Admitting it was wrong, but denying it felt even worse.
He couldn't exactly look Serena in the eye and say, 'That's right, leave your safety to me. I'm Jerrick, your brother. You don't need to put your life in the hands of some random guy who just showed up out of nowhere.'
He couldn't say that.
And so, Jerrick's perpetually stoic face hardened into an even colder, sharper mask.
Serena looked at his icy expression, noting his rigid silence, and the amusement in her eyes only deepened.
She didn't push him any further. Instead, she let out a lazy, graceful yawn. "I'll keep your warning in mind, Captain Fenris."
Pausing for a moment, she cast a sidelong glance at him. "But I still have absolute faith in my darling patron."
With a dismissive wave of her hand, she picked up her medical kit and turned to leave.
Her unhurried footsteps echoed down the corridor, slowly fading into the distance.
Jerrick stood rooted to the spot, his gaze locked on the empty hallway where she had disappeared. The air around him felt so frigid it could have frozen solid.
My darling patron?
The Sterling Sovereign again.
How long had she even been on this ship? How had she already placed so much trust in that man, to the point where she'd willingly hand over her own safety to him?!
Or had they known each other long before they ever boarded Project Zero-Transit?
The more Jerrick thought about it, the deeper the crease between his brows became.
But his stubborn sister had walked away the second she dropped that bombshell, not even giving him the chance to invent an excuse to interrogate her further.
Standing off to the side, one of the Fenris Squad mercenaries had been covertly observing his captain. The longer he watched, the more uneasy he felt.
Normally, Fenris was a man completely devoid of readable emotion.
Even in the face of the most lethal, high-stakes missions, he rarely displayed such obvious volatility.
But today...
Every single time The Panacea mentioned The Sterling Sovereign, their captain looked like he was ready to commit a murder.
The mercenary hesitated for a moment before carefully testing the waters. "Captain, do you... not like The Sterling Sovereign very much?"
He had followed Fenris through hell and back, but this was the very first time he had ever seen the man exhibit such raw, visceral disdain for someone.
He honestly believed that if The Sterling Sovereign were standing right in front of them, their captain would have started a brawl on the spot.
Jerrick turned his head slowly, his icy, slate-blue eyes locking onto the man's face. "Are you bored?"
A chill shot down the mercenary's spine, and he instantly snapped to attention. "N- No, sir..."
"Go inspect the transit corridors." Jerrick's tone was deceptively calm, but his gaze was absolutely lethal "Before the final handover at
Whitecliffe Harbor there tha
single margin of error with Specimen Fourteen."
be a
"Yes, sir!" The mercenary didn't dare ask another question. He bowed his head and practically sprinted away.
If he stayed a second longer, he was certain he would become the next person on the captain's hit list.
Only after the man was out of sight did Jerrick cast one last glance down the long, empty corridor.
There was no one left.
After a few heavy seconds, he withdrew his gaze and strode back into the temporary command center.
The heavy metal door clicked shut behind him.
Jerrick unrolled a detailed topographical map of Whitecliffe Harbor across the central table.
It was a comprehensive layout of the entire port—a highly classified document that
had cost him a significant amount of blood and resources to acquire.
The map was already marked with various drop points, subterranean transit routes, private docking
sectors, and all.currently verified operational zones for the Obsidian Sun.
Originally, his mission to Whitecliffe Harbor had only two objectives.
First, to investigate the Obsidian Sun's underground experimental facilities within the port.
Second, to map out the predetermined extraction route for Specimen Fourteen and identify the exact personnel the Obsidian Sun had stationed there for the handover.
But now... a new, absolute priority had completely hijacked his tactical blueprint. His sister's safety.
Jerrick lowered his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the marked coordinates inch by inch.
Last night, he had already assigned a covert ops team to shadow her the moment they disembarked.
But it wasn't enough. He still couldn't shake the creeping sense of dread.
The dangers aboard Project Zero-Transit were at least confined to a single vessel. Once they hit Whitecliffe Harbor, the variables would multiply exponentially.
Serena had been far too brazen on the ship, and the Obsidian Sun had just taken a massive, humiliating hit.
In a lawless zone that the syndicate had controlled for years, there was no telling how many armed
operatives were lying in wart or what lethal contingencies they had prepared.