Chapter 80: We'll Not Meet Again
Emma looked at the chattering girls on the tarmac and felt a headache. Many of whom also cast hostile glances at her. All the members of the three squadrons of Arsenal, plus the logistics management class, almost all the young girls on the whole island were gathered here just to see Earl Peacecraft in the first place.
Originally, there were no men in Arsenal, and there were few girls with lesbian tendencies. Since Earl Peacecraft began to visit every month last year, many girls became ardent admirers of the Earl. Even without the adoration, just looking at his handsome face is also a rare celebration for these girls who lack entertainment.
"Salia, aren't you going?" Emma said to the girl beside her, "Even if it's not for the Earl, it's a chance to have a good time with everyone."
"No, Miss Emma," Salia shook her head, her twin ponytails swaying along with her movements, "I don't need to participate in such activities."
Although Salia had her own problems, her serious and modest personality was much better than the other troubled girls. Emma used her as a breakthrough and spent a year working on it, gradually getting along with other girls as well.
"So here's the problem!" Another small girl suddenly came between Emma and Salia, "Who is the only one who can't see the Earl in Arsenal~"
"Vivian." Emma greeted the girls, "I will find Ange. You don't have to worry."
Not long after, a dark red dragon-shaped craft appeared in view. Two claw-like things could even be seen in front of the craft, with a long tail trailing behind it. The moment the craft appeared, the girls near the tarmac screamed with excitement, "It's so handsome", "The aircraft is so cool too", and so on.
"It's definitely not an aircraft." Emma chanted silently in her heart, "This is definitely an MS, similar to Zeta Gundam that can transform."
The aircraft landed smoothly on the tarmac, the cockpit opened, and a beautiful man with long blonde hair stepped out. The screams of the girls around the area became louder, and there were many shouts of "I love you, Earl". The blond man nodded calmly to the fans, neither looking insensitive nor too close.
"Lady Emma, what an honor to let you greet me personally." Earl Peacecraft walked up to her and made an inviting gesture, "Let's go to the usual place to talk in detail."
Emma followed the Earl into a conference room with only the two of them in it amidst the envious and jealous eyes of the girls.
"Ms. Emma, I haven't seen you for a month, how are you recently?" Earl Peacecraft gestured for Emma to sit down first before he himself then followed, "Lord Embryo asked me to greet you for him."
"Say hello to Lord Embryo for me as well." Emma tried to be as respectful as possible, "Please tell him that I miss His Highness Embryo very much."
"Please forgive me, Lady Emma, Lord Embryo is really busy." The Earl patiently explained, "As the Federation Norma, I'm sure you can understand that recently TITANS has been making more and more frequent petty actions against Misurugi, and Lord Embryo has to be busy with international relations."
"Of course, I definitely don't mean to blame His Highness Embryo!" Emma showed a sincere and frightened look.
"An independent, strong, and beautiful woman like Lady Emma has always been the most valued by Lord Embryo, so please don't worry." The Earl looked like he remembered something and showed a nostalgic look, "I have always respected such women the most as well."
"Lord Earl, forgive me for taking the liberty." The woman's intuition told Emma that she should pursue the question here, "Was it your lover?"
"Was." A pained look flickered across Earl Peacecraft's face, "Please don't mind, it was a long, long, long time ago."
Emma keenly noticed the Earl's change of mood and silently did not continue to dwell on it.
"Let's discuss the issue of the attack on the first squadron." The Earl quickly recovered from his unusual emotions, "It was reported to be a white MS that hadn't been seen before?"
"Yes, or at least a model I haven't seen before." Emma replied honestly, "PMs were too weak to fight against it. We couldn't even judge the opponent's combat strength. Most importantly, one PM and a knight disappeared during the engagement in order to draw the enemy away. The PM was not prepared with water and food, so I don't know how long it would have lasted if the knight had survived."
"The PM is called Villkiss, is it?" The Earl fell into deep thought and whispered to himself, "Villkiss…Villkiss…"
Emma waited patiently for him to make a ruling. She and Ange did not have any deep feelings, and her care of this matter was only out of her own sense of justice and responsibility. If it was really rejected, then she had to give up, she had a more important mission.
"I understand, Ms. Emma," The Count said aloud, "I will convince Commander Gill that I will be responsible for protecting Arsenal until the missing knight is found, and in the meantime, the knights from the other squadrons will go out to search and rescue. If we encounter that white MS, I will immediately go to reinforce them."
Honestly speaking, this condition is really too generous, the Earl is one of the most important big shots of Misurugi, it's simply unimaginable to do this for a Norma. Emma can only think it in this way that it's because Ange is the former princess, "That's the best I can hope for, but can you really do that? Earl Lord, will you protect us personally?"
"No problem." The count's eyes were unusually firm, "I… I will explain it to Lord Embryo."
…
"Again?!" Ange pretended to cover her ears in pain, "You've heard it a million times in the past few days, right? Haven't you heard enough?"
"Shhh! Quiet, Friday!" Ade glared at the blonde girl, "I'll give you extra dinner tonight, so be quiet."
"Tsk, like I want it." Ange bristled and squinted at the sky with a look of displeasure.
Ade took a deep breath and pressed the play button of the phone for the unknown number of times, a young man's voice came out from it, his tone sounded heavy and sad at first, "When you hear this, it means I've … I've broken your encryption system, old pervert! Didn't expect it? Two three three three!" (PS: 2333 in Chinese is equals to "laughing out loud")
"This man is a psychopath, right?" Ange couldn't help but ask, "And what exactly does two three three three mean?"
Ade ignored her and continued to listen to the recording. She had asked this question dozens of times, "In fact, I just lied to you. I didn't completely crack it, I can't do anything to the last hardware encryption of the three-layer encryption. I can't find a way to bypass the external device authentication. You win. But even if you hear this, it means that you have been bored to the same extent as me, somehow I have won."
"You hear that, you're already as bored as he is! I'm poking my hand so much and it hurts! Do you know that!" Ange protested, "Why am I the one poking? Why don't you do it yourself?"
"Because it hurts my hand, why do you ask?" Ade pressed the pause button and rightfully replied, "Don't lose that ring of yours. With my years of experience in watching films, that's definitely the external device certification he was talking about."
"This is the only relic my mother left for me, I will cherish it without you saying so." Ange touched her finger ring with some sadness.
"You have a good pair of parents, I'm quite envious." Ade smiled self-deprecatingly and pressed play to continue listening as Ange looked at him with a look of wanting to say something.
"Anyway, I can't use this thing, but you won't be able to use it either. I'm not afraid to tell you, the other two layers of encryption were replaced by me and re-encrypted with that mysterious technology from the Black History. No matter how talented you are, it will take you a few hundred years to decipher it."
"Big talk, a few hundred years? Who does he think he is?" Ange disdained.
Ade understood that this "several hundred years" may not be exaggerated. The Black History should be Turn A. He continued to listen with full attention to see if he could find new clues, "Your DNA authentication was replaced by a DNA authentication, but I can tell you, you can never think of and can not get this person's DNA! You won't be able to drive that fucking plane in your life! Wah ha ha ha!"
"Our family's DNA?"Ange frowned in distress, "This psycho knows my father and mother?"
"And that voice certification of yours, you think you're playing The Super Dimension Fortress Macross? They are cute girls, and you are just a pervert! No one wants to hear your singing! I changed the voice certification, it may be singing or lines, take your time to guess! If you guessed it, I'll give you a prize, a grand prize! Give you a wife!"
The next sentence solved one of Ade's biggest questions, "And that paint job of yours, it's so disgusting, I changed it to a cool protagonist color! Old pervert, look and learn from my arts!"
The man's voice ended abruptly here, but the recording did not end. After a gap of about ten seconds or so, his voice rang out again, but this time, it was unmistakably low and seemed to be recorded separately from last time, "If you're not that old pervert, then I can't say anything, and you might know what I mean if you're smart enough. Anyway, cheer up, please try to become happy. We'll never meet again."
That's the end of the recording, nothing more after that. As always, Ade was deep in thought, countless possibilities intertwined in his mind as hundreds of thousands of words of fiction were brainstormed by him. He wanted to take into account all possible developments, but also did not want to be bound by preconceived notions. In the past few days, he had done countless deductions.
"You're not an old pervert, do you know what he means?" Ange looked to Ade, "Oh~ it seems you don't know either, so you're not smart enough, or are you the old pervert he said?"
"Has your IQ grown in the past two days?" Ade put down his phone, showing a surprised look, "I'm so relieved, you won't be bullied by your teammates even if you go back."
"I don't need you to worry about me!" Ange's cheeks puffed up, "Do you, do you also think I should go back …"
"Are you going to live here with me for the rest of your life if you don't go back?" Ade asked, "In a couple of months I will also leave, when I go home, do you want me to take you back? I have a family, how am I going to explain to my two wives?"
"I don't want to go to your home! And you don't need to emphasize the fact that you are scum over and over again!" Ange suddenly thought of something, "Do your two wives live in harmony?"
"… I don't know."
"Ah! I see!" Ange made a sudden realization, "They knew each other's existence and you couldn't hide it anymore! Then you came here to take refuge!"
Ade could not think of any refutation. She was right in a way.
"Scum!" Ange stared at him angrily, "Enemy of all women!"
"Yes, you're right, I know." He nodded sincerely. "That's why I'm now desperately trying to avoid all the possible bad ends every day."
Seeing him not retort at all, Ange felt very uninterested.
"By the way, you should get along with everyone when you get back." Ade had a tone of educating children, "To those who bullied you, you can just ignore them, but to those who show kindness to you, you can try to get along with them. They are your teammates, at least in the team, you should have to find a few good friends."
"I know how to do it! I don't need you to teach me!" Ange was excited for only a short while, "You're deliberately using this tone of coaxing children, aren't you? For that… avoiding bad ends?"
"The Astrologer declares that this week is the week of IQ, doubling the IQ of Friday?!"
"It's a hunch! It didn't double!" Ange sighed, "Still the familiar feeling. Maybe I misunderstood."
"Right, according to my experience of watching films for many years, that maid of yours is an important character, you have to treat her well." Ade continued to educate her, "Where can you find such a loyal and lovely maid in other places? You must cherish her. A maid! A genuine cute maid! Even the transmigrator hasn't enjoyed such a benefit!"
"Hey, you're showing your true nature again!" Ange showed an unhappy expression, "And Momoka, she lied to me for more than ten years, right? My father sent her over here. She must have known I was Norma long ago."
"She helped you hide this secret for more than ten years! Do you know how hard she had tried? She lied to you… it must be the emperor's orders. I just praised your intelligence and now you can't figure it out?" Ade can't help but speak in defense of the maid who he has never met, "The most suspicious people who relieved your true identity should be your brother and sister, right? I can guess the ending after watching the first episode of this kind of romantic cliche. If I guessed wrong, you can come back to me, I will help you strengthen your IQ."
"I won't come back to you! And I don't need to strengthen my IQ!" Ange was provoked, "I'll be right back, and you'll have no one else to bully!"
As if to confirm what she said, the next day, the search and rescue people had arrived at the neighborhood.
"Ade…" Ange looked at the gradually approaching aircraft and hesitated, "You're staying for two more months right? Don't worry, I'll help you keep it a secret."
"That's good, help me keep it a secret and that's enough to pay off the favor of saving you." Ade waved his hand at her, turned his head, and left without any hesitation, "Friday, we're done, we don't owe each other, and we'll never see each other again."
The phone suddenly rang with upbeat music.
"Hey, there's no need to be so hardhearted, right?" Ange looked at his back for a moment, then suddenly came back to her senses, "Right, I remembered! Ange! Not Friday!"
