An Outsider

Completely equal

Lucio dragged the man all the way into the alley, and the surrounding passersby watched in awe as the entire downtown plaza began to Daphnia magna at once. Nola Franks, who had arrived from the back of the room, had the presence of mind to evacuate the crowd while shouting.

"Well then, this is over, don't ever do anything like that again, I'm having a heart attack." Nola Franks said.

Lucio shook his head with a bitter smile and didn't say anything.

Lucio Calendar frowned, his heart extremely uncomfortable. Whether or not the world was completely equal between men and women, at least in Lucio's mind, the values of his time were still measured. Violence was not advocated, and men who beat women were the most inexcusable and the most intolerable to Lucio. While the innate physical advantage of men over women had disappeared in this day and age, it was clear from what had happened that the physical abilities of the two parties in the confrontation were not on the same level, and in any case, such one-sided violence was uncalled for.

"Sir officer... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

A few steps into the alley, a right turn, Lucio saw an extremely narrow crevice, the man who had just abducted the little girl was on top of his, the little girl's treasury had been completely torn off, and the beast was almost there, the girl cried and hissed in despair, but there was no way how to struggle against the man on top of his.

And the crowd passing by all around, but no one to help pull away the two strong men, all in not too close not far around, mingling and pointing.

Whitney made no first comment, and looking out the floor-to-ceiling glass at Lucio, who was hurrying towards the spot of the incident, he suddenly curled his lips and said.

"Fainted in the alley, I didn't lay a hand on them, don't mind them." Lucio replied coldly, then ignored Nola Franks and carried the girl straight in the direction of the mother.

Lucio looked at Nola Franks with wide eyes and disbelief in his eyes and asked rhetorically.

Pellew smiled and stood up, "Don't forget your treat."

"And me." Another voice sounded disgruntled, and Pellew showed up and sat down next to Whitney.

"I know you're actually very kind, but this is not a good opportunity for self-righteousness to materialize. Just calm down and sit down for a moment." Nola Franks' words continued and Lucio, a little dazed for a moment due to the sudden shock of his thoughts, was pressed back into his seat by Nola Franks.

"It's such an honor to meet you, Major Frisman!"

"Whitney?" asked Pellew, wondering what exactly Whitney meant; Whitney had never been a man of good things who loved to watch.

Perhaps it was a coincidence of coincidences that the women went to the same bar in the evening by coincidence after the afternoon incident at Café Square. When Whitney and Pell entered the bar and saw Lucio and Nola Franks sitting at the bar in the distance, Pell couldn't help but exclaim

"Come on, I'll buy you a drink."

Nola Franks stood silently with his, and after a long time, until the mother and daughter had completely disappeared, he patted Lucio on the shoulder and said.

Lucio was confused.

At those words, Lucio suddenly got goosebumps, and when he thought about it, what he had just said and done was indeed beyond the scope of what a orderly neutral would do. Orderly neutrals, no matter what, kept order as the first. They would strictly abide by the laws, regulations, discipline and general morality of society. Second to that are their own values, either good or evil, the line is not really clear. To take the simplest and most extreme example, when an orderly and neutral soldier, because of a mission, needs to shoot an innocent child. The orders of his superiors and his own view of good and evil come into conflict, and this soldier will eventually choose to carry out the order, so that the person does not care about good and evil and the supremacy of the law, which is order-keeping neutrality.

"But acutely, the people of Saril's yokels are tough, while the people of Alta are friendly and gentle, and that difference is significant." Nola Franks changed the subject.

"The next cut will be your neck." As if the voice of a demon from hell scared him so much that he shook like chaff and lost his inhibitions straight away, and was knocked out instantly by Lucio's fist on the bridge of his nose.

The man subconsciously cringed at the sight of a soldier and faltered back.

"Thank you, thank you Lord Officer." The woman was visibly relieved, his voice humbled to dust as he led his daughter to his knees and bowed to Lucio, who hurriedly stepped aside and sidled up to help them up.

And at the other end Nola Franks had jumped down from the bar in excitement and quickly stood up straight and saluted, saying

But... Does it mean that people whose camps change can be treated like this? Was it deserved to be bullied like this?Lucio really couldn't understand it. He squeezed the edge of the table with both hands to death, and was in an extreme struggle inside.

As Lucio brushed past the little girl, he could see the look of resentment on his face, his teeth gritted, his fists clenched, his tears held back, but he did not even look at Lucio. When his mother told his to bow, he bowed, and when he was told to kneel, he kneeled, but Lucio knew that he was not grateful to Lucio from the bottom of his heart; at this moment in his heart, anger and hatred completely overshadowed the so-called gratitude, and Lucio's rescue could not give his the slightest comfort.

Seeing this, Lucio could not hold back any longer, hammered the table hard and, ignoring Nola Franks' cries, quickly got up and made a dash for the outside of the cafe.

"Actually, it's not something you see every day, but it's not uncommon. These mutineers, generally have their own place of existence and operate in a limited area. I don't know why, but today these two mutineers appeared in the downtown area .... Hey! Lai! Lucio you get back here!"

"This bar is owned by veterans, and a lot of Alta's military love to come here. We get a 30% discount for military personnel ......" He paused to see little reaction from Lucio and sighed.

"Leigh, what are you going to pole to? Are you going to help the two women?"

"The officer has a good heart, and my daughter and I cannot involve you. Go now, lest you be gossiped about and get into trouble."

There is a strict disciplinary rule in the army that no soldier should get involved with a mutineer or there will be severe punishment. This is an ironclad law, yet Lucio ignores this ironclad law and acts on his own values, hence why he surprises Nola Franks so much. However Nola Franks is unaware that Lucio is actually ignorant of this discipline, and whether or not it is a choice beyond his own camp cannot be concluded at this point.

"Wait for me Acme!" Pellew grabbed his bag and hurried after his.

Nola Franks cried foul and hurried after his as well.

"It shouldn't be a problem." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"That scene earlier."

"You're scaring the hell out of me, when did you get so righteous? You're supposed to be more disciplined than I am, I didn't even move, why are you so worked up? Does that mean you're actually the invisible neutral good, on the same side as me?"

After a dozen seconds of patience, when no one came forward, Lucio stood up on the table, ready to stop the one-sided violence himself. But just as he stood up, he was pulled back by Nola Franks, who, with a serious face, asked.

"Of course you shouldn't!" Nola Franks hand pulling on Lucio's arm tightens, the strength of it causing Lucio to frown, "Don't you see? The marker ring around their necks, they're mutineers! You'll get in trouble if you help them, don't you want a future?"

"Lucio, stop right there!" Nola Franks shouted from the back, but Lucio was like a gust of wind, scurrying away in a flash, and he could not catch up with him no matter what. This guy's speed was too frightening, worthy of the title of "assassin", that kind of swiftness, Nola Franks really have no power.

The woman wiped his hands on his tattered clothes, then lifted Lucio's uniform off his body, folded it carefully, patted away the dust, and handed it back to Lucio with a bow as if presenting some kind of tribute; Lucio watched his movements with a sinking feeling in his heart, and took his uniform back in silence, not knowing what to say.

Whitney, however, ignored his and swiped his wrist id on the sensor at the table, paying for the drinks for two before standing up calmly. The moment he stood up, his slender figure was immediately revealed, and putting on his sunglasses, he just stomped on his high heels and walked towards the outside of the shop without any slow speed. The mannish figure confuses people's minds, and the aura of a tarzan who doesn't change his face firmly captures everyone's eyes.

In the blink of an eye Lucio was at the scene of the man's violence, he ran so fast but with so little movement and with the fact that he was approaching from behind, the man didn't even notice anyone approaching and probably subconsciously he didn't even think anyone was going to interfere.

"You ac... What's wrong with you today? Are you possessed? It's a good thing I'm smart, or else things would have gone horribly wrong, how do you think it would have ended?" Nola Franks complained.

Lucio didn't really go under the knife, he still knew his place, and although his anger was extreme, his sanity was still intact. It was enough to teach the two hoodlums a lesson and save the mother and daughter, and he did not want to escalate the situation any further.

With that he reared up, slung his armed belt directly over his shoulder, then took a big stride forward, dragged the man up by his hair, and headed for the alley where the other man had abducted the little girl.

When he fixed his eyes on it, he found that it was actually a gallant female soldier, glaring at his with angry eyes that seemed to be burning with fire in their darkness.

The girl in the crevice fell limp to the ground, unable to stand up at all, and Lucio carried his out, helping to straighten the girl's garments so that he could barely cover himself. The girl was already too stunned to say a word, shaking all over, his body showing off, his breathing completely unsteady, not knowing if it was from crying or being scared. Really close observation, found that he should actually be thirteen or fourteen years old, but the body is abnormally thin, looks like only the early ten years old. A small face was clear, and the neck that should have been white and slender was now covered with hideous scratches, and the black collar worn around his neck looked unusually harsh. Dust mixed with tears clung to his face, somewhat dirty, and he was too pitiful to hold in his arms as light as a feather, so light that his bones could be touched.

Lucio patted his hand reassuringly, "Don't worry, you wait for me."

The man let out a murderous howl and tried to struggle out of Lucio's drag, but the female soldier was simply born with godlike strength, so horrifying that his scalp was torn off and he was rolling his eyes in pain. He couldn't help but shout.

Whitney laughed, "Well, as you say."

"Whitney, I'm beginning to admire your bond with the Assassin Ensign, I see, you really need to come up and say hello."

"I'm going to have to leave you behind oh." Walking to the door, Whitney smiled back at Pellew before he pushed open the door to the cafe and walked out.

Lucio returned, "I don't see any Saril features in you, do I?"

"They're mutineers. Soldiers helping mutineers. Don't you want to hang around? I'm collecting debts legally! Don't you meddle!"

Lucio didn't care what the hell he was talking about, he just unbuckled his belt and held his uniform jacket down over the thirty-something woman. The woman was trembling, tear-stained, and grabbed Lucio by the bones, saying in a broken voice.

Lucio was dumbfounded and once again went to look closely at the mother and daughter outside the window, and this time he noticed that they were indeed both wearing a collar-like object around their necks.

The commotion outside had actually alerted the customers in the cafe. At this moment, Lucio and the girls suddenly rushed out of the cafe and headed towards the incident, and everyone in the cafe was shocked, not expecting that an officer would actually be willing to take care of such a matter. The customers, who had planned to ignore the matter, instead took a huge interest in Lucio's unusual actions, and one by one, they all left the cafe, intending to go up and check out the situation.

Nola Franks was even more surprised, "Miss Andres!"

Lucio nodded his head in understanding.

"Hello Lucio, it's been a long time." Whitney smiled slightly and a sudden flourish of flowers made Lucio's heartstrings tremble.

Lucio felt nothing but rage, all the blood in his body rushing to his head. With his saber in hand, he stepped forward, and with a single stretch of his left hand, he pulled the man by the back of his shirt and dragged him right out. The man let out a startled cry, and before he had time to react, he saw a flash of the sword, a cold chill at his crotch, followed by a pair of ruthless black eyes appearing in front of him.

Lucio's heart flinched as he quietly opened his bracelet id and went directly into the camp interface, finding that he still remained in the guarded neutral camp with a camp deviation value: guarded +22, neutral +5. This figure was simply a model of guarded neutrality.

"Lai, don't tell me you don't know how much trouble it is to get involved with a mutineer. We are soldiers, and we need to stand firm all the more, otherwise the punishment in the army is even more terrible. You have worked so hard to earn your military rank and rise to the rank of second lieutenant, an honor that is hard won, do you want to be banished from the army and become a wanderer?" Nola Franks, seeing Lucio's sudden burst of justice, felt bad and hastened to continue his persuasion.

"It's surprising that the military assassin, known for his calmness and warlike nature, would be so impulsive." He couched this in a polite way, in effect belittling Lucio and thinking he didn't fit the image of the legend.

Nola Franks eyes glazed over and opened his mouth before he could answer, but suddenly a cold but not harsh female voice sounded softly behind his, accompanied by a plum-like cold fragrance, and a 緻 stunningly beautiful woman, very naturally, sat beside Lucio.

The City of Aphrodite is one of the seven major city-states, also known as the "City of Science and Culture", and is the most academically and culturally flourishing city-state in the Federation, with a large number of military academies and research institutes, as well as the Federation Library, the Federation Opera House, the World Theatre, the National Gallery, the Museum of History and other national facilities related to culture. There. Most of the Federation's few companies in the cultural industry also have their bases there.

"Isn't the coup interesting, want to check it out?"

"What are you pole?!"

So Lucio went up and kicked the man directly in the back with his military boot, and a strong force sent him rolling two or three meters straight away. The man was dazed for a moment, when he heard a cold female voice, with full fury, yell at him.

"Make no mistake about it, get up. I'm just raising my hand." Lucio just felt a lump in his throat, very hard.

"Look at your own camp test for anything unusual." Nola Franks whispered into his ear.

Damn Lucio, you got me this time, Nola Franks was mentally spitting in a frenzy as he steered the skeptical onlookers away.

As soon as he entered the alley, Lucio heard the girl's screams, and the screams were so loud that it was clear the situation was critical. Lucio then left the man behind and headed straight for the source of the sound.

"He's fine, it's just a superficial injury, don't worry." Lucio said soothingly.

This deviation value stat is an important reference point for depicting the psychology of a person's personality. Nola Franks, for example, is a Neutral Bias Order +9, a Good Bias Neutral +13, and in general, a class of people the force is willing to recruit. Lucio, on the other hand, has only just now learned that there are such refined criteria, and the detailed values about himself are not yet known to his.

Lucio asked hesitantly after a long silence and another sip of wine.

"Nothing feels right, doesn't it? Even if the Assassin Ensign is flooded with justice this time, the end result is not at all surprising." Pellew shrugged.

"Press... That's right..." Whitney was noncommittal, then changed the subject extremely abruptly, "Want some mint juleps, I hear the one at the military club is good."

"Saril is the borderlands and the climate is harsh, the poorest place in the entire Federation. Our Chinese ancestors had a saying that 'poor mountains produce unruly people', which is a bit of a nonsense way to describe one's homeland, but it's true. The people of Saril are basically engaged in rough and heavy work like military, heavy industry, transport industry, very fond of strong alcohol, all loud, and all rude in their hands and feet. But not so with Alta, the people here are delicate and gentle, and I wasn't very used to it at first when I first arrived." Nola Franks said.

Whitney and Pellew gestured to the waiter at the reception to go to the bar spot near LucioNola Franks, and the waiter led them there. Lucio was in a somewhat depressed state of mind, sipping a drink, which he rarely drank and was not used to, and ordering a margarita, the only one he had ever had, which tasted different than he remembered, and Nola Franks was sitting next to his with a glass of whiskey on the rocks in front of his, talking to his in a casual way.

Marking circle? Mutineer? Another word Lucio had never heard of. But he could probably literally understand exactly what it meant. A mutineer, roughly, was someone who changed sides, changed from one side to another because of a huge change in thinking. And a marker circle, presumably, is a marker used to identify such people, so that everyone can tell who they are at a glance. Perhaps there were other functions, but Lucio couldn't know without checking the information.

"That's a torture device for execution, if the mutineer is detected as mutinous again, or does anything that Fran's system determines to be a potential level one threat, that black collar will be activated and after a countdown of 5 seconds, a neurotoxin will be injected into the mutineer's neck. The mutineer will die a quick death in less than 0.7 seconds."

"Well, the play is over, so I wonder if Miss Frisman would be so kind as to join us for a drink acr?"

Lucio was tempted to say back to his, if you're a culture, why don't you go to the City of Aphrodite instead of being a soldier in the City of Athena.

"Military business! Idle people evacuate immediately!"

"If you're not happy, let's go back."

"Shouldn't they help?"

The mother, draped in Lucio's uniform, was sitting paralyzed on the plaza floor, and when he saw Lucio coming over with his daughter in his arms, his originally ashen face instantly came to life as he trembled and stretched out his hands to take his daughter from Lucio's arms.

Although the nine camps are divided, it is not really a simple and rough way to cut the cake. The people in each camp have individual differences and a variety of biases. So there are actually more detailed indicators for camp division, called camp deviation values. Let's say a ruler is drawn between order and chaos, with the center of the two being neutral and the value set at 0. 

Lucio felt a shiver run down his spine and turned his face to see a face that impressed his greatly. He froze for a moment and said.

"The two ends of order and chaos are set at 30, with order at +30 and chaos at -30, and the camp deviation value is then determined between ±30. The more neutral you are, the closer the value is to 0. Between ±10, you are judged to be in the neutral camp, +10 to +30 in the orderly camp, and -10 to -30 in the chaotic camp. The same is true for Good and Evil."

Lucio didn't move for a moment, but the woman stopped persuading, and with his daughter, whose emotions had calmed down, he bowed deeply to Lucio again, and then mother and daughter helped each other and limped away towards the square.

Whitney stood up, straightened his skirt, and smiled.

Seeing his like this, Nola Franks tried to talk to his to lighten the mood.

Lucio sniffed and said hastily, "Sorry to spoil your fun. I'm fine, let's sit down for a while."

"Yeah?" Lucio came interested.

Nola Franks, relieved to see his sit down without resistance, said in a joking tone.

"Joe, that black collar, what does it do exactly, just to mark out the mutineers?"

As they were chatting happily, they heard a flash of Daphnia magna outside the window and raised their eyes to see two roughly dressed men beating two women under a large tree in the northwest corner of the garden square outside the cafe. The two men were big and fierce looking, with flesh on their faces. And the two women both looked extremely thin and withered, with tattered clothes that actually had patches. One of the women was about thirty years old, and the other looked to be in his early teens, a young girl in his early teens, and Lucio guessed that they were mother and daughter. Although their clothes were tattered, they were not disheveled, and they had cleaned up fairly well. It was just that they had been pinned down and beaten so badly that their faces, which had been hard to clean up, could not avoid getting dirty. The woman in his thirties was already beaten to the ground, unable to move, and the teenage girl was still struggling desperately, trying to protect the woman in his thirties with his thin body.

Whitney and Pell, sitting in the corner, naturally saw the whole thing, and Pell shook his head straight.

"Shut up! Come with me and save yourself the pain!" Lucio's tone was unusually ruthless and murderous, and with a clang, he unveiled his saber from the sheath hanging from his armed belt and put it to the man's neck.

"What do you think?"

"Save my daughter, please save her..."

As Nola Franks said this, one of the two men was grabbing the young girl by the collar and dragging his towards a less crowded alley, and the other man was actually ripping the mother's clothes, in broad daylight, to do that in public. The mother's clothes were already in tatters, and when they were torn they became almost cloth, not even covering his body, with large swathes of bruised and battered skin exposed. Yet the crowd of onlookers remained indifferent, and so many even shook their heads and left, unconcerned. It seemed that not going to see this kind of thing was their greatest almsgiving.

"Whitney Frisman?"

Nola Franks laughed, with a dejected look on his face, "I'm a cultural, how can I be compared to a spiteful person."

As Lucio carried the girl out of the alley, there were few onlookers outside in the square thanks to the diversion of Nola Franks, who saw his coming out and immediately stepped forward and said.

At the other end of the square, on a bench for people to rest, Whitney and Pell are sitting side by side. Pell sees Lucio and Nola Franks getting ready to leave and wonders.

"How about what?" Pellew was baffled.

Nola Franks themselves are from the neutral good camp, and generally their own values override disciplinary rules and regulations. However, it does not follow that Nola Franks will necessarily ignore regulations and discipline. When the extent of the stakes is very obvious, they will inevitably tend to avoid the stakes, otherwise they are mentally immature people.

The time was nearing dusk, and the mother and daughter, whose names were not even known, were dragging their injured bodies and hobbling under the sunset, their shadows stretched out. lucio stood stiffly in place, looking at their backs, and his heart felt like a tossed bottle, not knowing what to feel.

"Hey! Did it work out? Where are the two men?"

Lucio sat down at the table and joined his lips, elbows propped up on the table, forearms raised, hands clasped to his lips, eyes gazing through the brim of his hat at the scene of the violence outside, his expression looking slightly anxious and restless. He was hesitating, hesitating in the extreme, the inner creed of justice fighting against the actual stakes for the first time in his life. Had it been any other time, he would have already rushed up.