Arknights: The Holy Son's Leisurely Life — Chapter 104

Chapter 104: A Wild High School Girl Appears

The morning light filtered through the makeshift camp, doing little to dispel the heavy, awkward tension hanging in the room. Zima and Natalia sat back-to-back on the edge of the bed, silently tugging on their uniforms, their faces flushed. Across the room, Lucian was pulling on his pants under the unblinking, intense scrutiny of Exusiai.

‘Are you my mother?!’ he thought, suppressing a heavy sigh.

Regardless of how the Ursus Student Self-Governing Group or the aristocratic young lady felt about their respective leaders spending the night in Lucian’s room, dawn meant it was time to move. They hastily downed their morning soy milk, scrubbed the camp of any tracks that could be followed, and slipped out into the ruined streets. Lucian took the vanguard, with Exusiai guarding the rear.

Not long after they set out, Lucian narrowed his eyes, scanning the rubble. “The Reunion Movement… they’ve pulled out of this district?”

He frowned suspiciously. It was broad daylight, and taking to the sky for aerial reconnaissance was far too risky for him or Exusiai. Yet, his senses painted a clear picture—the surrounding environment was eerily quiet. There was not a single trace of Reunion forces within a several-hundred-meter radius.

Exusiai stepped up beside him, confirming his suspicions. “I noticed it during my night watch too. Those masked guys were pulling back toward the Core City in waves. They didn’t sleep a wink during the latter half of the night.”

Lucian stared at her, deadpan. “Wow, Big Sister. Why didn’t you mention something that important earlier? You should have woken me up the second you got back.”

“I did want to wake you.” The Sankta gave him her sweetest, most radiant smile, her halo glowing brightly as her eyes curved into cheerful little crescents. “But then I saw you lying there, holding two high school girls in your arms, looking soooo happy and fast asleep. How could I possibly bear to ruin such a beautiful moment?”

Oh dear.

The air in the street instantly froze. Zima and Natalia flushed a violent shade of crimson, whipping their heads in opposite directions to avoid the burning, gossipy stares of their peers. Leto, the self-proclaimed ‘General’ with a severe case of chuunibyou, bounded up to Zima, firing off a barrage of overly eager questions.

Zima’s response was instantaneous. Bypassing all defenses, she delivered a brutal, textbook golden lariat that instantly folded Leto into an unconscious heap on the pavement. In Ursus, Zima was indeed stronger than Leto; the Winter General’s wrath was terrifying.

“Ahem!” Lucian coughed loudly, forcefully steering the runaway train of a conversation back on track. “Honestly, I’m more worried about Scout and his team.”

According to Exusiai’s intel, the Reunion forces in the vicinity had consolidated at the central Core City. Lucian figured his flashy Moonlight Microwave Cannon from the previous night was the catalyst. That invisible sniper with the purple arrows had clearly been a high-ranking Reunion commander—likely far more dangerous than the curvaceous Crownslayer. Vaporizing an elite operative had naturally triggered widespread panic among the rioters, forcing them to recall their troops and regroup.

The silver lining was that Peterheim Middle School was effectively liberated. The surviving students could finally walk out the front gates… assuming they still had the mental fortitude to do so.

The downside was that Scout’s squad was marching straight into a heavily fortified hornet’s nest.

Lucian tapped his earpiece, trying to hail the Rhodes Island vanguard, but the signal was dead air. “Does Reunion have dedicated electronic warfare units?” he asked. “The deeper we go, the worse the interference gets. This isn’t just a matter of them controlling the local base stations anymore.”

“Every mobile city in the Ursus Empire is outfitted with military-grade communication arrays,” Natalia explained, her refined tone returning. “Since Reunion captured the Core City, they likely seized the backup command systems. What I don’t understand is how a mob of infected rioters possesses the technical expertise to operate Imperial military hardware.”

Lucian shrugged, his expression cooling. “Because they aren’t just a mob. A force capable of infiltrating a mobile city, deploying heavy artillery, and dismantling the Core City’s defenses so rapidly isn’t a mere riot. At the very least, their upper echelons are highly trained, professional soldiers.”

This presented a logistical nightmare. Escorting these traumatized girls safely out of Chernobog would take a full day, and returning to the Core City would take another two. Meanwhile, Amiya’s team was already moving; securing the Doctor remained Rhodes Island’s absolute priority. Lucian weighed his options: find a secure bunker for the students to hide in, or commit to the long escort mission.

A sudden, sharp rustle from a nearby patch of overgrown bushes shattered his thoughts.

Lucian tensed, but Zima reacted faster. The Ursus girl roared, “For strength and glory!” and hurled her heavy battle-axe straight into the foliage.

“—Eeek!”

A high-pitched scream pierced the air, followed by the heavy thud of the axe burying itself into the earth.

Lucian sprinted over, violently sweeping the branches aside. There, sprawled on the dirt in a disheveled heap, was a small, gray-haired Ursus girl. She looked to be around Zima’s age. Zima’s axe was planted perfectly in the ground between her legs, the razor-sharp edge having cleanly sliced through her uniform skirt and black tights. The pale skin of her thighs stood out starkly against the torn dark fabric, but miraculously, not a single drop of blood was drawn.

Natalia gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. “Sonya! Look what you’ve done! You nearly butchered an innocent girl!”

Zima crossed her arms, scoffing defensively. “I missed on purpose. Any real Ursus hears a battle cry and instinctively dodges. It’s her fault for freezing up.”

The sheer twisted logic of that statement left everyone staring at the violent vanguard in stunned, dark-faced silence.

Lucian, privately impressed by Zima’s terrifying precision, crouched down and offered his hand to the trembling girl. “Easy now. We aren’t the bad guys. Are you a student here?”

“Y-yes!” Realizing they weren’t wearing Reunion masks, the little gray bear nodded frantically. She grasped Lucian’s hand and pulled herself up, her knees knocking together as she awkwardly tried to hold her shredded skirt closed. Her cheeks flushed a deep pink. “My name is Zoya. I’m a student from Fourth Middle School.”

“My classmates and I were trapped in the school,” Zoya explained, her voice shaking slightly. “The masked people locked us in and wouldn’t let anyone leave. But starting yesterday, their numbers kept dropping, so I managed to slip out.”

The mention of being locked in a school caused the Peterheim girls to flinch, dark memories surfacing in their eyes. Zima’s expression darkened into a scowl. “You too, huh? You must have been through hell. Don’t sweat it though. When it comes to survival, killing a person or two is nothing. You did good getting out on your own.”

Zoya blinked, utterly bewildered. “Uh…? What are you talking about? Why would I kill anyone?”

The two groups stared at each other, entirely on different wavelengths. As Zoya elaborated, the horrifying truth of their differing circumstances came to light. Fourth Middle School hadn’t descended into a bloody massacre. The Reunion guards had simply locked the gates, provided regular daily rations, and left the students completely unharmed. Aside from the confinement, it was a perfectly orderly detention—a paradise compared to the slaughterhouse of Peterheim.

The absurd disparity left Zima and the others completely mute. Zoya, oblivious to their trauma, looked at their tattered clothes with sudden hope.

“Those uniforms… you’re from Peterheim Middle School, right?” Zoya asked, stepping closer. “My father is a police officer! He and his colleagues are holding the line in the next block, trying to maintain order! When he saw the masked troops pulling out, he organized a rescue mission for Peterheim!”

Zoya gripped Lucian’s hand tightly, her eyes welling with desperate tears.

“Please! If you managed to escape that place, you have to help my dad! The Ursus police are still fighting! The people are still alive! I’m begging you!”