*
Needless to say, anger had swelled up inside me. It felt like magma was flowing through my veins as the magical particles accelerated inside of me. Like an energy was charging up, getting higher and higher before waiting to be released. Packed with the adrenaline, my entire body felt like moving as vigorously as it could to get rid of the energy and to beat up Palmicia.
Too bad, I retained my sanity. Even though I had almost died due to her... No, maybe it's because I almost died I understood thoroughly well the gap between us. When she told me to try strangling her, she wasn't just provoking me. She had meant it. Just a slight bit of preliminary knowledge would tell me...
Her endurance stat is at least 10 times of my strength stat... No matter how much I squeeze on her neck, it wouldn't even feel the pressure. Maybe she would feel ticklish but that was it. I, was, powerless. So all I could muster was gritting my teeth in front of her.
"... I see. So that just now was a suicide charge, you quickly resolved yourself to dying with your ideals and wanted to take me down with you...
In the end... Right now, you are still scared of death so you won't move." (Palmicia)
" What would be the point of throwing my life away? I don't hold my ideals above my life. It is a dream, and dreams are meant to be held while alive. "
I spoke with a slight chiding tone, letting slip a little irritation in my mind. But I took this chance to stand back up as I spoke, keeping eye contact with her. For some reason it worked, she kept her eye contact on my eyes as well, so she shouldn't notice that I stood up slowly. Or at least not consciously. Super hollow propulsion, max investment. Magia retainment status, 60%. Drill cross impact - refined technique. Using all of my power, I launched a straightforward attack that couldn't really be counted as an ambush.
I aimed low, sending a blow with all the force I could muster in it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this was one of the strongest punches I've ever thrown. The air bent around it sending a rippling roar into the surroundings as the ground cracked and caved under the pressure. I bent my left arm as inward as possible and sent all my strength into my right arm.
*Crack*
A sharp pain crept up my arm in an instant, though it was no longer enough to make me wince. I guess I've gotten used to it to some extent. I could still feel pain, it hurts like hell and I wouldn't want to experience it again. But what I mastered was the ability to continue functioning through the pain... I've really been impaled and punched around way too much...
Unsurprisingly, Palmicia was completely fine. She stood there without moving another muscle, simply smiling at me. I see. I can't really do anything to you right now since I'm too weak.
"Fine, I'll accept your ridiculous training. Then I'll kill you in the future."
Her smile crept up even further. At this point it stopped looking like a human, or maybe I was just too angry to recognise as one. Grrrrr, I grit my teeth in vain. All this rage and I don't know what to do with it. Inflicting the pain and despair of death, I was ready to abandon everything to take her head off, but then I was suddenly healed up like nothing happen.
It was ridiculous! It was like if a prank went wrong, and then it went even worse. If someone tried to kill you, would anyone be able to forgive their murderer? It was absurd! Yet, I can't even defeat her much less damage her neck. It was just too hard to snap!
"So, what'll we do for the first part of training?"
I ask with a slight tinge of irritation still present. My eyes were glaring daggers and my fingers bunched up tightly into a fist. It felt like I was about to spasm as I contained my rage.
"..." (Palmicia)
"..."
After a bit of silence, she collected her breath before continuing.
"Today's training is over. If we go overboard, you'll go insane. I can somewhat abate that, but not completely. Rest until tomorrow, we still have to watch over the office in case the assassin comes back." (Palmicia)
My heart continues to beat incessantly while she spoke halfheartedly. It was a deafening difference in attitude that caused my anger to soar even higher, but for now...
" Fuuh~"
I breathed out a helping of deep air and continued walking behind her. It took us an instant to jump out of the dug out hole to the underground base, before jumping back to the office where everyone else was at. Once again, they bowed towards her while I stood in place. Sensing something was off, the workers decided not to pursue it. I walked through the rows of desks, approaching the guest room on the other side. It was quite crude, but Paridia and I were sleeping on the couches there.
"Yo, what did you do while I was gone?"
She layed on the couch, her back facing me as her head was laid on a soft cushion with a lot of tears. The couch must have been scavenged from the debris of that disaster.
"After I got bored of laying here in the morning, I went for a quick jog and some training. My firepower is dependant on the amount of magical particles I have, so I need to train both physically and magically to protect myself." (Paridia)
It was true that she generally operated at long range, she must have went with physical training in case she wasn't able to maintain the distance between her enemy and herself. So even while I was gone, she was still diligently trying to cover for her own weaknesses. So she doesn't become a burden. So she doesn't become me...
"What about you? You done with your training with Palmicia?" (Paridia)
She spoke without turning her head, seemingly uninterested but still willing to reciprocate with the conversation. Her voice was soft and at a charmingly high tone, it sounded like someone you could find anywhere in the world before The Great Disaster.
"Yeah... That fucker stabbed my heart before healing me... Frankly she has such a mysterious character since she doesn't say much about herself. Well, I guess we're the same from her perspective. We can't trust each other."
"... Isn't that a little too extreme? " (Paridia)
Her fluffy pink head turned around in bewilderment as she raised her eyebrows. Her body had turned from the other side of the couch to face me, the guest room had glass walls so the other workers could see her acting like this place was her second home. Maybe it's just my imagination but I could've sworn I saw some veins popping. But I continue to ignore that and laid into another couch myself, while facing her from a 90 degree angle.
"Yeah I thought so too, I was so mad that I tried to kill her... But she just stood still and her neck felt harder than anything I've touched..."
I attempt to laugh it off, but all that came off was a slight groan from my throat that sounded like a dry cough. My body reflexively convulsed from that unnatural throat movement as if it was choking, I didn't bring any water into the room so I'll just bear with it...
"... Of course, I heard her endurance stat was S grade so she wouldn't die when she fought together with their commander... Well, if you're fine with it, I don't mind sharing this couch. "(Paridia)
She gives a little smile with her mellow gaze as she got comfortable on the couch before leaving some space. I had my own couch to sleep on, so I suppose this was her way to comfort me.
" Ah! Uhm.. Of course you have to stay transformed...! Unless... You don't mind..." (Paridia)
A tomato blush crept up her neck and cheeks, but she was able to regain her composure fast and recovered eye contact with me despite feeling a little awkward. To me, she was acting a little weird, but perhaps I just haven't seen her bashful side. Well I won't skip out on such a good chance. I crawled in to the space next to her, the couch barely having enough room for us to squeeze in.
".... Ah, you don't have to worry. I'll stay transformed, if not I won't be able to calm down next to someone cute like you. I hope I'm not making it too uncomfortable?"
"?!.... Nah, it's fine. Anyway, that girl that died in the middle of the office... " (Paridia)
Her eyelids opened wide as if her mind had combusted and she lsot cognitive function. She looked left and right before leaving her gaze on my face once more. Though she was trying to hide it, I could feel her fingers shivering due to radar passive being acutely sensitive to wind currents.
" What's wrong?...?! "
No... Why...? How did they pull it off? It makes no sense.
" You too? " (Paridia)
"Yeah. I can't remember her name. The girl who died."
My last recollection of her was the 20 odd accounts and descriptions of her that didn't match at all. It was as if she had stopped existing, so an external factor like the other employees were the only way left to hold memories of that victim. What was her name... It's gone from my head. That's impossible, I even remember the names of the other employees here, so why only the victim?
"... If not for that investigation, we wouldn't even remember someone died.... I'm sure the other employees don't remember anymore since we were the only ones who went through all the accounts, aside from Palmicia." (Paridia)
It was an inexplicable change. This meant that the enemy or spy may have successfully escaped... I cannot understand, this morning's roll call made sure everyone was here. Who could have gotten away?
She got up from the couch in an instant, her hair was in a disarray but it quickly rearranged itself as she retransformed herself, even though she was already transformed she wasn't wearing the magical combat dress that came it. In fact she was wearing casual sleepwear that didn't reveal too much skin, so the retransformation converted those clothes into her usual magical combat dress.
So she could use her passives. She sends a determined look in my direction and gave a single nod. It was easy to understand, afterall there was only one thing to do right now. We had to verify the phenomenon, does anyone else remember this person existed? I followed closely behind her as she went out of the guest room.
"Listen. Anyone remember the person that died in this office a couple days ago?" (Paridia)
A deafening silence replaced the soft chatter of the usual atmosphere. Everyone stared back in surprise, as if they were unable to understand the language we were speaking. But I was sure everyone here could understand us before... That meant that the only information that didn't match up wasn't the language we used but the information itself. At least we confirmed it. Paridia bit her lip in frustration, her entire body shook with anger like an erupting volcano. She must have gone to her own disappointing conclusion.
The perpetrator has escaped. No matter how one looks at it, the fact that nobody remembered the victim existed meant that it was the perfect time for the killer to have left or already left a while ago. There was also a large possibility that it was the perpatrator's skill that made all the accounts of the victim confusing, and once they leave a certain distance everyone forgets that the victim ever existed. Information like her looks, sitting spot, smell, hobbies had all disappeared before, and now it was her entire existence that was gone.
Tch, were we too late? There would no longer be any point staying around here to monitor everyone. Though I still want to continue my training with Palmicia, no matter how ridiculous and unethical it was, I had gained a considerable amount of experience in a short amount of time. Simply because she didn't go soft on me like the others did. For a brief moment, a dark shadow flits pass my peripheral vision with noise like rushing wind. I turn to look in that direction, but there was nothing there. It was a space between 2 desks that the employees were working at.
We shouldn't disturb them any more than this. Patting her shoulders, I brought Paridia back to the guest room before speaking with her. Making sure to shut the door to reduce the noise leaking through, I formed an air barrier that would block all sound from escaping. It was the first time creating an air barrier for this purpose, but it should still muffle any noise even if the people outside were using skills to eavesdrop. It was important after all.
"Did you see that shadow?"
"...?! Shit, looks like it's getting worse. Listen Kaori, you'll have to trust me on this one. When you see a monster don't attack it. It's all I can say for now." (Paridia)
"...? Okay?"