"Ahem, please don't mind that."
Jinhsi raised a small fist to her lips and cleared her throat, her other hand darting to her cheek in a motion almost too quick to catch. She wiped away the Dragon Scale and composed herself, snapping back into the poised dignity befitting a Magistrate.
I didn't expect a Dragon Scale to appear. But it's fine. No one else knows the triggers. That wasn't a slip.
Rover was laughing on the inside.
In his previous life, he'd mained a certain Sentinel's Resonator through the entire 1.0 arc without ever switching. He knew exactly what those Dragon Scales meant, and every secret the girl had about them.
Watching Jinhsi stand there projecting elegance and composure while clearly a mess of nerves underneath, he fought to keep the corners of his mouth from betraying him.
"Sanhua has informed me of everything you've done these past few days. On behalf of Jinzhou, I want to express my sincerest gratitude. Whether it was apprehending Scar or hunting down Overlord Class Tacet Discords, you've done this city an enormous service."
Her tone was earnest, and none of it was flattery. Scar was one of Fractsidus' most notorious lunatics. Wherever he went, if the land wasn't left barren, the body count was staggering.
And the Overlord Class Tacet Discords roaming the outskirts of Jinzhou had been a chronic threat for years. Every year, Midnight Rangers died holding those creatures back. Now that danger was gone.
If Jinzhou could survive the coming Threnodian crisis...
Jinhsi knew the days ahead would be far more peaceful.
And so...
"A debt this great deserves more than words from a Magistrate. Anything less would be cheap and insincere. I've prepared gifts for the both of you. A small token, but one I hope carries my meaning."
She produced two objects, each wrapped in fabric that bordered on lavish, and gestured for the two Rovers to open them now. She hoped they'd be pleased.
"Well, if you insist, we won't hold back."
"Wait... is this what I think it is?!"
The moment he took the bundle, the shape beneath the cloth told him everything. His eyes lit up and his hands moved faster.
When the wrapping fell away, the other Rover's gaze sharpened too.
Two identical swords.
Nothing like the Originite: Type II blades they'd been carrying.
Pale blue scabbards radiated a restrained chill. Black hilts capped with gold at the pommel and crossguard. When the two of them drew the blades a few inches, biting cold spilled into the air.
The temperature around all three of them plummeted, as if the moonlight itself might freeze. The blades were forged from the same condensed ice as their scabbards, and etched along each ran lines of ancient golden script.
"Now that's a weapon." They said it at the same time.
"These are Emerald of Genesis," Jinhsi said with a smile. "Forged by one of Huanglong's master smiths from ultra-cold ice crystals drawn from deep springs. I know you've both been struggling without proper weapons, and I hope these prove worthy of you."
Jinzhou City Hall had been covering the two Rovers' expenses during their stay. No special investigation was needed to spot the pattern. Their weapon spending alone was absurd.
Sixty swords in three days.
Anyone could see how hard they burned through their gear, and how woefully inadequate their current blades were for what they could do. That was why Jinhsi had gone looking for something extraordinary.
Two Emerald of Genesis. Peerless swords. Even for a Magistrate, acquiring them had taken real effort.
"Thank you. Nothing could've been better."
"Yeah! Now we can take down that Calamity Class turtle!"
"Ex... excuse me? A Calamity Class... turtle?"
Jinhsi froze. Had she heard that right? She recalled the intelligence report the Outriders had brought back from Bell-Borne Ravine yesterday. The Bell-Borne Geochelone, a Calamity Class Tacet Discord from Jinzhou's oldest records, had awakened. And had somehow ended up flipped on its back...
That was these two as well?
They really are... something else.
Remembering the devastation described in those field reports, the terrifying scale of the battle scars carved across Bell-Borne Ravine, Jinhsi swallowed hard. The depths of these two seemed bottomless. To have fought a Calamity Class Tacet Discord and left that kind of aftermath...
"Alright, let's get down to business. We want to know about Scar. You should have plenty of intel by now."
Rover tested the new blade with a few swings, then got to the point.
Scar had been thrown into Jinzhou's cells two days ago. Given the city's efficiency, both Rovers were confident the man had coughed up a considerable amount by now.
Jinhsi nodded. Scar was every bit the fanatic his reputation suggested. Losing his Forte and becoming an ordinary person hadn't dulled his edge one bit. He was still unhinged, still raving. Standard methods hadn't worked.
But the Pacification Bureau operatives Huanglong had dispatched were specialists. They had ways of making a silent man talk. Two days was more than enough.
"Yes. Scar has confessed to most of Fractsidus' operations in Jinzhou. Awakening the Threnodian. Imprisoning the Sentinel. And... capturing the two of you." Her jaw tightened. "The sheer arrogance."
Her hands clenched involuntarily. The city she'd sworn to protect faced an existential crisis because of Fractsidus. Even someone of her temperament couldn't contain the anger.
"The Threnodian... what exactly is it?" the other Rover asked. She'd heard the term more than once, but the descriptions were always vague. The one thing everyone agreed on was that a Threnodian was Civilization's most terrifying enemy.
"Threnodians are the mortal enemies of Civilization. They're born from collective will, the darkest fears of a people made manifest. Jinzhou is Huanglong's gateway. The backbone of our Civilization is an unbreakable will and a spirit of defiance. So our shadow, the fear that mirrors us, is endless war and terror. That's why the Threnodian born from our region, Ovathrax, is called the War Threnodian. It is the ultimate threat to everything Jinzhou stands for, and the final trial we must overcome."
Her expression was grave.
This was the trial Jinzhou had faced since its founding.
The greatest enemy every Magistrate had to confront.
And Fractsidus had done no small amount of work to rouse it. Jinhsi now knew that aside from Scar, a second Fractsidus Overseer had come to Jinzhou, and that one held the key to the crisis.
To ensure Jinzhou's total destruction, they'd also exploited a window while the Sentinel, Jué, was recovering from wounds, using specialized methods to temporarily trap her. Until this crisis resolved, Jué would be unable to help.
But what surprised Jinhsi most was something else entirely.
"And yet, beyond awakening the Threnodian and imprisoning the Sentinel..."
She paused, choosing her next words with care.
"Fractsidus seems to consider the two of you even more important."
Her expression grew complicated. A beat of silence.
"I'm left with this feeling that imprisoning the Sentinel and awakening the Threnodian were never the true goal. That all of it was orchestrated to draw you both to Jinzhou. Destroying the city... was incidental."
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