“You filthy scum!!” Momus grunted as he writhed on the ground. “If you think this means you’re home free, then think again… That trick won’t work again. Next time we find you, you’re dead!”
Erna wanted to laugh at what a sore loser he was being, but he wasn’t wrong. She and Annette were dead broke, and she had no illusions about being able to stay one step ahead of the Genesis Army the way they had been.
She stopped in her tracks and made an attempt to break her enemy’s spirit. “Fine by me. I doubt we’ll be seeing each other again.”
“What?”
“I already got what I wanted out of you.”
Having said her piece, she left.
The Nilfa agents doubtless had no idea what she was talking about, but the moment they attacked her, they’d played right into her hands.
“Playing it cool is nice and all,” Annette said, “but you know your skirt’s torn, right?”
“That’s because your bombs are too dang dangerous!”
“Here, I’ll sew it up for you! Ah, whatever would you do without me?”
“Q-quit tugging! Just get off me, okay?!”
“Heh! You got it, yo. ”
“It’s nice that you cheered up, but that’s kind of creepy in its own right…”
Perturbed as she was by the way Annette was linking their arms, Erna continued racing down the alley.
Annette had taken a long time to figure out what was going on. Maybe she really had been sleepy.
If she’d been paying attention to Erna and Jean’s conversation rather than gorging herself on food, she would have understood. She would have known why Erna had demanded that she stop attacking people at random, and she would have known why Erna had gone and helped a Galgad citizen when they hadn’t been in any position to do so. When they left the brasserie, Erna had asked Jean for a favor.
“I’d like you to tail us from a distance,” she’d asked him. “Then you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to trust us.”
If the Genesis Army specialized in fishing, then all Erna had to do was fall for the bait and make a show of besting them. After all, attracting misfortune was what “Fool” Erna did best. For her, having someone watch her get attacked fell squarely within her area of expertise.
The girls joined back up with Jean at a church near his university. It was still night, and the building was empty. They were worried about being followed, but fortunately, they didn’t appear to have been.
When they reunited, Jean seemed the slightest bit nervous. He stared at them to try to get a new read on them as he took a seat.
“I saw everything. It was just like you said.” His voice was a little high from unconcealed shock. “…How much do you know about me?”
“That you’re the manager of a university dorm, and that you probably hold a grudge against the government. At first, that was all I had to go off of.”
Back when they met at the brasserie, they hadn’t been sure of anything else. However, Erna had gone there with a hope. That hope had turned to certainty over the course of their conversation, which was why she’d taken the risk of revealing their information to him.
“But you weren’t exactly subtle about it.”
“…About what?”
“Even considering that stuff in your past, most people wouldn’t be so worried about Genesis Army fishing expeditions.”
It all but amounted to a confession—a confession that he was someone that Lylat intelligence would be interested in.
Giving them a clue that blatant had been his way of extending them a hand. They’d only just met, but Erna found that benevolence of his endearing.
“You even gave us instructions. When you said you couldn’t blindly trust us, that was you telling us that you were willing to trust us if we gave you a reason.”
“…I’ve got a balancing act I have to maintain,” Jean said with a shrug and half a grin. “I need people on my side. But at the same time, I can’t accept people into the fold if I don’t trust them.”
“Well, we’ve demonstrated our strength now. We’ve put a lot of training into this.”
“Yeah, that was impressive. Just who are you two?”
“I’ll tell you on the way there. For now, you can just think of us as an anonymous pair of operatives.”
“Look, I’m going to choose to trust you. It’s clear that you’re at odds with the Genesis Army, and what’s more, I admire the way you chose to save that Galgad man.”
Jean stood up from his chair and spread his arms wide in a gesture of greeting.
“I can offer you shelter. It never hurts to have talented friends.”
With a big smile, he revealed his true identity.
“There’s a secret society called the Knights of Valor—and as its representative, allow me to extend you a warm welcome.”