After that day, Shirou briefly informed a number of acquaintances that he would probably be rather busy during December and might not be reachable.
Most people said they understood. After all, everyone knew that the primary job of Penguin Logistics couriers was traveling all across Terra.
"Going out is good too. That way Old Chen can finally get some proper rest for a while, and you can also take the chance to relax a bit yourself."
Holding the leave request Shirou had submitted for procedural purposes, Hoshiguma smiled as she accepted it and placed it onto the desk.
After all, Shirou was still technically receiving a salary from the LGD. Even though he was employed through a special arrangement, the necessary procedures still had to be followed. It saved a lot of unnecessary trouble.
Thinking about how Chen had spent this entire period repeatedly oscillating between the joy of improvement and the agony of being pushed to her limits every day, Hoshiguma felt that taking a month off was honestly a good thing.
After all, Shirou had requested more than twenty days of leave in one go, so they unanimously decided it would be better for him to simply take all of December off.
The extra ten days would let Shirou properly rest and prepare for the upcoming work.
And Chen could enjoy an entire month of rest as well. It truly was a perfect arrangement…
Or rather, it would have been.
For the next month, they would have to return to a takeout-based lifestyle again. Without the lunches and desserts Shirou brought every day, they would have no choice but to order food themselves.
Still, Hoshiguma was more worried about Shirou and the other Penguin Logistics members.
After all, the longer an assignment lasted, the more troublesome it usually was.
Especially for a group like Penguin Logistics, which had one foot in courier work and the other in armed mercenary work.
Even understanding that, Hoshiguma still did not voice those concerns aloud.
After all, speaking pessimistically before someone departed was hardly a good thing. Besides, Penguin Logistics and Shirou themselves probably understood the risks already.
So she only needed to treat Shirou as she normally did. There was no need to burden him with extra pressure.
"Eh… so Chief Chen thinks the training intensity is too high? But usually she is the one insisting on pushing herself even further."
Hearing Hoshiguma's words, Shirou tilted his head in confusion.
During training sessions, Shirou always adjusted the intensity appropriately. It should have been impossible for him to overwork Chen too much.
He was not some Sarkaz who would knowingly drain someone's stamina dry despite them already having LGD duties to handle.
"Cough cough. She just has that kind of competitive personality. You will get used to it."
Realizing she had accidentally sold out her partner, Hoshiguma coughed awkwardly while glancing around. After confirming Chen was nowhere nearby, she simply sold her out completely.
After all, if she had already exposed half of it, she might as well expose everything! Besides, Shirou was not really an outsider anyway.
"Uh… that is true."
After hearing the explanation, Shirou thought about it for a moment. Chen really did have the kind of personality that hated losing.
He had simply interpreted it as her wanting to temper herself further, which was why he had not noticed before.
"Do not worry. Old Chen knows what she is doing. She is not going to casually destroy her own health."
Seeing Shirou's worried expression, Hoshiguma added that reassurance.
And it was the truth.
It was also meant to tell Shirou not to worry too much about Chen's condition. After all, Chen had reached her current position in an incredibly short amount of time and held it for years. Without real capability, that simply would not have been possible.
"Thanks. Then now that I have delivered the leave request, I will head out fir—"
Only after hearing that did Shirou finally relax.
Right. If there really were a problem, even if Chen herself said nothing, the people around her would definitely step in to stop her.
Besides, whenever they sparred, there were always those people in straw hats watching nearby.
At first, Shirou thought they were monitoring him. Later, he realized they were actually observing Chen's sparring sessions, and after that he stopped paying attention to them.
There was no hostility from them anyway. Their stares were just a little intense.
And with how completely dressed in black they were, seeing them at night was genuinely startling.
Now that his purpose for visiting the LGD today had been fulfilled, Shirou had no intention of staying for lunch. He had already delivered the bentos earlier, and this was likely the final time this year he would bring lunches for the trio.
After all, starting tomorrow, his long vacation would officially begin.
Just as he finished speaking and prepared to leave, the office door suddenly burst open, followed by a familiar loud voice:
"Shirou! Are you still here?"
Chen hurriedly pushed open the door and poked her head inside, quickly scanning the office before locking onto the person she was searching for.
"Hm? Chief Chen? What is it?"
Seeing that she was looking for him specifically, Shirou asked.
"Good, you have not left yet. There is something I need to tell you."
Only after confirming Shirou was still there did she let out a sigh of relief. Otherwise, she would have needed to find another time to track him down.
"If Old Chen is looking for you, then go handle your business first! Oh, and my friend said they will bring more curry blocks, though they probably will not arrive until next year. When the time comes, I might need to trouble you again, Shirou?"
Seeing how urgent Chen looked, Hoshiguma abandoned any remaining interest in casual workplace conversation and waved Shirou off.
"No problem. Then I will go handle things first."
Failing entirely to notice the deeper implication in Hoshiguma's words, Shirou simply assumed she wanted to share curry blocks with him.
At that, Hoshiguma could only reveal an expression that said she had seen through everything while watching the two leave.
"What is so urgent?"
Walking beside Chen through the LGD hallways, Shirou directly asked her.
"It is something Wei Yenwu asked me to pass on to you."
Walking ahead of him, Chen answered calmly.
Shirou could vaguely see the corners of Chen's mouth repeatedly twitching upward before being forced back down again, as if she wanted to laugh but was desperately trying not to show it.
"Chief Wei Yenwu's message? Then why did he not just speak to me directly?"
Shirou did not quite understand. If Wei Yenwu had something he wanted to tell him, he could have simply called him over personally. Why go through the trouble of using Chen as an intermediary?
Even Shirou could tell there was some conflict between those two.
Which made the whole thing rather strange.
"After he provoked you with those remarks last time, I went and reported it to Auntie Fumizuki. The punishment period is still in effect, so unless it absolutely requires speaking to you face-to-face, he is not going to meet you personally for the time being."
Hearing Shirou's question, Chen decided to share her happiness with him.
Simply put, after Shirou got verbally provoked last time, she had gone to complain about it.
Auntie Fumizuki, Wei Yenwu's wife, was probably the only person in all of Lungmen capable of keeping him in line.
Though it did not work for everything, at least this time she had successfully forced Wei Yenwu to behave himself somewhat. Now he could only rely on her to pass messages along.
Although it was a little troublesome, it also let her learn quite a few things.
These topics were not suitable for discussing openly outside, so they needed somewhere relatively private.
Which was why they were heading to the meeting room.
Shirou: "..."
After hearing about Wei Yenwu's unfortunate situation, Shirou did not feel anything was wrong at all.
In fact, he felt faintly… pleased.
It was probably similar to seeing someone you disliked trip while walking down the street and smash their entire face against the ground.
As the two walked through the hallway, the synchronized twitching at the corners of their mouths drew the attention of many passing LGD officers.
Unfortunately, one of them was their superior officer, and the other, while friendly, was clearly discussing important matters with Chen. So nobody dared interrupt them.
Eventually, the two entered the meeting room.
Chen turned on the projector screen and pulled out a USB drive.
"He said your upcoming work with Penguin Logistics is going to be extremely dangerous. There is a particularly dangerous individual involved. He already mentioned this to you once before, so I will not repeat that part."
A massive amount of text and images appeared on the projection screen.
It was far more detailed than the information Yith had provided.
Recent Ursus movements, information related to Koschei, even intelligence regarding the Emperor blades were all included.
Looking at it all, Shirou suddenly felt his mouth go dry.
If Yith saw this, he would probably lose his mind.
Not only because of the sheer amount of intelligence, but because all the overtime reports he had written would become completely pointless.
This projection was vastly more detailed.
Shirou honestly had no idea what exactly Wei Yenwu had been guarding against to secretly gather so much information.
"I had only heard fragments of this stuff before. I never expected that old man Wei Yenwu had secretly gathered this much intelligence…"
This was also Chen's first time seeing the contents.
Originally, Wei Yenwu had intended for her to simply hand the material directly to Shirou. But just before she left, he stopped her. After hesitating for several seconds, he finally told her to stay and review it together.
It was also the first time she had ever seen Wei Yenwu hesitate over something for so long.
At the time, his brows had been furrowed tightly enough to crush mosquitoes.
Still, compared to all that, what Chen cared about more was that Wei Yenwu had directly stated that there was a very high possibility Penguin Logistics would encounter these people during the mission.
Her own first instinct had been to stop them from participating entirely.
But Shirou had already been targeted long ago. It was only a matter of time before both sides crossed paths.
Rather than waiting for that to happen, it was better for Shirou to maintain the initiative and encounter them outside Lungmen.
Once the battlefield shifted to Lungmen itself, Shirou would instead become restricted.
Those were Wei Yenwu's own words.
Although Chen did not fully understand all of his reasoning, one thing he said was definitely correct.
Whenever Shirou acted within Lungmen, he was noticeably restrained.
Ever since meeting him, Chen had only ever experienced his close-quarters combat.
If Shirou truly fought without holding back…
Explosions would probably bloom everywhere like fireworks, leaving enemies no chance to even approach him.
She genuinely did not dare imagine such a scene.
"Penguin Logistics already conducted their own assessment. Chief Wei Yenwu is thinking a bit too dramatically. We are only going there to rescue someone. There will not be any direct confrontation."
Compared to Wei Yenwu's warnings, Shirou trusted Yith's analysis more.
After all, Wei Yenwu had opposed Ursus for far too long. Whenever something happened, his first instinct was always to suspect them.
He was becoming somewhat overly paranoid.
Still, the intelligence was not useless either.
After all, Yith had not said they definitely would not encounter them. Only that there was a certain probability.
And if they truly did run into them, the information here would be enough for Shirou to start figuring out how to deal with them.
"You are not wrong about that. But it is still better to stay cautious. The Black Snake… Koschei has been watching you for quite some time already."
Hearing Shirou's words, Chen nodded in agreement.
But afterward, she still reminded him not to lower his guard.
"…Chief Chen, have you also met that Black Snake?"
When Chen mentioned the Black Snake, Koschei, her tone clearly became heavier.
That caught Shirou's attention.
After all, Koschei's last appearance in Lungmen had supposedly been twenty years ago. So why did Chen know about him?
Or could it be that Chen was actually much old—
The moment that thought appeared, Shirou immediately felt it was extremely rude and hurriedly shook it out of his head.
"On that rainy night… that man threatened half of Lungmen and forced Wei Yenwu to choose between Lungmen… or my sister…"
Staring at Koschei's face displayed on the projection screen, Chen muttered quietly.
For an instant, it felt as though she had returned to that rainy night once again.
The only thing she could do was watch helplessly as her sister, Talulah, was taken away by the man shown on the screen.
That night was something she had never once forgotten.
"Your sister…?"
Although Chen did not continue, Shirou already knew the answer.
If half of Lungmen had truly been destroyed, then Lungmen would not still exist in its current state.
Still, when she mentioned her sister, there was an indescribable sorrow in her voice.
In that regard, Shirou felt he could somewhat understand her.
And he could more or less guess who this so-called sister was.
The leader of Reunion, Talulah.
With Chen providing the final missing piece, Shirou finally understood why Wei Yenwu had worn such a troubled expression back then.
"You have heard of her before. Reunion's leader, Talulah, is my sister."
Chen did not hide it.
After all, Shirou had encountered Reunion far too many times already, and Reunion was currently active within Ursus. Penguin Logistics had probably already placed them on their danger list anyway.
"But that is not important right now. The important thing is that Koschei's current target is very likely you. So Shirou, you need to be especially careful during this operation."
Directly skipping over the previous topic, Chen fixed Shirou with an extremely serious gaze as she spoke.
The Black Snake's abilities were not exactly secret information. That was why she was warning him so seriously.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason for Koschei to target Shirou so persistently.
"I understand."
Looking into those serious eyes, Shirou could not think of anything else to say.
He could only nod to show that he understood.
"It is best that you do. Here, keep this yourself. Wei Yenwu gave it to you. Do not let this information leak out. Whether you keep it personally or use it to add a few more entries to Penguin Logistics' intelligence archives is up to you."
After confirming Shirou had truly taken her warning seriously, Chen unplugged the USB drive directly and tossed it to him.
Just looking through that information gave her a headache. Better to hand it over to Shirou quickly and send him on his way.
After all, Wei Yenwu had only allowed her to glance through it briefly so she would understand that these potential enemies existed.