Clang, clang, clang!
Intense and rushed footsteps echoed in the hallways of DEM headquarters.
Who is in such a hurry? Hearing the footsteps, a few employees looked toward the sound in confusion. But when they noticed who it was, they hurriedly turned their heads away.
Because the person coming was none other than DEM's strongest trump card, the Director of the Second Executive Departnt, Ellen Mira Mathers.
Ellen's emotions were in complete chaos right now.
The regret of losing the battleship fight, the killing intent toward the Spirit Hacker and Fraxinus EX, and the dissatisfaction and anger toward Westcott for acting on his own behind her back—various complex emotions mixed together, making her like a volcano about to erupt.
Piloting the almost completely destroyed Goetia back to the hangar, Ellen didn't even care about her injuries. She just used her Territory to suppress the bleeding and pain, and rushed back in a hurry.
Walking through the lobby to the dical room, Ellen scanned the room and saw Westcott getting ready to head there.
"Ike!"
Noticing Ellen, Westcott put on a casual, smiling face and waved his right hand to greet her.
"Yo—Ellen, you are back. Good job—"
Slap—!
Before Westcott could finish, under the shocked eyes of the dical staff, Ellen swung her right hand and slapped Westcott hard on the face.
"—Reporting, Ike. I failed the mission to capture the Spirit. This ti, it is entirely my own responsibility. I am very sorry."
Then, as if nothing had happened, Ellen reported calmly.
"Wow~~ To actually be able to slap your boss and then sincerely apologize. Ellen, since when did you get such a sense of humor?"
Not caring about the handprint on his face at all, Westcott looked at Ellen with interest and asked.
"Didn't you ask Ai Mulian to give a ssage, saying that after the mission, you would be willing to take a slap from as an apology for acting on your own?"
Ellen said without changing her expression.
I have to say, after delivering that slap, the anger pent up in her chest faded quite a bit.
"I see... Well, let's just go with that then."
Hearing Ellen's answer, Westcott seed to understand sothing. He shrugged helplessly and accepted it.
"So, how are your injuries?"
Ellen turned her gaze to Westcott's severed left hand. From the cross-section of the arm, she could even see muscle and bone.
"Ah? It is fine, it is fine."
Westcott smiled and waved his hand to show it was nothing.
"After this arm was cut off, it was imdiately recovered. The cut is also very clean. After so treatnt with a dical Realizer, it will be as good as new tomorrow."
"D-Director Westcott?!"
The dical staff treating Westcott looked panicked. That is understandable; if a patient undergoing treatnt suddenly waves their severed arm around like a toy, any doctor would freak out.
"Ah, sorry, sorry." Smiling apologetically, Westcott handed his left hand back to the dical staff. He looked at Ellen and said, "I t Elliot. On the outside, he looks frail like a candle in the wind, but when we fought, he was exactly the sa as before—ridiculously strong."
"..."
Ellen's eyes were filled with killing intent. To be able to cut off the arm of Westcott, who had the power of a Demon King, the opponent's strength was obvious.
"That is natural. If he wasn't like that, there wouldn't be any value in killing him."
"Yeah, you are right."
Hearing Ellen's answer, Westcott nodded in satisfaction.
"Then, I will go back to getting my treatnt. You too, Ellen. Don't push yourself and go get treated."
With that, Westcott turned around and disappeared behind the white automatic door.
"U-Um... Executive Director Mathers? Please co this way for treatnt..."
Seeing Ellen standing there silently, a dical staff mber carefully walked up and said.
"...Get down!"
Ellen said with a serious face.
"Eh?"
"Everyone here, get down on the floor! Close your eyes and cover your ears for one minute! If anyone dares to disobey, I will chop your head off right now!"
"A-Ah? Okay!"
Although they didn't know what was going on, feeling the terrifying killing intent radiating from Ellen, everyone didn't care about anything else. They quickly dropped their work, got down on the floor, covered their ears, and closed their eyes.
"Phew..."
Looking around the room, Ellen breathed a sigh of relief.
Naturally, even though she slapped Westcott because of her subordinate's prompting, as the strongest Wizard, Ellen knew how to hold back. She had canceled the Territory on her wrist when slapping him. Otherwise, if she had hit him directly like that, Westcott's head would have definitely flown right off his body.
But what surprised her was the thickness of Westcott's skin.
'It... hurts...(ㅠ﹏ㅠ) '
Holding her right hand, which had almost lost feeling, Ellen bent over, knelt on the floor, and let out a silent cry.
——————————
By this ti, Artemisia had returned from space. After returning her Cr-unit Lancelot to the armory for maintenance, she went back to DEM headquarters.
Walking into the Second Executive Departnt's break room, Artemisia saw Ai Mulian sitting on the sofa, quietly reading a book.
"Mulian, did you finish your mission and co back too?"
"Mhm."
Flipping through the book in her hands, Mulian gave a very casual reply.
"Are you alone? Where is Ellen?"
"Ellen-san seems to have gotten hurt fighting Ratatoskr's battleship. She is getting treatnt in the dical departnt."
"I see. Then do you want to go visit her together later?"
"Forget it. Ellen-san's pride is too strong. She definitely doesn't want anyone to see her injured. Visiting her will only have the opposite effect."
"Is that so?"
"That is right."
"..."
The room fell silent. Seeing Ai Mulian's eyes never leaving the book, Artemisia felt very awkward.
Honestly, she could never quite figure out this person, Ai Mulian.
Even though Ai Mulian's strength as a Wizard wasn't much worse than hers or Ellen's, she rarely chose to fight head-on. Instead, she often used all sorts of tricky and underhanded fighting thods. Like this ti, when fighting Tobiichi Origami, Artemisia was still wondering where she ran off to, only to find out she actually blew up her own airship to attack the Spirits and Itsuka Shido.
But this wasn't a huge problem. Although she saw a commander submitting his resignation to HR on her way here, looking at the result, Ai Mulian's judgnt was correct. Westcott probably took her in as a subordinate because he valued her flexible thinking. Artemisia didn't want to criticize a comrade's fighting style either. Rather, as comrades who would fight together in the future, Artemisia really wanted to build trust with Ai Mulian.
But for so reason, unlike the enthusiastic and attentive attitude she showed when facing Ellen, no matter how Artemisia tried to talk to Mulian, she always got the cold shoulder like just now.
"Um... Mulian, did I accidentally do sothing to make you mad? I always feel like you are keeping your distance from ."
"It is nothing. I am just not interested in touching a piece of work that has already been altered by soone else."
"Eh?"
Artemisia showed a confused expression.
"Never mind, it is just my personal aesthetic. Just forget it if you don't understand."
With that, Ai Mulian closed the book in her hands and placed it down. If Shido and the others were here right now, they would realize that it was the exact doujinshi they had sold at the manga convention.
"Um... that is a Japanese manga, right? If I rember correctly, you bought it at the beginning of the year. Is it good?"
"Mhm. Very interesting.Ellen-san's training was too busy lately, so I only started reading it now."
After nodding and replying, Ai Mulian took out a pair of scissors from her portable sewing kit.
Snip, snip.
With the closing of the scissors, the last page of the manga was quickly cut into scattered scraps of paper, which Ai Mulian collected and stored in a small box.
"He~ hehe~"
Watching an unusually happy smile appear on Ai Mulian's face, Artemisia couldn't help but worry in her heart about whether she could get along well with this coworker.
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