Chapter 267: Grasping the Present

On the same afternoon, Cornflower and Nina met in the construction zone south of Runnore.

Because the front line where the National Army and the Interrealm Army clashed lay to the south of Runnore, and passing through Runnore to advance northward brought one ever closer to the Royal City, the southern side of this city had already been fortified with quite complete defensive works long before the City Guard was reorganized. These included large-scale combined defensive spell arrays, fully manned annihilation-type spell launchers, multiple-reinforced small and medium-sized fortresses, and vast expanses of trigger-detonation minefields.

What Cornflower and Nina needed to inspect and record was the integrity of the minefield and the flow of mana within it.

The primary purpose of these "landmines" was to block those mindless beasts that only knew how to charge head-on, beasts with no intelligence whatsoever; thus, their lethality was immense, with a single mine possessing enough power to shatter the pupal shell of a Pupal-stage Remnant Beast. If detonated en masse, even a Half-Molter would find it difficult to escape unscathed.

Although flying in the air made it nearly impossible to trigger the mines within, considering their potential power, the two who came to inspect still flew cautiously in mid-air while simultaneously suppressing the activity of mana within their own bodies, just in case.

"Hey, I'm saying this, Mohe."

After the inspection work reached one-third, Cornflower, who had gradually adapted to the rhythm, took the initiative to break the silence and spoke: "Recently, haven't you seemed to be avoiding me? Did I do something that made you hold a grudge?"

"Ah? Eh, no... I, I didn't..."

Suddenly addressed by her codename, Nina looked at the other person in some confusion, then replied in a slightly flustered manner: "I, I didn't mean that, how could I possibly hold a grudge against the Captain."

"Really? Doesn't feel like it."

Observing Nina's expression for a moment, Cornflower raised her eyebrows: "If you have no grudge against me, why do you always avoid me? I've seen you turn around on the spot the moment you see me from a distance several times now; this can't possibly be a coincidence, can it?"

"Uh, this is, it's..."

Clearly, Nina herself didn't know how to explain her behavior, so she stumbled right after opening her mouth.

"This is?" But Cornflower wasn't in a hurry; instead, she followed up with another question, waiting for the other to continue.

"It's because of my own problem."

After stammering for a long time, Nina finally answered haltingly: "I failed to complete the task the Captain entrusted to me, I didn't guide Nim well enough, so..."

"Didn't guide her well enough? Is that so?"

The other person's reply caught Cornflower off guard: "I think it's quite good; didn't you teach everything you were supposed to teach?"

"But, I didn't explain these knowledge points clearly enough, so Nim still has to go ask you for guidance... and now, she's even troubling the Captain to personally instruct her." Nina continued to explain in a low voice.

"Ah, so you're jealous? Feeling that I'm taking up too much of your sister's time?" Cornflower was somewhat curious.

"No, definitely not that reason!"

Nina's voice immediately rose half a tone: "The, the main point isn't the second half, it's the first half; I feel I've let down the Captain's trust and failed to fulfill the promise I made back then!"

After she shouted this, neither of them spoke immediately.

Tilting her head, Cornflower looked at the Nina before her in some bewilderment; after her expression shifted for a while, she finally said haltingly: "That, Mohe, truth be told, sometimes aren't your demands on yourself too harsh?"

"Although the incident with the Legion Commander before already gave me a bit of that feeling, but you really seem to like taking all the responsibility for things onto yourself, and then starting to criticize yourself."

Saying this, she pointed to herself: "But is there a possibility that actually, others haven't blamed you yet?"

"I'm sorry." Mohe apologized.

"See, just like this, even now, I haven't expressed any dissatisfaction."

Cornflower sighed: "But you need to know, if you arbitrarily speculate on others' attitudes, then always think about things in a negative direction, and respond with a negative attitude, things might actually turn into the worst possible scenario."

"Just like this matter between you and me; if I hadn't asked you, were you really planning to keep avoiding me until we fought the enemy?"

"We are a squad; in war, we are the most tightly knit whole. If you have absolutely no contact with me during peacetime, and when war comes we have no coordination, no tactics, that would truly be terrible."

"And according to your way of thinking, at that time you would continue to feel sorry for yourself, feeling you didn't do well, then become even more unwilling to face your teammates, and then your coordination with everyone might get even worse... If it really came to that point, you might end up dying."

Although she didn't want to frighten the other person, Cornflower felt she should make dire warnings when necessary: "You want to take care of your sister, right? Do you really want things to turn out that way?"

"I don't want to." Nina answered gloomily: "... I'm sorry."

"If you don't want to, the first thing is to stop apologizing, at least don't do nothing but apologize."

Cornflower resumed flying forward: "Apologies are made only after things have truly been messed up; before you are completely convinced that things are doomed, you might as well say a few words of truth. Tell the other person what you are thinking now and what you plan to do next."

"Like right now."

She continued to sense the surroundings with mana, noticed a minefield with mana leaking midway, pointed in that direction: "There, time to work, be careful of explosions."

"Ah, oh, yes."

Noticing the direction Senior Cuique pointed to, Nina raised her hand and transformed the wand in her hand into a Magic Armor. Scattered mana particles attached to her right hand, and then the light dispersed, becoming sharp finger guards nested on her five fingers.

"Grasp the Present."

She softly chanted the name of her Magic Armor, opened her right hand, and remotely grasped that landmine which could be detonated by external interference at any moment.

Afterwards, the mana around the mine, which had already been somewhat restless, became utterly docile.

Cornflower likewise manifested her Magic Armor, used threads to directly drag the landmine buried underground out, while Nina kept her right hand in a tightly clenched pose, waiting for Senior Cuique to seal it in a special container before she loosened her hand.

"Done, good job."

Cornflower dispersed the threads around her body and didn't forget to praise: "Your Magic Armor ability is indeed very convenient."

"Th-thank you." Nina responded in a low voice.

Her Magic Armor, Grasp the Present, which were these finger guards, the most common application of its ability was to turn a specified item into "absolute stillness."

Grasping with the right hand was the process of selecting the item; afterwards, as long as the grasping pose was maintained, the selected item would remain still forever, never changing.

And the cost was that after she let go, the previously still item would be endowed with a state of "doubled speed of change." A burning candle, after being grasped and released, would burn at twice the speed; a cup of water, after being grasped and released, would fall to the ground at twice the speed.

As for the duration of this state, it was the same as the time it was held and still.

To be honest, when Cornflower saw Mohe's Magic Armor ability in the data, she once felt a sensation: this was an ability born specifically for the battlefield.

On a battlefield that changed in the blink of an eye, completely stilling a certain thing, whether it was a spell array about to explode, ammunition flying in the air, or a certain movement of an enemy in front, or a wound on a comrade-in-arms... such an ability was absolutely a dream come true for most soldiers.

Furthermore, its subsequent side effect, or rather secondary effect, the ability of "doubled speed change" also had its place to be used, often catching the enemy off guard during an attack.

It was precisely because of such an ability that Nina was assigned the task of inspecting the minefield during the rostering.