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‘You say that like it’s a ridiculous idea,’ said Morgunov. ‘I’m all about fairness! Just like you, my dear!’

What an absolute load of horseshit. He was just trying to get a rise out of her, though. She wouldn’t take the bait, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t still communicate her displeasure with him. ‘Is that so? Was it fair when your men slaughtered defenseless civilians in the Tabori Highlands?’

‘Oh, well, hey, that was more--’

‘What about the when you invaded the Steccati coastline and conducted a genocide on the Jemani people? Was that fair? Or you, Medan? Any of your countless incursions into Korgum? Were those fair?’

‘“Fair” was this fool’s word, not mine.’

Hmph. At least he was consistent.

‘Alright, alright,’ said Morgunov. ‘We’ve all done things. And some of us feel regret for those things. But let’s not get bogged down in the past. “Ancient history,” right? Those were your words, Saya.’

‘Then let us speak of the present,’ said Sai-hee. ‘You are both being obnoxious, and one way or another, this mess of yours must come to an end.’

‘Ooh! So serious all of a sudden. Giving me the hot-and-cold treatment, eh? Can’t say I hate it.’

‘Keep up this flippancy, and you’ll soon be receiving only cold. Is that what you want?’

‘Eheheh. I suppose not. But the way you said that is still tempting me, somehow.’

‘Which “mess” are you referring to, precisely?’ said Dozer. ‘This one battle? Or the entire war?’

‘Now that you mention it, the entire war,’ she said with certitude. ‘The two of you could bring it to an end tomorrow, if you wished.’

‘Mm, I’m flattered, but I don’t know if that’s actually true. Dozy here didn’t have anything to do with it until a couple days ago when I kinda just dragged him along for the ride. And I haven’t really been keeping up with the state of things around Eloa for a while, so I’m not even sure how I’d go about bringing things to such a swift conclusion.’

‘Nonsense,’ she said. ‘Between the two of you, every aggressing nation could be brought to heel overnight.’

‘Heh! Maybe! But that’d still be a lot of work, you know! And I’ve already been up for several days straight. I could really go for a nice, long nap, right about now.’

She wanted quite badly to slap him. In her heart, she felt that there was probably some way to pull that off within this so-called Void State, but she still knew too little of its nature.