Shadow Slave

Sunny had no particular reason for this visit, apart from simply wanting to check on how the old man had settled in. From his first impression, the dormitory apartment was too small and bare-bones for someone of Professor Obel's stature.

There were five compact bedrooms connected to a shared living room, kitchen, and bathroom, with three of the bedrooms occupied by other people. He could hear a child's voice behind one door, which meant that there might have been entire families of refugees living here. In that regard, maybe the fact that the Professor and Beth each received an entire room for themselves was already a privilege.

'Still... what the hell...'

Maybe he should not have been surprised. Professor Obel was indeed a distinguished scientist who had made great contributions to humanity, but the Antarctic Center was the administrative center of the whole Quadrant. With two hundred million people concentrated in Falcon Scott, there must have been a whole lot of distinguished people waiting for their turn to be evacuated.

Beth led him to the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove. Now that they were not busy trying to keep the caravan from falling apart, Sunny noticed that the young woman looked a bit haggard in comparison to how she had been at LO49.

There were dark circles under her eyes, a slight uncertainty to her movements, and a grim slant to her brow. Beth's temper, however, had not changed one bit.

"Tell me straight... is the wall going to hold?"

Sunny lingered for a bit, stumped by the frank question.

"How should I know? Sure, it is going to hold... until it doesn't."

Beth scoffed, pouring synthetic tea into three cheap alloy cups.

"And yet you seem to be terribly calm."

Sunny scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Do I seem calm? Well, I guess I am. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

The young woman stared at him with outrage.

"Death! You can die!"

thought about it

death is definitely way better than some other

and still remembered a few of the harrowing nightmares he had been subjected to by his shadowy steed. It seemed that he had developed an abnormally high tolerance

would look strange to a mundane

should probably try to console Beth, somehow, but at that moment, Professor Obel finally appeared -

nice of you to spare time for this old

three of them settled behind a small dining table, enjoying tea. At first, Sunny was the one doing most

Make sure to remain inside, and don't go to the surface levels

reason, the

behave when an air attack alert is activated. Thank you for reminding us,

while.

would think that you would be put on the

was designated as a member of a certain group, each having

Various factors could affect one's "weight" in the algorithm, though -

from the

'Figures...1

had anything to do with Professor Obel. By all accounts, he should have been on one of the first ships out of the harbor. The giant vessels had been coursing between Falcon Scott

gave the old man a scathing

Why are you still

anything, the young woman turned

priority list, saying that he wouldn't leave without his assistant. And since I have nothing to do with the high-value group, we

blinked a couple of

"Is that true, Professor?"

looked down

am an old man, you know? My bones still hurt from the long weeks spent on the road. Can't I rest a little before jumping on

this time, Sunny was inclined to

of bullcrap reason is

obviously something deeper going on. Hopefully, the Professor simply did not want to leave Beth behind... which was already stupid... if he was on some self-sacrificial mission, though, Sunny had to set

his mouth to say something, but at that moment, the kid he had heard earlier barged into the kitchen, holding a makeshift toy in