An Outsider

The Ice City

"I'm going back this afternoon, so to save time I won't beat around the bush with you. I'm going to be suspicious if I say it was your own doing when you and your daughter escaped all the way here and were the first ones to get out of the fire in the slums of Saril. I'm sorry that you and your daughter were in trouble and no one was there to help you, but Ensign Segovia is a warm-hearted person who helped you. I didn't think much of it at the time, but in retrospect, I thought it was wrong. The debt collectors' intelligence network must be inferior to the military's, and if the debt collectors were able to find you, why did the military know nothing about your whereabouts and let you enter the Ares region and be sheltered?"

Axton Schmidt didn't answer for a moment, stirring the pot twice more before putting the lid on it and then himself out of the kitchen to face Whitney, who grabbed the apron around his waist to wipe his hands as he said

"Okay, you don't have to answer that question