After Varrick finished feeding the cows, he quickly turned towards me.
"Follow me," he commanded.
It felt strange taking orders from someone other than Mother, but after our fight. I no longer felt entitled to refuse.
Varrick moved swiftly through the halls, as if he were trying to outpace me. Even so, I managed to keep up as we pushed through the ship's cramped, dimly lit corridors, stumbling past scattered crates and animal droppings along the way.
Whilst we were passing through the halls everything looked standard enough at a glance, however a single detail continued to bother me
"The ship's lights..." I muttered. "Why are they so dim?"
Varrick stayed silent for a moment before finally answering.
"Are you worried about the curse?"
"Aren't you?"
"Only pure-blooded humans are affected by it," he replied coldly. "That's why the two of us can walk around in the dark just fine."
I narrowed my eyes slightly. "You don't look like a half-breed."
Varrick said nothing.
Still, the silence alone told me an answer.
Well, there were no obvious signs that he belonged to any bloodline I recognized. He certainly wasn't a Fawn or a Dwarf. An Engel maybe? No... A Vampyr, perhaps. Maybe that's why he wears such a heavy cloak.
With all of my theories wrapping around my head I barely noticed that we reached a white metal door set at the end of the hallway, sealed shut by a single red valve wheel.
Varrick rapped his knuckles against it three times.
"Rohan! Open up!"
A strange synthetic voice crackled from the other side.
"Yes bass—uh, bass... who is the other guy?"
"Cargo."
There was a heavy metallic clunk. The valve turned, and the door slowly groaned open.
Behind it was a massive brown-cloaked figure standing tall enough for his head to brush against the ceiling. At first glance I thought he was human, but the illusion soon vanished the moment he stepped into the light. He was some kind of Nere android with an iron body concealed beneath robes that looked like a fusion between a warlord's armor and a shaman's attire.
"Bass, I tell you, you craze for bringing this one in."
"Oh, shut it. You want those new servos or not?"
"I care about the servos, but this is- " The android's glowing red eyes fixed onto me.
"Save it for later. Where's Akane? I need some papers done."
"She down at the office."
"Okay."
Rohan reluctantly stood aside and allowed us to move through what looked like the living quarters, there were four rooms but one of them was locked. Afterwards, we passed through an empty cafeteria before descending another flight of metal stairs toward a hallway which soon lead straight into the office.
As soon as we entered, the stale scent of dried coffee filled the air while the sharp clacking of a keyboard echoed throughout the cramped room. The office itself was surprisingly small; a single wooden desk occupied the center like it had been jammed into the space.
Beside it sat a smaller metal table where a woman with navy-blue hair and pointed ears worked in silence. An eastern engel, from the looks of her, I'm assuming this was the 'Akane' person Rohan was talking about.
She spared me a brief dismissive glance before turning back to the glow of her computer screen, with her fingers relentlessly clacking across the keyboard.
"By now, I know you've got a lot of questions about the situation," Varrick said with a weary exhale as he lowered himself into the seat behind the wooden desk.
"A lot would be an understatement," I replied. "How can I even be sure you are who you say you are?"
He studied me for a moment with a tense expression.
"I'm not gonna ask what your mission was, or how you ended up in a forest deep behind enemy lines. My business is getting you from one place to another. We clear?"
I gave a slow nod.
"Good. Now that we're on the same page, I'll tell you what I can."
Varrick uncorked a bottle of whiskey and poured himself a drink unto a mug that read 'I love my boss' I was irked by the implications.
"Want some?"
"I don't drink."
"Figured."
Varrick pulled his coat down to drink, which revealed a scarred mouth, he soon downed the shot in one motion before continuing.
"First, your M.T. is being transported alongside you, though it's on a separate ground carrier. Your boss said he wants you to be delivered to a specific set of coordinates." He paused briefly. "I'm guessing it's a Delvian military base."
"It's near the border of the Western Front," the woman suddenly interjected with a cool, almost robotic voice.
It made sense for me to return to the Western Front. The nearest Inscryptor base was stationed there, but even under normal circumstances the journey back would take at least a week or two which would be severely detrimental for the operation I was apart of. But by now, I'm guessing the army had already abandoned any hope of recovering the artifact after our mission's failure.
I cursed my own incompetence under my breath but Varrick either didn't hear me or chose not to acknowledge it.
"Now, if we were operating as a regular military airship, it'd probably take us a week or two to get there," he continued.
"However?"
"This ship is legally registered as a Serian medical vessel."
A sudden frown strewn across my face. "What...? Why?"
"Look, I don't ask for details. I'd appreciate it if you returned the favor."
I scoffed at the remark. These were mercenaries, of course this ship was almost certainly stolen.
"So how long is it actually going to take us?"
Varrick leaned back slightly, staring at the wall as he thought it over.
"Psh...What? Three weeks. Maybe a month."
My stomach dropped.
"What? Are you kidding me?" I snapped. "If I'm absent from my post that long, they'll brand me a traitor."
"Calm down." Varrick raised a hand dismissively. "Your boss didn't exactly give us a strict deadline, so I'm making use of the..." He clicked his tongue as he searched for the word.
"...unique opportunities at hand."
I stared at him, baffled at the sheer audacity of what he was implying. "You make it seem like I'm some pot of gold you've stumbled across."
"More hands on deck means we can get a lot more contracts done after all."
I squinted at him. "I'm not following."
"Legally, we can't cross into Geoffrian territory with a Noctian onboard." He leaned back in his chair. "So we took some creative liberties with your identity and it kind of looks like you're part of this vessel's crew."
"Excuse me?"
Varrick pointed towards the computer and on it was my face with a fake name and registration as a medical practitioner and relief goods volunteer. For a moment, all I could do was stare at the falsified documents glowing on the monitor. Yet somehow, Varrick's faint smirk on the corner of my eye irritated me more than that.
"Nice to meet you, Otto Norman."
Akane finally stood from her seat, towering over me with her height. "Otto come with me."
"I'm not Otto!" I barked back.
"Hey, just be thankful I'm even giving you a name. I heard that Noctians don't even have names," Varrick teased before taking another shot of whiskey.
"Correct," I replied flatly. "But my callsign is Grim. Use that."
"Alright then... Grim." Varrick repeated my callsign with exaggerated seriousness. "Would you kindly follow this upstanding young lady to the spectral room?"
"Spectral room? What's—"
Before I could finish, a sudden tug yanked me by the arm toward the exit.
Moments later, I found myself dragged out of the office and back into the hallway before I fully processed what had happened.
"You're a sore sight with all those wounds, after I inspect you we will visit the med bay"
"Hey—hey!" I pulled my arm free from her grasp. "I can walk by myself."
Akane didn't respond. She merely looked down at me as though I were some unpleasant insect before continuing silently down the corridor.
This wing of the ship looked strangely similar to the storage sector, though there was one glaring difference, entire rooms remained deliberately unlit which was something you'd never find aboard a human airship.
Eventually, Akane stopped in front of a narrow room no larger than a closet.
Installed inside was a strange machine that resembled an oversized x-ray scanner. Upon closer inspection, I realized that the device functioned through glowing runic circuits embedded into its frame.
"This is a spectral analyzer, It measures the strength of a person's soul." Akane explained.
My brows furrowed. "And why exactly do I need this? I'm not a Caller."
"It doesn't matter, all Geoffrian citizens are required to register through a spectral analyzer." She sat down in a leather chair and activated a nearby monitor. "I'm registering you as a Geoffrian citizen."
"Oh, how wonderful."
Akane glanced up at me again with that same cold expression.
"Are you going to keep standing there, or sit down?"
I reluctantly lowered myself into the chair positioned in front of what looked less like a camera and more like a massive sensor lens.
"I'll perform two scans," she said. "The first determines whether you possess a soul. The second measures its spectral output."
I stared at her with visible confusion. "You do know Noctians don't have souls, right?"
Akane sighed softly through her nose.
"I am not stupid. Of course I know that. I only need proof that the scan was performed. I'll spend the night falsifying the records afterward." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "If you have no more pointless questions, I'll begin."
"Fine. Go ahead—"
A blinding flash exploded in front of my eyes.
"AH! What the-!" I recoiled. "You could've warned me first!"
Akane didn't answer.
At first, that silence didn't seem unusual. But after a few seconds, something about it began to feel unnerving.
"...Akane?"
I peered past the sensor toward her face and saw her cold indifference vanish completely, her expression seemed to be caught between confusion and disbelief.
"You..." she pursed her lips for a moment before continuing with an unsteady voice.
"It's- It's nothing."
Another flash appeared.
"AH~"