After everything had settled down — that being Bambi returning to normal and falling asleep, Luciel heard the metallic door hissed open. He slowly turned toward the sound and immediately froze.
A woman casually leaned against the door frame with her arms crossed, yet the pressure she exuded was so palpable and crushing that he felt like he was being choked. It reminded him of the first time he came face-to-face with Bambi. The calm aura of an Elf and the dominant pressure of a Guardian made his hair stand on end and froze him in place.
However, this woman's pressure was far more domineering than Bambi's.
'She's definitely not a Guardian, I can tell you that much.'
She had short, dark hair that fell just past her jaw, and her eyes were dark and half-lidded. Being a Resonator, her beautiful appearance was expected, but even then, it was striking enough to make Luciel redefine the beauty standard.
He glided his eyes down and saw a thin choker settling around her neck. She wore a crimson dress shirt beneath a long black trench coat that hung open and loose off her shoulders. A wide leather corset hugged her waist, with silver chains looping beneath it like waist chains; low-rise black trousers and heels finished off her look.
There was a small, girlish detail that clashed with everything else about her — a red ribbon pinned behind her ear.
"Your stare is quite intense, kid."
Luciel immediately went on high alert. For all he knew, that woman could be an intruder.
"Who are you?"
The woman cleared her throat and strode toward the bed.
'Shit.'
He tried to wake Bambi, but as he reached for her, the woman was already in front of him.
'Fast!'
Luciel was about to summon Dawn when the woman opened her mouth in a whisper.
"Relax. I'm a friend of Bambi. You're on my ship right now."
He gave her a doubtful look, his stare intense.
The woman pulled up a chair and sat down, her legs crossed.
"Sorry for the late introduction. Belynda Enclazante, captain of Golden Flower Corporation's Gleipnir Squad and master of Gleipnir."
Golden Flower Corporation… when he heard of the name, he was rather stunned. There was no one who did not know of the Golden Flower Corporation, a first-rate PNA company that every Resonator wanted to work for.
PNA, which stood for Protect and Assault, was the global operational framework established by Heerser to regulate, license, and invest in elite combat or logistics companies. Contracted and accredited by Heerser, these companies' responsibility was to confront threats originating from the Shattered Realm.
In other words, PNA companies were semi-autonomous military-corporate entities, and Golden Flower stood at the top.
'So when Bambi said she knew someone very high up, all this time she meant the freaking GFC?'
Luciel was speechless for a moment before regaining his composure.
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
Belynda leaned back on the chair.
"You can ask Bambi later. Either way, I have a proposal for you, Luciel."
Judging by how she knew his name, Bambi must've mentioned it.
"I'm listening."
After a pause, Belynda said:
"Working at Golden Flower, how does that sound? I'm formally recruit—"
"Nooooo! Don't you dare steal him, you old hag!"
Bambi sprang into action like a sleeper agent who'd just heard the code word.
Belynda raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Old hag? I'm 58, currently in the prime of my life right now."
"Ugh. Whatever. Just don't touch him. Have you even apologized to him yet? You almost killed him! No… apologizing isn't enough!"
Right. Only now did he realize that the huge metal mass he'd last seen floating in the sky was probably Belynda's ship. But what were they doing here? He guessed they had come to meet Bambi, and that was it.
Luciel glanced at Belynda, who then replied with a gaze of her own:
"I'm truly sorry for this incident. I will compensate you fairly."
Bambi growled at Belynda, then looked to him for approval, checking whether he was okay with it.
Luciel nodded and turned his attention to Belynda.
"I'll hold you to that."
She chuckled and smiled.
"Bold. I like you. You should really come work here."
He gave her a corporate smile, then purposefully ignored her remarks and changed the topic:
"How long was I out?"
Belynda glanced at her wrist where her Resonance Watch was.
"About six hours."
She lifted her chin toward Bambi.
"She refused to let us leave — not until you woke up."
Six hours wasn't so bad, considering he'd thought he would be hospitalized with severe burns and squashed organs.
Sitting on the bed beside him, Bambi crossed her arms, an eyebrow raised as if daring anyone to disagree.
"Is it unreasonable?"
Belynda sighed.
"No."
She stood up and fixed her coat.
"I understand that you're still angry, but Joanne needs a word with you. She can't put it on hold any longer."
Bambi fell silent, head bowed, before lifting her gaze.
"Alright. But he's coming."
She pointed at Luciel.
This time, Belynda was the one silent, deep in thought while keeping eye contact with both of them. Then she turned around and walked out the door.
"Follow me."
Following her signal, he and Bambi jumped off the bed.
As they walked toward the door, she tugged at his shirt, her eyes filled with concern.
"You okay?"
Luciel nodded, rolling his shoulders and shaking out his hands.
"Yeah. Never been better."
He wasn't lying. He had never felt this invigorated before, but this only added to the mystery as to what actually happened. There was a lot for him to think about — how he survived, how he was unscathed, the GFC…
But Luciel wanted to focus on the current matter first, especially after hearing the name Joanne. Whenever Golden Flower Corporation came up, Joanne was the name that followed. Oftentimes, it was the other way around.
The president, and the Golden Flower herself, Joanne Morgenstern.
She and her company were all he knew, though. You couldn't really escape from them once you went on a journey with a Resonator. But other than that, he was pretty much in the dark.
What surprised him the most, though, was that Bambi knew Golden Flower, and she seemed close with them, too. But he couldn't say it didn't make sense. After all, she was someone of real importance, and her real identity had to remain classified.
Anyway, they finally stepped out of the medic room and into a long, narrow corridor. The walls were the same dark steel as the room they had left, lined with the same conduits. The floor was a grid of metal that clanged softly under their boots. There were doors lined on both sides of the corridor at regular intervals, each one identical and locked behind some sort of scanning mechanism.
Luciel was mesmerized by the sleekness of the ship. This chunk of metal was dedicated to dimension jumping and battling against Discordants, after all. Manufacturing one of these ships must have cost hundreds of millions or even billions of Ekos.
After a minute of walking, Belynda led them up a flight of metal stairs and through a reinforced bulkhead. Then, another narrow path stretched ahead. This floor, however, had a wider corridor and higher ceiling, which meant it housed all the important rooms.
The conduits were thicker and more refined here. They blended in with the walls, glowing with an amber light instead of the dim blue below.
What caught his eyes the most were the panels plastered along the walls, displaying scrolling data — ship diagnostics, route coordinates, readouts Luciel couldn't fathom to understand.
It truly felt like a warship.
Another minute passed, and not one person had opened their mouth. The silence continued until Belynda stopped at a door near the end of the hallway. It looked no different from the others.
The giant metal door had a small panel embedded at chest height. The panel wore a black glass surface no larger than a playing card. She pressed her palm flat against it, and the glass pulsed once. A thin ring of light traced the outline of her hand, then with a beep, the glass turned gold.
A crisp, synthesized voice rang out from a hidden intercom.
[Access granted.]
The door split down the middle and slid apart with a quiet hiss.
Belynda turned to look at him and Bambi, smiling politely.
"Welcome to my office."