Chapter 53

“Ugh, that’s disgusting.”

“It wasn’t this bad on the way here...”

“Of course not, shit. You’re a compatible. That kind of travel naturally suits your body. If you’ve got a problem, want me to put you back where I found you?”

“I love motion sickness. Truly.”

“Whatever. Just don’t come near me. Stay the hell away.”

Dezeb looked utterly repulsed as Erabelle vomited up the energy bar she had just eaten. Even while throwing up, Erabelle kept an eye on him, terrified he might actually make good on his threat to reverse time or teleportation.

“God, seriously. You’ve got no shame. Just puke already. If you’re grateful, toss in a few more packs of smokes. What the hell would you have done without me?”

“I was going to head inside and try to locate coordinates. My tracker was glitching...”

Erabelle gave the graying, chuckling man a sour glance.

“Oh, you were going to go inside?”

Dezeb straightened up and poked her forehead with a heavy finger.

“Hey, know your place. Just because you’re a compatible, you think you’re something now?”

“I just—”

“What exactly are you planning to find in there? I’ll give you twenty thousand CP just to stand upright. Twenty thousand CP per second—how’s that sound? Want to go inside that badly?”

He kept laughing, but clear hostility burned in his eyes.

“Watching you delude yourself is just... pathetic.”

“C-Commander—”

“What? You got a problem with that?”

He kept flicking her forehead.

“If you keep doing that, I’m going to—mmph.”

“...”

“Bleeeeeh—”

She puked. Again. Right over his boots.

It wasn’t her fault. He had kept jabbing at her while she was already violently nauseous. He had brought this on himself.

“You little—!”

Just as he was about to blow a fuse, a deep rumble shook the ground. Kuguguguung...! She tensed, bracing for a second wave, but then—

“My shrine!! Virgo... you bastard!!”

Dezeb bellowed and vanished into thin air.

Erabelle blinked, staring at the empty patch of snow where he had stood a second ago... then doubled over and vomited again, wiping her nose on her sleeve afterward.

See? I told you he kept pushing it.

Planetary god or not, he was still just cosmic dog food in the end. At least the narrative was consistent. Nothing ever changed in this world.

With practiced ease, Erabelle began clearing away the debris that was already starting to freeze over.

After throwing up so much recently, she had gotten remarkably efficient at it—scooped it with a shovel, tossed it into the incinerator, and stumbled back to her quarters, collapsing face-first onto the mattress.

Two days with Dezeb had felt like a century.

“...”

Erabelle curled up tightly beneath the blanket.

“...Why me?”

Why did she have to end up on his bad side? Today had been absolute hell...

More than anything else, his gaze had been the terrifying part.

The icy chill of that stare lingered in her marrow. She dragged the blanket completely over her head.

Her body felt impossibly heavy, like it was sinking through the floor. She didn’t even have the energy to numb the pain with medication. Every muscle ached; her limbs trembled as if a high fever had taken root.

So cold...

She could still feel his tongue in her mouth.

...Cold.

Erabelle curled into a tighter ball and squeezed her eyes shut. Just one day. Let me forget it all for just one day.

A faint sob escaped from beneath the covers, completely muffled by the fabric. She pulled it tighter over her head.

The entire facility had been in utter chaos for days.

There was already a mountain of backlogged work, and with the commander vanishing without notice yet again, things had spiraled entirely out of control.

He had screamed something, vanished, and hadn’t been seen since. Without Commander Dezeb Avganis around to issue orders, the unit was consumed with assessing the damage from the shockwave and attempting to identify its source.

As a small silver lining, the rapidly spiking wave readings had dropped precipitously. No one knew why, but it was a relief nonetheless.

Eventually, with no clear cause identified, the official report was filed as inconclusive. By the time the dust settled, nearly two weeks had flown by in a blur.

Only after the storm subsided did Lieutenant Erabelle Vermilion finally find a moment to breathe. Finishing the last of her remaining reports, she began drafting her last will and testament.

...I should pass on my collection. They’re too precious to let rot here. Yeah... better to hand them off.

Having settled that crucial decision, she added a final note at the end regarding her insurance policies and bunker access credentials.

This life is over.

In truth, she had known it for a long time. Ever since she was caught in the Imperial Garden, her fate had been sealed. She had merely been clinging to a delusion, foolishly hoping she might walk away alive.

After sealing the envelope, she turned her thoughts to lunch. It could very well be her final meal, so she approached the decision with absolute seriousness.

...Beer and pizza. No, chicken. Definitely chicken.

Her musings were cut short by the persistent ringing of the comm-link.

“Yes, Dezeb?”

It had been two weeks since he returned.

For reasons she couldn’t fathom, he would occasionally call as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The freezing cold in his eyes remained vivid in her memory, making every interaction profoundly awkward. Still, Erabelle played along, pretending everything was fine.

“Just taking a quick break.”

The conversations were never deep.

“Yes? Oh, the relay suffered minor damage, but I completed the repairs without issue. No other anomalies to report.”

Just shallow, disjointed chatter—half-report, half-small talk. Complaints about recent media, fandom drama, restaurant recommendations for his next visit... trivial, fleeting things that meant nothing.

“Yes, I’ll be coming up next month.”

And just like that, they casually mapped out a future that would almost certainly never come to pass.

“Yes, see you next month, then.”

After ending the brief call, Erabelle slid the sealed will into an empty drawer in the infirmary. She had already transferred her medications to the Maze. If her family ever found these documents while clearing out her belongings, it wouldn’t do them any good anyway.

“...”

Staring blankly out the dim window for a quiet moment, she pulled on her fur-lined hat and stepped out into the corridor.

She was starving. She also needed to swipe some stock from the Maze. Eyeing the personnel gathered in the mess hall, she calculated how steep a discount she’d have to offer to get them to actually open their wallets.

“Hey, did you hear the rumor? They say there’s a headless man wandering around near the compound.”

“What? That’s not a rumor. I saw him myself!”

“...Are you serious?”

Yeah, now wasn’t the time.

Something told her she knew precisely who “that guy” was, so she kept her mouth shut and blended into the background, sliding smoothly toward the serving counter.

“So... it’s really a Dullahan?”

“No way. High-level necromancy went extinct ages ago.”

Come to think of it, hadn’t that guy gone two full weeks without food? And without a head? He had to be starving by now. The thought perversely lifted her spirits.

The feeling was short-lived.

“The Commander wants to see you.”

She looked up, startled, at Corporal Jagon, who had approached her mid-bite.

“The Commander?”

“Yes. He ordered you to report immediately.”

The issue wasn’t merely that Dezeb wasn’t in the building—he was supposed to be miles away at the ruins of his collapsed shrine, presumably still beating the life out of Virgo Hag.

“Right. I’ll head over right away.”

Why not me...? She had assumed she would be the target. Even back downtown, he had clearly been tracking her every move.

She watched the departing soldier, then shoved the remaining food into her mouth, standing up to follow.

“...Huh?”

The soldier flinched as she abruptly interjected with a command to re-verify the relay station.

“I’ll speak with the Commander myself,” Erabelle said firmly.

As she trudged off, the remaining soldiers exchanged uneasy glances.

《What do we do now...?》

They were all connected over the tactical mental network, and clearly none of them had anticipated this move.

《If she’s acting on her own like that, maybe she received direct orders from the top?》

《And if she didn’t? We can’t establish contact with HQ right now.》

The current timeframe fell outside the viable transmission window—the localized death cluster in the Fourth Star Sector required precise timing for signal penetration. Someone had explicitly chosen this dead zone on purpose.

《Why else would she step up like that?》

《Yeah, you’re probably right...》

As the Dogs stood frozen, uncertain of their master’s intent, a thread of salvation descended upon them.

“Have you seen the Lieutenant? I thought I saw her near the mess hall.”

One Dog glanced over at Majia Oloror.

《...Oloror still has all four limbs attached, right?》

Good. That would be enough to hold the line until explicit orders came down from above.

“Why the Lieutenant?”

Erabelle looked at the bewildered Jagon, then swept her eyes across the company commander’s office, which was currently empty.

“You said the Commander was looking for me, but he’s not here.”

Technically, the room wasn’t empty. In fact, the room density was unnaturally high.

“He was standing right here a second ago...”

Jagon’s voice trailed off as his eyes locked onto several unfamiliar faces standing in the shadow of the office.

“Guests, I take it?”

“Ah, yes.”

Evidently, the Commander had summoned high-profile guests and then promptly vanished. Jagon let out a strained, nervous laugh.

Even now, Erabelle didn't feel targeted by any immediate hostility. If anything, that absence of threat made her significantly more anxious.

“The Second Prince wishes to speak with you.”