Chapter 378: A Turbulent World (1)
"I'm human, not a ghost." Tolle hadn't expected Liza's reaction to be this extreme. He tried to reassure her. "Liza, right? Look, I have a shadow. Relax—I'm alive."
"That scared the life out of me! Why did you suddenly pop out like that?" Liza poked her head out and looked at Tolle's feet. Seeing the shadow beneath him, she finally let out a sigh of relief. Then her expression suddenly turned excited. "Just now—was that teleportation?"
Tolle shook his head. "No, that was optical camouflage stealth. It's similar to the Mirage Colloid System."
Then Tolle put on his nano-armor and demonstrated the cloaking process several times right in front of her.
"So that's how it works." Liza walked up to Tolle and stared at him as he repeatedly faded in and out of visibility. On the nano-armor, she could vaguely see thumb-sized hexagonal optical camouflage emitters.
Without any hesitation, she reached out and started touching and poking him everywhere. "It's really invisibility—this is amazing."
After playing around with it for a while, she shyly asked Tolle, "Tolle, I heard you can make storage equipment. Um… could you also make one like Nicol's for me? I really want one too. Is that okay?"
Tolle put on an innocent expression and looked at Nicol in surprise.
Nicol awkwardly turned his head away and laughed. "Ahaha… sorry about that, Tolle. I kind of gave it away. But don't worry—only Liza and Miss Lacus know. No one else does."
Before Tolle could question Nicol about how he'd sold him out so easily—
At that moment, Lacus slowly walked over. Looking at Tolle, who was still half-cloaked, she said with a dazed, innocent expression, "Oh my, hello there, Mr. Invisible."
Seeing Lacus suddenly appear, Tolle immediately deactivated the optical camouflage and nano-armor. Slightly nervous, he said, "Hello, Miss Lacus. It's very nice to meet you."
Lacus leaned in closer and carefully examined Tolle's face. Then, with that naturally airheaded expression, she said warmly, "Ah—aren't you Tolle Koenig, the crew member we met on the Earth Alliance ship Archangel? Thank you so much for taking care of us back then."
"Not at all, Miss Lacus. That was all Kira's effort. I didn't really do anything—I was just involved on the side."
Tolle felt that Lacus was completely not the type he could handle. She was seriously difficult to deal with. More importantly, her looks, her voice, and that tone of speech—it all hit his XP way too hard.
Even though he knew she was absolutely a pink-haired, sweet-on-the-outside dark-core type, he just couldn't stop himself from being weak. His heart was racing no matter how much he tried to suppress it.
"Tolle, no need to be so formal. Just call me Lacus." As she spoke, Lacus took Tolle's hand and gently pulled him toward the living room.
She led the completely red-faced Tolle to a seat and said with a smile, "There's no need to be so nervous. Let's sit down and talk slowly. I'll go prepare some tea first."
"I'll help too." Liza stuck her tongue out at Tolle and went over to Lacus, helping arrange the tea set and snacks.
Tolle took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, and silently hypnotized himself. Although Lacus had once been his dream girl, he was now a battle-hardened veteran. He couldn't let himself get flustered and dragged around like this.
I must stay calm. I absolutely can't be fooled by Lacus's innocent appearance.
And since Liza wants storage equipment anyway, I might as well give Lacus one too—consider it a small gift for visiting.
That's right. I'm just here to pay a visit. Nothing else.
At that moment, Lacus placed the tea and snacks in front of Tolle. Leaning in with her airheaded, adorable expression, she said softly, "Tolle, please—have some tea."
"Oh, thank you." Tolle immediately and nervously took out two compressed-space wristbands from his storage space and handed them to her. "Lacus, these are two compressed-space wristbands. Please accept them—one for you and one for Liza—as a small gift for my visit."
Lacus tilted her head, pretending to remain composed, and said innocently, "You're being far too polite. You really didn't have to."
But the moment Liza saw the compressed-space wristbands, she excitedly snatched them from Tolle's hands. She then handed one to Lacus and said, "Miss Lacus, hurry and put it on! I've wanted to try one for so long!"
Although Lacus was also very excited, she still thanked Tolle with her usual dazed expression. "Thank you, Tolle. I've been looking forward to this just like Liza."
After Tolle helped them bind the compressed-space wristbands,
The two of them immediately started fiddling with them. Since they often watched Nicol use his, they didn't even need Tolle's guidance and quickly learned how to operate them.
They even freely used the nano-armor's transformation function, changing their outfits at will and giving Tolle quite the visual feast.
At the same time, Tolle also upgraded Nicol's compressed-space wristband, adding optical camouflage stealth and other functions to it.
Soon, the four of them were chatting happily together.
However, the good times didn't last long. DaCosta also arrived at the safe house, his expression tense as he reported to Lacus, "This is bad, Miss Lacus. Chairman Siegel has been attacked and killed by ZAFT's assassination unit. We need to prepare to relocate at any time—otherwise, this place may be exposed as well."
"What?" Lacus stood up in disbelief, her voice trembling. "My father… has he really been killed? Th-this… isn't some kind of false report, is it?"
DaCosta lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Miss Lacus. This subordinate has failed. I only just received the news. Chairman Siegel was assassinated not long ago, and all personnel assigned to protect him were also killed by the assassination unit."
"Father…" Lacus sobbed softly. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed toward the floor.
Tolle immediately stepped forward and caught her, gently patting her back as he comforted her. "Cry. Cry it all out. You'll feel better after."
Lacus leaned into Tolle's arms and burst into loud sobs.
Nearby, Nicol lowered his head in shame. He no longer knew whether hiding the news of Siegel's impending assassination had been the right choice or not. But now it was too late to undo anything. All he could do was bury the truth deep in his heart and continue to keep it hidden.
After a long time, Lacus cried until she lost consciousness in Tolle's arms. With Liza's help, they carried her back to her room and laid her down on the bed.
---
[Thanks for reading! Support future releases and read more at patreøn.com/craxx_real.]