Chapter 220: Perspectives
———Lerim———
<4: 01 pm>
“Seems like more people can stomach those foods nowadays.” Evari said as she observed the multiple lunch boxes being cleared out. “I guess they really built up the resistance for it.”
“Good. I really don’t want to keep eating those. As frugal as I can be, that food gets stale for me already, having to eat those everyday and trying to not get deadly sick from eating the same thing over and over.” Even with me buying all kinds of different seasonings to make them taste a bit different each time those textures all got stale for me. Usually meats are considered much more expensive than stuff like grains and vegetables, but for me I really start to value the latter two more than I ever did in the past. Back then I always craved meat since if I wanna go on a budget I can’t always get even the cheap ones, at least ones that aren’t of dubious quality. “Also a good way to help with the community of this guild, whatever it’s supposed to be.”
“...So will you ever tell us what those meats even are? They look like normal animal meat. Maybe a bit tougher, but it also tastes really good.” She asked before taking one of the lunchboxes for herself.
“No can do. Not that it’s impossible to figure out even without me saying anything. Just use context clues.” I said before going back to staring at my phone. It doesn't look like there is any big news today. Aside from Karra’s stream she also posts pictures of herself with some food, even pointing out where it is.
Considering the rumors of unsavory people targeting her, it’s definitely quite a bold move, but the brief glimpse of that fox woman probably means something along the line of ‘I’m VERY well-protected’, so perhaps that is why she even goes out of her way to share where she is.
Most people wouldn’t really dare to even give others a good look at where they’re at, let alone naming the place.
“...Alright then, keep your secret.” She said, looking a bit irritated. Sorry, but I can’t have my reps ruined by being called that lady who eats monster meats. “One thing for sure, it’s rare for you to give away food when you are usually so stingy with everything.”
“I know better than to stockpile way too much food that could spoil if they weren’t eaten on time.” Food waste is already a massive issue as is. Unless it’s spoiled there’s no way I’m going to throw it away.
“...I guess even you have standards when it comes to that.” She jokingly said before chuckling to herself and continuing eating. It does feel more like some sort of party with all the food going around. “By the way, heard you’ve been to the boss’ office again. What is it this time?”
“We got an inquiry from someone about a missing person. Apparently this person hadn’t contacted his sister in a long time. It’s a rather odd thing to make a fuss about. I’m sure we have all sorts of friends and close ones that just never bother checking in on a group chat or whatever.” Just a weird and overblown request that falls on our shoulder because the local police force wouldn’t do anything about it. Can’t even really blame them, since being unresponsive on the phone isn’t a good indication that someone went missing or is in peril.
“…That’s it?” She said, clearly as confused as I was about the mission at hand. I know acting as extra manpower is a side-job for the guild members, but this just seems so trivial. Even being asked to chase down a cat would’ve been less odd.
“Yeah. It actually came in when we were talking about some trivial stuff. Right now he’s probably looking through some documents and cameras to find him. No idea how he got access to CCTV cameras, but I’m not exactly someone without a few secrets myself.” It’s quite a timing, and who knows exactly when he’ll even find a clue about this guy’s whereabouts.
“…Surely he has something more pressing to look at?” Evari pointed out. Maybe if another mission came in, but right now…
“He has nothing better to do at the moment. He’s in the big seat so he should at least try to look busy.” I explained. He shut himself inside a small room with a small window and that’s it. I doubt anyone is actually gonna walk in on him slacking, ignoring how he seems to work himself to death even when he seems to have nothing to actually do.
“…Speaking of big seats. Have you ever seen whoever is actually masterminding the whole guild operation? They never said anything about that on official websites and interviews.” She asked.
“How the hell should I know? I don’t think that guy even knows about it.” I don’t really know why no names were ever dropped about the guild business. As far as I know they tend to put at least a figurehead or something to act as a scapegoat. As far as I can see all they really said is how it’s funded by the government or something… So like, what am I supposed to make of that?
“Great. I guess we shouldn’t be too worried if they keep paying us, but doesn’t it feel weird that we know nothing about the hows and whys?” She asked while still in the middle of eating. Be a bit more sophisticated here, you’re making me look bad.
“Perhaps, but something tells me, with the current state things are going, that if they had a nefarious plan in mind they don’t have the time to worry about that right now.” All the government nonsense is more or less shut down for the time being. They’re all on high alert and paranoid of some sort of revolution that could happen at any moment. I believe the area near the White House is heavily monitored by all sorts of troops. If I were to say one thing, that just seems to make people more mad at them than anything.
“Eh. I guess that’s true.” She replied before emptying the box and went for another one right after. If there’s one thing that’s good with all of these foods is that despite my limited cooking skill they still turn out very good. Doesn’t help me from getting sick of them, of course. “Then why are we still funded then?”
“Look. I can’t possibly know everything about this. I really don’t want to think about it further.” There’s not exactly a lot I could learn on my own. Maybe Karra and her connection would know, but I try to keep my contact with her at a reasonable amount. Also, it just feels like cheating. I’m not a big fan of cheating.
———Karra———
<4: 18 pm>
“She seriously wasn’t kidding about this.” I said before opening the bag of food, mainly pastry. Did she seriously get me one of everything she got? I can’t imagine this purchase not putting a dent in her pocket.
“Not exactly a type of kid, that woman.” Wiina said while walking around the room we are in.
“By the way, what is this basement even for?” I asked, not really sure as to why we have a blank room under our house.
“Just a place to store more stuff in. Don’t worry too much about it.” She dispassionately said. So why even bring me here anyway?
“So… what? You got nothing down here at all?” I asked, wondering if building this is even necessary.
“Look. I got bored and needed to do something. I was planning on building this in the first place. I just… didn’t quite realize how fast I did it.” …Does this mean the fifteen minutes she just spent was on this?
“How did you even get bored after what we did a few hours ago?” I asked, feeling slightly offended by the implication.
“In my defense. That was more to cheer you up than me. Okay?” She said with a straight face, just completely unapologetic. Whatever, that’s pretty trivial. I can let that slide.
“…Sure. I’ll buy that.” I said with a slight smirk on my face. “Anyway, you want to eat these? I’m gonna take a photo of them first. You got a table somewhere?”
“Here.” She said before conjuring a table out of nothing, a nice-looking one too. “Also the plates, of course.”
Alright. Let me put these on the plates and start snapping some photos… Hmm… Yeah. This is good enough. All of them are quite fanciful and somehow don't get completely mangled during their air travel. I would’ve thought Emmie and her… hover scythe? Would’ve not cared about that and just travel at max speed to quickly get back here.
Maybe that’s why it took so long before she returned, or maybe her mode of transport isn’t as fast as I thought. Anyway, hit send.
“Okay. Time to dig in.” I said before picking one of the items and starting eating. “…So you want it?”
“I‘ll take a bite.” She said before taking a small bite out of the item in my hand. That’s kinda… “What?”
“Nothing.” I muttered quietly. She specifically bit the part that I already bit into, this freaking tease.
“I see.” She said with a visible smirk. She definitely did that on purpose.
———Lynda———
<4: 23 pm>
*Slash* *Chop*
“Haaa…” I let out a long sigh after finally finishing this darn monster off.
“You’re alright?” Glery asked.
“Yeah. Let’s just keep going.” We’re getting quite far and almost at the next checkpoint to get us outta here.
I think we get a little bit too worked up, going past forty floors is definitely not something we should do as a duo, but since we’re here we might as well just see how far we can go as a duo.
Right now I’m definitely a bit fatigued, but at least Glery is still in good shape since I keep aggroing everything and make sure she doesn't have to worry while she provides fire support. Last thing I need is for her to actually get seriously hurt.
———Rico———
<4: 54 pm>
“Out here on the rooftop again?” I said as I walked up to this hag sitting on the edge of the building.
“What of it?” She dispassionately said without even looking back as the late afternoon wind blew strong. “I think at this point. All of us have a habit of staying up high and looking down on everything. Looking down on everything, staying at the top. It’s all quite self-explanatory, isn’t it?”
“No need to say the quiet part out loud. A better question is if you have anything on your mind right now. Our little scuffles aside, you’re technically the boss of this place alongside that little purple-haired princess of yours.” We both know for sure at this point that things are going to escalate, both on the global scale and whatever plans she has for this institute. Sure, it doesn’t exactly cost a lot to renovate the place, but it’d be a damn shame to keep it as simply a high school.
“Nothing you need to even think about at the moment.” She replied, “What about things on your end? Get that faction wiped off the map, I assume?
“Of course I did. They sure got quite the ego to think they get to exist after all the examples I made out of the others. Do they really think fighting at the outskirts wouldn’t alert any of us? Even if it wasn’t me, someone else is gonna show up. This place is basically a no-go zone for those fledglings.” Just pissed me off. They seriously think they can get away with it. “Were you thinking of intercepting?”
“Not really. I’d imagined you or that girl would’ve got there first anyway.” She answered. “I didn’t actually imagine you to get there first, honestly.”
“Why not? I usually patrol the area at night anyway.” I said, wondering if she’s a bit slow in the head today. Here I thought she got more than enough blood in her system to be functional.
“Just based on who was involved more than anything. That was a friend of hers, after all.” She pointed out. I see.
“Maybe she was going there for all I know. Not that it mattered now. I’m the one who gets something to play with and torture for a while.” It’s been some time since the last victim anyway.
“…Are you afraid she was going to snap?” She suddenly asked that stupid question again.
“Fuck no. Like I give a shit if she does or not. Like I said before. What is one more unstoppable force is going to matter. There’s already enough of those across the multiple worlds as is. If she goes crazy or starts outpacing us, which she would one day, then that’s just one more thing we’re under the mercy of.” She wouldn’t even be the worst one in my opinion.
“Certainly quite a view you hold. I’m not the best person to say this, but you could stand to be a bit more optimistic.” …Yeah. I seriously do not want to hear that from someone with serious mommy issues.
“If you have seen the things I have, maybe you’d stop saying those dumbass things.” I said before I started walking away. At least with Wiina she doesn’t quite see the world at the same scope as we do. This hag really has no excuse in the matter.