Colony 4, The Queens, and The Consuls

The ferronis, tilted on one side, its body features enshrouded in dust, rendering only its wheels and lights viewable. Dusty winds never stop blowing. The soldiers now woke from the ground, including Ethel's bodyguard. In the distance, we could see Ethel leading, the group followed behind. Oh, and a blurry platform, a rock on the platform, and a large fern, to add to the collection.

"Commander!" They dashed at her as they called out. The bodyguard first fixated his sights to Ethel's left, occupied by the Kevesi of the team, then to the right, where Mio and the other Agnians were following up.

"You're Agnus!" Alerted, he drew his blade, a broadsword like that of Lanz. Other soldiers behind him too. The group, including Noah's, got into a defensive posture, though didn't summon their blades.

"Lower your weapons, Bolearis!" Ethel ordered irrefutably.

Bolearis, the bodyguard, flabbergasted, "Come again?"

"I'll explain everything to you later. Please, Bolearis." She looked at him firmly, the last sentence in a softer tone.

Probably he wanted to grant her a favor, or maybe her orders were undoubted in nature, he obeyed, "Uh, sure..." The other soldiers withdrew their blades after him. The group cancelled their defensive posture afterwards.

"Then it seems, the Flame Clock is indeed gone, as you say..." Ethel was examining her iris, the Flame Clock originally at the bottom left wasn't displayed anymore. Bolearis and another guy were checking their irises too.

"And yet... I'm seeing nothing of these symbols you speak of. It seems evident you possess something... that we do not have." Confusingly, despite not being an ouroboros, her right iris displayed a "full-ring" like that of an ouroboros; similarly with Bolearis. Though, she certainly don't seem like she could switch classes with any of the others; there wasn't any weapon symbols displayed.

Currently, they were inside a room, but we don't have a full view of the room. An "oil lamp" could be seen on a table behind Ethel. The room was relatively empty where the group stood.

"I see... Sorry. For getting you involved." Noah apologized.

"No need to apologize. Exceptional as this is, I consider it a blessing to be freed from constant battle." She folded her arms as she spoke; the others ended their Iris examination.

"Glad to hear you say that. I was pretty worried."

Mio: "Are you sure... it's OK for us... to be hanging around here?"

One of her hands on her waist, she explained, "My troops are under strict orders. It's true you three are affiliated with Agnus... but we also owe you our lives. We should count our blessings, no?"

As they were leaving the ferronis, walking on the ground where the nurse-hat guy were dealing with lowering some levnises at the start of this chapter, soldiers on atop the platforms and standing by the sides, as if it's a "welcoming event," watched them as if they were a rare species living in the zoo. The ground floor of the ferronis where they walked seemed to have been cleared.¹ Mio and the others looked at the soldiers around them as they passed.

Eunie: "This feels awkward..."

Noah reassured, "We can stick it out."

Mio: "Sorry... This is kind of our fault."

"Don't worry about it. You heard Ethel, right?"

"Mm-"She nodded as they walked out into the darkness, living quarters seen outside.

Inside their assigned barracks, with beds on both sides of the entrance, and stools directly facing the entrance. Everyone was sitting except for Taion (and the Nopons), whom was thinking and recalling, speaking out his thoughts, "The Consul we fought back there..."

He looked up, Eunie pressed forward, "Uh-huh?"

"Oddly... he was strikingly similar to our own Consul." Behind Taion was the entrance, it's zip/doors wide opened. Directly opposite them, it looked like some shops or canteens with unrecognizable structures, perhaps a storefront?

Lanz blurted out, "Both sides are gonna have Consuls. Why's that odd?"

"More accurately, not just similar... They're the same."

Noah's eyelids and voice raised, "They're the same...? Are they really?" He turned to Mio and Sena sitting opposite of him, and both nodded back.

Taion continued, "Our colonies regard each other as enemies. But... if the Consuls giving the orders are the same, it means..."

Lanz pressed for more, "It means...?"

"Hmmm...."

Lanz impatiently demanded, "Come on... Just spit it out, man!"

Eunie added, "Are Consuls such a big deal? I thought they were everywhere, like your run-of-the-mill Nopon."

Both Riku and Manana jumped on their tiny feet, both "got shot by an arrow lying down"², strongly rebutted against her comments "Riku refuse to let remark of Eunie slide."

Manana supported him, "Got that right! Nopon are rare species world cannot live without! Protect at all cost!" Both of them had their wings tucked, as if they put their "hands" around their "waist".

Feeling awkward, Sena returned to the subject, "Uhh... Leaving Nopon out of this..." She turned to face Taion, "What's this mean? That these guys are mega suspicious?"

"Yes. I suspect they may be more deeply involved than we thought."

Eunie turned her attention away from the Nopon towards him, prompting for more, "Involved how, though? With what?"

"With the reason why we fight... With deciding our fate."

"Our fate." Mio looked down and think. Moment of silence befalled them as they connected the chains of thoughts.

Eunie broke the silence, "And the Queens? You think... they're in cahoots?"

He prompted as he put his hands around his chest, "What can you tell us about your Queen?"

Lanz: "I think we've only laid eyes on her once. Right?" He turned to Noah.

Noah seconded, "Yeah, at the Homecoming, I think. She had long, silver hair..."

Eunie added to the description: "Yup, real dignified. Proper pretty wings too."

Mio asked, "Wings? Like yours, Eunie?"

She pinched her right wings with her hand as she replied, "Sort of... But they were much more of a shining white."

Sena took over the conversation as she recalled, "Well, as for our Queen... She was relly elegant... Refined and graceful... And her ears... They were super long!"

She gracefully appeared behind Mio and held her palms up behind her ears, showing how long they were compared to Mio's, "Up to here!"

Eunie: "Hmm... Guess that means our Queens are different folks all right."

Lanz: "The Consuls are... kinda like the Queen's servants, right?"

Taion: "The Castle's. Their role... is to convey the Queen's directives to the colonies, along with handling admin and decision-making."

Eunie: "So, what? If we explain the deal to the Queen, you think she might actually get the picture, yeah?"

Lanz was optimistic: "Pretty much."

Taion was rather pessimistic, "I don't recommend getting your hopes up."

"Oh, yeah?"

Pushing his eyeglasses up, he continued, "The Queens sit at the very pinnacle of the hierarchy."

In a lower tone, more disappointments, "So you think they won't even give us the time of day, huh?"

"I'm saying they might be the same as the Consuls: our enemy."

Eunie, shocked, hadn't considered that thought: "What?" All enjoyed a moment of silence as they tried to digest the theory. Sena had sat back at her original seat, on her bed.

Mio added, "Also... Somehow, that Consul... He became Moebius."

Noah: "Or maybe... Moebius is the Consuls." Taion nodded to his conclusion.

Taion continued, "The situation's already dire enough. It'd be best to temper our expectations." The group fell into silence as someone sighed.

Atop the Kevesi castle. From this angle, we could see the double-flame-clock (6 o'clock-12 o'clock clockwise Agnian flames, anticlockwise Kevesi flame.) Two "thunder needle" pierced to the dark clouds above it. It seemed like the clouds was mixed with black fog.

Inside the queen's room, The Queen stood at her "seat" while soldiers lined up on both sides of the central pathway. A Consul was seen reporting to the Kevesi Queen.

"Is that so?" The Queen asked. "Colony 4..." The Consul, wearing a helmet that looked like a duck with its beak twisted pointing downwards, some wavy shape at both side of the helmet, skinny, and nothing else stood out, nodded.

The Queen held her staff, pointing it in front of her, ordered, sounding venomously, "Henceforth... all orders are rescinded. Eliminate Ouroboros at all cost! Make this known throughout the colonies!"

In the Agnian Castle, itself a building behind gates and walls. The building's has a square base, followed by a reversed pyramidon top of it, joined by a smaller room on its seemingly second or third floor. The largest square area was at the penultimate layer, covered a "normal" roof (that slanted down) as the final layer, and some roof designs like flaps.

Inside the room, the Queen stood on her "seat", a taller platform. Some flames were lit atop a metal pot that were placed on 3-legged stands. The tiles looked wooden, to translator, comparable with ancient Greek designs. Soldiers lined in a "triangular" shape, and probably a Consul reporting to her, though with the darkness, we couldn't see clearly other than its outer figure.

The Agnian Queen, wearing a mask, short hair, 'very tall ears' (looked to translator like metallic horns, to be honest), announced acrimoniously, "Ouroboros... has no place in this world. Their existence... must be erased without a trace!"

Update on the diamonds: Four rows of diamonds slashed out, the fifth row 2 of 5 slashed. Seemingly, 10 days had passed since the previous chapter.

Mio's Diary: We have endured the fierce fighting at Colony 4, and learned that the Consuls and Moebius are one and the same. Truths we took for granted continue to crumble at our feet... We have spent so long blindly walking the path set before us, without question. But we are more curious now, of our future selves... Of our purpose...

Footnotes:

1: Clearly, the ferronis already drove back to where it was originally at the beginning of this section.

2: This is a Chinese phrase, called 躺着也中枪。