059. Airborerception

  ——Medium.

  Gi her heart stop, a chill ran straight up her spine, cold s down her back. Without saying a word, she turned and walked away.

  No wonder no one wao talk to her. Nobody wao be around someone who spent their childhood talking to the souls of the dead.

  Snap.

  Yavanna closed her operations manual and rechecked her on. She sat upright in the seat, quietly waiting. As turbulence shook the transport pne slightly, a small bottle filled with ashes hanging from her chest swayed. The moment, the shadow of a four- or five-year-old girl sloeared beside her.

  'You don’t want to be here, so why did you e?'

  "Daisia?"

  Yavanna turned her head in surprise. In her eyes, the girl had bck hair hanging down to the floor, ahin frame leaned zily against the wall. Her gold-green eyes gnced sideways at Yavanna:

  'What? Surprised?'

  "This is dangerous. It's a battlefield. If the enemy's medium discovers you, you'll be—"

  'You know it’s dangerous, so why did you step into this?'

  Daisia propped her on her hand, her childish voice speaking like an old sage:

  'If you’re scared of dying, don’t go to war! You, me—we’ve both died once. Do you want to die again?'

  "I don’t want to fight, Jiajia." Yavanna expined. She turned her head forward, choosing her words carefully as she said, "This isn’t a just war. It will only bring harm to both the Frost-Pted people and the Grant people."

  'Then why are you here?' Daisia asked in frustration, 'If you know it’s wrong, why e?'

  "Because I am a Frost-Pted citizen," Yavanna replied.

  'Living people are so troublesome, always bound by so many things.' Daisia pyed with her hair as a woman walked straight through her legs, pletely unaware that a little girl was sitting there.

  The two fell into a brief silence, eventually broken by Daisia.

  'Yavanna, you’re su idiot.'

  Daisia said:

  'Even without you, this battlefield wouldn’t be missing much. You’re just on fodder. If you hate this unjust war so much but still choose to be here, aren’t you tradig yourself?'

  "I have no choice." Yavanna gripped the hem of her sleeve, lowered her head, and said in a low voice, "I have to save my father. The only way I quickly rise through the ranks is by taking on high-risk missions. Only my father save Frost-Pted, save the 670 million people here."

  'And what about the Grant people?'

  "…As a citizen of Frost-Pted, I ’t judge the affairs of former ies." Yavanna's eyes wandered. "No matter what, if we don’t send troops, Frost-Pted will suffer iure. Prices will soar, and more importantly, our status as one of the Four Nations will be heavily damaged. If we don't fight and allow independeher ies will also see us as weak and vulnerable…"

  'I’m not asking about the Frost-Pted people’s views,' Daisia interrupted. 'I’m asking about you, Yavanna. What do you think?'

  "I ’t betray my try. That’s what Father taught us."

  Yavanna pced her hand on her chest. As she said these words, she felt unfortable:

  "If the higher-ups could show a little more mercy, and if the Grant people could stop resisting, redug the bloodshed and granting them more autonomy, fair trade agreements…that would be better than anything."

  Daisia only responded with a cold question:

  'Do you believe that?'

  Yavanna remained silent.

  'As they say, it’s easy to go frality to luxury, but going from luxury tality is difficult.'

  Daisia swung her legs bad forth:

  'The people of the Four Nations, used to good times, panic when the price of grain rises by just one derbi. Meanwhile, people in the ies and outnds are starving to death all the time.'

  "There’s no solution," Yavanna said. "As long as there are people oh, war will iably break out—whether at home or abroad. If we don’t prevent it, we’ll have serious issues bae."

  'Yavanna, is this truly the result you want?'

  Daisia jumped down from her seat, hands in her pockets, and approached Yavanna. She lifted her hand and cupped Yavanna’s face:

  'Look at you. You’ve grown so beautiful, and you’re not dumb, so why are you still so naive?'

  Even though she was the younger sister, being in a spiritual state for so long had made her more mature than Yavanna.

  Yavanna blushed and softly said:

  "Daisia—"

  'But no matter what, I’ll protect you.' Daisia smiled. 'You’re an adult woman now, with your own indepehoughts. Whatever you decide to do, as long as you have s and the ce to bear the sequences, I’ll support you all the way.'

  'After all, you’re living on my behalf, big sister.'

  Daisia’s form slowly faded away, leaving Yavanna sitting alone in the er.

  "I…"

  Yavanna grasped her colr, muttering in fusion:

  "I’m itting heinous acts, invading other people's homes, serving a gover I don't even want to pledge allegiao, all just to maintain my nation's dominance. But I am also a beneficiary of that dominance... What should I do?"

  "If I stay loyal to my try, then I betray my sd morality."

  "But if I remain true to my sense hteousness, then I betray my homend and the colleagues and friends around me."

  Maybe Daisia was right—she should never have e here in the first pce. The moment she joihis war, there was no going back.

  Just as Yavanna was lost in thought, the pilot suddenly shouted:

  "What is that?!"

  He hadn’t finished speaking before a loud explosion echoed in their ears.

  Boom!

  "What happened? Why is there an explosion?"

  The previously carefree agents were instantly armed. They rushed to the windows and looked outside: a rge transport pne had been ly severed in half, spinning toward the ground.

  "The transport o us was shot down! Are we utack?!"

  The agents were in an uproar:

  "Are you kidding me? How could Grant have air forces?!"

  The pilot struggled to trol the aircraft, but the heavy transport couldn’t perform tactical maneuvers. He grabbed the s unit and called for help: "Osprey to Ice Pace, Osprey to Ice Pace! We are utack by unknown air forces. Requesting fighter support!"

  "Ice Pace has received your transmission. Two Z-11s will be dispatched to your airspace. Hold on until we arrive."

  "We’re already utack—"

  The pilot’s words were cut off as they saw a red and bck shadow rushing straight at them from the front.

  "Aaaaahhhh—boom!"

  "Osprey? Osprey!"

  No matter how many times Ice Pace called out, there was no response.

  "Something has gone wrong. Immediately scramble the jets—Grant has air defenses we weren't aware of."

  FAL