baptism with Number Fifteen—Ella—so they may know each other."

Bai Zhu fell silent.

No wonder.

"Can Ella move right now?"

Illumi paused for a moment.

"When I checked on her, I shaved down the restraint on her right hand."

"Brother!" Milluki immediately exploded. "When did you do that? That's against the rules!"

Bai Zhu almost laughed.

"Your Zoldyck family actually has a concept of 'against the rules'?"

Milluki had no time to respond to his jab. His fingers rapidly switched to the lounge surveillance feed.

In the footage, Ella lay on the bed, her wrist rubbing ever so lightly against the edge of the restraint again and again. The movement was so small that it was almost impossible to notice. Not far away, a nurse was organizing records with her back turned, completely unaware.

Bai Zhu watched the image, and his tone softened.

"Tell her not to move recklessly."

Illumi did not relay it immediately.

A few seconds later, the tiny Mechanical Spider hidden beneath Ella's cloak gave an extremely slight vibration.

Ella stopped moving.

She seemed to understand.

"One after another, none of you are any easier to deal with." Milluki cursed under his breath, but his hands never stopped moving.

Bai Zhu turned his gaze back toward the distant North Warehouse.

"Has the list been confirmed?"

The soft rustle of pages turning came through the earpiece from Illumi's side.

"Confirmed."

"There are at least eight pregnant women in the vehicles."

"In twenty minutes, they'll be transferred underground."

Bai Zhu surveyed the terrain outside the North Warehouse. There was only one main road: south led back to town, while north connected to an abandoned old mine tunnel. If they wanted to intercept the vehicles, they had to act before they entered the mine.

"Milluki, mark an ambush point for me."

"The old drainage channel on the right." Milluki's plan took shape instantly. "I can have interference bugs bite through the tires of the lead vehicle. You use the chance to subdue the caretakers and seize the medical cases first."

"Don't use force."

"I know! There are pregnant women in those vehicles. I'm not stupid!"

Bai Zhu was about to mock him a little more when a string of rapid, piercing alarms suddenly rang in his earpiece!

Milluki's voice changed instantly.

"Wait!"

"What is it?"

"The North Warehouse... has an unfamiliar strong signal source!"

Bai Zhu's heart tightened, and he immediately buried his entire body in the snow.

"Holy Knights?"

"No."

"Bishop?"

"No!"

Milluki rapidly switched through surveillance feeds. One of the reconnaissance bugs that had crawled onto the North Warehouse roof sent back an image that shook violently twice before going still.

Through that final image, Bai Zhu saw what was on the roof.

A young woman stood there.

She wore plain white ceremonial robes and was barefoot, standing directly on the freezing snow.

Her head was slightly lowered, her expression serene, like a lifeless statue.

Several black crystalline syringes floated behind her. There were no threads and no mechanical arms; they simply hung in the air in eerie stillness.

Below the North Warehouse, every gray-robed caretaker prostrated themselves the moment they saw her. None dared raise their heads, and the entire scene was as silent as death.

Bai Zhu unconsciously softened his breathing.

"What limited-edition skin is this supposed to be?"

This time, Milluki did not joke. His voice held an unprecedented gravity.

"She's... not in my database."

Illumi's cold voice cut in again, carrying a rare note of warning.

"Bai Zhu, stay away from her."

Bai Zhu's hand on his sword froze.

"You know her?"

"No."

Illumi fell silent for a moment.

"Her presence... doesn't feel like that of a living person."

The instant those words fell, the woman in white ceremonial robes on the roof slowly raised her head.

Across the snowy slope hundreds of meters away, past all the noise and deathly silence, she looked directly toward where Bai Zhu was hiding.