Chapter 76: What a Pair of Ill-Fated Liberi!

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, the magnanimous Miss Wis’adel… I was wrong. Next time I have a sudden urge to ‘cosplay as myself,’ I will absolutely notify you in advance!”

No way. There was no way anyone actually believed he was at the absolute rock bottom of the emotional intelligence spectrum, right?

When Wis’adel had first rushed him, he genuinely had been startled. But a split second later, the realization hit him like a freight train: wait, had his past self just been indiscriminately terrorizing everyone on this landship?

“Even if you’re going to execute me, at least let me die knowing the charges. Tell me where I went wrong first, give me a rehabilitation plan, okay?” Seeing Wis’adel raise her hand to strike again, he abandoned his dignity entirely. He poked his head out from the safety of Patriot’s massive, towering frame, blindly snatched her wrist mid-air, and rattled off his plea in a single breath while wearing the most pitiful expression he could muster.

Whether it was the sheer absurdity of seeing the legendary Ghost of Babel looking like a kicked puppy, or some specific keyword in his frantic rambling that triggered a memory, Wis’adel actually froze. Her impending strike aborted into a harsh grab. She fiercely yanked him forward by the collar, only to release him a second later as if the fabric had burned her fingers. She stumbled back, chest heaving as she panted heavily, desperately trying to wrestle her erratic emotions back under control.

The Doctor knew the golden rule of survival: the more terrified you were of getting beaten to a pulp, the less you could let it show. While she retreated, he subtly reached up and pulled down his hood. He timed it perfectly, ensuring that the very first thing she saw when she looked back up would be his unique, dull, lead-gray eyes.

As the old saying went, feeling pity for a man was the beginning of a woman’s downfall. And Wis’adel was clearly the type of person who could get a toothache just from drinking cold water.

Wis’adel forced her breathing to steady. She slowly raised her head, meeting those familiar, aggrieved gray eyes. As if struck by a bolt of Originium lightning, she violently averted her gaze.

She remained silent for a long, agonizing minute. When she finally spoke, her tone had been forcibly smoothed out into a fragile calm. “You actually know how to apologize now? It seems you’ve been living quite comfortably at Rhodes Island.”

Gone was that suffocating, extremist aura that always felt a hair’s breadth away from dragging everyone around him straight down to hell. Gone was the chilling arrogance of a man who subconsciously dictated the life and death of everyone on the chessboard. Had that terrifying pressure that always loomed over her shoulders finally vanished?

Wis’adel opened her mouth to speak again, then forcefully swallowed the secret back down into the depths of her heart. If things just stayed exactly like this… it would be fine.

Those gray eyes seemed even duller than she remembered.

‘That’s because my vision is literally going dark from stress!’The Doctor screamed internally.’Here it comes again! That complex, eerie, trauma-dump gaze! Whenever I try to ask about my past, everyone looks at me like I’m a ticking time bomb!’

He was in absolute agony. The little animals of Terra held all the lore intel but could never guess the truth of his transmigration, while he could guess the truth of the lore but everyone guarded against him like a plague. Was this some kind of twisted Terran specialty?

His emotional stability had absolutely nothing to do with this cursed land; it was purely because his original world had raised him as a well-adjusted gamer! Ever since he woke up in this amnesiac body, everyone tried to play cryptic riddles with him. And when they started losing the riddle game, they just got angry and flipped the board.

Well, everyone except Jesselton.

If he counted the future event timelines, there was Swimsuit Jesselton, Martial Artist Jesselton, Flying Jesselton, and Captain Jesselton. A true punching bag for all seasons.

Even when Ceobe was caught red-handed sneaking into his office late at night to steal his Honey Cakes, the Perro would only giggle guiltily and say, “Ceobe doesn’t know anything! Kal’tsit won’t let me say!”

Then, after he painstakingly tricked that tiny crumb of lore out of her, Kal’tsit would find out and ruthlessly cancel Ceobe’s Honey Cake rations for an entire month.

Once this Kazimierz mess was over, he was going to act. He made a firm vow to himself: the second the Major ended, he was going to dig up the foundational framework of the Babel period’s history, even if he had to pry it out of the landship’s databanks with a crowbar!

While his mind was spiraling in a furious rant, his body didn’t miss a beat. He continued to maximize his ‘Small Animal Incubus’ talent, tilting his head innocently. “At least tell me why you’re so angry, Miss Wis’adel. I just fearfully scared off those Karlan Trade elites and was even standing here considering what gift to buy for you, only to get assaulted…”

Wis’adel’s mind was still heavily clouded by the bloody, ash-choked shadows of the past, but she found herself completely unable to counter this.

Especially since her muscle memory only recalled the Doctor’s physical body being incredibly, pathetically fragile. The moment she had withdrawn her hand, a spike of genuine guilt had hit her. She actually felt she had grabbed him too hard.

He just unloaded all that heavy psychological pressure… only to be hit by me. I actually hit him.

Her chaotic impulses entirely took over the wheel. Wis’adel completely lost track of what she was supposed to say or how she was even supposed to face this amnesiac ghost. Without another word, she leaped up onto the nearby eaves like a fleeing fugitive and vanished into the shadows.

“…Don’t apologize to me for things like this next time,” her voice drifted down, tight and strained.

The Doctor’s feelings were a tangled mess. That Sarkaz cockroach definitely had a volatile temper, but deep down, she was actually a pretty nice person.

A soft rustling sound broke his thoughts. Mephisto was creeping over with the stealth of a guilty rat.

The Doctor calmly turned and punched him square in the face.

Mephisto merely tilted his head, blinking. The physical impact hadn’t hurt in the slightest.

The Doctor smiled a perfectly pleasant smile and slowly raised his Originium pistol.

Mephisto immediately threw his hands over his head, dropped to his knees, and screamed in sheer agony, thrashing as if he had just sustained a mortal wound.

The Doctor’s mood instantly improved.

Still grimacing and clutching his perfectly intact face, Mephisto peeked through his fingers. “…During these past few days at Rhodes Island, I’ve formally apologized to all the victims.”

As twisted and rotten as the boy was, he wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t read the room. Living under someone else’s roof, swallowing his pride, and constantly feeling the icy glare of Kal’tsit on the back of his neck, he had honestly gone around the landship and made amends to every single person he had wronged.

Whether a single ounce of that sincerity was real, of course, was another matter entirely.

“So?” The Doctor glanced down at him, unimpressed.

“So can I see Faust now!” Mephisto gathered whatever scraps of courage he had left and stated his condition. “They all agreed to forgive me!”

What an absolute pair of ill-fated Liberi.

The Doctor let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “They forgave you. That’s wonderful. But what does their forgiveness have to do with me?”

Mephisto froze.

“I didn’t spare your life because of your morality. I spared you because you check the white-haired anime boy box, and because I noticed your passive HP regeneration ticking the entire time you were bleeding out on the floor,” the Doctor argued with absolute, righteous gamer logic. “What does any of that have to do with you being a good person?”

He actually wanted to deliver a grand, sweeping moral lecture, but a quick mental review of his own recent war crimes reminded him that he possessed zero high ground here. Annoying.

Mephisto’s white ear feathers drooped flat against his head. He shot the Doctor a venomous, unwilling glare. It was painfully obvious there was no actual repentance or self-reproach in that hollow little head; the kid was just pure, concentrated evil, only fawning over the Doctor because of the overwhelming threat of death.

‘How incredibly satisfying,’the Doctor thought, highly amused.’It feels exactly like I’m NTR-ing Faust!’

“If you want to see him so badly, sure. Should I transfer him to the Kazimierz battlefield too?” The Doctor deliberately rested his chin on his hand, pretending to contemplate the tactical logistics. “Global sniping… yes, that does seem quite useful for the upcoming bloodbath.”

Mephisto’s frail body violently trembled twice, all the color instantly draining from his lips. “I… I don’t want to see him anymore. I was wrong.”

The incompetent Doctor, after having to humbly coax Wis’adel, had not only successfully regained his lost dignity by bullying Mephisto, but he finally got to play out the ‘ill-fated Liberi’ meme he had been dying to use since the moment he woke up in Terra.

While that side of the city featured a pair of ill-fated lovers clinging to each other until death, over at the Armorless Union’s sector, it was strictly every man for himself in the face of absolute disaster.

Degenbrecher stood amidst the wreckage. She held the trembling little squirrel by the back of her collar with one hand, kept her heavy combat boot planted firmly on Monique’s crushed back, and frowned at the distant, retreating silhouette of Roy.

If she wanted to chase him down and snap his neck, it wouldn’t be impossible. But a preset notification from the Doctor suddenly chimed on her tactical terminal:

[No need to chase if he runs. I still need bait for fishing. As for how to handle this specific area… I leave it entirely up to you~]

“B-Black Knight… why are you here!” Sona stayed perfectly, rigidly still, not even daring to twitch a muscle in her struggle.

Degenbrecher’s frown deepened. Thinking of the Doctor’s usual theatrical style, she silently opened her terminal and pulled up a candid, high-resolution photo of the Doctor’s profile. For the record, the photo had been enthusiastically provided by SilverAsh.

She held the glowing screen in front of Sona’s face. “Do you… recognize this man?”

Sona blinked, her vision focusing on the screen. She was suddenly stunned. Although she couldn’t see the man’s full face, the distinct hairstyle and the cut of the coat made her recognize the young man who had casually helped her that day in the alleyway at a single glance.

They were on the same side?!

Seeing the flash of recognition in the Zalak’s eyes, Degenbrecher understood the situation perfectly. She took the initiative to calmly explain, “He is the Doctor of Rhodes Island. I assume you have heard this name before?”

Sona’s expression instantly shattered into sheer, unadulterated daze.

Doctor… The Doctor of Rhodes Island?

What was she trying to steal that day again? Oh, right. The highly classified cooperation proposal between the General Chamber of Commerce and Rhodes Island.

Before she had left on that suicide mission, what had the K.G.C.C. explicitly warned her about?

‘Along this path, our people are prepared to support you from the shadows. But remember to avoid one person specifically—the new leader of Rhodes Island. A man called the Doctor.”Never mind your mission. If you fall into his hands, even if the Silverash elites specifically ask to save you, they would only have enough time to call out your name before he brings your severed head to their door to demand justice.’

Suddenly realizing that she had literally brushed shoulders with the final boss of the entire board, Sona broke out in a violent, freezing cold sweat.

Wait. Did he hear me when I was cursing Rhodes Island out loud back then?

‘Scraping a living from the cracks of the Commerce Union.’

‘Forced to cooperate with the Commerce Union out of pure helplessness.’

He actually had the nerve to stand there and boast to her face like that while holding all the cards!

Degenbrecher stood in absolute silence, her cold eyes watching as the little squirrel’s fluffy tail suddenly began to puff up more and more, until it was standing straight up in sheer, absolute terror.

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent! 🙇‍♂️):

Massive thanks for reading and supporting the operation!]