But "borrowing" from Closure, Kanna felt no guilt at all. After all, when she was the Doctor, this profiteer even made Operators pay for their own clothes, which was truly despicable.
Thinking this, Kanna was no longer in a hurry. First, she and Cerberus snuck into the cafeteria. After secretly having a hearty meal before being chased out by the Head Chef wielding a rolling pin, the two walked together towards the Engineering Department.
Closure was originally testing a new drone. When she heard the guard Operator report that Kanna had arrived at the Engineering Department, she quickly handed her work to the assisting Operator and rushed towards the Engineering Department's main gate.
"Yo, Kanna-chan! What brings you here?!" Closure, who had run all the way to the door without even wiping the sweat from her forehead, asked with a beaming smile.
Seeing Closure, Kanna pulled her aside.
"Closure, how about we discuss something..."
"No money, only my life," Closure said warily before Kanna could even finish.
"Hey! What would I want your life for? I don't need money either. Look, what have I ever paid for on Rhodes Island? It's all on credit, and Kal'tsit pays for it, right?" Kanna stood on a chair and patted Closure's back, trying to reassure her.
However, as a profiteer, Closure felt an even stronger sense of unease. If Kanna specifically sought her out and it wasn't for money, had Kanna reached puberty too?
"Do you have a few pure originium I could borrow...?" Kanna extended her hand towards Closure.
Hearing Kanna's words, Closure turned to slip away, but Kanna grabbed her.
"No, no, Kanna, you don't run a household, so you don't know how expensive things are! All the repairs and maintenance on Rhodes Island are supported by the Engineering Department. That old hag Kal'tsit is always so stingy with funds. I don't have any spare supplies, let alone such a rare pure originium..." Closure, realizing she was caught, immediately started pleading poverty.
"Stop messing around. I heard from Scout that he just spent a large batch of Originium here ordering a lot of equipment." Kanna was completely unaffected by Closure and punctured her lie with a single sentence.
"Gah! How did you know?" Closure's eyes widened, completely disbelieving how Kanna could know this.
"I went to Scout to borrow some, and he said he spent it all here."
"Damn it! There's an insider! We have a traitor among us!" Closure sat on the ground with a frustrated expression.
"Not ten or eight. Scout needed a lot of things, and you know that our Engineering Department charges only cost price for ordering equipment and performing repairs and maintenance for Operators. Even if you took out all the kidneys of every Operator in the Engineering Department, you wouldn't be able to gather that many pure originium."
"Then three or four should be fine! You definitely have them! Besides, I'm not saying I won't return them. Although it might take a while, you have to believe in my credibility, right, Kanna?"
"One. Only one. Take it or leave it..." Closure pulled one out of her pocket, held it to her chest, and then lay down on the ground, acting like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water.
"Alright, one is fine. I knew Sister Closure was a good person. I'll definitely pay you back once I save enough money..." With that, Kanna pried the pure originium from Closure's tightly clasped hand and then left the Engineering Department under Closure's heartbroken gaze.
Just after Kanna left, Closure finally realized something was off. Kanna came with Cerberus, didn't she? According to normal logic, she should have gone to Sister Vulcan's workshop. Why did she just take the Originium and leave?
Seeing Closure's gaze, Cerberus blinked her small eyes. "Why are you looking at me?"
"Wasn't Kanna here to see Sister Vulcan?"
"Hmm, she wasn't here to see Sister Vulcan in the first place, was she?"
"Then what was she here for?"
"Kanna-chan said she wanted some pure originium, but when she went to borrow it, the person had already used it all. So I told her to go find the person who took the pure originium, and then Kanna followed me over..."
After listening to Cerberus, Closure felt as if struck by lightning. Not only was there one traitor, but two! She covered her face, shouting, "I'll never look after Kanna again!" as she ran into the Engineering Department.
Cerberus tilted her head, not understanding why the other person reacted that way. But seeing the bag of honey cake ingredients in her arms, and remembering that Ifrit hadn't eaten yet, she walked towards Ifrit's workshop with the ingredients.
Meanwhile, after getting the pure originium, Kanna checked the time. It was night. Usually, at this time, she would stroll around with her friends a few times before going to bed. However, these past two days, she had been busy with this system mall quest and Originium, so she hadn't contacted anyone else.
After some thought, Kanna decided to go back and sleep first. These two days of quests had exhausted her. She would meet up with the others tomorrow before considering saving Dahlia.
The next morning, Kanna arrived at the Sanatorium Courtyard and only saw Popukar and Rosmontis. Ifrit, who was usually there at this time, was nowhere to be seen.
She asked the other two, and Popukar said that Ifrit's junior, Dahlia, had suddenly gotten worse again. Ifrit had been in the Medical Department since last night.
Kanna immediately suggested they go see her, and the other two agreed. The group then headed towards Ifrit's ward.
When they arrived, they found no one in Ifrit's room. They then went to Dahlia's ward, which was also empty. A bad feeling rose in everyone's hearts. Kanna immediately opened her communicator.
"SWEEP Operator Kanna requests target lock within Rhodes Island. Target: Doctor Silence's subordinate treatment unit, Ifrit. Please tell me her current location."
About ten seconds later, Priestess's voice came through the communicator: "Target lock complete. Confirmed target Ifrit left the Rhodes Island main ship half an hour ago."
"What about Doctor Silence?" Kanna pressed.
"Doctor Silence has applied and is leading a team of Operators in pursuit of Ifrit's direction." As Rhodes Island's intelligent control system, Priestess quickly provided the answer.
Hearing this, Kanna breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know what Ifrit was up to, secretly leaving Rhodes Island. She wasn't even afraid of Silence and Saria worrying themselves to death.
"What about the patient here named Dahlia?" Remembering that Dahlia was also not in her ward, Kanna continued to ask.
"Patient Dahlia was taken from Rhodes Island by Ifrit." The answer Priestess gave was the one Kanna least wanted to hear, and the most troublesome.
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