"So you can at least move." Mom said, coming into the dining hall and seeing me eating my full as always.
"yeah, it hurts like bitch, though," I said in between eating.
"That good seems you are quite resilient to wrath." Mom said join kayda and me at the table.
"you also going to eat?" I asked, looking at mom with a raised eyebrow.
"yes, I haven't had lunch yet." Mom said, putting food on her plate.
"Looks like you been busy, busy," I said, looking back at my own food.
"yeah, sadly, with the Kuni head being useless, I had to take over to find out how the devil cult was able to kill 30 000 people without us noticing."
"... 30... 30 thousand people!?" Kayda and I yelp in unison, distressed.
"well, that's a bit more than the actual number. But sadly, we haven't found all their hideouts yet, so yeah. It will be a miracle if it is only that amount." Mom explained, sighing in disappointment.
"ugh, is that how they created that monstrous thing," I asked, poking at my food.
"yeah, sadly, it seems there were two ways to create them. We still haven't found out exactly how they made him or them."
"them there are more."
"30 000 people died, Kitsu. We have to presume more than one was created." Mom said, shaking her head.
"Aaah, I didn't think I would wake up to something like this," I said, looking at my food, depressed.
"sorry to tell you everything now, but you both will need to know about this before I leave again anyways." Mom said, nodding her head.
"you going back to the Kuni?" I asked, surprised.
"yeah, they are useless, as I said, so I have taken over for the time being." Mom said, sounding quite pissed off about it.
"ugh, that shitty fucken dwarfs," I muttered, annoyed.
"Haha, get fucked." Kayda said, laughing, trying to lift the atmosphere.
"I won't laugh if I was you. You going to need to train the dumb kiddos and the squad you took over, Kayda. Then there is also the admin you will need to do when I go away." Mom said, grinning at Kayda.
"Ugh, fuck." Kayda said, dropping her head on the table with a thump.
"sigh, what should I do?" I asked, looking at mom.
"you are free until I get back in a month or two to do whatever you want to. I have talked to steve beforehand, and he knows you are on your way to him in the next few days. He will help you as much as he can, but his words were he isn't very confident in being of any help." Mom explained while eating.
"ah, thank you. I will also help you if needed." I said, tapping Kaydas back.
"Thank you," Kayda mumbled, not moving at all.
"hmm, you seem calmer?" Mom said, looking at me intrigued.
"Well, they did cut my head off, so..."
"but wasn't that your clone?" Kayda said, looking at me worriedly, seeing me hold my neck.
"no, not originally. I swapped myself around with a clone when he was surprised. Wait, how do you know-ah Nekro, right?" I said, shrugging.
"yeah, she watched the whole thing from a safe distance." Mom said, nodding.
"ah, I see. Well, back to the topic. My head was cut off, but I regenerated so fast that it felt like a bullet going through me without any pain. I don't know how to explain how it felt." I said, rubbing my ears.
"Don't worry. We don't want to know how it feels getting decapitated." Mom said, waving me off.
"that's not good," Kayda said, seeing my expression.
"yeah, but at that moment, I was already using wrath for a few minutes. Most probably wrath that made me invulnerable to decapitation." I said, shrugging again.
"so you think it's only because you were under wrath that you survived," Kayda said, looking at me thoughtfully before sighing.
"yeah, but getting stronger will only make it a normal thing. It's just a matter of when."
"I see. Sigh. Well, at least you were humbled somewhat." Mom said, not sounding happy at all or anything but sad.
"II guess you can see it like that," I said, sighing.
"Hayo... what's with the atmosphere in here?" Lily said, walking into the dining hall and bringing a happy vibe.
"ah hey, Lily, long time no see," I said, waving at her.
"Hello, Kitsuna. What is going on here? You guys need more food, or are the food not to your liking?" Lily asked, seeing that I wasn't eating as much as usual.
"Nah, we were just talking about some heavy stuff for a while," I said, waving my hand.
"Ah, so that's why no one was in here but you three. Should I?" Lily said, half turning around while pointing at the door.
"no need. We are done talking, anyway, and I need to get back to work before leaving." Mom said, standing up from the table and taking a sandwich with her.
"Well, good luck. Do tell us when you leave, though." I said, waving at her.
"Will do that if you guys are still here," Mom said, walking out of the dining hall.
"I don't think we will be that long by steve for today," Kayda said, looking at me for any clarification.
"Yeah, I will only talk about what I want to do with him helping me."
"Hmm, if you think that's going to be quick," Mom added, leaving the dining hall.
"Well, now what?" Kayda asked, looking at me.
"Let's go to steve. I do want to see my mom off," I said, standing up.
"Right."
"Thanks, Lily. You can have them clean up what's left," I said while putting some food in my storage.
"Oh, go on, go on, the more you take, the easier the clean-up will be," Lily muttered, staring at the table intently.
"sigh, you didn't even try to hide it," Kayda said, laughing.
"Oops, sorry," Lily said, holding her mouth with amused eyes.
"Well, I will have Rebecca know about this," I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
"ugh, that's not going to be fun," Lily said but didn't sound any less happy about it.
"huh?" Kayda hummed, confused.
"what? You don't know about them?"
"no, but looking at you, I don't want to know."
"Good choice."
"Well, let's go."
"We are going to need a vehicle. I am not walking there," I said, glancing at Lily.
"yes, I will get one ready for you," Lily said, bowing before leaving.
"Thank you."
[30 minutes later]
"Thank you, good work," Kayda said, climbing out of the car.
"That took longer than it should have," I said, looking in front of Steve's workshop.
"I agree, but it's not Lilys' fault that our ride took so long."
"Yeah, that's our driver's fault," I said, glancing at the driver, that was sweating bullets.
"Well, let's get on with it. We might not have that much time." Kayda said, dragging me towards steves workshop.
Tring Tring
"oh, a customer." Someone said, hearing the doorbell ring.
"hmm, this place changed a lot," I said, looking around the shop at the lack of weapons on the shelves.
"well, not really. They just don't have any stock." Kayda said, tilting her head.
"Last I was here, I could barely walk on the floor," I said, looking at the dirty floor.
"Well, with the monsters getting more active, the number of adventurers in the city doubled. With more adventures walking around, more people want to become one. So yeah, that ends up with more sales for us." The receptionist explained, nodding.
"so you guys must be happy."
"With more sales, the more people die and blame it on their weapons, so not so much." The clerk said, sighing in distress.
"The dead forest? What happened there." I said, tilting my head at Kayda.
"hmm, it started a few weeks ago, apparently. That's also why chinada and the team came back here. They are back up for emergencies." Kayda explained while inspecting the weapons.
"I see. Well, not my problem," I said, smirking at Kayda.
"ugh, don't remind me," Kayda said, grunting in dissatisfaction.
"Now, this is someone I didn't want to see." A deep voice said in disappointment.
"Oh, hello, steve. Not the welcome I expected." I said, a bit surprised at his greeting.
"Not you, little Stacy. I am talking about the dragon next to you," Steve said, pointing at kayda with narrowed eyebrows.
"old man, you still not over that," Kayda said, smiling mischievously.
"Hmm, what's this about." The clerk said, looking between them with star-struck eyes of interest.