Chapter 1081 (2/2)

However, a demanding thought kept nipping at him like carefully raised fish might eat the dead skin off people's toes. No matter what Randidly did to try and shake it, he couldn't allow himself to truly let go as long as that thought remained active in his mind. It buzzed with intensity, demanding his attention like an alarm clock.

With a grim expression, Randidly opened his eyes. Most of his headache was gone, but he knew it wouldn't take much for it to come roaring back to life. But he couldn't help himself. This was something that he needed to investigate.

After returning from the Nether Gatekeeper mission, which Randidly still didn't even know the outcome of, he had slept for a day and a half. Then he had required another six hours to recover and had just now spent six hours refining his image. All told, almost two days had passed since he had returned.

And Vualla's face was very prominent in Randidly's subconscious. He couldn't get either the image of her triumphantly destroying the army of Nether Beasts or the image of her unconscious in his arms out of his head. Both warred in him, seemingly pulling him for completely opposite reasons to look for her. However, those emotions mixed in his chest into something warm and precious; now that Randidly was partially recovered he needed to address these feelings.

Snorting, Randidly got back to his feet

His expression turned frigid as Zuana and Salazar unhesitatingly mimicked him in getting up off the ground. Randidly calmly drug a long talon across his lips before he spoke. ”And where do you think you are going.”

”...walk...” Zauna said quietly. Salazar watched Randidly's expression with obvious fright and simply nodded vigorously along with Zauna’s point.

The muscles along Randidly's jaw flexed. His two tails flicked aggressively from side to side, making soft thwaping noises as the lower tail impacted the walls of the tent with the controlled ferocity of a predator.

”Surely, you've had enough exercise today,” Randidly said with exaggerated patience. Both subordinates shook their heads.

The Grim Chimera's hot annoyance exploded to dominate Randidly's perception for a few seconds, but then it slowly faded back into the backdrop of his mind. Although the Grim Chimera had powerful impulses, it had grown to understand there was a need to suppress them while interacting with others. As such, it allowed the emotions to run its course while simply enduring them.

Then, after the emotions had drained, it looked upon the situation with rather calculating eyes.

Randidly shook his head helplessly. Even though his threats worked well enough to stop Salazar from speaking, this was another animal altogether. His subordinates took their roles very seriously. And as he considered their expressions now...

Some of their fear was backed by concern. Randidly's lips tightened with guilt.

He could understand why they would be concerned, especially now. A few days ago he had disappeared for several hours and come back unconscious. Worse than unconscious. From what Yggdrasil had shared, he had been speaking in his sleep, although nothing particularly intelligible. But to have your commanding officer reduced to such a state and being able to do nothing about it...

The rest of the annoyance vanished from Randidly and he was simply left with exhaustion. That's exactly why I fight against the System. So I don't simply need to watch the Earth suffer any longer. So I can take the future into my own hands.

”...fine,” Randidly finally said. Both Salazar and Zauna fell in behind him as he walked out of the tent and followed the familiar path toward the badlands between camps. It seemed that it was quickly very obvious where their goal was because Randidly sensed both Salazar and Zauna exchange a knowing glance behind his back.

Ugh, sometimes I wish Grim Intuition wasn’t so fucking insightful, Randidly thought with disgust right as Salazar opened his mouth.

“Y-you know b-b-boss… don’t r-read too deeply into Vualla not v-v-v-visiting you during your r-recovery. Maybe she didn’t know-” Salazar’s mouth clicked audibly shut before Randidly had calmed himself down enough to turn around and get him to shut up.

“The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind,” Randidly said stiffly. And completely honestly. But now that Salazar had brought it up…

There was no way that Vualla wasn’t aware of how dangerous the Great Rift had been for Randidly. After all, she had protected him through most of their journey, only allowing him to join the defensive rotation when there was no other choice. Considering the fact that she had gone unconscious toward the end-

Unwillingly, Randidly’s brows furrowed. Unless someone hid his involvement from her altogether? Perhaps they claimed that he died, or didn’t attribute the rescue to him?