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VESPER

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Vesper huffed on her last cigar as she watched the kid leave. She might\'ve not gotten the kid\'s name, but at least she got her supposed guardian\'s name as she heard the kid scream it out loud.

"What a coincidence..."

Letting her gaze watch the kid disappear into the distance, the Head Intellect couldn\'t believe that she somehow got the idea to take a rare smoke break outside just so she could meet one of these mysterious foreigners running around in her city. Her fragmented attention had somehow planted the idea in her head, allowing her to have a cursory glance on at least one of the new sellswords selling their services to the City-State.

"Shizu then..." she whispered to herself, her mind already busy counting down the time. "Sounds Kattleynan enough..."

The Head Intellect wasn\'t naive enough to think that this kid was harmless. In fact, she had carefully presented herself to sound concerned for her even as she tried to have the kid submit to the authorities. Sure, she did feel the need to genuinely help the kid, but she was still careful not to show her hand too much. They were still foreigners, and with their group having split up, it was getting harder and harder for her to even try and focus on every single one of them.

"What a pain..."

Raising her cigar back to her mouth, her lungs burned as she took another deep breath of stress relief. Already, she could feel the tension in her head easing momentarily, the sweet scent that the kid found pungent making her relax even further before she let out a long puff of smoke.

Looking up to the [Stars] overseeing the Marquee, Vesper let her imagination drift if only for a moment. It was rare enough for her to take breaks, let alone an extended one with her actually setting foot outside the administrative building on her own for once. It was nice not being recognized. It let her think back to a time when she had just run away from home with nothing but her wits and the clothes on her back, making her way through the world one step at a time.

It was a different time back then... Back when her achievements were attributed to her damned parents forcing her to do things against her will. She smiled. She dressed up. She danced. She sang.... And oh did she sing...

Absently, her other hand roamed towards her throat, her fingers palpating what was once her most valuable asset to society. She hadn\'t sung anything in years, her job keeping her too busy to even try and see if she still had it. And even if she did try, she was pretty sure that her voice had been utterly ruined by over a decade of constant smoking.

"I wonder..."

Taking in a rare clean breath, Vesper filled her lungs to capacity, throat muscles that hadn\'t been used in a while slowly starting to flex as she tried to sing one of the few songs that she actually liked.

However...

[*COUGH! COUGH!*]

The Head Intellect doubled over, her hand quickly going to her chest as she coughed her lungs out. She couldn\'t even let out a single word, let alone hit a note as her body quickly rejected the notion. Truly, that part of her was gone now, locked away in favor of actually doing something productive for society.

Shaking her head, Vesper raised her cigar back up to her lungs, unrepentantly inhaling before she finally depleted the stick. Regretfully, she sighed, flicking the butt of the cigar onto the nearest trash can before making her way back to her office.

"[Oversight]..."

After all, she still had a bit of monitoring to do, and she had wasted more than enough time indulging herself when she could\'ve just as easily been watching over her city\'s well-being. Something was going on, and she was going to get to the bottom of this even if it killed her.

Project D had to succeed. There was no doubt about that.

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SHIZU

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Making her way to the woods, Shizu was far from having a good time as she felt the device in her chest beep in time with her frantic heart. The unsettling thing was still firmly lodged into her breastbone, making it impossible for her to even try and pry it out of her without seriously risking her life. In fact, before she could even feel the metallic ball, she had to claw her way past her skin, and that was something that she couldn\'t see herself doing unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Guidance?! Moriya?!"

Calling out into the distance, the princess found herself wading through the forests on the outskirts of the Marquean capital city. Almost immediately, she found herself letting out a sigh of relief as the familiar look of forestry and dirt made her feel at ease. However, it only lasted so long before she was reminded of her current predicament by the incessant beeping coming out of her chest.

[*BEEP BEEP BEEP*]

"S-Shut up!" she ground out, her fist poised to pound at her chest only for her to backtrack as she realized that doing such a thing might only worsen the situation. "Ugh! S-Such a blasphemous thing..."

It was a nightmare waiting to happen. Having used [Code Watcher] to look at the device more closely, Shizu was mortified to see that its code was truly starting to merge with her own. It was as if the device was reading her body like an open book, and what was worse was that she could see a small stream of code being emitted by the beeping sphere. It went up and out towards the administrative building, which meant that it was indeed some kind of Marquean device. From there, she concluded that the device was somehow communicating what it was gleaning from her body to the person that was controlling it.

Just the thought of it almost made her want to gag in abhorrent disgust.

Still, forcing herself to ignore the beeping, Shizu refocused her efforts back on the hunt. Her Gods had been out here in the forest, surely, and it was only a matter of time until she found some kind of-

"Halt!"

Shizu froze. The voice behind her sounded like a man, and she was pretty sure that she had kept her tracks hidden. So who was this?

"Turn around, foreigner!"

Blinking, the princess kept her cool as she did what she was told, her eyes immediately taking in the uniformed man that had somehow followed her all the way out in the wilderness... Wait...

Did this man possibly track her using the device?

"W-What seems to be the problem?" Shizu asked, flashing him a diplomatic smile as she forced herself to calm down.

"You\'re currently in a restricted area," the man firmly declared. "These forests are protected areas meant for preserving wildlife. Entry into these lands is forbidden even for Marquean citizens."

Shizu blinked, her mouth partly agape as the mild shock of the situation sank in.

"I will calmly ask you to leave, miss," the man stated. "If you refuse, however, I will resort to force if need be."

"W-Wha- Oh, there\'s no need for that!"

​ Scratching the back of her head, Shizu quickly willed herself away from the supposedly protected forests. Keeping up the act until the man left her alone, she finally let out a sigh before she turned back around and looked at her destination.

"Well, that\'s a problem."

According to her [Code Watcher], she was pretty sure that her Gods had gone deep into this very forest. Even before she got turned around, she was starting to see a few signs that people had been there. Falling twigs, unnaturally depressed dirt. There were even a few even holes scattered around some of the trees.

\'That\'s probably Moriya attacking the trees,\' Shizu inwardly mumbled. \'I don\'t know why he\'d do such a thing though...\'

Nevertheless, she was on the right track. Her Gods had clearly gotten into the forest without being stopped, and if she wanted the device in her chest removed, she had to confer to Lady Guidance\'s help.

"[Code Watcher]..."

Checking to see if the coast was clear, Shizu went down onto a small kneel before shooting herself straight towards the forest. With her speed hopefully masking her presence, she zipped towards the place where she last left off, her eyes letting her peer into the world of black and green as she looked around.

"Come on... Where are you...."

Peering through the world of the Gods, Shizu scanned for every nook and cranny she could find. Abusing her ability, she looked past the trees blocking her way, only to frown as she found nothing of importance to her search.

"Dammit," she grumbled. "Where could they be?"

With her feet still moving, Shizu peered down towards the ground a bit to check her footing, only for her to skid to a halt as she saw something that shouldn\'t even be possible.

Then again, being with Moriya and Lady Guidance had shown time and again that the impossible was merely things that they haven\'t seen or tried yet.

"What.... What is this...."

The princess gawked, her all-powerful eyes almost straining as she peered into what looked to be some kind of underground secret facility. And it went on... and on.... and on....

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