"Hey hey hey, is Asta there?"
"Miss Herta, I'm here. What's going on?"
"Help me buy some energy-rich minerals and ship them to Jarilo-VI, the more the better."
"Huh? Miss Herta, did you run into some trouble?"
"It's not trouble exactly, just hurry."
Before Asta could reply, Herta abruptly cut the call.
Staring at the now black screen, Asta tilted her head, face full of confusion.
----------------------------
Time flew by, and Jarilo entered its snow season early.
Snowflakes danced in the air, blanketing all of Belobog like cotton candy. Everyone noticed how the city changed colors overnight.
But unlike before, people didn't frown at the sight of snow anymore.
"This year's snow came earlier than usual," Bronya said, resting her hand on the window frame. She extended her hand, and a few snowflakes landed in her palm, quickly melting.
"According to the analysis, it's probably because of that red beam from the Beast Lord a while back—seems to have changed the cloud patterns over Jarilo," Pela explained.
Bronya nodded slightly, smiling. "Since the snow is coming fast and heavy this year, if we manage things well, next year's harvest should be great."
Pela smiled too. "With the Beast Lord around, Belobog has had great harvests every year."
Godzilla's ability to change the environment was no joke. Even without meaning to, his presence led to annual bumper crops in Jarilo, to the point that they were running out of space to store the surplus grain.
In this moment of tranquility—
Boom! A flash of purple shot into the sky. Residents nearby looked up at the sound, then relaxed once they recognized it.
"Still hasn't given up, has she?" Bronya said, expression exasperated, watching the small figure rise into the sky.
"Mm. Miss Herta visits the Beast Lord every day. Since the Beast Lord hasn't turned her away, we can't stop her either... this is already the seventh time this month," Pela said helplessly.
Hearing Pela's report, Bronya sighed lightly.
The seventh time this month—and the month wasn't even halfway over!
The residents were already used to the sight of people flying into the sky now!
...
"Hey-ha~! Take this!"
In the snowy field, March 7th, Stelle and Clara were having a snowball fight.
Snowballs flew through the air, some shattering mid-flight.
"Please, Mr. Svarog," Clara said softly.
"Clara, help Clara," Svarog replied.
March 7th suddenly felt a shadow looming over her. She looked up—Clara was sitting on Svarog's shoulders, and he was holding a snowball bigger than himself, standing atop a slope.
"Hey, that's not fair! You're cheating!"
Just as the snowball was ten centimeters away from March 7th's head, Herta dropped from the sky like a divine soldier!
Thud! She plunged straight into the snowball, with only two short legs sticking out and wiggling up and down.
Seated in a chair watching everyone play, Himeko nearly burst into laughter at the sight.
"Ha ha!" Stelle burst out laughing without hesitation and stepped forward to grab Herta's legs, giving them a strong tug.
"Heave-ho!"
Out came Herta, her face full of gloom and cold.
Seeing her expression, Himeko immediately knew she'd suffered another setback from Godzilla.
Shaking her head, Himeko said helplessly, "Even if Godzilla disagrees, you can't go bothering him every day. Aren't you afraid he'll just cut the power to this puppet of yours?"
Herta shook her head and brushed the snow off, letting out a soft hum.
"This is just the beginning. It's all for the sake of knowledge."
Seeing Herta's attitude, Himeko knew she wasn't giving up yet. Who knew what she'd try next?
Still, luckily, other than pestering Godzilla daily, Herta hadn't taken any further actions recently.
"So lively… huh? Miss Herta is here too." At that moment, Yukong walked over slowly and let out a small sound of surprise upon seeing Herta.
She didn't necessarily disapprove of Herta's persistence.
But to prevent her from disturbing Godzilla and thus uncovering why the Xianzhou was paying attention to Jarilo, Yukong often used various methods to divert Herta.
But they didn't work well. In Herta's eyes, unless she lost interest or found something more intriguing, she wouldn't be diverted.
"Shortsighted failures mean nothing. Only achieving the final result is true victory!"
As Herta said this, she was about to stride off and continue her pursuit. Suddenly, she stopped.
She glanced at Yukong, suspicion flashing in her eyes.
"That's right. I forgot — I haven't figured out why the Xianzhou came here in the first place."
Narrowing her eyes, Herta's intuition told her she had found a blind spot.
She knew Yukong — a high-ranking officer of the Luofu Xianzhou's Sky-Faring Commission.
Someone like her wouldn't just casually leave the Luofu to come to this remote region.
And then there was Yanqing — the top young talent of the Xianzhou.
Geniuses like him were cultivated like precious seeds.
There's no way they'd let him run around freely.
She had noticed this earlier but hadn't paid it much mind, thinking their purpose aligned with hers.
But now, she felt it was time to change her strategy....
The next day.
"Huh, you're leaving already, Topaz?" Stelle sounded a bit surprised.
"Yep. We've been on Jarilo long enough. Time to return and report. After all, the situation here is different from before." Topaz chuckled.
This trip to Jarilo had been very fruitful.
The IPC even dropped the pursuit of 700 years' worth of interest debt from Jarilo, asking only for the principal.
Though the principal was insignificant to the IPC, that wasn't the point. Using it as a pretext, they formed an agreement to jointly develop Jarilo.
Helping Jarilo-VI reconnect with the rest of the universe.
Now that Jarilo's ecosystem had recovered and the scenery was beautiful, it had every chance of becoming a tourist hotspot again, possibly even surpassing its former glory thanks to Godzilla's influence.
Topaz bent down and patted the adorable little snowfield bear, smiling.
"What a cute little guy. It's just a shame I can't take him with me."
"Well, I'm off. Bye for now."
As they watched the ship disappear into the sky, everyone sincerely wished Topaz a safe landing.
"She was annoying at first, but once we got to know her, she's actually not bad — a good person," March 7th said with arms akimbo, pretending to be deep in thought.
"The IPC is powerful, after all. That kind of attitude is understandable. As long as Jarilo can pull through, it's fine."
Himeko knew the IPC often acted overbearingly in many worlds across the universe — even trying to force struggling planets like Jarilo to submit.
When that happened, Himeko would step in, but only to the extent that she could.
The universe was vast, and the IPC's reach was extensive.
The one thing that reassured her was that the IPC got things done.
...
"Heh, this turnaround was full of surprises. If every investment went like this, it'd be tough," Recalling the many obstacles on this mission, Topaz couldn't help but sigh as she organized some paperwork.
But the result was good.
She removed her Topaz Cornerstone, stretched her arms, and closed one eye to admire this symbol of her identity.
"Strange… why does it look a bit dim?"
Under the light, Topaz frowned in confusion.
The Topaz Cornerstone never left her side. She often played with it even when she had nothing to do — extremely familiar with it, and in her memory, it was always brilliantly bright.
While puzzled, she heard footsteps approaching. A squad leader walked in.
"Director Topaz, the Bowley group wants to report — we've discovered ten of the IPC's cargo ships. We sent a work request for communication, but they didn't respond."
"IPC cargo ships?"
Topaz was stunned.
Why would IPC cargo ships show up here? As far as she knew, the IPC shouldn't need to dispatch supply ships to this region.
But the higher-ups often had all sorts of strange ideas, so Topaz didn't dig deeper.
She didn't suspect anything wrong with the ships.
After all, the IPC's goods weren't so easy to take.
"They're probably in a rush. No need to bother. Just note down their serial numbers. I'll deal with it once we return."
"Yes, ma'am!"