Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

"I just feel that I seem to be full of inspiration since I came to Rhodes Island. I have written a lot, and the ones I am particularly satisfied with have been written in Braille for you." What Noah held in his hand was the so-called essence book.

"Really..." Noah nodded, "When did it start?"

"After I left Casimir...after I came to Rhodes Island," Viviana said with a smile. "Maybe it's because I left a familiar place, so I couldn't suppress some of my emotions. After all...it's the first time I've been away from my friends for so long."

"...Is that so?" Xin thought, the feelings expressed in the poem were more than just friendship. Noah shook his head. "It's not that I can't understand you. After leaving a familiar place, there are always many things to say, and these words eventually become poems, left in your poetry book. That's great. Perhaps in the near future, I can see your poetry collection in a bookstore."

"That's not the case..." Viviana blushed slightly, thinking to herself, how could she dare show these poems to anyone else? Only in front of Noya did she need to pretend and could show her poems to her without reservation. "I don't need a large audience, I just need people who can appreciate it. Isn't that right?"

"...Yeah...right, but you could show these poems to Margaret as well...maybe?"

Noah smiled and said, "Maybe you can get an extra audience."

Chapter 4: Phantom of Rhodes Island

One more audience?

Viviana frowned slightly. Noah was probably talking about letting Margaret read her poem too? But... the thought of showing this to Knight Yao made her feel ashamed from the inside out. Just... such a poem, showing it to Knight Yao...

"Isn't it appropriate?"

Viviana blushed slightly as she whispered, the shame reaching her heart through Noah's Originium skills. She sighed softly. How could this be allowed? It wouldn't be good to suppress myself all the time. Was she really going to stop Viviana from interacting with Margaret? Besides, she and Margaret weren't officially lovers, were they? At most, she'd been kissed by her childhood sweetheart. It wasn't like she'd been kissed as a joke before, so it didn't count.

Noah could fully understand the emotions that permeated Viviana's poetry; it wasn't strange for a young girl to be in love. Besides, that person was Margaret, a glittering, walking, self-luminous being.

Regardless of gender, it is probably difficult to resist the charm of the Shining Knight Lin Guang, right?

Noah subconsciously touched the Originium crystal cluster on his wrist, a self-deprecating smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He was entangled in what? He spoke as if he could spend his whole life with Margaret.

Life is too short for me, but not for Margaret.

I always have to think more about Margaret. Perhaps it was because the snowstorm in Kjerag was so strong that it blinded her and made her almost forget about the insatiable source stones that were still slowly growing in her body.

Sooner or later, one day, my body will turn into nutrients for the Originium, and my consciousness will turn into nothingness. Instead of letting Margaret miss me in uncontrollable sadness, isn't it better to let her move towards a brighter future?

Noah lowered her eyes, which were still without light, but seemed to be able to convey emotions. Her depression was also noticed by Viviana, but before she opened her mouth to ask, Noah returned to her previous smile.

"Isn't that great? If you're embarrassed, then let me write to Margaret." Noah clapped her hands. "I think your writing is excellent and deserves to be seen by more people. Isn't that what you wish for? Being recognized by the Knights of Glory is something I can only help you with while I'm here. If you miss this opportunity, you'll never get it again."

"...Is that so..." Viviana also felt that showing it to the Knight of Glory wasn't such a bad idea. Since Noah had said so, she might as well give it a try. "Then thank you, Noah?"

"it is good."

Maria was eating the cookies prepared by Viviana and unexpectedly found that the atmosphere of this poetry sharing session was actually very good. Sister Noah and Viviana would mention their sister from time to time, and it didn't seem that worth worrying about.

Could it be that my idea that Viviana was a thief was wrong?

Maria couldn't help but doubt herself, but she didn't completely let her guard down. After all, although Viviana said that she admired the Knight of Glory, her eyes were always on Noah. Those eyes full of emotion made Maria feel that there was something fishy going on.

——Perhaps it’s just because I’m…that I’ve restrained myself a little?

Then I was right to come! Don't worry, sister! Honor Knight Maria is still protecting Sister Noah!

A sense of mission surged into my heart.

While my sister is away, I must protect Sister Nuoya! Sister Nuoya must belong to the Linguang family! She is already a member of the Linguang family. The Linguang family has long claimed Nuoya! Even if it means turning against Viviana, I must protect Sister Nuoya!

Perhaps because Maria was there, the sharing session didn't last long. After seeing Noah and the others off, Viviana looked at the empty dorm and suddenly felt a little lonely. Honestly, if possible, she wanted to keep Noah, even stay the night. Since the dorm was a double room and she didn't have a roommate, Noah could stay the night, and they could shower together, come back and chat. She could push Noah's wheelchair, carry her to bed, and say goodnight to each other...

As she thought about it, Viviana blushed. This kind of life was so dreamy that she felt a little overwhelmed.

She covered her cheek, feeling the warmth of his palm... She felt ashamed yet filled with longing. If only they could be together forever, or if the Glory Knight could be added, if the three of them could always be together, chatting about poetry, practicing martial arts with each other, chatting about the world. This was simply the life she had only dreamed of in the tower. She must have come down from the tower just to meet these two.

She lowered her palms and gently clenched her fists to encourage herself.

"Viviana, there's still time... don't worry." She muttered to herself, and then was attracted by the sunset outside the window. She came to the bedside. Through the blinds, the bright red afterglow was divided by the blinds and fell on her face.

So beautiful——

She thought, the sunset outside the window sank into the endless horizon, as red as blood. Rhodes Island was still moving forward endlessly, and probably not many people would have the time to watch this sunset fall into this suffering land.

-

"Doctor? You're slacking off here again!" Amiya walked up the stairs to the bridge and saw the doctor standing alone on the deck looking at the sunset from afar. The sunset stretched and distorted the doctor's back, but she just stood there so calmly, as if she had not changed for thousands of years.

Hearing Amiya's voice, she simply turned her head and smiled softly. "I'm just here to see the sunset. I'll be back to work soon."

"But the Doctor always says that," Amiya said disgruntled, coming to her side. The Rhodes Island uniform, too large for her, felt like a cape on her, and beside the Doctor, she looked petite. Yet, on those tiny shoulders, the entire Rhodes Island was carried. As the CEO of Rhodes Island, while it seemed the Doctor was the one constantly dying from overwork, Amiya actually bore no less pressure.

While the doctor was working, Amiya was always there to help, and she had little time to rest.

Although she kept saying, "Doctor, you still have a lot of work to do and you can't rest yet," in fact, the one who needed rest the most was herself.

For someone so young to bear such a heavy burden, Terra truly is a somewhat unkind place. The Doctor thought, if Amiya were a normal child, she'd probably be in school now. He'd let slip the story of his last atrocity at RimBitio—he'd once traveled there with her and Amiya for a long time. Back then, Amiya wasn't even the CEO of Rhodes Island, and he wasn't the Doctor he is now.

She didn't know any of these memories, but she had a feeling when she saw Amiya.

——That is someone who cannot be forgotten.

Those were precious memories once treasured in my heart, people my heart still remembered even when my brain had forgotten them.

Amiya, my little rabbit...

She stretched out her hand, which naturally fell on Amiya's head, and rubbed it gently. Although Amiya was attacked suddenly, she was not surprised. She rubbed her head gently against the doctor's palm, just like in the past.

"Doctor, I will protect you, just like before."

"Well, Amiya, I will protect you too."

The doctor lowered her eyes and tightly grasped the broken horn in her pocket. She had a premonition that this broken horn would play an unexpected role when they arrived in Londinium.

This premonition prevented her from immediately following Roland's plan and handing the broken horn to Noah.

Or rather...Noah now.

"Doctor, you seem a little strange today." Sensing the doctor's uneasiness, Amiya asked curiously, "Doctor, you seem very uneasy, as if you are worried about something..."

"Haha, why should I be uneasy? I have you by my side." The doctor shook his head. "Maybe you are mistaken. Perhaps you are too happy that Miss Noya has returned to the island, so your ability has malfunctioned a little?"

"...There's no such thing as a malfunction. Doctor, you're fooling me again," Amiya said, puffing her cheeks. "And I'm of course happy that Miss Noa has returned to Rhodes Island. We can fight side by side again. Rhodes Island is our home, our hope, and the path we must take."

Amiya paused, then turned her head and said, "Also, Doctor, Rhodes Island is your home too."

"Puff--" When Amiya turned her head, the doctor suddenly had a sense of déjà vu, as if in the past, on such a bridge, someone turned his head and looked at him like this, with a smile on his lips, as if saying something.

She whispered the name—

"Pureseth..."

Just like Amiya, although she could no longer remember who she was, her name was still etched in her mind. At this moment, Amiya's shadow overlapped with Precious's shadow. After she blinked, she saw that the person in front of her was still Amiya.

She forced a smile. "How far are we from Londinium?"

"It's about three or four days' journey. Doctor, do you have any plans?" Amiya estimated and said, "Of course, it's just an estimate, it's not that accurate - there may be delays and so on."

"Hmm... three or four days. Before then, let's all rest and prepare properly. Unlike Longmen, I have a feeling this will be complicated and much worse."

The doctor said, "Let everyone conserve their energy and prepare for a protracted war."

"I understand... Doctor." Amiya always trusted the doctor's judgment, so she nodded immediately and said, "Then... Doctor, you should also have a good rest. Leave the work to me!"

"When I say recuperate, I mean you, my little Amiya." The doctor shook his head helplessly, grabbed Amiya's hood, and covered her head with it. "As for the work, I'll take care of it."

Watching the two from afar, Kal'tsit had originally planned to take the Doctor back to work, but after hearing their conversation from afar, even Kal'tsit's lips unconsciously raised a few pixels. She didn't continue to move forward, but just watched the two from a distance, just like before.

The sun finally sank completely below the horizon, and darkness enveloped the earth. Rhodes Island continued to advance along its planned route, and most of the operators finished their day's work and went to rest.

The operators on the night shift had just gotten up and were yawning as they greeted their colleagues. Most of them were nocturnal species, and Rhodes Island had a completely different look at night.

"Ah... good evening—" Ethan said to Miguel and the others around him, "I didn't expect you guys to be on the night shift—"

"It's not just us. Yato Hei Jiao and the others are also on the night shift. They should have just woken up by now." Miguel and Fin each punched in, marking the start of their shift. They walked through the corridors of Rhodes Island, chatting casually. Most of the night shift staff were asleep, so the corridors were deserted. Honestly, spending the night on a landship like this was quite creepy, especially since Ethan had previously seen a movie about a monster with acidic blood appearing on a sealed landship, moving through pipes and hunting humans.

Honestly, even though it's an old movie, Columbia's film does have some flavor, and because it uses leather sets, it looks much more realistic than the later special effects. The realism of the leather sets, coupled with the film's own leaning towards realism, has made Ethan somewhat allergic to the long corridors of the landspeeder. The routes in the landspeeder are so winding that when he reaches a corner, he worries about whether there's something hidden in his blind spot.

But he also laughed at himself for thinking too much, until they turned a corner and Ethan saw a dark shadow floating around the corner out of the corner of his eyes.

"..." He rubbed his eyes, and the shadow disappeared. He thought he was seeing things. Then he said speechlessly, "I'd better not watch so many movies recently."

"what happened?"

"I just saw a dark figure wearing ancient armor at the end of the corridor..."

"Haha, you must have watched too many horror movies borrowed from Kada." Miguel laughed at his colleagues. "Last time, Snake Tuxiang also borrowed a documentary from Kada to watch, and ended up not even daring to go to the bathroom."

"I just saw it wrong. Maybe I just woke up and my mind is not very clear yet." How could Ethan admit that he was as cowardly as Snake Tuxie? He retorted, "And you must have been cowardly too when you saw me."

"How is that possible? There are no such things as undead in this world. That's unscientific." Finn, as the top student here, analyzed rationally, but when she turned her head to look at the corridor Ethan mentioned, she didn't see anything at first, but when she looked away, she saw a dark shadow standing at the end of the corridor in her peripheral vision, just standing there like a statue.

Her expression changed, and she rubbed her eyes like Ethan did. "Damn it... Am I hallucinating too?"

"What's wrong with you guys? Isn't there nothing there?" Miglu scratched her head, not knowing what her teammates were doing, but when she looked away, a dark shadow flashed in her peripheral vision.

"……Alas!!!!"

Chapter 5: Knight Duel (Quick Look)

"Is Rhode Island haunted?"

Noah repeated the haunted stories that others had mentioned in confusion. To her, ghosts and monsters never seemed to be something worth believing in.

"Maybe they're just some lonely Rhodes Island operators. How could Rhodes Island be haunted?" Noah speculated. "After all, ghosts can't exist."

"But, but it seems to make sense. Some people have started to investigate whether it is the ghosts of Originium patients who died accidentally in Rhodes Island who are wandering around." But Maria quite believed this story. "At midnight, when the twin moons are high in the sky, it is the time when the yin energy is the heaviest. At this time, the ghosts of those who died in vain due to the infection of the Ore Disease will wander the passages of Rhodes Island. They are confused, pacing, and have no idea that they are dead. Isn't it amazing?"

"...Are you scared or excited?" Noah was speechless. "These are all fairy tales. There's no credibility."

"Then, Sister Noah, why don't you come with me to look for it tonight? Isn't that amazing? I've been in Rhodes Island for so long, and this is the first time I've seen something like this!" Maria was very excited. "I heard that Xiao, Mel, Glaucus, and the others have formed a ghost hunting team, planning to catch all the ghosts in one fell swoop."

"...Don't get involved with them." Noah said helplessly, "If it's true, it's very dangerous, and it can't be solved by technology. If it's fake, you'll just be sleep deprived."

Noya appealed to her emotions and reasoned with her, but adolescent girls are like that, with an extraordinary curiosity about the unknown. Noya's persuasion did not stop her from going on a ghost hunting journey. Noya could not do anything else, so she nodded and agreed to go along to see what was going on.

Kuro didn't say anything, but Noah felt that she didn't want to catch any ghosts. After all, the most famous attribute of ghosts is physical immunity - for a warrior like Kuro, they might be the most frustrating enemy.

If Tora were here, there might be some way. His ghost cavalry might be the closest thing to the concept of ghosts. Unfortunately, there has been no news of Tora since he disappeared in Xiaoqiu County. He might still be looking for him. After Noah came back, there was no way to contact him. He could only let Rhodes Island spread the news that he had returned to Rhodes Island, hoping that Tora would find him on his own.

The Xiaoqiu County incident happened suddenly, and Noah was not fully prepared. There were many decisions that seemed bad when he thought about it now. Although most of them were caused by information asymmetry, Noah did not intend to blame it all on the information asymmetry. After all, the information asymmetry can be reduced in his own way. Noah felt that it was his own lack of ability that led to this result.

The disaster in Xiaoqiu County weighed heavily on Noya's heart. It was a heavy weight. It was the loss of countless lives: those killed in the bombardment, those who couldn't be rescued in time, those trapped beneath the rubble, mothers who lost their children, orphans who lost their parents... She remembered them all, not a single one. Although the colonel who ordered the bombardment was dead, the deep pool that truly led to the Xiaoqiu County incident remained.

Noah will eventually have a break with Shenchi, and when that happens, he will definitely seek justice for these lives...

Noah subconsciously clenched his fists, and it took a long time before he loosened them. The debt to Xiaoqiu County was not yet paid.

But then again...Goblins...

It might not be a bad thing if the mineral disease can really retain consciousness after death and become a so-called ghost. Perhaps the ghost in your eyes is the person that some people dream of and want to see.

Noah lowered his eyes...if he could really see a ghost...

If I could really see... Mom, maybe I could let go of a lot of things.

Moreover, if I could really become a so-called ghost, would I be able to look at them more often in the future?

Noah touched the Originium crystal cluster on his wrist and thought optimistically, if you think about it this way, becoming a ghost is not a bad thing, right?

However, her mood swings seemed to be noticed by Kuro who was standing beside her. She calmly closed the door, and after Maria left, the two of them fell into solitude. She naturally leaned over, took Noah out of the wheelchair, and placed him on the bed.

"...Eh? Kuro, I'm not planning on resting yet..." Noah was startled. Although she was still very cooperative, she still reminded him, "Even though we have to take action tonight, there's no need to go to bed so early now, right?"

"You need—" Kuro began. "You need to rest right now."

"...You can be a bit too forceful sometimes..." Noah said helplessly, "I can't just sleep like this...I haven't even taken off my clothes yet."

"Then let me help you?" Kuro's lips curled up into a smile. "I usually help you change clothes, right?"

"...It's not impossible." Noah paused, then raised his head, "But you're not allowed to do anything rash, okay?"

"That depends on how you define messing around." Kuro lowered his head and began to undress Noah. After arriving in Rhodes Island, Noah also received a set of Rhodes Island uniforms, which she usually wore as a coat. Rhodes Island uniforms were well-cut and made of good materials. They were breathable and comfortable to wear, making them Noah's favorite clothes.

Kuro unzipped his pants all the way to the bottom, and then Noah cooperated by turning around and taking off his coat. Then all that was left on Noah was his underwear, a plain shirt, and the huge fruit tightly wrapped in the shirt. I don't know why Noah can maintain such good development. Maybe no matter how poor you are, you can't be poor here.

Kuro's gaze fell on the two soft fruits that rose and fell with his breathing for a few seconds. Noya also felt his gaze and subconsciously covered his chest, his face slightly red. "Where are you...looking at?"

"...I just feel like you've grown up a little bit." Kuro paused and spoke in a more serious tone.

"...No, it's just your illusion." Kuro's comment made Noah not know how to respond, but she herself didn't feel anything. After all, in the past, she was only worried about whether her fruit would affect her swordsmanship. Girls from knight families always regard themselves as boys, so they are not only insensitive to this aspect, but even feel it is a hindrance.

But it’s different now… Even when Casimir was the big boss, Noah could feel that no matter whether it was a man or a woman, their eyes would be taken away by her chest before they fell on her face.

Being sensitive to sight is not always a good thing. At times like this, you can only pretend not to know.

"Then I'll continue?" Kuro's voice was obviously more smiling, "Noah?"