Chapter 107

Three weeks flew by like a blink of an eye, we were changing shifts at the junkyard, waiting for a new move of the Wild Hunt, as well as learning, now not only with the help of wood chips, but also with the help of Grobiks, as with my suggestion they began to call still far from perfect training capsules.

During this time I finally realized one thing, I'm not getting anywhere with Ciri.

No, not that I directly tried to woo her, but just communicating and slightly flirting I was able to realize that as a friend she more than suits me, and I her, but as a partner she is more attracted to ...

Sol...

I was a little freaked out when I realized who our princess was looking at, but I didn't bother them, especially since her choice, which didn't go unnoticed by my girls, lightened the mood in my family a little. No, it was fun to joke with the girls, it was fun to make them emotional by flirting with Ciri, and it pleased not only me, but her as well, but...

Anyway, it's been three days now that Ciri and I, by tacit agreement, have not crossed certain boundaries in our jokes and provocations.

"Attention, we are interrupting this program due to an emergency. In the center of Knight City, a strange, uh. ahem. a portal from which strange creatures are pouring into the city. I realize how this news sounds to the average viewer, but at the request of the police department, I urge you to stay off of Utrowund Street and the surrounding streets."

On the TV screen, which was just working as a background and I hadn't listened to it at all until that moment, a map appeared with a red dot marked and a radius of a couple of kilometers marked by a faintly glowing translucent red area.

"I repeat, all civilians should stay away from Utrowund Street, specifically the twenty-seventh house. If you are already there, lock your doors and windows and do not leave the house. The monsters that appear from the portal have been contained by the city's police force, but we don't know what else might come out of there...

The image changed and I saw the familiar portal from which the same low, dog-like creatures that had accompanied the Wild Hunt jumped out every now and then.

"Well..."

Becca was next to me today.

"...I think they've made their move."

"Yeah..."

I nodded, confirming the girl's words.

"And this move is pretty dumb..."

"I disagree."

I shook my head.

"No?"

"In some ways, it could cause us a lot more problems. Having a portal to another world could lead to more attention from the surveillance systems, which could, if anything, spot Ciri and hunt us down..."

"Well, uh. we can handle it."

"Becca, going to war against the whole world is unrealistic..."

I shook my head.

"...with dead bodies. So this move is gonna get us in a lot more trouble than if they just keep opening portals in the junkyard."

"Well... if you look at it that way."

"Did you see that?"

Ciri who was practicing her sword moves in the courtyard burst inside the Behemoth and quickly finding us looked at us with a worried look.

"Uh-huh...

I grabbed the mask that prevented any technology from reading facial biometrics from the table and tossed it to Ciri. The mask itself looked a lot like a Kiwi mask, except that it had holographs hidden in it that changed the proportions of the face and its colors.

"Uh..."

Ciri was confused.

"The mask will prevent the cameras from recognizing you, and it'll be harder for the cameras to catch you. But what they will capture. it'll be a hologram that won't link the image to you."

"Uh, uh. what's the easiest thing to do?"

The girl was somewhat confused.

"Is there something you're unhappy about?"

I arched an eyebrow questioningly.

"Well. I've already gotten more or less proficient at using a computer, so there are much more wearable items that will prevent me from being identified..."

"There is..."

I nodded a couple times and there was a look of satisfaction and anticipation in Ciri's eyes at the answer to her question.

"Except that you don't have chromium, you've given up biological implants, which means you'll have to protect yourself from gases that some solos like to use, and light and noise grenades..."

I shook my head.

"In general, this mask is certainly not a miniature item for camouflage, but it fulfills more than one purpose."

"Hmmm..."

"What?"

"So what are we gonna do?"

"Nothing..."

I shrugged.

"Nothing?!"

Ciri was clearly shocked by my answer.

"Ciri, running around town is stupid. So we'll let the police handle it... I don't think an attack is the primary purpose of opening this portal, more of a scare tactic... And quite possibly a diversionary tactic."

Ciri inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

"I understand all that."

"Just as I realize that your upbringing as a Witcher has imposed some specific, I would say professional, peculiarities on your perception. So I'm not gonna judge you."

"Thank you..."

"You're welcome, but for now, let's get back to our tasks, you training, me preparing for a future encounter with the Wild Hunt, as well as your foster father, who you've been pining for..."

"Uh-huh...

Ciri blushed slightly.

"...could you not remind me of that every time we talk about Geralt?"

"You could have..."

I nodded in agreement that it wasn't that hard.

"...but you have such a funny reaction."

"Man, I was a kid! But I'm old enough now that it's only natural to fall in love with such a strong man!"

"Yeah I'm not judging...perhaps I'd fall in love too if I were you, assuming Geralt was a girl..."

"Kha..."

Ciri coughed.

"What?"

I looked at her in surprise.

"I... Uh-huh. never thought about what it would be like if Geralt was Garalta... Hraltinia. Heraltissia?

I laughed softly.

"Well, okay, let's get on with our business as long as nothing requires our immediate attention."

"Okay..."

I refused to work with Regina and Bestia for the time being, citing personal problems, both fixers were upset, but I gave my word that if they had an emergency I would at least listen to them and consider taking an order, so my desire to take a longer vacation than the one I had originally told them about was met with understanding.

"Okay..."

Ciri sighed and went on to study, and I went back to my work, which Becca was helping me with.

"But seriously?"

"And I'm serious..."

I cast a glance at Becca.

"...we can certainly run out of our seats now and run to solve the problems the police can solve. Note, it's the police, not Max-tac, and the city still has these thugs they can bring in to clean up the monsters.

"But there could be consequences..."

"Maybe..."

I nodded my head.

"But that there would be consequences was clear as soon as the girl fell out of the portal onto our car. I'll tell you more, even if I hadn't caught her and put a bullet in her head before we met her, the consequences would have been..."

"Yeah, I get it."

"Well then, let's just keep preparing to face those consequences. Especially since there really is a lot of work to do."

"Uh-huh...

*** A few weeks later. ***

"Wait, that's, uh. this is new. a humanoid figure has emerged from the portal!"

"Give us the Swallow!"

The voice of the elf dressed in armor was rough and extremely unpleasant, but I just watched the news and chuckled. They won't get anywhere with this approach. There is no one to look for us, or rather some people may find out that there are some people who helped Ciri ...

We are simply untraceable anymore, as Lucy, Kiwi and Judy have completely deleted all data on us in these few weeks since the first portal opened...

We became ghosts...

Now we don't exist...

And we're untraceable now. I should have done it a long time ago, I had already encountered the High League, so I had to think about cutting off the tails that could lead the enemies to our weaknesses. The only thing that stopped me was the fact that we didn't climb on corporates, so the probability that they would really start digging under us was small...

Of course there was the Mystic situation... Biotech... And then there was Arasaka, or rather Hanako and Yerinobu... I hadn't seen the latter, but his possible interest in me was understandable. But all that... although important, didn't make me think of hiding the data. And now that the rooster was about to peck me...

"They know our language! That's amazing, but what swallow are they talking about? Why would they want an extinct bird species?!"

"Give us Swallow and it will stop..."

The body fell with a hole in its forehead.

"Oh, my God! It was first contact, and our valiant law enforcement just took it and killed it! What's gonna happen now?!"

The anchorwoman was cracking up, and I shook my head. Judy, Ciri, and I had been on patrol today, and we'd been watching the broadcast about the unknown creatures coming out of the portal. The news had gotten a little old by now, but the appearance of the humanoid figure had caused a new wave of excitement, and I was sure that the broadcast would be rewatched on tape more than once.

"Nothing's gonna happen..."

I sighed...

"You think so?"

"Yeah. just more monsters, then another elf shows up. and then another elf, and eventually the dialog will start. If, of course, these frosty guys can contain their arrogance and not start a full-scale battle after such an action on the part of the Knight City Police Department.

"Well. I can tell you that the odds of that happening are pretty slim..."

Ciri commented on the possibility of the method I described.

"...By the way, why are we still doing surveillance here?"

"Because if there's any place to drop your mentor off, it's at a place where you've definitely been met, so that he has a starting point from which to begin his search for you."

"Hmmm..."

"What?"

"Uh, no. it's just that the more time I spend with you, in relative safety, the more relaxed I get. I could have come to that conclusion myself, if I'd just given it some thought..."

Ciri shook her head frustratedly.

"Well. I guess it's not so bad. at least you'll get some rest."

"That would be fine, if I wasn't facing a return to my home world..."

"So you're not going there alone, or do you think Saul's gonna leave you?"

"He has too much chrome and..."

"And he's already ordered synthetic and biological enhancements for his body from Vic. So soon he will be completely rid of chromium and will be able to be in your world without worrying about something from chromium going out of order."

"Uh, uh. you're not kidding, are you?"

There was just a sea of hope in Ciri's voice.

"You don't joke about that kind of thing..."

"Okay. so I'm not wrong about him."

"No mistake, no mistake. except it's not gonna be easy for him."

"Hmm?"

"The clan. I'm the formal head of the clan and I tell him what to do, but in practice, I'm kind of a fixer, and he's still in charge. And to give it all up."

I shook my head.

"You can take all the power..."

"It's not even funny..."

I shook my head again.

"...managing a crowd like this is not my thing... except to blame it on Panam..."

It was at this point that a portal opened above the surface of the junkyard, but it was a little different than the one we've seen the elves perform...