Chapter 1015 (1/2)
“Oh! Like I’m so glad I finally found you. Ah, Mr. Ghosthound… is that you…? It’s a little dark… ah! Oh, that’s definitely you!”
Randidly looked up. He had sensed the unfamiliar woman wandering around the stage area for about a half an hour, but he hadn’t thought anything of it. He had sensed her talking to Tatiana plenty of times from afar, so he had just assumed she was an aide here to work on something for the award ceremony. Which was why he had paid her no mind and allowed himself to laugh loudly as he examined the greedy man’s images.
How was Randidly supposed to know that she was looking for him?
“Ah…? Did you have something for me?” Randidly asked as he scratched his head. Perhaps he was spending too much time thinking about broad images and not enough familiarizing himself with the individuals that made up Erickson Steel. But it was just a rather daunting task for a naturally introverted individual like Randidly to become acquainted with everyone.
It was already bad enough that Randidly would be giving a short speech later...
The woman shrugged, causing her extremely thin hair to drift outward from her frizzy head like a jellyfish’s tentacles. She teetered back and forth haphazardly as she walked across the scaffolding and then plopped down next to Randidly with a relieved poof of air from her mouth. “I’m Sherry! I’ve like, heard so much about you. Tatiana said you wanted to see me…? Which, considering you are the secretive owner of Erickson Steel inviting me to an isolated location with pretty enough scenery… I wasn’t sure… you know…”
Randidly’s expression turned suddenly serious. He certainly did not know. And he definitively didn’t know why Tatiana would send this woman Sherry-
Ah, wait. I think that Tatiana said her assistant’s name was Sherry… and at the time she did seem very surprised that I complimented her assistant… did I have the wrong individual…? Randidly sighed inwardly.
While Randidly was reflecting on his own thoughts, Sherry continued boldly forward with her own audible train of thought. “Actually, I have a rather consistent online following among people in Zone 1… I like, write classy smut. Like real classy. People call it erotica, even. That’s how classy it is… and since you are just so brooding and mysterious… since it’s practically research… whatever you need, I am here for. I’ve… prepared. Like by showering... not by anything weird, haha-”
“Let me just stop you right there,” Randidly said, raising up a hand. “I think there’s been a miscommunication. I did ask for you, but what I really wanted was for you to help- help introducing me for the award speech.”
Randidly mind thrummed with activity as he carefully considered whether this would be fine. Although she might be rather… strange, she was bold enough to clamber up onto the scaffolding and seek him out. And Randidly could clearly see that she had no climbing or balance related Skill; her accomplishment was all her own will.
Or foolishness disguised by fortune.
Either way, Randidly continued to speak. “So you’ll just need to come out before I speak and introduce everyone involved. It shouldn’t be difficult- but Tatiana wanted to make sure you were rewarded for all of your… ah… dedication to the company.”
Let’s let Tatiana sort through the fallout of this… this is exactly the sort of thing I don’t want to deal with...
“Oh,” Sherry honestly seemed to wilt a bit. “So then… us being up here…”
“Just a coincidental meeting. Actually, I need to head out.” With a lithe grace, Randidly stood and nodded to Sherry. Then he quickly hopped off the edge of the stage’s scaffolding and quickly dropped down to the ground below. To keep his impact from shattering the surrounding tiles, Randidly created a half dozen thin roots that curled outward from some of the bare dirt and cushioned his fall.
After walking several steps away, Randidly spared one glance behind him toward the rather shocked form of Sherry among the high framework of metal. He could feel images around her, more ephemeral and capricious than the images around most people, but no less dense.
It takes a lot to build a city, Randidly reflected as he turned away and moved through the darkened alleys behind the Erickson Steel’s industrial grade furnaces. They loomed above him like dozing beasts, waiting in silence and shadow for the dawn. It takes a lot of hope and a lot of very brave people each letting their own strange dreams out into the open.
In his chest, Randidly felt the heavy weight of his Crown of Upheaval and Gloom humming softly. Perhaps it was because the aura of timelessness from Chulroon’s claw was balancing out his images, but he had abruptly felt quite… vulnerable while moving around Erickson Steel. Something was changing inside of him.
Extending through Randidly’s entire body were thin veins of weight and power that stemmed from the growing image that began with the Crown at its center. It was a strange growth that had emerged half-formed since Randidly began spending more and more time at Erickson Steel. In Randidly’s vast Soulspace, it had been easy to miss it amongst his other bright images. But now it demanded attention.
Those thin veins that spread outward from his Crown Skill seemed to resonate with the images that were percolating upward toward the near-cloudless night sky above Erickson Steel. Randidly had felt the steadily growing ache from that resonance from walking around with Wendy during the festival proper, but at the time he had assumed that it would pass. That part of that strange feeling in his chest was the result of being so superfluous to the divvying up of the rewards.
It’s necessary… forging this image for Earth, even if it is mainly kept isolated, will greatly increase this world’s chances of passing through the trials that are arrayed before us. Randidly paused in his trek through the compound and clambered up an exhaust chute to the top of one of the larger warehouses. When he flipped himself lightly over to the roof, his eyes were immediately drawn to a very yellow and low moon. Even if I’m not the perfect man for the job… no one else can do it. It has to be me. Only I can house this image. Only I have the composition to bear it and help it grow.
“But it’s hard,” Randidly said softly to the moon, and only the moon heard his exhausted voice. Yet it wasn’t the housing of the images itself that was so tiring. It was his own insecurity that interfering with his own peace of mind.
It was most likely because of his time in the Dungeon, but Randidly had previously rushed forward with an impending sense of necessity. That sense had done a lot to pacify his own emotions. Randidly simply spent too much time struggling against foes that were greater than him to dwell on how all of his actions made him feel.