"So Kei said ASIC's base of operations is an abandoned factory." Said Black Sister before looking at her elder sister who was flying a bit ahead of her. "Do you think they're really there?"
"Does it really matter? If they're not there, that's fine. If they are, then we just take care of them swiftly."
"Understood…"
Black Heart and Black Sister flew towards an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Lastation territory.
On the way there, Black Sister noticed that despite looking focused, part of Black Heart's mind seemed to be elsewhere at the moment.
Most likelly because of what Alex said yesterday, which still kept nagging on the back of her brain.
'Being honest with myself…' Thought Black Heart while flying.
When thinking about the CPUs and their personalities, she was by far the only one that expressed such a strong rejection regarding the things she liked in front of others.
Vert would let her excessive obsession with MMOs and Yaoi be easily seen, and she clearly liked to speak about it with anyone willing to listen as well and be seen freely without feeling any shame at all, even when around her own citizens.
Blanc wouldn't mind in the least either whatever her people thought about her obsessive desire to read for entire days on no end or her passion for becoming a famous author.
Neptune was, well, Neptune. No matter how badly people could think of her sometimes because of her childish attitude and total randomness, Neptune would always go through life with a smile and a bright mood, no matter how badly even her own citizens thought of her.
The ways all three of them acted and allowed their passions and hobbies to be seen by others varied, but the three CPUs had one thing in common.
They were upfront about it and honest, not only with others, but with themselves.
Perhaps this honesty was the thing that made the young boy acknowledge them and at the same time made it so hard for her to gain said acknowledgement.
"I see it! Over there!" Said Black Sister, snapping her elder sister out of her train of thought.
Black Heart quickly looked at the area around them and spotted the factory.
It looked old and rather worn out on the outside, along with vegetation growing around it and having taken over most of the walls, but most of the reports mentioned this as the place.
With this in mind, both sisters landed in front of it and looked at their surroundings.
"I don't see anyone." Said Black Sister.
"They could be hiding...Keep your guard up" Said Black Heart while turning her head to look at the CPU Candidate and then turned it to look forward again and summoned her massive sword which encouraged Black Sister to do the same and summon her gun.
Now armed and ready, both sisters entered the building expecting a fight, but only found the remains of the old factory's machines.
"There's nothing here?'"
"We don't know for sure yet, try looking around." Said Black Heart while turning back to look at her.
It took some thorough searching, but the two CPUs managed to find a passage leading deeper into a more open area of the factory.
There, they found many new machines that were still working along with countless robot workers, all focused on manufacturing endless black chips.
"What is this place?" Asked Black Sister while looking around.
When hearing her voice, one of the robots turned its head around and saw them, triggering an alarm that sounded all over the factory.
The robots in the vicinity immediately reacted to it and switched to battle mode, while many others appeared from deeper or from spots where they were hiding and headed towards the two sisters
"They're coming! Get ready!" Said Black Heart as she raised her sword.
[Meanwhile: Lastation Basilicom]
Alex laid down on his bed while scrolling through social media on his phone.
It was the only thing he could do at the moment since he had already fulfilled his mercenary quota for the day.
Unfortunately this wasn't enough to relieve his boredom as he eventually turned off his phone and sighed.
"Damn, I'm bored…" He said as move over and now sat on the edge of the bed.
Wondering what to do, Alex got up and decided to head out into the city and do whatever just happened to come up.
On the way out he walked by Noire's office and noticed she wasn't there which was rather odd since Noire would always be in her office.
Another thing Alex noticed that caught his attention were the large towers of paperwork around the desk, around four of them next to each other.
Feeling curious about it, the young boy entered the office and looked around, confirming the office was indeed empty, before approaching one of the towers of papers and looking at them.
"What the heck is all this?" He asked to himself as he took one of the documents from the top of the closest tower and reading it.
"Ore Mining Operations. Current budget: 170.235 credits. Proposal to increase between 2.05% to 3.25% by the end of the month…" He said silently to himself.
"That's a proposal to increase the mining operation's budget".
Alex quickly turned around and saw Kei entering the office and looking at him.
"You do realize looking at private government documents like those could land you a few years behind bars, do you?" Asked Kei.
"H-Huh? U-Um, I'm sorry I didn't mean to!" Said the boy who immediately panicked and backed away from the paperwork.
"I was just joking." She said with a smirk.
"You can't just say stuff like that and then immediately say that it was a joke." Said Alex while sweat dropping.
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"N-Nothing at all."
The young boy quickly denied what he said to avoid trouble.
Kei doubted his words for a moment, but decided to brush that aside and walked towards him to take the documents.
"Looking at documents tends to be illegal but since you didn't see that much, It's probably alright..." She said while looking at it, then looking again at Alex. "What brings you to Noire's office?"
"Nothing really. I was just on my way to the city and I noticed that she wasn't around..."
"I see…" She said with a pensive expression before looking at him again. "Say. Do you know how much time it takes for Noire to do all of this paperwork?"
Alex turned his head to look at the paperwork before turning to look at Kei again.
"Erm….a week? Maybe a few days?"
"One afternoon."
The young boy's eyes widened and he sweat dropped after hearing the oracle's words.
Those countless piles of paperwork were all done by one person in just an afternoon?
"Surprised? Noire might not be a very upfront person, but she's a very diligent worker."
Alex made a surprised expression when hearing what the oracle said about Noire's lack of honesty.
Did Kei listen in on his conversation with Noire yesterday or did Uni tell her?
"Being diligent doesn't mean you need to fake how you really are with everyone around you." Said the boy, not willing to buy that as an excuse for Noire's behavior.
"To be honest, I think you're right." Said the Oracle. "Noire doesn't really need to act fake or hide her hobbies from the people like she does, but she feels the need to do so."
"Why?"
"Because of her position..."
"Her position?"
"A CPU is commonly known as the most important representative of a nation and is responsible for the safety and guidance of its people. As Lastation's CPU, Noire feels like she's responsible for the lives of every citizen in Lastation, including yours, and constantly tries to live up to the image they have of her by acting like an ideal goddess."
The young boy thought carefully about what Kei explained to him.
It was obvious that Noire hid her hobbies because she was partly shy, but also she acted like she did because she was always thinking of her citizens.
Unlike Alex, who was mostly living life for himself as he only had to worry about himself, Noire carried the weight of hundreds, if not thousands of lives on her shoulders.
"Right now she should be with Uni searching an abandoned factory northwest on the outskirts of the nation. There have been reports of the ASIC having a base there lately and-Hm?"
As the Oracle explained the situation to Alex, the young man walked past her and headed for the hallway.
"Are you leaving already?"
"I, have something important to do." He said without turning around to look at her. "Later."
And with that, the young boy waved goodbye and left the Basilicom.
After a moment or two, the Pracle lowered her head, closed her eyes and sighed before making a smile.
"Boys can be quite a handful..." She said while looking at the document and recalling what she read from a psychology book. "But it seems as though my plan worked out."
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Chapter 28: Complete