Chapter 15 Babylon (above)

Alan had never been more formal than he was now.

　　He sat in his seat, head hung low, his eyes sweeping back and forth between his feet. In his ear, the soft, thin voice of a man kept coming.

　　"Has anyone seen my nail polish, oh my god, if they don't show up, people's poor nails are going to lose their shine."

　　"Oh, God. Didn't I tell you guys that clothes must be ironed, it's called quality of life. Quality, get it? You vulgar guys."

　　A man rambled on, and suddenly a finger nudged Alan's chin, then picked the teenager's head up. So a man's face with eyeliner, eye shadow, false eyelashes, and lipstick crashed into Alan's eyes. At the sight of this face, Allen had a slight urge to gouge out his own eyes.

　　"Yo baby. What's with the mopey face, Toto told you Babylon is coming. Come on, cheer up." The man winked, that lipsticked mouth so close, so close it was next to Alan's face.

　　Alan clenched his teeth, making a soft "cackle" sound because of the excessive force. He had already reached out and gripped the nearby Berserker, and a voice in his heart screamed, "Let me kill this human demon with a single slash!

　　Of course he couldn't chop through.

　　Leaving aside the fact that this damned man-demon was an official of the federal government who had guided him to Babylon, just the fact that he and Ron were both second lieutenants was not a rival that the current Allen could defeat. The teenager was just thinking about it in his head, but this damn face was just too close, Allen couldn't guarantee whether he would lose his mind in the next moment.

　　Ensign Tonisov, whose full name was Tonisov, had certain special "hobbies". The worst of these was dressing up as a woman. He wore blonde rococo curls, a well-made fur-collared women's coat, and a pair of tight pants with rhinestone-encrusted purple heels!

　　When the first sight of him came to Allen's mind was that the people above Babylon were sick, and very sick.

　　Of course, the only one who's morbid is Tonisoff. Oh, he prefers to call himself "Toto."

　　Alan was now on a medium-sized transportation flying ship, transportation ships were categorized into carrying people or objects. The flying ship they were on was for carrying people, and the cabin was far more spacious than the patrol ship used for the previous test, and could accommodate fifty people at the same time. This space, however, had been converted into a deck like a private bar. At the automatic door coming in was a curved bar with highball glasses hanging from it and a liquor cabinet in the back filled with whiskey and brandy.

　　The floor is a tempered glass panel with a frosted surface, so when the light from down below hits, it creates a hazy glow in the space, giving the cabin a somewhat ambiguous atmosphere.

　　An ornate and lavish crystal main light on the dome didn't seem to waver even in high altitude flight. And on the wall on the other side, directly opposite the hatch, hung a portrait of Tonisoff. The painting was brightly colored and brightly lit, and the Tonisov in the painting smiled flirtatiously, so flirtatiously that it gave people the urge to tear the painting into pieces.

　　"All right, baby. Let's confirm the process ...," Tonisoff held out his hand and someone put a four-square object into his hand.

　　Tornisph clicked on it and the thing got a picture. Allen had just learned yesterday that this thing was called a Thinking Brain, and Ensign Siren had told him that it could assist people with the small and large matters of life. Alan had never seen anything like it before, and since coming into contact with Tornisph, new things like these were popping up all over the place.

　　The Ensign's finger traced the screen of the Think Tank as he said, "We will be entering the port at Liberty Harbor, well, the other administrative districts' receiving flying ships will also apply for entry there. At that time, you and the other participants will receive a welcoming ceremony on a grand scale. On this stretch of road from the Goddess Harbor to the training base, there will be tens of thousands of Babylonian residents welcoming you and paying attention to you!"

　　"Well, there's only one bell left until we reach the harbor. What, only one bell left?" The Ensign threw away his Wisdom cupping his face and screaming like a nervous woman. He jumped up and yelled, "Quick, get our baby into new clothes."

　　Alan frowned, looking at the leather jacket he was wearing that Ron had given him, "I have clothes."

　　"You call these clothes? Jeez, they're just a bunch of cheap leather roughly sewn together, and it doesn't even fit! Wearing something like this on the field, I'll lose my face to you. People will say, "Look, the beautiful and noble Toto actually picked up a feral child from District 13 and brought it back! No, this will never do!" Tornisph burst into a huge aura, fire almost spewing from those eyes painted with eye shadow, "You must appear perfectly, properly and nobly dressed, that is the quality I need, not this tattered military jacket you're wearing!"

　　"Quality!" Emphasizing again, Ensign Siren stepped out of the hatch and called from the corridor outside, "Ethan! You asshole, hurry up and bring me the clothes I have for Baby. I'll give you ten seconds!"

　　A few moments later, a young man with a handsome brow ran into the cabin in a panic. He carried a silver-gray suitcase in his hands, which Tornisoff snatched up and placed himself on the seat to open. Inside automatically rose a hanger on which was a black suit, and in addition to the top and pants, the case included other accessories. Everything from the shirt inside to the leather shoes of the same color to the lace lapel flower and leather belt.

　　Looking to Alan, Tornisph commanded, "Put it on!"

　　"Here?"

　　"That's right!"

　　When Allen took off his entire body, leaving only a pair of underwear, Tonyshv's eyes lit up, "Look at this well-proportioned musculature, and these perfect proportions. Baby, you're so beautiful to marvel at ..."

　　The Ensign even pinched Allen's ass, and the teen's pupils dilated so much that he was almost about to lose his mind and take a knife and decapitate the pervert! In the end he chose to put on the suit, and when standing in front of the mirror, Allen could barely recognize himself in it.

　　White collar shirt and black suit together, two simple colors but collide with the most simple beauty. And the gathered waistline, narrow sleeves and collar flower made Allen turn from a wild child to a more flamboyant flavor. Combined with his already emerging delicate silhouette, his bright red pupils and his lonely silver pale hair color, the more he looked at the side, the more Tornisph liked it.

　　"My little beauty, come on over here. You're as pretty as can be, and I bet those guys would go crazy for you if they saw you. You're simply ...," Tonisoff circled his finger in the air a few times before waving it down hard, "A superstar! That's right, you're going to be a superstar in their minds!"

　　"Ensign, his hair ..." warned Ethan, the assistant next to him.

　　Tornisph slapped himself on the head, "Damn, almost forgot that important part."

　　The Ensign took a pair of silver scissors from his assistant and then began to put the finishing touches on Alan's look. Alan hadn't had time to bother with his hair during the six months he'd spent at the camp, so the shredded hair he'd had before joining the camp was now a little longer. And now, roots of silver hair were falling under the Ensign's scissors, and as he shaped Alan's hair, Tornisph said at the same time, "Listen, baby. You and the other kids in the borough will be getting a mentor for a month. One month from now, that's when the Ring of Death begins. I've already read that your mentor is Hughton. The old man used to be a Major General, as well as a master of weapons. My advice to you is that whatever old man Hughton tells you to do, you have to meticulously fulfill it."

　　Alan thought to himself, this guy is finally saying something useful.

　　"Okay."

　　When Tornisph put down the scissors, in the mirror, Allen's shaggy hair was gone. The Ensign had given him a simple but masculine haircut, and even Alan himself had to admit that he looked much better now than before.

　　At that moment, the radio in the cabin came on; there were 10 minutes to go before the flying ship would arrive in port!

　　Everyone returned to their seats and fastened their seat belts. Once that was accomplished, the porthole panel in front of Alan opened, a rectangular window large enough for the teenager to see what was out there.

　　At first all that could be seen was blue sky and clouds, then suddenly a sloping earth crashed into Alan's field of vision. On the earth, there were countless buildings that almost drowned the horizon, but this steel city was located at a height of nearly a thousand meters above the ground!

　　This is the floating island of Babylon, the greatest creation of mankind since the Dawn War.

　　The magical flying ship began to fly diagonally over Babylon, giving those in the cabin a view of the countless magnificent structures on the ground, the towering buildings, the complex highway system, the vast green belts and the square-shaped plazas that lay beneath. And these, however, were just the tip of the Babylonian iceberg. On this floating island, which is comparable in size to the state of Texas, there are even forests, canyons, rivers and mountains in an area of nearly 700,000 square kilometers!

　　As the altitude of the flying ship began to drop, at a horizontal angle to the ground, Allen saw, on the horizon, a spire. It rose from the horizon, its pointed spire pointing straight up to the clouds. Even though it was only a blurry silhouette, it exuded a majestic and grandiose aura.

　　"That's the Tesseract Spire, the heart of Babylon. The most cutting-edge means of energy utilization, transforming cosmic source power into the blood that supplies the floating island's operations. Without it, there would be no Babylon, much less the present and future of humanity!" Tonisph used a rare serious tone, and there was a hint of something special in that gaze looking over the horizon.

　　That thing called awe!