"Hook, Julian..." Alina spoke up, her tone a little downcast.
Stelle looked at the children who had suddenly grown gloomy and was a bit stunned. "I really didn't expect this kind of reaction."
After a brief silence, Julian directly started dropping little pearls of tears.
"Wuu... wuu..."
Hook's eyes were also welling up, but she still said firmly, "...O-okay! No crying, Julian! You're the Mole Gang's number two, you can't let the adults laugh at you!"
Then the little girl stomped her foot again and stared seriously at March and the others. "Hmph, you three, remember this! From today on, you're the Mole Gang's biggest rivals!"
March froze in place and said in confusion, "Rivals...? What are you even talking about? There's no beginning or end to this, I don't understand a thing!"
Alina explained to March, "...Hook and Julian's dream all along was that one day they'd defeat the bad people above and lead everyone in the Lower District to take back their home."
"Now, the spotlight has all been taken by the big brothers and sisters, so..."
Hook choked up as she said, "Wuu... w-we won't give up so easily! One day, the Mole Gang will become the great heroes of the Upper and Lower Districts, and make everyone look at us with new... with new..."
The momentum was built up well, but Hook's knowledge reserves very effectively ruined it.
"Scrape the bone to remove poison?" Stelle started messing around.
"...It's 'look at us with new eyes'!" March ruthlessly complained.
"Ah, right, look at us with new eyes! I-I remembered it, I didn't need you to remind me!"
Hook was still stubbornly talking back.
Dan Heng half-lidded his eyes as he watched the scene, with no intention of stepping in to say anything.
He only muttered to himself in his heart, "Heh, already an adult who's crushing kids' dreams..."
As soon as this thought appeared, Dan Heng froze for a moment and slightly widened his eyes.
'Is this my line of thinking?'
He asked himself, and clearly, it wasn't.
"Looks like I've unknowingly been influenced by Nero too..." Dan Heng sighed softly and muttered to himself.
Just then, a sudden gust of strong wind swept past everyone.
At the same time as the wind blew, a girl's scream could be heard.
"Why would you do something like this ahhh~"
Stelle and March hurried to shield the children, and Hook even raised both hands to firmly hold down her hat.
The sudden wind from who knows where whipped everyone's hair and clothes wildly.
"What was that just now?!" March said.
"Seems like something flew past," Stelle said.
"...I saw white hair, and it sounded like Clara's voice..." Dan Heng spoke up. "So I think it might be..."
BOOM!
Before Dan Heng could finish speaking, a massive black shadow fell from the sky and smashed into the ground.
Everyone had to protect the children again to keep them from being cut by flying rubble or blown away by the impact of the falling shadow.
And this huge shadow that descended from the sky was, coincidentally, someone familiar.
Energy leaked out from beneath steel armor, and a single crimson eye radiated a dangerous aura.
Svarog slowly stood up, raised his hand, and energy gathered in the barrel of the cannon in his arm as he adjusted his firing angle.
"Leave Clara!"
As Svarog spoke, a white-purple energy beam cannon immediately fired, blasting into the depths of the town and causing a violent explosion.
This shot did not hit its target. More precisely, Svarog had not intended to hit the target he was chasing in the first place.
But this shot also failed to hit where he had aimed.
Some unlucky Fragmentum monster that came out of nowhere just happened to crash into the shot and was blown to pieces.
Maybe that Fragmentum monster had only come out for a walk...
When one palm cannon failed to achieve its goal, Svarog immediately began recalculating. He did not linger there and instantly chased deeper into Rivet Town.
This sudden situation left everyone a bit stunned.
"Why did Svarog come here...?" March asked blankly.
"He came looking for Clara, that's for sure. You can tell from what he just said, so..." Stelle continued along March's line of thought.
"So the only one who could've taken Clara away is me. That's what you're about to say, right?"
Nero's voice came from behind them.
Everyone turned around and saw Nero sitting on Black Cut, with no idea when this kid had circled back.
And on Black Cut, besides Nero, there was indeed Clara...
At this moment, Clara was clutching Nero's shoulders tightly with both hands. Her small body was trembling slightly, tears welling up in her eyes, clearly badly frightened.
Which made sense. For a girl like her, flying on a sword at that speed was still a bit too much.
After all, even Svarog had been shaken off.
Nero placed a hand on his forehead and looked into the distance. He could vaguely see Svarog's figure moving through the darkness.
"He ran really far!" he remarked, sounding completely unconcerned.
"Ugh... Nero... you went too far..."
Whether it was flying close to the ground at high speed or being right next to an explosion, both were far too wild for Clara.
Now that they had finally stopped and she'd caught her breath, the girl immediately vented her anger.
She hammered Nero in a flurry, then hurriedly climbed down from Black Cut. Because her legs were weak, she almost fell to the ground.
Thankfully, March reacted quickly and caught Clara.
After that, while comforting Clara, March said to Nero, "So why did you do something like this anyway?"
Nero thought for a moment and said, "It was mostly experimental.
"When we were talking in the robot settlement, I heard Mr. Yang want to bring Svarog onto the Express, and Clara was also starting to yearn for the Nameless's adventurous lifestyle."
"But taking Svarog away is obviously very difficult, while taking Clara away is different."
"The results of the experiment proved my guess was correct, and it was even a one-stone-three-birds kind of approach."
"You're way too rigorous in the weirdest places..." Stelle said helplessly, rubbing her forehead.
March looked at Clara in her arms, trembling like a startled rabbit, then looked at Nero, who had an innocent expression and even a hint of pride.
After sighing, the girl spoke earnestly, "Nero, you need to learn to be considerate of others!"
"Where's Mr. Welt?" Dan Heng asked.
Nero said, "Mr. Yang is still in the robot settlement. He's planning to properly study Perkins."
Dan Heng, "?"
"Study Perkins? Why? And wait, Perkins has already been fixed?" Stelle said.
Clara spoke up at this moment. "Clara already fixed Perkins, but part of the language module is still damaged, and Clara hasn't found a suitable replacement component yet."
"But Nero very easily fixed Perkins's language module too, and Clara was very... surprised by Nero's repair method..."
Hook blinked twice.
As Clara's friend, she had a pretty good understanding of how strong Clara's ability to tinker with robots was.
She didn't expect that even Clara would be surprised by Nero's repair method.
So she walked up, poked Nero, and asked, "How did you fix it?"
"It's very simple, like this."
As Nero spoke, he stretched a hand out to the side, then patted Svarog twice, who had somehow appeared behind them at some point.
"And then it was fixed. Right, Svarog?" Nero raised his head and looked at him.
Svarog's red eye flickered twice, then he spoke in his unique, emotionless mechanical voice, "An illogical, irregular ability."
At the same time, in the robot settlement.
Mr. Yang stared at the damaged internal components of Perkins's language module, deep in thought.
'Nero...'
'Just how did he do it?'