Chapter 511 (2/2)

“Tatiana,” Sonya growled, raw hunger in her voice. Only now did it seem that the name had drifted through the smog of intoxication to land upon her brain.

“And this,” Ricky Stain said, pointing to the muscular man next to him, “Is Griffith Lipschitz, a business associate. He is a Tier II citizen, so he helps arrange for all of my raw material ties.”

In this Zone, there was a large emphasis on what citizenship tier a person was. Randidly only had seen a small portion of it, like being required to have probationary citizenship to work on the drones, and scaled pricing for the train tickets based on your Tier. In addition, there were clearly caste elements emerging, as the few Tier 1 individuals who came into the steelworkers part of town had smirks on their faces.

Both Gregory and Sonya seemed to lose some of their tipsiness by the reminder of their lower station, with wide eyes. To a person without citizenship, a Tier 2 Citizen was far above them, Randidly supposed. This was certainly the highest Tiered person that Randidly had run into. He supposed most of the important people were exploring the borderlands.

To everyone’s, Griffith stepped towards Randidly and offered his hand. “My name’s Griffith, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Sir, I couldn’t help but notice your… bearing. Did you serve previously? I’d love to know how you ended up here.”

‘My bearing?’ Randidly wondered. He suppressed an impulse to awkwardly scratch his head.

Inwardly, he could sense Lucretia’s amusement. She spent most of her time handling the affairs of his inner world, so it took him somewhat by surprise. What was worse, Neveah also sent a mental message.

Bearing important. Strong jaw, firm resolve… hmm hmm, Inspiration!

Then her consciousness went off. Exasperated, Randidly wondered what she had gotten up to in Zone 1. She was supposed to be acting as a distraction, but he supposed it was good that he hadn’t heard any news of her doing anything… catastrophic. After all, she was using his face while she was here. At least he thought she was.

Randidly refocused on Griffith. Well, the fact that he could recognize Randidly’s strength, through the illusion was impressive. Still, Randidly had to admit that he usually was constantly utilizing most of his Yggdrasil Skills. At that Skill rarity, they tended to show through. “Yea… I suppose you could say that. I came here to learn… more about the world. There are some things you can’t discover from fighting,”

Randidly spoke slowly, carefully checking his story mentally. Then he turned to regard Tatiana. “My name’s Baloo Erickson. This fortune teller was about to give me my fortune; perhaps if you stay to watch, we can both learn something.”

“She does palm reading.” Gregory supplied, his expression tight and unreadable.

Then everyone was looking at Tatiana, expectantly. Randidly offered her his hand. Ricky Stain kept giving him, but Randidly ignored it as best he could. There was a moment of indecision and confusion in Tatiana’s eyes, a small thing. Her face didn’t even mood. But Randidly could clearly feel that she was torn.

Then she laughed, her nose wrinkling up. “I’m really nothing so glamorous as a fortune teller… but I do have some gypsy blood. Can you tell? Come, give me your hand.”

Their hands touched. As soon as it happened, Tatiana’s eyes once again twitched. She felt something then. Randidly leaned forward, curious. If her Skill was powerful enough… if he could obtain a clue here...

“You fucking bitch!”

Violent words ripped across the night. There was a sound of impact, of flesh on flesh. Almost as one, the group turned, looking over toward the source of the sound. Tooya stood tall above an Asian woman, his eyes red and furious. His brother was next to him, his face surly as he joined his brother in glaring.

Before he even realized what was happening, Randidly felt the vegetation around him explode into motion. Grass elongated and stretched up the side of the building, running along the support pillars. But then he hesitated, forcing that impulse down. His toes flexed. It was… discomforting to not be touching the ground, although the threads of energy could still climb up through the rock and metal to reach him.

And considering the cause of the commotion… using a Skill wasn’t even necessary.

Besides, it seemed he didn’t even need to act. Beside him, the air around Tatiana became frosty.