Early spring was still a bit cold, but the bare trees in the neighborhood sprouted green buds, changing visibly each day, full of vitality.
The day after seeing Clent Winter, Nora Scott not only received a batch of new intelligence but also welcod a new guest.
April Thomason.
A month ago, Fátima had submitted a report on the Loulanel Plan, and now the approval had just co through.
Since the docunts related to the Loulanel Plan were missing, leaving only personnel data, the investigation procedures and organizations were extrely complex. Therefore, Biel Hall was first approved to participate in this event as a semi-official, semi-martial organization.
Henceforth, all their actions would be reasonable and legal.
Martial issues are settled in the Martial World.
April Thomason was sent by Fátima as an external aid for the operation.
Next, April would participate in the upcoming Loulanel journey as Jared Oliveira’s assistant, also known as the Living Map’s assistant.
The main concern was Nora Scott’s decreased combat effectiveness due to health reasons. She needed a strong assistant. Most people she was familiar with had identities in the Martial World, but now she needed an assistant with a clean slate.
April Thomason was just right.
"Yo, long ti no see."
Nora Scott opened the door and saw April standing at the entrance, with Young Master Durant there taking advantage of the situation, carrying her backpack, looking very much like an assistant.
After a quick glance, Nora Scott smiled and greeted, "April."
"Uncle, aren’t you even going to look at your handso nephew?" Benjamin Durant, acting as labor, tried to assert his presence.
"..."
Nora Scott ignored him and let April in.
She asked Benjamin Durant to make so tea. Nora casually picked up a tablet from the coffee table, continued working on her tasks, and asked April, "Did Little Senior Sister explain the background to you?"
"No."
April looked around, taking a tour of the living room, and casually grabbed an apple from the dining table.
"Hmm?"
Nora Scott looked up in shock.
Taking a bite of the apple, April walked over and said calmly, "She said I don’t need to understand, and I wouldn’t understand it anyway."
Nora Scott: "..."
Has her intelligence been struck too often, rendering her numb to the point of not caring when she utters it out loud?
After a pause, Nora Scott asked, "Did she give you any instructions?"
"She said as long as I act accordingly and freestyle, there would be absolutely no mistakes."
"..."
Does it feel like Little Senior Sister planted a ti bomb?
Just finished pouring water, Benjamin Durant almost slipped to the ground when he heard their conversation.
——Where’s the reliable assistant they promised?
But Nora Scott, after pondering briefly, accepted April’s work style.
She had no objections to April’s personal style, but she succinctly explained their mission—ti, place, opponents, and objectives.
The information was clear and easily understandable.
After listening, April rubbed her hands excitedly, "Is chanism City like those in movies?! Where you press a chanism and it rises from the ground with a clacking sound!"
"..."
So, even Little Senior Sister didn’t ntion chanism City to you?
In fact, April only heard Fátima say one sentence — go to Anchel and give Nora so help.
After that, April was promptly packed onto a plane, and in a flash, found herself in Anchel, and then brought here by Benjamin Durant.
Nora Scott sighed heavily, "Not sure yet, but—"
"What?"
"Most likely." Based on the limited models, Nora made a prediction, and after thoroughly captivating April’s curiosity, she added, "The premise being to find the location and entrance."
"..."
April’s curiosity was tightly held in Nora’s grasp.
*
That night, at Biel Hall, where intelligence had reached a stalemate, there was finally progress regarding the chanism City issue.
The driving factor was that the list of participants in the "Loulanel Plan" had been obtained.
With the arrival of the list, the mbers of Biel Hall, who were like headless flies, finally had a specific direction. Rapidly, in just one day, they found out the identities of all participants.
Most had already passed away; the few remaining, after communication and identity verification, were willing to share what they knew.
But—
The three sets of blueprints had already fallen into others’ hands.
Nora Scott gathered all intelligence information to speculate. Finally, she could almost confirm two sets were with Alexander Vaughn and one with Robert Durant.
After confirming the information, Nora made a call to Hardy Rivers, coincidentally ntioning the sa problem—
"Sothing’s wrong." In the video, Hardy Rivers furrowed his brow, "There’s still an entrance blueprint missing."
They analyzed the blueprint recently retrieved by Nora from Annabelle Pinto and discovered a peculiar issue—it was a blueprint of the main door but lacked the entrance chanism.
Nora Scott also frowned, "Every blueprint has a serial number; there are known to be only seven sets."
Hardy Rivers suddenly asked, "Did your grandfather not finish the drawing?"
"..."
For so reason, Nora Scott suddenly thought of the blueprint Antonio Easton had insisted on drawing despite his illness in his last days.
At the ti, Nora couldn’t understand the blueprint, and knowing nothing about chanism City, she didn’t pay it any mind. Now that she thinks about it... could it be that very blueprint?
However, after Antonio Easton passed away, Nora did go through his belongings but didn’t find any such blueprint.
Hardy Rivers sensed sothing was up and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Nora lightly pressed her lips and said, "I’ll have soone check Easton’s belongings again."
"Oh."
Hardy Rivers nodded.
Just then, April Thomason passed the sofa with a glass of water, glanced at the tablet in Nora’s hand, paused when she saw Hardy Rivers’ face, then leaned over to greet him, "Hey Rivers, you’re here too?"
Hardy Rivers was taken aback, "You’re here too?"
April sipped her water, laughed, "Such a coincidence."
Hardy Rivers looked at April, showing a more serious expression, then called out, "Nora."
"Hm?"
Hardy Rivers spoke with gravity, "Take care."
Nora: "..."
Hardy Rivers ended the video call.
Nora was left full of question marks.
She raised her head to look at April, "Is there sothing you can’t tell ?"
April reflected, chuckled, then raised her eyebrows, "Just prejudice."
"..."
Why does she feel so unconvinced?
...
In Nora’s impressions, when others leave the team, their schedules are very fixed, and they can’t adapt if there’s even the slightest disruption.
April was different.
This lady explained that being in the team had tornted her with the inflexible schedule, and now she wants to make up for the sleepless nights lost in youth, spending late nights both practicing speed mory and doing yoga in her room.
Nora got up in the middle of the night for water, saw her bedroom door ajar with light leaking out, found it odd, walked to the door, and saw April stretching on a yoga mat, her body flexibly soft.
Nora raised an eyebrow.
April glanced at the door and asked in surprise, "You’re awake?"
Leaning against the door, Nora sipped her water, "Just woke up."
"You’re right on ti, help scramble those stones in front," April said, "Don’t align the numbers with ."
Nora looked down and saw a row of stones in front of the yoga mat, colorful and slightly different in size and shape, with numbers indeed engraved on their backs.
Without knowing what April intended, Nora walked over and scrambled the row of stones. "Done."
April maintained her posture, looked at the row of stones, then closed her eyes, muttering under her breath.
Nora listened closely and realized they were numbers, she matched them against the numbers April recited and found none were wrong.
Such quick recall?
Afterward, April asked, "Did I get it right?"
Nora nodded, "Hm."
April lightly said, "Oh," turned over to sit up, raised her hand to wipe the sweat off her brow, "Yoga is quite hard to practice, huh."
"It’s alright."
That’s sothing Nora excels at.
However, Nora was more intrigued by the counting exercise April just did, "Why do you rember these?"
"To train instant mory," April sat on the yoga mat, stretching her arms, "If I get lazy, my mory dulls, it needs training from ti to ti."
Nora responded thoughtfully, "Oh."
April got interested, swept the stones into her hand, then scrambled them in front of Nora, "Wanna try?"
Nora looked for two seconds, closed her eyes, and recited a string of numbers.
Upon reopening her eyes, she saw April’s slightly stiff expression, "Should be right, huh?"
"Are you from the photographic mory club?" April gritted her teeth, feeling an itch to hit soone.
Nora thought for a mont, "Not exactly photographic mory."
April breathed a sigh of relief.
But then Nora added, "But I do have a great mory."
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to finish the chanism blueprint.
April: "..."
Alright, you intelligence folks are just not human.
April thought she had seen all the monsters, extraordinary talent, in the team, but once out in the world, she realized countless masters, skilled folks are in abundance, these kinds of shocks need ti to accept.
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