Chapter 351
Gale sat in the waiting room. The facility's fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, apparently powered by a mana battery that converted to electricity. The metal chairs were comfortable, though they didn't have the rocky texture he liked. For 1.5 hours, the whole group waited in this room: Rachel, Kyle, Clyde, and Lily.
Why were they still here?
Because Erin was reading the fine print on the release papers for each individual disciple. Each paper was about 50 pages long, double-sided, filled with legal jargon that Gale couldn't understand even if he tried. What did 'as per' even mean? The language of the law people was truly frightening. Good thing an adult was with them, but the adult in question was also part of the problem.
He sipped the last drops of his 6th apple juice box. They had given him 3 cartons of it, and he was going to finish it before they took it at the airport. It was either that or Burger Drops vouchers. One thing Gale knew, vouchers couldn't be eaten, so he took the apple juice boxes.
It was a reward for 'being cooperative'.
Meanwhile, the others had their own 'activities' while they waited. Clyde was on his 3rd twinkie that came out of his suit jacket from who knows where. Gale swore that the man had a space storage himself, but he just couldn't get the proof.
Kyle sat next to him, playing some gacha game. The menu had some woman with green hair and the biggest melons he'd ever seen. He made Gale push the button for a '10-pull heroes' and then got excited all of a sudden. Truly, gacha games were a mystery.
Lily sat beside Kyle and had fallen asleep on the table, her head resting on her folded arms. Her breathing had became soft and steady. Nothing much to talk about Lily.
Gale and Rachel sat across from them. Her leg had been bouncing impatiently, fingers tapping very loudly, but most certainly ignored by the floating bluey. The temperature around her had already grown quite hot. By his estimate, it would have been around 36C now. Lily had somehow anticipated this by putting on a temperature sigil for everyone before 'the waiting'.
Erin sat beside Gale with a stack of papers in front of her. Her eyes went left to right as she continued reading with utmost seriousness. She had conjured up reading glasses made of ice, yet they had no lenses. Gale was pretty sure that she wore them just to look more official, or it could be her way to get on someone's nerves as the temperature went up by another degree.
"Just sign the papers already!" Rachel shouted.
"There is plenty of time. However, one legal slip will cause the life of a disciple to become awry. I must read each release paper in great detail for any discrepancy," Erin said, not looking up and continuing to read.
"They're all the same! They're all printed from the same document! The United Knights aren't that shady!"
"The team had unanimously agreed that the lives of Xinyi and her disciples were to be released," Erin said. "The verbal agreement was for their safety. If their safety is compromised due to poor legal text, then the verbal agreement was not upheld."
She turned a page.
"Woman of fire, silence is golden. Each second you complain is a second delayed for me to find any discrepancy."
Rachel's eye twitched.
Gale looked at Elias, who sat across from Erin with his own paperwork. "You want to say anything?"
Elias set down his pen. "Erin is correct. There could be errors within the papers that were not found during the initial drafting process. Typos happen. Wrong names get inserted. Clauses get copy-pasted incorrectly." He shrugged. "I don't blame her for being so... detail-oriented. If anything, I appreciate it. Less work for my legal team later."
Rachel groaned, slumping back in her chair. "This is stupid. Why does each disciple have to have their own release paper? Why can't it all be under one document?"
Elias's eyes slightly widened. "That's actually a valid point. Would that be an easier task for you to handle? A single document covering all 60 individuals?"
Erin finally looked up from her papers. "That would be much easier and more convenient. Create an entity that represents the whole of the defected Blood Blade Sect members. Make haste with the paper."
Elias opened the laptop already on the desk and turned it on. Once on, his fingers quickly tapped at the laptop at a speed that even Gale was afraid of. The way he typed looked like he was what the twins called a 'Keyboard Warrior'.
Being a warrior of the keyboard at the age of probably around 40 impressed Gale even more. Clyde did say that most keyboard warriors were in their teens or young adulthood.
"Blood Blade Defectors," Elias muttered as he typed. "That works as an entity name. I'll add a preamble that defines the group as consisting of each named individual, with Xinyi Zhou as their designated leader and representative."
After a couple more minutes and loud typing that Kyle had also designated as 'mad typing', Elias finished. "Sending to print now."
The printer at the corner whirred and started making its clickety-clacky noises. Pages fed through the printer chamber as it spat out gibberish legal text. This time, instead of 60 times 50 pages per disciple, it was one document consisting of 50 pages.
A win for the woman of fire.
Elias gathered the printed pages, tapped them against the desk to align them, and slid them into a manila folder. He walked over to Erin and handed it to her.
"Here you go. One consolidated document for all 60 defectors."
Erin took the folder. Opened it. Began reading the first page.
"AHHHH!" Rachel launched herself out of her chair, her hands reaching for Erin's fake reading glasses. "YOU STUPID FLOATING BLUEY! IT'S THE SAME THING! WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE TO READ ALL OF IT?!"
Gale caught her mid-lunge, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back. Rachel thrashed, flames flickering at her fingertips, but he held her waist firm in his hands. He guided her back to her chair and sat her down softly.
"Let go of me! I'm going to melt her stupid reading glasses!"
Gale quickly opened one of the cartons again, took out a 7th juice box and poked it with a straw. Without a word, he put the straw to her lips, feeding her with liquid comfort.
She started sipping it. Her shoulders relaxed. Rage from her eyes slowly dissipated. Gale patted her head. "There, there. Drink the liquid comfort..."
"The liquid what?"
"Shh, don't talk. Keep drinking..." He continued patting her head.
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Rachel finished the juice box, and the temperature of the room subsided.
Half an hour later, Erin set down the last page. She picked up a pen, signed at the bottom of the final page of the document, and closed the manila folder. "All is in proper order. I commend the Knights' legal honesty."
Elias nodded. "That is the United Knights' mission. The world is already chaotic enough. We must uphold law and order to keep this world together."
"I commend the effort in finding order within chaos." Erin floated up from her seat. "As you can see, it is only I that upholds the order in my current cohort."
Her eyes swept through the group. Kyle had his feet up on the table, playing a gacha game. Clyde had another twinkie while also having one of Gale's juice boxes. Lily was asleep and drooling. Rachel was on her 3rd juice box that Gale had to keep providing. At the same time, Gale was on his phone looking up restaurants in a place called 'Yonge and Finch'.
"I thank you for your hard work for this generation's rising stars," Elias said.
"Your thank is noted, but ultimately unnecessary. They are my responsibility."
Elias stood up from his desk and gathered the signed documents. "You may leave at any time you wish. As discussed in the document, the 60 disciples will stay here for their protection. They can either go to the US, Canada, UK, or back to China. If they choose to go to the US or Canada, they will have to attend a mandatory 1-year accelerated course in Sterling."
"That is agreed. Now the choice is theirs." Erin turned to the group. "Children, we are leaving now."
"Where's our maid?" Kyle asked, making a visor with his hand to see where Xinyi was.
Presence Between caught Xinyi's signature just outside the facility. She was already outside waiting, still wearing her Blood Blade Sect robes. Maybe Rachel or Lily would shop with her once they were all back in Toronto.
"She's already waiting for you at the exit of the station," Elias said.
Lily stirred awake, rubbing her eyes while yawning. "Is it done?"
"Yup," Clyde said, finishing his juice box.
"Where's Xinyi?" Lily asked.
"Waiting for us, apparently, thanks to floating bluey," Rachel muttered.
"Your thanks is noted, but unnecessary."
Rachel grumbled.
"Isn't there any other way for Xinyi to live somewhere else?" Lily asked.
"What's your deal? It's not like we're children or something. We have two washrooms. One can be the men's washroom while the other is womens," Clyde said.
"Wait, we only have one bathtub," Kyle said.
"Oh, shit. Well, that goes out the window."
"Pfft, who cares. Lily just wants to take away our maid," Kyle said.
Lily kicked Kyle's shin under the table.
"Ow!"
After gathering their things, Gale put the rest of the juice box cartons into his space storage. He'd finish them before the airport, just in case the airport operatives stole them from him. Who knows if those liquid detectors can detect things in his space storage. Definitely not because he wants to have it all for himself.
Once they exited the facility filled with United Knights moving about in their stuffy looking armour, they saw Xinyi at the entrance of the rift station. Behind her, a bus, engine already running, ready to leave.
Gale put a hand on his chin. "Are you sure sure that you wanna go with us to Canada?"
Xinyi nodded. "My only issue is... I don't have a visa to enter Canada."
"Don't worry about that," Rachel said. "I got you covered. We could probably shop too. Are those your only clothes?"
"I have a different uniform for different seasons, but all my clothes are like this. It was the Blood Blade Sect's way of keeping disciples from mingling with the mundane population."
"That's kinda sad," Lily said. "How about we shop after we come back?"
"Definitely," Rachel said.
"But are you really sure you wanna live with those two idiots?" Lily asked.
"Is there an issue with it?" Xinyi asked. "My whole wish was to meet a man since I was running out of time."
Kyle whistled.
Lily kicked his shin again.
"Ow! Stop doing that!"
"Stop being gross."
Running out of time? Was she being chased or something? If anything, Gale and all his friends would defend her. "Psst, Xinyi. If you need some help, I can help you so you don't have to run out of time."
"Gale... that's not what that means," Rachel said.
"What does it mean then?"
"Don't ask." Rachel shot him a look.
Alas! The light of the city once again turned down his request for information. There were clearly things about Xinyi's situation that he wasn't supposed to know yet. Whoever was chasing her must've been someone scary. Maybe a Late-Mystic Witch Nyx kind of scary.
"Anyone want to go barbecue at a park somewhere after we get back?" Kyle asked.
"That sounds fun," Gale said. He turned to Erin. "You want to go?"
"I must return to Lab 7 as fast as possible," Erin said. "Before you go on your barbecue, young lamb, I shall have you provide the materials to Lab 7's Sarah Chen. From there, I will talk to the short one to find a suitable location for the facility."
Oh right. They were here for the Yinidium Ores and Fraedium gems. Completely forgot about that. Gale saluted. "Yes, Grand Researcher Erin!"
"Your response is acceptable."
"Can I go to the barbecue too?" Xinyi asked.
"Don't ask the obvious." Clyde waved his hand dismissively.
"Of course you're coming," Kyle said.
"What province are you from?" Lily asked suddenly.
"Shanghai."
"Does Shanghai have any barbecue dishes you can cook on a grill? Any local specialities?"
Xinyi thought about it. "Not really. Shanghai cuisine is more about braised dishes, soup dumplings, that sort of thing. But I know a lot of styles from travelling around China. Xinjiang lamb skewers, Sichuan spicy wings." She smiled slightly. "I'll handle the grill for everyone as gratitude."
"That's not allowed!" Kyle said immediately.
"What?"
"Only men are supposed to grill. It is an unbreakable rule."
"That's right. That's right." Clyde nodded. "Women should just sit at the picnic table and eat. That's the natural order of things."
"I hate you so much right now," Lily said.
"It's tradition," Kyle countered.
"Can I also just eat?" Gale asked.
Kyle pointed at him. "Especially you."
Gale won again this time. Didn't even need to do anything to be fed.
"I'll bring the charcoal," Rachel said.
"I can bring some hotdogs," Lily said. "And maybe some corn. And potato salad."
"That's a lot of sides," Clyde said.
"Someone has to balance out all the meat you two are going to buy."
"There's no such thing as too much meat," Kyle said.
Gale noticed Xinyi glancing at everyone's faces. She made that sort of expression that made her look confused, rather like him when he was in social situations, except mostly towards men behind the desks.
"Is it always like this?" she whispered to Gale.
"Yeah, of course. Why not?"
"It is nothing," she said. "I think I'll enjoy Canada."
The bus driver honked, signalling that they needed to board soon. Guatemala's airport was apparently a 2-hour drive from the facility, and their flight back to Toronto was scheduled for later that evening.
Erin floated toward the bus first. "Children, we must depart for the airport."
"Coming!" Gale said, his form disappearing into the bus.
Xinyi watched them one by one enter the short bus. Based on how they approached killing a Late-Mystic Divine Beast, these individuals she was joining were definitely not on the normal scale. Each one was weird, especially the feral one that also felt the most innocent out of them. Although she did have reservations about living with two men in a single apartment, it couldn't be that bad.
Cooking and providing for them could be fun. She wasn't able to do that with her disciples, and now they were all going to live a life independent of her. It was a bit sad to part with them, but that was life.
A bubble of excitement grew in her chest as she entered the bus last, after Lily. The life in Canada awaited, and maybe she'd even meet someone special there.
"Here, have a twinkie," Clyde threw at her as she walked through the aisle.
She caught it mid air. The twinkie itself was a symbol of North America. Smiling, she opened up the wrapper as she sat down beside Lily. Taking a bite of it, the unhealthy sugary creamy sweetness filled her mouth with a single emotion.
Happy.