After the brief, violent clash was decisively brought to an end, several armored warriors wearing heavy half-plate armor ran over from the mouth of the alley, quickly apprehending the groaning trio on the ground.
"Commander, should we officially hand them over to the Mounted Police?" one of the patrolling knights asked, a heavy trace of reluctance and pity in his voice as he looked down at the desperate n.
After all, everyone living within the bleak confines of Area 0 understood the grim reality: if these desperate Infected people were handed over to the ruthless Kazimierz Mounted Police, the absolute luckiest outco they could hope for would be a violent, permanent expulsion from the nomadic city's clean upper sectors. As for an unlucky outco...
Kazimierz did indeed operate several heavily active Originium mining operations within its territorial borders; though they were not particularly large compared to those of the Ursus Empire, they still required an endless, expendable supply of manual labor. Particularly young, physically strong Infected like these street thugs were highly favored commodities by the mining corporations, who would work them to death in the radioactive pits.
However, the red-tailed girl's expression remained exceptionally solemn, showing no signs of wavering.
"You all saw exactly what happened here just now," Sona countered, her tone sharp and unyielding. "Not only did they attempt to launch an ard assault against unard civilians, but they also flatly refused to give up their dangerous behavior even after I personally stepped in to command them to stop. Keeping dangerous, desperate individuals like them loose in this sector would be entirely irresponsible to everyone else trying to survive here peacefully."
She swept her eyes over her subordinates. "Or can any single one of you stand here and personally guarantee for them that there won't be a next ti? If they offend again and hurt soone, are you prepared to be handcuffed and handed over to the Mounted Police right alongside them?"
The mont those heavy words cut through the damp air, the gathered knights instantly fell into a profound, heavy silence. Although it was clear the thugs had their desperate financial reasons for turning to cri, their actions today were undeniably severe, flagrantly violating the basic laws and self-imposed rules of the underground community. Once word of an ard robbery like this leaked out to the upper city, it would only give the corporate dia more ammunition to make ordinary citizens despise and fear the Infected even more.
As for the sympathetic patrolman who had just asked the question, his face flushed with embarrassnt, and he quickly retreated back into the quiet safety of the crowd.
Seeing that not a single person present dared to offer a personal guarantee for the three criminals, the girl waved her hand with a crisp, authoritative motion. The heavily ard soldiers imdiately stepped forward, roughly hoisting the groaning thugs by their collars and escorting them toward the nearest Mounted Police security post.
Only after finishing all of this administrative business did the young commander finally turn her head around to look at the two peculiar individuals she had just rescued from the alley.
"Is this your very first ti entering Area 0?" Sona asked gently, her eyes scanning their pristine clothes. "Do you need any imdiate assistance? Our organization can easily help you find temporary housing, assist with settling your personal belongings, or contact a specialized underground doctor if needed—and you don't need to worry about money, it is all completely free of charge."
Hearing her incredibly generous, protective words, Flandre Scarlet and Hong iling unconsciously glanced at each other, a trace of amusent passing between them. It was glaringly obvious that the heroic knight commander had entirely mistaken them for a pair of newly arrived, destitute Infected seeking refuge in the slums.
"Uh... actually, we aren't Infected at all," Hong iling spoke up, breaking the silence with an honest, easygoing smile.
"Ah? You're not Infected?!" Sona gasped, her large ears twitching violently in absolute shock. "If you two aren't Infected, why on earth did you run straight into the depths of Area 0! Quick, let lead you back out to the main gate right away..."
Upon hearing iling's casual revelation, the young commander quickly grew frantic, stepping forward to usher them back toward the safety of the upper city plazas.
"No, no, please don't worry. We ca down into this sector specifically on purpose this ti," Hong iling explained, gently waving her hands to calm the panicked girl down. "Firstly, we honestly wanted to see with our own eyes how the daily living conditions of the Infected are handled here. And secondly, Little Flandre here really wanted to see you in person."
Hong iling pointed a finger down at Flandre Scarlet, who was currently bent over, intensely focused on trying to subtly reach out her small hand to grab the fluffy, swaying red appendage behind the commander.
"See ?" The girl looked down at Flandre with a look of profound surprise, instinctively and quietly shifting her torso to the side so the sneaky little blonde girl couldn't quite grasp her tail.
"Mm-hmm! You're Big Sister Sona, right? Flandre ca here looking specifically for you!" Flandre Scarlet chid in cheerfully, abandoning her stealth mission. She began talking rapidly about the spectacular team match she had watched live at the grand arena yesterday afternoon, loudly declaring that Sona's tactical command on the battlefield was absolutely brilliant. Since they happened to be staying nearby anyway, they figured they would just stroll over and play with her today.
Hearing Flandre's enthusiastic praise, Sona found herself feeling both a bit incredibly happy and a bit deeply angry all at once.
She was naturally happy that their very first official team battle in the Major circuit had successfully managed to gain them such a cute, passionate little fan. But she was simultaneously angry because while a naive young child obviously didn't know any better, didn't the grown adult standing right next to her possess a basic brain? The restricted Infected district was an exceptionally dangerous, volatile environnt; what if sothing terrible had happened to the child before she arrived?
She couldn't help but turn her eyes back toward Hong iling, giving the tall woman a look of heavy, silent reproach.
Faced with that gaze, Hong iling rely put on a face full of pure innocence. In reality, she was entirely powerless to stop the Second Miss from going wherever her whimsical heart desired or doing whatever she pleased. Besides, from iling's perspective, these people were just ordinary Infected; it really wasn't a big deal to begin with. The sheer, overwhelming number of heavily ard Infected they had regularly encountered back when they were embedded within the Reunion Movent was vastly greater than the entire population of this small, so-called restricted district.
However, since the duo had traveled all this way into the slums specifically because they genuinely liked her, Sona realized she couldn't very well just be heartless and drive them back out into the cold streets.
But these narrow, unmonitored alleys were far from safe for outsiders. After all, the two of them didn't possess Oripathy. If soone lurking in the dark with genuine ill intent deliberately chose to aggressively brush against them with their crystal-encrusted Infected bodies, any accidental scratch or bleeding could easily lead to an incurable, life-altering infection.
Weighing the safety risks, Sona made an executive decision. She ushered the two visitors down the block, leading them through a hidden, reinforced side door and straight into the secure inner stronghold of the Pinus Sylvestris.
"Sona, didn't you just step out a few minutes ago for a quiet walk? Why on earth did you bring back two wealthy-looking people?" soone asked curiously the mont they crossed the threshold into the main lounge.
The speaker was a tall, imposing Infected woman wearing heavy tactical gear, actively organizing equipnt crates across the floor.
"iling, Flandre, this is my reliable combat partner, Greynuty," Sona introduced, pointing toward the heavy-set warrior before turning to her friend. "Greynuty, these two are actually spectators who watched our arena match live on-site yesterday afternoon..."
"Ah, I rember you from the broadcast," Hong iling spoke up, nodding respectfully toward the warrior. "Your heavy bombardnt yesterday was exceptionally precise, and your close-quarters defensive skills are clearly quite high."
However, the strict Greynuty wasn't happy to hear their smooth words of flattery at all; instead, her sharp eyes narrowed suspiciously as she intensely sized up the two figures standing directly behind Sona.
"Wait a minute... that's not right at all," Greynuty muttered, her voice dropping into a stern register. "We played our official match inside the grand comrcial arena yesterday. Every single spectator permitted inside those premium stands is legally required to be a normal, uninfected person."
"That's exactly right! We aren't Infected at all!" Flandre Scarlet declared proudly, puffing out her chest with a look of absolute, carefree satisfaction.
The mont she heard Flandre's blatant admission, Greynuty suddenly stood straight up from her equipnt crates, her heavy armor plates clanking loudly in the quiet room.
"If you two aren't even Infected, what in the world are you doing running blindly into Area 0!"
Flandre Scarlet blinked her large eyes, looking entirely unbothered by the warrior's booming voice. "Why? Can't we co in here to play just because we aren't Infected?"
"No, of course it's not a legal matter of whether you can or cannot co," Greynuty barked back, rubbing her temples in sheer exasperation. "But you're talking about two ordinary, clean civilians! Running completely unprotected into a dense Infected slum without a squad of heavy guards—are you two genuinely not afraid of sothing horrific happening to you?!"
Greynuty carefully sized the duo up once more. Although the tall woman, Hong iling, was dressed in a sleek, sharp outfit that made her look sowhat like a high-class mafia thug, her physical fra didn't actually look like it possessed the massive, bulging muscles typical of a hardened vanguard.
"Uh... actually, if we're being technical, I am the heavy guard," Hong iling intervened, raising her hand slightly with a sheepish grin.
Then, she rapidly calculated the math in her own mind: back at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, she actively held down three distinct, grueling jobs—mansion gatekeeper, head landscape gardener, and personal security guard—yet she only ever received one single baseline salary from the Mistress at the end of the month. Thinking about it out loud like this, her daily life was simply far too tragic for words.
"You... a guard?" Greynuty flatly stated, her expression making it completely clear she didn't believe a single word of the woman's claim.
"How about this? Why don't the two of us step right outside into the courtyard and spar a bit?" Hong iling suggested smoothly, offering a friendly smile. If the heavy warrior didn't believe in her physical capabilities, trading a few casual blows was always the fastest way to establish universal understanding between martial artists.
"Forget about it. I currently have a literal mountain of administrative work to finish around here, I am far too busy for gas," Greynuty sighed, shaking her head dismissively. She possessed absolutely zero interest in using her heavy knight training to bully ordinary, fragile civilians. Besides, a massive wave of local applicants had flooded their gates to apply to join the Knights today, aning she still had several detailed dical and background lists left to manually process before nightfall.
Seeing her partner return to her tasks, Sona pulled the two visitors over to a comfortable set of chairs in the corner, gesturing for them to sit down and relax.
"Don't mind her gruff tone," Sona explained softly, offering a reassuring smile. "Greynuty just possesses that kind of blunt, no-nonsense personality on the surface. In reality, she's actually just very deeply concerned about your personal safety."
Once they were comfortably seated, Sona began to ask about their actual origins, since neither Flandre Scarlet nor Hong iling looked or carried themselves like any of the local regional populations of Kazimierz. When she finally learned that the duo were actually traveling tourists hailing all the way from the distant, mysterious empire of Yan, her eyes couldn't help but widen to the size of saucers.
"Yan..." Sona murmured, a look of awe washing over her face. "I've read about that place in geography texts. I've heard it is an incredibly, unimaginable distance away from the borders of Kazimierz."
"It is indeed very far away," Flandre Scarlet replied, beginning to happily count the vast journey on her small fingers. "Coming all this way on foot or carriage, if a person doesn't choose to risk crossing straight through the frozen wastes of the Ursus Empire, they need to manually pass all the way through the Kazdel occupied war zones, the Leithanien spires, and the grand territory of Victoria just to get here. But being able to see such a brilliant arena match yesterday made the whole trip worth it!"
"So... your group traveled across the entire span of the known continent just to watch a casual Knight Tournant?" Sona followed up, her voice tinged with absolute, incredulous wonder.
"What else would we be doing? Kazimierz is indeed quite an interesting place to look at, and the Knight Tournant matches are super exciting! But after we finish watching the grand championship matches, we still have to pack up and go all the way back ho anyway, right?" Flandre Scarlet replied, treating the cross-continental trek as if it were nothing more than a casual afternoon stroll.
"I really, truly envy you..." Sona said, a deep trace of genuine, heavy emotion bleeding into her soft voice as she stared at the richly dressed, carefree little girl sitting before her. "To be able to travel anywhere you want across the wide world, playing everywhere outside so freely without a care."
"Aren't you exactly the sa, Big Sister Sona?" Flandre Scarlet asked, tilting her head in genuine confusion. To the immortal vampire child, she felt that since a person's legs grew naturally on their own physical body, even if they didn't possess the magical capability to fly through the clouds, couldn't they just pack a small bag and go on a fun trip whenever they felt like it?
"Of course I can't," Sona replied in a remarkably soft, wistful tone, her gaze eting Flandre's innocent, unclouded eyes. "My ho is rooted right here in these slums. My partners and friends are all here, and the grand social ideals I want to spend my life realizing are also anchored to this place. How could I ever just abandon them and leave?"
"Adults really are such a massive bother!" Flandre Scarlet huffed softly. She didn't truly understand the heavy, complicated nature of societal burdens or systemic change, but her young voice remained perfectly respectful of the commander's choice.
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