"You’ve been staring at for four hours, aren’t you going to rest your eyes?"
Yawen opened her eyes and looked at Nomi, who was staring at her with her one good eye, and kindly persuaded her,
"Don’t worry, I won’t run away. You’ve taken away my compressed biscuits and personal terminal. Travelling in the Outer World without a vehicle is no different from seeking death."
"Shut up." Nomi brandished a wrench and pointed it at her, contemptuously saying, "There’s not a single good thing among the Four Nations, and it’s your kind of lackeys and hounds that our Rose Army kills."
"Mr. Li Aozi is also from the Four Nations, and he’s even from the thriving Red Arrow Empire. It seems to you have quite a good relationship with him."
Yawen calmly remarked, noticing a flicker of emotion cross Nomi’s gaze before she blinked,
"Is it because you like him?"
"Fuck off, Frost Plated! How could I ever like a vase with a pretty face and not even two ounces of muscle? Don’t disgust ."
Nomi felt a chill,
"We have only a cooperative relationship with him, mutually beneficial, which is why we have a ceasefire for now."
"Since the Rose Army can negotiate and cooperate with people from the Four Nations, I think it’s not necessarily impossible to cooperate with the Frost Plated People."
Before Yawen could finish her sentence, Nomi stepped on the car door beside her head, her face covered by bandages revealing a ferocious smile.
"Yeah, of course we can cooperate— after all, racially speaking, we’re still kin, aren’t we?"
She lowered her head, her face twisted, and the bandages showed signs of cracking,
"—My parents, my brothers and sisters, my ntors and comrades-in-arms, they all died at the hands of our so-called brethren! Now you talk to about cooperation, so bring back their lives if you can!"
Her grip on the wrench whitened her knuckles, and her eyes were filled with only hatred and anger.
"Lu Yi, Luo Wenke, Zhu Lei, Olen, Lilya Trelei... The people from this village, just because their village had rich iron mines, were forcefully driven from their hos by your Frost Plated military, herded into the barren wilderness of the Outer World, left to starve and freeze to death on the road. Cooperation? I spit on the idea! Every inch of Frost Plated land is filled with the blood and bones of people from the Outer World. You bastards that grew from soil of sin, all of you fucking deserve to die!"
Despite her heightened emotions, she refrained from taking action. Noticing Yawen’s puzzlent, Nomi sneered,
"Think I’d hit you? No, no, the Rose Army is not the beast of the Fourth Rule Agency. We are human; we treat prisoners with decency. No matter how angry I am, I would never do such a thing."
After speaking, she put down the wrench and crossed her arms, looking down at Yawen from her lofty position.
Yawen fell silent for a mont before saying,
"I have never abused a prisoner, never. During interrogation, I used reasoning and evidence to leave the accused speechless and forced to confess. I’ve never killed anyone. Actually, I’ve only been working for three months..."
"Oh, now you’re playing innocent?" Nomi scoffed.
Yawen shook her head, "I’m not lying to you. In fact, I think that the governnt and dia have always stigmatized the image of the Rose Army..."
"Stigmatize my ass, we are rebels, and sooner or later, we’ll raze Frost Plated to the ground! On the ruins of your world, we’ll build a new nation for ordinary people, brick by brick."
Nomi interrupted sharply,
"This is the force behind my will to live, so keep stigmatizing. The Rose Bandits will eventually burst into the capital and drive you fat cats and bureaucrats off this land!"
"If that’s the case," Yawen countered, "I think we should not be enemies."
"—Hah? You Frost Plated with integrity are joking with , aren’t you?" Nomi raised an eyebrow.
"No, I’m serious."
Yawen looked at her intently and said in a firm voice,
"My na is Yavin Heskixin, but that’s my mother’s surna. If we’re talking about my father, you might have heard of him."
"Oh, not another highborn lady. Disgusting, you maggots and deviants—"
"My father is David Lyn, the director of the Special Services Departnt of the Frost Plated Internal Security Bureau. He’s also one of the candidates for the next Minister of National Defense, sothing the Rose Army’s intelligence, which is extrely well-connected, should know about. But what the Rose Army does not know is that a year ago, he was secretly judged and arrested for charges of treason and collusion with the enemy, and he is incarcerated on Elf Island."
Elf Island... It sounded like a dreamy and beautiful place, like a holiday resort, but in fact, it was a prison for all sorts of dangerous criminals guarded by Transcendents and heavily ard soldiers, where escape was virtually impossible.
Nomi hesitated for a mont, then feigned indifference, "So what?"
"My father is a true patriot; he never committed treason or collusion."
Yawen continued in a grave voice,
"He was frad by his female political rivals because he was a man who had entered the Twin Palaces (President’s Palace).
"My family was sheltered and supported by my father; a governnt official who was known for his integrity and dedicated to the nation never let us enjoy the privileges of the upper class. He reached his position through hard work and contributions, but my father, who worked so hard and was so loyal, was envied and frad simply because of his gender...
"My family collapsed overnight, my mother broke down and went to plead in front of the Twin Palaces to clear my father’s na. However, she was brutally beaten by the military police as they accused her of ’attempting to assassinate the President’ and was taken into custody. My elder brother was implicated and fired from his company. Even though he graduated from a prestigious university, he couldn’t find a job."
"...Oh."
Nomi propped the wrench on her shoulder, unimpressed.
"It is precisely because I want to change the decline of my family that I joined the Fourth Rule Agency."
Yawen said:
"I’m at least a college student. Joining the Fourth Rule to beco a field agent, I don’t need to take exams or have my political background checked. As long as I complete two major tasks, I can work at the headquarters in Twin Star City. This is the fastest way for to enter the political arena and save my father."
"Do you really think that’s possible? How could they not consider your political background? Your father has been arrested, the civilians don’t care, but the higher-ups are well aware of it. They’ll never let you into the center of power."
Nomi mocked:
"People like you, solely for your own selfish reasons, are completely contrary to the Rose Army’s principles."
"There are only two ways to save my father."
Yawen said:
"One is to be elected President, then sign a pardon."
"The other is—to find Elf Island’s location and launch an assault."
"Stop trying to save him, let him die."
Nomi lay on the sofa, sitting cross-legged with her hands behind her head, showing no interest. She spread her hands:
"You still think you can beco the President? Forgive my bluntness, even Qiu Ran looks more reliable than you—at least he appears kind, speaks gently, and is likable, even if he isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. What capabilities do you have?"
Nomi tapped her own head mockingly:
"As for attacking Elf Island, I advise you to save it. First, nobody knows where Elf Island is exactly, and second, it’s guarded by Frost Plated’s most elite troops. With that effort, you might as well find a new father."
She looked at Yawen as her head slowly lowered and added indifferently:
"I understand what you an, Miss. You just want to use the Rose Army to rescue your father, but why would we do that? It doesn’t matter how many Frost Plated high officials die—"
Bang!
Nomi’s words were cut off by a loud noise from behind. Sothing smashed hard against the car door, and both people inside suddenly went on alert. Nomi grabbed a wrench, ready for battle.
Rip—
The outer camouflage fabric was instantly torn apart. Sharp shadow claws quickly scratched deep cracks into the bulletproof glass. The beast suddenly lowered its head and, with its mouth wide open, shrieked at the two inside the car:
"Ziaaaaa—"
"Damn, what is this?!"
Just by making eye contact with the shadow, Nomi imdiately felt a sudden, uncomfortable revulsion, as if her body had lost a dozen degrees of warmth in an instant, her hands and feet turning ice cold.
Whiz!
A chain cut through the night sky, rapidly accelerated by gravity, like a silver-gray Holy Sword that instantly beheaded the shadow beast.
"Chains—Li Aozi!"
Nomi’s eyes brightened, and she imdiately jumped out of the car.
"Well done, Little Li, what you did—"
Her praise stopped abruptly, as Li Aozi’s figure, like a kite with its string cut, crashed towards her in an instant.
"(Civilization Frost Plating)! Don’t co over here!"
Thump!
Li Aozi crashed into Nomi with his back, without ti to explain. He imdiately adjusted the direction of gravity and soared into the sky, tossing Nomi, who had served as his cushion, to the other side of the car.
"Nomi, drive!"
The mont he raised his head, the figure of the one-ard girl appeared in his field of vision. Amidst the chilly wind, her frail and lifeless form seed so abrupt... so fierce.
Nomi was thrown to the ground. After patting her backside, she quickly flipped over, opened the car door, sat in the driver’s seat, and started the car without bothering to buckle her seatbelt.
Vroom—
As the engine roared to life, the one-ard girl’s figure suddenly appeared in front of the car.
"Move!" Nomi yelled, turning on the high beams hoping to force her to back off.
Crack!
The blinding white light reflected off her pale skin. Nomi’s pupils shrank, shocked by the opponent’s young age and nurous wounds. For a mont, she hesitated, failing to press the accelerator imdiately.
That montary pause gave the one-ard girl the opportunity she needed.
She stiffly raised her hand, and from the split wounds all over her body, a flood of dark shadow mist surged out wildly, ready to engulf the whole car in an instant.
"Kneel!"
A booming command, like a thunderclap from the blue, made the one-ard girl instantly fall to her knees, her shins smashing into the snow-filled pits, shattering the bones.
Woosh—
Li Aozi fell from the sky in an instant with the chain straightened. The gravity, amplified nearly tenfold, stretched the chain into a straight spear that pierced through the top of the girl’s skull, erging from beneath her jaw, nailing her to the frost-covered ground.
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