"Anyway, that is the gist of the situation. But do you truly believe it's just as she said—that this is all nothing more than a miracle?"
After Jeanne departed, Kal'tsit, who had originally intended to contact the other party the next day, recalled Theresa's specific instructions. She immediately contacted the Doctor back in Kazdel to explain the situation in detail. It wasn't that Kal'tsit was overly concerned about the Doctor's health, but rather she worried that this person would run themselves into the ground by going days without sleep.
This was a critical moment; if this person were to collapse from exhaustion, all subsequent arrangements could be severely affected. However, Kal'tsit found that while she was speaking, the Doctor was clearly absent-minded, merely offering perfunctory "Mms" in response.
"Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"
Seeing the Doctor acting this way, Kal'tsit felt an impulse to hang up the call immediately. She only restrained herself by reminding herself that the other party was mentally unwell. Yet, the response from the other side remained a dismissive "Mm," making Kal'tsit feel that contacting this unreliable person in the middle of the night had been a mistake. She felt that even going out for a stroll would have been better than wasting words here.
Just as Kal'tsit was losing the desire to continue the conversation and was about to disconnect, the Doctor finally spoke up.
"Wait a moment. There's some very important news on our end. Let me finish handling the matter at hand, and then I'll tell you about it."
After saying that, the Doctor went back to ignoring Kal'tsit, busy with whatever they were doing. During this silence, Kal'tsit even heard the sound of the Doctor leaving the room to go somewhere. She wasn't in a hurry, though, and instead began preparing for tomorrow's lessons.
Tomorrow, she planned to give those people a surgical lesson that would be truly unforgettable and spectacular. As for who would be used as the teaching material? Wasn't that obvious? Wasn't that Sanguinarch with comminuted fractures all over his body a living case study?
The case was a classic. After all, that old man's body barely had a few intact bones left; everything was shattered into tiny shards. Thanks to a vampire's tenacious vitality, he was still barely clinging to life despite such severe injuries. This was indeed rare, regardless of the perspective.
This allowed Kal'tsit to apply every surgical technique to his body tomorrow in what would be a magnificent orthopedic surgery. The case was so classic that Kal'tsit even intended to find someone to record it, to serve as a high-level surgical record for training future medical operators.
"I'm finally back. Honestly, to have this kind of news arrive at a time like this... they really don't give a person a moment's peace..."
After an unknown amount of time, a voice finally reappeared on the other end of the communicator. Looking at the night sky, it was likely already the early hours of the morning. The Doctor didn't care whether Kal'tsit was still listening and began grumbling incessantly about the pain of working overtime late at night.
This person absolutely loathed working late. Every day around seven or eight in the evening, they would complain about having no rest. The only person who could make the Doctor work overtime obediently wasn't Kal'tsit, nor was it Theresa, but rather the child, little Amiya!
Whenever the Doctor intended to toss aside the tasks at hand, it only took little Amiya staring with those large eyes and saying one thing in her soft voice to fix everything.
"There's still lots of work that needs to be done, Doctor. You can't rest now!"
Coming from little Amiya's mouth, this sentence dealt a thousand points of true damage to the Doctor, far more effective than letting Mon3tr give them a beating.
"Aren't you curious about what happened? I haven't told you the news yet, so why haven't I heard you ask me about it out of curiosity?"
In the landship of Babel, the grumbling Doctor noticed Kal'tsit's long silence and suddenly lowered their voice to ask. Kal'tsit was speechless at this redundant behavior. There wasn't a living soul around either of them; what was the point of this act?
"Do you think I'm as childish as you? If you want to say it, say it. If not, hang up and stop disturbing me!"
Kal'tsit was quite fed up with the Doctor's immature antics, her tone laced with a hint of impatience. It wasn't that she didn't want to know what matter had kept the Doctor busy all night, but rather she knew exactly what kind of person they were. If she showed even a spark of curiosity, this person would use every method possible to make Kal'tsit beg for the information.
Since she wasn't currently in Babel, she couldn't exactly grab the Doctor by the neck and pin them to a wall whenever they acted up. Therefore, Kal'tsit's best choice was to completely ignore all of their antics until the Doctor couldn't help but spill the beans themselves.
Just as Kal'tsit expected, after waiting a long time without her asking, the Doctor spoke up resentfully.
"Talking to you is really no fun. Even though you know I'm intentionally teasing you, couldn't you at least cooperate a little?"
Clearly, the Doctor did not appreciate Kal'tsit's uncooperative personality, which was one reason Kal'tsit rarely bothered with them. This person constantly oscillated between being an extreme clown and being extremely cold, with almost no time spent in a middle state.
When dealing with the Doctor in their "extreme clown" state, Kal'tsit usually just restrained them if they went too far, while constantly convincing herself internally:
Stay calm, this person is mentally ill. Don't lower yourself to their level... for the sake of their mental illness, just ignore them.
Because it was the Doctor, Kal'tsit could tolerate it slightly. If it had been anyone else, she likely wouldn't have acknowledged them at all.
"I have no need to act insane alongside you when you're having an episode," Kal'tsit said coldly, then fell silent, waiting for the answer.
"Fine, fine. I was going to tell you regardless. Honestly, you're not even as cooperative as little Amiya."
This idiot went and harassed the child again! Kal'tsit clenched her fists, a faint glimmer of murderous intent appearing in her eyes. It was one thing to bother others during an episode, but to go after a child? Although she knew the Doctor wouldn't actually hurt Amiya, the possibility of leading the child astray was very real.
"Just now, an envoy from Theresis arrived. They said they wanted to negotiate a hostage exchange. Moreover, they brought back a few insignificant operators."
This isn't normal!
The moment she heard the Doctor's words, these four words leaped into Kal'tsit's mind. Theresis's actions this time were far too suspicious! Not even a full day had passed, and the Regent had already sent an envoy to handle this. It was clear how anxious he was.
It was understandable for their side to be anxious due to the safety of the landship and elite operators, but why was the other side in such a rush? Were they afraid Babel would kill those two? There was definitely something wrong here, and it wasn't a small issue.
"What are your thoughts? You find a way to stall for time over there, and I'll find a way to interrogate them here to see what secrets they're hiding?"
Kal'tsit knew that the reason the other side was so anxious was because those two must have information regarding a conspiracy against Babel, and the scope of it must be massive. But she also knew that even with torture, the likelihood of them talking was slim. Even using special drugs to induce a trance wouldn't help unless Theresa were there to read their memories directly.
"No, I promised them we would exchange hostages as soon as possible. They have secrets, but we have even more! And we cannot afford to stall for time either!"