Chapter 1248 (2/2)
Sighing, Randidly followed Vye and they both sat down at the table. Still, Randidly had no intention of ignoring the surrounding people. As he sat at the table, the Mana in his veins stirred. His toes pressed against the concrete ground flexed and from the ball of his feet, the bright lines of Mana Engraving radiated outward to race across the entirety of Banner Street. People exclaimed softly in admiration and bent over to poke at the lines of energy on the ground as they spiraled across the surrounding surfaces.
Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 253!
Very quickly, some of the more general runes Randidly had designed to let the moss spirits interact with the world soon lay across the whole of Banner Street. The floating platform experiments weren’t the only ones that Randidly wanted to conduct and this busy street would likely function as a solid test case.
Once the runes were in place, Randidly said lightly. “Moss spirits, make sure they can’t hear what we are saying.”
A veil of green light spiraled upward and surrounded Randidly and Vye. Very gradually, the people of Banner Street slowly shifted back into unwilling activity as the two seemed to be held suspended in a sphere of green light that cut off all sound. And no one was willing to so obviously press into the sphere while Randidly sat right there. Business gradually began to resume around the duo.
“...If you heard the fight with my boyfriend, I’m sorry you had to experience that.” Vye said lightly. She cut off the corner of the waffle and popped it into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she continued. “He… I don’t know. I don’t know why he’s being so…”
Scratching his chin lightly, Randidly shook his head. Going gently about this conversation seemed like a waste of time, so Randidly just went straight for it. “Vye, if I understood things correctly, he wasn’t mad that you are leaving or that he can’t go with you. He’s mad because you acted like you didn’t care enough about his opinion to ask it.”
Vye blinked. “Of course his opinion matters, but this is my-”
“Then tell him that before you go.” Randidly took a long drink of the coffee and was surprised to find how much he enjoyed it. The warm flavor lingered pleasantly on his tongue. “As someone who has walked away from a lot of people and done it poorly for most of that time, just a word of advice. Starting the conversation with the fact that you still care goes a long way. As does listening. In life… you can treat people as subjects or as equals, but they don’t like it when you do both.”
Vye opened her mouth and then closed it. She took another bite of the waffle. Then she gave Randidly a sidelong glance. “I guess you would have quite a bit of experience in this area. But… I don’t want him to get his hopes up. I’m not going to change my mind.”
Around them, Randidly couldn’t help but notice that several vendors had noticed what Randidly had done and were doing surreptitious experiments at the limits of the moss spirits power. With a small smile, Randidly drummed his fingers on the wooden table. “My mother always used to tell me that there were two types of relationships. The ones where your individual weird stuff was aberrant nonsense that your significant other wanted to change or the ones where the weird stuff was exactly why they loved you.
“For the former, you want to end things with them anyway. And for the latter... “ Randidly shrugged. “They don’t want to change your mind. They just want to be a part of your life.”
Vye considered that for several seconds. “Your mother seems like a smart woman.”
Randidly just shrugged. Even now, he didn’t quite feel comfortable commenting on his mother. But further conversation between Randidly and Vye was drowned out by the sudden influx of booming voices around them as the vendors entered into a war of volume by discovering they could empower their voices with moss spirits.
“FINEST BACON IN KHARON!”
“-ONLY WAY TO START YOUR MORNING-”
“RANDIDLY GHOSTHOUND HIMSELF DINES HERE! FRESH WAFFLES-”
Randidly’s eyelid twitched as the volume steadily increased upward. To the point that the loud calls sent ripples across the surface of his coffee. While Vye still had a thoughtful expression on her face, Randidly slowly stood at his table and rapped his knuckles against the wood. “Moss Spirits. Silence them all.”
An emerald wave exploded outward and swept away the voices of the surrounding vendors. As one, everyone on Banner Street turned guiltily to look at Randidly.
The silencing aura that he had conjured earlier dissipated as the moss spirits read his intent. Randidly’s mouth twitched. “Use these tools responsible. Yea?”