Lin Ye stared at his blank phone in confusion.

What was that?

That question rang in his head.

As he was staring at the dimmed phone screen in his hand, Lin Ye wondered if today was April Fool's or maybe a version of that in this world.

That can't be.

One, today was almost fucking November,

Two, his heart was telling him this was not a prank call.

Lin Ye took a deep breath and thought about what to do now. He had Mostima's number on him, calling her should be the best move now. Opening his contact, he scrolled and picked Mostima's name.

His phone rang as he put it against his ear. The sound of his phone buzzing went on for a while and then the call ended.

Again, he stared at the blank screen.

Just as he was about to think about anything, a sudden notification appeared.

It was the news app that he installed a few days ago.

He had to say, it was quite a useful thing to have. Knowing what was going on in his new world was something he quite liked. A son of a company was sent to prison for a reason that Lin Ye was too lazy to get to know about in Columbia, this world's version of America.

Weirdly enough he thought Laterano was America, with their guns and all that. But he was wrong. The Americans did not have a pope to govern their country, they had a president and Columbia had that too. If he had to say Laterano was more like Italy with its culture and buildings and how they governed their nation.

Talking about Laterano, although they were comparably smaller than most nations in Terra, Laterano is considered to be one of the strongest nations in the world. All of this was related to what race lived in this country.

The Sanktas.

Gunpowder was never invented, and this world version of guns used Originium Arts as their ammunition of all things.

Still, something that Lin Ye thought was stupid.

Of all things to use, they had to pick a goddamn cancer rock.

Anyways.

With this difference, people need to know… Gun Arts?

Yeah, he used that.

People need to know Gun Arts to fire a bullet. Not many people can use this type of Arts. However, this was where the Sanktas played a big role in giving Laterano their reputation. The Sanktas had a natural talent for using this Arts, giving them an advantage over other nations. That was not the only reason though. With them being the inventor of guns, they had a monopoly on them.

So, you can see why people considered Laterano to be one of the strongest nations.

See, he was learning so much from this app.

Lin Ye stared at the notification on his phone and raised his brow at it. With how everything was going now, Lin Ye was about to ignore this, but a certain sentence caught his attention.

[New Emperor of Yan]

He narrowed his eyes at it and pressed the icon. Reading through the article, his eyes widened.

The old emperor had stepped down from his throne and given it to his only successor, Ying Ren. But that was not what was bothering him, he really did not care who was the emperor of Yan. It was none of his business.

What was his business and what was his little sister doing now?

He continued to read the whole article, but it did not even mention her in it.

With a frustrated sigh escaping from his mouth, he closed the app. He ran his hand through his head and messed it up.

What was going on here?

First Mostima and now Lily?

The universe must be fucking with him now.

Okay, he needed to think about what option he had on him now and who he should focus on first.

Lily, his little sister, was the goddamn princess of Yan. Meaning that protection was something that she had. And to keep his mind at ease, he had a quick… chat with the newly appointed Emperor of Yan.

He won't go into detail about what he said to that man. Just know if something ever happened to Lily, the person that will be sitting on that throne was a corpse.

So, with all of that, Lily must be safe now.

Mostima.

He still did not know what she was to him. At least he can consider her as his friend, and he did owe her a huge favour for saving him that one time in Lungmen. From what he got from that mysterious caller, Mostima is in danger. Was she kidnapped? He doubted that. That woman could control time. This must be something more. Sadly, Lin Ye did not have enough information to make a guess. Who was Mostima? And why did that woman call him Mostima's comes animae?

The fuck was that? A term used in Laterano?

He needed more information. Then a certain redhead angel popped into his mind.

Exusiai.

She must know what was going on. Lin Ye had her number, so he was just a tap away from her.

Lin Ye scrolled through his phone and found her name.

Just as he was about to tap on her name, another notification appeared.

It was a message from the number that called him just now.

He raised a brow and pressed on it instead.

[Don't contact Exusiai. Don't call this number. If you don't obey, you will be at your own risk]

"… Not ominous at all. Did she read my mind?" Lin Ye sighed, "Why am I so calm?"

"… Oh no," Then the realisation hit him, "I am getting used to this."

Lin Ye scratched his head in annoyance. He wanted to think more about this but, standing in the hall was not the best place to think.

With that thought in his mind, he put his phone away and walked to his office. It was a much better place for him to think.

He did not need to walk that far to arrive.

Opening the door, he did not expect someone to stand in front of him with a spray in their hand.

Lin Ye raised a brow at the figure. Although she was wearing a mask on her face, he knew who this was.

"Weedy?" Lin Ye hummed, "What are you doing?"

It was the girl that he interviewed yesterday.

She had a small figure compared to Lin Ye. Her long grey hair that reached her bottom was tied into two low ponytails. Her clothing was simple. Just a jacket with shorts. Lin Ye also noted there were a lot of ribbons in her hair.

Lin Ye noticed something flying behind her head. From its shape, it looked similar to a seahorse. However, it was made of metal. If he remembered correctly, Weedy named it Leaf. His face softened at the sight of her pet. Lin Ye had to admit for a robot, he was adorable.

Lin Ye wouldn't even say he interviewed her really. She was already on Rhodes Island. Weedy wanted to change the department that she was working in. The new department that was made just a week prior, was the Bioengineering Department. From her files and the talk that they had with each other; he knew a bit about this woman.

She was from Iberia. That alone was a rare thing because of how that nation is blocked off from the rest of the world. Her race also caught his attention. The same race as Skadi, An Aegir.

He did not have a lot of information on the race. Not because he did not try to find more information about them, but because there was nothing to search for. The race was shrouded in mysteries that even their own people do not know.

Weedy was also a neat freak. He did not say this, just the operators that wrote her files did. Lin Ye did not really mind this fact because he liked being clean too.

All in all, Weedy was an interesting person and he would like to talk to her more after this.

They did not realise how fast their meeting would come to be.

Lin Ye stared at the operator in front of him that was still wearing a mask over her mouth and holding a spray at him.

"Doctor, your hands." Weedy simply said to him.

At first, he was confused but Lin Ye trusted his gut and put both of his hands in front of her. Weedy nodded gratefully at him and then proceeded to spray some type of detergent on his hands, based on how it smelled.

Lin Ye hummed as he spread it around his hands. He stared at his guest, confused on why she was here with that type of outfit.

"Weedy? Why are you here?" He called her, "Is there something you need? Woah!"

Leaf noticed Lin Ye and flew straight at him. When the robot was close to him, Leaf started to rub itself on his cheek. This made Lin Ye chuckle.

"Hey there Leaf." Lin Ye pet it, "Miss me already?"

Leaf did a loop as it made a cheery noise. Lin Ye smiled at this cute act.

"I take that as a yes then," Lin Ye hummed.

"Leaf likes you," Weedy pulled down her mask and smiled at him, "This is rare, seeing that he only likes clean things."

Lin Ye raised a brow at her and then stared back at Leaf, "So I am clean?"

The answer that he got was Leaf rubbing at him again.

"Thanks," Lin Ye sighed.

Weedy let out a small giggle at all of this.

He looked back at Weedy.

"So Weedy?" He smiled at her, "Why are you here?"

"Ah, nothing important," Weedy hummed. Leaf flew back to her side, floating beside her head, "I am here to clean up your office."

"Really?" He looked around and noticed how clean it was now compared to the first time he came here. He embarrassedly smiled at Weedy, "Was it that dirty?"

"Not really. Much to my surprise."

"… Are you implying that I am a lazy person?" Lin Ye sighed, "Do I really look like that?"

"It's not that," Weedy giggled, "It's just my cleanup is not the same as a normal person would view it. However, your room is almost at that level. I only need to use a bottle of my detergent. A first for me."

"Glad to hear." Lin Ye nodded, "Why are you even cleaning it?"

"For now, I will be seeing you more often so this office should be as clean as possible," Weedy explained. Then he smiled at Leaf, "The other was that Leaf really wanted to see you again."

The pet did a loop in the air.

This made Lin Ye chuckle alongside Weedy.

Then she noticed that the Doctor looked a bit tired.

"You seemed to be exhausted," Weedy commented on him, "If something is bothering you, you should go to the psychologist. I heard great things about the man."

Lin Ye lightly chuckled at this.

"No need," He waved her worries away, "I need to do something here. Maybe later."

Weedy nodded.

"I see. Do you want to be alone?" She asked, "We can leave."

"It's fine," Lin Ye hummed, "Stay as long as you like."

Weedy smiled gratefully at him.

"Thank you, Doctor. We will continue our cleaning then," Weedy glanced at Leaf, "Let's go Leaf."

Giving him a final nod, Weedy and Leaf went to the other side of the office, cleaning that area up.

Lin Ye smiled and went to his desk. Pulling the chair back he sat on it. His mind then went to think about what he was supposed to do with his current situation with Mostima and Lily.

As he was thinking this, he remembered two people that were close to Lily that he had numbers.

Leizi and Hui-Chieh.

For Leizi, she must know how Lily was now. He could just go to her and ask.

As for Hui-Chieh, she was an important person that knew someone even more important. With her being the head of the LGD, she must at least know how Lily was now.

With that in his head, Lin Ye pulled out his phone and dialled her number.

He placed it against his ear and waited.

The sound of the call rang in his ear.

"Hello? Ye?" It was Hui-Chieh, "Is something the matter? Why are you calling me?"

"Hey there Hui-Chieh," Lin Ye turned his back facing Weedy to get some privacy and lowered his voice, "Just wanted to know how Lily is with how Yan is now."

After mentioning this, Hui-Chieh suddenly became quiet.

Lin Ye sighed.

"Is this something that I am not supposed to know?" Lin Ye asked.

"Nothing like that," Ch'en denied, "You just need to know that Lily is safe. She is not a threat to the throne. The emperor is personally making sure Lily is not in danger."

"… Good to know," Lin Ye nodded, "Is there anything I need to know just in case."

"At the moment, no," Hui-Chieh said, "Just be ready for anything."

"Noted," He nodded, "Take care and be safe out there, Hui-Chieh."

"Same goes for you."

After saying this, she ended that call.

Lin Ye leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling above him.

So the only thing that he could do to know more about what was going on in Yan, he needed to see Leizi.

{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}

With a ding, the elevator's doors opened up on the fourth floor. Lin Ye stepped out from it and immediately took a right.

From what he remembered, Leizi's room should be not far from where he was now. It should be the second room to the left.

Sure enough, Lin Ye could see her room just by walking for a while.

Lin Ye knocked on the door.

"Leizi," He called, "It's me, Ye. Are you there?"

No one answered back.

Lin Ye raised a brow at this. Leizi should be here, she still did not have any job that she needed to know, seeing how she was still new to Rhodes Island.

Just as Lin Ye was about to knock again, he could see a small gap.

The door was not locked.

Strange.

Lin Ye lightly pushed the door open and saw there was no one in the room.

She should be living alone now so it was no surprise. Lin Ye was about to close the door and wait outside when a door in the room opened.

It came from the bathroom.

"Who?-"

Snow was in the room now. Half-naked with only a towel covering her body.

Both of them stared at each other. Neither said a word.

Finally, after what felt like a century, Lin Ye spoke.

"I will be waiting outside, okay?"

Snow numbly nodded at him.

He nodded back.

"Good."

He slowly closed the door in front of him.

Outside, he stood there, staring at the closed door without saying a word.

Then a slight sigh escaped from his mouth.

"Fuck."

{Rhodes Island's Psychologist}

Draft: Jaq

Proofread: Discord

Edit: Jaq