Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Has the consultant returned? It's past midnight now, he should be back by now.

Would it be too much of a disturbance for me to go see him now?

After hesitating for a moment, Anto gritted his teeth, lowered his voice, and asked the tent, "Is the advisor there?"

I waited for two seconds, but still received no response.

Anto looked around; he was all alone in the silent night.

I don't know why I felt a strange sense of fear.

She's clearly not afraid of the dark.

Just as she was about to raise her voice a little and call out again, a piece of paper, exuding the fragrance of violets, fluttered down from mid-air and landed in front of her.

"He's not in now."

108 Anto's Troubles, and the Lion Scorpion's Way of Comforting Him

"Miss Lionscorpion?"

Picking up the bottle that emitted a faint violet fragrance, Anto immediately recognized who it was.

After realizing I wasn't alone, the slight fear that had just surfaced in my mind immediately vanished.

"it's me."

Another note appeared in front of Anto.

“Even after watching it many times, I still can’t find any clues,” Anto sighed. “Miss Lionscorpion’s Originium Arts are really amazing.”

She casually found a rock to sit on, placed her hands on her knees, rested her chin on her hand, and watched as the bright moon was gradually obscured by the clouds.

"Since the consultant isn't here, Miss Lion Scorpion, could you please have a chat with me?"

"Ah, I know your habit. You say you want to chat with me, but you're really just listening to me vent..."

Ok.

Another note fell down, adorned with some cute handwriting.

"Miss Lion Scorpion, what do you think of me? How do you think I'm doing here?"

(Well done!)

The note landed on Anto's shoulder. She picked it up, glanced at it, and a bitter smile appeared on her face.

"Is it good...?"

"I feel like such a failure."

Without waiting for a reply from the lion scorpion, Anto continued to ramble on, just as she had said before, pouring out her heart.

"I've done everything I can to help them, I've clearly... I've clearly seen that the natural disaster has nothing to do with the infected..."

"But still... this situation still occurred. The infected were exploited once again, and my ideals were trampled underfoot once again!"

"And me, if it weren't for the appearance of the advisor, I would still be completely unaware! Perhaps when the spell units they prepared exploded in front of me, and flames of thousands of degrees scorched my body, I would still be wondering why this happened!"

"Why exactly?"

Anto buried her face in her arms, her voice trembling with sobs.

"Why am I so naive? Why am I so incompetent? Why does no one care about those infected?"

"Everyone here trusts me. No matter what I do, even if it's just some basic medical assistance, they've opened up such a large camp for me."

“Miss Lionscorpion, do you know? Although I requested assistance from the Rhodes Island main ship, I never expected any help.”

"Rhodes Island has just gone through a major battle, and it's so far away in Wolumond, it's really too much trouble for them to mobilize resources."

"I was originally prepared to strictly distribute the only medicine I had on hand."

"But do you know how moved I was when I received a reply from Rhode Island telling me that a shipment of medicine was already on its way?"

"Even though Teacher Ming is facing such difficulties, and Rhodes Island still needs to escape from the vortex between two major powers, she still prepared so many supplies for me."

"It is because of these medicines that I was able to build such a large camp. My original plan was just to build a small medical station with a few tents."

"After all, there are limited medications available."

"But you have given me hope. With your medicine, I can treat more people."

"But, but I messed it up!"

"My teacher taught me to analyze the situation of each force from various perspectives and what actions they might take."

"But I messed it up. I was so focused on setting up a camp that I forgot that natural disasters are definitely not the most dangerous thing for the infected."

"Because of my negligence, I almost implicated these infected people who trusted me. If it weren't for the arrival of the consultant and you, hundreds or thousands of them would have become victims of someone else's conspiracy!"

"Even though I've tried so hard, I still can't do as well as my teacher..."

"Everyone here...they all trust me so much."

“That’s Anna’s tent,” Anto said, raising his head slightly to look at a dilapidated tent not far away. “That’s the little girl who was arguing with the advisor during the day.”

"She was found in the collapsed house in Wolumond. Her father was a worker who was unloading cargo for others during the disaster. In order to dig her out of the rubble, he disregarded the Originium crystals and dug her out with his bare hands."

"Although they were lucky, the mother and daughter were in a good position and were not seriously injured, all three of them became infected."

"They lost their houses and became infected. They were the first people to come to this desolate place with me."

“Anna’s mother was very hardworking. After the camp was set up, she led the women to sew and mend, and made the tents we live in now from a pile of rags in the warehouse.”

"Her father led a group of men to cut down trees, drive away wild animals, and transport infected people who came for treatment."

“Every time Anna sees me, she sweetly calls me ‘sister.’ Her family trusts me so much and has helped me so much.”

“That’s Pierre’s tent. He’s a man in his fifties who also contracted the disease during this natural disaster. He was a well-known leatherworker in Wolumond, but after he got infected, his son was afraid that he would pass on the disease to his grandson, so he kicked him out of the house and had to live in the warehouse.”

"I met him when I was mobilizing supplies. He was an old man, his clothes were worn but meticulously made up, and he was slowly eating a piece of black bread the size of his palm."

"That's his entire day's rations."

"He also helped me a lot. Old Pierre is very experienced in management. Without his help, how could someone like me, who has never managed an organization with more than ten people before, have managed to run this place so well?"

"That's the Elson family. The father and son are the best hunters in the area, and their archery skills are comparable to some Rhodes Island operators."

"But they were already infected before this natural disaster. As infected hunters, their furs were always several grades lower than others, and their meat was so cheap that even people outside the infected area wouldn't buy it."

"Because this is the prey that the infected have hunted."

"If they weren't infected, how could their skills possibly allow them to barely make ends meet?"

"The pelts in the camp were all hunted by the father and son with their men."

“Miss Lionscorpion, do you know that when Wolumonde sent us supplies again, a businessman from out of town who was stranded here saw the furs that he and his son gave me to keep warm. He said he would buy them for three thousand dollars.”

"When I told Elson and his son the news, do you know what they said?"

Anto made an exaggerated expression, but his face was full of sorrow.

"Three thousand dollars? If they knew that this was hunted by my son and me, that pelt would have cost at most three hundred dollars. That's how it always was."

“That’s Garrison’s tent, that’s the Marcus’s tent, that’s the Powell’s tent…”

"They are all like this, they are all infected, they are all people rejected by society."

"Everyone is trying so hard to live, and the way they look at me is so trusting..."

“But I almost led them to their doom,” Anto said, burying his face back in his arms.

Am I really that incompetent?

Hearing this, the cloaked manticore blinked.

Anto needed comfort, and she realized that.

This naturally optimistic and cheerful girl cannot remain optimistic forever.

There are always things in life that can unexpectedly crush a person.

She was too young to shoulder responsibilities beyond her capabilities in pursuit of her ideals.

If it weren't for Xia Yu, this would have been an absolute tragedy.

The Lion Scorpion hesitated for a moment, recalling what Xia Yu had told him during their travels.

"Hmm? Because Red always seems cold and unhappy, you want to know how to comfort your companion?"

"Well, talking to a lion scorpion is too much of a stretch for you, and you probably can't do some intimate actions either. So how about this?"

"When she's feeling down, when she's hugging her knees and silently feeling aggrieved, you should go behind her, stand back to back, and hug her with your tail."

"Hmm? Will it really work? I think it should. There's nothing I can do. Since you're not good with words, I can only keep you company. To be honest, you've really asked the wrong person. After all, I'm a friendless person too."

"Oh, right, if it's just the two of you, you can persuade her to have a good cry."

"Sometimes, tears can be quite effective."

The lion scorpion surveyed its surroundings.

Yes, they're both asleep, so it should be considered that there are only two of them.

She sat lightly behind Anto, back to back, just as Xia Yu had instructed.