Chapter 77: Pelageya on the Run

“…Huff, huff…”
Pelageya’s footsteps were hurried, her bangs tousled by the wind, and her round-framed glasses seemed on the verge of falling off her nose.

“—How much longer are you going to keep flying?”
She chased after the mechanical bird in front of her without pause.

By now, several hours had passed since Serval Landau’s arrest, and Pelageya had taken special notice of the situation when Gepard passed by earlier.
Under normal circumstances, Captain Gepard should still be stationed at the frontlines of the restricted zone. Even if he were returning for a mission handover, it would take at least one to two months. After all, that was a newly formed Fragmentum zone—no amount of caution was excessive.

But not only had she not heard of any lieutenant returning from the frontlines, even if someone had come back to report, why would they be carrying an arrest warrant and charging in so aggressively?
Especially since she had caught a glimpse of the portrait on the warrant—it was clearly the one she had drawn for Venti when creating his profile.

No matter the reason it had ended up on the warrant, it spelled trouble.
So, she quickly handed over her tasks to her deputy and rushed home to hide the mechanical bird.

Who would have thought it would activate on its own, as if it had a mind of its own, and start flying in a specific direction?
Pelageya couldn’t just let it fly away. Not only did it contain a wealth of unanalyzed data, but the shield technology and protective gear stored in its chip were not things that could be casually leaked.

Sure, the Silvermane Guards used such technology without a second thought, but that was because the Landau and Sergeyevich families were highly trusted entities.
Their children had served in the Silvermane Guards, and they had no reason to engage in actions that harmed others without benefiting themselves. But if someone of unknown origin were to produce such technology, the review process alone would take forever.

Moreover, Pelageya herself was no novice when it came to mechanical knowledge. Not only was her friend Serval a renowned mechanical genius in Belobog, but Pelageya herself had managed to complete her credits before reaching the minimum age requirement, proving she was no one-trick genius.

A mechanical bird like this operating autonomously usually had only two possibilities:
One, it had been pre-programmed with a time and location, and it was following a set route to its destination.
Two, it had a homing function—like automatically finding its way home or returning to its owner.

Usually, these two functions coexisted. And since Venti had mentioned that this mechanical bird was something he had obtained from a little girl in the lower district, was it possible that the bird’s destination was her location?

No matter how she had made it to the upper district, it must have been through Venti’s help. After all, as far as Pelageya knew, Venti was one of only two people who could freely travel between the upper and lower districts.
The other was someone named Borson, who was frequently caught by Captain Gepard.

Borson was a two-bit trader who often smuggled goods into the upper district, occasionally selling unapproved items and even getting involved in a few fraud cases.
Though he always insisted it was a fair trade—a willing buyer and seller—how could that be called fraud?

But whenever the Silvermane Guards caught him in the act, they would throw him in jail for a few days. The man was a smooth talker, spinning tales of his tragic past that often swayed the sympathy of rookie judges, leading to reduced sentences.
From the various versions of his backstory that Pelageya had collected, it was clear he was a full-blown con artist.

He seemed like the type of “bad influence” who would hang around Venti with fake camaraderie.
This was something Pelageya had been meaning to warn Venti about.
Her concerns about taking him in were partly born out of a “motherly” fear that he might be led astray.

But leaving aside whether Venti was “keeping bad company,” in the current situation, she had already heard plenty of people discussing today’s big news.
Serval and Venti—two of her important friends—had been accused of treason…

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was probably on the Supreme Guardian’s “to-do” list as well.
If she didn’t leave now, when would she?

As she caught her breath, Pelageya also worried about Serval. At least Serval had Captain Gepard as a backup.
Even if she was thrown in jail and looked disheveled, who would dare to subject her to harsh interrogation?
Did they really think the Landau family would just roll over? As one of the Architect families, they had likely just been caught off guard. Once they investigated, they would surely find something fishy. Until then, they wouldn’t let Serval die in vain.

But Venti was different.
He had no identity, no backing. Out of professional habit, Pelageya had once tried to investigate Venti’s origins.
But she found nothing—it was as if he had appeared out of thin air in Belobog.

Coupled with his whimsical poetry and free-spirited personality, perhaps he really was from a distant planet…
Such thoughts had crossed her mind more than once. But no matter what, the help from his homeland couldn’t save him now.

If he were caught by the Silvermane Guards, he would undoubtedly be used as a scapegoat by the Supreme Guardian—no, by Cocolia—to make an example of.
Someone as pure and naive as him absolutely, absolutely couldn’t lose his life over such baseless accusations.

Pelageya tightly clutched her round fur hat, the Cecilia flower pinned to it swaying in the wind.
The girl’s heart was filled with urgency.

Until—
At the corner, she finally ran into Venti, who looked as carefree as ever. Only then did her anxious heart settle.
She practically sprinted to him, grabbed his hand, and prepared to keep running.

“No time to waste. I’ll explain later. For now, let’s—”
Before she could finish, a tremendous force gripped her arm, nearly lifting her off the ground.
She had only seen such strength in Captain Gepard and a few other lieutenants.

When she realized the person holding her was a girl about her age, only slightly taller, Pelageya exclaimed in surprise,
“What kind of strength is that? Are you some kind of gorilla?”

“Leaving aside that insulting description for now, is it normal in the upper district for suspicious people like you to grab someone’s hand and start running?”
Seele replied with a dark expression.

The one who had stopped Pelageya was, of course, Seele. If it had been Svarog, Pelageya would probably have been spun around in mid-air like a ballet dancer.

“Huh? Isn’t that the mechanical bird Sister Venti took from me?”
A soft, sweet voice chimed in.

Pelageya turned to see a young girl with white hair and crimson eyes, her face tender and adorable. She was sitting in the arm of a humanoid robot taller than a Gearwolf.
The robot’s rose-red mono-eye, towering frame, and imposing old military uniform gave Pelageya an overwhelming sense of pressure.

A fully functional automated unit from the Geomarrow Expedition era?
Pelageya took a step back in surprise. Meanwhile, Venti, whom she had been holding onto, proudly introduced,
“Hey, Pelageya! We were just about to go find you! Don’t be scared—they’re my family, from the lower district.”

Before Pelageya could process what he meant by “family,” Venti dropped another bombshell.
“As you can see, I’m the prime suspect behind the dragon’s attack on the city. I’m planning to turn myself in. Want to come along?”

“…Huh?”

The bespectacled, round-faced girl’s brain short-circuited.