KeroKeron

  Caught as a little kid hag into a corpo server, Evelin Vance was forced into iured service.

  Disposable and "employed" by New Hope LLC to pee the security of other corporations, usually by dangerous ahan legal means, one day, she is sent on a mission that is a lot more dangerous than expected.

  With her head just above water, Evelin struggles beh the weight put upon her, at least until the world decides her job is done. After getting attacked, mauled, bludgeoned, and bruised, she awakens as a samurai.

  Emily decides not to return to her room immediately, iaking a stroll around the ship to calm down. She wanders around, lost in thought and listening to the light hum of the engine, ever-present while the ship is in motion.

  She isn’t surprised when she looks up after a while and realises she has made her way to the engine room unsciously. Feeling that no one is close, Emily approaches the door and opens it before stepping into the warmth and noise of the ship’s beati. She shuts the door behind herself, walking to the tre of the room and appreciating the suspended mass of metal pumping out steam.

  “I wonder if I s the whole ship now,” she mutters to herself absentmindedly.

  Emily sits down in front of the giant engine, cross-legged with her eyes shut. She releases a slow stream of maa into the floor, first flooding the engine room befuiding her energy to spread throughout the rest of the ship. Her cortex processes the vast quantity of information flowing in as her reach spreads, creeping out to enpass the whole ship and showing her every nook and y of the giant mae.

  Emily’s focus drifts around the ship, watg the fine ws of the plicated craft as her tension slowly dissipates, the process rexing her immensely. After a few hours of watg the ship work and analysing everything from the pipes to the rotors, she opens her eyes as out a breath of satisfa.

  “It’s incredible,” she says with admiration, looking at the system window floating before her.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Maa s plete!

  Blueprint created: Calypso

  [Calypso]

  [Type:] Steam Airship

  [Tier:] 1

  [Rank:] E

  [Description:] A medium-sized cargo airship built for the Mandrago family’s private transport needs. Designed for speed and stability while carrying a heavy load.

  _____

  “A’s only E rank,” she says, standing up with a fident grin. “I definitely improve it.”

  With a new goal in mind, Emily stands up and leaves the engine room. She returns to her room, detag the metal scrap that would activate the Screamer’s Surprise through the door before opening it and stepping in, not b to reset her trap behind her.

  Settling down on her bed, she pulls up a new page in her system notebook and pulls in the blueprint of Calypso. However, as she starts to pull apart the propellers in order to tweak their design, she feels a light pulse of mana ing from her belt.

  What’s that?

  Uainly, Emily reaches into the belt, feeling about for the sourd quickly pulling it out. Her heart drops when she sees the unication crystals sat on her palm, the very same one she first saw on this ship on the way to i.

  “Why are they trying to tact me now?” she hisses. “Did Antohem I was returning?”

  Taking a single, deep breath, Emily regains her mask of absolute calm and sends a stream of mana into the crystal.

  “Hello, girl,” Diego’s familiar voice flows from the crystal, igniting a spark e in Emily’s chest that she quickly suppresses. “Introduce yourself.”

  “Emily Coldstone of house Mandrago,” she responds, narrowing her eyes in suspi.

  Why is he gettio introduce myself?

  “Report on your progress in The ant. How far have yressed?”

  Do they know I’m third circle? Did someohem? Have they been watg me?

  Without hesitation, not even a quiver in her voice to betray her suspi, Emily begins a falsified report.

  “I’ve pleted the basic etiquette, geopolitics, and English courses. I’ve also pleted intermediate maths, and I’m the top student taking intermediate magibat and theory,” she says, pausing for a moment to see if he reacts to her falsehoods before tinuing. “I’ve reached sed circle, and I feel my progress growing with each day. I believe I’ll make third circle before the deadline.”

  “Good,” Diego responds, a pleased note in his tone. “We have heard great things about you. We’ve also heard you joined an expedition with house Salvia. Why did you not feel the o ask us if you were allowed?”

  He didn’t question me missing out all the extra courses I’ve been taking, but they have heard about my first expedition. They must not be watg me closely at all.

  Rexing a little, Emily quickly spins a reasonable excuse.

  “I was old to report to the family to ask for permission for anything. You told me to attain honour for the family and advance as much as possible. I thought entering The Gde to gather resources and experiehere would help to that end.”

  She hears a tongue click, and a quietly muttered pint that mixes together into an unintelligible buzz through the crystal. A small vindictive grin creeps onto her face, satisfa bubbling in her chest at his irritation.

  “I uand. Iure, you must request permission before doing anything other than direct orders. Now, on to the main reason for my call,” Diego says, his voice overflowing with malicious ihat sends a shiver down Emily’s spine as a foreboding feeling of dread forms in her gut. “Return to Eimdon and kill your sister.”

  The crystal in her grip disies as her hand ches and lightning explodes from her in an instant. A raging maelstrom of power and anger es her, melting lines into the walls of the room and causing the entire ship to shake.

  Emily notices the shaking and takes a deep breath, f her anger down and drawing her mana bader her trol as she falls into a calming state of meditation. Ohe violent storm has reduced to a faint crackle dang along her skin, Emily’s eyes open again, a simmering rage still buzzing within.

  “Why do they want her dead?” she growls, standing up from the shredded remainder of her bed and pag within the narrow fines of the bed room. “And why are they askio do it? Is it just to torture me? I wouldn’t be surprised, the sadistic bastards.”

  She grits her teeth as lightning sparks between them, holding her anger under trol.

  It could be a test, or maybe they’re just trying to break me. Their brainwashihod has obvious fws, and it’s probably easier to trol their vassals if they break their wills as well. Maybe they saw me going on an expedition and decided that showed enough disobedieo warrant breaking me.

  A loud bang fills the room as somebody sms their fist against the door repeatedly. Emily pauses her steps, turnitention to the presen the other side.

  “Hey, Emily. You alright in there?” the captain of the night crew, Jon, calls from the other side.

  “Yeah. I’m fine,” Emily calls back. “What was that shaking?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll go che the bridge.”

  She feels him walking away down the corridor, he wiser to her involvement.

  I’ll keep lying about that outburst for now a tomorrow. I don’t want to relive my goodbyes, but I ’t show Diego anything is wrong, or they may execute Anna before I get back.

  She restarts her pag, bringing her hand to her mouth and biting down ohumb.

  Still, why now? It’s been a while sihat expedition and even if news was slow to get to them, I doubt it took till now. Did Anna do something to annoy them? Do they already have her captive? Shit, this makes it so much more plicated. I should have e back sooner.

  Emily drives her fist into the wall, denting the solid metal pting before turning around and pg her back to it, sliding down to sit on the floor.

  “There’s no point thinking about that. Whatever’s happeo Anna, I ’t go back far enough to ge it. I only move forward. If they have her, I’ll just have to get her back when I kill them.”

  With the lightning gone from her eyes, and her usual calm returned, Emily opens her notes again to pass the time.

  ***

  The day, she resets to moments before Diego’s call, returning to sit in a pristine room on her bed. She gives him the same lies as before, following the script until he brings up Anna.

  “Return to Eimdon and kill your sister.”

  The moment the words e through the crystal again, Emily grits her teeth, lightning fshing behind her eyes as she holds in her rage.

  “Uood,” she responds with a carefully trolled tone, betraying none of her anger. “How should I get back?”

  “We’ll send the same airship as st time to collect you. They should arrive in five days, so be prepared to leave then,” Diego says, sounding almost disappointed by her calm response. “You’ll be returning to The ant to tinue your training afterwards, so only bring what you need for a few days. That will be all.”

  The signal to the crystal cuts off the moment he’s done, giving Emily no time to respond.

  “Haa,” she lets out a long breath, crag with charge. “At least it seems like Anton never said anything to them: they’re expeg me to arrive in a week.”

  She drops bato her bed, staring at the ceiling as she puts the crystal bato her belt. She absentmindedly pulls out the bullet g with the crystal skull carved into the side, rolling it between her fingers in a rhythmic pattern as her mind races, filling with different fears about what could be happening to her sister.

  “Fuck it,” she spits, sitting up suddenly and flig the g into the air. “I need a distra.”

  She snatches the spinning g and sends it away as she stands and leaves the room. Emily makes her way through the ship, returning to the engine room. She finds the heavy door unlocked, and steps in to see Podrid Ash, the primary meic of the day crew with cropped bck hair and a sturdy build, looking at one of the belts dropping coal into a furh a tool kit spread across the floor beside them.

  “What’s up?” Emily asks, poking her head over their shoulders and making them both jump.

  “Oh, Goddess, Emily,” Ash says, fling away from her as they put a hand to their chest. “I didn’t hear you ing. It’s been a while. What are you doing in here?”

  “I wao clear my head, and I like the sound of maes w,” Emily says, gesturing towards the belt in front of them with her head. “Anyway, what’s wrong? I may be able to help?”

  Ash raises a brow, looking at Emily sceptically as Podrick watches their exge with intrigue.

  “Have you been w on airships in i? Didn’t you say most of your experience is with clocks and the like?”

  “I’ve dabbled with a few rger maes,” Emily says with a shrug, c up her ck of experience. “It’s worth having another set of eyes if I’m here anyway, right?”

  “Fair point,” Ash cedes with a nod. “I’ll never say no to free help. This belt here’s stig. I’m not quite sure why though.”

  “Hmm,” Emily hums with a thoughtful nod, stepping forward and iing the belt.

  The bearings in the upper rollers are worn down. I saw it with my s earlier.

  She moves along the belt, pretending to look for issues at the bottom befrabbing a few sturdy pipes and pulling herself up to the hole a few metres off the ground where the belt ehe room.

  “Here’s your problem. The rollers up here aren’t turning properly. The bearings are probably finished.”

  “Really?” Ash asks, cmbering up to join Emily with less grad looking closely at where she’s pointing. “Damn, you’re right. That was fast. Kid, e take a look at this.”

  Ash lets go of the wall, dropping to the floor with a thud, making way for Podrick to climb up. Emily does the same, nding without a sound and looking at Ash’s scattered tools.

  “I’m assuming you don’t have any spare bearings in there.”

  “Not for these belts,” Ash says with a nod. “We’ll disable this one for now and have a look at the bearings still there to see if we get away with just some oil. If not, I’ll go grab some spares from ste. Wanna help?”

  “Sure. I was looking for a distra.”

  With a nod, Ash turns and moves to a panel on the wall, grabbing a wren the ast. While they’re creating access to the valves to turn off the spinni, Podriimbly drops down from above and looks at Emily with curiosity.

  “Are you a meic?” he asks, looking down at her armour. “I thought you were a soldier or something.”

  “I’m certainly not a normal meic, but yes,” Emily says with a grin. “I made all of my gear.”

  “Woah,” he excims, his gaze drifting to the pistol on dispy on her leg. “What’s that? I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before.”

  “It’s a gun,” Emily expins, proudly pulling the sleek bd grey pistol from its holster and pulling out the magazio show the bullets within. “I call it the Spitter. It uses a magazine system to hold bullets instead of a der like most other pistols. They allow for much higher capacities in a small form, and they’re very quick to reload.”

  “That’s so cool! What’s that crystal for?”

  “Decoration,” Emily lies, not feeling the o expiruths of magic to the boy.

  “Oh,” Podrick responds with a bit of disappoi, quickly moving on to something else. “What are those arm guards? Do they do something?”

  Emily drops the Spitter bato its holster and pats him on the shoulder as the belt beside them grinds to a halt and Ash starts walking back over to them.

  “Maybe I’ll show you ter.”

  ***

  After fixing the faulty belt, and repg the old bearings that had worn too much to be salvageable, Emily heads to lunch with Ash and Podrick. They ehe mess hall, a small room with a few tables to seat ten or so people, and see Anton and Ange already sitting with Eva, the daytime cook, a short, plump woman with wiry, brown hair.

  “Hey,” Anton says, waving them over to joi the table with a rge steaming pot in the middle. “Didn’t expect to see you guys together. You pnning to be more social on this trip, Emily?”

  “Maybe,” Emily responds with a shrug, sitting down and grabbing a bowl to serve some stew into. “I went by the engine room and found these two doing some repairs, so I decided to help.”

  “She’s good,” Ash cuts in, notig the surprised look on Anton’s face. “She spotted the issue with one of the coal belts within seds. She’d be a big help if she joined me for the rest of my repairs: she has better eyes than me.”

  Anton nods, looking at Emily with a mixture of resped a teasing grin.

  “Have the Mandragos been teag you to be a mei i?” Anton asks sceptically. “Last time you were onboard, you were excited to just look at the engine. You definitely weren’t up to repairing it.”

  Emily looks back at him with a pyful glint in her eye, pressing down the simmering rage threatening to rise at the mention of that name.

  “Well, I am now, but if you’d rather not have an amateur w on your ship, I uand,” she says, reag over to pat Ash’s shoulder. “I’ll just sit bad leave the work to the professionals. Sorry, Ash. I wish I could help.”

  Anton chuckles, as Ash looks towards him, unamused. He holds up his hands in mock defeat.

  “Sorry, sorry. Please do us the honour of helping to fix our puny ship,” he says, bowing his head in an exaggerated manner.

  “Ha,” Emily ughs, joined by the others at the table, enjoying the show. “Fine. Since you asked so nicely, I guess I’ll have to.”

  They tiing and joking around, but Emily slowly withdraws from the versation, the pyful banter reminding her of mealtimes with her friends in The Dome.

  Damn. I miss them already.

  KeroKeron