"What are you doing?" Germain asked bluntly, not caring about formalities. "For a second there, I thought Kurapika was being haunted by some evil spirit."
Kurapika hadn't expected his teacher to jump in like that on his behalf.
Illumi finally straightened up, his tone flat as ever. "That hurts my feelings…"
Then he shrugged and added, "I just had nothing better to do, so I thought I'd take a look."
"Then help out here," Germain said without missing a beat. "With your observation skills and combat ability, standing around here might actually reduce the amount of trouble we run into."
Not only could Illumi's presence intimidate any survivors entering the fortress, but it could also keep him from doing anything unpredictable inside.
A win-win.
Illumi thought it over for a moment, then actually agreed.
"Sure, I'll help out here."
He wasn't particularly attached to doing or not doing anything, but helping out counted as a fair trade for staying inside the fortress. He was always clear about that kind of give-and-take.
Illumi never offered to help unless someone asked.
Now that only Germain had directly told him to do something, he figured, fine, he'd treat it as part of the "mission."
Kurapika didn't expect just a single sentence from the teacher to get Illumi to stay and help out.
As expected of Teacher Germain... he easily accomplished something none of them could.
Kurapika turned his head. He saw Illumi standing silently in a corner, eyes fixed on the entrance.
Kurapika frowned unconsciously—Illumi looked more like a ghost than ever.
It seemed every survivor who entered the fortress would get a fright thanks to Illumi.
Sure enough, many survivors trembled during Kurapika's interviews, and asked with shaking voices:
"Do you... do you see someone standing in that corner?"
Kurapika had no choice but to patiently explain, over and over:
"Yes, that's a real person. He just looks like a ghost, feels like a ghost, and talks like one too."
After the screening was done, Germain led the group of survivors to the medical area, where Cheadle and Gel were already waiting. She handed over all the wounded to them.
Sanbica had only done some basic treatment for Kite and the others earlier, but now that they had proper facilities, of course they had to go further—cleaning the wounds thoroughly and stitching them up properly.
Gel, of course, knew where Germain and Shizuku had gone after they left the fortress, and why.
Seeing them bring Sanbica back along with them, she finally relaxed.
A small smile appeared on her brown face as she said, "Sanbica, looks like we'll be counting on you and Cheadle to handle the injured. I need to head over to the morgue area."
"Y-yes," Sanbica replied nervously, like a frightened deer.
She was already much more cheerful than before. At least now, when talking to others, she no longer needed to rely on a drawing board or a phone.
Kite and the others stayed in the wounded area. However, once their wounds were treated, they would also join in the work of keeping the fortress running smoothly.
Kite would go to the outermost temporary defense team to report to his teacher, Ging.
Knuckle and Shoot were entrusted with maintaining order inside the fortress. Their teammate was "Chameleon" Meleoron.
This place was filled with all kinds of people. The conflicts hadn't erupted yet because they had just escaped from danger and desperation.
Once a sense of security settled in, the accumulated frustrations between them needed an outlet.
Burning, looting, fighting for power and resources, and all sorts of open and hidden troubles were bound to come.
Therefore, the responsibilities of Knuckle, Shoot, and Meleoron were extremely important.
Especially Meleoron.
He needed to make full use of his "Perfect Plan" and "God's Accomplice" abilities to help Knuckle and Shoot find those who stirred up conflicts or committed crimes.
Menchi and Buhara, of course, had to go to the logistics and dining area, where two cooking masters were desperately needed.
The number of survivors in the fortress had soared from just over 1,300 a few hours ago to nearly 9,000 now.
With nine thousand mouths to feed, Menchi, Buhara, and the temporary chef team were going to be extremely busy.
Germain was waiting for Shizuku to take the emergency medical supplies needed by Cheadle, Gel, and Sanbica from the "Blinky" and put them into the medical storage area.
After that, Cluck arrived with Tokarine.
Cluck left the control center, handing it over to Pyon and List, while she and Tokarine took charge of managing the fortress's warehouse supplies.
Not long ago, there had been a raid on the warehouse, but it was suppressed by everyone. Because of that, Cluck had to come personally to take care of the situation.
They took all the remaining supplies of Tokarine's list from "Blinky" and stored them in the warehouse.
For the next period, Cluck and Tokarine would carefully sort and manage the supplies.
Then, using Tokarine's "Spiral Slide," they would quickly deliver the needed supplies to the urgent areas on site.
Only after everything was settled did Germain and Shizuku come to the control center.
*******
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