Chapter 251 --251
’"Work,"’ it said. ’"Work work work work work. Do you know what normal people do after dismantling a thirty-one-year corruption network?"’
"Walk to the throne room," Elara said, quietly enough that the guards flanking her assumed she was talking to herself. They had, over three months, developed a comprehensive professional policy of not noticing when she did this.
’"They REST,"’ the System said. ’"They celebrate! They eat something with multiple courses! They sit in a garden and say ’well done, me’ at the sky! They do NOT schedule six additional meetings and a collar review for the same morning!"’
"The collar review is important," Elara said.
’"Everything is ALWAYS important with you!"’
She turned the corner into the main corridor. Morning staff lined the walls, bowing. Several of them looked slightly confused — their eyes kept sliding toward the space near Elara’s left hip, where something kept triggering their peripheral vision and refusing to resolve into anything concrete when they looked directly at it.
One junior clerk turned to his colleague and mouthed: ’Did you see—’
His colleague mouthed back: ’Don’t.’
The System zoomed up to eye level, flying backwards in front of Elara so it could look directly at her face, wings working furiously to maintain the reverse position.
’"I want to register a formal complaint,"’ it announced.
"You can’t file formal complaints," Elara said. "You’re a system."
’"I am FILING ONE ANYWAY."’