Lord of the Truth

Chapter 2481 Late!

Nihari—Northern Region

Zara was still within the enormous Crucible region, surrounded by the vast area occupied by those immense structures, and even after all this time, she was still specifically within the area of Crucible No. 35.

The Crucible of Greed, which had finished improving its efficiency three years ago, was now operating continuously and producing combat vessels just like the rest of the Crucibles of Greed, carrying out its work without stopping for even a single moment.

But Zara herself had never left the place throughout all that time. She hadn't returned to Sky Opening City to personally follow the dozens of revolutionary innovations that had appeared there... Instead, she had remained here ever since waking up, sitting near the Crucible on a simple stone chair beside a stone table that she had made herself.

Drawing.... writing.

She had remained in this same state ever since she woke up after the reconstruction of Crucible No. 35, that astonishing reconstruction process that had amazed everyone who witnessed its results at the time...

The Life Forces had been shocked to discover that Zara's fingers had been destroyed, while scattered damage could be found throughout the internal tissues of her body in several places, and her entire body itself had fallen into a terrifying state of energy depletion, as though the energy within it had been thoroughly drained.

Fortunately, members of the Life Forces and members of the Reshaping Corps had been present at the time, wielders of the only two Laws in the universe that could arguably be said to possess the ability to stop the effects of Destruction upon her body... So, after undergoing some rehabilitation and receiving the necessary assistance, Zara eventually got back on her feet as though nothing had physically happened to her at all.

Mentally, however, the situation had been completely different... Three entire years had passed since then with barely any movement from her worth mentioning.

She barely responded whenever a messenger came to speak with her or read any of the reports delivered into her hands before quickly returning to whatever she had already been doing... This behavior, especially the way she completely immersed herself in her work and paid almost no attention to anything else around her, somewhat reminded the older generation of Robin himself.

And at this particular moment... Zara was sweating heavily as she continued what she had been doing.

Her left hand rested against her forehead, with her fingers buried deeply between strands of her short blonde hair, while with her right hand she was writing something without pause, writing so rapidly and with such concentration that she looked as though she were sitting in the middle of an exam and the paper in front of her was about to be taken away at any moment.

"City Lady."

At that moment, a woman in her thirties came over and stopped beside Zara before bowing slightly toward her, and from her appearance and expression, she looked exhausted herself.

"We've finished what was required of us. There's no room for any further development beyond this point if we take the technology currently available to us into consideration. Even if new ideas appear afterward, with what we currently possess, we simply won't be able to implement them."

"....." Zara merely nodded after hearing the report and, without saying anything in response, gestured with her left hand toward the edge of the stone table beside her.

"Yes." The woman in her thirties immediately understood what she meant, placed a metal tablet on the edge of the stone table where Zara had indicated, then turned around and departed while letting out a tired sigh.

This had been the nature of nearly all the City Lady's meetings with those coming from Sky Opening City throughout the previous three years, with the people arriving to report or deliver something before leaving again, and with barely any actual words being exchanged between the two sides.

Of course, fortunately, the City Lady had already emphasized and encouraged individual research and experimentation, and had divided them into separate sectors and branches that could operate independently from one another, which had enabled Sky Opening City to continue working across every one of its different branches until this very day without everything depending on her constant presence... Even so, there was no doubt whatsoever that they still needed her.

And the problem was... no one knew what she was doing here.

Zara continued what she was doing for several more hours without changing her routine or allowing anything around her to pull her attention away from the work spread before her...

She would write rapidly for a while, her hand moving continuously across the papers, then take a brief break from the writing to draw something she needed... only to return immediately afterward to writing at the same rapid pace once again.

Until, "Hooo~" Zara finally let out a long breath, releasing the air she had been holding as she stopped what she was doing.

Then she stood up and pulled a large quantity of papers from her ring, Krsssh, spreading them out before beginning to carefully organize everything she had accumulated, gathering the drawings together and the writing together until she had arranged them into two separate enormous books.

It was a task that didn't take her very long despite the sheer amount of paper involved, thanks to her soul power and the fact that she had mentally memorized her own work and knew exactly where everything belonged... Now, after finishing the organization, Zara stood looking weakly at the two enormous books and the metal tablet resting together on her table.

After letting out another sigh, and with her heart pounding heavily in her chest despite having already finished everything she could prepare, "I wonder if this is enough..." Zara muttered quietly to herself, then picked up the two books and the metal tablet and left.

----------

In front of one of the palaces in the Central Region—

Knock Knock Knock

Zara stood before the door and knocked gently against it rather than entering directly. "Uncle Billy, may I come in?"

It wasn't long before a voice answered her from somewhere far inside the palace, "Come in!"

Crack Zara pushed open the large gate after receiving permission and entered with small steps, her gaze moving around the interior as she continued forward...

This was the palace assigned specifically to Billy Burton, and it was located relatively close to the Imperial Palace compared to many of the other palaces throughout the Central Region.

Normally, however, Billy himself barely ever saw this palace. Just like the rest of Robin's children and the Generals, most of them didn't even know exactly where their own assigned palaces in the Central Region were located, and Billy was one of them, jumping from one planet to another every day as he tried to prevent bloodshed wherever he went...

But today was a very special day.

"Come, Zara."

"...." Hearing the voice again, the blonde girl took another turn in its direction and continued forward until she entered a large hall surrounded by several staircases leading in different directions.

But instead of continuing to walk toward the source of the voice as she had intended, Zara suddenly stopped in place when something inside the hall caught her attention...

At the center of that large hall stood a large round table, and scattered across its surface without any particular order were a number of books and metal tablets. There was even a piece of cloth lying among them, folded carelessly as though no one had bothered much with its appearance, but for some reason that table immediately attracted Zara's attention to an unusual degree... Her expression changed almost at once into a strange mixture of curiosity and disbelief as she examined what had been gathered there.

But that expression gradually softened into an extremely faint smile when her eyes landed on a certain book among everything on the table, a small book with a title written across it in noticeably terrible handwriting... handwriting that belonged to her brother Peon.

"...Dear, you're very late." At that moment, Billy appeared descending one of the staircases leading into the hall, wearing an apron while casually wiping his hand with a kitchen towel as he came down.

"Yes, I'm sorry." Zara immediately lowered her head slightly upon hearing him. "I was under a lot of pressure and had to rethink what I was going to give you more than once before coming here. I'm stupid."

"..?" Billy raised an eyebrow at her answer, clearly not having expected her to interpret his words that way. "I meant you took too long after I called you, girl." Billy smiled, then reached out and gently pinched her cheek. "There's no need to put so much pressure on yourself over this. If even you're thinking about it with such heaviness, then what are the others supposed to do with themselves? Haha."

Then, after releasing her cheek, he extended his hand toward her expectantly. "What did you prepare?"

"...." Zara extended her own hand somewhat hesitantly, and the two enormous books along with the metal tablet appeared on it. She looked at the three items for a moment before presenting them to him. "These two are from me, and the tablet is from Sky Opening City."

"Then all three are from you." Billy accepted the books and the metal tablet from her with a laugh, then placed all three on the round table among the other similar items already gathered there. After that, he turned around and began climbing the stairs again while speaking to her, "Do you want to help me? Even I'm under pressure, as you know. I'll be leaving in only an hour, and I'm still not finished yet."

"Mhm, of course I'll help with this mission in particular!!" Zara finally revealed a genuinely happy smile after all the tension she had shown since arriving, then quickly climbed the stairs behind him.