Eric, with a sobbing voice, choked out:
"I-I understand! From now on, I absolutely won't steal anything ever again!"
Bronya smiled gently:
"…Then it's a promise. If you break your word, I'll personally bring the Silvermane Guards to arrest you. Put the Winter City Shields away carefully and hurry back to town. The Executor has already dismembered all the Fragmentum creatures on the road."
("Zzzzzzzzz—")
Eric was extremely grateful, though his speech was still stuttering:
"Th-thank you, big sister whose name I don't know! You can take all these supplies!"
As he spoke, he moved aside, revealing the supplies behind him.
He even shared some information about Rivet Town with the three:
"You, you have to be careful too! Up in the houses higher up, there seems to be something really scary… Oh, r-right! The road straight ahead from the market is blocked… If you want to keep going forward, you'll have to detour through the shopping street."
("Da-da-da-da-da—BOOM!!" A burst of firelight came from the darkness behind.)
Bronya nodded and said gently:
"Mm, we understand. Thanks for the warning."
After Eric left, Seele slowly spoke to Bronya:
"You just gave away so many Winter City Shields like that—is it really okay? Neither of you has a source of income, right? I heard last time you also gave a lot of Winter City Shields to vagrants."
("Bang bang bang bang bang—!!")
Bronya shook her head and explained:
"If it can make him truly reform, this small price is nothing. Besides, the Executor said these Winter City Shields were given by an angel investor and told me not to be stingy with them."
"What's an angel investor?" Seele really hadn't heard the term in the Underworld.
She couldn't help teasing:
"Ha, what if he still doesn't change?"
Bronya's tone remained soft:
"From childhood, my mother always taught me tolerance—to preserve the kindness in people's hearts… Even if one is only a faint glimmer, one should still strive to illuminate others."
("BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!")
Behind the two, flames were already soaring into the sky.
Flying stone fragments splashed onto Seele's face. She whipped around and shouted at Zeig, who was using a grenade launcher in the distance:
"What are you doing? Is the chainsaw not working anymore or something? Your weapons are getting more and more ridiculous!"
"Cough cough." An embarrassed voice came from the darkness. "You know, this thing works way better than a chainsaw."
Bronya also said:
"Executor, I think it's better to keep the noise down a bit… Rivet Town was once a place where Underworld residents lived. We might return here in the future, so it's best to preserve it as much as possible."
Zeig fell silent for a moment, somewhat reluctant.
"Fine then (Zzzzzzzzz—)"
The chainsaw sound started up again.
"CLANG—!!" The sound of crashing into an iron door came from the darkness.
"Ouch ouch ouch, this path is actually locked with an iron door. Watch me saw through it! Hehehehehe~!"
"Huh?" Seele froze.
"Executor, wait—Eric said we can go through the shopping street!" Bronya reminded him.
"Shopping street my ass! If we can charge straight ahead, why take a winding detour? My dear subjects, remember never to be bound by rules!! Hahahaha!! Watch me saw it!!!"
"Zzzzzzzzz—!!"
In the darkness, sparks flew everywhere, scattering in all directions. The chainsaw cutting into the iron door produced an extremely harsh noise.
Bronya and Seele both covered their ears.
"Zzzzzz… zzz… zz."
For some reason, the spinning sound of the chainsaw teeth grew slower and slower.
Until a startled exclamation from Zeig came from the darkness:
"Huh? Out of power. Let me find another power source."
Seele ran to Zeig's side and found that the iron door had already been sawed halfway through.
Zeig was squatting on the ground, rummaging through a pile of items for a backup power source.
"Hiss, where's the power source."
He kept shaking his coat, and more and more items fell out.
Washing machine, tank, magical girl wand, underwear, black silk stockings—everything imaginable…
Seele was completely stunned.
"Big bro, what's your coat made of? Forget the washing machine—what the hell is a tank?!"
Looking at the massive object in front of her, Seele couldn't comprehend how he had carried something like that on him!
Zeig gave a disdainful smile:
"Everyone's constitution is different. This is perfectly normal."
Seele sniffled, her expression somewhat blank.
Was it really because of that?
Bronya walked over and advised:
"Executor, let's just take the detour. A little extra walking is fine."
Zeig immediately stood up and declared righteously:
"Your Excellency, if heaven wants us to detour, must we obey? Even with my toes I can figure out that detouring will definitely trigger other events! How can we let heaven have its way?!"
With that, Zeig promptly mounted the tank and slowly aimed the barrel at the iron door.
Seele and Bronya were both dumbfounded.
"My friends, Zeig simply wants to take the shortcut! What can heaven do to me?!"
Without any hesitation, he fired!
"BOOM—!!"
Instantly, a massive explosion echoed through all of Rivet Town.
Flames shot into the sky.
The entire town shook violently. Some dilapidated buildings collapsed directly from the shockwave…
The iron door, of course, had been reduced to scraps under the tank's cannon fire.
Naturally, the tank had also been reduced to scraps.
Zeig, now with an afro from the explosion, jumped down from the wrecked tank and smiled at the two behind him:
"How's that? I told you I could open it!"
Seele tremblingly pointed at where the iron door had been:
"No—you, why did you press the barrel right up against the door… If you'd fired from farther away, you wouldn't have blown yourself up."
"Executor, are you okay? Here's the bandage you left earlier. Let me wrap it for you."
"No need!" Zeig waved his hand in refusal.
Then he pulled a wet towel from his pocket, wiped his soot-blackened face, wiped his hair, and finally combed it with his hand.
Zeig raised both hands and exclaimed:
"Perfect! I'm completely fine now! Hahahaha!!"
He pulled a Green Dragon Crescent Blade from his pocket and said gravely to the two behind him:
"My friends, let's continue onward!"
With that, he swung the guandao and charged in with a "Waaah ya ya ya—".
Soon, the sounds of fighting came from inside.
Seele stared blankly at the remains of the iron door.
Bronya spoke up:
"Since the Executor has already cleared the path, let's go this way."
The two followed behind Zeig, who had activated his invincible mode, quickly advancing over the corpses of Fragmentum creatures.
Seele looked around and said to Bronya:
"If we don't detour, the direction we're going now will take us first to where the painkillers are stored, then up some stairs to the orphanage. It'll be much faster than the original route."
Bronya nodded.
Ahead, blades flashed and swords gleamed. Ever since the chainsaw was replaced with the guandao, Zeig's killing efficiency had dropped a bit.
But that didn't stop him from continuing his massacre.
Almost no Fragmentum creature could withstand his third strike.
Soon, Seele and Bronya saw a faint light ahead.
Seele said excitedly:
"Look, we're there! The painkillers should be right over there!"
But in Bronya's line of sight, Zeig had stopped in his tracks.
Looking closely, a white-haired girl and a robot with red-green-yellow lights were standing in front of Zeig.
"Huh? That's… Clara?" Seele said in confusion.
…