“My dear Harbinger, please calm down—your health is what matters.
Let’s head back and replace those worn-out parts of yours before we go find Her Majesty the Tsaritsa.” Looking at Piers’s face, Sandrone did calm down somewhat, but the very next second she realized something was off and reached out to throw a punch at Piers.
“Who’s ‘your’ anything?
What nonsense are you spouting!” But whether it was because Piers had been practicing adeptal arts, or because Sandrone really was rather weak, the punch turned out to be quite soft and feeble.
“I’m your subordinate, and you’re my dear Harbinger—there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?” Piers put on a slightly aggrieved expression.
Hearing him put it that way, Sandrone seemed to find it reasonable, yet she still felt something was somehow strange.
“Let’s go.
If ‘Lady [Marionette]’ doesn’t like it, I’ll just phrase it differently from now on.
For now, let’s get back and replace the damaged parts.
The remains of an Archon don’t just contaminate living beings—given enough time, even mechanical parts will be damaged.” “Tch, it’s just a little bit of an Archon’s remains.
Is it really as dire as you’re making it sound?” This Kitty—she could barely walk steadily, yet she was still talking tough.
The toughest part of her entire body was her mouth.
“Fine, whatever you say goes, my lady.
Weren’t you in such a hurry to go complain to Her Majesty the Tsaritsa?” “Oh, right.
Hurry up and help me back.” The train tracks were just a little ways ahead.
Just as Piers was about to help Sandrone over, he suddenly stopped in place and turned his head.
“By the way, you should come back with us too.
The remains of an Archon haven’t been dealt with yet, and before long another horde of monsters will show up here.” “Me…
me?
…Thank you…” But after thanking him, she didn’t move; instead, she cautiously stared at Sandrone beside Piers.
After all, the Harbinger was still present, so Piers’s words counted as a suggestion at most.
In the end, she still had to ask for Sandrone’s opinion—the dedicated train wasn’t something just anyone could ride.
“Get on, get on.
That bastard Dottore—leaving a single young girl out here shoveling snow in such a heavy snowstorm.
What a wretched excuse for a person.” Only after receiving Sandrone’s permission did Katayena set down the shovel in her hands and follow along on trembling legs.
Once they boarded the train, this time Piers sat beside Sandrone—after all, injured as she was, she would later need Piers to help her back.
“What a shame.
Pronia still had quite a few spare parts left in its body.
Next time I’ll file a request to make the train doors a bit bigger.” “Let me lean on you for a bit.” Sandrone leaned close to Piers and said softly.
Hearing the obvious weakness in Sandrone’s voice, Piers dropped his mood-lightening tone.
“What’s going on?
Is it that serious?” He propped Sandrone’s head against his chest, and out of the corner of his eye he suddenly caught sight of black vapor rising from Sandrone’s knee.
Remembering that the remains of an Archon were contaminating, Piers, without the slightest hesitation, yanked open the white stockings worn on Sandrone’s leg.
That sound startled Katayena in the neighboring carriage, but she didn’t dare look—in fact, the moment she heard the stockings being torn open, she shut her eyes outright.
Once the stockings were torn open, Piers finally saw it clearly: the exposed knee, including the calf below it, had already turned black.
Even Sandrone’s core had probably been affected to some degree—otherwise she wouldn’t be this weak.
“So fast already.” Piers hurriedly laid Sandrone, who had been resting on his shoulder, flat across the train seat.
“There isn’t even a single screwdriver here.” If only he could find a screwdriver here, he could just detach Sandrone’s calf directly—that way, at least the contamination from the remains of an Archon wouldn’t keep spreading.
“Little Piers~, what’s the matter~?
You seem awfully worried~” Guizhong sat on the train’s long bench, covering her mouth with her sleeve.
At this, Piers suddenly remembered that there was an Archon right beside him.
Surely she’d have a way to handle contamination from the remains of an Archon—after all, it had only just set in.
“Sister Guizhong, lend me a hand, won’t you?
With that tone of yours, you must have a solution, right?” Sandrone had completely passed out, so she couldn’t hear Piers speaking to Guizhong—but Katayena in the next carriage heard it all loud and clear, except that upon hearing it she immediately bolted off to another carriage.
“Heh heh, of course.
It’s only the remains of the Archon Osial.
If it were in the water, it might be a bit trickier, but here it’s a piece of cake.
Come, let your big sister teach you.” As she spoke, Guizhong stood up, raised her hand, drew it out from her sleeve, and pressed her fingertip against the spot between Piers’s brows; then a speck of white light bored its way in.
In just a few seconds, a flash of light flickered through Piers’s eyes.
“You learned it that fast?” Guizhong was outright stunned by this, but before she could even recover from her astonishment, Piers had already begun the treatment.
He gathered adept power into his hand, and then blue flames ignited in his palm.
With just a single sweep across Sandrone’s leg, the calf that moments ago had been steadily spewing black vapor was instantly healed.
“Little Piers, I can tell your spiritual roots are extraordinary—you’re clearly a prodigy at cultivating immortality.” So that’s where those street fortune-tellers got their spiels from?
“Sis Guizhong, don’t you think you sound a lot like those street-corner soothsayers…?” “I’ll have you know I’m a legitimate Archon, all right?
And you—when you needed my help it was ‘Sister Guizhong,’ but the moment you don’t need me anymore it’s just ‘Sis Guizhong,’ huh!
You ungrateful little brat.” Just as Guizhong was still grumbling indignantly, the train pulled into the station—and right on cue, Sandrone woke up too.
Her earlier feeble state had vanished into thin air.
She looked at Piers with obvious confusion.
“Just now…” Right as she was about to ask, Piers spoke up first.
“I happened to read a book once in the Zapolyarny Palace library.
It described a method for eliminating minor infections from the remains of an Archon.” Sandrone didn’t dwell on it; she nodded and stepped straight off the train.
It wasn’t until she reached the corridor atop the Zapolyarny Palace’s walls that she glanced at her own leg out of the corner of her eye.
“Hm?
Where did the stocking on my leg go?” She visibly froze for a moment, then turned a slightly accusatory gaze toward Piers.
“Ah…
well, about that—it was for the treatment, to get a clear look at the injury…” Under Sandrone’s stare like that, Piers actually grew a little flustered.
Although everything he said was the truth, tearing open the stockings on a girl’s leg was hardly a proper thing to do—especially when the other party was his own superior—so Piers couldn’t help feeling a bit sheepish as he spoke.
But at that moment, Katayena, standing off to the side, saw Piers like this, unconsciously pursed her lips, and her face suddenly flushed red—she hastily turned her face away.