e team?"

Nina nodded. "Ah, perhaps."

"But why so sudden...."

"It's not sudden. I've been thinking about it," she said, cleaning the brush in a bucket of clean water.

"It's a must to train the best from the very beginning. In the Military Arts course now, there aren't any who are good enough to join a platoon. We can get good results if we recruit some quality members and nurture them....so I've been looking around. That's also why you attracted my attention in the opening ceremony."

"Is that so?"

"But with you, you don't need anyone to pick you out," she laughed.

He shrugged. If he didn't get involved with the two Military Arts students who started the whole fiasco because of their home cities, Layfon wouldn't be the way he was now. At first, he was tired of being forced back to Military Arts, but now he didn't regret fighting.

"I've observed the first years for a while, but I still haven't found anyone better than that girl." The noise of the gears drowned out Nina's sigh.

People whose ability in Military Arts was discovered at a very young age were usually kept in their home cities. To any city, the number of excellent Military Artists it held denoted its fighting strength. For the crisis of filth monster assaults and war between cities....these people were irreplaceable. It was every city's dream to hold in hand exceptional Military Artists, so they wouldn't have let them go easily.

(Could it be....)

Could this be the reason that Nina ran away from home? She was recruited into a platoon when she first started school here. She should have been acknowledged at her home city. In that case, she should have no means of leaving the city. She also said her family was rich. Perhaps it was a family of great Military Artists.

The ability of Kei was what made one a Military Artist - the internal type Kei that strengthened one's flesh, and the external type burst Kei that could directly damage and destroy anything outside one's body. The source of Kei was a special type of organ that these people had, the Kei vein.

There were two types of people with Kei veins - the type that was born in a normal family, and the type that was born in between Military Artist parents to increase the rate of a baby born with the Kei vein. In order to increase the rate of babies born with the Kei vein, every city had prize money given out to families who managed to produce those special kids. And if a person with the Kei vein had his ability proven....For example, one could be given a status equal to a Heaven's Blade successor in Grendan.

(Am I thinking too much?)

The possibilities he thought of might not be zero. This was the world of Regios that he knew. And he had managed to earn large sums of money because of using, no, abusing this relationship the cities had with the world.

"What is it?"

"Ah, nothing...."

He had stopped cleaning, diving too deeply into his thoughts. He started cleaning again.

"No matter what, I'm going to invite her in. I'm counting on you when the time comes," Nina concluded and went back to work.

(I guess it'll be quite hard.) Layfon thought.

(Oh no, I asked something unnecessary again.)

Having picked up Layfon's letter and read it, although she pretended not to have done so, Nina felt tired about it. She still wasn't sure what she was feeling now. Irritation and a bit of disappointment. She was angry with him but at the same time, she couldn't really get angry. She wanted to bellow, but somehow just couldn't.

For reasons unknown, she wanted to understand Leerin....the sender of the letter.

(Even if I ask, I wouldn't have known anything. Let's just leave it.)

It was time to finish up. Layfon and Nina packed up their cleaning tools.

"Speaking of which, Zuellni is behaving well recently," Nina said as she opened the door for the cleaning equipment. She didn't mean the city itself, but the city's consciousness - the Electronic Fairy.

"Yes."

The Electronic Fairy who used to escape from the center of the Mechanical Department once a week and play hide and seek with the workers had not appeared this week.

Sure, the Mechanical students had no plans of playing hide and seek.

Nina was concerned about Zuellni. The Electronic Fairy always escaped when it was Nina's turn to clean at the Mechanical Department, and it always ended up being Nina who shouldered the responsibility of finding Zuellni. Layfon helped out with Nina, so he also had had a few encounters with the Electronic Fairy. The Zuellni flying freely around with light emitting coolly from her body always gave off a mysterious feeling.

"It can't be any filth monsters coming near again...." Nina said after confirming there was no one else around.

The Mechanical students were thankful enough if Zuellni could stay where she was and behave, but it might feel strange for her not to act the way she used to. Perhaps the city had sensed a distant crisis instinctively. If the Mechanical students knew of this, who knew what expression they would wear?

"Just what is happening?"

"Even if you ask, I can't give you an answer. I've never come across a situation of the city's consciousness separating from its physical form in Grendan."

"Yeah? Well, it's not like this kind of thing will just happen."

"Yeah."

Unlike Grendan, Zuellni hadn't encountered any filth monsters for a long time. That was before Layfon arrived at the city.

"I suppose."

"Yeah."

The two of them said as if confirming with each other.

"Oi, over there!"

It was the head of the Mechanical Department, calling them with a tired face.

"What is it?"

"There's a phone call for you, from the Student Council."

"The Student Council?"

"Yeah."

He handed the phone to Nina, mumbled "finally got rid of it" and left.

Layfon and Nina exchanged a glance.

"It seems something's happened."

"Seems so."