Chapter 2: I’m Sorry
At the edge of the river valley, atop a cliff.
Lin Lan was covered in blood and gunpowder, her left arm hastily slung with a blood-soaked bandage, her face pale as paper.
Sitting by a cold boulder, her amber eyes flickered with a dazed, dim light, gazing down at the homeland below, ravaged by war into a scarred wasteland…
The once-thriving settlement was now reduced to broken walls and ruins, scorched earth everywhere, the air thick with the pungent stench of blood and gunpowder.
A gust of wind brought a choking, nauseating miasma that smothered the breath out of anyone caught in it.
The residents of [Oasis] had suffered over half their number as casualties, with barely one in ten soldiers surviving.
The brutal defense had nearly exhausted all their fighting strength, only managing to wipe out the mysterious attackers at the cost of their own devastating losses.
A young nurse, still carrying a jammed rifle on her back, was cautiously tending to a deep, bone-exposing wound on Lin Lan’s back.
The sting of antiseptic soaking the gash made her body tremble uncontrollably, but with her brows tightly knit and a cloth clenched between her teeth, she didn’t let out a single sound.
“Big Sis Lin… water…” The nurse offered a water pouch, her voice choked with emotion.
Lin Lan took sharp, labored breaths, her face beaded with sweat, glancing at the pouch but not taking it, her gaze fixed on the ruins below—
That place had once been the land of hope for her and countless others forced to wander yet yearning for a life worth living…
At that moment, a guard who had once been tasked with escorting Mili stumbled in from the distance, covered in dust and ash, his face etched with despair and panic.
With a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees beside Lin Lan, his head bowed low to the ground:
“Commander… I’ve failed you! Miss Mili… Miss Mili… she’s gone!”
Lin Lan’s body stiffened abruptly.
She slowly turned her head, staring at the guard in disbelief.
“What… did you say…?” Her voice was low and hoarse, like the scrape of rusted metal.
“We followed your orders, escorting Miss Mili to the designated safe point…”
“But on the way, we were ambushed… ambushed by an unidentified armed group, heavily equipped…”
“We fought to the death… but had no choice but to leave Miss Mili at the edge of the neutral zone, telling her to hide…”
“When we shook off the pursuit and went back to find her… there was nothing… We searched every corner of the slums on the outskirts…”
The guard sobbed uncontrollably: “They took her! Their insignia! It was [Eisenburg]’s people!”
Eisenburg…
Seraphina!
Lin Lan felt a surge of bitter blood rise to her throat, her vision swimming with dark spots.
The blood debt of [Oasis] was yet to be repaid, and now the girl she cherished like a little sister had fallen into the jaws of another pack of wolves!
It was as if her organs were being ripped out alive and crushed underfoot…
The promise she had made, clutching Mili’s hand, now rang as the sharpest mockery.
She coughed violently, a spurt of blood splattering onto the dirt in front of her, shocking to the eye.
“Seraphina—!” Lin Lan clenched her fists tightly, nails digging into her palms, drawing blood:
“Prepare the vehicle! Get me a vehicle now!!!”
“Big Sis Lin… your wounds…”
“Don’t worry about me!”
The steel-hulled hyenas came to a stop in rows within the fortress.
Mili was practically shoved out of the vehicle, tumbling onto the uneven stones with a pained grunt.
Struggling to her feet, the sight before her sent a wave of dizziness through her.
This place was worlds apart from the slums…
It didn’t even resemble any wasteland scene she had ever imagined.
Towering metal walls rose like mountains, encircling factories and buildings in an impregnable embrace.
Guards in charcoal-black combat uniforms stood like statues, their sharp gazes fixed, weapons glinting coldly in the dim light.
Mili was prodded forward by a guard’s rifle barrel at her shoulder, passing through one heavy gate after another.
Each gate slammed shut with a sound like a meteor crashing down, jarring her ears and sealing her off from the outside world.
Finally, they arrived before a grand structure.
It was less a building and more a palace risen from the ruins.
It seemed to have been repurposed from some massive public structure of the old era, its boundless silhouette heavy with history, now imbued with a stern military aura…
Mili had heard from other drifters in the slums—Eisenburg’s White Night Queen lived in the museum of the ruined city.
Was she about to meet the real thing?
Seraphina?
Could it really be such a coincidence?
She was led inside the palace.
The vast hall stretched beneath a towering dome, faintly adorned with remnants of old-world murals and artifacts.
The air carried a strange mix of scents—disinfectant, faint rust, and the lingering fragrance of some incense, cool and sharp in her lungs.
The guards brought her to a room.
Though called a room, it was clearly more like a suite.
It had a private bathroom, a bed that looked impossibly soft, and even a small bookshelf neatly stacked with a few worn-covered books.
But the windows were sealed shut, with only a heavy metal door connecting to the outside.
She understood immediately.
This wasn’t hospitality—it was confinement.
Mili was left alone in the room, the guards retreating after giving her a final glance.
The heavy door closed silently behind her, but it wasn’t locked.
No need to think twice—she knew there must be heavy guards outside…
That slightly ajar metal door was far more secure than any locked tin shack in the slums.
She sank to her knees on the floor, her frail body still trembling slightly.
The clean, austere environment felt alien and unsettling to her.
This carefully crafted “comfort” was more like a threat—she was caged.
Mili sighed, brushing at the frayed, pilled fabric of her dirty clothes, curling up in a corner of the room, too afraid to touch the pristine bed.
What did that demon-like Seraphina want with her?
Dissection?
Research?
Or…
She didn’t want to die so horribly!
Damn it!
She’d barely been in this world for half a month!
Big Sis Lin Lan… when will you come save me…
She still remembered the sight of [Oasis] swallowed entirely by cannon fire…
She remembered the tearful yet resolute look in Lin Lan’s eyes as she pushed her onto the vehicle…
[Wait for me… Mili…]
[Once I handle things…]
[I’ll come for you as fast as I can!]
Lin Lan’s voice echoed in her ears, but now…
“I shouldn’t have run off…”
“I’m sorry…”