Inside the Herta Space Station, holographic lights spilled down from the ceiling in a warm, luminous cascade.
Asta twirled her metal stylus between her fingers, her pink hair bouncing in cheerful waves with every bob of her head. Her heels tapped a light rhythm beneath the desk — the tempo of some interstellar adventure jingle playing in her head.
"Trailblazing really is such a fascinating thing! I suddenly feel this urge to go on an adventure myself…"
A holographic display of reports and documents floated before her, but her gaze never left the screen of her phone. Her eyes shone like freshly tempered sapphires, and her earrings swayed whenever she propped her chin in her hand.
"Miss, spending money like this really isn't a good idea…"
The young lady's good mood was plain as day, and saying something like this might very well ruin it — but Alan hesitated for a few seconds before speaking up anyway.
Slender pale fingers swiped across her phone screen, and those dangling, carefree legs of hers told the whole story of Asta's mood.
"How on earth is this 'spending money irresponsibly'? As the Station Director, it's only natural for me to look out for my staff's material and emotional well-being. Asking a good friend to help with a little investigation is perfectly reasonable, isn't it?"
Asta curled a strand of pink hair around one fingertip and tucked it behind her ear. The tip of her hair swept across the holographic display, leaving a trailing streak of pink light.
"Please don't change the subject."
Alan's expression was the picture of helplessness.
Given the state his young lady was in, he wouldn't have been surprised if she declared Caelus the master of the space station. Alan had never been in a relationship himself, but he'd seen enough to know what was what.
The relationship between the young lady and Caelus might not have reached the level of lovers exactly, but it was absolutely not that of ordinary friends — never mind the occasional pocket money she slipped him; she might even be keeping him… ahem, no, the young lady would never do something like that.
"I mean the other matter."
Alan turned to look at the mountain of requisition forms piled atop the sleek, lightweight metal desk.
At first, Asta didn't seem to care — she gave a little whistle. It was only after Alan stared at her in silence for a long while that she finally slumped back in her chair, slamming the metal stylus down on the desk with a sharp clack.
"The company budget is so incredibly tight, and the approval process goes on forever — do you have any idea how much time gets wasted by the time everything clears?!"
"I'm paying out of my own pocket to solve everyone's problems, and somehow that's my fault? Give me back my access key right now!"
"I won't…"
Alan took a half-step back, his voice firm.
The end of his sentence was cut off by Asta planting her hands on her hips. Her pink eyes went perfectly round. She leaned forward over the desk, and in a tone of performed outrage declared:
"You! Who gave you the right to manage how I spend my own money?"
Alan quietly pointed at Asta. "You did."
"Uh… (⊙O⊙)…"
Asta froze, her gaze drifting sideways.
Oh. Right. That would be me. Never mind then.
It was coming back to her now — she did, in fact, recall something like this happening. In an attempt to slightly curb her extravagant spending habits, she had handed her access key to Alan for safekeeping.
"B-but this isn't irresponsible spending."
Asta sat back down, but she wasn't giving up the argument. What followed was a string of justifications — things like "it only counts as wasteful if the money actually goes to waste," and "how can a gift for a friend possibly count?" and "it's only a few hundred billion, anyway" — which only deepened Alan's silence.
He shook his head and let out his most helpless sigh yet. "If you absolutely must spend money, you'd be better off spending it on your friends. Have the equipment go through the company's procurement process."
Even someone as by-the-book as him understood: spending personal funds on official business was far less worthwhile than investing in personal relationships.
"…"
If Alan had just lectured her normally, Asta definitely wouldn't have listened. But phrased that way?
Maybe she could think about returning some of it — set aside a bit for the gift exchange she had planned with Caelus later. Buy a few planets, perhaps?
"Should I pick a few things to return?" Asta asked after a moment of thought.
"…Whatever makes you happy, Miss."
Alan sighed again.
Just as Asta was sorting through the mountain of requisition forms in search of orders she could cancel, a light and melodious chime rang from the door.
Asta blinked, straightened her clothes, rose from her chair, and called out: "Come in."
The heavy hexagonal metal door swung open. Silver-white boots clicked against the corridor floor, and in stepped a short-haired young woman roughly Asta's age — her bob was pure white to the shoulders, except for a streak of red dye running down the hair beside one ear.
At her side waddled a plump, chubby little dimensional piggy bank.
"Miss Topaz?"
Asta let out a delighted cry.
Topaz — senior officer of the Strategic Investment Division under the IPC, head of the Special Debt Investigation Unit, and one of the so-called 'Ten Stonehearts' despite her young age. Her work primarily involved pursuing debt disputes of all kinds that interfered with the company's operations.
"And Numby~!"
"Squeak~!"
The dimensional piggy bank with the little bow-tie scrambled upright, flapped its large ears with great enthusiasm, and launched itself into Asta's arms.
"Ah, that tickles~ Ha, hahaha!"
Laughter spilled from her throat as she leaned back, fingertips hovering lightly over Numby's squishy little head — reluctant to actually push it away.
"Miss Asta, it's been a while."
Topaz offered a smile and a brisk, efficient greeting.
"What brings you all the way here? Did you get time off?"
Asta and Topaz were quite close — the two of them had once made plans to charter a transport together and cruise the vast starry sea while swapping company gossip.
Unfortunately, their schedules had never once lined up.
"Not on vacation yet, I'm afraid. I've picked up a new job — the target is Jarilo-VI. I checked the star charts and noticed it's quite close to your station, so I thought I'd drop in. Am I welcome?"
Topaz's words weren't false — they simply weren't the whole story.
"Of course you're welcome~!"
Asta's smile was bright as sunshine. She guided Topaz to a seat in the office and brewed a pot of tea.
"Does the company have dealings with Jarilo-VI?"
Caelus had told Asta all about the trailblazing adventure they'd had on Jarilo. He'd even filmed videos of their band performance in the city. Jarilo had left quite an impression on her.
"The company did invest there once, and then suddenly lost contact with them. We never imagined that seven hundred years of isolation was all the Stellaron's doing…"
Conducting a basic investigation of your destination before beginning official business was standard procedure.
Before heading out, Topaz had looked through the company's intelligence archive for information on Jarilo — but since Jarilo had been cut off from interstellar contact for so long, none of it had been updated; the most recent entries were six or seven hundred years old.
When communications were suddenly restored, the company finally took notice.
After receiving her assignment, Topaz had first dispatched members of her team to Jarilo to gather the latest intelligence.
Jarilo had successfully broken free from the Stellaron's influence — aided by a Trailblazing force.
What caught Topaz's attention even more, however, were several crop varieties being cultivated on Jarilo-VI: all of them were products developed within the last hundred years.
Never mind where they'd come from — when crops like those were planted and used on a large scale at the level of a nation or civilization, the corresponding patent fees had to be paid based on crop yield.
Topaz immediately launched an investigation, and to her astonishment, discovered that Jarilo-VI had already obtained patent licenses. She also uncovered records of a patent transfer: one of the crop patents had originally belonged to Asta — and Asta had given it away to someone by the name of Caelus.
This Caelus appeared to have a close relationship with Belobog's Grand Guardian, and was nominally her husband.
Given the possible connection between Caelus and Asta, Topaz had chosen not to go directly to Jarilo. Instead, she made a detour to the Herta Space Station to speak with Asta first — to get a better sense of her relationship with Caelus.
The goal was to calibrate her approach and manner during the debt collection process accordingly.
Although Topaz was one of the Ten Stonehearts, her overall standing within the company was still a notch below Asta's.
Over tea, the two friends fell into easy conversation. Topaz explained the background of the matter and gently probed at Asta's relationship with Caelus — and, naturally, the subject of the debt…
"Ah well~ you two can just sort that out between yourselves when the time comes."
Topaz's questioning had been quite subtle, but Asta was no decorative vase. She'd grown up in a distinguished family and could read between the lines of anything.
Asta waved a hand with a smile. "That said, I'd suggest you don't bring your usual company playbook to this one. Be as flexible as possible, and whatever you do — don't let things escalate to a confrontation."
Her family was one of the IPC's shareholders and key partners. While family members didn't directly control the company's core operations, one of the reasons the higher-ups treated Asta with such care was Herta herself.
The attitude of a Genius Society member was something the company simply could not afford to ignore.
And as for Caelus…
Well, Asta had never seen anyone else receive a Herta puppet before.
"You're saying this Caelus has a Herta puppet?!"
Topaz's expression shifted ever so slightly.
As a senior IPC officer, she was acutely aware of what it meant to have the Genius Society's endorsement — and she knew Herta's personality all too well. No one who valued their neck would dare use a Genius Society member's likeness without permission.
Let alone Herta, a Genius so perfectly… perfect (and perfectly self-absorbed) that she defied all description.
"He gave me several~!"
Asta's face lit up with a gleeful smile. "I've got them all in my bedroom! Want to see some photos?"
Whenever she had a free moment, Asta liked to play dress-up with her Herta puppets — like running a game of Miracle Nikki, but with Herta herself as the doll. You could dress the great Herta however you pleased!
What a dream.
Topaz: "…"
"Oh, and — when I last visited Herta for a briefing, I happened to overhear another one of her Geniuses, Ruan Mei, talking about Caelus."
Asta glanced around conspiratorially, then lowered her voice.
"Another Genius? Ruan Mei?! She knows Caelus too?"
Topaz's eyebrow arched upward.
"Mm, let me tell you…"
Asta leaned in close and whispered into Topaz's ear. Whatever she said made Topaz's eyes go wide in sudden shock.
"Really?"
"Mm. No idea why she was calling Caelus 'darling,' and honestly? I don't dare ask."
If it had been anyone else from the company, Asta absolutely wouldn't have let something like this slip — but this was Topaz, who was handling Jarilo. Topaz was a friend. After a brief moment of deliberation, Asta decided to share a little more than she normally would.
In short: if the company had the audacity to get on Caelus's bad side, they'd be very lucky indeed.
"…"
Topaz broke into a slight cold sweat. Thank goodness she'd thought to stop by the station and check in with Asta first.
The title of "Asta's friend" alone was worth giving serious face to — to say nothing of the fact that Caelus apparently had connections with both Herta and Ruan Mei.
The company's true intentions in sending her to Jarilo to dig up old debts weren't exactly clean. But risking the alienation of two Genius Society members over it? Absolutely not worth it.
"Thank you for the heads-up. I'll keep it in mind."
Eyes straight ahead, Topaz offered a sincere and formal expression of gratitude.
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