Chapter 32

The waiting room suddenly became bustling.

The soldiers, who had been on guard with watchful eyes, suddenly started preparing to leave for somewhere.

Their demeanor made it clear that they were gearing up for battle, weapons in hand.

Seeing this, Ambasha and Elkana, despite their frustration, cautiously began to observe the shifting atmosphere.

“Elkana… could it be…?”

“…Hmm… It seems like that might actually be the case…”

The pocket watch indicated about 20 minutes left.

As the timing seemed just right, Ambasha and Elkana had no trouble predicting what the navy’s reactions implied.

“Um… Is something happening? Why all of a sudden…?”

“That’s…”

Even so, Ambasha asked in an innocent tone to confirm her suspicions.

Just then, a soldier holding an axe was about to say something…

“Hey.”

“Ah… um… It’s… nothing serious. We’re just changing positions, so don’t worry and stay quiet.”

“Ah… okay…”

After being restrained by a nearby companion, the axe-wielding soldier responded somewhat awkwardly.

However, observing this, Ambasha and Elkana realized far more than the soldier had revealed.

One was that their overt expressions of vigilance confirmed the long-held thought: ‘Could Achroiel really…?’

The other was the understanding of the current situation, inferred from the reactions indicating that Franklin and Magellan had begun to attract real attention outside.

‘Things seem to be progressing smoothly on their end, right?’

‘Now the question is how we move…’

With Magellan having drawn his knife, it was now truly a race against time.

Having drawn suspicion from more than anticipated, if it became known that the mastermind causing the commotion was Magellan, they might be looking to lock him in prison, if not execute him outright.

Additionally, about half of the soldiers had already exited this room, somewhat intentionally.

With the remaining half, Elkana’s skills were more than sufficient for a swift kill.

As Elkana thought it was about time to move, she began to fidget with the dagger hidden in her clothing.

At that moment…

“…? Why?”

Ambasha suddenly reached out to gently stop Elkana.

Then she began to murmured something in a small voice.

“What do you think?”

“Oh… that’s a pretty good idea? Yes, let’s do that.”

“Yes.”

After their brief conversation, the two pretended to be oblivious for a moment.

From a third-party perspective, it looked like the two women were having trivial chatter and were now staring blankly at the people around them out of boredom.

*

“Really? …Still no response?”

“Yes, they were chatting among themselves, but now they look bored and lost in thought.”

“Tch… Understood. Withdraw.”

At the soldier’s report, Achroiel frowned slightly.

Even though there was an opening here, they didn’t seem to have any intention of taking action.

Their unwillingness to move as expected was causing her considerable annoyance.

Though she didn’t wish for them to cause trouble, having this frustrating feeling was just unpleasant.

It wasn’t that her tea time was interrupted, making everything else annoying.

‘Could it be they genuinely came for a mundane purpose? No… that can’t be it. My intuition has never been wrong… For now, they’re quiet…’

However, she couldn’t go on poking at them merely based on her suspicions.

There was no evidence and more importantly, the situation outside was chaotic with the warehouse on fire, causing her to be preoccupied.

Ultimately, she had no choice but to set aside her thoughts about them and began focusing again on dispatching reinforcements to the warehouse area.

“Then, the first squad led by Grecale will immediately go there and eliminate the intruders. Capture them if possible, but if needed, feel free to kill them.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Second squad of Ribecio will prioritize preserving the military supplies. We can’t help the ones already burning, but we’ll stop the flames from spreading further and move anything that can be moved.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“And the remaining ones will continue to defend here with me. Ensure not even a single ant gets through.”

“Yes! Admiral.”

Thus, Achroiel dispatched two-thirds of her forces stationed here to her subordinate officers.

Originally, around 1500 soldiers were diligently guarding the area.

However, now only about 500 remained.

This drastic reduction obviously weakened their defensive capability, but it was the best Achroiel could manage under the circumstances.

‘Honestly, I’d prefer to keep concentrating on the defense here…’

Her intuition continued to warn her.

She needed to pay more attention to the defense here rather than the warehouse area.

However, a person’s circumstances couldn’t revolve solely around intuition.

She was a naval admiral responsible for protecting the entire Benessa.

The obligations of a soldier to defend their nation, the political implications of future accountability, and the moral responsibility to save those who were still dying weighed heavily on her.

There was far too much at stake to just ignore the problems occurring right in front of her due to a mere feeling.

“Then, I’ll rearrange the troops according to the reduced numbers.”

Thus, while reluctant, Achroiel put aside her anxiety and focused on doing what was necessary.

*

Captain Abruchi of the Benessa navy.

Under Achroiel’s orders, he was conducting “surveillance” duties in the waiting room and felt quite uncomfortable in many ways.

‘Seriously… what the hell am I doing here…?’

Currently, there was utter chaos outside due to the enemy’s raid.

Yet here he was, sitting idly, supposed to monitor a small child with wet hair and a flat-chested girl who was otherwise uninspiring.

It had never been a particularly appealing task from the start.

Moreover, even with half the people here moving outside, he was still stuck with the mission to stay.

This made Abruchi feel unreasonably uneasy.

‘No matter how much it’s the Admiral’s command… She can’t possibly mean to keep me here on purpose, right? I haven’t been doing too well performance-wise these last few weeks… Being treated like this feels pretty unfair…’

He didn’t truly know how things were, but that unpleasant discomfort and anxiety naturally arose whenever people felt they were unfairly treated.

With these feelings weighing on him, Abruchi began pacing nervously within the waiting room.

Then…

“Hmm?”

Something suddenly tapped his arm.

Turning his gaze, he spotted one of the surveillance targets— the blonde-haired girl.

“What is it?”

“Um… I need to go to the bathroom… is that okay?”

“What?”

The girl spoke unexpectedly.

Abruchi, already annoyed, frowned even more.

“Stop talking nonsense about the bathroom! Didn’t you hear to stay quietly here until whatever you’re auctioning comes out?”

“But… I really have to go… I’ve been holding it in since earlier…”

“If you’ve managed to hold it this long, you can hold it longer! Just shut up and stay quiet!”

His irritation grew as the child continued to whine.

At that moment…

“Hey you! How can you say something like that?”

The A-cup girl, who had been silent until now, stood up and expressed her fury.

“What’s your problem? Just cause a ruckus and be quiet.”

“No, the child is asking to go to the bathroom! What’s wrong with you? And I’ve felt something strange since earlier. Are we criminals? Even if we came in on friends’ coattails, we’re still guests! Do guests not have the right to use the bathroom in Benessa or what?”

“Ah… No, I didn’t mean to—”

“What do you mean you didn’t mean to? Do you think you can consider us pushovers just because we’re calm? Even though I look like this, I had dinner with that Admiral and even bathed together! We were friends! You dare…”

“What pushover? Just because I’m looking at you…”

“Are you going to hit me? Go ahead! You’re certain to lose your head when you tell Achroiel!”

She raised her voice and argued back.

This made Abruchi, who was already irritated to his breaking point, lose his cool.

And then…

-Thunk!

“Gah!”

“!”

He couldn’t hold back his emotions and punched her.

The blow he threw without thinking seemed quite strong, as she tumbled to the ground.

“Don’t you all realize the situation yet? You’re surveillance targets! You’re all just potential criminals! How dare you…!”

“Hey… Abruchi!”

“What are you doing! I told you not to make unnecessary noise!”

His companions, still enraged, attempted to calm him down.

At that moment…

“Wah… Wahhhh!!!”

Suddenly, a sound of crying rang out.

“Wha…”

Then their eyes fell upon the girl, standing there with her lower half soaked and tears streaming down her cheeks.