“Brother, you must be happy!”
Lucia stood before her, holding her hands, tears of relief and joy welling in her eyes. The surroundings were a bright church.
In the seats below sat guests who looked like copy-pasted replicas, each face painted with a smile, as if expressing blessings.
Looking down, she saw herself wearing a sacred, pure white wedding dress.
Wait… a church? A wedding dress?
As if realizing something, Clara turned her head in fear to look beside her, only to see a massive squid head, its lips puckered, leaning in to kiss her…
No, there’s no escape!
“Waaaaah!!!”
Clara jolted upright in bed, her back covered in a cold sweat. It took her a moment of disorientation to realize it was a nightmare.
What kind of dream was that? Self-marriage?
No, that was a fake impersonated by Mossima.
Clara marrying Squill…
Why would I have such a dream?
No, wait, I think I’ve had a similar dream before… back then, the groom was Sista…
Am I really destined to get married?
No, we stayed up too late last night, Fran and President Qiexiya also stayed over. Maybe the President is messing with me again… Her ability to manipulate dreams could totally do something like this.
Clara, arbitrarily pinning the blame on the President, picked up her phone from beside the pillow and glanced at the time.
Six o’clock. Still early.
It was still dark outside, so she started preparing breakfast for four. In a daze, she washed up, changed clothes, and rubbed her eyes as she stepped out of her room.
Fran was already in the living room.
“Good morning~ Clara dear~”
“Good morning~ Clara dear~”
She always got up quite early, had a healthy routine, and was always the first one up at the resort too.
Surprisingly, Lucia was also up unusually early today.
“Good… good morning.”
“Huh? Why so early? You could sleep a bit more.”
Lucia held her forehead and shook her ponytail.
“I woke up and couldn’t really fall back asleep… No, actually, I thought I heard a rooster crowing just now, I thought we’d gone back to the countryside…”
“That wasn’t a rooster, that was Clara screaming after being scared by a nightmare.”
Fran said flatly, “Probably because you slept a lot in the car yesterday? So you weren’t that tired last night… Unlike our little President, who didn’t sleep in the car and still hasn’t gotten up.”
“Let’s finish breakfast first, then go wake her,” Clara suggested.
Even though Qiexiya had repeatedly stated her age was far greater than her appearance suggested, Clara couldn’t help but still see her as a child.
Turning on the TV for the morning news as background noise, Fran and Lucia watched Clara stand on a small stool, busy behind the kitchen island.
Bacon sizzled in a frying pan. Clara dropped peeled hard-boiled eggs into hot chocolate to soak, and finally spread butter on toasted bread, dividing it into four breakfast portions.
As if searching for a topic, Lucia suddenly spoke up.
“Speaking of which, it seems the Sigma Heroes bought that moon bus.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Sister Anya told me, the repair and compensation costs were huge. A bus that’s been in an accident and illegally modified is a liability. The moon bus company wasn’t keen on repairing it either. In the end, they negotiated to just buy the bus.”
“But they can’t drive it, right? Although an AI of that level is pretty expensive too.”
Lucia replied, “I guess they bought it all together?”
“What about BB-0027?” Clara asked.
“Probably included. An AI of that grade isn’t cheap. The Sigma Hero Corporation is richer than I thought.”
“It’s just a moon bus. Our President could afford to buy one if she wanted.”
Fran, watching TV, chimed in, then added, “Lucia, next week is the Lunar Pioneering Memorial Day. How about inviting your brother out then?”
The TV showed preparations and rehearsals for the large-scale festival.
[This year’s parade floats for the garden party will, for the first time, be modified from Artemis Corporation’s heavy-duty hovercraft.
The procession will start from Memorial Park, circle the city, and return, lasting approximately two and a half hours. Traffic control will be implemented along the planned route…]
The Lunar Pioneering Memorial Day was the most important holiday on the Moon. As an independent city belonging to no nation, this memorial day was essentially Central City’s founding anniversary.
And the float parade was the most anticipated event of the memorial day.
“Senior Clara said she’d take me to see the garden party. Then we can invite my brother, and the three of us can go together…”
Lucia said this while glancing at Clara, gauging her reaction.
Perhaps she still hadn’t given up. After learning that “Squill” had also undergone gender modification, she was still trying to forge some strange bond between him and “Senior Clara”…
How could Clara not notice her sister’s intentions?
But she didn’t say much. That kind of thing was absolutely impossible anyway.
A look of amusement was on Fran’s face, but her words were teasing.
“Ha, dragging Clara along too? Are you that unwilling to be alone with your brother?”
“Huh? Of course I want to, but there are plenty of chances to be alone… But opportunities to casually find him a wife are rare.”
The news on TV continued:
[Alice calls for heroes in Central City to join the Hero Network to better combat the increasingly severe crime problem…]
Hearing that name, Clara, who was arranging plates, immediately looked up at Fran.
[At a press conference held by the Association, Special-Class Hero ‘Artifice Angel’ Alice…]
The latter seemed triggered by a keyword, her smile vanishing instantly.
“Clara, you absolutely must not join that so-called Hero Network!”
She almost threatened as she warned, “That kind of thing, once something goes wrong… a database built on collecting heroes’ real identities?”
“If it gets breached, it would be a disaster for the entire industry! Who guarantees the heroes’ safety? Even if the heroes are fine, what about their families?”
Lucia didn’t know the history between Alice and Fran and could only smile wryly.
“I read a bit of the report on that system. It supposedly uses advanced AI black-box technology, theoretically impossible to forcibly read from the outside…”
“AI isn’t necessarily reliable, especially strong AIs with their own thoughts. And that’s just the Association’s claim. Whether it’s actually reliable, you’d have to see for yourself…”
Clara actually agreed with that statement.
Fran continued, “Besides, Alice herself is an AI. Of course she’d endorse this system! Maybe she can use it to grasp the real information of all heroes. Then she could do whatever she wants to ordinary heroes.”
“Miss Fran, Special-Class Heroes are supposed to be good guys, right?”
“Who knows!”
Fran’s words were clearly emotional. Lucia, not understanding, could only smile weakly.
“Alright.”
Clara brought the breakfast to the table and said to Lucia,
“Lucia, go wake up President Qiexiya.”
After sending her unknowing sister away, Clara made her proposal.
“Fran, I think we should accept that system.”
Fran considered the implication in Clara’s words.
“You mean…”
Clara nodded, confirming her guess.
“It’s an opportunity to go undercover, isn’t it?”
Wishing all examinees smooth sailing in the college entrance exams~
(Though I think it’s unlikely, but surely no one taking the exams is still reading this, right?)
Maybe.
Конечно конечно… Может быть~