It’s been three months since I took Charlotte on her first mission with me. I even brought Charlotte along on several other smaller missions after that one, and our teamwork was strangely good.
She learned quickly how to use her powers in a team setting while working with me, though that ended up ruining her synergy with the other students, which consequently made Charlotte’s teamwork with the others worse.
But she’s become a bit more reliable, though I still won’t step through her portals before she goes in first and proves it’s actually a portal.
As for the contents of the briefcase, honestly, I’m disappointed to this day. Unfortunately, the studies on the black goo yielded no results, and the government didn’t even pay me in full because the delivery was "incomplete."
Since no one got any results, I handed the goo over to the government after two months. Obviously they questioned me a lot about why I hadn’t delivered it sooner and where I found it, but it was easy enough to lie about it, and they preferred to accept the lie so they could claim their "prize."
Unfortunately, the more time passed, the closer we got to the day when the hooded woman promised she could supposedly stop the island. Honestly, I’ve noticed some strange movements lately, and even Astrid seems quite busy. I also looked at the maps, and we really are approaching the ruins of a city.
I’m sure something is going on behind the scenes. It’s been almost a year since I started looking after these troublesome students, and fortunately, classes are pretty much over. They’ll have a two-month break before they return to the academy.
Unfortunately, I promised many of these students I’d help them with small problems, which means I took on way too much responsibility, and now I’ll have to choose between breaking the trust I’ve earned or taking them down there with me to continue training.
"Ashlyn, Charlotte, and Eirwen are the only ones who have personal training with me, and the only ones I’d have to bring along..." I’m seriously considering taking them, not just to test how strong they’ve become after everything.
But because I can’t break the fragile trust I’ve earned. They’ve all been obeying me and putting in effort. I think I’ve carved out a place among them, and breaking a promise now would ruin a year of progress.
"I’m sure I can protect them all, and there’s Charlotte, we can escape easily with her help back to the island..." I need to learn more about my past. It might not be anything special, it might be boring or weird, but I’ve always wondered about it.
"Either way, it’s scary how strong they’ve all gotten..." Eirwen now has much better control over her powers. Since that fight with the monsters, she’s intensified her nighttime activities with me and has shown staggering improvement.
She can now not only make the entire environment cold much faster, but also control ice formations far more intensely and aggressively.
As for Tanya, maybe to reclaim a more "proper" place among everyone, she’s started obeying and questioning a little less. Though she’s still arrogant, she seems to be making an effort to learn how to use the variants of her power.
Charlotte and Ashlyn are in the same boat. Both have improved a lot with my training, but they still have issues in direct combat and need some attention there.
Rouge and Edith are the "worst" in that regard. Since we’ve never had personal training because I don’t have time—I’m already doing those sessions with three of them—we haven’t built strong enough bonds for them to really feel engaged. Both are almost the same as when they started, just a bit stronger in general aspects.
Which I can see is starting to frustrate Rouge because she’s falling behind the others in terms of how much they’re improving. Edith, on the other hand, has been getting bolder in trying to flirt with me.
’Most of them are already at veteran level in terms of power, and now they’re developing experience...’ I don’t know what the future holds for them, but I think they’re getting well prepared for the life ahead.
’I wonder when the island will stop... there’s no exact day...’ I watch from the balcony of my house as the three of them talk down below. We just had a lesson on vector manipulation in team settings, something important so that what happened in the fight against the electric monster doesn’t happen again—one getting in the other’s way.
"...When are they going home? They’ve been down there talking to each other for hours..." I’m a bit frustrated that they won’t leave already. I guess age is catching up with me.
"That’s true... I’m already 38 years old, and Nadir is too... our birthday passed... it’s so strange to think he wasn’t here." Nadir and I always wished each other happy birthday, but now we’re separated, so we can’t do that, unfortunately.
Since he’s on a mission too far away to make contact, the transport ship he’s using doesn’t have the capability to communicate with Aurora Island once it’s too far away.
"...Damn..." I step back inside, closing the glass door and tossing my phone aside, frustrated. Honestly, I have a really bad feeling about down there.
"Nexus, don’t say anything..." Nexus has been talking too much lately, so I tell him to be quiet. I don’t want to hear his voice today.
"[...]"
"Haa... I wonder how Nadir is doing..." I throw myself onto the couch. All I can do is wait for now.
...
...
...
"Commander Nadir, what do you make of this?" Cecilia asks me as I stare at something strange I found.
"I don’t know what to say about it. This thing... what do you think they were trying to do?" We’re in some strange ruins. For some reason, the GPS and the automatic movement system, along with four of the ship’s eight thrusters, changed our course.
That’s possible because sometimes the GPS recalibrates based on nearby fear sources, meaning the ship tends to flee from something it deems too dangerous for the crew.
But this happened very abruptly. After all, we hadn’t detected anything on the map. But we just have to accept it because the ship was built to be 80% automatic, and the manual control lock requires a pilot who knows not only how to fly it but also how to coordinate it.
And no one here wanted to risk trying to pilot something so big, expensive, and complex. So we were taken in a direction almost opposite to the original and ended up in this strange city.
No one here even knows where we are. This city isn’t cataloged on any map, and even Nexus’s GPS system can’t identify where it brought us. Nexus also couldn’t explain the reason for the route change.
"Honestly, Commander Nadir... I don’t want to know..." Cecilia says, looking at the various tubes with people and monsters trapped inside, clearly dead and some in severe states of decomposition. Some tubes are even empty of liquid due to cracks. It looks quite old.
’Experiments with humans and monsters... what were they trying to do...’ I look around, seeing claw marks, massive cracks, and plaques violently ripped from the walls and ceiling. Whatever did this was not happy.
"This small city is full of laboratories. It seems like it was built specifically for this kind of research. Also, the material looks relatively young—it’s not a city from before the monsters appeared, it’s a city that came after... probably around 70 to 100 years ago..." I say to Cecilia, who nods in agreement while touching a deformed metal plate.
"The marks are quite old. Look here, this one has rust inside in a relatively advanced state. It seems like this place has been abandoned for a long time, and the monsters—or the monster—that did this left as soon as it was done."
"Should we keep exploring, or should we power up the ship and get out of here?" Cecilia asks as I step outside, looking around.
"...Let’s stay for now. See those walls? There are drones repairing them. It looks like the city’s defense system still works on automatic, which means it’s relatively safe in here up to a certain point."
"That being the case, we can just spread out some of the ship’s drones to keep watch, then explore the place at our leisure and leave afterward. We can also add this location to the map."
"And if we find anything useful, we can take it with us." I give her orders, and she nods in agreement.
"I’ll let everyone know to check the wall security systems and do a full sweep of the area to confirm there’s nothing dangerous..."
"And Commander Nadir... I recommend keeping the ship powered on. Even though it consumes energy, it means it’ll be ready to leave at any second." Cecilia is already thinking about fleeing the area if something goes wrong.
"...Agreed." Normally we should power it down because of the engine energy consumption, but we’re in an off-route location, unknown, and one that clearly dealt with problematic experiments. It’s better to be ready to leave as soon as possible if necessary.
"Perfect, I’ll notify the teams that came along..."
"Do you think she’ll arrive soon?" I ask Cecilia, who immediately knows who I’m talking about—the current Top 1 who came with us.
When the route changed, we asked her to return to Aurora Island to report it. Of course, since she’d have to go alone, it would take a good while, and we trusted that nothing could stop her. But even so, her arriving doesn’t guarantee anything will change quickly.
"I think so, Commander Nadir. She’s strong, and very fast. She’s probably already arrived by now." She speaks with a confident smile.
"...You can go now..."
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