AN: Decided I would change Libra"s quotation marks since he"s a Spirit..
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The next day, it was early morning. Cole, Felicia, and Libra were having a nice cup of morning coffee. Cole had his usual latte, Felicia had her black coffee, while Libra was drinking coffee with loads of whipped cream on top, probably a cappuccino.
They were all sitting on the stairs of the porch and staring into the distance.
"..."
"..."
「...」
There was a giant crater about 50 meters in diameter. At the center of the crater, it was just cooled off but the lava under was still hot. The grey gra.s.s near the edges of the crater had been completely burned, causing a black ring death to surround the crater.
The cause of such a crater?
Cole experimenting.
Cole, Felicia, and Libra had experimented with Chaos Magic and found out that Cole could force a Result with the use of intent-driven Mana.
As long as he poured intent into his Mana and released it using through a verbal form like chanting out a spell or written format like Clyde"s use of his wand, the Result would happen as long there was Mana to supply it.
However, he had to add Chaos before the desired thing first. It also had to be done in Greek as it served as the Magic Langage of sorts.
He had tested it with simple events such as a person slipping(Libra) or a person accidentally spilling their drink on themselves(Felicia) to forms of attack like〈Chaos Sphere〉or〈Chaos Barrier〉
As for their exact properties, Cole hadn"t had a chance to test them out yet since Felicia didn"t know any magic because she hadn"t been tested for it before and Libra couldn"t use any magic.
But the cause of the crater was Cole himself, not magic or anything.
When Eva had fallen asleep, they took the Mechanica Anatomy panel from her and read about a Combat Mechanica"s different abilities.
There were things like being able to zoom on his target with a pinpointer. Defense and Support-types could also do this but it was used for different purposes. Like finding the weakest part in a person"s defense or finding their patient"s afflicted part.
Another one was the ability to blast heat cannons from his hands or fingers. If Cole concentrated, he could make them into laser cannons.
And that"s what he did.
But Cole had a serious lapse in judgment and directed his aim to the ground. He would normally not have done such a thing but he didn"t think the output would be so strong considering that he had only concentrated a bit.
Cole directed his gaze towards the sky and remembered the existence of a certain helpful person from his time back in the〈Avant Zone〉.
"I miss Steward, whenever he was active, I wouldn"t have given into such destructive tendencies.
The three continued to stare blankly before Felicia noticed the time.
"Ah, Cole... You have to get ready for work don"t you?"
"Ah... That"s right."
「Cole-- I mean, Master. If you need me, just call me and I"ll appear. I"ll even add black smoke so that you"re aware.」
Felicia brought Cole into the house and made breakfast. But before Cole got teleported to the void that Headquarters were located, he asked Felicia...
"Felicia."
"Hmm? What is it, Cole?"
Cole stared at Felicia with eyes full of desperation. Felicia was shocked by the amount of emotion on Cole"s face. She suddenly felt that the tension in the room rose all of a sudden.
*GULP*
She gulped because of her nervousness. A few sweat drops trailed down her face.
"...Could you go to work with me?"
"...Eh?"
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Cole was called into Rory"s office when he reported to work. Besides him, Gemi and Mini had also been called along.
It was Crux who had brought him to the office and told him that he was a.s.signed a Mission. He gave Cole a few words of encouragement since it would be his fist Mission and all but Cole didn"t need it.
Lucille had gone back to the〈Demon Realm〉last night so Rory was in charge of giving them the misison briefing. Whatever it was, Cole believed that it wouldn"t shake comabt and military experience.
Rory had regained her leader-like presence and expression but she still had a small b.u.mp on her head that was hard to notice if you were a regular person.
"Cole Steward, Gemina, and Mavis Stellan. You three are to venture into the〈Huaxia Zone〉and to settle the feud between two clan heads there. While you three are gone, I"ll have Crux and his squad along with you"re Vice Heads deal with your work."
"Although this may seem like a simple mission, the reason it"s been entrusted to you three is because of rumors talking about how a war--"
"Why can"t we just have the branch there deal with it?"
"Pretty sure they"re a lot less busy than we are."
Gemi and Mini instantly had unwillingness drawn on their faces and they complained vefore Rory had the cahnce to continue her sentence.
As for the branch they were alking about, there"s a〈S.T.E.L.L.A〉branch based in the〈Huaxia Zone〉whose Department Heads were based off the Chinese Zodiac signs instead.
"There"s like... 10 billion people in that Zone. It"s the most populated one."
Rory tried reasoning with the fact that the otehr branch was smaller, thus giving them about the same work in proportions to the main branch. But Cole had something else to say when he heard that it was the〈Huaxia Zone〉that was the most populated Zone.
"Wait, what about the〈Avant Zone〉? If you include the interplanetary colonies, they have a lot more people than the〈Huaxia Zone〉does."
"Their population is spread out and there are about 5 billion people living in the Zone. Just accept the d.a.m.n mission! I"ll send the info to you."
Before anyone else could voice out another snetence of protest, Rory sent the Mission Info to the three via the built-in messaging feature between Mechanicas.
▶［Quelling Wars］✦✦✦✦
-〈Huaxia Zone〉
- Quell the war before it happens.
- Cancel the Clan Tournament at all costs.
- Recommended: Bring a Dragon along if you can because the Blue Dragon is apparently the overseer of the Tournament.
The three were about to leave and discuss about waht they should do in preparation for the mission before Rory stopped them.`
"And, Cole."
"Yes, Aries?"
"Could you please explain why there"s a civilian in the meeting room."
Rory directed her gaze to Felicia who was sitting on a nearby sofa while reading a magazine about cooking. Gemi and Mini didn"t mind her. When Cole brought her into the office, they had a.s.sumed that he was getting married and wanted to ask Rory for leave.
Or that she was going to be intoduced as a new co-worker.
"It"s for psychological reasons. Last night. I made a 50m crater in front of my house by accident."
"..."
"Okay."
"..."
Aries didn"t know what to say in regards to that, Mini just accepted the fact while Gemi replied with a nonchalant okay.
"Felicia, we"re leaving."
Felicia brought the magazine with her because it had fun baking recipes she"s like to try in the future and left the room together with Cole. Gemi and Mini followed shortly after, leaving the stunned Rory by herself.
"I want to see Emily. I don"t want to be near that crazy man."
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The four of them left Rory"s office and decided to have a strategy meeting in Cole"s office. Although, Felicia was just there for temporary psychological needs.
"Nice to meet you, I"m Felicia. I work as Cole"s maid in the〈Neutral Zone〉"
Felicia introduced herself with a bow worthy of one who hold"s the t.i.tle of maid.
"Although you say maid, you"re more like a babysitter or cook. The roombas are the ones taht clean the house during the night after all."
"If I don"t say that I"m a maid, then what"s the point of wearing this uniform?"
"You could stop wearing it."
"I"ve grown too attached to it over the years."
As Gemi and Mini saw the interaction between Cole, they solidified their impression that Felicia was someone important to Cole, or at the least, someon he didn"t only show an emotionless face to. After their chatter settled down a bit, Gemi and Mini introduced themselves with a slight bow to show respect..
"Nice to meet you, Gemina Stellan. You can call me Gemi"
"Mavis Stellan. Call me Mini."
"So, let"s get down to business."
"To defeat the Huns?"
"Nii, no."
"But, it"s fitting, is it not?"
"*Sigh*...
Gemi sighed at her brother"s low sense of humor and tried to get the topic back on track.
"Anyway, it"s said here that it"s recommended that we bring along a Dragon. Cole, by any chance, are you acquainted with any Dragons?"
"Probably not."
"If worse comes to worst, I"ll just snipe a random one."
Gemi and Mini didn"t think that Cole would actually have someone like that and Mini was already thinking of threatening one on the brink of death.
"Actually, I do--"
Cole was about to tell them about Val when a message popped up in fornt of his eyes.
〔Neurochip Adjustment and Self-Repair fully Complete. Initiating startup of dormant programs...〕
"Huh? Felicia said something about the Neurochip doing some adjustments in the background."
〔Activating a.s.sistant Manager: Steward〕
"?!"
And that was the last thing Cole saw before he blacked out.