If you didn’t quite understand what just happened, let me elaborate for you. See, when I told Auros what I wanted him to do for us, he had all too easily agreed to my bold wish. This in and of itself was quite the red flag, but I hadn’t noticed at the time, figuring that he’s way too dumb to try and pull something dirty on us. Thus, I had made the crazy proclamation “Take us to the west of Meior!” Thinking he’ll take us to the dock. He smiled a toothy grin before snapping his fingers and creating a teleport platform to there.

Stepping atop it, I quickly realized that I should’ve just skipped the dock entirely and immediately get sent to Cardina, but it was already too late. The Fighting God revealed himself as someone way more cunning than we had originally thought, and it seems that he had tricked us all along. Once teleported, we opened our eyes and realized we were surrounded by a bunch of Aurolians wearing the Meior army uniforms. It seems he took my wish literally and, instead of taking us to the dock like I had intended for him to do, he had taken us straight into the heart of the Lis army base.

“Stop, stop!” I yelled at the top of my lungs, trying desperately to make them point their guns away from us, “We can explain everything, but first, does anyone speak Entropic?”

Murmurs immediately arose as they debated whether to just take us out or not. Still shielding the girls from the guns around us, I knew full-well just how little of a difference that’d make, but I wanted to at least show through my actions that we mean no harm. This thankfully tipped the scales in our favor, and so they finally lowered their guns to the ground. That being said, the murmurs were still apparent.

“Nelly, what are they saying?” I whispred, “Can you make out any of it?”

“Hmm… Not weally, I haven’t heawd these wowds befowe.” She lowered her head apologetically, “Uh, something something Enemy, and now Weapon…?”

Well, keywords hold the most information in them, so even without knowing much of the language, Nelly helped us understand them a bit better. Looks like there are still some soldiers that refuse to let us live. Why’d I have to create guns? I mean, Cecily and I could easily deal with these guys if they were using swords or even spears, but no human could surpass the speed of a bullet.

That being said, just what are their guns? They’re certainly not AFPs, in fact they’re so big that the soldiers have to use both hands to hold them. They’ve got a wooden stock, and the tip has a knife attached to it. I feel like just looking at one is shaving off years off of my life, so I can’t imagine what the Lis soldiers feel when they actually have to go up against it.

“Alright, alright!” A soldier was dragged to the front of the crowd, “I’ll talk to them, but you guys owe me!”

“You speak Entropic?” I asked.

“Shut your mouth, I’m the one asking the questions here.” He demanded, “Sigh, seriously, just because my parents taught me Entropic as a kid, now I gotta talk to some suspicious people? I mean, what’s the deal, I’m just a rookie!”

“Sounds rough.” Cecily sympathized.

“Never mind that,” The soldier continued, “Right now you’re in the cafeteria of our base. How did you get here? Who are you, and what business do you have with the Meior army?”

“We’ve been tricked by…!” I almost let it slip that we met Auros, but Cecily shut me up.

“We’re deserters from the Lis army!” She explained, “How do I put it… The two of us met while he was out patrolling. I was just a wandering trader, but we quickly hit it off, and after a while of meeting up in secret…”

These words were followed by Cecily blushing while grabbing Nelly by the shoulders. To any unsuspecting stranger, this lie would appear to indicate that I’m just your regular everyday soldier on the Lis side who met her, a lowly traveling merchant, and I got her pregnant with Nelly during one of our trysts. This led to us escaping and looking for a way out of the continent. The story is so cliché, you’d think no one would expect it. Love blossoming between a soldier and a traveling merchant? That’s what happens in like every one in three romance novels! There’s no way these guys will fall for it-!

“Sniff…” The soldier barely held his tears in, “Such a touching story…! You two must’ve faced so many hardships because of this…!”

“Wait, you believe us?” I immediately tried prying for information while still making sure to cover my bases, “I-I mean, most people didn’t wanna believe us at all. It’s just kind of a shock to me is all.”

“I can imagine.” He replied, “But just because it’s such an unbelievable story only makes me more inclined to believe you. I mean, what if you’re really telling the truth and I still shoot you? I could never live that down, the guilt would haunt me for the rest of my life!”

Whoa, this guy’s oddly spiritual in that sense. I wonder, in which God does he believe in? Looking at his skin tone, he also seems to be a bit fairer than the rest…

“Pardon my curiosity, sir,” I decided there wasn’t any harm in asking, “But do you have anyone in your family tree from Entropa?”

“Yeah, from my mom’s side, I’m half-Entropic.” He replied, “That’s also the reason I was forced to learn the language. Oh, but I was born and raised here.”

“Wait, born and raised?” Cecily asked.

“Ah, so you noticed?” He chuckled, “I’m much like your little girl here. My mother was also a merchant, and my father a soldier here. The only difference is they never left, and instead came clean, which lead to me living here as a sort of apprentice. Actually, I just got approved as a rookie recently, but I hope I can make my parents proud soon!”

“So wait, where’s your dad?” I asked.

“Dad’s dead.” He said without a hint of sadness, “He died in the war shortly after I was born. The others don’t wanna admit it, but I think that his death is partly the reason why me and my mom were allowed to stay here. I think the officers felt bad for dad, so they took care of us in his stead.”

I guess there are all sorts of families out there. I kind of feel bad for him now, since the only reason he’s inclined to believe us is because our fake story is near identical to his own. That being said, just what are the odds of such a coincidence occurring?

“If you want, I could get some good words in when I explain your situation to the others.” He suggested, “You might be an ex-Lis soldier, but it’s not like your goal is to harm us or anything. Surely you’ll find a nice home here, just like I did.”

“That’s very kind of you, but we can’t.” I struggled to find a proper excuse, “It’s just… We want Nelly to live a peaceful life, away from the war.”

“Both Lune and I know just how horrible it is to be a pawn in the war.” Cecily added, “We really do appreciate your kindness, and we really find your will to walk in your father’s footsteps admirable, but we don’t wanna be a part of any war anymore.”

“I see…” He stood there in silence for a bit, “Well then, that’s a shame.”

A shame, what does he mean?, I thought as he turned to the soldiers around us, shouting “Lische spione!”

In the very next moment, those scary looking guns that were just recently lowered were immediately pointed back up at us. This guy, just what the hell is he doing?!

“Hold on, what’s going on?” Cecily hugged Nelly in fear.

“You’re a soldier family and yet you don’t know the Universal Soldier Motto?” He chuckled, “Any deserter is an enemy, regardless of which side he’s on, as he already backstabbed once.”

We were taken in as hostages, but not before being once again put into a separate interrogation room each. Looks like history is repeating itself a little too soon. This is exactly the same as what happened back in Lis, goddammit!

***

“Alright, bud,” The soldier that spoke Entropic slammed his fist on the table in front of me, “Just who are you really?”

“Like I said, I’m a deserter from the Lis army, honest!”

“I don’t believe you!” He yelled again, “That is, who cares if you’re a deserter or not! How the hell did you just show up seemingly out of thin air smack dab in the middle of our heavily guarded base?”

“That’s…” I quickly recalled Cecily’s aversion to telling them the truth about Auros.

She probably thinks they won’t believe us. That being the case, even we still don’t believe everything that happened in that cave, despite witnessing it firsthand. So just imagining telling them feels like I’d only be giving myself a death sentence. I need to continue her lie, make it more believable with just the right amount of extra details, but not too much that it’ll seem like I’m reaching.

“We went around the continent so as to avoid having to go through the battlefield.” I replied, “That’s also why our clothes are so dirty and muddied, you’d be surprised by the amount of grimes one could get just from a couple of months out in the swamps here.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, it was a real slog, but we finally ended up here at the far west of the continent after so much traveling. Actually, we lucked out and found some bandits willing to smuggle us through the base and into the dock free of charge.”

“Oh?” He seemed interested.

“Well, you know all those air ducts littered across your oh so heavily guarded base?” I continued my faux tale, making sure to add in the tiny detail of all the ducts I saw they installed, “The vents there are small, but just enough for a tall male to pass through. Now if a tall male can pass, I’ll let you make a wild guess as to whether or not the notably smaller in size girls can too.”

“That’s…! I-I’ll go interrogate those two this instant! You better hope your story lines up!” He slammed his fist and sprung up out of his chair, storming out of the room.

“…” I took advantage of the peace and quiet in the room to lean into the nearby air vent that was situated right beside me, “You got all that, Cecily?”

“Loud and clear.” Her voice could be heard from the other side, “But seriously, stop making such elaborate lies! I won’t be able to follow along if you make them too difficult to remember!”

“Haha, I’ll try better next time!”

And so, the interrogation went basically as well as you’d expect. Since Cecily and Nelly had heard my interrogation through the ducts, they immediately knew what to say to the soldier so that our stories lined up. Really, if you don’t want us to figure out our rooms are literally right next to each other, then you should’ve blindfolded us beforehand…

“Alright, wise guy!” The soldier slammed open the door as soon as he finished up Cecily’s and Nelly’s joint interrogation, “You passed this time, but just know that I still don’t believe you! A traitors mouth is not to be believed no matter what!”

“Oh? You think I’m a traitor?” I reclined as I pointed to myself in a teasing tone, “If you really want me to be a traitor, then I’ll happily oblige if it means you’ll believe us and let us through.”

“What do you mean?” He furrowed his brows.

“Exactly what you think. I was a Lis soldier for years. Actually, before Nelly was even born! That being the case, I know a lot of insider information about them that I really don’t have any use for at all. But you on the other hand? I imagine it’s a different case.”

Drooling at the prospect, he quickly snapped out of the tantalizing offer and gave me an evil grin. “Go on then!”

Through the vent, though, loud banging could be heard. It seems that the person on the other side really didn’t fancy me giving away our ex-benefactors side’s secrets away so easily to their enemy. Guess I’ll have to talk to Cecily before making any more rash decisions.

“First, let me see my family.” I pointed a finger, “Second, don’t you dare lay a finger on them. And if you do, then no deal!”