After Kosma gave his answer, Dystopia stared at him in disbelief. She couldn't accept that the Kosma she knew would say such a thing. Shouldn't he be standing on her side?
The truth was, if Kosma hadn't been reborn, he really would have stood with Dystopia—believing that no matter how severe the Honkai corruption was, they should at least try to bring the victims back to Fire Moth for treatment.
But… as someone who had lived through it once already, he knew better. There simply was no cure. And besides, for the higher-ups, allocating vast resources to something with no clear return was utterly unrealistic.
Dystopia turned her gaze toward Kevin. Kevin simply shut his eyes, feigning sleep. He was never one to care about such matters. His reason for saving the world was a narrow one—just for Mei. Now, he merely had two more names added to that list: Silas and Elysia.
He wouldn't side with Elysia and Silas in principle, but neither would he allow her to bear this kind of burden alone.
In the past, he might have hesitated. But after the incident with the Sixth Herrscher, mercy was no longer a luxury he would grant.
"Then… Pardo, do you think the same way too?" Dystopia turned to her like she was grasping at straws.
"Me? Uh… I guess… I'd feel a bit reluctant." Pardo answered uncertainly. She didn't really have a sense of what this meant. Growing up in Sundown Alley, she had seen betrayal, fights to the death, and human selfishness in all its forms. Maybe she would feel pity. But more likely, she'd prefer to keep herself out of it.
Dystopia fell silent.
The investigation squad arrived at their destination in heavy quiet.
Before disembarking from the transport, Silas instructed everyone to put on combat suits. With their current physical constitutions, small-scale Honkai outbreaks weren't much of a threat, but at the very least the suits would provide insurance.
"By the way, Brother Silas, why isn't Hua coming along?" Pardo asked as they stepped off the transport.
"Hua hasn't accumulated enough training hours yet," Silas explained. "Her performance has been excellent, but she's only been at HQ a few days. Until her training time meets the requirement, she's not cleared for missions."
The area had already been sealed off by the authorities. Nobody inside could leave, and nobody outside could enter.
As the squad approached the barricade, Elysia—acting as team leader—presented her credentials to the soldiers. They immediately opened the way.
But just as the group was about to cross into the quarantine zone, one soldier suddenly asked:
"What's going to happen… to the people inside?"
Walking at the rear, Silas cast him a calm glance.
"Most of them will still be alive."
He said no more, and stepped into the zone.
The soldier's companion whispered sharply, "What's wrong with you? They're specialists sent by the higher-ups. How dare you ask them something like that?"
The first soldier replied quietly, "It's just… they're so young. Hard to imagine they'd send people like that on this kind of mission… Besides, I was part of a previous quarantine once."
"And? What happened then?"
"No survivors. They said it was some kind of strange plague."
"Doesn't matter. Orders are orders. If HQ sent them here, they must have their reasons. Not our concern."
"…I just hope… fewer people die this time."
—
Back with the investigation squad.
"Honkai energy concentration confirmed abnormal. Looks like there was indeed a small-scale Honkai outbreak here." Su reported, glancing at the detector. "If that's the case…"
"Then there will definitely be infected." Kevin finished his thought.
By now, he had almost fully recovered. Maybe not at peak strength, but enough that he wouldn't drag the squad down.
Kosma, uncharacteristically, tried to speak to Dystopia.
"Dystopia, you—"
"Hmph. Kosma who's betrayed me has no right to talk to me!" she snapped, turning her head away.
Kosma: "..."
(I remember… in the last cycle, when Kevin led us on missions like this, it was you who comforted me when I struggled with this dilemma. I never thought this time, it would be me trying to comfort you instead. So… back then, you were just as conflicted as I am now, weren't you?)
Kosma's thoughts drifted back to the Eighth Herrscher incident. To this day, he still didn't know what Dystopia had seen in her dreamscape when she tried to locate the Herrscher's position—what could have been so dreadful that it left her in eternal slumber. Now, with a second chance, he wanted to save her.
At the head of the group, Sakura suddenly spoke:
"Su, is the source of the Honkai in that village?"
Su glanced at the village in the distance, then at the instrument in his hand. He shook his head.
"No. The origin of this outbreak isn't in the village—it's in the opposite direction."
Elysia looked toward Silas. He gave her a small nod, then raised a hand to signal everyone's attention.
"Then let's split into two teams. One will investigate the source of the Honkai, and the other will check the village. Dystopia, Kosma, and Su—you three go into the village, with Su in command. For safety, Sakura, you'll go with them. The rest of us will head for the outbreak's origin."
Before Dystopia could respond, Kosma spoke up first:
"Silas, I want to go with you to the source. As for Su's team, I think Pardo is better suited than I am."
Kevin gave Kosma a sidelong glance.
(Why does it feel like I have to play matchmaker for this pair too…?)
Silas turned to Pardo.
"What do you think, Pardo?"
Pardo glanced at Silas, then at Dystopia. After a brief hesitation, she answered:
"Kosma isn't good at talking to people. Better let me handle it."
Silas cast one more look at Kosma before nodding.
"Alright. We'll do it that way."
The group split in two, heading down separate paths.
On the way to the source of the Honkai outbreak, Elysia spoke with a playful smile:
"Wow, as expected of the leader of the Fallen Angels. Maybe I should hand you the role of captain right now. What do you think, Silas?"
Silas glanced once more toward the village.
"You'd have made the same decision. Besides, wasn't it you who gave me the signal to step up and organize things?"
"That's true. But all I did was give you a look, and you understood immediately. Maybe we actually make a pretty good team, don't you think?"
Silas chose not to answer, wary of Kevin causing trouble again. Instead, he quickly turned the topic toward Kosma:
"I had hoped that, as Dystopia's childhood friend, you would be the one to guide her."
"I… am not good at comforting others," Kosma admitted. "Compared to me, Pardo—who's built a closer bond with her lately—is far more suitable."
"She'll have to get used to it sooner or later," Silas said calmly. "Our enemies aren't only the Honkai. Sometimes, humanity itself becomes our enemy."
Kosma fell silent, then asked quietly:
"…You mean the Resistance?"
"Their warriors might have started with noble intentions, fighting for humanity like we do. But in the earliest days of the Resistance, there were also those within the high command—men who lost their struggles for power—and they ended up swelling its ranks." Silas's voice was flat, without emotion.
The Resistance was always complicated. Some joined because they distrusted Fire Moth. Some because they were deceived and dragged along. And some… because they wanted to abandon Fire Moth in pursuit of more power and status.
But regardless of their reasons, once they turned against Fire Moth, their fate was already sealed.
"You traitorous liar! You promised us a way to live!"
He remembered how, back then, Lilith had answered in his place:
"Silas promised you a way to live. What does that have to do with us?"
A perfectly standard villain's line.
He had considered keeping some of them alive to sustain the Divine Grace Barrier. After all, he had known its weakness from the very beginning. But the Tenth and Eleventh Herrscher incidents were separated by several months. In that time, what about the captives' rations? Their housing?
The higher-ups had given him no plan.
They were simply dumping the dirty work on him.
"Maybe this time, we can prevent the Resistance from ever forming," Kosma said.
Silas glanced at him, then kept walking.
"You're too naïve, Kosma. There will always be those who cannot accept losing power. And there will always be those who crave more of it. That… is human nature."
Elysia chimed in with a gentle smile:
"But at the very least, we can try, can't we?"
Silas fell silent for a moment. Then he thought of Mobius's plan. If she truly had a way… then perhaps it was possible. All it would take was cutting down those cast out of the center of power—root and branch.
"You're right, Elysia," he finally said.
Kosma: "..."
(What's the definition of double standards? This is the definition of double standards!)
________________________________________
15+ advanced chapters available on Pat/NoobyIdiotka