"Ugh, you really are too much for me."
Twiggy sighed helplessly. Looking at the little rabbit in the rearview mirror who was forcing herself to act mature, she really had nothing more to say.
Indeed, Alice had done what she set out to do and gotten what she wanted, and she believed she had matured—that she was capable of shouldering the future of the Timefield family.
But she never stopped to think that the way she was now wasn't what her grandfather—Old Master Timefield—wanted to see.
"Alice, you don't have to be like this. I won't abandon you, and neither will Geno, and your grandfather certainly won't either."
"?"
Hearing Twiggy's words, Alice's eyes suddenly cleared, completely losing the earnest look she'd worn just moments before.
"Whether it's me, or Geno, or your grandfather, Old Master Timefield—none of us want you to become the kind of person you just described. That isn't your future."
"My... future?"
Alice felt a little lost, as though after all her hard work, someone had told her she'd been pushing in the wrong direction.
"That's right. We all feel that you, Alice, just need to be yourself. You don't need to sacrifice yourself for others at all, much less force yourself to grow up in order to shoulder some burden. That kind of growth isn't real growth at all."
Twiggy shook her head, scoffing at Alice's so-called maturity—it was nothing more than a child pretending to be a grown-up.
"So, there's no need to keep pretending, no need to push yourself. Cry when you want to cry, laugh when you want to laugh. No one is going to snatch away what belongs to you, and you don't need to fight anyone for anything. After all—"
A gentle curve lifted at the corner of Twiggy's lips. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned to look at Alice. "After all, we'll all be here. We'll always be right by your side."
Twiggy's eyes were full of sincerity, as if she were gazing at a little sister who would never quite grow up.
And feeling Twiggy's gaze, Alice's eyes grew clearer still, like a student fresh out of school just stepping into the wider world.
"Um... Sister Twiggy." "Hm? What is it?"
"I think... I've fallen a little bit in love with you..." "...Huh?"
Meanwhile, after parting ways with his two girlfriends, Geno was about to head back to Sixth Street when he ran into an unexpected acquaintance along the way.
"Hey there, handsome, want to play with me for a bit? It'll be a lot of fun~"
Looking at the fashionable woman who'd suddenly appeared before him, Geno recognized her at a glance.
"Oh, it's you, Jane. Didn't expect to run into you here."
Hearing Geno recognize her right away, Jane—who had been planning to toy with him a little—instantly lost interest.
"Ugh, no fun. Saw right through me at a glance."
As she spoke, Jane took off her glasses. Looking at the still-debonair Geno, the smile at the corner of her lips never quite settled down.
"I saw it, you know—dating two at once. Aren't you afraid they'll start fighting each other?"
"Don't joke with me. You know it's not what you think at all."
Geno sighed inwardly. Although things really were quite harmonious in reality, anyone with a discerning eye could tell at a glance that Alice wasn't in quite the right state of mind. He had no choice but to go along with her, and leave the rest for Twiggy to talk her through.
He just didn't know why, but he kept feeling like there was something heavy weighing on top of his head. Could it be because he hadn't slept well?
But I'm an Ethereal—I don't need sleep.
"Never mind, you can sort out your own affairs yourself. This time I came looking specifically for you."
"For me? Is there something you need help with?"
The moment Geno heard Jane say she'd come to find him, he instinctively assumed she'd come to ask for his help.
"Sort of. This matter concerns you too—it's about those rebels."
At the mention of the rebels, Jane's attitude turned serious, and Geno realized this wasn't the place to talk.
So, led by Jane, they made their way to a corner of a coffee shop.
"Long story short, I've recently been investigating the movements of those rebels, and I found that they're stationed in large numbers inside the Crete Hollow. At the same time, there's another faction supplying them with provisions."
Rebels are people too, and people need to eat, drink, and sleep.
With so many rebels lying low inside the Hollow, even Number Nine wouldn't believe there was no one backing them (Number Nine: ?).
Jane went on. She had looked into the faction behind the rebels, and, unsurprisingly, the trail once again pointed to TOPS.
"So it really is TOPS after all..."
Geno was speechless. He could only say that TOPS was just too all-encompassing—whenever something bad happened in New Eridu, the finger of blame would, without fail, point straight at that gang of good-for-nothings.
"That said, TOPS is so massive that pinning it down to a specific company really took quite a lot of effort on my part."
Jane leaned back against the sofa, looking thoroughly exhausted, then glanced at Geno with an intrigued expression and said:
"Next comes the part that concerns you. Care to guess who the big shot inside TOPS is?"
Hearing this, Geno was stunned for a moment. Something connected to him, and a company within TOPS—could it be...
"You're not talking about Ravenlock, are you?"
"Correct."
Jane's smile grew even more unrestrained. To dig up clues related to Ravenlock, she had worked without sleep for three days straight before finally managing to slip into one of the rebels' supply routes.
Following the source of the goods, she traced it all the way and finally uncovered the mastermind behind it all—Ravenlock.
"It's just a bit of a shame—these guys covered their tracks cleanly. So far, I still haven't managed to get any concrete evidence."
At this point, Jane had to admit that Ravenlock's current head of household was cautious enough—and ruthless enough—when it came to saving his own skin.
An entire warehouse, a full fifty-odd people, all blown sky-high, with not a single survivor left behind. In the end, he even used TOPS's influence to disguise the scene as a gas explosion.
When Jane heard how the other side had covered up the news, she was almost furious enough to laugh.
New Eridu's Ether energy applications were so advanced—who even uses natural gas anymore!?
"That may be so, but what does any of this have to do with me?"
Geno was somewhat surprised by what Ravenlock had done, but the only connection it seemed to have to him was that he'd disrupted the cooperation between Ravenlock and Timefield?
"Of course it concerns you. While I was undercover, I uncovered an important piece of intel—they're preparing to make a move against you. You'd better be careful these days~ How about hiring a few bodyguards~?"
Hearing this, Geno immediately caught on.
"You want to use me as bait?"
"Quick on the uptake. I like that clever streak of yours."
Jane had made herself perfectly clear, and Geno had no aversion to being used as bait—if anything, he was more than happy to oblige.
This way, he could also take the opportunity to get a little payback for the dirty trick Ravenlock had pulled on him before.
Two birds with one stone.
____
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