"Unfortunately, the previous village had already fallen victim to the xenos before we could save it."
"As a future ruler of the Upper Hive, I sincerely regret what happened to them."
As he said this, Paulus put on a sorrowful expression.
Gaia frowned slightly.
Whenever this man spoke, she could smell a faint stench coming from him.
But that stench also seemed to be distorted by the heather scent clinging to all of them, making it hard for her to tell what it actually was.
Could it be... body odor?
She felt deeply puzzled.
"According to the orders we received, only the Conscript Regiments and a small number of Astra Militarum reinforcements are currently fighting outside the hive city. You obviously do not fall into either category, so why are you here?"
Commissar Horne asked sternly.
Paulus gave him a calm glance, a trace of contempt flashing through his eyes, then continued in his uniquely soft voice:
"Didn't I already say so? I am here to save these civilians."
"As the future ruler of the Upper Hive, they are all valuable property to me, and naturally I should grant them my mercy."
"But I would rather ask you this. Your orders were clearly to press forward and fight to the death, so why have you appeared here instead?"
Commissar Horne's face darkened for a moment.
"The order did not say we were forbidden from evacuating civilians first and then going to fight to the death."
Paulus lightly clapped his hands.
"You see? Then isn't it the same? The orders also never said that noncombat units could not leave the city to assist the civilians."
That was obviously sidestepping the question. Horne was just about to say as much when the guard, still covering his face to stop the bleeding, shouted at him:
"How dare you! It is already an act of grace that the young master is willing to answer your questions at all! You dare push him like this? Are you trying to rebel?"
Gaia's brows tightened. She had been observing these people's emotional fluctuations the entire time.
But the result left her feeling strangely powerless.
The soldiers who looked like guards had been openly showing inner contempt and hostility toward them the whole time.
As for that young master Paulus, his emotions were almost entirely obscured by the constantly emerging yellow orbs in his soul.
That made it very hard for her to judge whether his words were true or false.
Still, a gut feeling from deep within her soul told her one thing.
There was something very wrong with these people.
"I see now. Your generosity is broader than the widest star sector in the galaxy, and your kindness shines brighter than the most dazzling star... Praise be to you, noble Lord Paulus!"
"Since everyone's purpose is the same, why don't we act together?"
"We may be humble as dust, but even we can still contribute a little strength to your noble cause."
Solomon's stream of praise was so shameless that even the guard who had been constantly mocking them looked thrown off.
He even started becoming wary of Solomon in his heart.
If the young master took a liking to this man and made him an attendant on a whim, then his own position might be threatened.
Thinking of that, he immediately snarled:
"You filthy wretches truly have the guts of dogs. How dare your pathetic little specks of dust try to cling to the light of the young master's moon? Your dealings with this noble lord end here..."
He did not finish.
Paulus slapped him hard across the face again.
Without caring in the slightest about the blood splattered across his hand, he turned to Gaia with a bright smile and said:
"As the future ruler here, I am grateful that you are willing to help evacuate the civilians."
"Acting together would be ideal. There have indeed been roaming xenos wandering this area lately."
"And since all of you are warriors who have just come back from the front line, you must have experience fighting them."
Looking at Paulus's cheerful smile, Gaia felt only disgust.
A ridiculous creature like this ought to be crushed into paste beneath her hammer.
But he was one of the precious people of the Upper Hive. If she provoked someone like that, Gaia would probably have to spend the rest of her life on another planet.
And right now, all he had actually done was be revolting. That was not a capital crime.
She took a deep breath and nodded, indicating that she accepted his proposal.
Just like that, the two sides reached an agreement to begin jointly evacuating the settlements along the route starting the next morning.
Commissar Horne felt rather lost about the outcome.
Because during that entire negotiation, the nominal commander of the group had somehow barely mattered at all.
...
That night, after finally getting to eat the food and drink the water in the settlement as they had hoped, the Conscript Regiment set up camp around the outskirts.
Not long after, the lights here went out, and brilliant stars appeared flickering among the clouds overhead.
They looked like spirits of the night sky, glittering above and scattering bright starlight across this land steeped in despair, gifting those who looked upward a hope as precious as jewels.
Gaia silently watched it all.
This was the first time she had ever seen the starry sky of this world.
On Oteanta, the thick poisonous clouds hanging above the Underhive had blinded the night sky and blocked the touch of the stars.
She stared at those stars and noticed that they were all slowly moving along fixed paths at a speed too subtle for ordinary people to detect.
Each star had its own course.
Was a person the same?
The dazzling starlight reflected in her eyes, and that endless sense of distance left her with a trace of loneliness.
A wistful emptiness rose in her heart, but was quickly swallowed by the ocean-like calm of her inner world.
Just as she seemed one step away from comprehending some profound law of the dark universe, a familiar whisper came from behind her.
"Brother, brother, come over here. Lemme show you something."
With a tone that smug, she did not even need to turn around to know it was Solomon.
Somewhat helpless, she looked back, only to see Solomon sneaking glances around like a conspirator before creeping closer to her.
He carefully pulled a long, exquisite anklet from his pocket, with a pendant engraved with a heather flower hanging from it.
"This is?"
Gaia looked curiously at the anklet, feeling it seemed a little familiar.
"Oh, it belonged to that young master. I lifted it while kissing his boot."
He smugly shook the trophy in his hand and added:
"This thing is real gold. Worth a lot."
Black lines practically appeared across Gaia's face. After all that buildup, he had just dragged her over to admire the results of his perfect pickpocketing?
As if reading the disdain in her eyes, Solomon straightened his expression.
"There's something else too."
With that, he carefully pulled a ring out of another pocket.
It was an amethyst ring of extremely fine craftsmanship.
In the moonlight, a faint heather mark could be seen within the translucent crystal.
"Oh, this one I didn't steal. I picked it up."
"More accurately, it was embedded in a half-eaten arm in that little square in Kaha Village, the one that looked like hell on earth."
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]