They had agreed to meet tomorrow, but Faust still dutifully drove his Jaguar back to the base. Ode watched the guards patrolling through the deepening night, utterly baffled. “Why’d you bring Little Qianning back to the base too? Isn’t the standard procedure to tweak the memory and drop them off at a relocation center?”
Two clusters of jealous flames—hot enough to incinerate a pair of lovers—suddenly flared in Faust’s eyes. He gnashed his teeth and growled darkly, “What do you think? Not long after you left, the Pharaoh dragged Old Qianning off to a private room for ‘who knows what.’ Mom and Dad are right here at the base. What’s the point of me wiping just his memory? The kid’s gonna go looking for his parents. Or should I erase everything and make him think he’s got no mom or dad at all?”
He was in the middle of his furious tirade when the Jaguar jolted with a resounding crash. Little Qianning jolted awake from even his deepest sleep, his eyes flying open in sheer terror. “What happened?! Did we hit someone?! Was that a car crash??”
“You hit your dear mommy.” The Pharaoh had materialized out of nowhere in the dead of night like some unseen specter, smashing right into the front of the car and leaving it with a massive dent. She rapped on the window. “Get out. I’ve got something to tell you.”
Little Qianning was still processing it all when Faust exploded in rage. He shoved open the door and leaped out, only for Ode to grab him from behind and pin his arms, urging him to stay calm. “Calm down!! Look what she’s done—”
“Just admit you’re jealous I got my fill,” the Pharaoh said with a smug grin, practically begging someone to wonder why Old Qianning hadn’t emerged with her. Fortunately, she quickly waved the documents in her hand. “I’ve got to hurry off and raid the Ghouls’ nest. No time for a brawl today. I’m here to give you a heads-up on some personnel changes in the organization—”
“It’s not a huge deal. Qian Ning Bank is preparing to merge into GORCC. Old Qianning’s staying at the base, joining my logistics team under my command.”
“…” Ode felt a wave of surprise. He could still picture Mr. Old Qianning’s world-weary detachment from their first encounter—he never would have imagined the man clocking his wife at first sight and bringing his entire fortune along to join up.
Then again, considering how relentlessly he’d built that bank just to protect his family, the choice didn’t seem so outlandish.
The only one left utterly thunderstruck was Little Qianning. “Hold on?! The business is merging into GORCC, and you’re all staying here at the base—what about me?!”
Little Qianning burned with indignation. So he was the only spare part in all this!
The Pharaoh let out a mocking chuckle. “The business is merging into GORCC, not getting sold off. Someone’s still got to run it. Your dad’s heading to the front lines with me, so who else can take over the bank’s operations but you? Your performance over the years has earned both your dad and me full confidence in your abilities.”
“???” Little Qianning’s voice nearly cracked. “You’re kidding, right?! They kept me away from any core business for the first decade or so, and now they’re dumping it all on me…”
The Pharaoh had already tuned out her eldest son’s howls. She turned to Ode with rare sincerity. “Thank you.”
“Maybe, from my perspective, those potential tragedies wouldn’t have touched my life without your help. But for this little idiot and his father? They’d have been the catastrophes that defined their lives.”
“You’re building a better future—and everyone hunkered down in this base is fighting tooth and nail to make one. So when you start second-guessing yourself on the job, remember that. Don’t ever stop.”
The Pharaoh wasn’t one for sentimental speeches. Having delivered those precious words from the heart, she waved breezily and sauntered off to deal with the Ghouls, leaving her stand-in son rooted to the spot. He stared in shock as his “mom” vanished into the distance without a backward glance, as if she’d completely forgotten his existence. After a long moment, he whipped around and fixed Ode with a look of pure betrayal.
Ode, sensing this had nothing to do with him and already plotting his escape: “?”
Little Qianning wilted dramatically against Ode’s shoulder. “You can’t just ditch me… You kissed me. You have to take responsibility.”
Ode met the straight guy’s shameless ploy with cool composure. “The last guy who kissed me was your ‘big brother.’ His head’s still roasting in that inferno.”
Little Qianning sprang back like he’d been scalded. In the next instant, he slid down to the ground in the most undignified way, wrapping himself around Ode’s leg and howling. “Help a guy out, pleeease… I beg you!! You’re my only friend! I’m serious!”
Little Qianning craned his neck, batting his big blue eyes at Ode full of hope.
Ode rubbed the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t shake the suspicion that the whole Qianning family was pulling this stunt deliberately to settle the score—after all, the Pharaoh knew exactly how desperately he needed cash to buy back his ancestral home. “…Fine. I’ve actually got a lead that could connect you. The profits should tide you over any cash flow hiccups from the handover…”
·
The night before his official deployment, Ode was still huddled with Little Qianning, sorting through the key contacts the young man would need to work outside the base. By the time he made it back to the dorm, it was four in the morning.
He tidied up quickly, collapsed into bed, and woke precisely four hours later. After a brisk wash-up, he felt refreshed and raring to go. He hoisted his luggage and headed for the door.
“You’re leaving already…” A voice thick with sleep and vague regret drifted from behind him.
Ode, who had been tiptoeing to avoid waking his roommates, turned in astonishment. They were all poking their heads out from under their blankets, rubbing sleep from their eyes. None of them climbed out of bed—that would have been overly formal and eaten into his mission prep time.
They grumbled a bit before offering simple words of encouragement like “smooth sailing on the mission,” then flopped right back down. It wasn’t until Ode shouldered his luggage and stepped over the threshold that he heard a final declaration, laced with reluctance and longing:
“We’ll catch up to you. We’ll fight side by side on the same battlefield.”
“…” Ode paused for a beat. He wanted to point out that shipping off to the front lines wasn’t anything to rush into, but in the end, he simply murmured, “Got it,” and eased the door shut behind him as he left the dorms.
This might be his last time back at the Sahara base for the foreseeable future. Even the sweltering heat couldn’t stifle the faint pang of parting.
He dragged his luggage a good distance out of his way before reaching the Alchemy Teleportation Array.
“Southampton Port.”
A blaze of golden light swallowed him whole. When he blinked his eyes open, he was crammed into a lavish bathroom no bigger than four square meters. The tiles gleamed with intricate, spotless patterns, and a porthole the size of a hand was set high in the wall—clearly the en suite of a luxury first-class cabin on some ocean liner.
Two other grown men were already shoehorned into the space with him.
One was Faust, lounging against the tiled wall with an unlit cigar dangling from his lips. The other was a man in his fifties dressed in formal evening wear. He barely registered the sudden arrival of a full-grown adult, too preoccupied with anxiously scrubbing his palms on a handkerchief.
Ode struggled to pin down his emotions at the sight of this middle-aged gentleman. He’d once been so dead set on a civil service career, only to abandon it amid cataclysmic change.
Who could have guessed he’d circle back to stand before him anyway—in surroundings that left much to be desired. “Prime Minister.”
The Prime Minister, perched on the toilet seat, flinched in shock. After an awkward moment of not knowing whether to sit or stand, he rose and shook Ode’s hand. “Delighted to meet you. Has Faust filled you in on the mission details?”
Ode could never have pictured such a bizarre tableau. “Er… no?”
“Fair enough. Here’s the situation.” The Prime Minister mopped his hands again, nerves jangling. “About three days ago, I received a death threat demanding I scrap the multinational summit set for Southampton. It was signed—”
“Black Brotherhood,” Faust muttered around his cigar. “Ring any bells? Those lunatics assassinating politicians left and right, babbling about aiding some god’s awakening to purge the world.”
“…” How could Ode forget? The moment GORCC had yanked him from the bank into their tomb base, he’d pegged those creeps as Black Brotherhood members. “So our job is protecting the Prime Minister at the conference?”
“Maybe… not just me.” The Prime Minister wrung his hands fretfully. “See—this is the first time the Black Brotherhood has targeted not an individual, but a political summit.”
“Mr. Faust suspects the threat might not even be from them. Could be an opposition faction against the summit, masquerading as cultists. But what self-respecting politician risks that? Doesn’t he care about his future career?”
Faust plainly disagreed with the Prime Minister’s take but held his tongue—especially after recently toppling the Home Secretary. He gave the man some leeway. “Which means our mission is ensuring the conference wraps without a hitch. No slip-ups with any of the guests during it.”
“Shouldn’t be impossible. The venue’s a cruise ship, but it’s staying docked on land. Evacuation would be a breeze if things go south.”
“Naturally, we’d prefer no incidents at all,” the Prime Minister added, eyes alight with hope. “Perhaps you could ferret out those terrorists before they make a move? I—”
Faust shouldered open the door beside the Prime Minister, his intent unmistakable. “Time to head back to the deck, sir. Vanishing too long will spook them. We’ll have eyes on you discreetly for the return.”
“…Right, yes, of course…” The Prime Minister shuffled out of the cabin, his expression that of a soldier probing a minefield.
Once he was gone, Faust snatched a waiter’s uniform from the nearby coat rack and chucked it at Ode. “Put it on. With those cultists possibly blending into the crowd and gunning for any guest, we need disguises that let us move freely. Waiter fits the bill perfectly.”
Ode had stripped down in front of Faust plenty of times before. He swapped into the tailcoat swiftly, then tugged uncomfortably at the seat of his pants after buckling the belt. “Doesn’t this feel a little…”
Tight in the crotch?
Faust took a moment to appreciate their newest member’s narrow waist and pert rear. “If it’s snug, that’s the point. Once you’re out there, comb every corner of the ship the passengers can access. See if you can lure out some fish.”
