Federation Ninth Military District

The air was thick with all manner of intensely aggressive scents. The guide's welcoming and strongly soothing Guide Pheromone lured the sentinels closer one step at a time, forcing them to sink into its thrall and offer her boundless loyalty and love.

Even Huosuosi was briefly dazed by the cloying scent of jasmine. His deep eyes darkened, and when his gaze returned to Yuqing, a hint of possessiveness and appraisal colored them.

The black panther Spirit Entity crouching at his feet, its tail swishing lazily, had at some point gone rigid. A low growl rumbled in its throat as its beastly eyes locked on Yuqing.

The next instant, an almost tangible pressure burst from him and swept through the entire warship compartment.

The air froze. The restless sentinels were rooted to the spot, their mental barriers trembling under the pressure. Pain forcibly brought them back to their senses. They tore their gazes away from the guide and straightened into proper military posture, not daring to move so much as a fingertip.

Ers had fallen under the deepest, and the backlash hit him harder. It was as though a huge, invisible hand had slammed him down, driving one knee hard into the floor.

Huosuosi's voice turned cold again, carrying unquestionable authority. "What are you standing around for? Get moving."

"Yes, sir!"

The warship's exterior was cold and forbidding, but its interior was fully equipped. An expensive medical pod had already been prepared, and the pale blue nutrient fluid gleamed like metal beneath the ship's harsh lights.

Ers bent down with the utmost care, supporting the girl's back and the crooks of her knees as he slowly lowered her into the nutrient fluid. He watched the pale blue liquid rise over her shoulders and neck until only her peaceful face remained above the surface.

The medical pod's lid closed with a click, and the machine began to operate with a faint hum.

Ers stood before the pod, his gaze resting on her face through its transparent wall. The emotions churning in his eyes were too deep to dissolve: the all-encompassing possessiveness of a sentinel in his attachment period.

He desperately wanted to lock the lid shut, to block out every prying gaze and hide her away so she would belong to him alone.

"All right, brother, the commander's waiting in the conference room." Shang Yu stepped forward and tugged at his sleeve. "We're on our own turf, and the medical pod has the highest security clearance. Nothing will happen."

Ers's Adam's apple bobbed. After a long moment, he answered quietly, "Mm."

The moment the two men stepped out, the sentinels hiding in every corner could no longer contain themselves and crowded around the medical pod. Their Spirit Entities were even faster than their owners, their tails wagging almost like propellers as they pressed their noses to the glass and sniffed hard. Even if they could smell only a trace of lingering guide pheromones, they purred with satisfaction.

"Holy crap! Did they really bring back a guide? What kind of heaven-defying luck is that?!"

"Oh my goodness, I've lived more than twenty years, and this is my first time seeing a living, breathing guide! She smells so good..."

"Look at her face! Oh my god, she's so beautiful. Her skin's as white as porcelain, and her eyelashes are long and curled. She must be a noble from the empire's central district, right?"

"I heard Noi say the guide came back with us of her own free will... Do you think she's taken a fancy to Admiral Ers?"

"Hey, do you think she might stay in our military district as a stationed mental-soothing specialist?"

At those words, the excited sentinels fell silent, their spirits visibly sinking.

"Probably not, right? Our military district is stationed in the Eremos Star System at the very edge of things. The environment's too harsh for a guide to live here long-term, and our Berserk State levels are all too high..."

Eremos.

In the language of ancient Earth, it meant "the land abandoned by the gods."

It was also a star system on the border that the empire called a place of exile. Heavy clouds and radioactive dust shrouded it year-round, leaving it sunk in the shadow of death and frenzy.

How could a place like this ever keep a delicate jasmine flower?

In the warship's command room

Huosuosi sat in the main seat at the head of the table, his knuckles tapping a steady, soft rhythm against the metal surface. "You're saying the Iron Group interfered in this operation?"

"Yes." Shang Yu's expression was graver than ever. "We were scouting the outskirts of the Dark Forest as planned when Iron's mercenaries ambushed us just as we reached the boundary. Their firepower was fierce. They forced us deep into the forest, then withdrew. After that, the people hunting us were all garrison troops from the empire's northern frontier."

The entire squad had nearly perished on this mission.

"So you found the guide deep in the Dark Forest?" Huosuosi raised a sharp brow. "And that guide saved Ers after he'd lost consciousness and entered a Berserk State?"

The empire would not make such a basic mistake. Even in the Federation, guides capable of soothing Ers could be counted on one hand.

A high-level guide like her would inevitably travel with a powerful order of imperial knights at her side. They could never have allowed her to appear alone in such a dangerous place, much less let her life be threatened.

"Maybe she sneaked out?" The situation had been too critical before, and Shang Yu had treated Yuqing entirely as a lifeline. Now that he had calmed down and thought it over, it was true... Yuqing had appeared almost out of thin air. Nothing about it seemed to make sense.

"Forget it. It doesn't matter." Huosuosi waved a hand, his tone somewhat casual yet certain of success. "As long as she's ours, that's enough."

True.

Guides were such a rare species that even if she really had fallen from the sky, it would have been a blessing from the gods. All they had to do was be grateful.

"Then how are we going to arrange things for the guide?" Ers, who had been silent all this time, suddenly asked.

He sat with his back ramrod straight, but his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the side seam of his military trousers. The image of the girl's peaceful sleeping face in the medical pod kept flashing through his mind.

He didn't want to be separated from her.

Even if he had to give up every rank, abandon his position as an admiral and everything he had fought for in the Ninth Military District, he would stay by her side.

He wanted to be her personal sentinel guard, to have her scent settle on him, to always have a place in her gaze.

Possessiveness wound around his heart like a vine. He looked up at Huosuosi and said with unassailable certainty, "I want to become her personal sentinel guard."

"Ers, there's no precedent for a guide being stationed in the Ninth Military District..." Shang Yu frowned. He understood what Ers was thinking.

Other administrative districts had large numbers of guides stationed with their troops to stabilize the soldiers' Berserk State levels, but the Ninth Administrative District was different. Its sentinels either had Berserk State levels too high to be saved and were making one last contribution before waiting for death, or they were simply desperadoes risking their lives for generous military pay.

Here, sentinels were disposable supplies.

No matter how many died, a steady stream of highly contaminated sentinels would be sent here.

So, for the guides' safety, the Ninth Administrative District's guides all lived in the White Tower in the central district, under the tower's collective protection.

Unless Yuqing volunteered to stay with the troops on the border, Ers becoming her sentinel guard would mean relinquishing all his military posts, leaving the district and following her back to the central district.

"The guide's wishes come first." Huosuosi cut Shang Yu off, a trace of interest flashing through his deep eyes.

This young guide was unlike any of the pampered guides he had met. She had dared to enter the Dark Forest alone and had stepped forward in such a dangerous situation to save a sentinel in a Berserk State. She showed none of a guide's spoiled willfulness. She looked soft, but deep down she had a certain toughness.

Perhaps... she really would be willing to stay in this "land abandoned by the gods."

If so, the days ahead would surely be quite interesting for the Ninth Military District.