"Oh, you're back," Jiruo said once we arrived at the camp. "How did it go?"
I smiled and puffed out my chest proudly. "We drove it away, it ain't gonna step foot around these parts ever again."
Jiruo just stared at me with that permanent stern look on his face. "Well, good work you two. Lord Bondrewd is in the garden if you're looking for him."
"Thank you," both Marulk and I said at the same time.
We walked into the flower garden behind the base and saw Lord Bondrewd sitting near a small creek. We decided to approach him, observing the beauty of the garden in the process. "Lord Bondrewd..."
"Welcome back, you two, did you do it?" he asked without taking his eyes off the creek.
"We did Lord Bondrewd, Marulk helped with the force field sensing while I did the dirty work," I sat down next to him and handed him the Sparagmos. "Thanks for lending me this, it was awesome."
"Congratulations, that was most impressive," he gave me a box full of ration bar of some sort. "Are you hungry? Help yourself."
Marulk and I grabbed one of the ration bar. We tapped our ration bar with one another before taking a bite off of it. "Hmm... concrete... Yum!" I said while enjoying the flavor. "Still, better than nothing."
"Lord Bondrewd," Marulk said after finishing half of his bar. "Do you know about this place?"
Bondrewd gazed at us for a moment before answering. "I suppose I do know the purpose of this place," he looked back towards a crater in the middle of the garden. "This was once a hideout but then this place serves as a memorial. Then, the delvers came and this is a hideout once again."
A memorial huh? Seems like this place has a bit of a history in it. And this Bondrewd fellow, he's quite cool and kind for a white whistle, I thought the deeper down you go the more twisted the individual is?
Suddenly, Bondrewd put a hand on my shoulder. "Haios, I might be mistaken, but looking at your eyes," we stared at each other for a moment and I can only imagine the piercing gaze he has behind that mask. "Are you, by any chance, an immortal?"
I gulped before nodding a little. "I don't age as far as I know," Bondrewd let go of me and looked back at the creek.
"Lord Bondrewd, did you meet a girl named Riko or a boy named Reg?" Marulk asked wanting to change the topic.
This time, I can almost see him smiling behind that mask of his. "You mean Lord of Eternal Fortune, Riko the Resilient?"
Marulk gasped and looked at Bondrewd in curiosity. "You mean she's a White Whistle now?" he asked. "What happened? Did you help her get her whistle? Did you train her?"
The Lord of Dawn chuckled a little. "It's not yet official, but yes she is a white whistle, I gave her that title. As for what I did to her," he looked up for a moment. "You could say that she's a bit too much for me to handle. She's truly Lyza's child."
Huh, this Riko kid seems to be extremely capable. "So, what's she like?" I asked him.
"She's extremely courageous, able to press on and keep functioning under extreme pressure. She's also very social, I have no doubt you both make good friends if you ever meet each other," Bondrewd explained.
Marulk smiled after hearing that. "I have no doubt that she and Haios would make good friend," he looked at me for a moment. "You kind of remind me of her most of the time."
"Most of the time?" I asked in amusement.
"Well, Riko's not..." he cleared his throat a little. "Riko is Riko, Haios is Haios, I shouldn't be comparing between the two of you."
Good save Marulk, good save.
"Haios, Marulk, you're descending deeper into the abyss aren't you?" Bondrewd asked.
I nodded in response. "Yeah, though we need to figure out how to get a white whistle before descending deeper. Fourth layer is black whistle's limit right?"
Lord Bondrewd nodded. "That's true, but there are a number of other reason why," he looked at us for a moment. "I'll make an exception for you two, what do you think about going with me to Idofront?"
Well I say it's about damn time! I looked at Marulk and found him nodding in agreement. "Yeah, definitely!" then I thought about it. "Wait, Idofront, that's the uhh... That's your research station right?"
"It was, now it's under heavy construction," Lord Bondrewd replied.
"So, when shall we depart?" I asked, a bit impatient.
"Tomorrow, for now, you both need rest."