"To be honest, part of this mess is my fault," Helena admitted, her voice carrying that reluctant tone of someone who’d been nudged—if not outright pressured—by Selene to say it.

"What do you mean by that? Didn’t Selene just admit earlier that she was the one at fault too?"

Of course I shot back with that response. I wasn’t going to let her act like she was the sole culprit here. Besides, deep down, I knew she actually hadn’t done anything truly wrong—at least, not in a way that justified a full confession.

"No, I mean... earlier I shouldn’t have activated the Emanator Field before we even started the experiment."

She said it casually, as if firing up something with a name like Emanator Field before the designated start time was just a minor slip-up, the kind of harmless mistake anyone could make. But the way her eyes avoided mine told me she already knew it was far from harmless.

Wait, Emanator what?

I blurted, the words slipping out before I could stop them, because honestly, it sounded less like a real scientific term and more like something ripped straight from a flashy gacha game about god-tier powers and overdesigned magic weapons.

"Helena, Kairi looks confused and Azalea doesn’t look like she understands."

You could just say we both don’t seem to understand. Be more efficient with words.

"Should I explain it?" Selene insisted, in a tone similar to that character from the said gacha game who would groom a pet for his mad scientist–style experiment.

Helena only nodded. "Sure, you may. But this should be harder for them to understand. Are you certain about that?"

Anyway, speaking of which, the part of Helena’s clothes where she got burned was fixed immediately. Must be her subversion.

"Yes, I’m quite certain. Also, this is the right time for them to know, and we need to speedrun the progress as well."

Not you using a Gen Z term to explain the hurriness of this subject.

Somewhere behind us, one of the suspended clocks ticked unnervingly slow, like time itself was reluctant to stay here. It was a subtle reminder: Arthur could be moving right now while we argued about terminology.

"Fair enough. Go ahead, my dear rival."

Selene looked to dismiss her nick-calling, apparently too enthralled by the subject.

"Emanator Field is a field that exists within this pocket. If activated, it will emit more elements than it should—think of it as overclocking the environment."

"Alright, that’s all."

Wait, that’s it? No mechanism nor even theory, if not canon lore, on the said field?

"Yes, that’s it."

"May I have a question?" Azalea raised her hand.

"Is this similar to the wave emission device used at school?"

"How perceptive..." Selene added, probably in awe of her question.

"Yes, but you could say it is the mini version of one—"

"No, it’s not. Selene, don’t misinterpret this device just because they are similar. What have I told you about this before?"

"But isn’t that the essence of Emanator Field, especially overall but on a larger scale? I thought it shares resemblances to it."

So, they’ve got a feud as fellow scientists.

I cannot relate. In my field—no pun intended—there’s usually consensus for almost everything. From medical procedures to patient diagnoses, everything seems more uniform because it’s applied knowledge. But this is also why I’d rather avoid debates on this level.

So much ambiguity, disagreement, and complexity in one subject. I’m aware of all of these, yet I’m not a scientist.

If one day someone hated each other just because they disagreed on one single specific theory, they’d probably spend their whole lives trying to prove each other wrong.

Meanwhile, that clock in the corner kept ticking, and I swore the sound was louder now—either that, or my patience was evaporating.

"Emanator Field is not the same as Wave Emission Interpreter. Yes, it has the same process and result, but the way they work is quite different."

What are these devices all about, even?

"But don’t they both have the same principles when it comes to mechanism? I believe it’s good to see things like this."

"Or are you just jealous that your sister understands it better than you?"

Oh damn, that’s quite a jab, isn’t it?

If I were Helena, I’d just retract myself from this conversation and perhaps run as far as possible.

Then maybe ask for rope or something like that.

"It’s not that! I mean... you could think of it that way, but there are more components to it since you weren’t the one who built it. Don’t you think?"

Hold on—built?

Wait, are you saying this thing was built by her alone?

"But I was the one who proposed the theory and materials needed for that."

Now this just becomes a lame property ownership claim bulls**t nonsense.

Maybe I should reconsider that offer from my father.

Actually, never mind. Not gonna happen.

"Okay, I’ll give you that. I just said there are other components and it is complex," Helena replied confidently.

Meanwhile, Azalea went invisible as she isolated herself. Maybe she didn’t know her question would cause such havoc between the two.

In other words, she went silent and was trying her best to pull away from the conversation. Ghosting behavior, as usual. If this were a meeting at the hospital, she’d probably pretend to check a patient chart and never come back.

I caught myself glancing toward the sealed door. If we were wasting minutes here, we were wasting minutes Arthur could be using to disappear. Cienna’s condition wasn’t going to pause just because Helena and Selene wanted to academically slap each other.

"Very well."

"You guys will do anything but be focused on what we are going to do next."

Of course I was mad. This whole theory conversation was complete bullshit.

None of this leads to an actual solution for, say, getting a vessel for Cienna—or else, chasing Arthur.

"Oh, those? We’ve already figured them out earlier."

Wait, so there’s nothing to talk about but those theories?

Also, is "we" in the same room with us? Hello, I wasn’t invited yet!

"What those?" Helena asked. This time, she wasn’t able to interpret my emotions, perhaps.

"Oh, nothing. Just some stuff we’ve talked about—Arthur and Milena before."

"Ah, those monsters. Arthur will definitely return, since I still have a feud with him."

"About what, this time?"