———Wiina———
“Been a while since I saw you.” Kenni remarked as we t up on the street. With still in the civilian disguise. “So, how was your little vacation?”
“Not too bad. Been peaceful over there with not much going on.” With a big player like showing her face and a few others in the background, things are obviously going to go smoothly. “Going there to watch so gas being played. It got really crazy.”
“So pretty mundane entertainnt.” She remarked. “A few days of not doing a lot compared to what we have been up to as of late. You already know about it.”
“Yeah. being there wouldn’t change much.” I straight up lied to her. Part of the reason why they’re ready to start the event is because I wasn’t there. There’s going to be a few complications if I’m allowed in. If I weren’t, then my secrets have a chance of being unraveled. My friends aren’t stupid, they can pick things up terrifyingly fast for relatively normal humans.
“Heh. As if…” She obviously knows I was saying nonsense, but since she’s not interested in revealing , she doesn’t have the drive to try to rile up. “..You got any souvenirs on you?”
“It’s with you-know-who.” No one was even supposed to know ‘I’ went there. If she wanted to ask for those, she had to ask the one who was ‘officially’ there. “She picked up a lot of stuff from what I heard. Go harass her in the group chat for it or sothing.”
“Hmph. I guess I’ll do that.” She said while tilting her head. “...Not much to say from you, I’d reckon?”
“What is there for to say? Where I was at was kinda peaceful and uneventful.” If she wants to dig more into what I was doing, this is not a good place to do it.
“Eh. Then I guess I should get going then. You know, trying not to get bored to death.” She said before walking away. Sothing about that sentence is certainly filled with irony.
“Yeah. Best of luck there.” I said as we walked past each other. No one will quite understand the underlying anings behind the conversation, but since there isn’t really anyone nearby to eavesdrop, that ultimately doesn’t matter.
Speaking of doesn’t matter. I don’t have a particular purpose as I walk along the streets of this small town. At this mont and ti Karra is still taking a rest and probably will take a few hours to wake up. There isn’t anything on my radar as of yet. This place is still peaceful and no one is planning anything funny at the mont.
…Perhaps I should change to a different persona. As it is, there isn’t a purpose to this form.
There isn’t anything that could notice at the mont, so let’s quickly change to… Navi. I usually don’t go out in public in this form, but today seems to have quite low traffic, so my presence shouldn’t cause much commotion as long as everyone who recognizes stays quiet.
Shifting my body around takes less than a second, so little ti has passed that it would be hard to believe that I had even done anything.
Alright then, let’s get moving. At least in this form, if I were to express knowledge on a classified topic, it wouldn’t cause much fuss. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two people are bold enough to talk to , even outside of people from my class.
I think if I want Navi to seem less like another mysterious person that no one can explain, then I have to make myself known and talk to soone else eventually.
I managed to blend into the crowd just fine. Even if I have fox ears and tail, in the current climate such a thing is pretty normal. While the amount of the changed are less than half, soone with this kind of appearance is still to be expected.
Currently, I still have a reputation of barely ever appearing in public. They’re going to be second guessing themselves even if I was recognized by strangers going about their days.
It’s Sunday, so people are mainly moving around to go do sothing on the weekends. Instead of being occupied with works for those that maintained it throughout the entirety of the Eclipse and its consequences, everyone is looking to indulge themselves a bit before the weekdays.
As I walked around at a leisurely pace, I did recognize many people also walking around minding their business. I even saw Rico walking around like she’s an ordinary citizen. Many people with quite an interesting profile just walking about, many of them still unaware of each other, blending into the background from their own perspective.
I can easily observe everything happening around , but for everyone else, even the less crowded streets today there is still a blur.
As for where I’m going, as aimless as I am right now, I could always indulge a bit, getting so aningless sustenance for , but sothing to make feel a bit more fulfilled.
An ever so reliable philly cheesesteak diner. Perhaps it’s a bit bigger and with so fancy flare to it that would make you hesitant to call it a diner, but that’s still what everyone calls it. It still feels like a local specialty more than anything else.
Even so early in the morning it is still packed, filled with unknown faces working the equipnt and taking orders. Bunch of faceless things making sure the custors are satisfied. I don’t even see any empty tables. One could say it’s already at full capacity.
Perhaps I could do sothing quite bold to rectify this. I just need soone I know would respect my presence so there will be less of a scene… There’s one right there.
She is clearly bewildered by my presence despite her stoic face making sure other people don’t register it as such. For them it simply looked like soone she was waiting for finally arrived at their eting place.
“What are you…” She said, clearly completely lost for words at my sudden appearance before her. While she is the type to always play it cool even in dire circumstances, an occurrence that seems to break logic is still too much for her.
“Why? This is an empty seat, is it not?” I replied to her flabbergasted reaction. As expected, even with her current unstable emotions, she doesn’t shout or make any erratic movents.
“I-It is.” She replied calmly relative to her current state. Her emotional state is still not completely stable and the blood pressure is still high. It seems like if I were to appear before her as Wiina, she probably would still keep up a calm facade.
“That’s good to hear.” I replied casually. “Have you ordered already? I just got here.”
“...A few mystery at sandwiches. Probably not enough for you.” She answered honestly.
“I see.” I said before pulling out a ten dollar bill. “Here, order three more of that on my behalf and you keep the change. How does that sound?”
“...I can do that.” She said before taking the money. She has cald down a bit with her eyes darting around to make sure no one is trying to eavesdrop or paying attention to us. In this crowded diner it’s hard for anyone to really bother checking the ambience. It’s mostly just faces you have already seen plenty of tis, very little reason to look around.
The place is drowned out by noise. Even with other patrons talking quietly so only their friends can hear the conversation, the amount of people in here ans that the amount of noise simply builds up and gives off an impression of a rather rowdy crowd.
“I’ll order three more mystery at options.” Luik said to the waiter coming our way before moving on to go get other orders. With this kind of crowd it’s impossible to stay in one place for too long.
She doesn’t say anything while she is in deep thought, no doubt trying to co up with sothing to say while we have so ti to talk and not be occupied with eating.
“...Do you not have any ulterior motive for coming here?” She asked after a few seconds of deliberation. Certainly not a charitable question, but it’s to be expected since I’m soone who doesn’t seem like the most honest person. And fundantally I can’t be called honest in the slightest. Not in any shape or form can I act like I’m clean of deception.
“None. I’m just here for the food.” Not for any practical reason. Even if I need to eat I already have more than enough food in storage to pull out at any ti. I simply want the ambience of this place to go along with it. “...By the way, what’s with your left arm?”
“...What of it?” She asked with an alarm going off in her head. She has it concealed under those gray sleeves, but it’s pretty easy to tell that sothing happened to it.
“Nothing. It’s just odd that despite showing no sign of fatigue your left arm seems to be damaged. Nothing that won’t heal by tomorrow, but it is still quite odd.” I don’t need to intervene here, but nothing is stopping from probing her about it.
“A bit of an accident yesterday, that’s all there is to it.” She replied. Probably from the dungeon, considering her general diligence and that being the only place where she could get into any serious trouble outside of doing missions, which from what I checked she hasn’t been doing any, probably due to said incident.
The first batch of sandwiches ca in, four in total for her specifically. All of them are filled with exotic at that realistically they shouldn’t even be able to sell, but no one here dares to challenge them on that front. There is also a warning put in place already, though that in itself doesn’t make the act of selling it free of scrutiny.
“I believe you already know what is in them, correct?” I asked her as she grabbed one for herself.
“Of course. It doesn’t disgust , but I wouldn’t put a na on it regardless.” She replied, not showing any real reaction.
“Best to keep it that way. For anyone used to it, they can be surprisingly useful as an ergency energy source, though in this case it’s more of a normal al.” I said in response. “These items would’ve been lethal before the Eclipse, anyone with imperfect circuits would’ve basically caused a similar reaction to transfusing incompatible blood type alongside much more visible symptoms.”
That is perhaps far from the most appropriate thing to say during a al, considering her eyes glaring at showing her displeasure, but I am simply trying to fill the void in the conversation with so tidbits I know.
“As it is, it's not a poison per say, which is why they’re fine with selling it in the first place.” I added. “There is very little to add to that topic in general, so this is about it.”
“From my current impression, it doesn’t look like you’re willing to tell much.” Luik remarked. I think that is plenty obvious as is, but no need to vocalize that on my end. “Any insight you can give about the current power ranking? I want sothing more conclusive.”
“Ehhh… That kinda thing? I guess I could.” It’s nothing interesting and probably does nothing more than parrot the sa points she probably discussed with the others by now, especially after what happened on Friday. “There are obviously a few big shots in this area like Rico, Wana, and Wiina, but you already know about those by now. Below them is … and below that are people like Emmie, Cevin, Homari, and a few more I won’t na. The Perfect Class is below them with Karra, Kenni, Jennla, Malk, and Qyunda all being closer than the rest. The rest of the students from the institute are below those, still have more firepower than the majority of people in the world at the current state.”
“What is my current standing next to Emmie?” Oh, she’s really aiming big, I see.
“Do I look like a walking encyclopedia to you?” I said while tilting my head. “Right now you’re not even a tenth of her at full strength, not including stuff like multipliers.”
“Excuse ?” She said, taken aback by the blunt statent.
“What else did you expect? I’m sure you also subconsciously understand that to so extent, otherwise you wouldn’t have tried to catch her by surprise during the point where a large chunk of her power has already been expended. If you tried that earlier in the fight there’s a good chance she would’ve reacted in ti or even simply tank it.” Everyone who survived to the final day fights with the level of strategic thinking that they generally rarely need since they can outperform most mages at the mont, even the Mage Remnants will have so trouble with them. It’s a good showing of everything they did up to that point, especially being the first ti they have to seriously think about fighting a way stronger opponent in an environnt where no one really needs to hold back.
As for Emmie herself, while obviously arrogant, she earned it. She doesn’t fight with the greatest efficiency and yet she still won handily.
Luik seems uncertain of what to make of such a blunt declaration that she is still far off from ever hitting her target.
“Let make it quite clear, she will continue to grow stronger and stronger. I’ll be blunt, the chance of you ever catching up to her is zero.” I think it’s best to stop any delusions from forming right now, even if I don’t think she will have such a thing with the kind of character she is.
“I see.” She said calmly. Nothing seems to indicate fury or resentnt. It seems like she already knows that to so extent, just not that the gap between them was already that large.
“Just continue doing your best. You got a good deal of potential in you, I gotta say.” Probably way more than Lynda despite her being considered the strongest in their class. I’d say even Histon has higher potential. “I’ll have fun watching it all unfold.”
It’s just as the saying goes, it goes to whoever wants it more… and perhaps a little bit of luck.
User Comments
0 comments from readers