Herrscher of Reason's Arknights

As if in a frame skip, the older sister appeared behind Yelena, brandishing the demon sword in her hand.

"Forehead--!!!"

It didn't look like a slash; it looked more like the girl using a knife to block a train that was hurtling towards her.

He was thrown out in an instant!

With her hand ripped open, the long sword slipped from her grasp, and the girl felt her entire body flying uncontrollably backward.

Numbly watching, my vision shrank infinitely, until I crashed to the ground.

Yelena finally stopped after rolling several times.

Like a corpse thrown from a car, he stared blankly at the sky...

A purple sky, purple crystals floating on the horizon, and...

The face of a silver-haired girl.

Standing beside the girl lying on the ground, Sodium Chloride looked down at the girl who was clearly dazed from the ordeal and said...

"Perhaps you really are a martial arts prodigy."

"?"

"Ten thousand times. That's the number of times you've come before me to accept my challenge. To be able to block my sword after ten thousand failures is truly a rare talent."

Really? Should she be happy then?

Should I still cry?

Yelena didn't know; she was just looking at those blue-gray eyes that were both incredibly familiar and incredibly strange to her.

"Why····"

"what why?"

"Why...do we have to do those things...?"

Despite feeling pain all over her body, the girl felt that she had cried all her tears, but her eyes still stung.

She killed countless people, but she couldn't understand it.

I can't understand why she did that.

She didn't understand her older sister, the woman who had been with her since childhood and was like family to her, why she did those things.

Even just telling her the reason would be better.

"They're just like children, always asking why, why do they do bad things? Does destroying the world need a reason?"

"Don't you need it?"

"do you need?"

My sister's eyes seemed to say something perfectly natural, still with that nonchalant expression.

It's like they're discussing what to eat today.

Looking at the girl lying on the ground, sodium chloride still lit a cigarette.

Feeling the psychological suggestion of nicotine passing through her lungs, the girl looked at the purple sky in the distance and said.

"I am not someone who easily changes my mind, nor am I someone who can be influenced by anyone to change my thoughts. Once I've made up my mind about something, I will definitely do it."

I don't care what others think. I just want what I want, no matter the means or the actions. There's no noble reason, and it's not some pointless motive like destroying order to uphold justice. I'm just doing this because I need to take the world down with me. To start a war, to fan the flames of war across the world—it's terrifying, isn't it? Saying something like that…

She stubbed out the cigarette with one hand, waving away the drifting embers. It was rare for her to suddenly talk so much like this.

Yelena should have been afraid, or she should have been angry.

However, nothing happened; I only heard my sister talking to herself.

"That's why I taught you swordsmanship. You've already learned it; the rest is up to you to refine it. The reason I taught you these things, the reason I told you what I wanted to do, is because I wanted to say..."

—Try to stop me. I won't show mercy to anyone, but I can give you a chance.

A chance to stop all of this from happening—you know, a normal person wouldn't even have that chance before they vanished into thin air.

He leaned down, his blue-gray eyes reflecting the girl's face as she came to her senses.

"Aren't you even curious why I'm telling you this?"

As if mocking herself, the older sister actually laughed.

That was the first time Yelena had seen her smile without using her fingers to pull the corners of her mouth apart.

Even if that smile is fleeting.

Yelena simply shook her head.

"I will stop you."

"Heh, I'll look forward to it."

·······

P.S.: This volume is finally finished!!!

Volume VI

Chapter 322 [A Tiny Change]

"Things have gone wrong. Your people are really unreliable."

In the wilderness, as far as the eye can see, there is only desolation that seems to stretch endlessly.

The journey covered tens of kilometers, but the entire route was uninhabited. Not only was there no way to see anything, but there wasn't even a trace of wild animals.

It was extremely desolate, and the temperature on the wasteland was extremely low. Although there was no snow, the low temperature alone could take the lives of many poor creatures.

On the endless, gray wasteland, under the hazy sky, beside a dusty, dilapidated vehicle, a flickering campfire is the only trace that proves the presence of civilized life.

The frequency of the remote receiving terminal on the car was tuned to a separate, secret channel, on which Talulah's blurry image was projected.

"Smashed it? What do you mean? Did you encounter the enemy?"

Talulah, the de facto leader of the Reunion Movement and the political leader of the Infected Movement, is now looking at her biggest ally with some headaches.

The not-so-clear sound came through the car microphone intermittently.

"It's simple. I estimate that in a few weeks, the mess here will be reported: some madman ignited that dormant volcano, the surrounding towns are all affected, and your people have run away. It looks like it was premeditated."

As he spoke, Sodium Chloride simply leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and spoke with an air of nonchalance.

"...I understand. I'll have my men investigate that guy's whereabouts. After that, do I need to send someone to pick you up?"

"No need. Let him go if he's lost. You won't win him back anyway. I'll go back on my own. You don't need to worry about it."

For the first time, the Snow Demon had specific requirements for her explanation.

It's worth noting that Snow Fairy's attitude towards Talulah used to be more like indifference. Her attitude was always the same: "You deal with your own people, I'm not interested." Although she didn't say it explicitly, it was like that for years.

While it's a good thing to have an ally with almost no demands, this completely indifferent attitude also makes the open secret that "we're just using each other" crystal clear.

This makes Talulah a bit difficult to work with.

However, due to the opponent's power and her need for such a powerful ally, Talulah had no choice but to make do with the cooperation.

Since there are few things to do and few demands, she doesn't need to worry about these trivial matters.

However, the Snow Demon is behaving quite abnormally these days.

She actually started sharing her own opinions and thoughts.

This bizarre change made Talulah squint as she looked at the monstrous-looking superior.

"I have a feeling...you must have encountered something good?"

"what?"

His blue-gray eyes stared at Talulah on the screen. Was this a good thing?

Her trip was a complete waste of time; what good could possibly come of it?

Are you out of your mind?

Of course, sodium chloride didn't say this, but it was basically written on its face.

"My guess."

Talulah preemptively silenced the other party's suspicions, stating clearly that she herself was just guessing.

"After all... judging from your appearance, you seem to be in a pretty good mood."

? ? ? ?

If you can't speak properly, then shut up.

"We lost everyone, went through a volcano for nothing, and you're telling me I'm in a good mood? Which eye of yours saw that?"

With his eyes half-closed and arms crossed, Sodium Chloride spoke with a slightly sarcastic tone.

"...Your...eyebrows."

"?"

"I mean, you'd better look in the mirror, at your eyebrows, and... I don't know how to say it, but I suggest you go find a mirror and look at yourself."

Talulah gently pointed to the space between her eyebrows, her tone conveying a meaning that could only be understood intuitively.

Eyebrows? What could be wrong with eyebrows?

Is the road dusty?

Sodium chloride subconsciously touched the area between his eyebrows, but there was nothing there; there was nothing sticky on his hands.

Just kidding, she's a Herrscher, how could a Herrscher be tainted by the mortal world?

They are beings that exist between energy bodies and physical entities, and their consciousness is greater than the laws of the physical world, so how could they possibly be dirtied by dust?

Talulah didn't add anything, but instead gave her a look that said, "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"In short, I have no reason to lie to you. Just take a look in the mirror and you'll see. Anyway, the busy time is over now. You have plenty of time to slowly make your way back before we take Chernobog."

Talulah seemed quite relaxed, considering she had been incredibly busy before.

We need people everywhere, everyone, everyone. The Reunion Movement is desperately short of manpower.

To be precise, the problem is a lack of "cadres".

Most of the infected people were uneducated people from the lower classes, and it was extremely difficult to find someone who could read and write among a group of poor, uneducated infected people.

However, the vacancies for officers still need to be filled. There is no shortage of rank-and-file combat personnel, but there are not enough leadership teams. She can't manage everything by herself. Talulah is a warrior, not a god. She can't command the entire army's advance. Someone has to be responsible for commanding squad operations and coordinating the transition between the top and the bottom.

That is, squad leaders and lower-level officers.

However, there are too few such people, so the only option is to increase the squad size to maximize the use of the limited number of commanders. However, the increase in personnel further exacerbates the pressure on squad commanders.

After all, the more people there are, the harder they are to manage. It's not like we're in the era of lining up people to be shot anymore. A squad leader can lead hundreds of people.

So, these are the things that Talulah has been busy with. In short, she'd rather fight sodium chloride than deal with these damn things.

If it weren't for her own tragic wish that she had to fulfill, the girl named Talulah might have just been a young lady who would never have touched a sword in her life, at most becoming a qualified wife who would manage her husband's incompetent servants.

But now she has taken up the sword and become a political leader.

Really good fortune.

Sodium chloride doesn't concern itself with these matters; she's only responsible for the actual implementation, since she probably can't handle this kind of paperwork anyway.

Who told her to be such a hardcore fighter?

"Then you should get some rest. That's all."

Talulah nodded and then turned off the communication.

Staring at the screen filled with static, sodium chloride felt no drowsiness whatsoever.

What did she mean?

What does it mean to "look at yourself"?

The Herrscher's body cannot be altered by the environment, and its appearance can be created at will if needed.

Idealism is greater than materialism.

If it weren't for maintaining her own consciousness and allowing her to retain her individuality, the Herrscher's form would likely be a complete energy entity rather than a human shape.