24. Path to Destination

For two days, Jack, Lupus, and Frain had actively scouted the metropolitan ruins of southern Germund. Their goal was simple: find a suitable arcanite engine to replace the one in the one-armed Armatus Jack had hijacked, along with its two puny bots.

Occasional signs of the war effort streaked across the summer sky as cruisers flew overhead, yet none paid any attention to Jack's small party. He believed the main Armatus fleet had likely been rallied and concentrated in the major industrialised cities. As a result, they had yet to encounter any knights during their search.

Finding an intact arcanite engine proved a frustrating task. For an entire day, they sifted through wreckage that had been reduced to little more than charred composites, covering twenty kilometres of ruins with nothing to show for it.

Their luck changed near a national park. Frain suddenly stopped, her head tilting as her lioness ears twitched. She sniffed the air a few times. "Burnt metal," she clipped, pointing toward a dense treeline.

Lupus grinned. "Let's investigate."

Hidden amidst a tangle of broken trees and scrub, they found it: an Armatus mobile suit, damaged but looking salvageable.

"Atta girl!" Lupus exclaimed, pulling the lioness into a joyful hug.

"Good job, Frain," Jack added, ruffling her golden hair. The young Wildren purred with content.

Upon closer inspection, they found a puncture in the lower torso, the surrounding metal blackened with soot. "If we're lucky, the impact narrowly missed its vital components," Jack analysed. He stepped back. "Would you two do the honours?"

"With pleasure!" Lupus flexed playfully, the refined muscles of her abdomen peeking from her corset. "Ready, Frain?" The lioness nodded, taking her position.

Working in tandem, their combined Wildren strength was enough to pry open the protective carapace. Inside, the arcanite engine sat nestled in its housing, miraculously intact.

"We got it!" Jack's voice was filled with relief. Two days of searching had finally paid off.

"Yippie!" Lupus cheered, hopping on the spot.

Caught in the moment, Jack found himself lacing his fingers with hers, a shared smile passing between them. Her golden eyes shimmered, reflecting the hope of their small victory.

He cleared his throat, abruptly dropping her hand and turning away, a sudden heat rising in his cheeks.

"Sorry," Lupus murmured, her own heart giving an unexpected flutter.

Frain tilted her head, staring blankly from one to the other. "Lupy's face is red."

"It is not!" Lupus snapped, burying her face in her hands.

The air grew quiet, charged with an unspoken tension. Frain, oblivious, pointed at their prize. The spherical engine weighed well over 500 kilos. "How are we going to haul this back?" she asked.

The question broke the spell. "Jackie, can we use your puny bot for that?" Lupus proposed, grateful for the distraction.

"Yeah, nah. They both ran out of juice," he shook his head. After a moment, a grin returned to his face. "I've got an idea. Time to go medieval."

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Using a makeshift sledge fashioned from ropes and logs, they began the laborious task of hauling their prize back to their rendezvous point.

Once they reached the spot where they had left the damaged Armatus, Jack decided to install the salvaged engine in one of the puny bots first. This was a calculated move to minimise the risk of drawing unnecessary hostility from any mages they might encounter, just as he had when he first met Lupus.

With a fully functional bot, navigating the ruins would be far easier.

That night, they found shelter in a two-storey abandoned house. Family photos still hanging on the walls whispered of a home once filled with warmth and joy. While Lupus and Frain busied themselves cooking instant noodles on the stove, the electricity, surprisingly, was still functional.

Jack wrenched and tinkered with the puny bot. He configured a sentry protocol to serve as a security measure, a silent watch against any enemies attempting to sneak in.

Later, they all huddled together in the large bedroom. Jack lay on the floor atop a makeshift mattress while the girls, seeming to be in high spirits, whispered and giggled before eventually dozing off.

Once their cheerful murmurs subsided, Jack, too, drifted into sleep.

Jack woke before sunrise on the third day. The girls were still curled up together, lost in slumber.

"Hm~hm, carrot cake…" Lupus mumbled in her sleep. He found himself staring at her, and the sight stirred a familiar ache.

The profound feeling compelled him; he missed his family deeply, but his amnesia made it difficult to grasp their faces. In his mind, they had become little more than faceless, hazy figures. He squeezed his eyes shut, pushing the thought away before stepping back.

Sticking to his routine, he checked his bot's system, ensuring everything was ready for takeoff.

Today, he planned to cover a much larger area using the Finder Keeper protocol, which would significantly speed up their search for the remaining two engines.

"It's cramped in here…" Jack grumbled as the three of them squeezed into the cockpit. Sandwiched between two beautiful women, he could barely breathe. But there was no helping it — leaving one of them behind was too risky, and leaving them both would expose him to threats from the ongoing war.

The engine roared to life, and the puny bot lifted off, hovering five metres above the ground as it began scanning the wreckage for arcanite signatures through the Finder Keeper protocol.

"Hehehe! I can shrink down really small with arcane magic!" Lupus teased, winking as her chest brushed against his shoulder.

Jack raised a brow. "You can?"

"Pffft! Of course not! Are you crazy?" Lupus burst out laughing, her amusement so contagious that Frain chuckled along with her.

"Old people really are so gullible! No wonder they get scammed so often!" Lupus added, clearly entertained by his reaction.

"Uncle Jack isn't that old! Hehehehe!" Frain chimed in, though her loud giggle suggested otherwise.

Her life as a slave had taught her to be reserved, but since Lupus had started treating her like a sister, her bright personality began to shine through. While not as overtly cheerful as Lupus, she had a warmth all her own.

Jack sighed, his red eyes focused on the data updating on his HUD. You cheeky little rabbit. Now recruited her lioness underling.

Sometimes, the Finder Keeper revealed grim discoveries — charred corpses and withered bodies.

That part was always daunting.

Before half the day had passed, they located another functional arcanite engine. Jack returned to their rendezvous and installed it in the second puny bot. Suddenly, the cockpit felt lonelier without the girls beside him.

They were now seated in the other bot, and while he hadn't let them control it due to their lack of training with the mechanical glove controllers, he had taught them how to use the comms system to stay in contact.

That afternoon, the comms light blinked green, and Lupus's face lit up the HUD screen in front of Jack.

"I think it found another one! Yippie!" she cheered. She sat comfortably in the pilot's seat with Frain on her lap, her arms wrapped securely around the lioness's torso.

It was an oddly adorable sight, and Jack couldn't help but grin.

"Yippie?" Frain repeated, tilting her head as her lion ears twitched.

"I can monitor that from here, but thanks for letting me know," Jack replied, a smile in his voice as he steered his bot through the air towards them. "I'll regroup with you two soon."

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