Arknights: The Holy Son's Leisurely Life — Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Who Is This Sniper Aiming At?

Lucian’s voice carried clearly, meant for every single person huddled in the shadows to hear.

He stood tall, his gaze sweeping over the grim, exhausted faces of the refugees. “The people coming to escort you to a safe zone are Infected. But they are not thugs. They will not attack you, and they certainly won’t demand your property. If any of you hold a grudge simply because your rescuers have Oripathy, you are free to walk away right now. Whether you crawl back into the ruined city or take your chances in the barren wilderness, it makes no difference to me. I won’t stop you.”

He paused, letting the heavy silence settle over the crowd. “However, I ask only one thing. Put away your hostility when you face them. Some of those operators have suffered the exact same persecution you have. They barely escaped this disaster with their lives. If you dare to inflict that same blind hatred back onto them, I cannot guarantee your safety.”

Leaving the stunned refugees to process his warning, Lucian stepped forward and gently returned the worn photograph to the trembling woman’s hands. He then moved a short distance away, leaning against a cracked concrete pillar to wait for the Rhodes Island extraction squad.

A moment later, Exusiai trotted over. She bumped her elbow playfully against his ribs.

“Yo! Working so hard to lecture them with a straight face. You’ve really had a tough time, Holy Son.”

“You’re nagging.”

Lucian reached out and mercilessly tickled Exusiai’s waist. The Sankta girl instantly broke into a fit of bright, ringing giggles, twisting away but never actually leaving his side.

After the two of them finished messing around like a newlywed couple, Exusiai leaned against the pillar next to him, her tone shifting to something semi-serious.

“I can understand you speaking up for Rhodes Island,” she murmured. “I’ve been around the Infected enough to know what it feels like to be looked at with those strange, disgusted eyes.”

She tilted her head, her halo glowing softly in the dim light. “But why did you take on this specific mission? A missing high school girl who hasn’t been heard from since the riots started… the probability of finding her alive is pitifully low. If we find her in some horrific state, it’s only going to break her mother’s heart even more.”

Lucian offered a stubborn, quiet reply. “I know. But we still have to try.”

He met Exusiai’s gaze. Seeing the lingering curiosity in her bright eyes, he sighed and elaborated.

“The school is on our route anyway, so checking the perimeter won’t waste much time. It’s best if we can actually save someone. But if we’re too late, at least we can give that mother an answer.”

A faint, teasing smirk touched his lips. “Besides, that high school girl in the photo is quite cute. Even if she is a completely different type from my Angelina.”

“Hmph.”

Exusiai made a strange, subtle noise at the back of her throat. She looked away, muttering under her breath.

“Goody two-shoes. You just can’t stand it when people beg you for help, yet you always insist on finding these lame excuses. That’s exactly why you attract so much trouble…” She kicked a loose pebble. “What if you make this high school girl infatuated with you too, you damn lolicon…”

Lucian blinked innocently. “What did you say? The wind is too strong down here, I didn’t quite catch that.”

It was a blatant lie, though the underground structural areas of Chernobog were indeed terribly drafty. The shoddy Ursus engineering was practically a safety hazard on its own.

Hours passed, and night finally fell over the burning city.

A pale crescent moon hung high in the oppressive sky, half-choked by thick, rolling dark clouds. Not a single star dared to shine through the gloom. The night sky over Chernobog felt heavier than usual, pressing down on the ruins as if the very heavens were about to collapse.

High above the shattered streets, Lucian hovered steadily in the freezing air, completely invisible to the chaos below.

For someone who possessed absolute control over gravity, moving in complete silence was second nature. Cloaked by the darkness of the night, his concealment was flawless. Very few people possessed the visual acuity to spot a man floating a hundred meters in the sky.

One might wonder: if the people on the ground couldn’t see Lucian, how could he see them?

The answer was remarkably simple. He used binoculars.

Or rather, he had borrowed a Guardian Gun from Exusiai and was currently peering through its high-end 8x scope.

He tapped his earpiece. “Exusiai, how is the situation on your end?”

Exusiai’s voice crackled through the comms, crisp and energetic. “Hmm… there are lights on in four, no, five of the residential buildings. Impressive. Almost every single room in the adjacent blocks has a light on. Just how many people does the Reunion Movement have stationed here?”

Lucian chuckled softly, adjusting the scope. “The real question is how many of them are actual combat-capable troops, and how many are just angry mobs making up the numbers.”

They had successfully located Peterheim Middle School, the exact place the weeping mother had described. Lucian was currently positioned directly above the campus.

Fortunately, they could confirm one crucial detail: the students had not been massacred. They were all being held captive inside the school grounds.

Unfortunately, the Reunion militants had completely taken over the surrounding residential blocks, treating the apartments as their personal barracks. Heavily armed patrols roamed the streets in endless rotations.

Just counting the illuminated windows in the vicinity, a conservative estimate put the Reunion forces at several hundred, perhaps even over a thousand, not including the active patrols.

Exusiai let out an exaggerated sigh over the comms. “They’re guarding these students like they’re some kind of precious treasure. Could it be that they’re actually good people deep down? Since they’re going through all this trouble to keep the kids locked up safely to prevent them from wandering into the riots, wouldn’t it be fine if we just left them alone?”

“No,” Lucian denied instantly, his tone dropping its playful edge.

He swept the scope across the school’s main campus. He could see faint, flickering lights in the dormitory buildings and classrooms.

They weren’t the harsh, steady glow of electrical lamps. They were weak and trembling. Candlelight.

“If they actually cared about the students’ well-being, they wouldn’t have restored power to the surrounding apartments while leaving the school completely cut off from water and electricity,” Lucian explained coldly. “And look at that building on the left… my left, not yours. The one with the collapsed eastern wing.”

“It was burned down. There was a massive fire inside the school grounds within the past few days.”

Whether the Ursus students had desperately tried to resist the Reunion forces, or if it was just a tragic accident, Lucian didn’t know yet.

But one thing was absolutely certain: the students trapped inside were not living comfortably. It would be a miracle if they even had enough rations to survive.

Exusiai sounded genuinely troubled. “Then what should we do? There are a ton of students trapped in there, right? Just relying on the two of us to &&￥!&…”

A harsh burst of static suddenly shrieked through the earpiece, forcing Lucian to wince and pull it slightly away from his ear.

A moment later, the connection stabilized. “Ah, sorry, sorry! The signal seems a bit garbage right now. Did I touch something?”

“The mobile base station must be taking damage or experiencing interference,” Lucian replied calmly. “It’s normal.”

Ever since they penetrated deeper into Chernobog, their communication signals had been heavily restricted. They could only maintain a clear channel when he and Exusiai stayed within a certain proximity. Unless they retreated all the way back to the structural zone where Rhodes Island had planted a mobile base station, they had no way of contacting Scout and the rest of the extraction team.

Exusiai clicked her tongue. “We can’t possibly escort that many students out on our own, right? We’ll definitely be spotted by those masked scumbags. How about we just slaughter the entire camp first?”

Lucian rolled his eyes, lowering the rifle scope. “You do it. I’m passing on that. Killing them one by one would make my trigger finger cramp. And if I just use my Arts to blow up the entire block, every single militant in the city will come running.”

If it were only the violent Reunion extremists who had already slaughtered innocents, he wouldn’t mind wiping them out. But who knew if there were captured civilians locked inside those occupied apartment buildings? Lucian was here for a rescue mission, not to help the Ursus Empire reclaim its lost territory.

So, what was the optimal play? Lucian hovered in the freezing wind, calculating the angles.

“Wait, Lucian… look at the school!”

Exusiai’s voice spiked with sudden alarm from her vantage point across the street.

“The main teaching building in the front! The top floor, it’s glowing… It’s fire! The building is on fire!”

Lucian’s eyes widened slightly in surprise. He snapped the scope back to the campus. “An accident? At a time like this?”

The flames were spreading fast, licking at the shattered windows. There was no time to waste on elaborate plans. Lucian made an immediate decision.

“Exusiai, keep watch for me. I’m going in to pull them out.”

“Understood!” she chirped, the unmistakable sound of a gun bolt sliding into place echoing through the comms. “Just say the word if you need me to provide cover fire! I’ll find a sniper nest with three-hundred-and-sixty-degree, absolutely no-blind-spot coverage!”

‘Why don’t you try finding a negative angle while you’re at it?’

Lucian couldn’t even be bothered to voice the retort. He killed his comms, adjusted his trajectory, and plummeted straight down into the darkness.