Chapter 78

Chapter 78

Eve’s sudden request clearly caught Qin Mengde off guard; she was puzzled as to how the conversation had abruptly shifted to this topic. With a rare spark of curiosity, she asked, "Why do you want to investigate her?"

"Can't I be her fan?" Eve’s wide-eyed innocence was a transparent lie. "Her Spiritual State Ability, the Luna Butterfly, is unique even among S-ranks. I just want to learn more about my idol."

At first, it seemed incredible—hard to imagine an alchemist harboring admiration for a powerhouse outside her own field. However, with a living, breathing Maria fan right beside her, Qin Mengde’s surprise was mild, and she found it less difficult to accept. After all, that commander had always had an absurd number of admirers.

"Unfortunately," Qin Mengde said with a regretful glance, "the simulated combat system is the most specialized department in the military. Even with my clearance, accessing its core is difficult. But before I leave, I can plant a small, one-time backdoor for you, providing about half an hour of unmonitored time. If you have anything you want to say then, you can speak directly to your idol."

"That works."

Eve hadn't held out much hope to begin with, and she could tell Qin Mengde had done her best.

She checked the time. "There's still some time before you have to go back. Shall I outline the plan for the next few days? It’ll make it easier for you to cooperate."

"Of course," Qin Mengde’s spirits lifted immediately; this was, after all, what she had been waiting for.

So Eve dipped her fingertip into the untouched wine and, drawing on the table, explained the plan. It was somewhat circuitous but easy to grasp, and she briefed Qin Mengde in just a few concise words.

When she finished, the other woman gave her a meaningful look and sighed, "That truly is a high-stakes, high-reward exchange."

Eve snorted, "But returns and risks are always proportional."

-

A few days later, at the Oliver Family’s training ground.

Since Family Head Oliver had spoken openly with Eve, he seemed to recognize that beneath her bold actions lay a strong-willed heart. He no longer insisted she follow his arrangements completely, instead allowing her to make her own plans.

Naturally, Ludwig’s house arrest order was effectively void. Still, Eve would politely avoid occasions where he might appear. This "out of sight, out of mind" behavior once left Ludwig utterly frustrated.

That day, Eve and Alice were drilling with another model of advanced mecha, the Luo-type beast-form. It had just been released and wasn't even on the market yet, but Mrs. Luo had managed to bring two back for the children to play with.

No one else was in the arena. Two wolf-shaped mechas darted like lightning, gliding across the spacious training ground with light and agile postures, sometimes closing in, sometimes distancing. In unseen spaces, two waves of psychic energy were also colliding and wrestling, similar Spiritual State Abilities ruthlessly thrown at each other. Sometimes Eve would be locked down by the Queen Bee’s control and forget what to do next, while Alice was occasionally affected by the Luna Butterfly, fighting off illusions.

This was genuine practice, completely devoid of any competitive spirit, simply showcasing both sides' combat skills to the fullest, maximizing the agility of battle and the advantages of the mechas.

When Ludwig pushed the door open, this was exactly the scene he walked into.

He had gradually grown accustomed to the daily routine of receiving death glares from Eve and Alice in turns. So, when he saw the two peacefully operating their mechas, his first reaction was disbelief.

Finally, Eve noticed him. Seeing he looked hurried, as if he had something to convey rather than just coming to pick a fight, she popped the front hatch, flipped down from the wolf-mech’s head, and asked, "Why are you here now... What’s going on?"

"What do you mean 'what’s going on'? This is my house—is there anywhere I can't go?" Ludwig shot her an annoyed look. "Cecil just left. Since you two weren't there to see him off, you didn't get to see how awful his expression was."

As three of the younger generation closer to the inner circle of power in the Oliver Family, they were mostly aware of Cecil's purpose for coming.

Alice immediately exclaimed in surprise, "So he finished his business? What about the Young Master's engagement..."

Even after all this time, she hadn't broken the habit of calling Lorca "Young Master," largely because the two never really clicked. Thinking of this, Eve gave her a curious look. After all, in her mind, Alice had a very sunny personality, and Lorca wasn't that difficult to get along with—were these two just naturally incompatible?

"He left because something came up at home that needed urgent handling. The engagement matter should be resolved too," Ludwig said. "I don't know exactly what he said to Mom, but the engagement seems to have been canceled in the end. Probably something really big happened in the Medici family. Cecil was unusually anxious and even handed over mining rights to a resource planet under the Medici name to us."

A resource planet wasn't a major concession for either of the two major families, but it was enough to settle a verbal agreement fallout.

"He didn't handle this task very cleanly," Eve commented.

She knew exactly why Cecil was in such a rush to return home: with a legitimate sister already rising in status, and now an illegitimate child popping up out of nowhere, given Cecil's personality, it would be unlike him not to hurry back and discuss with his subordinates how to crush the newcomer.

As for the Oliver side, Mrs. Luo's skill in handling things tactfully maintained the Luo family's gold-standard reputation. It was only a verbal agreement to begin with; the Medicis just needed to stonewall and deny it. Unfortunately, Cecil loved putting on airs—he wasn't firm when he should be and didn't know how to be flexible when softening was needed, costing the Medicis a resource planet in the process.

"Sending Cecil to handle this actually wasn't appropriate," Eve concluded. "Even if the Family Head and First Steward weren't available, the Second Steward should still be on the capital planet. Having him represent would have been better than sending Cecil, but this was probably arranged intentionally by the Family Head."

Ludwig glared at her irritably, "Why do you care so much about the Medicis? Why not show more concern for whether my brother is hurt? The Medicis only lost a resource planet, but my brother got his engagement broken off!"

"......" Eve really wanted to call the Medicis over to hear if this was even human language. She said helplessly, "I'm not your brother's therapist."

Seeing her stumped, Ludwig savored a rare victory. He said smugly, "But I expected this outcome from the start. Speaking of which, the Medici family's internal relations are really terrible. You'd never guess how much Cecil hates his sister."

Hearing this, Alice asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

Since Cecil had maintained a decent image among the Olivers, her impression of him was still quite good.

"I once gave a Medici family member an Alchemical Tool. It supposedly could predict the future, but actually just a psychological toy that could project the target’s thoughts. I originally meant to tease a few of the branch family kids, but I ended up hooking a big fish—Cecil."

Ludwig snorted disdainfully, "You can know a person's face but not their heart. Bullying branch family members is one thing, but he doesn't even spare his own sister—he once poisoned Luo Lin."

Eve thought, so that crystal ball incident back then was definitely intentional.

"Wow, that's ruthless!" Alice exclaimed in shock, then criticized Ludwig, "But you're not much better! How could you deliberately give something like that to spy on people's thoughts?"

"I was just joking; I didn't hurt anyone. What's it to you?"

"I can't control you, you bratty young master," Alice angrily pulled Eve over, "but I can have Xiao Qing tell the Young Master. You wouldn't want your brother to know about this, right?"

"How can you do that!"

Eve, suddenly dragged into this childish conflict: "......……" When the female lead and male supporting character flirt and bicker, does a passing female supporting character like her really need to get involved?

Besides, one deals poison and calls the buyer vicious, and the other, a mind-controller, calls the psychology toy user evil. Eve was baffled—couldn't these two look at their own positions before criticizing others?

She patted Alice's hand holding her and said weakly, "Don't drag me into your arguments. I have things to do; I need to head back."

Hearing this, Alice's honey-like eyes widened roundly, like some highly curious little animal, and she asked, "Didn't you say you had nothing going on today? What are you going back for?"

"Just suddenly remembered something," Eve made up an excuse, "Going back to give Lorca a physical examination."

Actually, hearing that Cecil had returned, she felt the timing was right to start preparing to spring the trap.

But thinking back, Lorca's health had pretty much been regulated. After handling the Medici matter, his surgery could be scheduled.

So, this excuse wasn't completely made up.

Leaving the training ground, she didn't hurry back but walked slowly while sending a message.

Frank's messages were still on her terminal window. Since parting on the starship, the two had maintained a relatively stable communication frequency, though mostly exchanging piecemeal intel.

The most recent message was Eve asking him to help bring back some Zerg extract. Frank was now backed by the Luo family, which had quite a backstory. Back then, Luo Wenzhou, afraid his sister would find out he sneaked out to mess around with Lorca, begged the mercenaries to cover for him. The condition was helping them enter the Luo family. Although he still couldn't avoid an earful from his sister, the members of Upside Down Wonderland smoothly joined the Luo family as a result.

But the Luo family was famously open-minded—as long as you had skill, recruitment standards were very flexible. Upside Down Wonderland was already the top-ranked mercenary team on the black market, so it wasn't strange they could enter the Luo family.

Frank said he had obtained the Zerg extract through Luo channels and would deliver it soon, but Eve told him he didn't need to deliver it personally—someone would pick it up along the way. She specifically warned him not to return to the capital planet recently because Cecil seemed to have heard rumors about the illegitimate child's existence.

She hadn't yet told Frank she had borrowed his persona. Mainly because the process was too dramatic; even Eve didn't know how to explain it clearly. After a few attempts, she gave up.

Anyway, this mix-up was short-lived, she thought. A minor matter; whether she told him or not didn't really matter.

She put away her terminal and finally arrived back at the alchemy lab.

Eve wasn't in a hurry to open the door. Instead, she paused thoughtfully for a moment. By now, Lorca's physical condition should be stable enough to withstand the intensity of external inscription techniques.

However, according to her plan, she intended to deal with Lorca's issue only after resolving the matter with Cecil. This also included subsequent negotiations with Qin Mengde regarding interests, as well as accounting for some low-probability events—such as unexpected injuries or the Medici family discovering her involvement. All factors considered, it would take at least several more days to wrap everything up.

Based on her calculations, even under the smoothest circumstances, the transformation surgery would likely take place within the month before the New Year. After a period of recovery, she was confident that Lorca could appear dignified at the New Year's Honor Ball.

How wonderful—by that time, the New Year's Ball would bring together both new acquaintances and old friends. From Qin Mengde to Lorca, Eve was genuinely looking forward to how much she could accomplish in one go.

She took the laboratory key out of her pocket, inserted it into the lock, and turned.