The sharp-eyed orange tabby caught a hint of something else in Pardofelis's words. Still, since she'd called it "Mama Cat," it gave a grudging "Meow" and agreed to get along with Eden.
It also thought her last remark had been quite needless. After all, it'd gotten along just fine with everyone else before she'd brought Eden over.
"Great!" Pardofelis's face lit up, her eyes creasing with joy. "Hmm... Mama Cat, let's go listen to Dudu tell stories! Her Journey to the West is so much fun. I'm sure you'll love it too!"
With that, she cradled the tabby in her arms and headed toward Durandal, taking care not to bump it against anything.
Durandal had picked up where she'd left off, but partway through, Genius's voice rang out.
[Bzz... Bzz...]
[The Savior has brought together one hundred people to fight the Honkai, taking another step toward the final goal. Reward: the First Divine Key, Void Archives, with its backdoor access included. Please choose a delivery location, Savior.]
Durandal paused in the middle of her story. Pardofelis's choice to join Schicksal had triggered the alert.
"Void Archives, huh?"
Murmuring to herself, Durandal took out her phone and typed a message to Vill-V, who was far away in Nagazora City. [I'm sending you something to study. Here's how to access the backdoor...]
She then had Void Archives delivered to Helixcraft. With the reward in the right hands, she picked up the story of Journey to the West where she'd paused.
Vill-V had already gone back to the villa to rest, since night had fallen.
But as soon as Durandal's message came through, she grabbed her car keys, rushed next door to fetch Fuxi and Nuwa, and set off for Helixcraft.
Durandal kept going until the third disciple, Sha Wujing, once the Curtain-Lifting General, joined the band of pilgrims. Only then did she stop.
It was getting late, and the children at the sanatorium needed to go to bed. Aponia also cleaned out an empty dorm room so the orange tabby and the other ten cats could spend the night there.
After leaving the sanatorium, Eden and Pardofelis followed Durandal and Elysia back to the inn to pick up Eden's luggage. Once she'd collected her things and checked out, Eden left with Pardofelis.
They didn't ask Durandal and Elysia to walk them back. The four of them had walked together in plain sight for quite a stretch, so the local gangs would've seen them. No one would be foolish enough to give them trouble now.
Those gangs could only pose a threat to Eden by swarming her with numbers.
With them out of the picture, the lone thugs in the slums didn't stand a chance against her gun and skill in hand-to-hand combat.
--+--
The next day, the flying battleship that'd brought Durandal and the others to Sundown Alley made a round trip to Nagazora City on autopilot. It returned with a large load of cat supplies, along with the cat carers Connie had recruited overnight.
Durandal could've had the ship take the tabby and the other cats back to Nagazora City first so Mobius could operate on them. But Pardofelis had only just found her family again. Sending them away at once would've been rather heartless.
Besides, though Mobius's stigma implant trials had worked, there was still a risk of failure. It was best to wait until Durandal could be there for the surgery.
That way, if anything went wrong, she could use Abyss Flower to save the cats in time.
The same went for people, of course. While Durandal was away, Mobius's lab put all procedures to enhance Schicksal's members on hold. The staff enjoyed a rare break, doing only a few simple tests each day. Everyone had more time to spend on their own affairs—like growing closer to one another.
According to the lab staff, Mobius and Klein, once the first to sign up for overtime, had changed their ways.
These days, neither showed her face before work began, and both vanished the moment their shifts ended.
Blanca, who'd spent years as Mobius's assistant, was glad to see it. With things like this, work didn't get in the way of caring for little Griseo nearly as much.
Helixcraft, on the other hand, had lost its once relaxed work culture. Overtime grew more and more common, and Fuxi and Nuwa came back to the villa drained each night.
If their thirst for knowledge hadn't kept them going, the sisters might've quit long ago.
Void Archives held all the fruits of this era's knowledge, even science and tech from ten years in the future. It was a treasure trove. Though Schicksal had chosen a slightly different path by now, its worth was still immense. No one could slack off with all that waiting to be explored.
Of course, as they dug deeper into its files, names such as Mobius and Mei came up more and more often.
The rush of work soon spread from Helixcraft to Mobius's lab. The quiet life Blanca had been so glad to have came to an abrupt end.
Mei and Su, who'd finished their college entrance exams, now led much the same lives as the other members of Schicksal. They clocked in each day and helped with whatever tasks they could handle.
Vill-V soon roped Mei into the work as well. Together, they studied the knowledge gleaned from Void Archives, trying to grasp it and make it their own in as little time as possible.
--+--
While Durandal's latest reward kept some of the staff at Schicksal's headquarters rushed off their feet, her days in Sundown Alley were much calmer.
Over the next ten-odd days, she finished telling the children at the sanatorium the whole of Journey to the West. She also treated a few whose health had taken a turn for the worse despite the anti-Honkai drugs, since the Honkai had already done too much harm to their bodies.
With Abyss Flower, she could remove the root cause of their illness. But she couldn't restore all the strength they'd lost overnight.
They'd need a long period of rest and rehab, and Aponia had far more experience with that than Durandal.
She also spent some time exploring Sundown Alley and learning how its people lived. All in all, it was a fairly easy stay.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL