The perspective returns to the orphanage.
The three who went together to search for the last painkillers they needed discovered a clue, at the edge of the orphanage, they found a set of stairs leading downward.
This place had been built inside a small cave. Below seemed to be an open space carved out for storing items, perhaps once used as a warehouse for miscellaneous goods.
Worth mentioning is that Sampo ultimately still chose to ask Nero for Aha's selfie.
However, Sampo wasn't brave enough to sneak a peek at the true face of the God of Fun on the spot, mainly because he had already suffered too many losses in front of his junior colleague tonight, so he needed to be a bit more careful.
After discovering the staircase, the three headed downward. The dim yellow hanging lamps inside the cave were still working, lighting up part of the path ahead.
Before long, the three heard some voices.
"Hey… heave-ho… found it, right here! Thank you, Perkins."
The voice sounded somewhat timid, or rather light and soft, and a little familiar.
As the three walked down the stairs toward the platform below, they indeed saw a familiar face there.
A barefoot girl with white hair, wearing red clothes.
And beside her was a traffic light, Automaton Soldier, Beetle.
At the moment, this traffic light seemed to be acting as Clara's guard.
As soon as Nero and the others came down, it immediately sounded an alarm, "Warning. Warning. Threat detected!"
The traffic light's voice made Stelle jump back a small step. She maintained a guarded posture, looking left and right, and finally shouted loudly, "My life ends here..."
Almost instantly, five gazes landed on Stelle's head.
These five gazes came respectively from Nero, Clara, the traffic light, Sampo, and Sampo's boss.
Immediately after, Nero also put on an expression of deep regret, "Who would have thought we'd encounter such a formidable enemy…"
Sampo's gaze moved from Stelle to the junior colleague, realizing that he had to do something too, otherwise he'd seem a bit out of place.
So Sampo squatted down and raised a hand to cover his head. "Let's talk this out nicely, just don't hit my face!"
Clara looked at the three dramatic performers in front of her and felt a bit dazed. To be honest, she was really frightened.
Clara placed both hands on her chest and looked at the three with concern, a little afraid that there was something wrong with their minds or bodies, wondering if she should quickly send them to Natasha's clinic instead…
Meanwhile, the traffic light beside Clara entered combat mode, the Amber Lord mode capable of generating force-field shields, and said, "Protect Clara. Activating active defense mode..."
Only now snapping back to her senses, Clara hurriedly stopped it. "Perkins, don't! Stop, quickly!"
"I've seen them before. Th-they're not bad people, right?"
After Clara's voice fell, Perkins was silent for two seconds, then said, "Command received. Threat eliminated. Active defense mode disengaged."
"Well… it's not like they're all not bad people."
Nero turned his head to look at Sampo. In his line of sight, Sampo was sneakily putting away a small dose of knockout smoke.
"Ahaha…" Sampo stood up, scratched his head, then turned to Nero. "I think it's like this…"
In Sampo's view, several gust-wind swords in the corner of the space quietly dissipated.
Sampo had seen how fast those things were. Perkins had almost become a specimen just now.
The last "person" who was attacked by those emerald-green little swords was still hanging on the orphanage wall.
Stelle blinked and looked at her companions, not knowing what kind of riddle these two were playing back and forth.
But this only strengthened her resolve to team up with the rest of the Express Crew to raise Nero's awareness against Sampo.
Without realizing it, these two had already become so familiar. It felt like Nero being led astray by Sampo could happen at any moment.
'This wouldn't do. Better safe than sorry, guard against fire, guard against theft, and guard against Sampo!'
A certain Aha was very satisfied with the Star Core baby's thoughts…
Clara, meanwhile, let out a sigh of relief. Not having to fight or kill put her much more at ease.
Then Clara said to the three, "This place is very dangerous. You should hurry back to somewhere safe."
Sampo chuckled. "It's fine, I know this place well. Coming here is like going home for me."
"Huh?" Clara looked at Sampo with a strange expression.
Nero shrugged and said, "If you can come, we can come too. And if we're talking about going back to a safe place quickly, you should be the one to go back."
Clara blinked. "Clara has Perkins with her, so nothing will happen. I'll leave after I store this batch of painkillers."
"…Ah." Clara suddenly realized something. "You… are you also here for these supplies?
"That makes sense. There must be quite a few injured people over at the mining team too, right? If only everyone could coexist peacefully…"
At this point, Clara's expression became sad again.
"Here, take these medicines. I hope they'll be useful…"
Without even a moment's hesitation, Clara, rational and decisive like a computer, made her choice. She handed the painkillers in her hands straight to Nero in front of her.
And what drove Clara to make such a decision was clearly her kind heart and warm emotions.
"Clara really is a good kid!"
After taking the medicine, Nero gave Clara this evaluation and shared his view with the companions beside him.
Sampo and Stelle both deeply agreed.
Clara, meanwhile, shyly hid behind Perkins a bit, then lowered her head, her cheeks slightly flushed.
Seeing Clara like this, a thought arose in Nero's heart, Look at her, what a kind and adorable good child! Hopefully she doesn't know she also has the nickname "Crimson Rabbit."
At this moment, Stelle asked, "Is Svarog here too?"
Clara shook her head. "He's not."
Then Clara described her relationship with Svarog to the three, explaining that Svarog did not trust any human other than her, and sincerely apologized for what happened earlier when everyone in the Great Mine was surrounded by the mechanical legion.
This child seemed not to know that those mechanical legions had already been torn to pieces by Nero…
Stelle, on the other hand, was puzzled as to why Svarog would directly choose to attack.
Although Stelle's tone wasn't very harsh, because of her personality, Clara still panicked and said in a voice that was almost about to cry, "Mr. Svarog didn't mean to hurt everyone. He just trusts his calculation results… He thinks negotiating with people is always very inefficient."
"The people of Wildfire want to take everyone away from the Underworld… but Mr. Svarog wants everyone to stay here. Because in his calculations, the surface is no longer safe."
"So that's why he guarded the big pillar and didn't let anyone get close," Stelle realized.
"Mm." Clara nodded.
"Mr. Svarog says his duty is preservation. For that, he must make decisions that can preserve humanity."
"Actually, the upper city is doing okay right now. It's just that the Fragmentum has seeped into the urban area. To be honest, some of the things inside the Fragmentum are pretty fun."
Nero said casually, then suddenly noticed that everyone was staring at him in shock.
"Fun? Fragmentum creatures!?"
Clara's red eyes stared at Nero in utter shock, as if she wasn't looking at a human at all.
In the girl's impression, even Hook wouldn't say something like that.
"Yeah, they're pretty fun." Nero emphasized again. "They can heat up, cool down, blow air, and some can even transform…
"Oh, that's not important. It doesn't really have anything to do with what we're talking about right now."
"What I want to say is that right now, with us here, this is a once-in-a-thousand-years good time for Belobog!"
At this point, Stelle also put her hands on her hips. She didn't really understand the part about Fragmentum creatures, but she did agree that them being here was a once-in-a-thousand-years good time for Belobog.
Sampo opened his mouth, then ultimately decided not to argue with his junior colleague.
Nero secretly used the wind's flow to carry sound, and after noticing that Bronya and Seele were still chatting where they were, he continued, "Still, Svarog's calculations aren't wrong either. After all, we were chased here by the Silvermane Guards."
"If the Upper City doesn't change to a new Supreme Guardian soon, Belobog might really be finished."
"Ch-change to a new Supreme Guardian!?"
At that moment, even Clara's voice involuntarily grew louder.
The girl looked at the foreign boy before her in utter astonishment, as if seeing something beyond belief.