"Have you two ever been inside Zwillingstürme?" Flandre looked across the table at the pair.
"We went there on a delivery run last time, but we didn't actually enter the city limits," Exusiai replied, taking a sip of water. "After all, even though the cargo we carry is technically legal, our routes aren't exactly compliant with standard customs. It's fine if we don't get caught, but if we trigger an inspection, our commercial transit license in Leithanien might get revoked."
"Then you definitely made the right call staying outside," Flandre said, recalling the dense security layout of the twin spires and nodding with conviction. "If Londinium is a place where you run into a squad of Sarkaz every two steps, then Zwillingstürme is a city where you stumble into a secret agent every two steps. For transport couriers like you who handle gray-market cargo, you'd be cornered and questioned the second you stepped past the gates."
"Hiss... keeping that many secret agents on the payroll? How terrified of dying are those two Empresses?" Exusiai remarked with a sarcastic whistle.
"It's not necessarily a fear of death," Texas interjected thoughtfully, setting her fork down. "When the dual monarchs launched the raid on the Witch King and executed him years ago, quite a few of his high-ranking remnants escaped into the shadows. As far as public intelligence goes, Empress Lieselotte and Empress Hildegard have been fiercely dedicated to eradicating the lingering remnants of the Witch King for years. Most of those secret agents are likely deployed to hunt down those cultists. Furthermore, even though the two Empresses were pushed onto the throne by the high nobility, they didn't come from traditional aristocratic houses, meaning they held very little direct political power early on. I suspect another portion of those agents are actually spies placed there by the regional Electors."
"Still, now that you mention it, Zwillingstürme really isn't a place to wander into lightly," Exusiai said, patting her chest in relief as she looked at her partner. "It's a good thing I listened to you when you refused to let us go sightseeing last time, Texas."
She had been immensely curious about the grand architecture of Zwillingstürme during their last job, but Texas had insisted that their timeline was tight and their cargo load heavy, forcing them to turn back immediately. Looking back now, that caution had saved them a massive headache.
When the conversation shifted to Flandre's previous stop at Rhodes Island, the little girl puffed up her chest with immense pride, eager to share how much praise she had received from the medical staff there.
However, after hearing Flandre describe how she had performed dozens of intricate surgeries on Rhodes Island to suppress Oripathy symptoms in Infected patients, Exusiai and Texas looked at each other, their primary takeaway being that Rhodes Island sounded less like a pharmaceutical enterprise and more like an unlicensed sweatshop.
"Huh?! That's the conclusion you two came up with after listening to me for so long?" Flandre's red eyes widened in utter disbelief.
"Well, what else are we supposed to think?" Exusiai said righteously, waving a hand in the air. "Flandre, look how small you are! For a place like Rhodes Island to drag a little girl into performing non-stop surgical procedures isn't just illegal child labor—it borders on serious child abuse!"
Hearing Exusiai's bold declaration, Flandre didn't react right away, but sitting nearby, Hong Meiling almost choked on her Qingbuliang. After taking several deep, heavy breaths to force her laughter back down, Meiling noticed that every single eye at the table had turned to stare at her. She swallowed hard, coughing into her fist.
"I... I just thought of something funny from back home! It has absolutely nothing to do with what you girls are talking about. Please, carry on!"
Flandre narrowed her eyes, glaring suspiciously at her gatekeeper. "Are you absolutely sure it's something funny, Sister Meiling?"
Meiling immediately patted her chest with a resounding thump, declaring her absolute innocence. In the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion, who didn't know that her, Hong Meiling's, core personal code was centered on absolute loyalty?
Hearing her over-the-top assurance, Flandre believed her even less, but since she couldn't prove anything, she had to drop the matter for the moment. After all, there were more important topics on the table.
Flandre turned back to Exusiai and Texas, adamantly rejecting their theory. The workload hadn't been nearly as grueling as they made it out to be; it was simply that Rhodes Island's specialized medical equipment hadn't been fully calibrated yet, so they needed her to perform the precise energy extractions manually for a brief period. Furthermore, the entire arrangement had been explicitly approved by her elder sister, and the medical team had constantly monitored her physical and mental condition throughout the process.
Granted, while the extraction process wasn't inherently difficult for her, it required absolute, microscopic precision. If her focus drifted for even a split second, a stray burst of Destruction magic would literally vaporize a chunk of the patient's flesh! Considering that her guardian, Remilia, had given full consent, and that Rhodes Island kept a watchful eye on her health the entire time, Flandre maintained that it couldn't be classified as child exploitation.
"Is that new Oripathy treatment protocol from Rhodes Island really as miraculous as you claim?" Texas asked, successfully steering the conversation back on track.
"Of course it is!" Flandre declared proudly. "There was an extremely severe patient while I was there—her entire body was heavily encrusted with originium crystals, and she couldn't even stand or walk because of the crystal formations clogging the joint tissue in her legs. But after the operation... Sister Meiling, do you remember what the official medical report said?"
Flandre looked toward Meiling, scratching her head as her memory blurred the technical terms.
"The internal blood-originium crystal density dropped by forty percent, surface originium crystal coverage was reduced by sixty percent, her overall clinical classification was downgraded from severe to moderate, and she was transferred to the neurology department for nerve recovery therapy," Meiling recited effortlessly, spreading her hands. "That's about all I remember. You know I'm not particularly interested in medical jargon—I only picked up those numbers because the doctors were discussing them outside the ward every day."
Hearing those precise figures, Exusiai and Texas were visibly stunned.
"That's... incredible," Texas murmured, her eyes wide.
As natives of Terra, both of them had been fully aware of the terrifying reality of Oripathy since childhood. Under current medical standards across all major nations, Oripathy was considered strictly incurable; standard medical treatments could only hope to stabilize a patient's condition, while heavy suppression drugs served merely to prevent acute, fatal organ failure. A scenario like the one Flandre described—where an advanced case directly regressed to a manageable state—was completely unheard of in modern medical history.
"Naturally! Am I the kind of person who makes up lies?" Flandre crossed her arms, beaming with pride.
"Uh... Flandre, have you mentioned this treatment to anyone else since arriving in Lungmen?" Texas asked, her tone suddenly turning sharp and guarded.
"Of course not!" Flandre thought back over her recent conversations. Although she had chatted with Madam Fumizuki about her travel itinerary, she hadn't gone into detail about performing medical procedures on Rhodes Island's patients.
"Then I strongly suggest you don't go around spreading this news," Texas warned, staring intently into Flandre's eyes. "...Though I suppose sharing it privately with Madam Fumizuki would be fine."
"Is it really that serious?" Flandre tilted her head, not fully understanding the weight of her own words.
"It's not just serious—it's revolutionary," Texas explained grimly, her voice low. "If what you said is true, this research breakthrough from Rhodes Island will drive every major faction on Terra completely wild. You have no idea what a nightmare the Infected issue is for the ruling classes. Common Infected citizens are one thing, but there are countless infected nobles, corporate executives, and wealthy magnates who would do anything to get their hands on that treatment. Current suppression drugs lose their effectiveness the longer they're used, and invasive surgical options carry catastrophic side effects. If Rhodes Island possesses a stable treatment plan that can systematically reverse Oripathy without fatal risks... believe me, every high official and billionaire on this continent will beat a path to their door, by force if necessary."
Texas laid out the geopolitical implications with absolute clarity, ensuring the little girl understood the sheer scale of what she had witnessed.
"So it's actually that amazing!" Flandre gasped, a look of sudden realization washing over her face as she finally grasped why the doctors on Rhodes Island had looked so overwhelmed with emotion.