Volume 4, Chapter 14 – Dumping the Whole Blame on Her

Although the ledge below was larger, staying with a corpse all the time was just too bleak.

Anran still flew back to the place where she had been hiding.

She endured it there until midnight, but the commotion below only grew louder and louder.

She had already lost the radio, so Anran had no way of knowing what was happening outside, but she knew she could not stay here any longer.

The original operational plan had been simple: if infiltration into the stronghold was possible, then infiltrate; if not, retreat immediately and let the Security Department carry out long-range strikes.

Once the location of the stronghold had been confirmed, the Security Department would be able to play a much bigger role.

If she stayed here any longer, she might get sent flying into the sky by a missile.

Since that was the case, she might as well fly up first herself.

Standing on the ledge, Anran looked around, then lightly jumped down.

Whoosh, whoosh—

Two streams of white exhaust immediately burst from the jetpack’s tail nozzles.

…

“Let’s go.”

Heloise spoke to the driver.

“Yes, Branch Chief.” The driver started the vehicle at once.

At last, they could get out of here. If they stayed any longer, he might lose his life here.

All he could do was apologize in his heart to the brothers staying behind to cover the retreat.

There was no helping it. Nine Songs had been harassing them from outside the whole time. Without someone acting as bait, there was no way they could leave smoothly.

The result of this assault on the stronghold had been disastrous.

Almost all of the branch’s upper ranks had been wiped out. It was only after the branch chief returned that the intruders inside the stronghold were eliminated with thunderous force.

In the end, only two people from the enemy side escaped, and both were heavily wounded.

Heloise stood with her arms folded, her expression grave.

They had suffered repeated setbacks lately, but fortunately, Morningstar had still made very good progress in the broader sense.

As long as they captured the hydroelectric station, a huge stretch of territory in the eastern part of Canyon Continent would be thrown into paralysis.

“Hoo…”

She drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out.

Unbidden, Anran’s figure flashed through her mind.

A little blurry.

Because up close, she had only ever seen Anran’s profile.

Starting from those several operations in Twinmoon City.

First it had been Wilson, captain of the guard, then Sandi, the deputy captain sent down from above, and now this time.

Roentgen had died too.

She had already placed herself on the opposite side of the Resistance.

Even if she was looking forward to the continuation of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the next time they met, she would have to go all out and kill her directly!

Heloise stretched lazily, and the alluring curve outlined by her towering chest made the driver steal a glance at her despite himself.

But Heloise’s gaze remained fixed on the night sky above the wilderness.

The vast river of stars.

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It was also a world she could not see clearly.

The Resistance’s operation would definitely succeed, Heloise thought to herself. According to confirmation from those people, the Empire no longer had the spare energy to pay attention to a remote frontier planet like this.

The entire Empire stood on the eve of a storm.

Even a world-shaking flood would never reach a borderland like this.

If they just pushed a little harder, then…

Hm?

Heloise suddenly blinked.

Two streaks of white exhaust shot across the night sky.

Their path crossed the direction of her vehicle in a shape like the number seven.

Heloise recognized those exhaust trails.

And she recognized the person in front of those trails even more.

A surge of anger shot straight up into her chest. Her first impulse was to order the driver to turn the vehicle around.

But when her hand touched the pistol at her side, Heloise gave up helplessly. There was no way she could hit her from here.

Fine.

Heloise clenched her fist.

Then next time, she would just wait and kill her with everything she had.

But before that, she hoped Anran could survive the assassination attempts coming from every direction.

A bounty from Morningstar.

Anran of Nine Songs!

Basic information as follows:

A girl named Anran, petite in build, approximately 160 cm tall, with light flaxen hair and blue eyes.

Her skill in both close combat and firearms is worthy of praise.

Suspected speed-type esper. Equipped with fist blades and a jetpack capable of flight.

Bounty amount: 500,000 Bilu!

That kind of bounty notice quickly appeared on the dark web of No. 1886.

After seeing the news, quite a few people began itching to make a move.

In troubled times like these, 500,000 Bilu was no small sum.

Second-generation Anran had no idea that she finally had a bounty on her head again.

For the moment, all she knew was that after this period of mutual beatdowns, her favorability with Morningstar had dropped from -100 to -960.

One had to know that at the peak of first-generation Anran’s notoriety, anyone who managed to kill her would instantly become the owner of a massive mine.

That was a super mine worth tens of billions of Imperial Maka.

And if you were not satisfied with a life of wealth, then highly prestigious merit-based official posts in the Empire would also be waiting for you.

A warrior capable of killing Anran would be, at the very least, a master-level powerhouse of around level 150, and possibly even a grandmaster-level powerhouse. There was no way the Empire would fail to reward such a person generously.

…

“What’s that…”

Anran lifted her head. In the night sky, several bright yellow lights with long tails streaked past overhead.

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She turned around and waited a few seconds. Then those lights slammed into the ground.

Immediately afterward, deafening explosions filled the entire wilderness.

Smoke billowed. Flames shot into the sky.

Morningstar’s stronghold here was finished.

If she had been the one to press the missile launch button and wipe out hundreds or thousands of people in one shot, would the game count all those people as her kills?

That somehow sounded pretty damn awesome.

Anran continued across the wilderness. The jetpack still had some energy left, but she had no intention of using it any further.

Even on foot, it did not take her much time.

When she had swept across the sky earlier, Anran had already found the direction she had come from.

Good thing she had looked down from the air. Otherwise, she might have gotten lost.

Knock knock.

She rapped on the door of the roadside inn.

Only then did Anran realize the door was not locked.

She walked straight in.

The lights were still on inside, and everyone gathered around the tables immediately turned to look at her.

More than half the people were gone.

There were several familiar faces among those remaining.

“Anran!” A look of delight instantly appeared on Feilian’s face.

He tried to stand up, but Anna immediately pushed him back down from beside him.

“You’re injured, so stop trying to act tough!” Anna scolded softly.

“Uh…”

Feilian looked helpless, but obediently stayed put.

Chu Yuan, who had the gentlest temperament, stepped forward instead. “It’s great that you’re okay, Anran. We couldn’t reach you over the radio, and then we saw Morningstar people chasing you everywhere. The captain was getting frantic!”

“My life’s tough enough to last,” Anran said as she picked a seat and sat down.

Her appearance right now really was rather inelegant, especially under the gaze of so many people.

Anna noticed that at once. Her gaze swept over Anran’s lower abdomen. Who would have thought that although Anran had an airfield up front, the rest of her figure was still quite well-equipped?

She took off her own coat.

“If you don’t mind, wear my clothes for now.”

“Thanks!” Anran draped Anna’s coat over herself.

The two large cases were set down by her feet.

Anran glanced around the hall. Quite a few people were whispering while looking at her.

But she quickly picked out the two people presiding over the meeting.

“What were you doing earlier? How did you end up getting chased all over the place?” Anna asked curiously.

For someone to force Anran into such a state, just how strong was that woman on the motorcycle?

Anran did not answer Anna directly.

She took out the laptop she had seized from Morningstar’s stronghold, then slowly walked over to the Nine Songs representative and the Security Department representative.

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In a calm tone, she dropped words that blew through the room like a bomb.

“This is a computer I got from Morningstar’s stronghold. It contains information about Morningstar’s Canyon Continent base.”

What?

The Nine Songs representative froze on the spot as soon as he heard Anran’s words.

“Canyon Continent?”

“What? You mean Morningstar’s Canyon Continent base?” The Security Department representative was stunned for a moment, then nearly jumped up.

And all the others who had just been quietly discussing things suddenly fell silent as well.

Information taken from Morningstar’s stronghold?

The pot had exploded, and the porridge had spilled everywhere.

“You’ve got to be kidding!”

“Huh? What did she just say?”

“You’ve got to be messing with us!”

In any case, Anran remained completely calm.

“The computer is encrypted. You should get specialists to look at it as soon as possible.”

Whether one of her missions was completed depended on this computer. Since it was useless in her hands, Anran simply handed it over to Nine Songs.

The Nine Songs representative took a deep breath.

As a mid-to-high-ranking member of Nine Songs’ Twinmoon City branch, he already knew that Anran from Feilian’s team was formidable, but he had never imagined she could be this formidable.

“Wait here a moment!” The Nine Songs representative hurried off to report it.

That left the Security Department representative standing there, utterly dumbstruck.

For fuck’s sake.

“Berg and the others also entered Morningstar’s stronghold…”

Before the Security Department representative could even finish speaking, Anran cut in at once.

“Oh, I saw them. When I left, they were being beaten up by a woman named Heloise.”

She skillfully dumped the entire blame onto Heloise’s head.

“The woman who was chasing me the whole time.”

Anran added that last sentence for emphasis.

The Security Department representative fell into thought.

“So Berg is dead?” someone asked in surprise.

“He’s really dead?”

Then all of a sudden, the room broke into loud laughter.

Anran secretly shook her head. He really had been thoroughly unpopular. Never mind the Security Department personnel who had grudges against Berg; even the Nine Songs side reacted with total indifference.

Nothing to be done. The man had been stupid.

Good thing she had helped him find release. Otherwise, who knew how many more people he would have offended.

If Berg had any awareness in the underworld, he ought to thank her for giving him the chance to repent.

“What happened to you?” Back at her seat, Anran looked at Feilian, whose brows were tightly furrowed and whose body twitched from time to time.

“The captain, he…”

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Chu Yuan’s face darkened.

Daogu drained a cup of water and declared, “I’m afraid he won’t be able to function as a man for a while!”

Huh?

Anran’s expression turned strange.

No, unable to function as a man? Did that mean…

How could that be? If his little brother had been injured, there was no way he could still be sitting here. He would have died on the spot from the pain.

“Stop talking nonsense. He was clearly only wounded in the thigh.” Anna shot Daogu and Chu Yuan a glare.

There was even a bit of menace in it.

Chu Yuan shivered.

Daogu, shameless as ever, teased, “I’m not wrong. His thigh was injured that badly, so for the time being he definitely won’t be getting any action. Sigh, poor Feilian. He’ll have to live a lonely life for a while again.”

“You think he’d dare go out and sleep around normally?” Anna snapped in fury.

“No, no, of course not…” Feilian cried out in protest at once.

What was going on here?

Anran looked completely baffled.

Why had dog food suddenly started raining all around Feilian and Anna?

That sort of dog food with a flavor so overpowering that any single dog would retreat on sight!

What on earth had happened while she was gone?

The quick-witted Chu Yuan saw through Anran’s confusion immediately and whispered, “Actually, the captain blocked a bullet for Anna and almost lost his ability to function as a man, and that’s how things turned into this.”

“…”

It had almost turned into one of those stories where you could not get the girl without risking your little brother.

Anran was just about to shiver.

Then she froze.

And slowly lowered her head to look at herself.

This story…

For a moment, the room went quiet.

It stayed that way until the Nine Songs representative came back with the news and ran over to Anran, chattering at her excitedly.

He kept chattering for quite a while. More people gradually came in from outside, including the badly injured Yueya.

Once it looked like nearly everyone was back, they got into the vehicles and returned to Twinmoon City.

But this stop was only a short rest. After resupplying, most of them would head for Wutong City instead.

Of course, the wounded would not need to go.

Anran was one of the wounded.

If Aila had not still been waiting for her at home, she would have slipped away on her own long ago.

Click, click.

Creak.

After turning the key twice in the lock, Anran pushed open the door and walked in softly.