A voice shouted behind .
"Rune Sage—! What are you doing!"
I ignored it.
I reached into the trash and pulled Henry out, tal and broken flesh heavy in my arms. I laid him down on the ground and pressed two fingers to his neck.
’He has a pulse.’
I let out a sigh full of relief inwardly.
’As long as he has a pulse, I can save him.’
The level of technology I would have to show to do that was far beyond anything this world was supposed to see.
It would draw attention, and put in danger.
But—
’Charlotta, this ti, I will make sure your siblings are safe.’
’Think of it as paynt for everything you did for in our last life.’
Behind , the recruiters had gathered, their earlier excitent replaced with curiosity and thinly veiled interest.
One of them squinted.
"Wait. Isn’t that the Saint Candidate P Corp brought in a few days ago?"
"So they trashed him so no one else could salvage anything. Typical."
"Rune Sage, this is exactly why you should join us instead of P Corp. They have the highest number of successful operations, sure, but they also have the highest number of failures."
Even now.
Even with a child’s life destroyed right in front of them.
They were still using it as a talking point.
To them, people weren’t people. They were numbers of ingredients tallied on their reports.
I lifted Henry into my arms and turned around.
The group fell quiet when they saw my face.
"You know, I’ve been thinking about sothing."
All of them beca silent when I spoke.
"Aren’t you all just trash with no real chanical skills?"
A sneer crept onto my face.
"I’ve been touring this City for a week. All I’ve seen are berserk cyborgs and broken streets. There was nothing worth learning. Honestly, you guys have zero skill with machines."
A recruiter near the front bristled.
"That’s because we protect our real technology inside our corporations. If you visit our Corporation, you’ll see what we can really do."
"Exactly, how can you say we’re failures when you haven’t even seen our best work?"
The group grew louder. Their voices overlapped again, this ti with veiled anger instead of enthusiasm.
This was a place where everyone was into chanic lifestyle, the insult at skills were sa as insulting one’s parents or children in the outside world.
"It doesn’t matter if your front yards are beautiful. All you’ve done is hide the filth in the backyard where no one can see it."
I shifted Henry slightly in my arms, making sure I had a firm hold on him.
"I ca to the System Church because I thought I might learn sothing. But honestly, I was better than all of you when I was half my current age."
A vein throbbed on one recruiter’s forehead.
Another forced a smile that looked more like a grimace.
They were angry, but they were trying to hide it.
They weren’t very good at it though.
’Their minds are ssed up too.’
Almost everyone here had been operated on, in one way or another. So had undergone minor operations. Others had major ones.
And even minor operations could ss with how a person thought.
Failed operations ssed them up even more.
’That’s one of the reasons most people in this City can’t think straight.’
Before anyone could respond, I pointed at a woman near the back of the group.
"You. What’s your na and your affiliation?"
She blinked, clearly not expecting to be singled out.
"M-? I’m Nyra Holden. The Director of L Corp."
"A director?" I let out a short laugh. "Seriously? The highest-ranked person you have ca out here to recruit ? Do you have no dignity, or do you just not have anyone competent?"
Her face flushed.
"That’s not what this is. We wanted to show our sincerity, so I ca personally," she said quickly. "We—"
"Ah, whatever," I cut her off. "All of you are terrible chanics, so it doesn’t really matter who you are. I might as well join a random Corp. No matter where I go, I won’t learn anything new."
A few of them opened their mouths, ready to argue.
I didn’t give them the chance.
The corner of my lips lifted.
"Now that I think about it, at least you’re easy on the eyes. That’s more than I can say for these guys."
A couple of recruiters stiffened.
Nyra froze.
"I’ll join your Corp," I said.
For a mont, no one reacted.
Then the noise hit.
Questions. Complaints. Shouted protests.
"This is ridiculous—"
"You can’t decide like that—"
"What about our offer—"
Saint Dexter stepped in, raising his voice just enough to cut through the chaos.
"Enough. The Rune Sage has made his choice."
Nyra stood there, staring at , still trying to process what had just happened.
"Are you... is this serious?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
Even though she tried to hide it, I could see a glint of excitent and madness within her eyes.
"Then, we should head to L Corp. It’s not far from here."
"Let’s go," I replied.
We moved.
The group broke apart as we walked, so recruiters lingering behind, others leaving with looks that ranged from annoyance to thinly veiled resentnt.
The City swallowed their voices as the chanical hum grew louder the deeper we went.
After a while, we reached a tall structure marked with L Corp’s emblem: a Lantern.
The entrance was wide and clean, with guards standing at both sides, their augntations visible beneath their uniforms.
Saint Dexter and the others stopped at the door.
"Our work here is done. See you later."
He reached out and gave my shoulder a firm pat with a smile.
Pain exploded through my arm.
It was sharp and deep, like sothing had slipped inside rather than struck from the outside.
’What the hell was—’
My thoughts froze.
For a split second, everything went blank.
The sounds of the City faded, and even Yuna’s presence felt distant, like she was on the other side of a thick wall.
Then it snapped back.
I found myself standing in the sa place, everyone looking at .
Saint Dexter’s face had a calm smile.
"Is there a problem?" he asked.
"It’s nothing. I just felt dizzy for a mont," I said.
He studied for another mont, then nodded.
Saintess Cossette and Saint Maverick nodded at and turned away, following him as they headed back down the road.
Judy waved her hand.
The Saints disappeared into the flow of people and machines, leaving alone with Nyra and her guards.
Nyra cleared her throat, and spoke,
"Shall we go inside? I’ll show you how our Corporation operates."
I nodded, and looked towards Henry in my arms.
’He doesn’t has much ti left.’
’I need to move quickly.’
I was lucky to find him ’alive’, but a lot of irreversible damage had been done already.
If I didn’t operate on him quickly, even saving him would be impossible.
’The problem is that with my current body, I can’t execute chanic skills required to save him ’
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