About a week earlier, right after learning from Fairy about the rumors surrounding Geno, Belle had given him a thorough tongue-lashing.
That turned out to be nothing more than a misunderstanding — and Twiggy herself had come to find Belle afterward. She didn't seem bothered by it at all.
"Twiggy, you really don't care that Geno is engaged to someone else?"
As a girl herself, Belle couldn't begin to understand Twiggy's attitude.
What normal adult woman could possibly tolerate her partner straying — let alone having the whole thing made public for everyone to know?
Belle knew she personally would never be able to accept it.
"Which law in New Eridu says a grown man can only take one wife?"
Belle was momentarily struck dumb. New Eridu was a prosperous city — peaceful, at least on the surface. But there was no denying that this world had seen its population plummet compared to the old era, ravaged as it had been by the Hollow disasters.
To encourage population growth, every major human settlement had adopted the marriage laws of the ancient, chaotic periods of the old era: a man could take multiple wives, all in the interest of expanding the population.
At the same time, those laws had set the age of adulthood at sixteen for men and fourteen for women, at which point one was eligible to marry.
But that was long ago. After years of development, the laws had been revised — the age of adulthood was now uniformly eighteen, and the minimum age for marriage was twenty.
People had also gradually begun to embrace monogamy on their own. Yet no formal prohibition had ever been written into law.
Some said it was certain powerful hands within TOPS that had kept that particular reform buried. Others said that New Eridu, prosperous as it looked, still needed a large labor force to sustain itself — hence the lack of change.
Whatever the reason, just as Twiggy had said: New Eridu had no law explicitly stating that a man could only marry one woman.
"But still…" Belle tried to say something more, only for Twiggy to cut her off first.
"Enough of that for now. The real reason I came to find you is because I have a favor to ask."
"A favor? Is it some kind of commission?"
Belle tilted her head, genuinely puzzled. For Twiggy to be asking her for help — that was a rare thing indeed.
In Belle's mind, Twiggy had always been the picture of a perfectly self-sufficient woman. She rarely needed anyone's help — though admittedly, some of that might have been pride talking.
"Not a commission. It's more to do with your identities."
"Our identities?"
Something about those words sent a cold premonition through Belle — and Twiggy's next words confirmed it.
"The Helius Mechanism. You're not unfamiliar with it, are you?"
Belle's whole body went rigid.
"Wh — what Helius Mechanism? Never heard of it."
Belle's instinct was to deny it outright — but her body told a completely different story. Her eyes drifted, her hands and feet began to tremble almost imperceptibly, and she kept scrunching her nose.
The signs of lying were written all over her.
"Belle, you have absolutely no talent for deception."
Twiggy shook her head, entirely unconvinced by Belle's denial. The intelligence she had received from Number Four was clear enough that no amount of wriggling from Belle could shake her judgment.
"Don't worry. I have no ill intentions toward you. Quite the opposite — I want to propose a cooperation."
Twiggy worked to put Belle at ease, and once Belle had calmed down, she continued to lay out her purpose.
"I know about your teacher. Including parts of the research she was conducting — which is why I came to you."
"Our teacher's… research?"
Belle was confused. As far as she knew, their teacher had run experiments on her and her brother involving the HDD deep-dive system — but wasn't Twiggy's own work focused on Ether Aptitude? What did any of that have to do with their teacher's research?
"Belle — inside your eyes, there's a lens implant, isn't there?"
Belle gave a small nod. Receiving that confirmation, Twiggy continued.
"That lens does more than just link you to the HDD. It also functions as a suppressor."
"A suppressor?"
Belle was baffled — she had never heard anything like this from her teacher.
"Yes. That lens suppresses the Ether Aptitude within you and your brother — which is why you can't enter the Hollow. In theory, your natural Ether Aptitude should be sufficient to let you operate inside a Hollow for extended periods on your own."
Twiggy shared this long-buried secret with Belle, and then, watching Belle's stunned expression, continued to explain her true purpose.
"The truth is, I've been experiencing some complications with my body. I need a more refined technique for suppressing Ether — so I'm hoping to obtain the research data your teacher compiled on the lens and the HDD."
Twiggy's manner was entirely sincere. As repayment, she even offered to find a way to help them lift some of the restrictions tied to the lens.
"None of this is a burden. Anywhere I can help, I won't say no."
Belle clutched the hem of her sleeve and pressed her hands to her chest. She had never been stingy with her friends when it came to lending a hand.
Just like Nicole and the others — they were always being hounded by creditors, and every time they came to borrow money from her, she never refused.
Of course, that was only when she actually had the means to spare. You have to help yourself before you can help others, after all.
The rest was fairly straightforward. Belle cooperated with Twiggy for several days of small-scale testing and experiments — enough to leave Belle thoroughly worn out.
Wise had offered to take her place, but Belle turned him down. Twiggy was a girl, and it felt more appropriate to keep it among the girls. Besides, her data was nearly all collected by that point — swapping someone in now would just be making unnecessary trouble out of nothing.
In the end, Twiggy placed that little green vial in Belle's hands and told her: should anything dangerous arise, this was the lifeline for the two of them — her and her brother.
There had been two vials in total. One, Belle kept close to her person. The other had been stored inside Eous as a precaution against the unexpected. And now, it seemed, the unexpected had arrived.
Belle's memories came to an end. She opened her eyes — no more than a second or two had passed.
"I want to be upfront: I cannot guarantee this serum will save Grace. There may also be side effects."
"…"
Hearing that Eous couldn't guarantee the serum's effectiveness, both Ben Bigg and Anton hesitated.
After all, a serum like this was clearly of unknown origin, whatever you made of it. Grace was facing the risk of death at any moment — but this brief moment of hesitation was a completely natural reaction. Anyone would have it.
It was precisely because they cared that they held back.
And as Anton and Ben Bigg lingered in that brief moment of conflict, a voice rang out from behind them both.
"Give it to her."
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🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
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