A Red Stamp on a Leave Slip Worked Better Than a God

"A walk to digest our food?"

Sigelica watched Zhou Yu warily, one hand supporting the still somewhat weakened Dania.

"When you say digest our food, you don't mean fighting that pile of tin cans in the ravine hand-to-hand, do you?"

"Think bigger."

Zhou Yu patted the dust off his pants and pointed at a brightly lit cluster of barracks in the distance.

"There. The Lahai-Roi Defense Line's logistics management office."

"We're going for a walk there."

Sigelica: (눈_눈)

"Does anything truthful ever come out of your mouth, apart from 'let's eat'?"

"That's unfair. I've said 'cake,' too."

Ten minutes later, the three were crouched furtively beneath an office window, in an absurdly well-chosen spot right where two patrolling guards' blind spots overlapped.

"How do you even know about a place like this?" Sigelica whispered.

"I've played enough stealth games to spot a safe house at a glance."

Zhou Yu gestured for her to be quiet, then pointed at Dania.

"Have her keep watch."

Dania nodded obediently and tried to keep her eyes wide open as she looked around warily.

But a body that had just eaten its fill was the most honest of all. Warm broth radiated satisfying heat in her stomach, and waves of drowsiness washed over her.

Dania: (..-..-..)zzz

Her head began to droop, little by little, her eyelids too heavy to lift.

"She's asleep!" Sigelica protested in a hushed voice. "You had someone who just ate her fill keep watch?"

"Aren't you free? Take over while you're at it."

"What do you mean, take over while I'm at it?!"

Zhou Yu had already pried the window open and climbed inside.

Sigelica gritted her teeth and took over lookout duty, leaning on the windowsill to watch what happened inside.

Zhou Yu walked straight to the metal filing cabinet against the wall and gave it a pull. It was locked.

"Locked," he muttered.

"Then leave it alone!" Outside the window, Sigelica stamped her feet in agitation.

Zhou Yu turned, picked up a stapler from the desk, opened it, and took out a staple. He bent it straight and poked it into the lock.

Click.

The lock opened.

"How many more skill points do you have that I don't know about?" Sigelica's mouth formed an O.

"As long as I have enough."

Zhou Yu rummaged through the cabinet for a moment and pulled out a brand-new booklet with several large characters printed on the cover.

[Lahai-Roi Defense Line personnel leave register]

He then dug a dust-covered little tin box out of the bottom drawer and opened it. Inside was a pad of dried red seal paste.

"Hey!" Sigelica leaned on the windowsill, her voice so shrill it nearly cracked. "Stealing documents is one thing, but you want to mess with an official seal too?"

"It's a radish stamp. There's a fundamental difference between that and an official seal."

"What difference?!"

"Official seals are square. Radish stamps are round."

"I'm not asking about the shape!"

Zhou Yu had already stopped paying attention to her. He put the leave slip and seal paste on the desk, picked up a pen, and began to write in a bold flourish.

"Comrade Dania, a member of the logistics department's support personnel, has become physically and mentally exhausted due to prolonged, high-intensity work and is exhibiting severe occupational burnout and postwar traumatic stress reactions."

Sigelica could see everything clearly from outside the window. A vein throbbed at her temple.

"Following a preliminary diagnosis by Zhou Yu, head of the temporary medical team, it is recommended that she be immediately relieved of duty and granted thirty days of paid sick leave, after which her condition will be reassessed."

"Since when are you the head of a medical team?"

"I appointed myself just now. Any objections?"

"During her leave, all work orders and spiritual summons shall be deemed invalid harassment. Approval requested."

Zhou Yu put down the pen and breathed on the seal paste to moisten it.

"Zhou Yu!" Sigelica finally lost her composure, her voice shrill and trembling from trying to keep it down. "That's forging an official document! Using an official seal without authorization! You'll be court-martialed!"

He picked up the radish stamp carved with the words "For logistics department supplies approval only" and pressed it firmly into the red paste.

"Court-martialed?"

He looked up at Sigelica outside the window.

"If she dies, there won't even be a chance to go to court."

He put force into his arm, bringing the radish-carved stamp down hard on the lower right corner of the leave slip.

Thump!

The dull yet distinct sound rang especially loud in the night.

A bright red, slightly crooked imprint was branded onto the black and white page.

Crude, improper, absurd.

But real as hell.

The instant the stamp came down, Dania, who was dozing outside the window, shuddered violently.

Her eyes opened, and a cold, hollow light came over her previously dazed pupils.

An invisible will crossed time and space, descending into the depths of her mind.

[...Return to thy destiny]

[Sacrifice all, and only then shalt thou attain eternity...]

Dania's body began to glow faintly, a sign that Tacet Discord resonance was about to erupt. Her lips parted slightly.

Sigelica went deathly pale.

"Zhou Yu! Quick! She's..."

Before she could finish shouting, Zhou Yu had already climbed out the window.

He strode over to the trembling Dania and held up the freshly made leave slip, still warm from the seal paste.

Smack!

He slapped the paper squarely onto Dania's smooth forehead, as if applying a talisman.

Dania: Σ(°△°|||)

The light surrounding her and that impulse to go to her death were forcibly slapped back by the blow.

The world fell silent.

Zhou Yu slipped his hands into his pockets and looked at the bewildered Dania, the leave slip stuck to her forehead.

"Listen up. The first rule of the workplace."

"While you're on leave, you don't even have to answer your boss's calls."

He paused, then casually selected an option on the prompt that had popped up in his mind.

[Aleph One is attempting to reconnect...]

[Permanently blocked.]

"Let alone listen to voices in your head."

Zhou Yu: (￣ー￣)

Dania blinked, then blinked again.

The feel of the paper on her forehead, the scent of ink and seal paste lingering at the tip of her nose, and the utterly self-assured expression of the person before her.

That impulse to abandon everything and return to the void, that grand and irresistible sense of destiny, had actually disappeared.

Forcibly rejected by a bright red, crooked stamp.

She reached out a finger and gingerly touched the paper on her forehead.

"I... am on leave?"

"That's right."

Zhou Yu nodded and announced with perfect seriousness.

"Thirty days of paid sick leave."

"So sleep easy, worker."

"Even if the sky falls, it'll have to wait until your leave is over."