After giving instructions to several of his subordinates, Veyra headed back to the office where she worked. Ouditors itself had ten people who held the same rank as Commander Veyra. Each of them was a representative of one of the ten planets that had joined the racial alliance. Those representatives had been appointed directly by the heroes thousands of years ago, when the racial alliance was formed. According to the historical records known to the public, before the alliance was formed, all the races had been at war with one another, causing immense losses for every living creature. Much of history had been forgotten, and much of it had been hidden by the rulers of the races, but to ordinary people, it was all merely a dark tale from the past.
"Welcome back, Commander... Thank you for your hard work," greeted a dark-blue-haired man when he saw Commander Veyra enter her office building in Ozgur.
Veyra dropped into her chair and held her head. "Ugh, what do those elders want? They told me to look for something, but they didn't even tell me what that 'something' is." She raised an arm to cover her eyes as she reclined in her chair. A soldier entered the room. "Commander, how's the report coming along?"
"Handle it yourself, James. I'm tired of dealing with this terrorist business..." Veyra said, sounding exhausted. "Huh, this is already their tenth attack on every branch of the race oversight office... Looks like they're searching for the 'something' those damn elders mentioned...!"
"Do you have any idea what that 'something' is, Commander?" James asked, moving the two fingers of each hand up and down as he sat in front of Commander Veyra. "It must be something huge if it's enough to make the elders take action."
"I don't even know what it is... Maybe the terrorists already took it, or maybe it's still buried in the rubble of that office!" Veyra slowly began to sit upright.
A brown-haired woman entered, pushing a trolley loaded with drinks and light snacks. "Commander, here's your coffee with milk and some snacks. Please enjoy."
"Ah, Mary. Thanks. You're a lifesaver." Veyra sat up properly, enjoyed the coffee Mary had made, and continued their conversation.
"Oh, by the way, I heard you met my father... Hehe, how is he?" Mary asked enthusiastically, since she hadn't heard from her father in a long time.
"As annoying as ever..." Veyra said, looking at Mary. "I can't believe such a cute girl came from that delinquent."
Hearing that, Mary merely laughed because she knew the commander hadn't meant anything bad by it. James could only shake his head at his commander's behavior. Veyra sipped her coffee and picked up a few snacks. "Mary, let's meet with Ed later. There's something I want to discuss with him."
Mary nodded casually. "Sure. I haven't seen Zen and the others in a long time either, hehe."
"Ah, so you've already met your father's merchant group, right? What did you think of them?"
"Hmm, they seem useful... Though one of them was a little strange, just like Ed's habit of picking things up off the street." Veyra recalled her encounter with Kaynan's subordinates. "Still, they're decent," Veyra continued.
"Yaaawn... Zen, I'm heading in first. My eyes are already running on two watts," Erhan said as he started walking into their spaceship.
"Kids need to go to bed early if they want to grow taller," Zen teased as he dropped a few marshmallows into his hot chocolate.
"Hey, don't call me a kid! I'm not sleepy yet," Erhan shot back, sitting down again on the edge of the station near where their spaceship was parked. He gazed out at the city of Ozgur. The station for spaceships had deliberately been built higher up and on the outskirts of the city to make takeoffs easier and prevent noise from disturbing the residents.
Despite his heavy sleepiness, Erhan kept Zen company while he hung out, though it wasn't particularly meaningful to him. "Yaaawn. What are you even watching, anyway? Why do you love staring at cities every time we stop somewhere?"
"Every planet and city has something interesting to look at, doesn't it? Besides, if you're sleepy, go to bed." I told Erhan to get some rest because we would be leaving tomorrow.
"Yeah, yeah, but don't stay out here too long, or you'll catch a chill..." Erhan yawned but didn't get up from where he was sitting. He merely watched Zen roast corn with a magical device. No matter how sleepy he was, Erhan refused to miss out when food was involved.
"This one's mine. Don't expect me to share it with you," I said with a teasing smile at Erhan. As I continued roasting the corn, I felt the air growing colder, even though the weather was clear and it was only eight at night.
"Brrr, why did it suddenly get so cold?" Erhan said, hugging himself. Something was strange. Why was it getting cold? I had a bad feeling about this. And sure enough, I sensed a powerful killing intent coming from every direction.
"Damn it... Erhan, stay calm and listen. It looks like we've been surrounded. Get into the ship and activate the full protective shield, then contact the captain," I whispered to Erhan. He looked at me in confusion and concern, so I nodded at him to show that he didn't need to worry about me. Erhan began walking toward the ship. "Yaaawn. I'm going to bed, Zen. I'm sleepy."
"I told you that already, didn't I?" I said while drinking my hot chocolate and continuing to roast the corn so the enemy wouldn't notice anything unusual about us. A few moments after Erhan entered the ship, I received a message from him saying that the ship was in defense mode.
A man walked toward me. He wore a dark cloak that seemed to blend into the night. "Hmm. Good idea, sending that kid away."
"Looks like you knew we were here," he continued, as several people began revealing themselves. Some of them started approaching the ship, but the shield Erhan had activated blocked them.
"Defense mode, huh?"
"But you're the one left outside? What a touching sacrifice!" the man said as he prepared a magical attack.