Will Jade get better?
Should I try talking to her?
Not sure how well that'll go but at least Darwin won't have to worry about getting physically hurt. Emotionally though, things might get ugly.
Darwin has a therapist?!!
I don't think therapy is all that useful otherwise you could have just sent Jade there and avoided this whole mess.
<...>
What?
Would it even work?
Just please don't tell her that it was my idea. She'll kill me!
Speaking of Darwin, I haven't seen him around at all lately. Is something up?
Because of that city outside the dragon nest dungeon? I thought he'd managed to destroy it? I can't think of any city being able to resist Darwin's assault.
What!!! Really?
Don't worry about it. I'm a bit grateful that I've only heard the bare minimum until now. It spared me from getting involved in all the emotions and chaos that ensued.
If it's all the same to you I'd like to hear it from you. I'm not much of an enthusiast for reading minutes of meetings.
I don't know where those are.
I arrive at one of the meeting rooms and find Navi sitting inside wearing her usual light green dress. She offers me the seat next to her and I gladly accept. Navi claps her hands and the lights in the room dim while a large screen lights up.
"A presentation, really?"
"Hey, we need to allocate a certain amount of our funds to purchasing software like this every once in a while to keep up appearances as a legit business. Since we paid for it we might as well use it!"
"And by we, I assume you mean yourself and only yourself."
"I'll have you know that more than ten people in this building are using presentations to get their points across!"
"And how many of these so-called people have the same name as you and look like you?"
Navi clicks her tongue at my question. It feels good to finally have seen through her for once. Usually, I'm the one who gets seen through since a certain someone can read my thoughts.
"Your face shows your thought without any need for me to read them. Don't just blame that on the fact that I am in your mind sometimes!"
Seems a bit made up after you answer directly to something I only thought. And most of your answers are a bit too specific. What does an I know you can read my mind look even look like?
"A slightly critical gaze from the corner of your eye followed by you rolling your eyes counterclockwise. Should I make recordings and present you with a presentation on what your facial expressions tell me?"
"Spare me, I give up. That answer was way too detailed and quick to be made up. You really can read faces."
"Hahaha, don't be convinced so easily. While I do train to read people's faces I truly couldn't give such specific answers without supplementing my findings with what I can see in your mind."
The incredulous expression on my face must be very amusing since Navi bursts into a fit of laughter. She's laughing so hard that it looks like she's having stomach cramps. After taking a minute to calm herself down, Navi resumes giving her presentation.
"As you might have heard, this whole incident started when Jade discovered a city suspended in the cylinder outside the dragon nest dungeon. Seeing that the city was incomplete, the dungeon decided to send a massive stampede to destroy it.
"Jade was tasked with securing at least one bridge that led into the city so the stampede could have an entry point. She successfully did so but was then engaged by her former life's sister.
"Due to Jade stalling her sister the forefront of the stampede managed to enter the city via the bridge she had defended. However, the city's defense forces turned out to be formidable. While the stampede would probably be able to do great damage, the city would ultimately remain standing."
On the screen, the presentation shows a series of pictures depicting the stampede. I'm wondering how they were made but now is not the time.
"The dungeon could not accept the city remaining where it was so it sent a high-level dragon. Monsters of that level usually don't leave the dungeon but at this point, common sense has nothing to do with things that happened during this incident."