Kal'tsit stood before the window of the Babel Medical Department, holding a steaming beverage.
Outside the window, the sky over Kazdel was as gray as ever, but unlike days past, Mudrock Squad was currently huffing and puffing as they laid foundations.
Mudrock's affinity for civil engineering had indeed exceeded her initial expectations.
The pipelines had also been successfully connected to the Soul Furnace's energy grid, although only ten percent was being diverted.
"You say he went to Lungmen?" Kal'tsit did not turn her head; she knew who was standing behind her.
Theresia walked softly to her side and said with a smile, "Yes."
"Just last night, Lacey came to say goodbye to me."
Kal'tsit turned around, her green eyes gazing calmly at Theresia. "So he chose Lungmen?"
"The operation in Kazdel has just been set up. As the general person in charge, leaving now is not a wise choice."
Theresia explained, "He said the first phase of construction is already on track, and Mudrock and her squad are fully capable of handling the subsequent work."
"But Kazdel cannot rely solely on itself. We need stable sources of supplies."
"Trade, technology, or... political chips?" Kal'tsit hit the nail on the head.
"Perhaps all of them." Theresia sighed softly.
"Kal'tsit, I once thought that as long as we showed enough goodwill, Terra would eventually accept us."
"But Lacey woke me up. Goodwill needs to be placed on a scale, and on the other end of the scale, there must be weights of sufficient mass."
"Lungmen is the most prosperous commercial hub in Terra, and also a stage where various factions wrestle for power."
"He wants to go there to find the first weight for Kazdel."
Kal'tsit fell silent.
Lacey's line of thought was very clear, and his execution was strong. No wonder "Civilization's Continuance" would choose him...
"Is he going alone?" Kal'tsit asked.
"I let Ascalon follow him," Theresia said, covering her mouth with a smile.
"That child, although she doesn't say it, her soul flew away with Lacey the moment he returned."
"Rather than letting her sit here on pins and needles, it is better to let her follow by Lacey's side. She can protect him, and it will also untie the knot in her own heart."
Kal'tsit glanced at Theresia. This Highness was always surprisingly sharp when it came to gaining insight into the human heart.
"I hope she doesn't dismantle Lungmen," Kal'tsit said indifferently, which counted as a form of approval.
"Don't worry, Ascalon is a sensible child." Theresia smiled, then turned around.
"Let's go, Kal'tsit. We have our work too. Lacey is charging the lines at the front; we cannot be dragging him down from behind."
Meanwhile, on the other end of Kazdel, upon the ruins once known as the "slum of slums," there was a scene of bustling activity.
The members of Mudrock Squad, these mercenaries who used to lick blood from knife edges, had now become the most diligent construction workers.
They had taken off their tattered leather armor stained with blood and filth, changing into the uniform work clothes distributed by the Civil Livelihood Construction Department. Although still simple, they were clean and durable.
"Captain, the soil and stone mixture ratio for the foundation here has been completed according to the blueprints Dr. Kal'tsit gave us!" A young Sarkaz wiped the sweat from his face and shouted excitedly toward the distance.
"Understood. Take a few people to the west to dig the next section of the drainage ditch. Watch out for safety!" Mudrock's voice came from not far away.
She was still wearing that heavy suit of armor, but at this moment, she was not holding a war hammer. Instead, her hands were pressing down against the empty air.
Following her movements, the soil mixed with crushed rock in the massive foundation pit below seemed to gain life, wriggling and shaping itself to fill the preset frames.
"Boss, have some water." A team member handed over a canteen.
Mudrock landed slowly, took the canteen, and removed her helmet, revealing that delicate and pretty face.
She tilted her head back and gulped down several mouthfuls. The cool, sweet drinking water slid down her throat, making her narrow her eyes in comfort.
"I really can't believe it..." The member who handed the water muttered to himself as he looked at the building complex that was beginning to take shape before him.
"We are really building our own houses."
"Yeah."
Another member who was inspecting the reinforcement steel beams also sighed with emotion. "In the past, we sold our lives for others, living in tents that leaked wind, eating moldy dry rations. Every day we woke up, we didn't know if we'd see the sun the next day."
"Now... we're tired as dogs every day, but our hearts feel steady."
"And the salary is really high!" A Sarkaz responsible for bookkeeping waved the ledger in his hand, his face beaming with delight.
"The remuneration Lord Lacey promised—not a penny less!"
"Yesterday, the first batch of identification tags was issued. I took them to the Scar Market and exchanged them for three big bags of grain and a whole bottle of good medicine!"
"Those bastards in the market stared straight-eyed; they thought we had accepted some life-threatening Pain Orders."
The surrounding team members all burst into laughter.
In their laughter, there was hope for the future.
They were no longer mercenaries living precariously from day to day, but members of the "Kazdel First Construction Corps."
They used their own hands to earn clean remuneration and build a home that belonged to them.
This dignity, exchanged through labor, made them feel more satisfied than the victory of any battle.
Mudrock looked at the long-absent smiles on her team members' faces, and her heart was peaceful.
She glanced at her palm again, where a small clay tablet rested, upon which a miniature model of a house was pinched into shape.
"My friends said, they also want to have a home."
That was what she had said back then.
And now, this wish was being realized step by step.
She put her helmet back on, and her steady voice sounded once more: "Break time is over! Everyone get moving! Our goal is: three months, one hundred new houses!"
"Let all of Kazdel see the skills of our Construction Corps!"
"Ohhh—!"
In the wilderness outside Kazdel City, a violently modified land-vehicle was bumping along its way forward.
Rather than driving on a road, it was more like bouncing over ground composed of rocks and gullies.
The wheels rolled over a protruding stone, and the entire vehicle body jolted violently. Lacey skillfully jerked the steering wheel, stabilizing the front of the car.
"This shitty road..."
He couldn't help but grumble a complaint. He casually picked up a wrench lying to the side and knocked it against the dashboard, which was about to shake apart; only then did the needle return to normal.
In the passenger seat, Ascalon's body rose and fell slightly with the bumps of the car, but she remained as steady as Mount Tai, as if nailed to the seat.
She wore a dark combat suit convenient for movement, her hood pulled very low, revealing only a small half of her fair face and tightly pursed lips.
Since leaving Kazdel, she had hardly spoken a word.
"Say..." Lacey glanced at her, feeling the atmosphere was truly a bit stifling.
"You're still the same as always, kid. You don't like to talk much."
Ascalon ignored his joke, continuing to watch the desolate scenery retreating rapidly outside the window.
Lacey, having snubbed himself, continued to focus on driving.
The bumpy sound of the engine became the only background noise between the two.
After a long time, just when Lacey thought she wouldn't open her mouth at all today, Ascalon's cool voice suddenly rang out.
"Do you have nothing to say to me?"
Lacey was stunned, and the steering wheel in his hand almost slipped.
"Say what?"
Ascalon finally turned her head. Those beautiful red eyes, beneath the shadow of her hood, stared fixedly at him.
"Seven years ago, you saved me from a Catastrophe, then dumped me in Kazdel without a word." She sounded like she was stating a fact unrelated to herself.
Lacey felt a bit guilty under her gaze.
"The situation was complicated back then. With you, a little burden, tagging along, it wasn't convenient for me outside."
"Handing you over to Theresia was better than following me to sleep in the wind and eat outdoors. Look, haven't you grown up quite well now? You even became her personal guard." He tried to pass the matter over with a relaxed tone.
"Besides, when I asked if you were willing to stay back then, you didn't refuse, did you?"
As soon as the words fell, the temperature inside the car seemed to drop a few degrees more.
Ascalon fell silent.
She turned her head back to look out the window, speaking no more.
Lacey felt he had said the wrong thing.
Back then, she was just a little girl still in shock. Facing a strange environment and a savior about to embark on an unknown journey again, what choice could she have made?
Her silence might not have been agreement at all, but helplessness.
"Cough, what I meant was..."
"You didn't have to follow me. The situation in Lungmen is unclear; it's more convenient for me to act alone."
"You know my strength. I won't encounter any trouble on the road."
"Manfred is no longer my match."
Ascalon suddenly interrupted him.
Lacey was stunned again.
Manfred was Theresis's proudest student, a standout among the younger generation of the Military Commission. His strength had long since stepped into the threshold of elite operators.
Ascalon said she could beat Manfred?
Only then did he truly size up the young girl beside him seriously.
She had grown much taller. Her figure was still slender, but beneath that combat suit were muscle lines full of explosive power, tempered by a thousand hammer blows.
She sat there quietly, her presence restrained to the extreme. If she did not strike, she was silent; if she struck, it would be earth-shattering.
She was no longer that little girl who needed his protection.
"Impressive," Lacey praised from the heart, a smile appearing on his face.
"It seems Theresis hasn't spared any effort on you these past years."
"It was Her Highness who taught me well." Ascalon's tone softened slightly.
"Alright, consider it my underestimation." Lacey smiled and reached out, patting her shoulder.
"Then from now on, you are my bodyguard. Wages will be paid as usual, three full meals a day, plus a supply of desserts."
The corner of Ascalon's mouth, beneath the shadow of her hood, seemed to twitch upward slightly.
The atmosphere in the car was finally no longer so heavy.
Lacey began to chat about everything under the sun, from how he survived on the Ursus ice plains by gnawing on snowballs, to how he bamboozled an arms dealer in Columbia, and then to how he drank a gang of sand bandits under the table outside the Yumen Pass of Yan.
He spoke vividly and colorfully. Ascalon mostly just listened quietly, only occasionally giving a "Mmh" in response.
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