"You... really are the reinforcements who came to help us?"
At the lift entrance, the captain of the guard, who had already received word from the bridge, looked at Solomon's kindly smiling face and asked with some uncertainty.
Solomon stroked his little mustache and replied with a faint smile,
"Do we not look the part?"
The guard captain glanced at Gaia behind him, covered in blood from head to toe and holding a chainaxe whose teeth were jammed with rotten chunks of flesh, swallowed hard, and very much wanted to say not really.
Still, after confirming again with the bridge, he ordered the guards to remove the barricade blocking the way and restore power to the lift.
"The bridge is above. Lord Mitchell is awaiting all of you."
Solomon was just about to bring his whole crowd of subordinates into the lift when the guard captain stopped him.
"Forgive my rudeness, but you had better bring only two subordinates with you."
The moment he said that, he felt Solomon's gaze suddenly change.
The mocking ease that normally radiated from him vanished, replaced by a crushing pressure like a giant boulder bearing down on him.
Sweat began to form on the guard captain's forehead, but he did not retreat. He continued standing in front of the lift.
After staring at him for a short while, Solomon instantly put that same playful smile back on his face.
"Oh dear, look at me. I almost forgot such an important rule."
Squinting with a smile, he tapped his own head, then turned and said,
"Gaia, Lena, you two come up with me and pay our respects to Lord Mitchell Hayek."
"As for the rest of my people, I'll have to trouble you to keep an eye on them."
Solomon smiled and stepped into the lift. As he passed the guard captain, he lightly patted him on the shoulder.
Watching this, Gaia could not help revising her opinion of Solomon a little.
What a polished way of putting pressure on someone before bargaining them upward. There was no way this was his first time doing something that underhanded.
Once the three of them stepped onto the lift platform, the gearing mechanism let out a heavy rumble and carried them slowly toward the top of the transport ship.
Gaia could feel that resonant psychic presence growing stronger.
Unable to hold back her curiosity, she asked Solomon,
"The Mitchell Hayek you were talking about... who exactly is he?"
Earlier, Solomon had only told her that they were boarding the transport to rescue it. He had never said who the ship belonged to.
Solomon shifted his stance on the platform, found the position he liked best, clasped his hands behind his back, and lifted his chin, clearly preparing for a stylish entrance. Then, hearing Gaia's question, he smiled and answered,
"House Hayek is a Navigator House. This transport belongs to them."
"And as for that Mitchell... there's no need to think too hard. Obviously, he's a Navigator noble."
At those words, Gaia's eyes widened.
Just moments ago, she had been agonizing over the fact that the Spear of Destiny had no Navigator, and thinking that might make it impossible to carry out her plan to stop the Age of Apostasy.
And now they had just happened to run into a Navigator House?
That was almost absurdly convenient.
It felt like sighing, "If only I had the resources to pursue my grand ambition,"
only for someone beside you to immediately shout, "I happen to be quite wealthy!"
With mixed feelings, Gaia rode the rising lift platform into a vast and magnificent bridge.
The instant they appeared, countless pairs of eyes, filled with different emotions, turned toward them.
"Who are you?"
A clear voice with a trace of puzzlement drifted down from a raised platform ahead. Looking up, they saw a gray-haired youth dressed in luxurious purple robes.
His strange beauty revealed his identity at a glance.
Navigator.
Faced with the question of a Navigator noble, Solomon smoothly removed his navy cap, bent at the waist, and said,
"I am the captain of the Spear of Destiny, Morde—"
"Close that noisy mouth of yours. Ignorant fool, relying on blind courage to challenge the tempests of the heavens. I was not asking you."
Solomon's self-introduction cutscene was abruptly and mercilessly interrupted. He could only put his cap back on obediently, though inwardly he grew more cautious.
Trying to bargain up the price with this one looked as though it would be difficult.
Gaia lifted her gaze toward Mitchell Hayek.
Or rather, toward the man before her.
Though his eyes were shut, for some reason she could still feel that another gaze was fixed on her.
"My name is Gaia."
Her answer was brief, and that clearly displeased Mitchell's servants.
Just as they began to bark at Gaia for her disrespect, an invisible pressure suddenly descended and forced them to their knees.
Mitchell slowly rose to his feet, holding an ancient-looking Navigator's staff, walked to the edge of the platform, and opened his mundane eyes, fixing his pale red gaze on Gaia.
"I was born with a special gift for navigation. I can not only see the paths of ships, but the paths of people as well."
"But in your case, I see the path behind you, yet cannot clearly see the one ahead."
He spoke while descending the spiraling staircase from the platform.
Wherever he passed, crewmen and servants alike knelt. Invisible ripples spread around him, making ordinary people unable to summon the courage to meet his gaze.
Yet the three standing before him simply stared back without moving.
As he drew closer, Magos Lena reflexively swept him once with her servo-skull, then said in a deep mechanical voice,
"Such a high degree of genetic deviation, yet the flesh remains stable. Interesting material..."
"I forgive your disrespectful words, self-important servant of the Machine God."
"You think yourself a seeker of truth, yet are scorned and cast aside by those who walk the same road. It is truly laughable. I only hope that in the whirlpool ahead, when you finally realize the boundless stupidity of your own existence, the binary code overwriting your mind will not cause it to collapse... assuming you still possess such a thing."
Magos Lena did not answer, but the red light flickering across her augmetic eye showed that she was far from calm.
Mitchell stopped in front of Gaia.
Though he was thin and frail, he radiated a pressure that Gaia found hard to describe.
"No... it is not merely your path behind you. Even your first path is hidden beneath fog."
"How interesting. A forsaken solitary one, trying to walk toward light under the guidance of a beacon, only to lose something precious in the contest between light and dark. It seems you are destined to walk alone."
"What lies ahead for you? To betray the light because it did not hear you? Or to loathe the dark because it tormented you?"
Mitchell's words were vague yet full of implication. Gaia unconsciously clenched her fists, though she still was not entirely sure whether this was the right moment to punch him in the face.
Seeing her expression, Solomon hurriedly stepped in and cut off Mitchell, who seemed to be circling verbally around her, then coughed lightly.
"Honored Lord Mitchell, perhaps we should first discuss the matter of compensation."
"You see, in order to rescue your family's transport ship, we paid a very heavy price."
"Personally, I would say it was all worth it, of course, but I am still a businessman. A deal that loses too much money is hard to justify. So what sort of compensation does House Hayek intend to offer us...?"
He smiled as he spoke, rubbing his fingers together.
But before Mitchell could reply, a violent crash ripped through the transport, followed by a tremendous shudder that nearly threw everyone off balance.
A crewman responsible for monitoring the ship's condition said in a trembling voice,
"The pirates on the lower decks... they detonated the cargo holds. And the fuel chamber too..."
Yes.
After realizing they were finished, the Darkstar pirates had decided to go out with a bang.
Since both of their ships had fled, that meant the newcomers were enemies they had no hope of dealing with.
And after killing so many people, if they were captured, they were unlikely to die well anyway. So before dying, they had decided to make things as miserable as possible for everyone else.
If they could not take the loot, then they would blow it up before letting anyone else have it.
Strangely enough, the person who reacted most strongly to that awful news was neither one of the transport crew nor Mitchell Hayek.
Thump.
With a dull sound, Solomon fell straight to the floor.
"My... my Throne Gelt..."
Mitchell considered this for a moment, then said evenly,
"As for compensation... I can still provide some."
"Though the lower cargo holds are gone, there remains a private treasury of mine on the upper deck."
The moment he heard that, Solomon practically sprang back to life.
"But according to convention, those things were never meant to serve as payment to you."
"So, I have one condition."
(End of Chapter)
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