Inside the tent.
Sylvia and Mei lay side by side on soft mats, gazing out at the night beyond the canvas.
"Come to think of it, last time I was on a call with Topaz, it got cut off by accident."
"Mm, something wrong with that?"
Mei turned her gaze, fixing her eyes on Sylvia.
Her fingers gently pinched Sylvia's cheek.
"I've been thinking about whether or not to reveal Penacony's secrets to the Company. And if I do, how much to say, and what kind of compensation to ask for. That's also an issue."
Topaz hadn't called her again since that time, but she figured a call would come eventually.
Sylvia didn't really care about the whole story or plot.
But the Company was coming with the intention of reclaiming Penacony, of going up against the Family.
If Sylvia leaked information, it'd mean offending the Family while doing the Company a favor.
The key question was whether it was worth it.
"I don't think there's any rush. And before you even consider that, shouldn't you first figure out what you want?"
Acheron smiled, pinpointing Sylvia's dilemma.
Honestly, whether to give up this intel, who to offend or befriend, none of it really mattered.
The real issue was that Sylvia sometimes... lacked a bit of drive.
Without a clear goal in mind, talk of "compensation" or "how to act" was just empty words.
"Hmm... true."
Calling her a lazy bum made Sylvia want to argue the point, but thinking it over, she couldn't really find a good comeback.
So she just nodded in agreement.
"So... what do you want?"
"..."
Sylvia blinked. For a moment, she genuinely couldn't think of anything.
In this vast era of galaxies, the entertainment and the worlds were just too expansive.
Add to that the fact she currently had enough strength and didn't lack for credits, Sylvia figured she could bum around for decades without any problem.
And getting to know more pretty girls, raising affection levels, stuff like that...
Well, she couldn't really bring that up in front of Mei.
Thinking along these lines, Sylvia tilted her head until it touched Mei's.
Seeing Sylvia stay quiet, Mei could guess exactly what was going through her mind.
"No need to rush. If you can't think of anything for now, why not use this planet as leverage? Get Topaz to waive the bill for fixing it?"
"Hmm... that's not a bad suggestion."
Sylvia considered it. Seemed decent.
But then...
She turned her head, staring curiously into Mei's eyes from mere inches away.
"Do you like this planet?"
"...It's not bad, even if it does look a bit beat-up."
Mei nodded, her gaze fixed unwaveringly and unashamedly on Sylvia.
As if to say, it was because of Sylvia that she'd come to love this otherwise ordinary planet.
"That's it?"
"Isn't that enough? Even though it's run-down, if one day some unknown entity took this planet and remodeled it into who-knows-what... I think I'd hate that."
Mei's eyes held not a trace of pretense. She simply smiled, looking at Sylvia.
Her tone was as casual as if discussing what to have for lunch.
Yet Sylvia felt that inexplicable emotion churning wildly in her chest.
Locking eyes with Mei, Sylvia found herself nodding in agreement.
"You're right. If it's going to be fixed anyway, we might as well do it to our own liking."
Plus, having a base of influence that was truly her own wouldn't be bad either.
Sure, life on the Xianzhou was pretty comfortable, but that was just Sylvia being comfortable. Who knew what the Alliance members might think otherwise.
With that, Sylvia turned her head with a smile, changing the subject.
"When the time comes, can we build some structures in the style of your homeland? I'll also build some from the home I remember."
She said it lightly, but to Mei's ears, the words hit like a thunderclap.
The concept of "homeland" felt so distant to Mei.
And those past landscapes were both beautiful and despair-inducing for her.
Should she really recreate them here?
Mei initially felt some hesitation, but looking into Sylvia's eyes, hearing the second part of her sentence...
It was as if facing all that had come before didn't seem so difficult anymore.
"If I can remember them..."
"Your memories are slowly coming back, right? Then one day, you'll surely recall them."
Sylvia smiled and extended her pinky finger.
A well-known gesture for making a promise.
Mei remembered Sylvia mentioning it once.
So she raised her hand too, offering her pinky to hook around Sylvia's.
Wordlessly, they linked fingers, swinging their joined hands back and forth in the air like children.
And with that, the pact was made.
--+--
Alone, she returned to the Reverie hotel.
Originally, Sylvia hadn't planned on coming back so soon.
After all, from the looks of it, there was no immediate rush regarding the Penacony situation.
Plus, she was waiting to see if Robin would get back to her with any news.
But then she got a text from Sparkle, urging her to come back and help with something.
Though she had no idea what it entailed, Sylvia, after seeing Mei back, returned to Penacony by herself.
However, she'd barely been in the Dreamscape for a moment, hadn't even found where Sparkle was hiding, when a communication from Topaz came through.
Sylvia raised an eyebrow at the name on the screen.
"Timing's pretty convenient."
Was it a coincidence?
Still, it worked out.
Intel has a shelf life.
For the Company right now, Sylvia didn't even need to spill everything. Just picking one or two pieces of information to share would probably be enough to get the compensation she wanted.
Penacony's value was way higher than this broken-down little planet's, and if she waited until Company personnel actually arrived in Penacony, maybe one or two tidbits wouldn't be worth as much.
Come to think of it though.
Sylvia didn't really think the Company could actually take Penacony back anyway.
The Family wasn't exactly weak; the Penacony branch was just an offshoot of the main house.
Sylvia guessed the most likely outcome was that the Family would slip up somehow, exposing some weakness to the Company.
Then they'd be forced to give up part of their 100% stake in Penacony.
Whether that part was a small share or a majority would probably depend on how much strength the Family had left after the big boss fight.
Besides, Sylvia doubted the Company was really expecting to reclaim all of Penacony in one go.
Just prying open a gap big enough for the Company to get a foot in the door would probably be seen as a victory for whoever was in charge.
Speaking of which, they probably haven't even decided who to send to Penacony yet.
If Topaz got her hands on some crucial intel right now and submitted it, that'd be a massive win for her, no matter how you looked at it.
Thinking about it that way...
The chances of negotiating a good deal seemed pretty high.
Sylvia mulled over the information she already had.
And realized she might have caught a pretty good window of opportunity after all.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.