"Reporting to headquarters, no signs of large-scale combat have been detected on the uppermost level of 'Ice Palace'. An entrance to the lower level has been found..."
"The lower 'Ice Cave' has traces of lting, but now it seems to be gradually stabilizing and is not as cold as expected. It looks like the fight is over."
i wasn't just simply reporting the objective situation to headquarters; she was also including her subjective analysis. This should have been a taboo, after all, between an independent and self-reliant subordinate and a docile and obedient one, most people would have chosen the latter without hesitation.
However, neither i nor her superiors seed to be ordinary people.
"Alright, Dr. i. Since we've given you the authority to explore the area designated DE-012, go ahead and do what you need to do. No captain-level officers were sent on this operation, so you can temporarily act as the Fifth Squad's captain when necessary."
"Hey! Lucien, shouldn't I be the one saying those words!"
"Mr. Vashak, does it matter who says that?"
"..."
i shook her head, wishing she could just silence the communication directly.
Kevin walked up from behind and silently draped a coat over her shoulders.
"Are you cold?"
"I'm fine."
Although she said she was fine, i coughed lightly twice, pulling the coat tighter.
She turned around and looked at the soldiers of the Fifth Squad. Without Hiko's restraint, the soldiers were clearly much more lax. Even Kevin, who had beco a unit leader because of his high scores in simulated training, couldn't control them...
But the mission had to move forward. i looked at Kevin, but only saw gentleness and obedience in his eyes.
"Get ready to enter the lower level. Kevin, I'm feeling a little unwell, so I can't go any further with you. When you get down there... Achoo!"
"Are you alright, i..." Kevin thought for a mont, then took off his own coat and was about to put it on i when she refused.
"My discomfort isn't from the cold. I feel a little dizzy, do you feel that way?"
Kevin shook his head.
i turned to look at the other soldiers, and saw that many of them were also holding their heads, looking unwell.
"It seems like so soldiers are also feeling that way. You should select who to take to the lower level. The rest of them should stay here and keep company."
"Okay..."
Kevin responded in a low voice. Just as he was about to leave, i suddenly leaned close to him and whispered,
"Don't worry too much. If anyone is down there, it'll be Mikael. He won't make things difficult for you guys."
"Uh?"
i didn't seem willing to say anything more on the matter. Kevin wanted to ask more, but she had already turned her head away and said nothing.
In reality, sending the Fifth Squad was the result of a night-long argunt within Fire Moth. After detecting a Herrscher-level Honkai energy reaction, Fire Moth imdiately pulled up satellite images of the area. After zooming in repeatedly, they had indeed found Mikael's figure.
The final decision to send the Fifth Squad was very deliberate—after all, this was the team that Mikael had once been in. There were many people he knew well, and neither Vashak nor Lucien thought he would attack them.
But it couldn't be the entire Fifth Squad. For example, if they had Hiko lead the team directly... no one could say for sure whether Hiko would lead the team directly to join Mikael's side...
So, the final solution was—Hiko wouldn't go, and Dr. i, whom both Lucien and Vashak considered "one of their own," would lead the team.
And conveniently, her boyfriend was the only unit leader in the Fifth Squad now, so there shouldn't be any problems...
Yeah, right!
Even from far away, i could hear the arguing. If she wasn't mistaken, it was Aldemir arguing with Kevin again.
She shook her head, confident that Kevin could handle these small matters.
"I think my body is fine... Ugh... These small difficulties... Ugh... are nothing compared to what happened in R'lyeh (Ruruye)... Ugh...!"
Aldemir was being supported by a young female soldier. He looked much worse than i, but he stubbornly refused to stay on the upper level to rest.
Kevin scratched his head:
"You look like you're not okay, no matter how you look at it, right?"
"I don't care! Ugh... Cough cough cough! You can't strip a soldier of his right to fight! Ugh!"
The surrounding soldiers heard the argunt, and each of them looked over without making a sound. To so extent, Aldemir was considered one of the veterans of the Fifth Squad. Kevin was strong, but he didn't have the experience or accomplishnts to back him up.
Unlike Mikael and Ellie, both of them were not only strong in the simulated training room, but they also had concrete battle records during the Irkutsk Honkai incident!
So, to so extent, this argunt between the two could be extended to a broader conflict—the conflict between the new recruits who joined after the Third Honkai, and the veterans.
This conflict was still an undercurrent when Hiko was in charge. But once she was gone, it erupted imdiately—
Even though neither of the two people who started the conflict had that intention.
And i didn't seem to care much about this conflict.
But there were so who understood. Evangeline lightly pinched Aldemir's hand, and timidly looked at Kevin:
"Unit Leader Kevin, how about we let Brother Aldemir go down?"
She clenched her left fist beside her cheek and made a "you can do it" gesture. "I'll take care of him!"
She was probably one of the few people there who understood the origin of the conflict. All the issues between these two were actually caused by Mikael.
Of course, Aldemir was also insistent on going down this ti because of that—over the past six months, many rumors had spread, like the most basic information that Mikael was still alive, and that Mikael was a Herrscher.
This was now common knowledge within Fire Moth.
And this ti, although the base had sounded the alarm that a Herrscher had appeared, there wasn't a large-scale mobilization. What was the reason for that? Aldemir knew it very well. Evangeline knew it as well, and Kevin might not have been too sure, but he knew it now.
"Okay." Kevin hesitated for a long ti before uttering that single word. This discomfort was probably just a common cold, and if i hadn't reminded him, he wouldn't have taken it to heart.
And he never wanted to be on opposing sides with Aldemir. Now that there was a way out, he naturally went along with it.
Anyway, it wasn't him who was feeling sick.
And when the other soldiers saw that the conflict ended anticlimactically after another recruit gave so advice, so sighed in relief, but most of the soldiers wished they could have made a show of booing them.
That was human nature, watching other people's drama was fun.
The rope was quickly prepared, and the soldiers of the Fifth Squad rappelled down into the large opening that soone had created in the ice.
"Be careful. According to the scans, this area is like a maze, except for the ice cave in the very center. Don't get separated... Hey!"
Kevin quickly grabbed the ice wall. The ice surface was still a little wet, and he had almost slipped.
"I've found the entrance to the ice cave! Follow , and enter one by one!"
He jumped in first, his movents quite dashing.
"Ouch!"
The ice cave was dim, and even with the use of a strong flashlight, they couldn't see clearly. The soldiers behind him only heard a cry of pain.
He was startled. In that short mont, Aldemir jumped in past him.
"You-!"
As he spoke, Evangeline leaned forward. There was no ti to regret it, and she could only grit her teeth and jump in as well.
"Ah!"
The remaining soldiers remained at the entrance, looking at each other, and stopped moving.
"It's okay, it's okay! Don't jump directly! Use the ropes instead!"
After a few seconds, Kevin's voice ca from inside the ice cave.
When everyone entered the ice cave, they saw Kevin and Aldemir standing side by side, rubbing their butts. They seed to realize that they were making the sa gesture and glanced at each other, then snorted simultaneously, averting their gaze.
"Kevin, what's the situation down there?"
i's voice ca through the communication.
"No living organisms have been found. Apart from the ice surface being a little slippery, there are no other dangers."
"Is that so... It seems like Mikael has already left..."
"Wait! i! There is a Honkai beast carcass here! Oh man, it's just half of it, but half of it is already over forty ters long!"
The soldiers of the Fifth Squad gradually surrounded the huge corpse, while Aldemir, with the support of Evangeline, retreated to the side and started retching uncontrollably.
"In the end, we were too late... Hey, what's this! Ugh!"
Aldemir kicked sothing with his foot. He suddenly knelt down, scaring Evangeline. She hurriedly tried to help him, but he suddenly beca excited:
"It's nothing, it's nothing! I can get up myself!"
"Move away!"
Kevin suddenly shouted and charged over. Before they could even react, Aldemir and Evangeline were grabbed by the arms and thrown aside by Kevin.
"You-! Tell i..."
Before Kevin could finish speaking, he disappeared into a spatial rift.
"Kevin! Kevin! Aldemir, what happened down there?"
"It was a spatial rift! Kevin was swallowed by it!"
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