He looked around and realised, disappointed, that the café was completely empty except for them. He would have preferred to have an audience; everything is always better with an audience nearby.

 Harper talked and talked, really proud of herself for having stood up to some medieval idiots. Syn was really impressed, but if he showed it, the silly Harpy would feel too good about herself. He just wrote down what she dictated to him in his report. Her useless boyfriend was stuffing bread into his pockets like some kind of retarded mouse.

Syn shot him a dirty look but said nothing. If he did, Harper would defend his little mouse and he would look like a miserable bully. ‘Then Ailill, very bravely, stood over me to protect me!’ she narrated. ‘He wasn't actually intending to fuck you? That's how medieval people are.’ The scathing comments came out of Syn's mouth so naturally that sometimes he couldn't help himself. They were like melted butter on his toast.

 Harper sighed and continued talking, even though he would have preferred her to respond, and Ailill wasn't even paying attention to the conversation. Syn settled into the padded seat and closed his eyes, wanting to look more bored than he was. ‘So, you gathered information about... farmers?’ ‘And chicken DNA,’ Harper added. The two exchanged a long look before Syn broke the silence: ‘There's really nothing else we can get out of that.’ Harper nodded.

They both knew they would have to choose a new time period to study, but that would mean taking exams and filling out forms. Both Harper and Ailill would have to choose a time period that was familiar to them, but where they wouldn't be in danger of running into relatives who would recognise them, or some other such nonsense. Syn was a little surprised that Ailill hadn't asked to be taken back to his hut to claim his right to the throne, or whatever. Perhaps it hadn't occurred to him yet.

At the time, Harper had asked to be allowed to save her husband and children, but if AEONALIZE changed a sad ending, they would have to change all the sad endings for all the employees, so she was denied the right to return to her time. That day had been a good one. Harper cried and screamed in his arms, and Syn felt like he was the centre of her universe. She followed him obediently everywhere like a puppy after that event, and she continued to do so until he got bored and pushed her away.

That's how he liked his recruits. Gullible, sad, and malleable. Ah, but now Harper had her own pet to follow her around, and he was a rather curious one. Syn couldn't put his finger on exactly why Ailill bothered him, something about him was a threat to the control she had over Harper, but she couldn't put her finger on it, no matter how hard she tried. He was a nasty guy, but she seemed happy with him.

 Something in her tiny mind was sated by him, something Syn couldn't identify. And now she was talking again about the bandit attack, a matter that wouldn't normally put a victim in a good mood, but it made her shine even more, even though without a tooth she looked very stupid. ‘You should go to the dentist,’ he said. Harper paused in her story for a moment to look at him, as if weighing up whether to keep the empty space where her tooth should have been. She almost seemed to wish they had left her with a bigger scar. Syn felt like vomiting.

 She then turned to explain to Ailill what Syn meant, because heaven help us if the stupid little mouse wasn't aware of what adults really say. The Neanderthal then gave his companion a sad look: ‘I'll pay for your mend, after all, it was my fault,’ he said as he put a hand on her cheek.

 Syn squeezed his eyes so hard that his face could have turned into a black hole, it was so compressed. ‘I'll pay for your mend,’ said the chimpanzee. He wished they had both died in the attack! ‘AEONALIZE will pay for all the damage, you don't need to use your money... which you don't have anyway.’ Syn tried to put an end to the sappy scene unfolding in front of him: Harper looked at Ailill with the eyes of a dying lamb, while he caressed her face, asking her if it hurt.

 Of course it didn't hurt! She must have been up to her eyeballs in drugs! Her jaw began to ache, and he realised he had been clenching his teeth. At the same time, a call to his ME chip distracted him from the lovey-dovey couple in front of him: it was the nurse, whatever her name was, offering him a massage. He ignored the notification.

 He wanted to find a phrase that would put him back at the centre of the world, but nothing he said seemed to penetrate the dome of schmaltz that the other two had formed around them. Not even getting up abruptly and leaving the café with an air of indignation could regain the attention of these idiots in love. Harper was saying sweet nothings to Ailill while he just looked sadly into the distance, letting himself be loved. There was something in that sad look that he could understand, and Syn saw a golden opportunity:

"You should do a report on the future. Our section hasn't submitted one in a while.‘ Harper's eyes widened and she turned her neck so quickly that she looked possessed: ’The future?!‘ Syn's lips formed a smile: ’Since you two are so close and make such a good team, I think you could overcome most of the dangers." She stared at him open-mouthed, fire in her eyes as she wondered if he was serious.

 He responded with a pearly smile. ‘It's too soon for Ailill,’ Harper objected. Ailill, on the other hand, seemed intrigued. ‘Aren't we already in the future?’ asked the huge idiot. ‘We're in the present... I'm talking about the future-future,’ replied Syn, refraining from any further comment. Harper added that it was a very dangerous “place”. Ailill then seemed interested in their mission. ‘Dangerous, you say?’

Syn and Harper proceeded to explain that missions to the future were carried out very occasionally, because unlike the past and the present, there was no breathable atmosphere. No one yet knew why the Earth had become completely uninhabitable, and frankly, no one wanted to know, but the AEONALIZE high command insisted on sending explorers to try to find out why. They already had a laboratory ready to send people to the exact point in the future where the missions began.

Absolutely no one wanted to go, so a rule was imposed requiring all sections to send explorers at least once every five months. Harper had only been to the future once, with Syn, so she protested that it couldn't be her turn to sacrifice herself again. Syn objected that the mere fact that she had more experience than other recruits made her the best candidate. She protested for a long time, waving her arms and raising her voice louder and louder, until she heard the drones approaching and had to sit down quietly again.

And with that, Syn accomplished his mission for the day.