47 Stained Words

"Hold on tight before you fall down."

"Booo~ You can't blame me since this is the first time I've been carried like this."

Serval grabbed her bangs that began to fly everywhere while keeping one of her arms hung onto Yuuto's neck.

It had been a few minutes since they formulated the plan to have Serval tap into the Engine of Creation's circuits without anyone noticing. Since it would have been quite a hassle having guards on her tail with the new orders for everyone to stay in their homes.

Yuuto decided that using the current time would be his best bet. 

With the time being night and the moon shining brightly in the sky, Yuuto used this abundant moonlight to help him sneak around one of the most heavily guarded military zones in Belobog. 

Rather than creating his own, he was able to freely distort the light around him as it was more efficient and allowed him to use his manipulation of the element without wasting energy to create his own.

Especially since he needed to cover three people instead of one. 

Traces of silver light gathered around him with Serval on his back and Cyrilla who was comfortably leaning her head on his chest. Making them avoid the watchful eyes of the Silvermane Guards. 

"Your brother never did something like this?" Yuuto asked while keeping his balance on the stone walls he was running on.

"He's too serious for certain things and he's not the type to carry his older sister like this. Ha ha— how times have changed."

Serval wrapped her palm around her cheek while shaking her head thinking about how her previously cute little brother suddenly turned into a serious and uptight captain.

"But I guess being stubborn runs in the family." Thinking about the family she grew up in, she wryly smiled while thinking about the traits she shared with Gepard.

"Yeah, I can see that. It took me way too long to convince you of how we would sneak in. It only took me disappearing and you—"

"Ahem, I think that's enough.."

Serval coughed trying to interrupt Yuuto's ramblings as she was skeptical before learning about his abilities. At the time it did sound strange considering the area they were going in had eyes everywhere.

And he just wanted to enter right away while carrying both her and Cyrilla. So it was obvious to her that she would try and figure out another plan. 

Since the one he had didn't seem feasible. That was until she began to experience it firsthand. 

"Turn a left here."

"Gotcha."

Yuuto kicked off the stone wall he was on and turned his body in the direction Serval was leading him.

The Engine of Creation being an immense construction machine built by the Architects during Alisa Rand's era. It needed to be handled carefully when maintaining certain parts. 

This could be the torso, arms, and even the head. 

With the records they had within Qilpoth's Fort, the machine was to be used by the Supreme Guardian to repel the Legion that invaded their world. However, over time its uses slowly decreased since Jarilo-VI faced an issue other than the Legion.

The Eternal Freeze— An eternal snowstorm that threatened to diminish any life living on the world's surface. 

With this in mind, this relic of time slowly lost its purpose but the people of Belobog refused to leave this artifact to rot in the everlasting snow.

So maintenance is done to the machine every few weeks in hopes that it may once again find its purpose.

"Stay quiet for a bit. I heard some people."

Yuuto whispered and slowed his pace as he heard some boots echo past the empty corner near him.

"...Mechanical Fever released a new song. Did you hear it?"

"Sure did. Pela surprised me by being the lead vocalist this time. I didn't know she had it in her."

"It must be the stress piling up. I heard that orders were quickly being sent after learning that the wanted were still not arrested."

Two guards casually spoke with one of them letting out a heavy sigh.

"I was hoping that the new song would feature Serval again…" 

"Don't be so pessimistic. I thought Pela sounded pretty good." One of the guards tried to console his partner but he underestimated the rigor of a fan.

"I understand…BUT! Rock 'n' Roll is where it's at! I wanted to relax while I listened to their previous track in hopes of getting a new one. But sadly I need to wait longer."

His voice began to rise but he decided to stop himself from speaking any further considering he was still on duty. "Captain Dunn was also looking forward to the new track too."

"The captain huh… well, you know how he is…"

The guard thought about his captain and his poorly hidden infatuation with a certain person. He eventually shook his head trying to dissolve this thought. "Let's just focus on patrolling, the terminal looked a bit warm so let's check the generator."

Gradually walking away, the silhouette of three people slowly moved out of the corner where they managed to fool the guards into not seeing them.

"You seem to be quite popular, huh."

"Everyone needs to vent their frustrations at one point and music is the best way to do it." Serval grinned thinking how her performances managed to spread towards a wider audience. "I suppose Mechanical Fever is pretty popular with the youth~~"

Yuuto glanced at Serval oddly. "You're sounding like an auntie that—-"

"I would rather you not go ahead with what you're thinking there."

"..."

Serval had a not so gentle smile and it might have just been his imagination but Yuuto felt the arm around his neck tighten. 

Ignoring her obvious refusal to speak more on the topic, Yuuto navigated through more paths that had a few guards walking through before finally making it to an area that had a large building.

The front entrance was protected by two heavily armored guards that had large metal shields stationed at their sides. Their sharp eyes were still as they watched the only pathway leading toward them in case anything suspicious was to happen.

"How are we supposed to go there now..?" Serval narrowed her eyes.

Yuuto stayed quiet for a while before letting both her and Cyrilla down from their positions. "I'll be quick and search for any openings."

He waved his arm and the moonlight wrapped around his body gradually circled the two. Temporarily hiding them in the spot they were at.

Feeling satisfied with his work, Yuuto sprinted to the side where he tried to lighten his footsteps and avoid making any sound that may alert the two guards at the front. 

Gradually passing the edge he noticed some windows that were a few feet tall and felt like this may be an opening he could use. "There's the terminal but two workers are inside…"

Serval briefly spoke of the location they needed to head into and what they needed to find. 

The terminal– a control panel that is used to operate where certain energy lines use their power. This may include the lights within the administration zone to the heating system within certain parts of the city.

In their case, the reason they wanted to use this terminal was to send a certain energy signal to the Engine of Creation that allowed them to turn off certain parts of the system it had.

This included the access permissions used to operate the machine. The Engine of Creation also has its own individual terminal that is accessible on the back of its head.

But with the records inscribed on the blueprint Yuuto brought, they figured that using the energy signal done only for emergencies would be a quicker way to erase Cocolia's permissions despite being the Supreme Guardian.

Rather than using the terminal located on the back of its head.

Yuuto scanned the windows and looked at the structure carefully and noticed that it only had a hinge to lock it. "I can get through that but I need to take care of the people inside…"

He thought deeply for a while before a plan slowly formed in his mind. Yuuto looked around to double-check once again before jumping off the wall to reach the window hanging above him.

Luckily it had a small ledge he could use to latch himself on

He looked inside and saw that the two workers were busy writing in a sort of notebook and some papers, to which Yuuto thought was a good opportunity.

Locating the hinge used for locking the window, he placed his palm over it and a small fragment flew out his hand.

"[Break]"

The hinge instantly broke and turned into tiny pieces that were hardly noticeable to the naked eye. Yuuto mentally counted in his head before quickly entering the room.

"Mhm? The window opened—" One of the workers mumbled under his breath before turning silent which caught his partner's attention.

"What's wron—."

The second he turned around he felt a hand grab his head before his vision turned black. Not knowing what happened to him or his partner.

"That was easier than I thought. I guess they were on the verge of fainting from the work they had to do."

Yuuto dusted his hands as the white hue within his eyes faded. What he did was stimulate their memories that carried experiences of fainting or sleeping if there was none of the former.

He connected this memory through the glowing threads that were already being used such as [Psychomotor] and [Writing] which was just one of the many memories that glowed at the moment.

But Yuuto discovered that the memories related to fainting and sleeping already had a faint vivid line connecting to their subconscious which indicated that they would have fallen into those experiences fast if they didn't suppress it. 

"Let me just take their [Surface Memory] so they won't remember a thing on the window opening." Yuuto waved his hand and a tiny fragment flew to his hand. "Now let's get the two…"

Two minutes quickly passed after Yuuto took care of the workers inside and he was now in the room with Cyrilla and Serval who were curious as to how he made this scene so fast.

"It looked like they were sleepy so I guess they took a nap."

Yuuto shook his shoulders which Serval didn't buy but she decided that sending the signal to the Engine of Creation was currently more important.

"It's been a while but let's see if I still remember how to operate this thing."

Serval went to work as she paid her full attention to the terminal in front of her while taking occasional peeks at the blueprint Yuuto brought.

He stood at the back letting her do her part as this was her specialty while he kept a close eye on any suspicious movements outside the room. 

Cyrilla on the other hand scanned her tiny eyes around the room covered in countless shelves that held papers and machinery that made her curious about its uses. 

Feeling eager to be in a new environment, she continued to look around before reaching a tall desk with some blank sheets of paper and some quills placed on top of them.

For some reason this scene made her reach towards the desk and sit in the wooden chair placed in front of it. Her hands glided on the hard surface before staring at the quill placed in the corner.

She subconsciously reached for the quill and her hand began to slowly write on the blank piece of paper under her.

Her movements were slow at first but gradually sped up but as she was writing a part of her sentence, a sharp pain attacked her head which caused her to drop the quill stained with ink. 

Yuuto heard the noise and saw Cyrilla clenching her head which caused him to frown.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah.. I think…" Cyrilla's eyes closed shut once more after feeling the wave of pain assault her head again.

Yuuto's hand released a faint white glow that was then placed on her head. He rubbed his fingers through her hair trying to heal this pain while looking at the messy desk covered in ink.

'What was she writing…?'

Seeing traces of words on the stained piece of paper, Yuuto tried to figure out what was written.

"Dear Sister, I.. know I won't be with you but… I hope you stay healthy while I go.. away for.. —---… I will visit you.. When—--… I hope we can live together when I become…—-----... but I just want to say be… careful when speaking to ...since they —--."

The words were mushed together due to the ink staining majority of the page but this was the most he could make out of the letter.

"I'm sorry…"

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I made a mess of the desk…"

Yuuto felt Cyrilla bury her face into his chest and the feeling of small tears seeped through his shirt. Whether it was caused by the pain she felt or her actions of spilling the ink. Yuuto just rubbed her head.

"It's fine, we can always clean it up. Plus we can blame it on the two workers if we need to."

"No.. that's bad…"

"Then we should be quick to clean this mess up."

He lightly joked before finding some ripped cloth that he then used to clean the desk. Cyrilla slowly recovered and helped him out which made Yuuto feel a slight sense of relief.

However, this relief was accompanied by a sense of unease that seemed to slowly rise within him. 

***

What is the use of a triple drop rate event when all the relics you get are all trash. The relics I get from standard relic crafting are better than all the relics I got from the event…