Chapter Fifteen: What to Do When a Child Goes Astray

“Look, look, this is the face of anticipation I wore. If I post this photo to the forum, the number of comments will surely be impressive.”

“So please don’t!”

The esper instinctively reached out; the girl withdrew her phone like lightning, moving just like a hamster hiding its grain.

There was no time to explain the situation to the hunter beside him.

Right now, here and now, if he didn’t come up with something quickly, the reputation of the upright youth, Gongsun Ce, would be ruined!

He took a deep breath to steady himself and tried to speak with calm composure: “Miss Qin, please calm down. I don’t know what you’ve misunderstood…”

“No need to explain, Ce. Even I never expected you to have such a hidden side. This isn’t something friends should discuss anymore; it’s a serious social issue. I think it’s wise to let the forum’s literati debate it, rather than keep it private.”

“What in the world have you misunderstood to say something like that?”

The girl wiped sweat from her face with a napkin. “Should I, with my complicated feelings at this moment, be the one to explain?”

“Complicated feelings about what exactly? Did I do something shameful to a friend?”

Alice seemed to decide not to join their conversation; at this moment, with a wicked grin, she was already ordering from the shop owner.

Qin Qianbai propped her chin on her hand, as if pondering deeply, and then spoke with a tone no different from before: “Ce, listen carefully. A classmate who had an afternoon class skipped it to eat fast food with us. Afterwards, he went home as if nothing had happened. I thought it was because he wasn’t feeling well, but then I saw him at a ramen shop several districts away, dining with a suspicious, much older adult.”

“Wait, who is this suspicious older adult?!”

The suspicious older adult let out a misplaced scream.

Miss Qin hammered her fist into her palm.

“He’s usually a good student, but he skipped class to go this far. It really complicates my feelings. Don’t worry; though I won’t keep your secret, I won’t distance myself from you either. Whether you head to some shady motel, strange alleyway, or a warehouse sealed like an illegal structure, I won’t interfere.”

Ah, this is hopeless.

He wanted to say something as before, but even that small reserve of strength had vanished.

If he didn’t act now, it wouldn’t just be a matter of reputation—the youth named Gongsun Ce would suffer a grand social death in the Sky City before any real crisis arrived.

Help! Remember your senior’s teachings! Think, what would big brother say now?

A reliable mentor gradually took shape in his mind, giving him a thumbs-up: “A man should only seek a clear conscience and pay no heed to others’ gossip!”

Thank you, big brother. Though your words are utterly useless right now, at least my spirit is encouraged.

The mentor in his mind crouched in a corner and faded away like dust.

“Hey, do I look like a suspicious person?!”

In the real world, Miss Alice was desperately shouting, while the girl a seat away nodded vigorously: “You do.”

Thud!

Gongsun Ce collapsed onto the bar, breaking off the idiots’ conversation with a dull sound.

Like a zombie, he slowly raised his right arm, pointing at the girl to his right.

“Qin Qianbai, you…”

The girl tilted her head. “Me?”

The young man suddenly lifted his head: “Stop reading those adult magazines! Even aside from being a man, it’s impossible for me to encounter anything like that. Don’t bring those absurd magazine plots into real life!”

“I have no interest in that stuff.”

“Don’t lie! Then where did you learn about all this?”

“Cardecia told me during our chat.”

“That damn perverted, delusional girl!”

Are there really college students nowadays who chat with female classmates while holding smutty books? The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the blonde-hat girl could do such a thing. What a world!

Poor bespectacled man made up his mind: after this, he would report to Shi Yu-kun, absolutely, definitely.

The girl raised her big bowl, gulping down the ramen broth, showing no intent to reflect at all.

“In short, I’m only helping this stranger I met this afternoon from the most basic sense of responsibility. In a word, it’s simply the behavior of a helpful young man. Do you understand now?”

Qin Qianbai set down her bowl, carefully wiped her mouth, then said, “Then I won’t post it to the forum.”

“Don’t speak as if you’re making some major concession about something that should be obvious.”

“That still sounds odd. You’re free to do as you wish, but…”

She stood up, picking up her small bag.

“Before helping others, maybe you should settle your own affairs first.”

With that, Miss Qin bid him goodbye and left the noodle shop.

The esper finally gained a moment of peace.

Thank goodness the shop owner hadn’t burst out laughing.

He ordered the signature tonkotsu ramen (thick noodles, no scallions, extra noodles, extra egg, no pork), and then felt a subtle bump on his arm.

Miss Alice, grinning mischievously, poked him with her elbow: “Girlfriend~?”

“If I had a girlfriend, would I have met an alien alone at my doorstep, gone through a string of incidents, and ended up eating ramen here with you?”

“Wh—what?! You make it sound like going out with me is a losing proposition! No matter what, just by looks and figure, I’m still a top-tier beauty!”

You really didn’t need to emphasize the word “still.”

Gongsun Ce offered sincere advice: “Miss Alice, if you could act a bit more composed in situations like this, you’d truly become the dashing beauty you imagine yourself to be.”

“If I could do that, I wouldn’t be eating ramen with you right now!”

Truly, that made too much sense.

The owner brought out two bowls of ramen; Alice ordered a bowl of spicy noodles with red broth.

He had thought people from the Kingdom didn’t eat spicy food.

“Well then…”

The young man was pondering how to use his ability to create a soundproof barrier, but abandoned the idea halfway.

He watched Alice dip her chopsticks in the broth to draw a strange symbol on a napkin. It looked like an inverted hook, with a slanted line through the middle.

For no reason, even though the sounds in his ears hadn’t changed, Gongsun Ce felt the environment around him turn “quiet.”

“A little spiritual trick. After this, our conversation will just sound like background noise and won’t stick in ordinary people’s memories. It’s useless against Impermanence mages and psychic espers, but I doubt this ramen shop is full of hidden experts.”

How convenient.

Just this little trick met the esper’s criteria for a true expert; indeed, she was worthy of the title.

“As far as I know, the owner is just an ordinary person. The biggest presence in here is us two. Now I can ask openly, and you know what I want to ask.”

The hunter chewed two bites of noodles, speaking unclearly: “That…smack…Union agent.”

“Exactly. Mr. White’s attitude was very strange. His position differs from yours, but he has no hostility towards either of us; he’s also one of those tracking the dragon cultists, yet it’s as if he’s competing with you; he says the Empire and Union have sent their experts, while you alone represent the Kingdom and seem outnumbered; but during Tyrellos’s ambush, you saved his life without hesitation, and this agent instantly raised the alarm—pardon me, but what exactly are you official experts playing at?”

After delivering this long question, he slurped the noodles with the broth, savoring the warmth and satisfaction of the meal.

A heavy voice came from his left: “You’ve already figured it out. Experts aren’t always united… We enjoy official privileges, but naturally, we must seek benefit for our own factions. Empire, Union, Kingdom—if you mention all three, what’s the first commonality that comes to mind?”

He answered immediately: “Of course, Sky City.”

The Eternal Light Empire provided the dragon corpse as the foundation of the city, sent personnel to build it; it was the originator of the Sky City Project.

The Ustus Union supplied vast funds and several core technologies, enabling espers to live normally in the unbelievable floating metropolis.

Morton Kingdom contributed inhibitor technology, allowing ordinary people to enter the esper enclave without fear of abilities interfering.

Three nations led the way, the international community worked together on this unprecedented, absurd endeavor, and only then was the world’s largest super-prison finally built.

And the three countries that contributed most at the start naturally enjoyed the greatest jurisdiction over the city.

“I know what people say. ‘The Empire made the dough, the Union added the filling, the Kingdom sprinkled sesame and rolled it up, and together the three nations created Sky City.’ But that’s not the truth. The inhibitor is unique. Like many hidden, shadowy facilities in the city, only the Kingdom can offer it…” Alice stirred her broth, troubled. “It’s technology mastered only by the Kingdom’s Impermanence mages.”

The young man caught on.

Inhibitor technology was crucial, but the disparity in power was obvious. Why did the Morton Kingdom, with less overall strength than the two larger nations, get a share of the city’s authority?

That question had always vexed students keen on current affairs, spawning many theories, including the absurd idea that the Queen and Emperor had an affair.

The students knew such speculation was baseless—just that they couldn’t find a reasonable answer, no matter how hard they thought.

Only now, from Alice’s words, did he extract a clue: the Kingdom’s voice came from its hidden supernatural power.

He considered her words carefully, comparing today’s information with his past experiences.

He knew the Kingdom’s Impermanence mages were strong, far surpassing what he was at the time; among the strongest he’d ever seen.

But he’d only seen a select few; not all Impermanence mages could have such power. What was Alice referring to?

“You mean, the Kingdom’s Impermanence mages are formidable?”

The hunter was nearly done with her ramen.

“Of course. Official Impermanence mages, both in quality and quantity, the Kingdom was unchallenged—until three years ago.”

Upon hearing this, Gongsun Ce understood.

He felt regret.

As someone who witnessed it firsthand, he should have realized. No one knew better than him what happened in the Kingdom three years ago.

Alice’s voice was especially bitter.

“The event three years ago is called the Kingdom’s Collapse, and the name couldn’t be more apt. Her Majesty the Queen passed away, the Knight Commander fell, the First Knight weakened after the battle, and the Chief Mage hasn’t awakened since. We lost four world-shaping figures, and as for the manifested and communion mages who died in the disaster, they are countless…”

The blue-haired woman sighed.

“The Kingdom’s greatest mystical power was broken that day. If not for a shortage of manpower, if not for desperate straits, would the proud and tradition-bound Knights ever have formed the Wild Hunt and recruited us street-level hunters?”

The young man fell silent for a while, then echoed: “That was the Dragon Calamity.”

“The Calamity of Underworld, the Calamity of Glass—two disasters in one day brought a nation to its knees. You were in that city then; you know how terrifying the Dragon Calamity was.”

“And now, the person we’re tracking may possess the power to summon a dragon. Do you understand what that means? It’s a weapon more frightening than a nuke; no faction wants the dragon cultists’ dream to succeed, nor can any faction allow others to own such a weapon.”

Thus, there was this strange standoff among the experts.

The dragon cultists must not succeed.

But at the same time, no other nation could be allowed to obtain this extinction weapon.

“Sky City has become a hunting ground for the three nations, and for these two days, I’m the only one who can represent the Kingdom in this fight.” Alice anxiously bit her nail. “That’s why I dragged you into this, why I had to act first… Let me tell you what worries me: it’s that one-in-a-million chance. If some radical leader or lunatic really gets their hands on a summoning spell, no one can predict what will happen!”

The young man frowned. “In such tense times, I’m helpless, left to enjoy dinner while waiting for what sounds like unreliable intelligence. This is absurd.”

“Exactly… Hey, don’t copy my speech!”