Reluctantly, the Nilfgaard warriors put their weapons away and somehow huddled together, clearly intending to hold their defenses, except I didn't care about that and slowly lowered my hand.
"All right. one more twist and you will not return to your commander and neither will your warriors. Now follow me."
Yeah... Playing a scumbag who's willing to kill everyone just for an extra step... It's a bit unpleasant. However, in this situation it's necessary, because this world is in some ways much more violent than the last one. Though not in everything, far from everything, but...
If I don't show it now, then later I will have to prove for a long time that I have the right to have my own opinion and do what I think is right. And without this right, one can not go out into the big world at all and even less think about expanding his activities to other worlds.
I entered the building itself and for a while we walked down the corridors. I could see through some of the reflective coverings that the captain was looking around, clearly trying to make up his mind about what was going on around him. In the meantime, we reached the office that Ian occupied, and I knocked gently on the door.
"Jennyfair, there's someone here to see you."
The captain shuddered at this interpretation.
"A petitioner?"
A perfectly even tone that subtly hints at a slight chuckle and a question.
"You mean the Nilfgaard warrior you asked me about?"
"Yeah..."
"Let him wait. I have more important things to do than talk to that black warrior."
Ian's voice sounded like an unconcealed chuckle. I switched to the intercom.
"How long are you gonna marinate him?"
"Who knows... I've called Triss over, so we're going to discuss a magical experiment, after which she'll go to her office and I'll regally receive this Nilf."
"I see..."
I accepted her decision, and glanced at Nilf and sighed. I didn't want to leave him alone, so I went to the window and opened it, whistling loudly. I whistled loudly, drawing the attention of those in the courtyard.
"Scorpion, come here!"
"I'll be right there!"
Scorpius answered me and with a quick stride headed towards me and within three minutes he was standing next to me.
"Uh-huh?
"Keep an eye on that Nilf. I don't know how long it'll take for Jennyfar to do her thing, but I don't have time to stand here."
"Got it."
He nodded briefly and walked around me, leaning back against the wall so that he could keep the warrior in his sight. I nodded to him and went about my business, or rather to Panam and SUZI, but the fortress's defenses had to be increased every spare second, or we might not be able to withstand the next Wild Hunt attack.
"Hey, where are you going?!"
Nilf tried to stop me with his question, but I ignored him, but Scorpius began to answer the question in a slightly bored tone.
"Our leader has too much to do to stick around with you. No, if you were a princess or some other important person, he might stand here, but..."
I could so hear in my subordinate's words the disdain for this captain's position.
"Actually, I'm a captain in the third division of the Nilfgaard army, Sir Kurcht..."
Nilf's voice sounded a little confused, but I couldn't hear more as I got far enough away from them. A couple minutes later, I reached Panam and Suzie.
"Greetings girls..."
"Hey, Boss..."
SUZI was clearly in a very good mood.
"Hi..."
Panam, on the other hand, looked at me with suspicion and some apprehension.
"Panam? Did something happen? I became a well-mannered, proper boy at your request and said hello to you, even though I had already spoken to both of you today.
There was a slight, harmless chuckle in my voice that Panam and SUZI couldn't help but hear.
"I'm just, uh. I'm wary. I know you well, of course, and I realize that you were just joking, just like me, but still, a worm of doubt gnaws at me."
I grinned and shook my head.
"It's all clear with you and I won't torture you long. Let's face it, I was kidding. So no body suspension."
"Thank you..."
Panam took a few steps towards me and kissed me passionately, trying to convey all the emotions she was feeling.
"So..."
When I pulled away from Panam, or rather from her lips, as I still had not let her out of my embrace, one hand continued to knead her ass. She didn't mind such a development and purred quietly at my actions.
"...now with you. What happened to you to make you so happy?"
"Well. I did get all the programs ready to activate PROXY."
SUZI's voice was very excited, she was clearly anticipating the activation of her PROXY, which just POSSIBLY would allow her to experience the real world on a whole other level.
"AND?"
"What and?"
She was a little confused.
"Did you activate it yet?"
"No... I'm waiting for your permission."
"Okay, uh. then, uh. I hereby authorize the activation of PROXY."
"Bingo!"
Suzie's voice was anxious, but that didn't stop her from carrying out all the procedures that Panam and I were following. Ten minutes later, the lid of the coffin containing PROXY's body opened with a quiet hiss. A couple minutes later, the body twitched and wheezed quietly.
"SUZI?"
I glanced at the monitor, but IL wasn't responding and I didn't like it, and after a couple seconds the monitors and the server she was logged into went out.
"What the fuck?!"
I took a quick look around.
"Panam, check the servers, see if any of them are working."
"Got it!"
Panam immediately snapped out of her seat, as did I, only instead of servers and computers, I rushed to PROXY, who continued to twitch in the open coffin.
"Kha!"
PROXY's body shook and twitched, and her eyes were wide open. Her fingers were scraping the sides of the coffin.
"Breathe..."
One word from me given in a commanding voice and PROXY's eyes focus on me.
"Breathe..."
But she kept looking at me, and her hands instinctively reached toward me, her mouth opening and closing, but she continued to do nothing.
Fuck!
"I'm sorry."
One word, and I took a deep breath, pressing my nose to her lips, then exhaled. Only then did I pull away from her.
"Kha-kha...
She coughed, and I realized that the air was escaping from her body, the panic clearly diminished and her body stopped twitching. Her eyes widened again as I watched her reactions carefully, and as she inhaled, I pressed my lips to hers again.
Exhale!
I repeated these actions for an hour, after which PROXY was finally able to breathe on her own. She continued to cough and wheeze.
"Panam?"
"Nothing... I restarted everything, but suzy."
At the sound of that name, PROXY twitched.
"...unresponsive."
There was genuine concern in Panam's voice.
"Don't jump to conclusions..."
My voice was calm.
"What do you mean, take your time?! WITH SUZI."
The proxy's body shook again and wheezed more intensely.
"...something's wrong!"
"I think I know what it is..."
I looked carefully at the PROXY.
"SUZIE, you're here."
"Kha..."
A short cough let me know that I didn't seem to be wrong in my conclusion. But I had to check it out. I took Suzie's hand in mine.
"SUZI, if it's really you, I'm going to squeeze your hand and you try to squeeze it back. Okay?"
"Kha..."
I had no doubt, it was her but I squeezed her palm and after waiting a bit I didn't feel anything, so I let go of her and squeezed again, let go and squeezed again...
It wasn't until the tenth time that SUZI's fingers twitched consciously, not yet squeezing my hand, but at least slightly closing around it.
"There's our SUZI."
I smiled softly at the girl, after which I shifted my gaze to Panam.
"How's that?"
I shrugged.
"You know I'm not familiar with this kind of stuff... I can build a gun, maybe even a simple chrome, but the interaction of IL and PROXY is clearly not my niche. Although I have a hunch."
"Assumption?"
There was a question in Panam's voice.
"Assumption."
I nodded confirming that it was only an assumption, but one I had nonetheless.
"And what's the assumption?"
"The world does not like emptiness, or rather there is no such thing as emptiness..."
He said it, and then he stopped talking.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I looked at Panam and sighed.
"I assume the body was alive, but there was absolutely nothing inside. And when Suzie tapped into it, she was just sucked inside."
"Kha!"
SUZI immediately made it clear that I was... right? Well, I'll take that as a yes, and she just confirmed what I said.
"Looks like I'm right..."
"It's, uh. what do we do now?"
There was a question in Panam's voice, she clearly didn't understand what exactly to do in this situation and how to react to what had just happened.
When I glanced at Suzie, I realized that she was confused, too. It was obvious from her eyes and her face, which didn't hide any emotion.
"What to do, what to do... is to teach SUZIE how to live. But to make her less nervous, you could try connecting her to a computer. Maybe she can interact with it."
"Okay..."
Panam nodded.
"...stop, it's already hooked up."
I sighed.
"Panam, don't get excited, but think about it. All the equipment is down, which means that the programs used by SUZI to set up the connection are no longer working. I guess we should run them again and see what happens."
"Kha!"
"Okay, let's set it up again..."
Panam walked towards the computers, as I was about to do, except that as soon as I stood up, SUZI started coughing a lot and often.
"Kha-kha-kha-kha. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha.
I froze and turned around to SUZI.
"Is something wrong?"
"Kha"
"You..."
I looked carefully into the girl's eyes and face and shook my head faintly.
"Are you scared?"
"Kha!"
"Panam, can you handle it?"
"I can handle it."
It was said in a slightly strained voice, and I nodded, accepting her answer.
"Okay, well, you go ahead, I'll take care of this pansy..."
I said with a slight smile on my lips, but SUZI just puffed up like a hamster and I barely restrained myself from rubbing her cheeks.
It took Panam about two hours to get everything set up. During this time, SUZI struggled to pronounce the first five letters of the alphabet and to move her arms clumsily but independently.
There was no talk of fine motor skills, but it was already a very big step forward.
"Set it up, plugging it in..."
"Huh..."
SUZI's voice immediately came from the speakers.
"...it was scary ... but... something strange..."
I looked at SUZI, or rather her body, and saw that her eyes were now open with shock, and yes, her image was greatly shocked as well.
"And what's so strange about it?"
"It seems now... PROXY has become my main body..."
"Okay... then you need more practice time to get used to it..."
"I..."
"I'll keep an eye on her, and I'll get Vic involved, because he's a ripper who can help her figure things out quickly."
"Good ..."
I nodded and stood up with a sigh.
The things I had planned to do today would not be possible, but... it might be for the best, so I smiled at the girls and left the room and went upstairs, where I was surprised to see a different Aldecaldo clan member, who was guarding Nilf...
Mm...