If it's approachable, then so be it. After all, she wasn't someone with a terrible temper.
After hearing Claire's words, Cipher sighed and didn't retort.
"Boss, why are you sighing? Is something bothering you?"
"Nothing, just a bit tired."
Cipher was telling the truth.
Ever since she arrived in this world, there hadn't been a single peaceful day. Once the excitement of toying with others wore off, psychological exhaustion set in.
Hearing Cipher's words, Claire opened the passenger window a crack and said,
"Then, Boss, why don't you look at the scenery? Just consider it a way to relax. Oh, and remember to look at it in a relaxed manner."
Cipher followed Claire's advice and turned her head to look out the window.
Ten minutes passed. Cipher watched the fleeting scenes outside the window in a relaxed state. This feeling of not needing to think at all, and without the sudden arrival of danger, this method... indeed made her feel much more at ease.
"We're here, let's get out."
"Huh? This isn't an underground parking lot?"
Seeing the large house outside the window, Cipher asked with some confusion.
"This is my home. You shouldn't go back to your place for now. After all, you've already been targeted by the Reverse Current Alliance, and that place will definitely be discovered. It's not safe."
Saying this, Claire pulled open the car door and stepped out.
Seeing this, Cipher also got out of the car.
"Follow me."
After saying this, Claire took out her key and opened the door to her house.
Following Claire into the living room, Cipher felt a bit surprised.
Because earlier, when she was at the secret base with Lauren and the others, the decor she saw was all Chinese style, but it was different here.
Cipher could clearly see that this was more like Western European decor.
"You can look around the house first. There's food and drinks in the fridge, feel free to take some if you want."
Then, Claire turned to look at Cipher.
"Boss, please come with me for a moment."
After saying that, she walked directly into the adjacent study.
Go? Is there something she wants to talk about?
Although Cipher didn't quite understand what Claire was going to do, she still decided to follow her and see.
For no other reason than Divinity Speed.
As soon as she entered the study, Claire, who was standing by the door, casually closed and locked it.
Then she brought a chair for Cipher, and then she sat opposite the chair with a solemn expression.
Before Cipher could figure out what was happening, Claire spoke.
"It was a bit rushed before, so now I'll formally introduce myself."
"My name is Claire. I come from the Europa Order Alliance and am a former Purifier Knight of the New Knights. I possess an A-level ability, Spatial Tear."
"???"
After hearing Claire's words, Cipher felt her face fill with question marks.
What is... the Europa Order Alliance? And what are the New Knights and Purifier Knights? She hadn't heard of them when Lauren and the others were explaining the world-building before!
However, before she could wonder for long, Claire began to explain directly to her.
"The Europa Order Alliance is a landlocked country. Hills and forests make up the majority of the country, and it's actually quite far from this country. Oh, by the way, the full name of this place is actually the Pan-Pacific United Sovereignty."
"As for the New Knights... you can think of them as an official armed force. Their status is actually quite similar to Arasaka Heavy Industries here."
"Pan-Pacific United Sovereignty... So this place is called that? Lauren and the others never mentioned it."
Cipher fell into thought. This time, she had received a lot of information, and she needed to properly digest it.
"Mainly... Enna has lived in Pit bottom for too long."
Claire shook her head, seemingly feeling a bit sorry for the plight of Lauren and the others.
"The people of the Pit Bottom District have been abandoned by the corporations. The poor living in the Pit Bottom District have no other source of knowledge about these mega-corporations except for the ubiquitous advertisements."
"Some people are even trapped in the Pit Bottom District their entire lives, so they never know the full name of this place is the Pan-Pacific United Sovereignty until they die, let alone that there are other countries outside."
"This... I see... I didn't realize the people of the Pit Bottom District were even more miserable than I imagined. I used to think this place was at most just a slum..."
Listening to Claire's explanation, Cipher murmured to herself.
A slum and an abandoned slum—although only a prefix was added, the meaning conveyed was completely different.
"Oh, right." At this moment, Claire seemed to recall something. She looked outside the study. "Enna has some psychological issues. I wonder if you know about this."
Cipher nodded.
She knew all too well.
"I ended up in Pit bottom while on a mission for the New Knights. At the time, I was severely injured..."
"I didn't ask for help from the people of Pit bottom. I only hoped they would remain indifferent."
As she spoke, Claire seemed to recall something unpleasant. Even the smile that had been on her face vanished, replaced by a deathly calm.
"But they tried to take advantage of the situation to forcefully abduct me and do some... not-so-good things to me... I overestimated the humanity of Pit bottom's people."
"I originally thought my life was over..."
"Lauren and the others saved you, right?"
Before Claire could finish speaking, Cipher interjected, answering her question.
Hearing Cipher's words, Claire showed no surprise. After all, Cipher also understood Lauren's personality, so it was easy to guess.
She nodded, indicating that Cipher was correct, and then continued:
"Enna and the others saved me, even using a can of defective potential-activating medium."
"I thought they had ulterior motives for saving me, but I didn't expect it was simply a desire to help others that led them to do it."
"Once my injuries had mostly healed, I wanted to help Enna and the others, but... as soon as I brought it up, Enna developed a very strong resistance."
"This is where her psychological problem lies."
After Claire finished speaking, Cipher took over, continuing:
"Lauren interprets helping others as something she *must* do, but she interprets being helped as a sign of her own incompetence, distorting the true meaning of help. Therefore, she strongly resists being helped, especially by those she has helped."
"Because that would make Enna feel that her original help was tainted, turning from selfless assistance into intentional solicitation..."
"But we never cared about that. Our help was originally just a thank you to her and the Spark Team."
Claire continued Cipher's sentence. After speaking, she looked in Cipher's direction, and Cipher also looked at her.
For a moment, Cipher actually saw a hint of shared suffering in her eyes.