Chapter 656: NO．25：The Only Forgiving Enigma

NO．25：The Only Forgiving Enigma

【To：Omer. Linton Trainer】

Linton Trainer, in three days it will be the day of the internal selection competition; please pay special attention. Although you already have one dedicated horse girl and two temporary horse girls, absence during the internal selection competition will still affect your professional evaluation.

PS：Regarding today's Mr. Jie Si Ti Si's visit to Central Teslen's sudden situation, the Chairman praised your contributions.

Although the Chairman voluntarily took on all the repair costs for this incident, I still believe I need to remind you; please forgive my presumption, but this likely falls outside your expected range.

Although the Managing Chairman voluntarily took on all the repair costs for this incident, I still believe I need to remind you; please forgive my presumption, but this likely falls outside your expected range.

——Shunka Taduna】

【Re：Shunka Taduna

The reminder for the internal selection competition has been received; please thank the Chairman for his generosity on my behalf.

The reminder is also greatly appreciated; I will definitely pay more attention next time… if there is a next time.

Although from the school's optimization perspective, such visits are generally beneficial, you also really need some rest and relaxation, Miss Shunka.

I sincerely hope there will be no next time.

——Omer. Linton】

【To：Omer. Linton

Mr. Linton, hello, I am Adele, Adele Naumann, a volcanologist and also a staff member of Rod Island Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

I'm sorry to contact you via private email; I am one of the investigators you rescued on the summit of White Mountain, and I wish to express my gratitude here.

Actually…… I had already sent you a thank‑you letter on the day of the incident, although there was no reply, but I still believed you had received my thanks; until tonight—— I met Miss Mengbeilan and Miss Huaiya at a friend's book club, and I happened to learn that you seem to have a dedicated information manager.

Then I realized you might not have received my initial thank‑you letter, because in Miss Huaiya's introduction, you are a warm‑hearted, kind, and courteous gentleman, and she was outright convinced you hadn't seen my letter and was about to call you directly.

I stopped her; such thanks would probably trouble you, and she also said you seemed unwilling to acknowledge this matter, so I decided to write you another thank‑you letter instead of visiting in person.

Not only to express thanks for your deliberate avoidance of all geological investigators during that battle, but also to convey the volcano's gratitude to you—thanks to that battle, the earth's wound no longer worsens, and the abnormal activity of White Mountain's magma has ceased.

Although Miss Huaiya says this shouldn't be your battle motive, please allow me to thank you on behalf of the entire team.

——Adele. Naumann】

【Re：Adele. Naumann

Don't mention it, Miss Naumann; Bixie Ke's evaluation is unworthy of you, but you clearly fit even more perfectly, and I'm glad my battle still yielded such extra gain—I suppose the so‑called abnormal magma activity is largely due to the retreat of negative energy.

After all, that monster, according to the records I know, originates from negative energy—that is, negative emotions, massively gathered and accumulated deep in the earth, giving birth to it.

In other words, it is inseparably linked to the ground itself, and it also begins to instinctively influence its surroundings due to negative energy and the blessing of the Yellow‑Clothed King.

In short, since all this has come to an end, it no longer matters; there's no need to heed my speculative guess—peace and safety are the best thanks.

——Omer. Linton】

Late at night, when all was quiet, Aomo returned to the office.

Wearing his Angel Gundam helmet, whose eye parts still shine brightly.

Such a way of entering the room is somewhat intimidating to housemates, but the office's residents are no ordinary people.

The long‑term housemate is a girl with exceptionally strong acceptance—a JK—while the temporary housemate is an interstellar horse girl whose emotional fluctuations are hardly noticeable.

In fact…… unrelated to emotional fluctuations, the New Universe inherently possesses rather abnormal perceptiveness; this perception is based on the physical level, just as under a daytime smokescreen she can easily notice that the comer is Aomo, then, upon the counterpart's awareness of this, she makes a slight nod in response to the gesture, without uttering a word.

This perhaps is the advantage stemming from her special origin as a soul given actual life.

Having transcended the ordinary mode of birth, with the aid of the AI goddess and the demon, she truly became a horse girl—the New Universe—yet still retains the same soul‑piercing vision she had as a disembodied soul.

She is not disturbed by those physical smoke obstructions, and is unsurpassed by the astonishingly talented Chazuo.

Moreover, she leans more toward directly perceiving the soul rather than focusing on outward appearance.

"Observer, has the 'mutual communication' ended?"

She can even roughly tell what Aomo is doing.

Although she has no concept of those concrete data and did not accompany Aomo to the meeting, she seems to have observed the whole process, and she fits the observer's role even better than the Aomo she addresses.

In response, Aomo merely bowed slightly, lightly touched her hand, and, as a matter of course, also gently fixed the antenna‑like spiral cowlick on her head.

The inner‑side azure sheen and her head of gold hair interlace in a unique highlight, which likewise appears on the cowlick, each occupying half of its exquisite detail.

Although modern dyeing techniques could achieve similar hues, a horse girl's hair color is always naturally special and she seldom wishes to change it.

Hair, tail fur, and the fluff on her ears together constitute a horse girl's most striking hallmark, and also the primary outward manifestation of the horse spirit she bears.

That said, whenever a human infant becomes a horse girl, her own human soul is already tightly bound to the horse spirit, indistinguishable from one another.

The practice of isolating the horse spirit for discussion is mainly used by trainers, who, when pondering how to break through their respective fated roles, inevitably extract the horse‑related concept for study.

But it's not only for studying how to defy fate that this needs consideration; just as many aspects of a horse girl are linked to the horse spirit, the most direct link is appearance.

The distinctive 'highlight', the quirky 'meteor', and the special fur color—these are the entanglements of appearance.

And deeper still are personality, spirit, and even the soul.

A horse girl called the New Universe is, as recorded, exceptionally clever; therefore, when she is transformed into a horse girl by a world‑class 'wish technique', her displayed intellect far surpasses that of an infant by a great margin.

Sometimes Aomo unconsciously treats her as a peer, or even looks at her in a direction utterly different from earthly beings—an extraterrestrial.

She undoubtedly possesses the essence of an extraterrestrial.

Whether it is the knowledge she acquires while drifting and learning in the data world, or that her very birth is based on a world built by extraterrestrials, and further on the wish of an extraterrestrial—all these distance her far from Earth.

That is a distance far greater than that of Bourbon, after all, the so‑called extraterrestrial simply means living in an environment and society utterly different from that of earthlings.

Only after cultivating knowledge and notions that diverge starkly from those of earthlings in such a place does the 'cosmic' aspect emerge, and it may even be mistaken by some for a 'non‑human feeling'.

That is naturally a misconception.

The demon has its own set of judgment criteria; under that standard, the New Universe's sense of otherness is even less than that of the AI of Highdolf Arabian.

Therefore he will gladly wait for the day this child learns earthly ways, even if she is merely a fragment.

For the New Universe, sharing data and assimilating similar individuals is easy, just like the so‑called heroic spirit seat concept of Chaldea, and even more thorough in the digitized concept.

Thus raising this individual well is equivalent to raising the original body, though this also presupposes that the original body was rescued and reawakened.

Currently, Aomo still has no clue about this; unless absolutely necessary, he still doesn't want to add a sentence of over a thousand years to himself.

Take it step by step; that's all.

So he would have a conversation with that child as calm as usual:

"It's over, and I also happened to handle two "visit matters.""

"Then do you want to deal with Xin Tiaoxi CMIN?" The girl didn't shake off the hand on her head, keeping the posture of having her head touched as she looked up at him; her expression was between clueless and bewildered, also the impression the New Universe always gives people.

Rather than laziness, it seems more like a lack of spirit.

But that was just awkwardness in appearance; in fact she was speaking very seriously: 'That is, to begin the "report liaison talks."'

"How is she?" Aomo put down his hand, Aomo asked, a little surprised.

Although the meaning of 'CMIN' in the New Universe's mouth lacks corresponding knowledge, from a feeling standpoint it is basically dedication, and the latter's understanding is simply direct conversation.

Is there anything about Xin Tiaoxi worth my talking to her about?

"Please go and verify the "information" in person."

"... Then let's go take a look."