“I handed Zero Division to uncle Kernel. That should confirm Troy’s guilt. We have a reason to destroy Troy, so uncle Kernel can start to move publicly towards crushing it.”
Said Lobelia, also to the mark that showed where her friend slept.
It seemed a hurdle towards her dream had been crossed.
Qualia had been called, and he learned as Lobelia sat and massaged her stiff shoulders.
She took her eyes off the cross, and moved them to Qualia, and despite not showing it, he saw she was very tired.
“There are slight irregularities in the movement of your shoulders. Detecting that stimulating them via external pressure with the fingers corrects it.”
“Then come on and rub them! Thanks.”
Qualia got behind Lobelia, and did just that, put pressure with his fingers. He had already learned the structure of her shoulders, so that precise pressure assaulted Lobelia’s exhaustion.
“Hna, hnah… It’s just right, hna…”
“But the information input by uncle Kernel earlier tells that Woodhorse’s current whereabouts are unknown.”
“He went into hiding because he learned Zero Division got taken out… Apparently the unit sent to watch him was wiped out.”
Kernel and Lobelia took action because they knew this. But… The unit that was supposed to be watching them was destroyed instantly.
In the middle of the city, without making a sound, in a second.
“Zero Division was equipped with magic devices, so Woodhorse probably got one for himself too. That’s the only possibility, if the unit watching him was wiped out.”
“Theory. There is a chance that the magic device is using Black Hole as a material.”
“…That would be pretty bad.”
Lobelia sat on the ground, holding her knees, and hung her head.
“Those are very mysterious and extremely dangerous, even among all the other magic stones that have been found. They never finished studying Black Hole, but it was theorized that depending on how they were used, they could end the world.”
“…Detecting a big risk.”
Qualia learned the level of threat of the ancient magic stones Black Hole when he hacked them. In that small size, they carried the weight to blow away the Kingdom of Acacia.
But Qualia lacked the input to determine their level of threat if they were in their original size.
“But even Zero Division didn’t know where it was. They probably had hostility between them to begin with, so he withheld that critical information.”
“Proposal. There is a chance that Backdoor, who was a spy in Azure Skies and Troy, carries that information.”
“Yes. We should probably raid some places, not just look for Woodhorse.”
Lobelia then continued her thoughts.
“…But if we can’t find him that way… Worst case scenario… A dungeon.”
“Request explanation. Dungeons are perceived to be places with many monsters, and not a good place to hide an ancient magic stone.”
“True, but there are different types of dungeons. There are ones with few resources, but relatively few monsters, making them not very dangerous.”
Although they were still off-limits, added Lobelia.
There were many different types of dungeons. Like buildings said to be constructed through the great power of legendary beings long ago, but also deep caves created naturally.
In any case, there was a chance that the radar system would not pick up the ancient magic stone, if it was hidden deep within them. The walls making up the floors of the dungeons could interfere with it, and there was also the depth, meaning distance.
“Regardless, we have to look for Backdoor and Woodhorse promptly. Although they might have ran out of the country too.”
“Affirmative.”
“But we finally caught their tails… I was worried when Zero Division targeted me, but…”
The shoulders Qualia was holding trembled.
He looked at Lobelia, just as she was hanging her head.
“I was scared… Really.”
Lobelia’s hair hid her face.
All Qualia was learning was the feeling of his hands rubbing her shoulders tightly.
“I thought Spirito might die.”
She was scared about her life being threatened too, but that was not what came out of her mouth.
“Spirito really goes too far. I wish she’d have left me and ran. Although if I was ready for that, I shouldn’t have placed Spirito as my guard, right?”
“…”
“I’m scared when she goes somewhere. I’m scared that the same thing that happened with Love will happen to her. Qualia, your big sister here might be a bit over-protective.”
Behind the curtain of blond hair, Lobelia had a troubled smile on her face.
As Qualia saw that, awkward human-like words jumped from his mouth.
“Are, you, all-right?”
And by the way Lobelia looked on blankly, he received the feedback that it was wrong.
But that was not important, and he continued, as he thought about Ina, who was being looked after by Liebe and Ace.
“People react greatly to the risk of losing individuals with a high degree of trust to them. You cannot ignore that risk due to losing the individual known as Love. That is why you placing importance on the risk of losing Spirito carries no contradiction.”
He felt the words he once said to Ina were appropriate to Lobelia and Spirito.
“You two are family.”
“Puha.”
Lobelia suddenly coughed, as if holding something in. Qualia deemed it an emergency, and looked at her.
“Anomaly detected in your breathing functions. Treating immedia…”
“No no. Sorry sorry. I was just thinking that you’re really funny.”
Lobelia had a real smile on her face, as if she had been released from something.
There was a lot of ‘tasty’ to be found.
“You really are good at getting close to people, Qualia. Even though you’re not good at letting people be close to you.”
“…”
It took time to load the meaning of that, and Lobelia moved her face up a little to come into view.
“Thanks, Qualia. You managed to cheer up your big sister.”
“…”
“So I want you to cheer up too. I don’t want to just push duties of Hello World into you, I want you to talk to me too. Your big sister has a duty to know.”
And just as Spirito came over to see how they were….
“What is happening with your body, Qualia? What’s that return mechanism? What is Shutdown?”
Asked Lobelia, and Spirito added to it.
“What’s happening to you?”
Qualia responded.
He said what happened to Project Return to Shutdown, after testing the activation of just zero point one percent.
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