Narrator's Pov
"Do you think it's wise to join the Trailblazers in this situation?"
Ryan looked to the side, staring at Cocolia who had just asked the question, he let out a soft sigh and shook his head lightly.
"Honestly, no...I think it'd be better for them to deal with this on their own, going with them could make everything go wrong" he closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.
"Then why go with them?"
"I..." Ryan started to think but after a few seconds he sighed and drove a hand to his head. "I have a bad feeling, I'm not sure why, but it's the second time I've felt something like this" he frowned lightly.
"When was the first time? If I can ask?" Cocolia looked at him with some curiosity.
"The morning of the day I died..." He was about to answer but the door that connected to the passenger wagon opened, letting Serval and Stelle walk through with Dan Heng and March behind them. "That's not important now."
Himeko and Welt, who were sitting a few meters away stood up and walked to the other group of trailblazers.
"Good to see you two, can I assume Serval and Stelle told you about the situation?" Himeko asked and both Dan Heng and March nodded.
"I...personally don't think we should go, Miss Himeko" March sighed softly. "Kafka is a criminal, we can't trust her, and it's very suspicious that a Stellaron Hunter happened to be at the site of a Stellaron burst"
"I think it's suspicious too, but we can't simply ignore her Intel" Himeko nodded slightly before looking at Dan Heng. "Dan Heng, what do you think?"
"Her Intel might be genuine...but even if it is, I can't join you this time, I can't set foot in the Luofu" he explained making the woman nod.
"Oh yeah, you told us something about 'total interception of any attempt to enter the dominion', right?" Serval asked rubbing her chin slightly while Dan Heng nodded.
"...Ryan, what do you think?" Welt asked looking at the white-haired boy who slowly approached. "You might not be a trailblazer, but you'll join us in this, I'd like to know what you think"
"...I think we should consider it, Kafka is a hard person to read, what she said about the Stellaron and the consequences of not going is true, but I don't know if there're other reasons for her wanting the express to go there" Ryan explained. "Whatever that script says...only the Stellaron Hunters know"
"I understand, we'll start voting then" Welt nodded with his head and then looked at Himeko who nodded back at him.
"Trailblazers, we'll hold a democratic vote to decide if we'll go to the Xianzhou or not, those who are in favor of going hold your hand out, and those who are opposed to it, keep your arms at your side" Himeko spoke and the trailblazers soon nodded. "Good, three, two, one"
After her count down, all the trailblazers with the exception of Dan Heng put their hands out, Himeko quickly nodded after seeing the result.
"5 against 1, the Express will head out to the Luofu" she slowly looked towards Dan Heng. "You'll be staying here then, Dan Heng"
"Yes...I can't join you in this, sorry"
"Don't worry" the woman slowly smiled and looked at the others. "Serval, Stelle, March, you three will go with Ryan and Welt as support"
"R-Ryan will come with us?" March a bit nervous looking at Ryan.
"Yes, I can't stay here and not help you" he nodded his head making March give a small step back.
"O-okay, I'll go to my room and get prepared" March spoke and quickly turned around, walking and leaving the wagon.
"She looked...a bit off" Serval burrowed her brows slightly.
"She did say she wasn't feeling good, are you sure it's a good idea to let her come with us, Himeko?" Welt looked at the red haired woman who slowly nodded.
"You know how she is, she'll feel better as soon as she stretches her legs and starts taking pictures, she would have asked to stay if she didn't want to go" Himeko spoke making Welt nod.
"Dan Heng, I have a question for you" Ryan asked approaching him.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"When I arrived here, I had a scabbard with me, right? Where did you guys put it?" He asked making Dan Heng take a hand to his chin.
"I think it's still in my room, we really didn't know what to do with it" he explained and Ryan sighed.
"That's good, could we please go and take it? I...might need it" Ryan spoke making Dan Heng widen his eyes slightly.
"Okay, let's go"
Dan Heng slowly started to walk to the passenger car and Ryan quickly followed behind him, soon, Dan Heng opened the door of his room and walked into it with Ryan.
"here it is" Dan Heng spoke walking to his desk and kneeling down, taking the scabbard out of under the desk.
"Why was it there?" Ryan asked rising an eyebrow.
"We... didn't know if you were dangerous or not, so I thought that you not being exactly armed was something wise" Dan Heng explained letting out a short sigh. "I'm sorry" he apologized while offering the scabbard to Ryan.
"Don't worry, I understand, it's okay to be cautious." He smiled softly and accepted the scabbard, grabbing it with his right hand. "Also, are you sure you won't join us in the Luofu?"
"Even if I wanted to, I can't set foot on it"
"I see...I could use illusion magic on you, but that's not gonna make you change your mind, right?" He smiled slightly nervous.
"The Luofu is something I want to avoid, if it had been any other of the ships of the Xianzhou Alliance, it'd have been fine" with that explanation he went to his desk, sitting on the chair. "Be careful, the Luofu might be overall peaceful, but it could still hold great dangers, and if the Stellaron burst actually happened and the Alliance can't handle with it on its own, we don't know what could happen"
"Are the people on the Luofu strong?" Ryan asked and Dan Heng soon nodded with his head. "I see... we'll try to be careful then"
"Good to know, good luck"
....
A few minutes later, Ryan sat down on one of the couches of the Express, he was about to look through the window when he received a message to his phone, he checked and burrowed his eyes lightly seeing Herta's name pop up in his notifications.
________________________________________
[Herta]
"The Express is about to leave again, right?"
[Ryan]
"Yes, we should be about to leave now, why?"
[Herta]
"I want to remember you to be careful, from what I know about you, you have a tendency to get yourself in dangerous situations"
[Ryan]
"I'm getting better at avoiding that kind of situations"
[Herta]
"I somehow doubt it"
"Also, make sure to encourage your follower, if that woman grows stronger and develops new abilities because of your path, let me know, due to your irregular nature and origin, the powers of your path might difer from those of other paths"
[Ryan]
"I'll tell her to try and use her power more often, she'll have to get used to them"
[Herta]
"By the way, people can follow paths willingly or without their knowledge, it's possible that you start getting more pathstriders without realizing"
[Ryan]
"Should I be careful about that too?"
[Herta]
"Not necessarily, but the more you grow and the more people learn about you, the more people will have different opinions about you, you might even end up growing a cult or two"
[Ryan]
"A cult sounds problematic"
[Herta]
"That's an Aeon problem, I have no cult myself so you'll have to deal with that on your own"
[Ryan]
"Are you sure you don't have a Cult?"
[Herta]
"Maybe I should, I'm magnificent enough"
"Anyways, I'll start working on your request, don't blame me if I miscalculate something, you're very ambiguous"
[Ryan]
"It's not necessarily my fault..."
[Herta]
"We both know you're lying"
[Ryan]
"I'll silence you now"
[Herta]
"Don't You dare"
________________________________________
After immediately silencing Herta's contact, he let out a small smile before closing the messaging app, he immediately opened Candy Crush and started to play.
Across the wagon, March entered and walked towards Welt, who was sitting on a couch.
"Mr.Yang, I'm ready"
"Good, I'll tell Himeko to move the Express out of the station and then prepare the Warp Jump to reach the Luofu" Welt smiled and stood up.
"Mr.Yang, before you go...is Ryan really going to come with us?" She asked and the adult burrowed his brows.
"Yes, do you...have a problem with that?"
"...no, I don't" March slightly looked towards Ryan. "He looks so harmless right now..."
"March, you said we shouldn't trust Kafka, yet you voted to go, why?" Welt asked slightly curious.
"If we don't go many people could die and also I thought that...maybe bad people can do good stuff, just as good people can do bad stuff too..." March explained.
"I see..." Welt slowly rose a hand ruffling March's hair making her squeak lightly. "It's good to know you gave Kafka a chance, even if just a small one" he stopped and slowly walked past her. "It means you can give others a chance too, right?"
March kept herself silent, looking back at Welt, who slowly walked out of the wagon, she then looked at Ryan, who had seated on one of the other couches, she swallowed hard and slowly approached, sitting beside him.
"Ryan...can we talk?" She asked with a soft tone of voice.
"No, I'm not going to lend you money, I don't have any myself"
"W-what? I wasn't going to ask that!" She backed off slightly clearly taken with her guard down. "And how come you don't have any money? I've seen you eating stuff in Jarilo-VI"
"Free sample" he replied, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone.
"Ugh...makes sense" she sighed but quickly shook her head. "A-anyways! That wasn't what I was going to ask you"
"What was it then?"
"...are we friends?"
"...where is this coming from, Match?" Ryan immediately stopped playing and looked straight at her.
"It's just that...the few times you presented us you simply called us your 'companions', we've called you our friend a few times already, but you never called any of us like that" March spoke looking away.
"Friendship is...something hard for me to build with people, when I was home, I worked with many people to defend it, but as much as they wanted to get close to me, I just couldn't see them as my friends..." Ryan made a small pause before gently putting a hand on March's shoulder. "But...you are my friend March, sorry if it took me a while to say it properly"
The girl slowly looked down and sighed gently. "Ryan, I want to tell you something...I-"
The Express started to move, leaving Herta's station, the inertia of the sudden move made March ended up leaning and almost falling on Ryan, though the white-haired boy carefully held her.
"That caught me off guard, I was too immersed in the conversation" Ryan laughed nervously.
"Y-yeah me too..." March smiled with some nervousness. "I'll go to my room, I have to clean my camera's memory for more space"
"Don't let me stop you then"
March slowly nodded her head and walked away, Ryan looked at the girl, narrowing his eyes slightly before letting out a heavy sigh and driving a hand to his forehead.
"She's definitely off..."
Another pull signaled the Express doing a warp jump, he walked to one of the windows seeing the hundreds of lights trying to catch up with the Express, it was only a matter of seconds until they arrived at the Luofu.
But he still couldn't shake off that bad feeling...
...
Herta typed on the Simulated Universe panel with a small frown on the puppet's face, she couldn't believe Ryan had just so carelessly silenced her, she would have to scold him and make him remember who she was.
She typed but nothing seemed to happen, after a few seconds she let out an annoyed sigh and turned around, seeing Turzina behind her.
"You're annoying, what do you want now?" Herta looked up at the woman in black.
"You should watch your tongue, Puppet"
"Just answer my question and leave, I have something important to do"
Almost in an instant, the woman in black grabbed Herta's puppet by the neck using her right hand, lifting her up from the ground the goddess then created a dagger on her left hand.
"You're dissapointing me, you're meant to be a esteemed member of that Genius Society, yet, you seem to make dumb decisions"
"Is that what you think?" The puppet kept a stoic face. "Maybe I am too smart for you to comprehend"
"Even after I was kind enough to warn you of Ace's nature and capabilities, you seem to simply not care about what kind of monster he is"
"Because that's exactly what would annoy you" Herta's eyes slowly narrowed. "I want you to tell me...what were you doing in the Xianzhou Luofu?"
"...You-"
"Yes, I can track you and Ryan down now, courtesy of investigating his magic, I can find any trace of magic anywhere in the known universe" a small smirk started to form on the puppet. "I have a small idea of your plan already, and let me tell you, it's not a good one"
"I should tear you to pieces"
"You can try, you MIGHT be able to kill my real body through my puppets" Herta let out a chuckle. "But unfortunately for you, you cannot allow yourself to do that...because the moment I die, an automated message will be sent to Ryan, once he reads it, he'll know that you are the one who killed me, what do you think he'll do next?"
"...."
"He'll hate you forever, believe me, he will never use your powers anymore, he'll never accept anything from you, he'll hate you enough to attack you anytime you appear before him, you will lose him forever"
After she spoke, the goddess threw Herta to one of the walls of the office, the puppet couldn't contain a small laugh as she looked at the woman from the ground, who simply stared blankly at her.
"You disgust me"
"I don't care, in fact, let me tell you something else, only to annoy you more" Herta slowly rose a hand, pointing directly at the goddess. "I have already started to investigate the nature of your contract with the Chevaliers, Ryan doesn't know about this, and you can't tell him either, because you know that in the state he's in, he'll give me all the information he has about the contract"
"And you'll find a way to break it"
"Of course I will, I'm a esteemed member of the Genius Society after all, breaking the contract of a lowly goddess like you is nothing" the puppet stood up, smirking directly at the woman. "You can't kill me, and the longer I live the closer I get to breaking your contract, in one way or another...I end up freeing Ryan from you"
"...."
"C'mon, leave now, you know you lost" Herta walked towards the Simulated Universe machine. "Again, I have something important to do, so you better get out of this universe and go back to your own"
She didn't even have to turn around to know when the woman left, her smirk slowly dissapeared and she held a serious expression on the puppet's body.
"Don't worry Ryan...I'll stop her from ever putting her hands on you again"
★ ★ ★
A/N: Turzina is plotting something, but she's playing checkers while Herta plays 4D chess.
Next chapter will officially start the Xianzhou Luofu story, and I have some shit planned for that.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed!