Chapter 724 (2/2)

Pop.

Then he was there, standing and looking around at the drawing room in amusement. “Well, you’ve certainly done well for yourself here, haven’t you? Lucretia, I thought you left. What are you-”

Her body moved without thinking. Lucretia had grown satisfied and content with her current life in Randidly’s Soulskill, but that was because she understood Randidly. He might not look in here for hundreds of years in this world’s time. To see him now… to know that he could let her escape…

It was a release of tension that she had held for almost forty-five years, struggling in this world. Lucretia rushed over and buried her head in his chest.

“I…” Lucretia struggled to speak, but couldn't find the words. She wouldn’t abandon Alta of course, but she could leave now. She could go find Shal and say all the things she had put off saying to him in the past. She could return to Icklid and complete the ritual she had started with her earlier meeting with the Autarch. She could…

Lucretia began to cry.

Awkwardly, Randidly stared down at her. His emerald eyes were wide and expressive as he examined her carefully. Then his gaze softened. “Have you… been stuck here?”

It was strange, but him stating the truth only made it hurt more. Lucretia’s sobs bubbled up from somewhere deep inside herself. Inwardly, part of her was aghast at the display of emotion. She had lived for almost 600 years now. How could something like this affect her so?

But on the other hand, there was certainly a bond between herself and Randidly. For all that they had started out opposed, fate had aligned their interests and they spent quite an amount of time intimately connected. More than anyone else, Lucretia felt that Randidly was a close… friend. A peer that she had explored the mysteries of energy and karma with. A research partner with access to the most state of the art facility that Lucretia could dream about.

And for all that Lucretia was an old soul, she had struggled alone in a world where the omnipotent System she had grown with wasn’t a fixture. More than she had expected, she had been lost without it. Those hidden stresses surged to the surface.

Apparently, both of their attentions were so distracted that neither foresaw that the door would open.

“Hey Creta, before I go, can you give me-”

Alta froze. Both Randidly and Lucretia froze.

“You…” Alta said slowly, her gaze flitting from Randidly’s face and then back to Lucretia’s. “...Creta, you would tell me if you had a secret boyfriend, right?”

Lucretia snorted in amusement in spite of herself, but due to her teary face, she recognized it probably looked like a sob to Alta. Randidly coughed dryly, looking from Lucretia to Alta. He took a step back away from Lucretia, raising his hands.

Alta staggered backward in mock horror and clutched her breast. “Why aren’t you answering?!? Is it… is it more serious than that? And why are you crying? I’ve never even seen you sad! You! Barefoot man. What have you done to my Creta?!”

“‘My’ Creta?” Randidly asked as his lip curled upward into a smile. He glanced at Lucretia. She continued to chuckle, the amusement keeping her from offering any sort of explanation.

“Bah, don’t think your dick entitles you to anything more than a brief rental of her body. She is mine. You can’t have her,” Alta said, glaring at Randidly.

Finally, Lucretia couldn’t handle it anymore. “No, Alta, we aren’t… together. Uh, Randidly is just my-”

“Oh. My. God.” Alta said, her jaw once more dropping to the floor. “Did I just walk in on a BREAKUP? And YOU. You had the nerve to loiter around here afterward like you owned the place? I’ll rip your face off and sent your puny male brain on fire! I’ll-”

This time, when Lucretia laughed, it was loud and clear. The tinkling happiness of her laughter cut through Alta’s tirade. Even Randidly smiled helplessly as he shook his head. Alta looked between the two of them, clearly sulky.

“Well if I was mistaken,” Alta muttered. “Someone at least could have told me, so I didn’t look like an idiot…”