By the ti Closure was finally cald down by Sora, half an hour had already passed.
"Um... sorry about that. A certain psychological trauma suddenly got triggered."
The now-composed Closure sat across from the group, her face filled with awkwardness.
"...Was it Naless?"
After hearing her words, Shirou connected the dots and realize that there must have been so sort of history between her and Naless.
Judging from Closure's earlier reaction, she had probably been tornted quite badly.
"Wah! Do not ntion him! That guy is more Sarkaz than an actual Sarkaz!"
It would have been better not to ntion it at all. The mont the na "Naless" was brought up, Closure's eyes widened and her hands began trembling nonstop.
Shirou: "..."
Did that guy directly massacre people right in front of Closure or sothing? Otherwise, how could she react so intensely?
"Miss Closure, are you alright?"
After receiving the news, the late-arriving Amiya stepped forward to check on Closure's condition, only to witness that exact scene.
It was... rather awkward.
Still, awkward or not, what needed to be done still had to be done.
With Amiya's help, Closure finally stabilized much faster this ti.
"I love engineering! I want to work! I want to go repair things! I want to organize circuits!"
Or rather, maybe she had stabilized, but maybe she had not.
Watching Closure dash away in a blur, the people left behind stared blankly.
"...I suggest arranging a therapist for her."
Looking at Amiya, Texas made the suggestion with a completely serious expression.
If she heard correctly earlier, a large portion of Rhodes Island's operations depended on Closure, but that ntal state was honestly worrying.
Although geniuses were often eccentric, this seed excessive.
"Haha... Miss Closure is fine. She is just especially afraid of Mr. Naless."
After hearing Texas's words, Amiya gave an awkward laugh and explained.
"Did sothing happen?"
The mont the topic ca up, Shirou beca rather curious, so he voiced his doubts.
The others were equally curious.
In their eyes, Rhodes Island's Naless was probably soone Shirou knew personally, perhaps even soone closely connected to him.
Since he was an acquaintance, naturally they were curious about him. Unfortunately, there were barely any accessible records regarding the man.
Within the information they could access, all they knew was that in the past, he specialized in handling missions that were extrely troubleso even for elite operators.
From the various Rhodes Island operators they had questioned, the most common evaluation they received was:
Naless was extrely sharp-tongued.
"Hmm... there is quite a lot. I rember Miss Closure believed Mr. Naless's abilities had enormous financial potential, so she wanted to commission him to manufacture a batch of firearms. Mr. Naless agreed, but first he took out the gun he used most often and told Miss Closure to try it herself."
When she reached the latter half of the story, Amiya paused slightly.
She first glanced toward the direction Closure had fled in. Only after confirming the woman had completely disappeared did she lower her voice and continue speaking to the group.
"Then Miss Closure took it for testing. The mont she pulled the trigger, the recoil dislocated her arm. Although the doctors fixed it afterward and there were no lasting problems, after that incident Miss Closure never brought up the matter again."
Everyone: "..."
Aside from Amiya, everyone's gaze imdiately shifted toward Exusiai.
After all, she was constantly talking about wanting Shirou to project guns for her to play with.
One could only say it was fortunate that Shirou still possessed a bit of conscience. Otherwise, perhaps this useless angel's arm would have been dislocated too.
"There was also another incident. In the past, Miss Closure often sold goods at prices far higher than the local market price. Then one ti, she apparently sold snacks and biscuits to children at inflated prices as well."
"And the next day, Mr. Naless ca looking for her. He offered to help inspect the entirety of Rhodes Island for problems using the sa analysis ability Shirou uses."
"I am not sure about the exact amount of ti, but according to the Engineering Departnt staff, Naless spent nearly ten days and nine nights taking Closure across the entirety of Rhodes Island. During that ti, they barely slept at all, and the only thing they ate was Hibiscus's specially made super nutritious als."
"After that incident, the prices of Miss Closure's products finally started becoming more stable. They were still slightly more expensive than local prices, but nowhere near as outrageous as before."
Although she did not understand why everyone was staring at Exusiai, Amiya still thoroughly explained the rest of the story involving Naless and Closure.
In simple terms, Closure thought Naless's abilities were incredibly convenient and repeatedly tried to make use of him.
The result was that she suffered terribly every single ti.
As for the later incident involving overpriced goods and retaliation...
Honestly, it sounded quite satisfying, and everyone could understand why Closure had developed such an extre reaction.
If it were them, being forced to work for ten days and nine nights without sleep while eating nothing but nutritional als...
Just imagining it made their scalps go numb.
Unlike the others, however, Shirou's first thought was that Yith finally had a fellow overti worker.
After Amiya's explanation, everyone finally understood the full sequence of events.
What Amiya did not ntion was that Closure's condition had originally not been this severe. It was likely because she thought Naless had returned from the dead that her reaction beca so intense.
Still, there was no need to explain that part in such detail.
However, another problem quickly appeared.
Closure had run away, but her shop remained open, and nobody was left watching over it.
Thus, under Amiya's request, Shirou and the others briefly helped tidy up the shop and hung up a "Closed" sign.
As for anything else, there was nothing they could do.
Surely nobody on Rhodes Island would dare steal from this place anyway.
Unless they wanted their air conditioner to alternate unpredictably between freezing cold and burning hot while they slept, or for their shower to offer only magma and liquid nitrogen temperatures.
"Amiya, do you have any other plans later?"
After finishing cleaning up, Shirou checked the ti. They should barely still be able to make it in ti for dinner.
Out of courtesy, Shirou asked whether Amiya had any other work or arrangents afterward.
"Nope!"
Hearing Shirou's question, Amiya imdiately understood the aning behind it and directly nodded in response.
As for her work, she could simply push it back a little. None of it was particularly urgent.
Because of the operation preparations recently, she had already completed a large amount of work ahead of schedule. Right now, she was comparatively free, though most of her energy was being devoted to training.
"Then let us go together! I will invite Blaze and Rosmontis as well. We have mostly just been communicating through terminals these past few days, so we have not really t in person much."
After receiving her reply, Shirou thought that having only Amiya eating together with him and Penguin Logistics would definitely beco awkward, so he decided to invite a few more people over.
Naturally, the people he was most familiar with were Blaze and Rosmontis.
Next would be Ace and Scout, but those two seed fairly busy lately. They had apparently been doing combat simulations every day recently, so Shirou did not specifically contact them.
After sending a ssage, Blaze replied very quickly, saying she would arrive later.
Once they confird their next destination, the group soon headed toward the cafeteria.
For Shirou and Penguin Logistics, whose pockets contained a pitifully small amount of Lungn dollars, Rhodes Island's cafeteria was practically their salvation.
After all, paynt here used al cards. Since Shirou had expected to stay here for quite a long ti, he had stored quite a bit of money into his card beforehand.
From that perspective, he really had been rather farsighted.
The dinner was very enjoyable.
Especially for Blaze.
She was clearly having the ti of her life, sitting with Amiya on one side and Rosmontis on the other while continuously placing food into both of their bowls throughout the entire al.
Just watching it alone was enough to make Shirou feel full.
"Speaking of which, Shirou, you guys went to the shop earlier, right? You did not get ripped off, did you?"
After she finished feeding the others, Blaze finally noticed the paper bags beside Shirou's feet.
Those bags carried the special logo unique to Rhodes Island's shop.
"Uh... probably not? I doubt we will get ripped off in the future either."
Hearing Blaze's question, the first image that flashed through Shirou's mind was Closure trembling beneath the counter.
At the rate things were going, she probably would not even want to do business with him anymore.
Though honestly, there was not really anything to regret about that.
At the mont, Shirou's desire to buy things was fairly low.
The only unfortunate thing was that he never managed to ask where she bought that set of repair tools.
"That impressive, huh?"
Although Blaze could not understand Shirou's aning at all, that did not stop her from feeling that it sounded incredibly impressive.
"Let us not talk about that for now. Blaze, you prepared everything already, right? This operation is really important, so make sure you do not forget anything, alright?"
Amiya, who understood the full story, hurriedly jumped in and interrupted the topic.
If Blaze learned about Closure's weakness, she would definitely find every possible way to exploit it and buy supplies from her.
After all, Closure was one of the few people on Rhodes Island who could personally order goods from outside. Most products passed through her hands at so stage.
Amiya absolutely did not want to soday witness a certain black feline drunkenly causing chaos around Rhodes Island.
"I brought everything! I even had soone check it all for ! There is definitely no problem, so do not worry!"
Faced with Shirou saying things she could not understand, Blaze's attention was imdiately redirected by Amiya.
Thus, Blaze proudly patted her chest and confidently answered Amiya's question.
"I hope so. Last ti your weapon malfunctioned and ended up increasing everyone else's workload quite a lot, you know?"
Looking at Blaze's expression, Amiya could only choose to believe that she had truly prepared everything properly. Still, she could not help giving her one final reminder.
That incident had happened quite a long ti ago.
Back then, Blaze's chainsaw had been damaged by gunfire. After repairing it, she had gone on a mission without properly checking it first, which led to problems.
Normally, she always thoroughly checked her equipnt before operations.
It was just that she occasionally forgot smaller items, such as dicine, bandages, ergency rations, and similar things.
"She normally looks so cute, so why does she suddenly beco kind of terrifying at tis like this?"
Watching the interaction between Amiya and Blaze, Penguin Logistics also began quietly... discussing things among themselves.
Naturally, Shirou was excluded.
Not because they were isolating him, but because after Blaze got dragged away by Amiya, Rosmontis imdiately summoned Shirou over to her side.
That little white kitten was absolutely the strongest enemy Penguin Logistics had ever encountered.
They could not hit her.
They could not scold her.
They could only watch helplessly as she pulled Shirou away.
Although, even if they did fight, they probably would not win anyway.
Apparently, if Rosmontis beca serious with her Arts, she could directly crush an entire vehicle into scrap tal.
If they really fought her, Penguin Logistics would probably end up transford into a mixture of Lupo, Forte, and syrup-flavored Penguin sauce.
And even if they sohow won, they would still have to face Mama Shirou's wrath afterward.
This battle was completely unwinnable.
How infuriating!
Turning grief and anger into appetite, the group ate an extra half bowl of rice each.
anwhile, Shirou, who had been dragged away by Rosmontis, completely failed to notice what was happening with Penguin Logistics.
Instead, he patiently listened as Rosmontis talked about everything that had happened today.
From visiting the dical Departnt for her daily examinations, to testing the results of her Originium Arts, accompanying Blaze to the Equipnt Departnt for equipnt inspections, and even what delicious foods she ate today.
All of it had been recorded on the terminal Rosmontis constantly carried around, and she read each entry aloud word for word while sharing them with Shirou.
"Sounds like you had a very happy day today."
After patiently listening to Rosmontis finish speaking, Shirou refilled her cup with water and handed it back to her.
Actually, he could have simply read everything directly from the terminal himself.
But if he did that, it would start feeling too much like he was checking up on what Rosmontis had done today, almost like supervising her.
The current arrangent felt much better.
Just like a child returning ho and reporting everything that happened during the day to their parents...
Hmm? Sohow, this felt a little strange.
Thinking up to that point, Shirou frowned slightly as he sensed sothing was off.
It was an illusion. It had to be an illusion.
Still, although the feeling was subtle, he did not dislike it.
Of course, that was specifically in Rosmontis's case.
The reason she did this was because of her own condition. Since she easily forgot things, she could only rely on the terminal in her hands to rember them.
Repeating everything now was not only her way of confirming whether she had forgotten anything today, but also a way to help herself rember what had happened throughout the day.
Happy things, sad things, angry things...
Rosmontis's countless mories and emotions were all compressed into this tiny terminal, recorded through emotionless text.
Although no emotions could truly be felt from the words themselves, it beca completely different once Rosmontis spoke them aloud.
At the very least, Shirou could clearly feel her happiness right now.
There was a little bit of it.
Not much, but definitely so.
"Mm, I am very happy."
After hearing Shirou's question, Rosmontis set down her terminal and nodded before adding another sentence after thinking for a mont.
"Everyone at Rhodes Island is my friend. Blaze, Ace, Scout, the other elite operators, and my squad mbers are all my family. That is why every day makes very happy."
"That is good."
Watching Rosmontis say those words with such a serious expression, Shirou felt a faint urge to laugh.
"Then what about you, Shirou? Are you happy in Lungn and at Rhodes Island too?"
Rosmontis stared directly at Shirou as she asked the question.
"...Yeah, I am happy too."
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Shirou froze briefly before turning his head toward Penguin Logistics, who were gathered together nearby discussing sothing unknown among themselves.
Then he glanced at Blaze, who was currently receiving verbal education from Amiya, before finally turning back toward Rosmontis, the one who had asked him that question.
"Although there are tis when I feel irritated and end up thinking about many things, after coming here, what I feel more than anything else is happiness. Every person I have t, although each of them has their own troubles, still remains positive and works hard to happily live through every day, just like you, Rosmontis."
As he spoke, Shirou reached out and gently patted Rosmontis's small head.
Whether it was happiness or joy, if he truly had to give all those emotions a single na...
Shirou felt that perhaps the correct word would be:
Contentnt.
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