"So your company wants to help me suppress a Lord Ravager?"
At those words, Kallen's steps came to a halt, as though the name had stirred up some deeply unpleasant memory.
In reality, though, she was already tearing into the IPC in her head.
What is this company even doing? Why are they so two-faced?
Back on the space station, they were all peace and coexistence. And now that I've switched accounts, they're immediately trying to get someone to snipe me?
Cutting ties with my past self just like that—wow, the IPC is really something.
Just wait. One day I'm going to blow you all up.
"Lady Jade." Kallen turned around, a half-smile lingering on her face. "And just which Lord Ravager are you referring to?"
Jade merely smiled.
"Naturally, I mean Kiana—the one you defeated a thousand years ago."
"I imagine Miss Kallen must be someone with a strong sense of justice. Otherwise, you would never have risked your life to stand against a Lord Ravager."
"Everyone in the company holds that in the highest admiration."
Her voice was quiet, pitched just low enough that only the two of them could hear.
Kallen looked at her and suddenly found the whole thing amusing.
The IPC had given her quite the flattering backstory. A righteous woman. Someone who had risked her life to battle a Lord Ravager. Put that way, it really did sound impressive.
"Lady Jade," Kallen said, "and how exactly did the company come by this information?"
"As far as I know, no one witnessed that battle between me and that Lord Ravager."
Jade kept smiling.
"You're absolutely right, Miss Kallen. No one witnessed that battle a thousand years ago."
"But… Kiana didn't die in the end."
Kallen put on the right amount of surprise.
"She still didn't die? Did she cheat?"
Her expression management was flawless: thirty percent shock, twenty percent confusion, and the remaining fifty percent a carefully measured trace of wariness.
Jade's smile did not change. She simply drew a photograph from her handbag and slid it toward Kallen.
It had been taken by one of the company's contacts on the Xianzhou.
The image showed Kiana and Cecilia in Luofu's Exalting Sanctum not long ago, during the chaos caused by Stellis.
So even if the Xianzhou Alliance had agreed to keep things quiet, information was still leaking out in all directions.
"According to the company's investigation," Jade continued, "this Lord Ravager named Kiana also has a mother who appears to be an Emanator of Abundance."
"Perhaps your blow back then truly was fatal. But under the power of Abundance, that Lord Ravager merely fell into slumber."
As she spoke, Jade produced an entire stack of documents and handed them to Kallen.
"And just a few months ago, this Lord Ravager awakened. Not only that, she appears to have brought Stellis under her command."
Kallen took the bundle and lazily flipped through a few pages.
"Lady Jade." She closed the file and neither returned it nor pocketed it, merely tapping it idly against her palm. "You're showing me all this because you want me to think: someone I failed to finish off back then is back, so I should cooperate with the IPC?"
"Miss Kallen truly is sharp," Jade replied.
"But let me correct one point. This would not be a cooperation. It would be the company offering you assistance."
"The company is willing to provide you with intelligence, resources, and even military support in the final confrontation, all to help you completely eliminate that Lord Ravager."
She paused, her gaze fixed on Kallen's face, carefully tracking every subtle shift in expression.
"But in exchange, we hope that when the time comes, Miss Kallen will stand on the company's side."
At that point, Kallen had already lost interest in indulging her.
You want me to fight myself? Are you serious?
On the one hand, they claimed they wanted to help her suppress Kiana. On the other, they still didn't dare commit fully, only offering support at the "final battle." And after it was done, they wanted to tie her to the company.
What kind of absurd deal was that?
There was no way that was something a sane person would say.
"Heh. I refuse," Kallen said flatly. "I already told you, I don't like the IPC."
This time, even Jade's composure faltered slightly.
Now that this Emanator of Preservation had truly appeared, the priority of their Penacony mission had to be reevaluated.
Yes, Penacony itself mattered. So did Gopher Wood's scheme and the Watchmaker's legacy. The company cared very much about all of that.
But if it came down to a choice, and as long as the Family didn't directly threaten the company, then recruiting this Emanator of Preservation took precedence over everything else.
The only thing Jade had not expected was that this Emanator of Preservation would harbor such open hostility toward the IPC.
The company had always presented itself as the rightful orthodoxy of Preservation. People might have all sorts of complaints about the company, especially its enemies, but on that point at least, most still acknowledged it.
And Emanators of Preservation, too, were beings indirectly recognized by Qlipoth.
But now, if an Emanator of Preservation openly broadcast her disgust for the IPC across the galaxy…
Jade did not need to think hard to know that the company's stock would crash for quite some time.
And that would be no small blow to the company's painstakingly maintained credit system.
Damn it. Had Market Development pulled something again behind their backs?
Jade could not help thinking of those colleagues from the neighboring division who had a long-standing habit of acting like monsters in public. She had lost count of how many messes they had dumped in her lap.
This is bad.
Market Development tarnishing the company's reputation was hardly new. She felt entirely justified in suspecting Oswaldo had once again done something that reflected badly on the rest of them.
"Miss Kallen," Jade said carefully, "I understand you may have certain misconceptions about some branches of the company. But please believe me: the Strategic Investment Department and the Market Development Department operate in completely different ways."
"Really?" Kallen said noncommittally. "But don't you all hang the same sign outside?"
She set the file down casually on a nearby tea table and tapped the paper lightly.
"Besides, Lady Jade, I already knew all of this."
Jade's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.
"What did you say?"
"I said, I already knew."
"Kiana Kaslana," Kallen said, "I've been looking for that girl all along."
"And haven't you noticed? My name is Kallen Kaslana. We share the same surname."
Kallen began making things up on the spot.
Granted, Kallen and Kiana sharing a surname sounded absurd. But since both identities were ultimately hers, she could invent the details later if she needed to.
Yet to Jade, the implications were entirely different.
She began reassessing the girl before her—the one dressed in Iris Family attire.
Could it be that Kiana had hidden far more from them than they had realized?
Then again, that would make sense. Given the company's uncertain stance, it would hardly be strange for Kiana to have kept things back.
"And what does Miss Kallen intend to do about this?" Jade asked again.
"I don't feel like telling you." Kallen answered instantly.
This time, Jade's smile truly cracked.
"Miss Kallen," she said, "may I ask just one thing? Why do you harbor such hostility toward the company?"
That question shifted the atmosphere between them entirely.
Jade was done dancing around the issue. The masks were off.
Her fingers curled slightly. Beneath the brim of her hat, her lashes trembled once.
She had lived for a very long time, and she had met no shortage of people who hated the company.
Small planetary natives stripped of their resources. Interstellar merchants ruined by Market Development scams. Wanderers who saw all structure as chains.
But an Emanator of Preservation who so openly despised the company—that was new.
Yes, the company had its darkness. Interests, compromises, coercion, sacrifice when deemed necessary. Jade had never denied any of that.
But overall, the company did preserve. Across the galaxy, countless civilizations continued to exist because of it. That was not fiction.
So why, she wondered, did Kallen—who walked the same Path—find them so intolerable?
"Miss Kallen," Jade said, her voice lowering, touched now with genuine confusion, "I admit the company is not spotless. But we truly are preserving. Countless civilizations across the galaxy endure because of us. That much is real."
Kallen's reply struck like a hammer.
"Because your Preservation is nowhere near pure enough."
Jade's heart clenched.
"Pure? Miss Kallen, do you realize that the overwhelming majority of Emanators of Preservation in the galaxy come from the company?"
"The Ten Stonehearts, too, carry Cornerstones—shards of the Amber Lord's own divine body, the most direct manifestation of Preservation's will."
She was practically ready to draw out her own Cornerstone to prove how deeply the company was connected to Preservation.
But the girl before her merely lowered her gaze.
"Those Cornerstones of yours?"
In that instant, the pressure of an Emanator of Preservation surged once more.
Jade's heart stopped.
Inside her pocket, the Cornerstone—the sacred fragment revered by the Stonehearts, a shard of divine body that had never before reacted this way—began to burn and tremble violently, like a subject kneeling before a sovereign, like a believer prostrating themselves before the true god.
An irresistible pull came from Kallen's body. The Cornerstone nearly burst from her pocket, yearning to fly into Kallen's hand.
Jade's face changed at once, and she clamped a hand down over it.
What… was this?
Kallen watched her expression collapse into naked shock, then spoke slowly.
"The things you call Cornerstones are nothing more than flakes of dead skin shed by Qlipoth."
She raised her eyes slightly, and in her amber irises it seemed as though the true Wall of Preservation itself was reflected.
"And I am an Emanator wrought from the very shell the Amber Lord personally cast off—formed from His own essential source."
"I am Preservation itself."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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