Chapter 2481

2481 - Delay!

Nihari—Northern Region

Zara was still in the Crucibles area, vast in size, and still in the vicinity of Crucible No. 35 specifically.

The Greed Crucible that had finished raising its efficiency three years ago was now working and producing combat vehicles like the rest of the Greed Crucibles, without stopping for a moment.

But Zara had not left the place, had not returned to the Sky Opening City to pursue the dozens of revolutionary innovations… rather, she had remained here since she woke up, sitting near the Crucible on a stone seat and table she had made herself.

Drawing…. Writing.

She had been in this state since she woke up after the reconstruction operation of Crucible No. 35, which had dazzled everyone's minds at the time…

The Life Squad was shocked that Zara's fingers were destroyed, and there was scattered damage in the tissues of her internal body, and her body was in a terrifying state of energy depletion.

Fortunately, members of the Life Squad and members of the Shaping Corps were present, the only two Laws in the universe that could be said to be capable of stopping the effect of the destruction… so with some rehabilitation, Zara recovered as if nothing had happened to her physically.

But mentally, the situation was different… three years without any noteworthy movement.

He barely responded to any messenger or read any reports, then returned to what he was doing… This reminded the old generation somewhat of Robin himself.

And at this moment… Zara was sweating.

Her left hand was on her forehead, her fingers running through her short blonde hair, while with her right she was writing something, writing quickly as if she were in an exam and the paper was about to be taken away.

"Lady of the City."

At this moment, a woman in her thirties came to stand beside Zara and bowed slightly, she too looked exhausted:

"We've finished what was required. There's no room for further development beyond this, considering the technology currently available. Even if new ideas emerge, we won't be able to implement them."

"….." Zara nodded and gestured with her left hand toward the edge of the stone table.

"Understood." The woman in her thirties left a metal tablet at the edge of the table, then departed with a sigh.

This was the nature of the Lady of the City's meetings with those coming from the Sky Opening City over the past three years — with almost no exchange of words.

Of course, it was fortunate that the Lady confirmed and encouraged individual research and experimentation, and divided them into sectors and branches working separately, and this enabled the Sky Opening City to work on all branches until today… and yet, they undoubtedly needed her.

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

Zara continued watching what she was doing for several more hours…

She wrote quickly, then took a break to draw something… then returned to writing quickly.

Until, "Hooo~" Zara let out a long exhale.

Then she stood and took out a large amount of paper from her ring,

Crrrrush

, and began arranging the papers and gathering the drawings and writing into two separate massive books.

In a task that hadn't taken much from her thanks to her soul power and her memorization of her work mentally… now Zara was looking weakly at two books and a metal Tablet on her table.

After another sigh, and with a heart beating strongly, "I wonder if this is enough…" Zara murmured, then took them and left.

In front of one of the palaces of the Central District—

Knock

Knock

Knock

Zara knocked gently on the door, "Uncle Billy, may I come in?"

Not much time passed before a voice answered her from afar: "Come in!"

Creeak

Zara pushed the large Gate and entered with small steps, looking around…

This was the palace assigned to Billy Burton, located at a relatively close distance from the Imperial Palace.

Normally, he would not see this palace, like the rest of Robin's children and the Generals — most of them did not know the locations of their own palaces in the Central District, including Billy, who jumped from one planet to another daily trying to prevent bloodshed…

But today was a very special day.

"Come, Zara."

"…." The blonde girl took another turn toward the voice and continued into a large hall centered around a number of staircases.

But she stopped instead of continuing to walk; something had caught her attention…

In the middle of that hall was a large round table, on which were a number of books and metal tablets in disarray, even a piece of cloth folded carelessly upon it, but that table drew Zara's attention greatly… Her expression immediately shifted into a mixture of curiosity and distrust.

But that look turned into a very faint smile when she noticed a particular book — a small book with a title written in poor handwriting… her brother Peon's handwriting.

"…My dear, you are very late." At that moment, Billy came down from one of the staircases, wearing an apron and wiping his hand with a kitchen towel.

"Yes, I'm sorry." Zara lowered her head slightly, "I was under a lot of pressure and had to rethink what I was going to hand over to you more than once. I'm foolish."

"..?" Billy raised an eyebrow, "I meant that you were late after I called you, girl." Billy smiled and then gently pinched her cheek, "There's no need to pressure yourself. If you're thinking with this much weight, what will the others do with themselves? Haha."

Then he extended his hand, "What have you prepared?"

"...." Zara extended her hand with some hesitation, and the two books and the tablet appeared, "These two are from me, and the tablet is from the Sky Opening City."

"All three from you, then." Billy took them with a laugh and placed them on the table with their counterparts, then turned and went back to climbing the stairs, "Do you want to help me? Even I'm under pressure, you know. I'm leaving in just an hour and I'm not done yet."

"Y-yes, of course I'll help with this mission in particular!!" Zara finally smiled with joy, and climbed up behind him.