This is a Beta Test?! - A Literally Broken System

Without any fanfare, we landed in Port Sendoff. The portmaster greeted us like usual, and we went on our merry way back to Kotosa. I mean, seriously. I feel like a lot of things were missing right now. Where was the urgency? The fear of being invaded? At this point, I didn't even feel like something was going to happen even though we were essentially at what I'd call, 'maximum world tension.'

Also, that same nagging feeling that something big was about to happen still rang at the back of my head. Like, sure, something was going to happen, but there was some kind of finality to this one for some reason.

"Say, don't you think that everything's going too smoothly?" I couldn't help but ask Guidance as we quietly made our way to Kotosa.

"Not at the moment, no," the dev shook her head. "I for one like the quiet we've been experiencing as of late. That thing we did in Marquee was more than enough action for me for a long while. Maybe even forever if I was really pushing it."

I blinked at her blase words. Was she seriously saying that she wanted to retire?

"What? I'm just saying that I want a bit of rest," Guidance scoffed. "If you're worried that I'm done adventuring, then I'm not. Not until we've fixed everything that needed to be fixed. I still have a nagging suspicion that we forgot about something, and we've done a lot of stuff already that needed to be addressed."

I sagely nodded at that. "Yeah, we're kind of missing things left and right, I feel. Maybe a bit of downtime would put things into perspective."

Walking our way through what I could recall being the one road that once stretched into forever, I found myself lazily taking note of who was walking with us. Of course, Shizu was right in front with Maruki and Shade following closely behind her. Shen and Gem were also playing tag with her, somehow managing to find the time and energy to play in the middle of the road as we passed through merchants and caravans traveling to and fro in between Port Sendoff and Kotosa itself.

Likewise, the Vestygian couple was just right in front of me and Guidance. I could see that they really care about their daughter, and their eyes never seemed to be relaxed even as their outward appearance revealed anything but. Not that I could fault them for it. A few cursory conversations with them revealed to me that they were very much a paranoid couple, probably because their former jobs required it from them.

"So this is what a real forest looks like~"

And of course, there was Nicole. The Marquean psychopath didn't give a damn what other people thought. Sporting what was still ostensibly Marquean wear and sensibilities, she all but wanted to stop by every nook and cranny she found interesting and 'investigate.' Her curiosity was rather infectious, actually, what with Shen having picked up some of her more endearing habits of wanting to know how things work as opposed to letting her [Manifest] fix it for her.

But anyway, Nicole was flitting about on her toes, oohing and ahhing at every merchant caravan that went past us as if it would help her understand whatever it was that they were selling. She even pestered us to try and buy stuff for her, only for me to quickly shoot her down saying that she should hold her requests until after we're in the Imperial Palace.

Also, "Didn't Centrax have a forest on its outskirts? I doubt this is the first time you saw an actual forest."

"But forests in Marquee don't look as thick as the ones found here~" Nicole dreamily replied, her eyes sparkling with manic energy as she grinned. "I can only imagine what I can do with this much wood around~"

Guidance sputtered out a giggle, and I groaned at my girlfriend's dirty mind. Because surely, this woman beside me was just that lecherous at times.

"I'll be sure to try and help you if you think about that stuff like that~" Guidance giggled, a small blush appearing on her cheeks. "But as for the forests, yeah. Kattleyna's the richest of the three nations in terms of natural resources so that's to be expected."

"And I'm only learning it now with my very own eyes~" Nicole excitedly wondered. "Do you think the Emperor would give me all the resources I'd need to further my innovations?"

"I'm sure that you can ask Shizu to do it for you instead," I scoffed. "She's our ticket into the Imperial Palace in the first place, and I doubt that you'd even get heard if you said that you're a Marquean."

Guidance gave me a small glare, and I shrugged at the attention. Why even get mad? I'm pretty sure it was true anyway. The three nations seemed to hate each other with a passion barring a few exceptions. I'm not even sure if Carbuncle and Alcian were comfortable here with how tense they seemed to be.

"Well, no matter. I'm sure that my brilliance will show everyone just how much they need me~"

I shook my head at Nicole's antics. Truly, while she was as brilliant as she arrogantly says she was, she was also as tone-deaf and psychopathic about it without a care in the world. Then again, that was usually what mad genius needed to thrive, and our [Rig] needed that genius if we wanted to go at it alone without a fleet to back us up.

Eventually, however, the discussions had to stop as we finally found ourselves back to where this adventure all began. Kotosa was just as magical as I remembered leaving it. I had a niggling that something should've happened when we first entered the city, but I guess it wasn't too important if I forgot about it. Instead, I focused more on the fact that we were about to use that magical fountain again to get back up to Yagokoro-

"How does that thing even float?!"

And there it was... "Nicole, be quiet-"

"What do you mean, be quiet?! That entire sphere of rock is an anomaly that requires solving!" the mad Marquean squealed in anticipation. "Just think of the possibilities if we can learn how it flies that high up without even so much as moving! We can maybe make our [Rig] fly! Or we can-MPPHH!"

Gritting my teeth, I stepped in and covered Nicole's mouth with my right hand. The whole group looked at me with pity as I wrapped my arms around the Marquean, the woman fighting to free herself even as I tightened my grip even further.

"Look, you're making a scene, and in Kattleyna, making a scene is the worst thing you can do out in public," I harshly explained to her. "As soon as I let go of you, you won't speak another word unless you're spoken to, alright?"

Nicole glared at me, but she nodded her head anyway.

Taking that as her consent, I quickly let go of her, Nicole quickly putting some distance between me and her as she opened her mouth.

"You can't tell me what to do~"

I rolled my eyes. "Shizu?"

"On it," the princess quickly replied with a sigh. She then turned to the loose cannon and glared at her. "Nicole, kindly shut up."

Thankfully, that seemed to have done the trick as Nicole promptly crossed her arms over her chest and pouted like we had just taken away her favorite toy.

"You'll get your chance to gush about things later," I sighed at her. "For now, just keep quiet and follow our lead."

With that out of the way, we made our way to the fountain leading up to Yagokoro. For us that were familiar with it, we just did what we did last time and stepped up on the fountain. The others, however, looked rather confused at what was even happening.

"Wait, you want us to stand on that thing and it'll just take us up there?" Nicole asked.

"That's how it works. And no, we don't know how or why it works that way," I quickly replied just as I felt the pull of gravity slowly taking hold over my body. "Just stand on it and do what we did."

Nicole narrowed her eyes, but quickly followed suit as she stood beside Guidance. Likewise, Shen and Gem just blindly followed Shizu's lead while Carbuncle and Alcian stood beside me and Guidance. Shade and Maruki were already a given since they'd been here before as well.

And without further ado, we found ourselves floating up into space shooting up into Yagokoro. I took joy in the fact that Nicole was currently raving about how this wasn't even supposed to be possible. Well, that and Carbuncle screaming bloody murder as she held onto Gem and Alcian for dear life before we were finally back on solid ground.

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