Lin withdrew his hand from the Oath of Judah. He looked up at the rift one last time; through the pitch-black darkness that had nearly swallowed the light of the stars and moon, he seemed to see "something" squirming slowly within.
"What are you thinking about?"
Bianca thrust her lance into the ground. Standing behind Lin, she addressed him.
"...A lot of things."
World bubbles, the rift, Bianca, fifty thousand years in the future, fifty thousand years in the past...
And then, there was Einstein and the Armed Puppets.
Einstein had told him from the very beginning—and he could see it for himself—that she was actually no longer willing to return to the original world.
It wasn't that she feared Honkai or death; rather, she was lost in her perception of humanity itself. Was everything she did for humanity actually worth it? Even without the Honkai, humans would kill one another. If the weapons she created were being used to fight the Honkai now, would they be used to fight humans later?
To let the Armed Puppets... kill humans.
The scenarios in her mind made her shudder, and what terrified her even more was that those imaginings were highly likely to become reality.
Lin would not condemn Einstein's choice. He even found himself wondering if her choice might actually be the better one.
"When there's no more need to fight in the future, what do you want to do, Goose?"
Lin sat down cross-legged. He gazed into the distance as if looking at an unattainable future.
Bianca also sat down, leaning her back against his. A gentle smile played at the corners of her mouth. "I suppose I'll teach children at the orphanage."
"..."
"Scum-shroom, I lost my memory when I was a child. I didn't know where I came from. The name Bianca Ataegina was one I chose for myself. From the sanatorium to the orphanage, I met many different people." She ran her fingers through her distinctive blonde hair, her eyes shimmering with reminiscence. "Then, one day, I met Ragna, the captain of the Valkyrie Assault Squad. She taught me how to plant lilies."
"But later, she sacrificed herself. Out of the entire squad, only one person survived. It was under the tutelage of that surviving warrior that I signed up for Valkyrie special training and officially became a Valkyrie. Then, during my first mission... I was the only survivor as well."
"From that moment on, I realized I was different. And from that moment on, I came to understand many people—including that survivor from the assault squad, and of course, Ragna."
"Many people say that childhood experiences stay with a person for their entire life. A broken or painful childhood becomes a wound that remains in the heart forever."
"But I want to thank my childhood. It let me know what kind of person I wanted to become—and that is someone who ensures others no longer have a childhood like mine."
Leaning against Lin, she looked up at the moon. It was as if thousands of stars were flickering within her soul.
"Scum-shroom, what was your childhood like?"
Lin pondered for a moment, then shook his head indifferently. "It was nothing special, but it certainly set me on the path I'm on now. I was guided by a man who I wouldn't say I hated, but I didn't like him either."
Bianca pursed her lips and smiled. "Then we're quite alike."
"Many people influenced the latter half of my life. They entrusted their lives and ideals to me, teaching me how to become a 'normal' person, while they themselves were torn apart by a sort of senseless malice. I used to think that was just reality, but later someone told me it's called 'fate'." Lin lip trembled for a moment before he bit down hard.
That was why he would resist "fate" without hesitation. After having almost everything taken from him, did fate expect him to bow his head?
...
"What's wrong? Have I 'fallen from grace' with you now, kid?"
Kalpas sat on the sofa with his feet propped up to the side. He chuckled at Immer, who had been staring at him fixedly.
"I specifically asked that woman to transfer you to the Moths just so it would be easier for you to kill me. As it turns out, there's been no fun at all lately. You're just like Sakura, mumbling about God-knows-what all day." Kalpas cracked the joints in his neck, producing a crisp sound. "Work too busy? Figures. Sakura and I don't care about any of that anyway; we leave it all to you. Want me to help?"
"...You?"
Immer was slightly taken aback. His cold gaze held a nuanced emotion toward Kalpas.
"Cut the crap! Hand it over!"
Kalpas snatched the portable terminal from Immer hand. He glanced at the dense clusters of meaningless numbers on the screen, and the mouth beneath his mask twitched.
"Why make it so complicated? Can't you just use words?" Kalpas irritably placed the terminal back on the table. However, despite his irritation, he set it down gently. After all, if Immer didn't submit these things on time, a mountain of things he found extremely troublesome would follow.
Troubles even greater than the nun who had placed a Discipline on him!
Immer sneered as he took the terminal back. "Using words is too inefficient. I can save a vast amount of time just by using specific number combinations. Typing a bunch of numbers is much more convenient than typing a bunch of words."
"Tch. Can you even understand it yourself?"
"I'm not you," Immer replied, finally able to land a verbal counter-jab against Kalpas. He mocked, "Besides, I have my own self-coded decryption software. I just need to paste my previous numbers in, and it translates the meaning of the numbers I wrote."
Kalpas fell silent for a moment. In combat, he was a beast; that was how everyone—both inside and outside the Moths—evaluated him. Outside of combat, he wasn't exactly a completely normal person either.
Immer had once seen the room full of wood carvings in Kalpas's quarters. Immer understood their significance. He suppressed his anger regarding them, but he never took it out on Kalpas.
"It couldn't be that... Lin told you to 'let go' of your hatred, could it?"
Kalpas suddenly spoke, appearing to have seen through Immer mental activity, voicing the very thoughts in his heart.
"...Captain Lin did not tell me to let go of my hatred." Immer took a deep breath. Even if he still couldn't treat Kalpas with a "normal" attitude, he hadn't lost his reason. "He only told me to think for myself—to think with a calm mind."
"Hmph. Boring."
"Only someone like you would find it boring."
Immer really didn't want to bicker with Kalpas. He refocused his energy on the data terminal, patiently inputting the numbers one by one.
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask for a while now. Are Sakura and Lin that close?"
"..."
"What's with Sakura acting all hesitant, wanting to get close but not daring to? And everyone here... they all seem to have a deep connection with Lin..."
"Enough."
"..."
The interest in Kalpas's eyes sank away.
"Kalpas, I know what you're thinking. Even if my opinion of you has never changed, I can't deny that you really do care about your current home."
"But... enough is enough."
"No one wants to bring it up."
"Including me."
"And including yourself."