Free Web Novel"That clerk."
Eleanor asked, "Has he been contained?"
"He has been secretly moved to a safe house. The cover story is that he took leave for 'urgent family matters.' He is currently undergoing deep interrogation, but preliminary judgment suggests he was indeed unaware—the credentials were likely copied without his knowledge."
"Check all his contact records for the past three months. Every person he spoke to, every person he exchanged documents with, and every person who passed him in the hallway more than three times."
"Yes."
Eleanor continued walking.
Her gaze fell upon the central platform again, lingering a little longer this time.
Then she looked away and turned to Paul.
"Shorten the rotation cycle from twelve hours to eight. Add one more set of perimeter sentries, focusing on the eastern drainage pipes and the western wall. Upgrade the first gate's verification protocol again to include biometric checks—palm prints and pulse frequency; only a double match will allow passage."
"Understood."
"Also—"
Eleanor paused for a moment.
"Seal off the drainage pipes."
"...All of them?"
"All pipes connected to the Academy's underground area. Pour concrete and weld the entrances shut. If anyone asks, say it's a safety reinforcement project following the explosion."
"Our dear Colonel Bergman will cooperate."
"Yes."
Eleanor stopped speaking.
She stood at the edge of the rotunda, her back to the central platform, facing the heavy cast-iron gate.
The guards behind her waited quietly.
The soldiers at the sentry posts looked straight ahead.
In the entire containment zone, only the pulsating glow of the copper patterns flowed slowly, like some kind of slumbering heartbeat.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
Eleanor suddenly found this silence a bit ironic.
She was guarding a secret that no one could know in this sealed, isolated underground space, while on the surface—
Pavela was in Dr. Lovelace's laboratory.
It had been several days.
Margaret said Dr. Lovelace was "extremely interested" in Pavela, that the treatment and testing would take time, and that Pavela was safe there.
Eleanor believed those words.
At least, she believed most of them.
The Royal Research Institute Seventh Division was indeed one of the highest-security facilities in the entire Empire, and Pavela was certainly much safer there than on the Academy's surface.
While Dr. Lovelace was... eccentric, her obsession with technology was real, as was her interest in Pavela.
But Eleanor was uncertain about something else.
She wasn't sure if letting Pavela go to see Dr. Lovelace was a rational decision, or if it was driven by—
Some reason she was reluctant to think about too deeply.
On the surface, Pavela's meeting with Dr. Lovelace was a genius scientist finding a suitable Flying Mecha pilot.
But Eleanor knew very well that it wasn't that simple.
Dr. Lovelace was the head of the Royal Research Institute Seventh Division.
The Royal Research Institute was the core power of the Pro-war faction within the Imperial Council.
Every time there was a vote on the war budget, the Institute's representatives would use the most precise data and the most high-sounding language to argue for the "necessity of continued investment."
But Dr. Lovelace was an exception.
She was one of the very few in the Institute who did not support continuing the war.
Because she thought war was "too boring."
Her original words were: "Using the same technology to blow up the same things for ten years, what's the point? Give me the same budget, and I can make things ten thousand times more interesting than bombs."
If Dr. Lovelace could be tied to the Schwartz Family and the Army General Staff's war machine,
it would mean the pro-peace faction within the Imperial Council would gain the endorsement of one of the Empire's top technical authorities.
When Dr. Lovelace said in Parliament, "We don't need more wars to drive technological progress," her words carried more weight than any politician's.
Because she was the inventor of the Spinal Probe technology. freewebnovёl.ƈom
Because her technology had changed the entire form of warfare.
Because no one could question her understanding of "technological progress."
And Pavela was the bond of this alliance.
She was the Schwartz Family's adopted daughter, Margaret's student, and the Flying Mecha pilot chosen by Dr. Lovelace.
Three lines converged on one person, weaving together three forces that had originally acted independently.
It was a good move.
Eleanor knew it was a good move.
She herself had participated in laying out this move.
But—
Her fingers unconsciously rubbed the button on her uniform sleeve.
She didn't like treating Pavela like a pawn.
Even if this pawn had stepped onto the board voluntarily.
Even if this pawn was smarter than most people off the board.
Even if—
Eleanor closed her eyes for a moment.
The silence made her mind exceptionally clear—clear enough to dissect those thoughts that were usually wrapped tightly in her uniform, duties, and elegant social rhetoric, thoughts that were even somewhat dark.
She had to admit, she wanted a deeper relationship with Pavela.
Not just as family, not just as elder and younger sisters.
Those four days Pavela spent recovering in the infirmary after that night with the Iron Teeth Society.
Those were Eleanor's most "out of line" four days.
Using her authority as a special envoy, the reputation of the Schwartz Family, and even Margaret's ambiguous acquiescence, she had forcibly built an invisible wall around Pavela.
Under the guise of protection, she blocked Victoria and Cecilia's noise, blocked Eileen's inquiries, and even blocked all the static that might distract Pavela.
In those four days and nights, Pavela's world consisted only of her.
When Pavela curled up in pain or woke up from a nightmare, the hand she reached out could only catch Eleanor's sleeve; when she opened those gray-blue, misty eyes looking for support, only Eleanor's figure was in her field of vision.
That feeling of being completely relied upon, of being the only lifeline...
Eleanor had to admit, that feeling felt damn good.
So good it made her feel afraid.
She sensed a black, viscous desire churning deep within her heart.
It was a nearly pathological possessiveness.
She even had an absurd thought: if Pavela's injuries healed a bit slower, if she remained this weak, always needing to be held in her arms, always only able to look at her alone...
How wonderful that would be.
But Eleanor could not allow such a self to exist.
On the fifth day, she suddenly realized what she was doing.
She was exploiting the gap in their status to forcibly shape Pavela's dependence on her.
Pavela was her sister.
She was the scarred girl she had picked up from the battlefield, a girl with absolutely no immunity to being "treated well."
Pavela's dependence on her was not a choice; it was an instinct.
When someone has been in hell for too long, the first person who reaches out to them becomes their everything.
It wasn't entirely affection.
It was more like a post-traumatic attachment.
And Eleanor von Schwartz, Lieutenant Colonel of the Imperial Army, eldest daughter of the von Schwartz Family—
Was using that attachment to satisfy her own selfish desires.
So she let go.
Eleanor did not want their relationship to be such a fragile attachment.
If she locked Pavela in a cage, then Pavela's feelings for her would only be born of ignorance and helplessness.
That version of Pavela would just be a bird trapped in a cage, mistaking the cage for the entire sky.
As soon as a crack appeared in the cage, or the outside world showed enough temptation, this dependence would burst like a bubble.
So she had to make Pavela strong.
Let Pavela see Dr. Lovelace.
Let Pavela come into contact with the Flying Mecha that could change the very nature of war.
Let Pavela master the power to tear apart any shackles.
Let Pavela fly high into the sky, to see the vastness and cruelty of this world, to witness the peaks and abysses of power.
She wanted Pavela to have the ability to leave at any time, to have the power to say "no" to anyone—including her, Eleanor—at any time.
And then, let her decide for herself—
...
"Commander."
Paul's voice interrupted her thoughts.
Eleanor blinked, retracting all her emotions into the depths of her ice-blue pupils.
"What is it?"
Paul's expression was a bit subtle. He glanced sideways at Jonas, who was pressing a hand to the communicator at his ear, his brow furrowed.
"The surface sentries report—" Paul's tone became cautious, "an anomaly has appeared in the sky over Eisenburg."
"What kind of anomaly?"
"A point of light." Jonas lowered his hand and turned to Eleanor. "It appeared from the northwest and is moving toward the Royal Knights Academy. It was very small when first observed, but it's continuously growing."
"A point of light?"
"Yes, Commander. The surface sentries described it as—"
Jonas paused, as if confirming he hadn't misheard.
"A point of light like a meteor."
