Chapter 66: Fainting from Cocolia’s Antics

When Svarog noticed her, Seele naturally also noticed the famous duo from the lower district—the robot and the little girl.

But, to be honest—

The relationship between Wildfire and the Mechanical Settlement wasn’t exactly friendly. In fact, it was more like mutual disdain.

Due to the extremely harsh living conditions in the lower district, it was perfectly normal for people to fight over limited resources.

Conflicts between individuals were also not uncommon.

While these minor frictions weren’t enough to escalate into all-out war between the two organizations, there was another troublemaker in the lower district—a group of looters who specialized in extortion and robbery.

They weren’t an organized or disciplined group. Or rather, if they could adhere to those two conditions, they wouldn’t have ended up as looters.

Most of them were scum from among the vagrants. When they could manage to feed themselves, they wouldn’t cause trouble, but in the lower district, having enough to eat one day and nothing the next was the norm.

These guys would either fight with the miners every other day, steal their supplies, or extort protection money from them.

Sometimes, when things got out of hand and lives were lost, larger conflicts would erupt, and the situation would become extremely messy.

The mining area was the lifeline of the underground. If the miners couldn’t protect the fruits of their labor, they naturally wouldn’t want to go down into the mines to dig for geomarrow.

Once the geomarrow supply was cut off, the transportation lines wouldn’t just deliver supplies from above for free.

Whenever this happened, to quell the situation, Oleg would take Wildfire members to station themselves in the mining area, while town security would be left to Seele.

This was also why she was able to save Venti during one of her patrols.

However, not every situation could be resolved smoothly. Sometimes, when things got really bad, Seele would have to step in, and it often came down to a real fight.

The impact of such large-scale conflicts was terrible, but they couldn’t be resolved overnight.

As a third party, the Mechanical Settlement, whether for survival resources or the stability of the underground, would inevitably intervene.

This often resulted in the two sides fighting each other, only to be beaten up by the automatons that showed up.

And no, there would be no compensation for medical expenses. Svarog didn’t care about who was right or wrong; he only acted based on his calculations.

This inevitably led to both sides being offended. While the looters weren’t much of a threat—a single squad of properly organized automatons could send them running—Wildfire, caught in the middle, had a much harder time.

After all, Wildfire was somewhat of a big brother in the underground. Shouldn’t they at least be given some respect?

But Svarog outright refused to cooperate with Wildfire, giving reasons that Seele couldn’t even understand.

Things like "according to calculations, staying in the lower district is the optimal survival strategy" and other long-winded explanations.

For people in the lower district, where the average education level was barely above illiteracy, this kind of talk was just nonsense.

If we can eat, then we’ll have the mood to listen to your grand theories. But if we can’t even eat, what else can we do? It’s just chaos.

Then Svarog would start teaching Clara to say things that were extremely provocative.

For example:

"Look, Clara. Even under extreme living conditions, humans cannot avoid division and conflict.

Human behavior always deviates from rational calculations, Clara—"

And when negotiations broke down:

"Humans attempting to overturn the calculated results pose a significant threat to the survival strategy of the lower district. Calculation complete. Conclusion: Using force to make Wildfire and its allies comply is the most efficient solution."

Hey! Who wouldn’t get angry hearing that?

While Seele didn’t exactly hate Clara, and she could somewhat understand the Mechanical Settlement’s neutrality, she certainly didn’t want to just chop Svarog into pieces. But whenever they met, there was bound to be a verbal fight.

And Seele’s knowledge was clearly not as extensive as Svarog’s (it was even debatable whether she knew more than Clara). Not to mention, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make a robot angry.

No matter how much she cursed at him, he remained cold and indifferent, which only made her more frustrated.

As for bullying Clara, that was beneath her. Seele wasn’t the type to do such things.

Therefore, from that point on, Seele basically avoided meeting these two.

However, seeing Svarog come out of his turtle-like iron fortress instead of guarding the Core Hub was a bit surprising to Seele.

After all, Wildfire had gone there a few times to discuss the use of the manned shaft.

But they were always unilaterally rejected by Svarog.

The grand reasons he gave were something Seele couldn’t stand.

Who would have thought that while no one was paying attention, he would bring Clara up here?

And they said they were looking for Venti...

Could it be that the bard had some plan he hadn’t told her about?

Although, to be fair, she hadn’t bothered to ask. Seele admitted she wasn’t much of a thinker. If something could be solved by direct action, there was no need to waste time asking too many questions.

After all, Venti would handle all the thinking. She just needed to listen to what he said and act accordingly.

This definitely wasn’t slacking off—it was just trust in her companion.

But, regardless, running into people from the lower district here and hearing them mention Venti meant she couldn’t just ignore them like before.

She needed to find a way to figure out their intentions.

And so, partly to ensure that the Silvermane Guards she had just rescued didn’t die on the way, and partly to "monitor" Svarog, Seele kept her distance and followed them to the nearest shelter.

There, an official from the administrative district was giving a speech—

Mostly about not panicking, not being afraid. The backbone of Belobog, the steadfast shield of the people, the will of the Supreme Guardian—the Silvermane Guards had been fully mobilized and would ensure everyone’s safety.

Just follow the instructions, go to your assigned rooms, and wait patiently for updates. The crisis would soon pass.

Seele had heard this kind of bureaucratic talk many times, so it didn’t interest her. What really caught her attention was another piece of news.

It was reported that Acting Commander Bronya was currently stationed at the restricted zone on the frontlines.

And the Supreme Guardian intended to recall her and have her command the upcoming operation to subdue the demonic dragon.

It was all just empty promises, sounding good but likely to make the person involved faint from frustration.

...

Bronya hadn’t fainted yet, but she was close.

After secretly sending a letter to Serval, several more letters arrived in the evening, urging her to return immediately.

The tone was quite severe, and it warned her that if she continued to act willfully, her position as Acting Commander would be temporarily revoked, and she would be confined to her home.

As for the so-called command of the demonic dragon subjugation operation, that was just an excuse to get her back.

Mother had started to act recklessly and stubbornly.