Chapter 146: Your Era Has Yet to Come

“Doctor, is there anything else you need me to do?”

Amiya’s bright smile radiated a desperate need to be helpful. You stared at her for a moment, gears turning in your head. “Then could you help me organize those city planning spreadsheets? Just arrange them by page number.”

“Okay!” The little rabbit’s ears twitched. She scooped up a massive stack of blueprints and began sorting them with terrifying efficiency.

Not long after—

“Doctor, I’m done sorting! Is there anything else I can do?”

“Then… could you help me calculate the total reimbursement ledger for the Medical Department’s third office?” You decisively paused your supercomputer program, casually isolating a module and converting its processing logic from binary to rabbit-nary. Let the DPS carry the math phase.

Amiya immediately grabbed a pen, sat down across from your desk, and began writing out vertical calculations to verify the expenses line by line.

Another half hour later—

“Doctor, I’ve finished calculating! Is there anything else I can help you with?”

You finally realized the aggro was entirely misplaced. You looked up, probing tentatively. “Amiya, what’s wrong with you today? Why are you so eager to help me?”

She was way too active. This wasn’t normal NPC behavior.

Amiya stiffened. She forced her smile to stay pinned in place. “It’s nothing. Everything on the landship has been fine these past few days…”

Smack.

You slapped your terminal onto the desk with one hand, cutting off her excuse. You corrected her with absolute seriousness. “I wasn’t talking about Rhodes Island. I was talking about you, Amiya.”

Why was the little rabbit suddenly acting like a speedrunner on a caffeine binge? Back when she was your assistant, the most she would do was silently watch you grind through overtime. She never looked this panicked the moment her quest log emptied out. You only stepped out for one trip—how did she mutate into a workaholic?

Seeing that you weren’t going to let this slide, Amiya knew her stealth check had failed. She lowered her head slightly, her long ears drooping in defeat. “Me? I just feel like… I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing on this island anymore…”

“You and Dr. Kal’tsit had a disagreement, right? But you both still treat me like a child. Neither of you will tell me anything.” Amiya had never sounded so utterly lost. She felt as though she had been locked inside a reinforced greenhouse; a Category 6 Catastrophe could be raging outside, and she wouldn’t even be allowed to hear the wind. “When Theresis handed the Black Crown to me, wasn’t it so I could become the Lord of Fiends and stabilize the situation? Now that the Lord of Fiends is no longer needed to maintain order on Rhodes Island, it feels like my role as a leader is completely meaningless…”

Years ago, during the bloody collapse of Babel, Amiya had been thrust onto the throne of the Lord of Fiends—a title carrying apocalyptic weight among the Sarkaz. Nobody cared that she was just a child. Through sheer suffering, she had long since learned how to absorb the anxiety and panic of the adults around her.

At fourteen, she dared to draw her sword and stand against the Black Snake. Yet, she would still lose control, spiraling into panic over her own helplessness. Over the past few years, every single instance of losing control had cost her the lives of people she knew.

She forced herself to be colder, calmer, and more resolute than the veteran Sarkaz mercenaries who had survived countless meat-grinder battlefields. She used a hardened facade to crush the doubts of those cunning Sarkaz schemers.

The Lord of Fiends was supposed to be infallible. Amiya had long since stopped looking in the mirror and seeing a child.

“What else can I do for Rhodes Island? If Rhodes Island splits again, will I still be kept in the dark by you all?”

Her voice trembled. You could hear the raw, choking weight of unshed tears catching in her throat.

She was no longer the ignorant little Cautus from the past. Compared to the agony of making painful choices, she was far more terrified of being shielded from the undercurrents. She felt trapped in the eye of a silent typhoon, fully aware that a single misstep by the adults around her meant a war of no return.

‘Even at a time like this, my first reaction was actually to focus on the lore drop about Theresis handing over the Black Crown…’You criticized yourself internally.’Looks like I’ve been way too successful at playing the traitor.’

For a long moment, you genuinely didn’t know how to explain the meta-narrative to her. Because everything she said was the absolute truth.

You kept her away from the turmoil of the past because she was only fourteen. But honestly, regardless of her age, no one on this planet could ever interfere with your tactical decisions anyway.

This was entirely a ‘you’ problem. But Amiya’s self-perception was already locked into the role of the Lord of Fiends, the vanguard leading everyone through the dark. In her eyes, your protection just meant you still didn’t trust her stats.

Sunlight slanted through the office blinds, slicing into tiny, brilliant fragments across the floor. The four-leaf clover potted plant—a gift from Perfumer—swayed gently on the windowsill in the artificial breeze of the ventilation system.

No Catastrophes. No wars. This should have been a pleasant, perfectly ordinary afternoon for a teenage girl. Yet she had spent the entire morning agonizing over the fact that she no longer had to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

You sighed inwardly. Reaching out, you gently patted the top of Amiya’s head. The soft, fuzzy sensation was exactly the same as in that fragmented memory of Rembilliton. The carefree little girl from back then had conditioned herself to be the tallest person in the room, ready to hold up the sky the moment it fell.

“Kal’tsit and I… this is a matter of ideology between us,” you said slowly, carefully weighing each word to ensure the sincerity bypassed her emotional defenses. “Amiya, you’ve done exceptionally well. But besides your identity as the Lord of Fiends, you can also try to actually enjoy the privileges of being a child.”

“I teach you my command philosophy. Kal’tsit teaches you medicine and strategic decision-making. And earlier, that Theresa who doesn’t even exist in my memories taught you love and equality. We aren’t just trying to power-level an emergency assistant.”

You and Kal’tsit had tacitly chosen to guide her through subtle influence and critical thinking, rather than force-feeding her crude, copy-pasted experiences or cheap tactical tricks for immediate gains.

These were concepts Amiya needed to digest bit by bit over the next few years—decades, even—until she carved out a style entirely her own.

“We all have different philosophies, but this isn’t us forcing you to pick a side. You will walk your own path. You won’t become the next Lord of Fiends just to satisfy the immediate needs of Rhodes Island.”

“Your era has not yet arrived, Amiya. Don’t be so eager to shoulder everything.”

“If we really do have any expectations for you, it’s just that we want to see which path you choose to walk once you finally grow up.”

Amiya rubbed her eyes hard with the back of her hand. She didn’t cry, but her small frame remained rigidly tense.

‘I really am a damned war criminal for forcing a teenager onto the battlefield…’You thought, the guilt hitting you like a debuff.’When I dragged Terra to its destruction, did I not consider Amiya’s aggro radius at all?’

Having a flexible moral bottom line was one thing, but possessing the self-awareness to judge your own mess was another. Amiya was forced into this hyper-vigilant state because she had to take over the apocalyptic disaster you left behind. You had to take responsibility for that.

For example… maybe try to get the highly-strung little rabbit to drop her guard first?

“If you don’t know what to do right now, how about accompanying me to Dossoles?” You mentally opened your quest log, revised your vacation plans, and added one more party member to the Dossoles trip.

Amiya’s voice was still a bit tight, laced with unnatural hesitation. “But Dr. Kal’tsit is already planning to take me to Siesta…”

Wait.

“Did you just say the exact same thing to Kal’tsit?”

You suddenly realized this little rabbit wasn’t a sweet, well-behaved daughter at all!

Amiya’s face flushed a brilliant shade of pink. “Dr. Kal’tsit already comforted me earlier… I was just worried about you…”

She played you! The whole emotional breakdown was a calculated sob story to test your reaction!

You reached out and ruthlessly flicked the little rabbit’s forehead. Instead of hurting her, the impact just left your own knuckles throbbing.

Fine. You admitted defeat. You had severely underestimated Amiya’s level-ups. Apparently, she had already formed her own viewpoint regarding your conflict with the old feline, and she had firmly taken Kal’tsit’s side.

She might be lost, but she absolutely refused to give up on seeking her own answers.

But the grievances she spoke of were real, raw facts. Looking at her flushed face, you couldn’t bring yourself to be angry at her, no matter how hard you tried. You could only sigh helplessly, quietly relieved that you hadn’t entirely ruined the young girl.

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent!