deia skipped down the corridor, grinning as she effortlessly escaped those foolish soldiers. Even though she had to sacrifice one docunt, the more important ones were still safely stored in her Space Pocket.
Since she couldn’t use her camouflage cloak again for another hour, she decided not to return to the bathroom. Instead, she decided to find Lucian so they could get out of this place as soon as possible.
For a mont, she considered using the mystical compass to teleport. It would cost her, but at least she had gotten sothing valuable in return.
As she made her way down the second-floor hallway, she finally spotted a row of doors, not too far from the restrooms. Each door had a small window, making them look more like prison cells than bedrooms for kids.
deia ca to a stop in front of one of the doors. Her eyes flickered toward the tal plate bolted to it, engraved with "B24-03".
She tilted her head, thinking.
Did B24 an Batch 24, while the last number represented the room number?
Curious, she took a step back and glanced at the doors around her.
B24-01.
B24-02.
Yep, it seed like she was right.
Her curiosity piqued, deia stepped closer to B24-03 and leaned in, peering through the small window on the door.
The interior of the room was painfully simple. There was a bunk bed and a single bed, with nothing else that stood out. The walls and floor were pure white—hell, even the bed sheets were white.
In the corner, there was a small sink and an ergency potty, probably for when they weren’t allowed to leave their quarters.
"Sir! Can I have more apple juice?"
deia flinched in surprise when she suddenly heard a little boy’s voice from inside the room.
She lowered her gaze and spotted three little boys sitting at a small table in the middle of the room.
Their tiny hands clutched spoons as they struggled to scoop up chunks of at stew from their cold tal trays.
’Tell their age,’ deia asked the system.
A glowing number appeared above each of their heads: 07, 08, 07.
Seven and eight years old? They were way too young to be taking care of themselves!
"Kael! You can’t ask for more juice!" The blonde-haired boy pinched Kael’s cheek, scolding him. "We only get one juice a week!"
Kael pouted. "But ... but the nice soldier from before said he’d co back and bring us more!"
"He was lying to you!" The boy with darker skin huffed, glaring. "Didn’t you read the book they gave us? The world is dying! It’s hard to find fruit!"
"But what if the book is lying? What if the world is actually fine?"
deia silently watched as they bickered about who was right and who was wrong.
It seed like they had been given books containing information about the outside world. Maybe the researchers were trying to make them less timid, considering how the previous successful batch had ended up too fearful.
"The world really is dying! That’s why we have to stay here!"
"But ... but I’m tired of living in this tiny place!"
"Shhh! Don’t say that out loud!" The blonde-haired boy quickly covered Kael’s mouth, his eyes darting toward the door, toward deia.
Fear flickered across his face. "We’ll get punished if you talk like that."
Punished?
deia clenched her fists.
These kids had clean clothes, better food than rock-hard military rations, and a place to stay that was far nicer than a soldier’s barracks.
But apparently, it all ca at a cost.
Maybe the reason Finn and the others were so timid wasn’t just because they had never seen the ugliness of the outside world. Maybe it was because they were forced to obey or face punishnt.
But what kind of punishnt could be so terrifying that it made the boys shiver at just the re thought of it?
Even Kael, who had been so chatty just monts ago, had fallen silent. He bit his lip and went back to eating his cold stew, his little hands gripping the spoon tightly.
Should she just break down the door and take them with her now?
No. If she did that, she wouldn’t be able to use the mystical compass.
Wait—there were three of them. Maybe she could teach them how to use it, while she and Lucian found another way out.
No, no, no.
If she did that, the military base would imdiately tighten security, making it even harder to co back and save the others later.
There were 15 quarters on this floor, each one holding three kids.
If she only took three, the remaining 42 children might never get a chance to escape easily later.
deia gritted her teeth.
She took a step back from the door, forcing herself not to look at the children’s faces.
Those little gremlins always had a way of making things complicated for her.
As she stepped back further, she suddenly bumped into soone.
deia froze. Her eyes widened slightly.
Since when?!
She hadn’t even heard footsteps approaching.
The person behind her was taller, broader, and when she crashed into him, it felt like slamming into a steel wall.
"What are you doing here?" A deep voice echoed in her ear, and for so reason, it triggered sothing within her.
She reacted instantly, spinning around and jumping back to create so space between them.
The man standing in front of her wore a long black coat, his tall fra nearly blocking out the dim light.
His sharp gray eyes flickered toward her. The intensity in his gaze was so overwhelming it almost felt like he could burn a hole through her skull just by looking at her.
’Who the hell is that?!’ deia scread at the system.
[Na: Lazarus Voss (General of Oblivion Military Alliance)
Age: 53
Ability: ???]
General Voss?!
The soldiers at the gate had said he wasn’t in the base!
No, that wasn’t the real problem here.
Why couldn’t the system detect his ability?!
It reminded her of Lucian. Back then, the system couldn’t detect his ability either because it wasn’t capable of asuring it.
So ... what did that an for this man?
And more importantly, why did she feel just a little bit scare right now?
The fuck?
She had never felt like this toward any human before.
"I asked you a question." Lazarus took a step toward her, his voice dropping lower. "What are you doing here?"
Before deia could figure out how to fool this terrifying general, especially when she couldn’t even speak, she suddenly heard the sound of a cart rolling in the distance.
"Oh, there you are!"
deia let out a small sigh of relief as a familiar voice echoed through the corridor. "You can’t wander around like that! Co on, we still have to deliver lunch to the soldiers on this floor."
Without sparing Lazarus a glance, deia imdiately ran toward Lucian. She was about to help him push the cart when Lazarus said sothing, "Wait."
Lazarus’s voice stopped them both in their tracks.
deia held her breath, but Lucian remained as calm as ever. He even turned around and flashed the general a polite smile. "Do you need sothing, Sir?"
Lazarus looked at him for a mont before asking, "Have we t before?"
deia stole a quick glance at Lucian and noticed that he had covered his face with dust, making him harder to recognize.
"Of course, Sir!" Lucian replied confidently. "I’ve been living on this base for years, so I’m sure we’ve crossed paths before. However, today is our first day working in this tal cube. That’s why I hope you can understand if my comrade accidentally got lost."
Lazarus stayed silent for a long mont before finally saying, "You may go."
deia didn’t waste any more ti, she grabbed the cart and pushed it away from him as fast as possible. Only when they had walked far enough—far enough that the terrifying man was no longer in sight—did deia finally whisper, "He’s the General."
"I know." Lucian replied casually. "That’s why I was going to ask, why were you wandering around instead of staying in the toilet?"
deia’s expression darkened. "You expected to just sit there in that disgusting restroom?"
Lucian sighed. "That’s not what I ant. I just don’t want you getting into trouble. What if I wasn’t there when the General questioned you?" He clicked his tongue. "Fuck, I don’t even know why he suddenly showed up in here."
deia blinked.
Lucian swore? If words like that had actually slipped from his mouth, then the situation had to be really bad.
"I’ve already got sothing important from this base." deia said, picking up her pace. "Let’s get out of here."
She grabbed Lucian’s wrist and pulled him toward the locker room, pulling out the mystical compass.
Before the system could even ask if she wanted to pay for the teleportation, deia cut it off. "Just take the gold from my account and teleport us back to the Red Star Alliance. Now."
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