The Goethe Hotel, the same room as before.
Ye Yan lay comfortably on the bed, enjoying the Goethe Hotel's signature afternoon tea.
To prevent her from causing any major trouble, Ye Yan finished casting the [ Eternity ] Blessing on the Silver Wolf, thus ending his day's work.
"Ah~ I really want to eat some Yuuki sashimi, I wonder where Hoshi and the others are..."
In the Administrative District, two figures, one in gray and one in pink, stood before the " Eternity " sculpture.
"Am I seeing things? That's a statue of Teacher Ye Yan?!" March 7th rubbed his eyes.
"Huh? How did you figure that out?"
Xing was dumbfounded; she, a true [ Eternity ] Walker, didn't even recognize him!
"Maybe it's from drinking too much milk tea... I think it's quite likely."
The main body of the sculpture is a huge, twisted Möbius strip, but this strip is not a smooth band; it's more like a solidified, translucent... milk tea river?
There's no way around it; the undulating texture of the liquid flowing on the surface is just too similar, making it hard not to associate it with March 7th.
"This is terrible, now every time I see milk tea, I think of Teacher Ye Yan."
On March 7th, she corrected her abstract thinking, "Be more formal in public!"
Over the next ten minutes, Xing and March 7th visited many places, ate fragrant and soft freshly baked blueberry jam muffins, and even joined the other children to listen to the history of the museum.
"Ha~ I'm tired. I didn't expect that just strolling around without doing anything could burn so much energy..."
March 7th's head drooped heavily, as if his neck was bent by an invisible weight, and a deep, bone-chilling fatigue suddenly swept over his entire body.
"Shouldn't we go see Bronya? After all, she's the one who sent us the invitation."
The perspective shifts to Kliperburg, the Supreme Guardian's office.
"... I completely understand your predicament, Miss Supreme Guardian."
" Belobog's current financial difficulties are not because of you, nor are they the fault of anyone else in this city."
Topaz appeared there at some point and began talking with Bronya.
"But objectively speaking, since Belobog has survived as an independent polity to this day, this debt cannot be written off as a bad debt."
Bronya was about to say something when Topaz saw right through her, " The Church only helped Belobog improve the climate, it didn't provide any other support... did it?"
The world's largest economy is messing with you? The Cricket Church telling you not to try and extort money from us!
When most interstellar citizens talk about the company, they always mention its ubiquitous goods and prominent logo: as if "wherever there is trade, there is the Interastral Peace Corporation."
In fact, almost all business activities in Galaxy are based on the company's " Credits " system.
If we compare interstellar trade to a sporting event, then a company is both a top athlete and a sport, both the playing field and the rules themselves.
In terms of their initial entrepreneurial aspirations, Interastral Peace Corporation was a selfless supporter dedicated to [ Preservation ] the Aeon, not much different from the Church. However, in terms of commercial value... the difference is enormous.
Actually, Topaz originally wanted to ask the Supreme Guardian if he had seen the man in the photo. With Jarilo-VI's technology lagging behind by so many years, the suspect in the attack on Oswaldo Schneider would indeed choose to lay low here.
But... thinking about it carefully, this planet has been out of sight on star charts for many years, so from an ordinary person's perspective, it must have been abandoned long ago.
She had absolutely no recollection of Ye Yan's face, and her colleagues at [ Ten Stonehearts ] also said they had never seen him before.
What can be confirmed at present is that the suspect has extremely sophisticated stealth skills, enabling him to evade a series of company surveillance measures, and it cannot be ruled out that he is carrying a signal jammer.
Hmm, maybe he's actually a puppet, and the real culprit is someone else. This is just an illusion created by those fools in the [ Tavern ]!
Sigh~ Being P45 Level these days isn't easy. You have to shoulder the mission of a high-ranking company executive, and you also have to take advantage of your free time to be a detective, solving cases and chasing criminals.
It's truly ironic that a task that should have been handled by the [ Market Development Department ] has now ended up in the hands of the [ Strategic Investment Department ], with the killer's photo somehow leaking to them.
"... Ah, it seems an important visitor has arrived." She noticed footsteps behind her.
" Bronya! And... Miss Topaz is here too?"
Xing was surprised to see them meet again; the Interastral Peace Corporation was really efficient.
"So you've already started discussing cooperation? Business is more important, how about we discuss it later..."
"It's alright, we've already pretty much finished talking, and we're just wrapping things up now." Topaz shook his head and continued to suggest to Bronya, " Supreme Guardian, please seriously consider my proposal."
"If Jarilo-VI wants to rebuild its ties with the galaxies in the future... your credit record with the company will be extremely important."
After a long silence, Bronya finally replied, "I understand, Miss Topaz. I will... I need time to think about it."
"Of course. However, while you're considering this, my colleagues need to carry out some necessary work in Belobog... and we hope that everyone in both the upper Underworld can cooperate."
"I'm so sorry to have interrupted your reunion! Business is done, you can all catch up now... I'll be going now, see you later~"
Watching Topaz leave, March 7th quickly ran up to Bronya to check on her.
" Bronya, are you alright? That Topaz... he's surprisingly assertive. I thought he was easy to talk to."
Xing had already taken out her phone, ready to contact Blake at any time depending on the situation.
"Star, March 7th... Welcome back. I apologize, I had planned to give you both a warm welcome, but the sudden appearance of that lady who claimed to be an envoy from the [company] disrupted my thoughts..."
"Since it's with the two of you, there's no point in hiding anything..."
A wave of weariness washed over Bronya, a heaviness seeping from the depths of her limbs, making each breath feel labored and difficult.
At this moment, Xing and March 7th finally realized the seriousness of the situation.
"To be honest, I don't have the energy to think about the Paskonja Festival right now."
"What exactly did Topaz tell you?"
"... Since you've already met before, I don't need to explain her identity." Bronya cleared her throat.
"When you first came to Belobog, you must have heard about that history, right? About the Antimatter Legion invasion more than seven hundred years ago, and the Eternal Freeze caused by the [ Stellaron ]..."
"In retrospect, many significant historical events were buried beneath the snow and wind... those Remembrance weren't even passed down through the generations of Supreme Guardian."