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"Wait!"

Before Shade could even finish his sentence, the group of four in front of him had already vanished, leaving him with their so-called mechanic as he groaned in annoyance.

"Great... Just great..."

Shade was never one for superstitions. Even as he defected from [Vestyge] in favor of living out the rest of his life in the relatively freer lands of Kattleyna, he refused to worship what the natives called the [Eld]. No, there was no need for him to conform to the culture of the land so long as he supplied them with the one thing that any of the Three Nations wanted: a [Manifest].

As a [Somatic], he managed to survive the long trek from [Vestyge] to Kattleyna in virtue of selling his services to the highest bidder. Working as a mercenary might not be as glamorous as he envisioned, but at least he was being paid handsomely for it. And now that he was in the Empire, he finally got the life he would never achieve by continuing to live in the [Vestyge] Republic. And that was on top of him being able to meet even more beautiful ladies to properly appreciate.

Then again, after years of working as a mercenary, being on the Empire\'s payroll was kind of getting boring.

"Hey, kid," Shade chimed in the girl\'s direction. While he always complimented every beautiful woman he saw, he still had his limits. "How\'re you holding up?"

"Wha-What?"

Shade sighed. What did he expect when trying to make a conversation with a literal child? Still, what choice did he have left? The door was still closed, and the portal that barred its way was now swirling in a way that he was reluctant to even come close to it.

"How\'re you holding up?" Shade repeated, his arms crossed in front of him as he tuck in his rose. "I don\'t think you\'re cut out for this kind of stuff."

To her credit, Shen only blinked before replying to him. "I-I\'m more than ready to fix this thing, ya know?"

Shade raised an eyebrow at the answer he received. It was crass, but it was miles better than the girl just being a stuttering mess.

"Then you better do so," he scoffed. "The Princess and the Empire won\'t take kindly to them being scammed out of their money."

He was speaking from experience. One time while he was doing more mercenary work from within the Empire, he had heard some random mook being executed for scamming the Empire. Apparently, the guy was masquerading as a [Somatic], something that was practically impossible if the person they were scamming actually knew a thing or two about how [Manifests] worked. Even now, his suspicions about the Princess\'s [Manifest] were nagging him. And that wasn\'t to mention his own doubts levied against Lady Guidance and Moriya himself.

"I-I\'ll have ya know that I\'m da real deal!" the girl puffed up her chest, an admittedly cute way of asserting her pride, he supposed. "I can fix anything!"

"Anything, huh," he scoffed. "I assume you can fix a broken heart?"

"A broken... what?"

Shade chuckled at the genuine confusion coloring the girl\'s face. He supposed that she was too young to even think about romance. Though, he was sure that this kid would grow up to be a heartbreaker. Already, he could see the way she would grow out of those rags and atrocious beret. Her white hair would flow long, and if she wasn\'t lying about her skills, then years of labor would no doubt shape her body to match Lady Guidance or even the Princess herself.

Maybe then, he\'d start appreciating her more.

"Never mind," he chuckled. "I\'m sure you can only fix whatever those books of yours talked about."

"Uh.. I can\'t read."

Shade blinked, a curious brow raised on his left side as he looked at the kid. Seriously? She kept bragging about being able to fix anything, and yet she couldn\'t even read?

"How do you expect to fix anything if you don\'t even know how they work?" Shade curiously asked. "I don\'t think we\'d need a mechanic that didn\'t even know how to do maintenance."

Well, he wouldn\'t put it past Moriya to hire this girl out of sheer stupidity. As much as the enigmatic [Somatic] sounded, he was still kind of stupid. Why the Princess and Lady Guidance ever followed him was a mystery. All that he knew was that the longer he was in charge, the more ridiculous and likely they would all die in the long run.

"Huh? All I need is my wrench."

Shade watched as Shen pulled out her wrench. As he expected, it was just a rusty wrench. Nothing too fancy. It didn\'t even look like it would hold up to being used in any considerable capacity.

"Just that wrench, huh," Shade tilted his head in amusement. "Would that thing even survive being in the middle of a running engine?"

Predictably, the kid kept on gloating. "Of course, it can! I already used this to build that massive arch in the scrapyard!"

Shade raised an eyebrow. It was probably just some of the usual childish overexaggerating. "I\'m sure it did."

"You sound like ya don\'t believe me," the girl pouted. "Do you want me to show you how I fix things?"

Shade almost scoffed. "I\'d like to, but there isn\'t anything that looks broken around us at the moment."

He almost let out a loud laugh. It would be great to see this girl flounder if she was lying. It wouldn\'t even take too much time. All he had to do was to challenge her so-called mantra of her being able to fix anything. Maybe he\'d take it literally...

With a smirk, he took out his rose and slashed it against his arm.

"W-what\'re you doing?"

"I\'m giving you something to fix," Shade smirked as he held out his bleeding arm. "You said you can fix anything right? Then fix my arm."

Shade was already getting his laugh ready when the girl inevitably said no. After all, fixing a wound was far from fixing an engine. Maybe it\'ll give her some humility. God knows that kids needed a reality check-

"O-Oh, that\'s it?"

What?

"I\'ll fix it then," the girl chuckled, her hand twirling her wrench as she approached. "It\'s been a while since I fixed a wound, but it\'s manageable."

"W-what\'re you saying?"

Bouncing up to him, the girl raised her wrench above his bleeding arm, a wide smile adorning her face as a cool glow suddenly enveloped her wrench. Wait...

"I just need to give it a good whack!"

"What the-"

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AN: I might just let myself get poached at this rate...