"Huh?"
Watching Stelle and Caelus acting in perfect concert as bandits, March 7th gradually became dumbstruck, her mouth falling open involuntarily. But upon catching the keyword 'treasure chest,' she quickly snapped out of her stunned state.
"Dan Heng, are they... having another episode?" March 7th directed an inquiring gaze at her companion beside her.
"Perhaps," Dan Heng nodded, his expression unchanging.
"Shouldn't we stop them?" Barely off the Express and they were already pointing a bat and a gun at the first local they met? Not only that, but they were robbing him like savage bandits. March 7th felt this was even worse than that time during her last Trailblaze mission when she crashed the skiff during landing and punched a hole in the Taikiyan Stadium. In the eyes of any faction in the galaxy, the Nameless were a group of warm-hearted good people. These two were practically ruining the Nameless's reputation!
"No, wait a moment." Dan Heng stopped March 7th as she stepped forward, ready to salvage the Astral Express's image. "That blue-haired man seems highly suspicious."
"Seele thinks so too." Even someone as innocent as White Seele could see that burrowing into a snowdrift in this frozen wasteland wasn't just suspicious. It practically screamed 'Something's wrong with me!' written all over his face!
"Let them probe him first," Dan Heng suggested. "We might learn something about the situation here too."
Hearing Dan Heng's reasoning, March 7th nodded. "Good point." The worry and hesitation vanished from her face. March 7th then took out snacks from her backpack, popped open the bag of melon seeds Caelus had given her as an apology for teasing her earlier, and settled in to watch the show unfold.
"Brother, Sister, don't do it! Please don't!" Sampo raised his voice as if teetering on a cliff edge, trying to sound more convincing. "I'm just an ordinary small-time vendor! I've never stolen anything, let alone seen any treasure chest belonging to you two! I'm a law-abiding citizen! A good citizen!" Sampo pleaded, his voice thick with tears.
Caelus and Stelle merely watched his performance quietly until...
Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring~!
The retro-styled silver alarm clock, after a faint 'click,' triggered its internal mechanism and began to shake violently. The piercingly loud ringing shattered the silence of the snowy plains, causing snow to tremble and fall from nearby cliffs.
Like executioners hearing the judge's final command, Stelle and Caelus sprang into action. The former raised her gleaming, strangely radiant bat, while the latter produced a predominantly silver-and-black pistol from behind his back. Caelus had gotten the pistol from Arlan; it was standard equipment for the space station's Defense Section. Having never touched such a thing in his past life, he naturally wanted to try it now that he had the chance. Though seemingly ordinary, the pistol was still a product of the interstellar age, far more powerful than 21st-century handguns. A shot to an energy core could heavily injure a Voidranger. In a real fight, the few bullets it held wouldn't be much use, but it was excellent for intimidation.
With the dark muzzle pointed straight at his head, Sampo's face instantly turned deathly pale.
"Don't shoot! I have money! Money! Money...!" Noticing Caelus's finger slowly tightening on the trigger, Sampo's eyes widened in terror. He threw his hands up frantically, blurting out in a machine-gun-like rapid-fire to save himself. "I snuck out hoping to score some ancient relics, but I got spotted by the Silvermane Guards! I don't have any right now, but wait 'til I find more relics! Sell them, then I'll have money! Sell them, then money!"
Caelus picked up the alarm clock, gave the wind-up knob on top another turn, and then slammed it down hard beside Sampo's head. "I'll give you one more round. Continue from 'ancient relics'."
"It was a machine engine left over from the Old World."
"Where is it?"
"Confiscated!"
"By who?" Stelle slammed her bat into the snowdrift right in front of Sampo. Flying snow splattered into his mouth. Someone dared to confiscate my treasure chest? Do they have a death wish?
"...Silvermane Guards." With slightly dusty snow and ice chips in his mouth, Sampo instinctively wanted to spit, but seeing the menacing bat, his throat convulsed with a 'gulp,' swallowing the mouthful of coldness.
"What are the Silvermane Guards?" Stelle frowned, looking puzzled.
"Brother, Sister, there's no need to play dumb to this extent... Hey, I'll talk! I'll talk!" Seeing Caelus's finger press down further on the trigger, Sampo's momentarily relaxed nerves instantly tensed up again. "The Silvermane Guards are Belobog's army, law enforcement, police... Those guys are completely inflexible, always messing with people in our line of work."
"What's Belobog?"
Not falling into the same trap twice, Sampo didn't dare ask back this time. He obediently spilled the details like beans from a bag. "The last place where humans still live. The City of Preservation, the Eternal City."
Listening to Sampo's info dump, March 7th, who had walked up behind Stelle and Caelus, nodded thoughtfully, a little 'I've learned something' expression on her face. This investigation method was quite convenient! On previous Trailblaze trips, they were always the ones treated as suspicious outsiders, interrogated and doubted by locals. She never thought they'd be on the other side one day, openly questioning a local as foreigners. Err, maybe 'openly' isn't the right word here?
Caelus nudged Stelle's arm with his elbow, signaling her not to get sidetracked. "Ancient relics, how much can they earn?"
"I found that engine... it might still be repairable. Find a good buyer, maybe sell it for this much." Sampo made a hand gesture.
"Two hundred thousand."
"How long does it take to find another one?"
"Brother, that stuff is rare. You stumble upon it by chance. It took me two months to find this one."
"You expect me to wait two months for you!?" Caelus snatched the bat from Stelle and slammed it down hard next to Sampo's head again. The kicked-up snow landed on Sampo's blue hair, which the yo-yo had styled into a ridiculous spiral, creating such a comical sight that March 7th, standing behind, almost burst out laughing.
"One month! One month! If I'm lucky, maybe two weeks!" Startled by the suddenly raised, harsh voice, Sampo shivered and quickly corrected himself in panic.
"Two weeks..." Stelle and Caelus looked at each other, seemingly exchanging information with their eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Sampo Koski."
"How long have you been doing this?"
"Eight years."
"Eight eights are sixty-four... You've earned six million four hundred thousand!?" Caelus handed the bat back to Stelle, crossed his arms, and looked at Sampo expectantly.
"Huh? No, Bro, where did 'eight eights are sixty-four' come from?" Sampo was about to cry. "I'm just a small businessman! Even if you sold me, I wouldn't be worth six million four hundred thousand Shields!"
"Working myself to death, busting my hump... the most I've made is maybe a fraction of that!"
"Is it dangerous?"
Sampo immediately shook his head with a fawning smile. "No fighting! It's all about brains, no bloodshed!"
"Sneaking, finding goods, dodging the Guards... it's all skilled work. Even if I occasionally slip up and get caught, there's no direct conflict. Just toss the goods to them, I can always find a chance to escape."
Listening to Sampo's rambling, Caelus and Stelle exchanged another glance. Then, one on each side, they grabbed Sampo's arms and hauled him out of the snowdrift like pulling up a radish.
"Hey! Hey~! Thank you, Bro! Thank you, Sis!" Like the slickest marketplace peddler, Sampo nodded and bowed his thanks, but the smile on his face froze abruptly the next second.
"A fraction of six million four hundred thousand... so, four hundred thousand." Caelus pulled the black stocking off his head, spat twice to clear the threads stretched across his mouth and damp with saliva, then casually yanked the one off Stelle's head too, rolling them together and tossing them back into the backpack. It's only torn... in six places. Stelle can still wear it.
"Brother," Caelus clapped Sampo's shoulder cheerfully, "You know the rules of our trade, right? You've seen our faces. If you want to live, you know what to do!"
"Huh? This..." Sampo's face fell. "The four hundred thousand was earned before! It's gone now!"
"No money? Then take us to find the treasure chest!"
"We'll let you go when you lead us to the treasure chest." Stelle and Caelus seized one of Sampo's arms each, like guards escorting a major criminal who had robbed the national treasury. Sampo naturally assumed the 'treasure chest' they mentioned meant actual treasure—relics from a bygone era.
"Please, valiant heroes, let me go! My haul this time was confiscated by the Silvermane Guards! It's really gone!" Sampo wailed, looking exactly like a pitiful man wrongly accused. He quickly turned out his pockets, revealing nothing but a few snowflakes.
"Hehe~" Caelus glanced sideways at the golden specks still faintly flashing on Sampo's chest and gave him a brilliant smile that showed his teeth. "I don't believe you."
"Today, kiddo, it looks like you won't cry until you see the coffin." Stelle hefted her bat, adopting a vicious expression as if about to go on a rampage.
"Hey, Stelle, how can you treat our friend like this?" Caelus intercepted the 'murderous' Stelle, slinging an arm around Sampo's shoulders, playing good cop. "Brother Sampo, you wouldn't want to be stripped naked and forced to streak through this icy wasteland, would you?"
"..." Sampo fell silent. Looking into those sun-like golden eyes, he could feel it – this guy was serious!
"Take us to the treasure chest, and we'll let you go. How about it?" Caelus patted his shoulder with a smile.
Wearing a deathly stiff smile, Sampo suddenly spotted a familiar figure among the 'bandits' and blurted out instinctively, "Miss Seele!? How did you get smaller?"
The moment his eyes met those orbs as soft as the sea, Sampo realized something was wrong. The Seele he knew would never exude such a delicate aura that instantly made one want to protect her.
"Uncle, you know Seele?" White Seele shrank her shoulders, looking puzzled. Mr. Welt was a familiar stranger... Is this uncle one too?
March 7th and Dan Heng shot sharp, surprised glances at Sampo. Stelle, resting her bat on her shoulder, narrowed her eyes. Little Seele, with her cute and well-behaved personality, had become the new favorite pet of the Express crew. If this shifty-eyed guy had even a shred of malicious intent, her bat wouldn't discriminate.
Sampo scratched his head, his tone awkward. "Maybe I got the wrong person. Does this little sister have an older sister or something? Wait, you said your name is Seele? Hiss~ Surely blood sisters can't have the same name!" As a Masked Fool, Sampo knew similar faces could appear on different planets across the galaxy, but resemblance to this degree? Even he had never seen it before!
How interesting! It felt like the comedy about to unfold on Jarilo-VI's grand stage would exceed even his wildest imagination!
Feeling amused internally, Sampo outwardly maintained the facade of a local isolated for seven hundred years.
Until the bat pointed at his head again.
"Don't change the subject! Hurry up and take us to the treasure chest!"
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