Chapter 83: What Mature and Steady? These People Are Not Even as Reliable as Me
The morning light filtering into the Goethe Hotel lobby brought no warmth, only tension.
"Did you guys see them out there?" March 7th huddled close to the rest of the Astral Express Crew gathered in the hall, her voice dropping to an anxious whisper. "A whole squad of Silvermane Guards just marched up to the entrance. Judging by their stances, they definitely mean trouble!"
"Although we knew Cocolia would make a move, this came way too fast, did it not?"
Leon raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "Do the Silvermane Guards not all wear heavy metal helmets? How exactly did you see their expressions to judge their stances?"
"It is a feeling! A sixth sense!" March 7th waved her hands in exasperation, her pink hair bouncing. "Do not get bogged down in the details right now!"
She let out a long, aggrieved sigh, her shoulders slumping. "Besides, why suddenly send an entire platoon to surround our hotel? We clearly did not do anything wrong yesterday..."
Well, 'nothing wrong' was highly subjective. Yesterday had been a chaotic blur of meeting Firefly, Silver Wolf, and Serval, resulting in a wildly destructive and overly competitive pillow fight. In the midst of the flying feathers and laughter, March 7th had genuinely forgotten the heavy burden of their original mission.
But looking at the armored soldiers outside the frosted windows... she remembered. Oh, she remembered everything.
They were here to seal a world-destroying Stellaron!
Yet somehow, after running in circles, they had ended up right back on their favorite old path: becoming wanted fugitives on a foreign planet. March 7th felt the urge to cry, though no tears would come. She was simply too familiar with this exact flavor of disaster.
"Perhaps it is because I went to assassinate Cocolia last night?" Leon offered casually. He rubbed his chin in mock contemplation before suddenly clapping his hands together as if solving a grand mystery.
"Oh... so you assassinated Cocolia last night..." March 7th nodded along, her brain on autopilot for a split second before the words actually registered. She froze. Her neck snapped toward him, her blue-and-pink eyes widening to the size of saucers. "What?! You assassinated the Supreme Guardian last night?!"
Hearing Leon's sudden, cheerful confession, March 7th felt her soul attempt to leave her body. Her jaw dropped, her mind racing through a dozen horrific scenarios of public execution.
Stelle and Caelus, on the other hand, merely exchanged a glance. They punched their fists into their open palms in unison, nodding as if a great universal truth had just been revealed. "Ah, I see. No wonder the guards are here," Stelle deadpanned.
"Makes perfect sense," Caelus agreed, completely unfazed.
"I was joking." Leon shrugged, his tone entirely too breezy for the panic he had just induced.
In reality, judging by the results of last night's intimate encounter, Leon had indeed 'assassinated' Cocolia's previous worldview—though to be fair, the Supreme Guardian had been the one to initiate that particular physical exchange.
"Could you please not make jokes like that?" March 7th groaned, clutching her chest. "It is not funny at all!"
She wiped a genuine bead of cold sweat from her brow. If Leon had actually murdered the ruler of Belobog, they would have no choice but to break through the windows and flee into the snowstorm right this second. At least in the current situation, there was still some room to negotiate.
Standing near the lobby fireplace, Dan Heng crossed his arms, while Welt simply adjusted his glasses. Both older men shook their heads in silent amusement. It was painfully obvious Leon was teasing her. If a monster like Leon truly intended to assassinate someone, there would be no Silvermane Guards outside—there would only be a crater where Qlipoth Fort used to stand.
"Alright, I will leave this little diplomatic incident for you guys to handle. We will split up for now." Leon chuckled softly.
Before anyone could protest, the space around him warped. His figure dissolved into thin air, leaving behind nothing but a faint ripple of energy. He had absolutely zero interest in playing a tedious game of tag with the city guard across the freezing streets of Belobog.
"Sigh..." March 7th let out a breath so deep it seemed to drain her very soul. She slumped against the nearest pillar, feeling utterly exhausted before the day had even begun.
She never thought she would see the day. Usually, she was the one responsible for causing a ruckus during their Trailblaze expeditions. Yet somehow, standing next to a chaotic fun-seeker like Leon and two trash-can-obsessed amnesiacs, she had miraculously become the most law-abiding, responsible member of the team.
'What happened to mature and steady?'she thought bitterly, glaring at the empty space Leon had just vacated.'These people are not even half as reliable as me!'
"Instead of speculating in here, it is better to face them head-on and see what they want," Welt said, his voice a calm anchor in the storm.
Following the senior Trailblazer's lead, the Express Crew pushed open the heavy oak doors of the hotel and stepped out into the biting morning chill.
The moment March 7th's eyes adjusted to the glaring snow, she spotted the commanding figure standing at the head of the armored platoon. She drew in a sharp breath. "Huh, you are the girl from Qlipoth Fort yesterday..."
She recognized Bronya immediately. The elegant military uniform, the spiral-drilled silver hair, and the stern posture were unmistakable. Standing right beside her was the diminutive intelligence officer, Pela.
It was impossible to forget Pela. After all, Leon, Stelle, and Caelus loudly chanting "Sister Pela!" in the middle of the street yesterday had permanently burned the girl's flustered face into March's memory.
"I am Bronya Rand, acting Commander of the Silvermane Guards." Bronya stepped forward, her boots crunching heavily against the frost. She led Pela and a dozen heavily armed guards to surround the plaza, her expression carved from absolute ice.
Pela, however, maintained a highly conflicted expression behind her round glasses. Her heart was already churning with chaotic gossip.
The dangerous criminals Lady Cocolia had ordered them to arrest... were these people? The same abstract, brain-damaged weirdos who had surrounded her yesterday, aggressively demanding to be called her siblings?
Wait a minute. Pela's keen eyes scanned the group. Yesterday, there had clearly been a tall, distinguished gentleman who had also shamelessly called her 'Sister Pela'. There had also been a small, hacker-like girl who looked suspiciously identical to a younger version of Bronya.
Why were those two missing from the lineup today?
Pela's inner intelligence officer was screaming with curiosity. Her mind spun wild, dramatic theories. Could it be that the girl who looked like a young Bronya was an illegitimate child? Did Lady Cocolia discover the secret and send the real Bronya here to permanently 'silence'the competition? The plot of a trashy Belobog soap opera practically wrote itself in her head.'Bronya Rand?'Welt thought, his hand pausing on the frame of his glasses.'Should it not be Bronya Zaychik?'He stared at the silver-haired commander, a wave of nostalgia and complex memories washing over him from his home universe. If the timing and atmosphere were not so intensely hostile, he genuinely wanted to step forward, grab her shoulder, and ask:'Excuse me, do you happen to know someone named Seele?'
"In the name of the noble and supreme Amber Lord, and by the command of Supreme Guardian Cocolia Rand, we are here to apprehend the infiltrators attempting to incite rebellion."
Bronya delivered the lines with practiced authority. Thanks to Cocolia's secret guidance late last night, Bronya roughly understood the script she needed to follow. The plan was simple: she would just pretend she had absolutely no idea her mother had been corrupted by the Stellaron, ignore the fact that Leon had already cured her, and proceed with the arrest exactly as the original timeline dictated.
Bronya's sharp gaze swept over the Express Crew. Her voice rang out, clear and unyielding against the howling wind. "Here, in my capacity as the Supreme Guardian's deputy, I temporarily revoke your freedom of action and speech."
She rested her hand on the hilt of her rifle. "You will have the opportunity to defend yourselves when the Tribunal judges you. Abandon all futile resistance and come with us peacefully."
With a swift wave of her gloved hand, she signaled the Silvermane Guards. The soldiers unslung their halberds, the heavy metal clanking ominously as they stepped forward to detain the crew.
"Wait, wait just a minute!" March 7th threw her hands up, stepping back. "This is not what was agreed upon! Yesterday she clearly smiled and said she was going to invite us back to discuss important matters..."
"This is a planned betrayal, without a doubt." Dan Heng reached out, calmly placing a hand on March's shoulder to stop her useless defense. His piercing gaze locked onto the guards. He knew exactly what was happening. The root of the problem was never their actions—it was Cocolia herself.
"Sigh, we are going to be prisoners again." March 7th groaned, her shoulders dropping in defeat. "I have noticed a terrible pattern. This exact situation seems to play out at least once every three worlds we visit."
She threw her hands out in her signature, helpless little bear shrug.
"That is because you always act entirely on impulse without a single coherent plan," Dan Heng pointed out, his tone sharp and mercilessly accurate.
"Hey! I can grow too, alright? I am literally thinking of a master plan right now!" March 7th retorted indignantly, puffing out her cheeks.
She scanned the plaza frantically. Suddenly, her bright eyes locked onto a barricaded street corner, and they lit up like stars. "A plan... I have one! Look at that alleyway over there!"
Dan Heng followed her gaze toward the heavy iron gates blocking off a distorted, glowing section of the city. "That is an area sealed off due to Fragmentum corrosion..."
He paused, his tactical mind processing the layout in a fraction of a second. He immediately understood her crazy intention. "I see. The guards will not dare follow us in there. That is indeed a viable option. Be ready to move at any moment."
"Huh? Wait, is that really a good idea?" March 7th blinked, suddenly doubting herself. "I just pointed at it randomly..."
Welt remained silent, his expression placid. He had agreed from the very beginning of this expedition to let the younger generation handle the crisis themselves. Unless their lives were in immediate, unavoidable peril, he would not summon his cane to intervene.
Watching Dan Heng and March 7th quickly formulate an escape route under pressure, the older man nodded in quiet satisfaction. Although their tactical decisions still had plenty of rough edges, they had certainly grown leaps and bounds compared to when they first boarded the Express.
"Code Three..." Dan Heng whispered, his voice barely carrying over the wind.
"Huh?" Stelle and Caelus exchanged blank glances, clearly not understanding the sudden non sequitur.
"Shh, that is an old code word of the Express Crew," March 7th explained softly out of the corner of her mouth, her muscles tensing for a sprint. "It means: when we count down to one, you run for your lives."
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]