A Few Hours Earlier
In the small nomadic town of Barnimhands
"Ugh... I should've ordered a croissant too!" Exusiai muttered to herself as she leaned against the car door, exhausted from loading the final crate into the back of the vehicle. Beside her, Texas was checking off the last item on the inventory list.
"Nothing you can do about it. You've got that event with Sora today, remember?" Texas said as she jotted down the last item, closing her checklist. The order wasn't particularly large, but it was still heavy since it was all electronics. Texas had helped carry some of it herself, but being a fragile race like a Sankta, it wasn't surprising she was worn out from all the heavy lifting.
"But seriously, we've been getting more and more of these kinds of jobs lately, haven't we? Sure, the pay is good, but having to haul equipment like this back to Lungmen so often is kind of a hassle. Wouldn't it be better to ask the boss to hire more staff?" Exusiai proposed. After a few days of these monotonous trips, she was starting to get tired of it. Despite her adventurous spirit, hours of driving across barren wastelands to reach these small nomadic cities was starting to wear her down.
"Quantity doesn't mean quality. That's exactly why our company's success rate is higher than the others, isn't it?" Texas replied but paused, then nodded in agreement eventually.
"But yeah, having more staff would be helpful, like you said."
"Right?! And more staff means more people for parties! I'm getting bored of just celebrating with you. Sora's concert schedule lately means she and Croissant barely have time to hang out. And Mostima—ugh, that woman still hasn't come back to Lungmen. She's totally avoiding me! And then—"
Exusiai went on a long rant as usual, leaving Texas to silently nod while leaning back against the vehicle and chewing on a Pocky stick. She knew all too well that when Mostima came up, Exusiai would just keep talking. The only way to shut her up was to either let her ramble until she tired herself out, or distract her with something more interesting. Like—
"S-Sorry for keeping you waiting! Something came up unexpectedly!"
A young woman from Salak hurried toward them from behind the warehouse, wiping sweat from her brow, clearly nervous about making such important clients wait.
"What happened?" Exusiai asked curiously, her eyes gleaming with interest.
The employee looked relieved that the clients weren't angry. Out of guilt and frustration, she answered honestly.
"It's not a big deal really. There was some interference nearby—pirates were detected in the area. But the patrol unit checked it out and didn't find any warning signals. So, we think it was just an intimidation tactic."
"'Pirates?'" Exusiai repeated the word in Yan. As far as she remembered, the term "pirates" referred to seafaring thieves. Right?
"They're basically large bandit groups who ambush shipping convoys from major corporations. They're more organized than the usual desert raiders, and they have advanced tech—enough to disrupt communications. That makes them a threat to smaller transport vessels or nomadic towns," Texas explained, and Exusiai nodded in understanding.
"So they're here to raid someone? That means we might get attacked on the way back!" Despite saying that, her eyes lit up with excitement like she was about to embark on an adventure.
Texas sighed and shook her head slowly.
"Normally... pirates don't raid in broad daylight. Maybe they came here for something else—or someone. Or maybe they just wanted to scare the nearby towns away from their territory. They've probably fled by now. Most pirates have bounties, so any warning signal would've prompted a quick response."
"Aww... I was hoping for something exciting to happen on the road."
The employee overheard their conversation and didn't know how to react, until something came to mind.
"Oh right... I did hear something from the senior staff. A natural disaster happened nearby a few days ago and one of Leithanien's cargo ships was wrecked in the area. Apparently, it was transporting some valuable items. That might be why the pirates are hanging around."
"A cargo ship from Leithanien?" Exusiai looked surprised.
When people hear that name, the first things that come to mind are usually weapons technology and Originium arts. That ship might have been carrying magic staves or large quantities of Originium. No wonder pirates would be after it.
But Texas, who had more worldly knowledge, knew there was something else Leithanien was known for—human body research.
Hearing that a Leithanien cargo ship had crashed due to a natural disaster nearby gave her a bad feeling...
'Let's hope it's not what I'm thinking.'
Unfortunately, Texas's hope didn't come true. Just under two hours after they left Barnimhands, they were ambushed by the very pirates that had been hiding in the area.
"Oh! Texas, look! Are those the pirates we were talking about?" Exusiai exclaimed, delighted, as several black vehicles approached behind them. Soldiers in skull-emblazoned black uniforms leaned out the windows aiming crossbows at them.
"Exusiai! Take out those crossbows!!" Texas shouted, activating the car's turbo boost and leaving Exusiai to handle the defense.
"Just crossbows? Come on, I can do way better than that!!" Exusiai popped the car's roof open and summoned her twin guardian pistols, unloading shots at the incoming bolts. She also aimed at the drivers' windows and tires—but the bullets bounced harmlessly off. The cars were clearly made of high-resistance material, even their tires were bulletproof.
"No way! Their armor can even resist rubber bullets?!" Exusiai now understood why Texas had told her to just aim at the crossbows—shooting any further was useless.
If she hadn't brought only rubber rounds, this would've been over already!
Even the crossbowmen wore full battle armor, rendering her shots ineffective.
"This is worse than fighting those heavily armored goons! Damn it, we seriously need to recruit a mage or something!!" she shouted, continuing to destroy as many crossbows as she could before ducking back inside the car to avoid an incoming explosive round.
Texas swerved the vehicle, dodging the blast while Exusiai kept popping out periodically to shoot.
The relentless impacts were starting to damage their vehicle. Despite its reinforced build, constant hits would break it down eventually.
'What the hell do they want from us...?' Texas couldn't figure out their goal. But one thing was certain—if they stopped and tried to fight back, they'd be at a major disadvantage in numbers and firepower.
Their best bet was to lure them closer to Lungmen, where patrol units might be stationed nearby.
She had considered calling for help from Barnimhands, but the signal interference made communication devices useless. And turning back was too risky—Barnimhands might lock its gates to avoid danger, leaving them stranded.
"I should've brought grenades with me—huh? Texas, am I seeing things or is someone standing in the middle of the road?"
Exusiai pointed ahead. Texas followed her gaze and squinted until she saw a small figure at the far end of the road.
It was a young man with long, white, messy hair like a vagrant. He was extremely thin, nearly skeletal, and wore a white outfit resembling hospital patient garments.
But what truly stunned both Texas and Exusiai was the deep brown aura radiating from his body—visible even from a distance.
And then, the unexpected happened.
BANG!!!
A massive stone pillar erupted from the ground, striking one of the pursuing vehicles and flipping it into the air. The sight left both Texas and Exusiai speechless, stunned long enough to release the accelerator for a few seconds—before Texas came to her senses and sped up again.
Behind them, an explosion sounded. Looking in the rearview mirror, they saw the remaining pirate vehicles crashing into each other, ultimately tumbling off the road and overturning into wreckage.
No one was chasing them anymore.
"D-Did he just save us?" Exusiai murmured uncertainly. That was exactly what Texas was wondering too.
"I don't know..."
As they got closer to the mysterious man, his vacant eyes slowly shifted to look at their vehicle. His raised hand lowered—showing he had no intent to harm them.
Texas let out a small breath and drove past.
"Uh... Texas, are we just going to leave him there?" Exusiai asked, clearly wanting to stop.
Texas, upon hearing that, fell silent and didn't respond. She glanced at the rearview mirror and saw that the man's expression had grown slightly sorrow
That made Texas feel a little bad. After all, he had helped them first. Even if she didn't know his reasons for doing so, the fact that he had aided them without asking for anything in return was already enough to earn their trust.
With that thought, Texas slowly pressed the brake.
"...We'll go back and ask what he wants. Returning a favor to someone who helped us is something we must do."
"That's the spirit!" Exusiai exclaimed, clearly overjoyed. She wasted no time rolling down the window and shouting out:
"Hey, BigBro! Thanks for saving us!"
Upon hearing Exusiai's cheerful greeting, the man's pure smile appeared. He looked at their car as it came to a stop in front of him. That was when Texas clearly noticed his frail body and the patient's gown he was wearing.
From the stories she had heard earlier—and from the way the pirates had attacked them so desperately in broad daylight—she could now roughly guess the identity of this man...
'He must be one of the "assets" being transported by the Lethanian vessel.'
That powerful magic earlier wasn't something an ordinary human could perform. No wonder so many people would want to get their hands on him.
After a simple exchange of greetings—along with the startled reaction he showed upon seeing Exusiai's halo and Texas's wolf ears—and his hesitation to speak about his own background, Texas grew more confident in her assumption.
She subtly signaled Exusiai not to ask any more questions by lightly tapping the steering wheel.
Exusiai seemed to understand. She quickly changed the subject and invited the man to come with them to the city. He looked briefly at Texas, as if wary of her.
Texas tried to appear as relaxed as possible and told him she had no issue with it.
Once he got into the car, Exusiai cheerfully introduced herself and asked for his name. When he spoke his name, Texas clearly noticed the pale look on his face.
That made her realize that the name he had just given was likely his real one—and that he lacked basic social awareness.
After all, stating your real name so casually was no different than declaring your identity to the world... At this point, she saw no more reason to be on guard around him.
'He's just an unfortunate soul who was kidnapped and experimented on by Lethania... That much is clear.'
Now the only question was—what should they do with him once they got back to Lungmen?
That was what Texas was pondering. But when she glanced at Exusiai's sparkling eyes, she had a pretty good idea what her partner was already thinking.
After all, seeing that kind of powerful magic... it wasn't surprising anyone would react that way.
It was as if she had just seen a brand new toy she desperately wanted—and Texas knew that Exusiai would do whatever it took to get it.