"Commander. If we go in, there’s no turning back. Are you really... going?"
Rapi looked at the entrance of the massive power plant spread out before them, then asked Bill again after he had already given the order.
There was still hesitation in her voice.
When Bill had asked for her opinion on the mission earlier, the option Rapi had chosen was retreat.
Even now, her mind hadn’t changed.
"Hmm..."
Bill fell silent for a while after hearing the question.
Even from a distance, the power plant had looked unusual. Up close, it was even more overwhelming.
But the reason he stayed quiet wasn’t just the oppressive feeling radiating from the place in front of him.
His fingertips tingled, and his legs felt as heavy as sandbags.
The sunlight was warm, but the air against his skin was strangely cold.
It felt as if this place had different gravity, a pressure weighing down on his whole body.
And yet.
"Rapi."
"Yes, Commander."
At Bill’s call, Rapi turned toward him with hope in her eyes.
She thought he had made a decision, and that was true.
His clear eyes seemed to say as much.
If an order came from his mouth now, then that would be his will.
"Commander?"
A short silence passed, and no further conversation followed.
Bill’s mouth remained firmly shut, and only his eyes looked back at her.
Rapi received no answer, but it felt as though his heart were speaking right into her ear.
"So the mission continues as planned..."
Her earnestness was not an emotion he couldn’t understand.
The ominous feeling hanging in the air had reached everyone’s skin.
It was something everyone here had sensed, and it made sense why Rapi was trying to persuade him.
But Rapi and the other Nikke knew it too.
Bill had already made up his mind, and that his thoughts would not change.
"Don’t be too disappointed. I’ve thought this through hundreds of times before coming to this conclusion."
"Yes. Then I’ll follow your lead."
With that, Rapi stopped protesting.
Bill closed his eyes for a moment in appreciation of her input, then soon called out to the operator who seemed to be working behind the screen.
"Shifty... you’re not asleep, are you?"
As if she had been waiting right behind a wall, Shifty jumped and stuck her face into view.
"Yes, Commander. What is it?"
"Sorry to keep asking, but there still aren’t any Rapture signals, right?"
"Yes, it’s still zero. Of course, there’s a good chance it’s just that no signal is being detected."
"Well, that... our elite friends can handle it."
Bill nodded toward Rapi and Eunhwa standing behind him.
To him, the two of them weren’t just squad leaders, but Nikke who could make faster and more accurate judgments than anyone else.
The experience they had built through countless real battles had made them both warriors and strategists, and Bill preferred to ask for their opinions and coordinate with them before giving orders.
In practice, that usually produced the right result.
But this mission wasn’t just the three of them.
Anis, Neon, Emma, and Vesti.
The four who were carrying out the operation with them were also reliable comrades, and he respected them.
So he didn’t forget to give them a thumbs-up right away.
Fortunately, maybe they understood what he meant.
Neon smiled and raised her own thumb in return.
—What a good kid...
Bill gave a small laugh and turned around.
Then he announced the start of the mission.
"Then... let’s go in."
----------
"Commander. There’s nothing here either."
"Commander, nothing over here either."
As Anis approached, waving a sheet of paper, Bill slammed shut the drawer he had been searching and shouted, "Another bust? Ha..."
The yawn he let out after boldly charging into the building had already passed thirty by now.
Five hours had already gone by.
It was the time of day when the sun had climbed to its highest point and begun to fall.
"Three hours until sunset... maybe?"
"Yes. Today’s sunset is at 6:48 p.m."
"And yet... we haven’t found a single thing... unbelievable."
Before arriving here, Bill had been burning with a sense of duty.
He had felt the weight of this mission so strongly that he had asked himself the same question hundreds of times, and he had been more serious than ever before.
It felt like nothing could stop him.
"I’m losing motivation..."
But after checking the seventh room, he had slumped into a chair without caring that dust was getting on his clothes.
His legs, which had seemed ready to run all night just moments ago, had gone limp, and his once-clear eyes were staring blankly into space.
No wonder Anis was looking at him with genuine concern, asking, "Commander, are you okay?"
"Tch... yeah? I mean... I don’t know why, but..."
Bill answered that he was fine.
His hands dangled in the air like a pendulum, and his legs hung loose like a blanket left out to dry.
But unlike his body, his voice still had plenty of energy.
As if he were saying that the way he was acting now was all an act.
Anis noticed the difference and tilted her head.
"Move over for a second."
Eunhwa sat down beside Anis and slowly took off her gloves.
Then, after a brief hesitation, she pressed lightly on the back of his hand and his palm with her fingers.
She pressed here and there as if checking his reaction, and sometimes applied a little more force.
After repeating the motion a few times, she withdrew her hand and looked at his slumped form with disdain.
"You’d be tired by now. Honestly, it’s impressive you’ve held out this long."
"Then the Commander’s okay?"
"It’s simple. This guy hasn’t slept a wink since yesterday. I don’t know what he’s been thinking about all this time, but... no, could it be..."
"Could it be what? What is it?"
Neon asked in confusion, but Eunhwa trailed off.
She knew why Bill had been lost in thought while giving up sleep.
He hadn’t said a single word about it since then, but if there was something he had been obsessively thinking over, it had to be that mountain of corpses.
But the problem was the two who still hadn’t seen that scene.
He had already spoken cautiously with Emma, but he still hadn’t said anything to Vesti, who was too gentle-hearted.
And judging by Neon’s reaction to her question just now, it seemed the story hadn’t reached her either.
The reason he hadn’t told them was the same.
Someday they would learn the truth too, but not yet.
If he brought it up clumsily, who knew where their personalities might take it.
Eunhwa lowered her gaze for a moment, then returned to the original topic.
"Anyway, the conclusion is simple. You’ve been overusing your brain."
"Ha... I thought I’d be fine..."
Why hadn’t he realized this?
He let out a dry laugh without meaning to.
A person is made of two elements.
One is the body, the shell on the outside, and the other is the mind that forms the self.
Nikke don’t tire easily thanks to their strong bodies.
Bill wasn’t an ordinary human either, so he could keep up with them without falling behind.
In fact, the day before, he had traveled for about ten hours, and at night he had stood watch separately from them.
Even during the time when he should have been asleep, he had been thinking about the future he needed to move toward.
Through all of that, he hadn’t felt any fatigue at all, and he had assumed he wouldn’t need much rest during this mission.
But the part that had been fine was only his physical condition.
NIMPH included a function that eased their mental fatigue, but Bill, being a pure human, didn’t have such a system like a Nikke did.
Without noticing it himself, his concentration had gradually blurred, and his movements had slowed.
Maybe while he was pushing his body too hard, he had been ignoring the warning signals his brain was sending.
In the end, his current state was the result of brushing off those small signs as nothing important.
"Commander. Excuse me for a moment."
Seeing that Bill had closed his eyes, Rapi took off her gloves and placed a hand on his forehead.
His temperature seemed a little higher than usual, but it was still within the normal range.
Rapi looked at his calm face, then slowly began to knead his hand lightly.
Sure enough, as Eunhwa had said, it wasn’t that he had lost strength, but that he wasn’t exerting any himself.
At that moment, Eunhwa’s irritated voice came from the side.
"I said his body was fine. Were you not listening?"
Of course, Rapi had heard Eunhwa all the way through.
She had been relieved that his condition was normal, but her eyes were fixed not on the examination result, but on the hand Eunhwa had been massaging.
For some reason, it bothered her that the last person to touch his hand wasn’t her, and before she knew it, she had moved on her own.
So she couldn’t answer Eunhwa immediately.
But Rapi quickly put her thoughts together and came up with an excuse Eunhwa would accept.
She hadn’t built up her judgment for moments like this, but it was certainly useful.
"It’s more accurate to check it directly."
"Tch."
Eunhwa turned her head away, clearly dissatisfied.
She didn’t press the issue any further.
"Ten minutes... no, twenty. I’ll just stay like this for a bit."
Perhaps because his eyes had been closed, his voice sounded weak.
Just before he drifted off, Rapi whispered softly into his ear.
"Understood. However... since we’ve already finished checking this area, wouldn’t it be better to rest after moving to the next location?"
Rapi carefully pointed out that it was time to move on to the next place.
For them, a short rest wouldn’t be a big problem.
They could wait until he got up and then resume the mission without any issue.
But there wasn’t much time left before nightfall.
Once the sun slipped behind the mountains, the surroundings would turn dark in an instant.
Those who still hadn’t found a place to stay wouldn’t even be able to turn on lights for fear of being seen by Raptures, and moving inside buildings would become difficult.
So they needed to end the mission early, and continuing on was more efficient than staying here.
"Hmm... then everyone except Rapi go on ahead. My legs just won’t move..."
Reading Rapi’s concern, Bill waved a hand and gave the order.
At that point, it was the best choice, one that wouldn’t delay the mission too much.
But to those who were leaving, it seemed to mean something else entirely.
"Got it. Come on, the Commander wants a date with Rapi, so let’s all head up~"
"Ah, Anis, don’t pull me."
Anis was the first to speak. She grinned at Rapi with a teasing smile, then grabbed Neon’s arm and dragged her along.
Eunhwa left with nothing more than a "Get some rest," and Emma followed with a gentle smile different from Anis’s as she said, "Rapi, you seem kind of happy for some reason."
It was a rather meaningful remark, as if she knew exactly what Rapi was feeling.
"Commander. I-I’ll see you later."
Vesti’s encouragement came last, and once the door closed, the room fell silent.
There was no conversation between the two left behind.
Instead, only the sound of Bill and Rapi’s breathing softly filled the room.
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