Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 21===

A splashing sound could be heard far downstream of the muddy river created by the landslide.

Putana Highball was using both hands to somehow crawl out of the water.

“Pant, pant… Ugh… Cough, cough!!”

She coughed the water from her mouth and caught her breath.

She then lay on the ground staring up into the night sky.

What would she do now?

A few options presented themselves to the brown girl.

She could find some way of contacting them or return to the run-down hotel on her own in order to meet back up with the Legitimacy Kingdom intelligence division calling itself Azul Hive.

She could also pretend she had been drowned in the muddy river and escape the surveillance of both the Legitimacy Kingdom and the Faith Organization.

No amount of work would bring the Sarasvati back, but that did not change the fact that the Legitimacy Kingdom group had been the ones to steal it from her.

On the other hand, she would lose their support if she turned on them. It was obvious what fate would await her if she had two world powers pursuing her at the same time.

Would she obey and live?

Or would she fight back and die?

She thought for a while, but she was suddenly interrupted.

Someone’s face jutted into her upturned field of vision.

“Glad to see you’re still alive.”

It was Millia Newburg.

She smiled and held out a hand.

“No matter how it happened, we took you in, so I’m not about to lose you here.”

“…”

At the very least, she did not feel the “gaze” of a military satellite.

How had the woman found her after she was swallowed up by the muddy river?

She decided not to think too much about that.

It seemed she had only one option left.

“The Flyaway has stopped moving. The Pilot Elite is probably soaking the cockpit like tomato juice from a juicer. Well, the rest is a job for the technology division. They’ll be taking it apart and bringing parts home while worrying the reactor was set to self-destruct.”

Putana grabbed Millia’s hand and unsteadily rose to her feet.

The woman’s (obviously stolen) motorcycle was stopped nearby and they both climbed onto it.

Putana wrapped her arms around the officer’s back as the motorcycle took off.

“Now, that settles that. I’ll admit Lost Angels is a worthless city, but it’s a huge plus getting to eat something other than soap-like rations while on a mission. Let’s drink as much as we can today!!”

“But I think today has already ended.”

“Then let’s keep drinking until ‘tomorrow’ is over. That’s two in such a short time! Two! And both of them were captured instead of destroyed. Of course, we can’t get conspicuous medals because we’re from the intelligence division, but we’ve done enough for the Legitimacy Kingdom to get a bronze statue at a school, don’t you think? No one’s gonna get after us if we have a bit of a party.”

“…”

Putana’s Sarasvati was one of those prizes.

The brown girl clenched her teeth a little and heard some static.

“Ksshh.”

It seemed to come from the headset on Millia’s ear.

She heard Quenser and Heivia’s voices coming from it.

“I found Putana,” said Millia. “I’ll take her back to the city, so you head to the restaurant ahead of us. The workers probably won’t be happy about how muddy you are, but they’ll warm up to us once we eat and drink and leave plenty of money for them.”

“Oh? So Putana didn’t run off? I’m surprised.”

“Does that mean she’s going to stick with us no matter what she actually thinks about us?”

The conversation was being held over the headset, so they must not have known Putana could hear them.

They had no idea that could change if she was pressing against Millia’s back with her arms around the woman’s waist.

“Hah hah!” laughed Millia. “Given her situation, she might not be able to survive any other way. I guess this was to be expected.”

“You heard her, Quenser. Aren’t you glad she isn’t some obsessive girl who’s willing to get revenge at the cost of her own life? Now you don’t have to live in fear anymore.”

“Yeah, I really am glad. I was seriously afraid she’d find out we’d been acting on an idea I came up with.”

Putana quietly bit her lip behind the commander where no one would notice anything.

When she spoke, it was only in her heart.

(I pretty much already knew that, you know?)

The rusty flavor of revenge spread through her mouth.

Her story was far from over.

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