Editing KSGU:Volume 1 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 7===

To ease the stress of being hidden in a sealed space, the space colony had routes that were designed to be part of the city’s plan. One of them was the commercial area that was right beside the construction area. The thin and long path had shops littered on both sides of the road, and each of the shops were set up to their ideal image, causing the street to look like those remaining shopping streets in those old cities on Earth. The back of the short roofs had builder units that were like hills, and clouds that covered the airtight wall facing the moon. The area just felt like a rural town.

It was 1pm, and all the eateries were no longer packed with workers. The shopping streets entered a time of relaxation. She snuck in between some old people and some housewives with children and continued walking down the street. There were bakeries, bookstores, customer service shops and eateries. At times, there would be the smell of hot dogs or oily Chinese food coming out from the messy row of streets. Though she could drink from the water cooler in the park when she’s thirsty, her empty stomach couldn’t be filled, and if she let her guard down, it would rumble again, which would make it embarrassing.

However, she was more worried about the housewives who were walking by and glancing at her. She had firm belief that she wasn’t caught on camera by the port’s surveillance camera, so nobody would suspect that she was the one involved in the incident this morning. Or maybe her clothing was rather strange for the people here? She checked on the internet for the latest fashion trend before she left for Palau and tried her best not to choose the most outstanding one. As she looked at herself through a glass window on a cupboard in a shop, the girl wondered whether it was because she buttoned up her collar. However, she didn’t want to open her collar so randomly, so she started working again.

She made preparations before, but there would be lots of trouble when it came to reality. To her, who never carried money or credit cards before, she didn’t know that she couldn’t buy bread without having money as it was not part of her knowledge. Thus, she made the mistake of running out without taking the money. I really don’t understand social rules—the girl thought as she felt even more depressed. She had no experience of going out alone. Speaking of which, she did watch a romantic movie about a princess in a small country who slipped out onto the streets for a day of happiness. It was an old century film. The story was ordinary, but the actress who acted as a princess who did not know anything was really charismatic, and it was a movie she really liked. What was the name of that actress?

Thinking about it hard, the girl suddenly realized that she was seriously thinking of the actress’ name. She abandoned the useless dream behind her. The princess in the movie was just leaving a boring duty, but she had something she had to do. Ever since they knew that she was opposed to this deal, Zinnerman didn’t reveal anything more about this deal to her. Thus, she wasn’t certain when the interaction with Vist Foundation would be held, and where. However, some of the other crew members said that it would begin at evening, and it’ll be too late for her if she continued to laze around. Palau should have found out that she was missing. She had to be faster—the girl left the shopping street, entered a complicated alley, and found a van parked in a dead end.

She looked at the van that was filled with metal filings, and thought that it would be impossible to get on. She then looked over at the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to use this method, but would it be possible to talk to the driver and let him help transport her into the construction area? She could say that she wanted to get closer to see the colony being built. If she’s successful, she could even get inside the area builder. If she could get in and understand the rough situation…

Suddenly, she felt a stare from behind. It’s like someone who had been prone suddenly lifting its face, a stare that was full of intent. Her body unknowingly tensed up, but she didn’t make the mistake of turning around carelessly. The girl quickly turned around a corner, but there was a man who blocked his way on the alley, causing her to stop.

The man was dressed in a short coat, and his cap was kept low. The girl recognized his face. He was a member of the Garencieres. The girl intended to leave the alley before the man walked over, but two people were standing at the exit of the alley, blocking her escape.

The exhaust fan from the restaurant pumped out greasy smoke, and the alley only had dirty trash bins fallen about as there was no one else around. Knowing that she had nowhere to go, the girl hid her uneasy feeling as she faced the two people who blocked her getaway. She didn’t think of why she was discovered. She knew that the crew of the Garancieres could do this.

And if Marida joined in the search—the girl pulled about 3m away as she stared at Marida. Marida was wearing an office suit as a disguise, yet it couldn’t hide her ominous presence. The girl knew that she would be immediately caught at such a distance, and used her eyes to tell Marida not to be rude. Marida’s expression showed a shift, and one could tell that she was wavering,

“Let’s head back, princess.”

Feeling that little wavering in herself, Marida said, “The captain’s worried about you.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Please consider your position. If you’re discovered by the Federation at such a place, who knows what would happen…”

She stepped forward while wearing the sports shoes. Even if the disguise wasn’t perfect, it’s really Marida’s style not to wear high heels. “It’s because I thought of this that I did it.” The girl used a tone that fit her ‘position’ and prevented Marida from moving forward.

“Right now, we can’t use the ‘Laplace Box’. No matter what kind of thing it is, Full Frontal will only use it as a tool and start a meaningless conflict. You should know that, right?”

“I don’t understand. I just listen to orders.”

“You’re lying. You’re just escaping. The ‘power’ that was given to you normally shouldn't be used in such a way.”

The girl didn’t just say this randomly. Marida, who would blindly listen to Zinnerman’s orders and never faced her own life—showed wavering in her blue eyes again and looked away from the girl, but the ominous presence on her body didn’t subside. Marida recollected her expressionless look as she looked over, “Princess…pardon me for my rudeness.”

With such a signal, the crew member standing behind put his hand on the girl’s shoulder. He did control his strength, but the skilled move wasn’t something that could be shaken off whenever anyone wanted to. The girl saw Marida and the other crew member close in and shouted, “How rude! Let go of me!” as she continued to struggle. At this moment, a loud alarm suddenly rang throughout the entire alley.

The sound was so loud that it probably didn’t just ring through the alley, but also possibly through the road. Even Marida was stunned as she looked around. The girl saw the crew member beside her reach for a gun in his chest, and the force on her shoulder was weakened. She used this chance to struggle hard and escaped from his grasp.

The girl dodged past the hand Marida reached out with for the first time and went around the corner. Amidst the siren, she could hear Marida call out “Princess…!”. However, the girl continued to run. She turned around several corners, went through a narrow alley, and was aiming for a main street with people on it. However, the girl soon lost her way, and as she looked around at a crossroad, someone suddenly grabbed her on the wrist from beside her.

The soft hand was different from Marida and the rest. The familiar feeling appeared through the girl’s mind as she even forgot to struggle and looked at the owner of the hand. That was the face of the person who saved her from impasse.

The head that was full of sweat and the dark brown eyes were staring at the girl’s eyes. Why…? The girl thought, and then heard the boy’s shout, “Over here!” The girl was pulled away by the hand. She ran from behind, and the ball-shaped robot beside the foot started to roll. The noisy alarm suddenly stopped. It seemed that this mascot-like robot was the one that made the sound.

The boy pulled the girl along in this narrow alley and continued to run through complicated alleys without hesitation. The girl was certain that he was that boy through the robot and the deep blue jacket on him, and continued to follow him and run. It may be careless for her to follow a stranger, but right now, she couldn’t allow herself to be caught by Marida. The boy who seems familiar with this place is leading, so let’s have him lead. The girl continued to run between the gaps of the packed houses.

Also, the hands of this boy were easing themselves to prevent hurting her and yet grabbing tightly so and not letting go. She was helped by a lot of hands before, but the girl never grabbed such a hand that grabbed onto hers firmly and without hesitation. It was unexpectedly soft too; it had the weakness of young age as it was tightly sticking to her skin.

''I was saved by these hands twice. Who is this boy?'' At this moment, the girl forgot that she was being pursued and seriously looked at the back of the boy.