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ArabicArknights: It Can't Possibly Be My Fault... Right? — Chapter 47
Chapter 47: What Changed
‘Even if the seas boil and the atmosphere vanishes…”What did you say to the Prophet?”Unreasonable…’
‘…Passerby…’
Kai was jolted awake from his sleep by a series of urgent knocks rattling his door.
“Mmm… Who is it?” he mumbled. He fumbled blindly under his pillow, his fingers closing around his terminal. Pulling it out, he squinted at the glaring screen. Wait, it was already noon?
The rhythmic rapping sounded again, a little more insistent this time.
“Coming! Just a minute.” Kai groaned, forcing himself to abandon the warm embrace of his beloved bed. He had slept incredibly well last night, drifting through what felt like a rather pleasant, albeit fragmented, dream.
Thank goodness he had the foresight to buy two sets of bedding for rotation when he first boarded Rhodes Island. Without a proper blanket to cocoon himself in, he definitely wouldn’t have slept so soundly.
After a rushed change of clothes and a splash of cold water to his face, he finally swung the door open for his waiting visitor.
“Mr. Kai, you are finally awake. Dr. Kal’tsit has been waiting for you in the training room for quite some time.”
Standing in the corridor was their adorable Amiya. Today, she sported a newsboy-style outfit, complete with a small satchel slung across her shoulder and a neat beret resting on her head. The entire ensemble suited her perfectly, highlighting her youthful charm.
Kai scratched the back of his head, offering a sheepish grin. “Right, got it. But why did you come all the way down here to get me in person? Shooting me a quick message would have been enough for something like this.”
Amiya’s expression shifted into something a bit complicated. “Actually… we sent you quite a few messages. And calls, too. But you seemed to be sleeping incredibly deeply and didn’t answer a single one. That is why Dr. Kal’tsit asked me to come fetch you.”
Kai hurriedly tapped his terminal screen to wake it up. Sure enough, his communication app was flooded with over twenty missed calls from the morning. And… why was there a message from M3? Oh, right. He remembered sending her a text demanding an explanation before he passed out last night. He genuinely hadn’t expected the humanoid summon to actually reply.
“Uh… yeah, you are right about that. So, am I still in time if I head over there right now?” Kai did his best to brush past the sheer awkwardness of the situation. He must have been entirely exhausted from the past few days to sleep like the dead. He hadn’t heard a single ringtone. Looking at Amiya, he had the sneaking suspicion that if she hadn’t physically come to knock on his door, he would still be dead to the world.
“Of course. But you could also go grab lunch first. Dr. Kal’tsit should be taking her meal break right now anyway.” Amiya gave a firm nod. “Eating on time keeps you healthy and helps you grow taller.”
Kai slipped on his shoes, grabbed his jacket, and reached out to playfully pat Amiya’s head. “Neither Kal’tsit nor I need to grow any taller. It seems our Amiya might still need those meals a bit more than we do, though.”
“Mr. Kai!” Amiya protested, her cheeks puffing out in clear, flustered annoyance.
“Hehe, I am out of here.”
Kai made his way to one of his favorite cafeterias on the landship, fully intending to follow Amiya’s advice and fill his stomach before facing the music.
“Ah… haa…” Kai let out a massive yawn. This was the classic symptom shared by college students and corporate wage slaves alike—chronic sleep deprivation.
Still half-asleep, he wandered through the dining hall, pondering what to get for lunch. As he passed a table, he noticed two operators chatting animatedly over their trays. A quick glance told him one had just returned from a grueling field assignment, while the other wore the standard uniform of the on-island logistics staff.
The field operator took a bite of his food and let out an exaggerated sigh. “This slightly astringent texture… this overly heavy saltiness… Ah, the unmistakable taste of home!”
The logistics operator rolled his eyes, unable to hold back his critique. “It was just one long dispatch mission. Do you really need to be this dramatic about it?”
“You just don’t get it. I absolutely could not get used to the rations in Ursus! I still firmly believe Rhodes Island’s food is superior.” The field operator sighed, his voice dripping with deep emotion.
Kai silently agreed with the man’s assessment. If nothing else, the culinary standards in the Rhodes Island cafeteria were top-tier. Spotting an empty seat near the chatting duo, he tossed his jacket over the back of the chair to claim it.
After a brief internal debate, Kai decided to stick to his usual comfort food.
“One fried egg with meat cutlet rice, extra rice, hold the spice.”
Carrying his steaming tray back to his claimed seat, he sat down and dug in. In the short time he had been at the counter, the two operators had already pivoted their conversation from the culinary failings of Ursus to high-level political conspiracies between nations. It wasn’t a bad setup; having some background chatter to listen to made the meal infinitely more enjoyable.
“…Speaking of which, when I was helping evacuate the refugees out of Chernobog, I actually ran into a noble.”
“Seriously?”
“The genuine article! She seemed to be a student council president or something along those lines.”
“Wait a second. You aren’t talking about little Natalya, are you?”
“Yes, exactly! You know her too? She was a massive help to our squad along the way. If she hadn’t taken the initiative to help us persuade those panicked refugees, our extraction mission would have been a total nightmare.” The field operator offered nothing but endless praise.
Natalya? Hearing that name, Kai paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. The name sounded incredibly familiar. Wasn’t that Zima’s real name?
“Well, she is pretty famous around here too. Her personal ideals align really closely with Rhodes Island’s mission. Lately, she has been volunteering in the logistics department, helping arrange work details for some of the Ursus refugees we took in. She is incredibly diligent and takes everything seriously. I wonder if she will officially join Rhodes Island as an operator.”
“Ha! What are you dreaming about, old friend? She is a noble… but then again, with how crazy things are, you never really know.” The field operator mused, leaving the possibility hanging in the air.
Kai chewed his pork cutlet, quietly absorbing the gossip. Although the operators soon shifted their topic away from Natalya, Kai’s thoughts lingered on the situation in Chernobog.
He had a solid grasp of the storyline surrounding that particular student group. Originally, Patriot had issued a strict order to protect the students trapped in the city, but Mephisto—that absolute piece of work—had twisted the situation into a brutal, psychological survival game.
‘Tsk, if only there had been a way to take out that brat Mephisto when we first crossed paths,’ Kai thought, shaking his head. But at least he had successfully managed to hijack the Sarcophagus right out from under Reunion’s nose. Because of that butterfly effect, they wouldn’t have to deal with Mephisto transforming into that horrific Singer monster later down the line.
“The sheer willpower of those Ursus people is insane. Trapped inside a school with no hope of rescue, they managed to survive almost entirely thanks to the leadership and command of a few brave kids.” The logistics operator clicked his tongue in respect. Even though he hadn’t been on the front lines, just hearing the firsthand accounts was enough to leave an impression.
“Honestly, that was mostly thanks to our higher-ups making a sudden, temporary change to the tactical plan. It caught the Reunion Movement completely off guard and forced them to hastily redeploy all the personnel they had stationed around that school. Otherwise, with the meager supplies they had left, those kids probably couldn’t have held out for more than a few days. Let me tell you, I have a buddy who was responsible for the rescue op in that specific sector. He told me that when they finally breached the school, the cafeteria was completely on fire! All their remaining food was burned to ash.”
“Huh? On fire? How the hell did that happen?”
“How should I know? All I can say is that it is incredibly fortunate everything worked out the way it did. If they had been trapped in there even a little bit longer without food, they might have started resorting to cannibalism!”
“Damn it, don’t scare me like that!” the logistics staff member muttered, a lingering trace of horror in his voice.
Hearing this exchange, a faint, unconscious smile tugged at the corners of Kai’s mouth. It seemed that the tragic, gruesome details of those little bears’ storyline had been unintentionally altered by his interference. Sitting here listening to the aftermath, he felt a bit like an unsung hero operating in the shadows.
Regardless of the specifics, that seemingly haphazard tactical plan he had drafted back then hadn’t been in vain. It turned out to be incredibly cost-effective, easily worth the agonizing all-nighter he had pulled to finish it. Content with his work, Kai scooped up a massive spoonful of rice and happily shoved it into his mouth.
“You are here.”
Just as Kai was thoroughly enjoying his hard-earned lunch, a voice as cold as liquid nitrogen sounded directly behind him.
Kai’s entire body stiffened, his chewing grinding to an abrupt halt. He slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder.
Haha. It was Kal’tsit. The revered, terrifying ‘Empress Dowager’of Rhodes Island, whom he had completely stood up for the entire morning.’My apologies. My deepest, most sincere apologies.’