“Hmm? Deputy General Ning, what happened to you?” Moragus sat on the throne as if on a cold peak, his gaze a curious blade. Snow clung to System’s clothes like white thorns from a headlong run. “Weren’t you injured?”
He frowned, a lantern guttering in a draft. If you’re hurt, shouldn’t you bundle up? Why look like you trudged through a blizzard?
Heat pricked first under the frost of embarrassment. System’s breath came ragged, thin smoke in winter air. After a few heartbeats, she came back to herself.
“Uh… I—I ran here because I was worried about Your Highness,” she said, bowing with snow-damp sleeves. “I hurried and made a mess of myself. Please forgive me.”
Silence pooled in the hall like still water beneath ice. Moragus’s eyes slid between System and Nana Shi, probing like a knife point. After several breaths, he waved a hand.
“No matter, Deputy General Ning. I have business with you and General Shi anyway. Rise.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Relief washed through her like a thaw. System scrambled up as if released by amnesty. Her host’s face was a frost mask, a look that said she was watching a fool. Maybe she hadn’t missed anything crucial.
“Now then, General Shi, where were we?” Moragus asked with a spring-breeze smile from his cold throne.
“Your Highness, you were speaking about unusual moves among the six nations in the Northland,” Nana Shi replied.
“Right. About the six nations in the Northland,” Moragus said, eyes skimming over the two generals like ravens over snow. “I want you to scout for me. Their lands lie far from ours. If war breaks like thunder, we’ll struggle to get frontline reports in time.”
“And word keeps drifting in like smoke,” he went on after a pause. “The six may merge. That’s not what I want to see. So, General Shi, while you’re gathering what we need, stir their rivalries. Fan the embers between those countries. You understand me, don’t you?”
“...”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Nana Shi’s voice was cool as frost on steel. In this weather and mood, it sent a chill down the bones.
Worry rose first, tight as a knot. Is my host heading out on another mission?
System glanced at that familiar silhouette more than once, a moth circling a lamp. If only she could go too.
Not just to grow closer. If I can spare my host a few needless wounds, that’s enough.
She didn’t know every small motion fell like snowflakes into Moragus’s eyes on the throne.
“Deputy General Ning, do you have something to say?” he asked, voice light as drifting ash. “You keep looking up and down. Do you want to go with General Shi to the Northland?”
“Ah?” The sudden question shocked System like cold water. But she caught the opening like a falling leaf. She stepped forward and bowed low.
“Your Highness, the six border nations lie deep in the Northland. We’ll cross many hostile lands. I worry that General Shi going alone invites accidents. Please allow me to accompany her and scout enemy movements together.”
Moragus’s expression tightened, a crease in the snow. “But you were injured not long ago, the cause still unclear. You only just recovered. If you rush out now, won’t that strain your body? I don’t wish to see our top two generals falter.”
If she didn’t know the man, she might have thought he truly worried.
“Your Highness, I’ve recovered,” System said quickly. “You saw it just now. I ran here through wind and blizzard. My body’s fine.”
“...”
That hardly sounds like something to brag about.
“And you, General Shi?” Moragus asked.
“If Your Highness approves, I have no objection,” Nana Shi said, voice steady as a drawn bow. “But the road will be harsh. If Deputy General Ning has trouble on the way, I may not be able to tend to her.”
Her stance was clear as winter sky: you can come, but what happens to you is yours to bear.
“This…”
“No problem, General Shi,” System said, thumping her chest—thump, thump—like a drum. “I may be reckless, but I can take care of myself.”
“...”
“...”
“In that case,” Moragus said, letting the matter fall like a gavel, “Deputy General Ning will go as well. One more blade is one more layer of safety. That’s no slight to your skill, General Shi. War hangs low like storm clouds. I don’t want anything to happen to either of you. Take these two tokens.”
Two cold glints arced through the air. He continued, “They’re augmentation tokens developed by a new researcher at our base. They let the user greatly boost physical performance for a short time. Duration varies by person. Unless it’s truly dire, I don’t recommend using them.”
“Uh… Your Highness, how big is the boost?” System asked, palming the crystal token that caught light like frozen water. She voiced the question Nana Shi also held.
“Hmm… I don’t know.” Moragus’s brows drew together like storm fronts. “According to the developer, even an ordinary person could punch through two meters of reinforced concrete.”
“...”
That’s insanely strong. System stared at the token in her hand, shock ringing like a struck bell. Maybe the one who made this really is a genius.
“But with effects that sharp,” Nana Shi said, calm as a winter river, “there should be heavy side effects. It’s a temporary, massive spike. Snapped tendons and torn meridians wouldn’t be impossible.”
Years of campaign had honed her into colder steel, more reason than heat.
“Haha. You’re not wrong,” Moragus laughed, a bright sound off stone. “The developer said the same. Losing an arm or a leg beats losing your life. Now, we’ve covered what we needed. If you’ve nothing else, go pack and depart. I’ve state matters to handle. I wish you martial fortune.”
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
They saluted, then left the great hall of Chronos City, their footsteps a soft trail across polished stone.
“Hey… General Shi, wait up!”
Outside the hall, System angled toward her host like a shadow seeking shelter. Nana Shi gave her a single look—cold as a drawn blade—and System killed the thought at once.
This era’s host really isn’t cute.
“So, you’re planning to head for the Northland border with Nana?” a voice chimed, bright as glass in sunlight.
In the laboratory, amid humming instruments, Yan Xiao looked up as System came in. She didn’t seem surprised to see her.
“Huh? Yan-chan, how’d you know I’m going to the Northland? And that I’m going with Nana?”
System paused at the door, mind a bit fogged like a wintered window. She hadn’t explained anything yet.
“Oh, that? Of course I know,” Yan Xiao said, smiling behind steam from a cup. “Those two tokens His Highness gave you? I made them. There’s a little eavesdropper inside.”
“...”
Wait. Did she just say something terrifying?
“This token is your work?” System pulled the crystal from her pocket, the light in it like trapped ice. She stared, then let the shock melt. Yan Xiao had earned a Magus-01 Researcher’s Medal at a young age. Odd inventions were normal for her.
Which means if she built these ahead of time, she likely foresaw His Highness coming to me and my host the moment I woke.
System accepted a cup of hot tea. Heat spread through her fingers like a small hearth. She suddenly felt the girl before her carried deeper currents than her years.
Yan Xiao is dangerous.
She pinned that label in her heart like a red tag on a file.
“I know you’re traveling, but I don’t know why you came to me,” Yan Xiao went on, voice airy as drift snow. “It’s eavesdropping, not mind reading.”
She sipped from a porcelain cup, white coat bright under lab lights, a hand resting on a console. System thought she heard a note of regret, like a plucked string, or maybe it was her imagination.
“Then, Yan-chan, do you know any intel worth noting about those six nations on the Northland border?” System asked.
“Intel worth noting…” Yan Xiao set her cup atop a small robot like a hat on a child. She thought for a beat, then said, “I’m not sure. But do prepare for the cold. The Northland’s temperatures are very, very low.”
“Uh… that I know. Chronos City is already absurdly cold.”
“No, no.” Yan Xiao wagged a finger, a smile like frost-flowers. “Chronos City is a firefly next to the Northland’s moon. Ordinary cold gear is just another way to die.”
“Hmm? Then, rude as it is to ask, how low are we talking?”
“Ummmm… low enough you’d need a saw to cut your banana before you eat it.”
“?”
