Chapter 67: Attempt
Listening to Hilda’s reason, Beatrice couldn’t help but squint her eyes suspiciously, visibly sceptical.
She was naturally distrustful due to her background, and because of that, she developed an unnatural sense for people’s intentions — a sixth sense, to put it simply.
Beatrice subtly clutched her arms around her stomach, processing the ominous and odd sensation that permeated through her gut. She trusted her instincts more than Hilda’s words.
Even though it was clear that Hilda had gone out of her way to save her squad members from Elias, who she assumed must’ve attacked them because of her mention of finding Predicaments, there was something else left to be answered.
"Is there a reason why you wanted to come to our camp?" Beatrice asked, hiding her suspicions under a curious facade. "Aren’t you still with that muscle man’s group? I’m sure you didn’t plan to just come over purely for sightseeing, right?"
Hilda chuckled.
"Haha, you’re absolutely right!"
She then placed a hand on the back of her neck and feigned a look of sheepishness.
"You see... after what happened yesterday, they kicked me out of the warehouse first thing in the morning."
"What! Just for breaking up a fight!?" Beatrice widened her eyes. "That doesn’t make any sense...!"
The girl couldn’t comprehend the idea of a group tossing out their most valuable member for something so trivial as a scuffle.
At Beatrice’s response, Hilda laughed bitterly:
"Haha... I guess they just didn’t want someone they couldn’t control, which kind of makes sense, right, Miss Johnson?"
Taken aback by the sudden question, the girl quickly began to ponder a response.
In her opinion, it did make sense to discard people you couldn’t control, for fear that they would turn their back on you. But that was usually the case for people who were easily replaceable.
’This woman’s strength is an incredible asset...’
Regardless of the risks involved, just having Hilda around would prove to be a valuable source of protection against... virtually everything in this city!
’I must bring her to our side!’
And for that to happen, she must touch upon Hilda’s heartstrings!
While internally sneering at the combined intelligence of Ross’ group, Beatrice devised a plan.
In response to Hilda’s question, the girl feigned innocence and shook her head.
"Absolutely not!" She cried out. "It’s unacceptable to just toss out people, just for the sake of control. Everyone has the right to speak out when something’s wrong."
She then reached out and firmly clutched Hilda’s hand, making use of her adorable, petite stature.
"You shouldn’t have to deal with people like that. Of course, we’ll show you where our camp is! We won’t treat you like they did!"
Her sudden shift in personality caused everyone in her squad to widen their eyes and stare at her strangely.
Since the moment they met her, they’ve been constantly berated and sneered at by her whenever they tried to speak against her.
But now she was talking about how everyone had the right to speak out when something was wrong? What the hell caused her to take such a dramatic change of heart!?
They then turned to Hilda, who was revealing a warm smile, seemingly pleased and joyful over the kind declaration from Beatrice.
"I see... I’m utterly grateful, then." She whispered.
Though internally, Hilda was also reacting to Beatrice’s abrupt shift in personality like the rest of them. Except, instead of widening her eyes out of confusion, she was cackling inside from amusement.
She had already deduced what the girl was planning. Though it would’ve taken much longer for her to, if it wasn’t for the fact that she already knew what Beatrice was roughly like as a person.
For Beatrice had surprisingly put on a convincing facade.
But regardless, whether she fell for it or not, she wasn’t going to speak out about Beatrice’s subtle attempt to manipulate her with innocence and kindness.
For if she were in the girl’s shoes...
She would try to do the same.
...
"Ngh, haa... Ugh, I just can’t get it to work!"
Seraphine sat outside with a stacked pile of scrap in front of her, which was loosely wrapped in a belt she borrowed from someone — since all the rope was used up.
She grabbed at both ends of the belt and tightly wrapped them around the pile again, attempting to bundle all the scrap together. But that ultimately ended in failure.
She let out an exasperated sigh of frustration.
She had been trying to get this to work for the past fifteen minutes. So far, this was her fifth attempt to try and bundle everything together.
’Maybe I should just retract some of the things to make it easier...’ Seraphine deliberated before shaking her head. ’Absolutely not.’
Although it was the most logical and simplest solution to her issue, it would ultimately result in her having to make another back-and-forth trip, which... she wasn’t very keen on doing.
Seraphine sighed again.
’But maybe that’s just the procrastination talking.’
Despite knowing what was to come, Seraphine struggled to get herself going—
Slap! Slap!
’Argh, come on, Emma, stop messing around!’
Seraphine slapped both sides of her cheeks and woke herself up. If she was going to let procrastination get the better of her, then she should just forget about going home entirely!
With newfound motivation, she sat up and leaned in to make another attempt. But as she did that, she noticed a shadow cast itself over her from behind, followed by a familiar and emotionless voice:
"Are you not done yet?"
Standing over Seraphine was Nadia, who was hauling a large bundle of scraps on her shoulder, at least double what the Transmigrator was trying to tie together.
It looked incredibly heavy, especially for someone like Nadia, who had a slender figure. But it didn’t appear to affect the Heroine much, considering she didn’t look the slightest bit out of breath.
As expected of the Main Character...
Having now processed the question Nadia asked her, she flinched and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.
"I, uh... am just struggling a bit with tying it together, you see..." She answered, embarrassed, before briskly adding, "I should be done soon, though—"
"You’re stacking them wrong," Nadia interrupted.
"Heh?"
Taken aback by the sudden criticism, she stared at the finger Nadia used to point at her scraps before asking:
"What do you mean?"
"There’s too much space in between objects. That’s why it’s so difficult to tie them together."
After putting down the bundle she was hauling, she knelt down beside Seraphine and began to guide her through what to do, which wasn’t much, but it did make a difference.
Seraphine then attempted to tie them together again.
And when she did...