Chapter 1251 (2/2)

But Kiersty…

“Oh my gawddddd!” Kiersty held her face in her hands and shook her head. “You are such an idiot sometimes. How are we related at all?!?”

*****

Once more, Randidly stood on top of Kharon’s city hall and considered the billowing pillars of smoke that wafted upward from the almost constantly active furnaces in the industrial district. The smoke had become a reassuring constant of Kharon. It was proof of the constant efforts of this city’s people to improve. Even as time passed, the people of Kharon were developing to face the Earth’s problems.

It’s a matter of speed, however… The stronger Kharon is, the less I need to worry about the smaller threats.

Almost moodily, Randidly rubbed his chin and felt the persisting mark his image yesterday had made on the roof. Even now, the energy of Randidly’s images continued to swirl on the roof. With a shake of his head, he turned away and returned to his office the old fashioned way, through the interior stairwell.

It had been four and a half days now since he had returned to Kharon, four and a half days of feeling like there were far too many things for him to do. Aside from his own growth, which took up a large portion of his day, Randidly was constantly moving throughout Kharon and inspecting the various facilities. He continued to pour over recent reports on the movements of different entities on Earth. The forgers of Kharon wanted to meet and talk with Randidly regarding how to improve their craft. Naffur wanted Randidly to create a set of codes for the members of the Order Ducis to abide by.

Every day, they moved another day closer to arriving at the Zones.

The tests regarding the power of the moss spirits were moving into the next stage, after successful results on both the floating platforms and incorporating the spirits directly into a street. Tatiana had an unending series of meetings and reports that she needed Randidly for, because they would materially affect the growth of Kharon. And perhaps the task that had taken up the most of Randidly’s thoughts, if not his time, was the perverse desire to trick some vendor from Kharon into selling him a product for full price.

As Randidly opened up the door to his office, he noticed a neat note on familiar letterhead laying on the ground. Picking it up, he recognized Tatiana’s handwriting from the many reports he had read in the past few days and skimmed the contents. In the note, Tatiana reminded Randidly firstly that although most of Kharon’s business was related the metalworking and industrial strength materials, the fastest growing export of Kharon was actually soaps and shampoos due to the teas, herbs, and flowers grown in the Western portion of Kharon, dedicated to agriculture.

And the second piece of information contained in the note was that someone had named one of their newer soap scents ‘Ghosthound’. For almost a minute after he read that line, Randidly did nothing. He simply stared at the note. Then he crumpled up the note and lobbed it perfectly across the room to land into the trashcan.

“They made a soap based on me…?” Randidly mumbled. In his meeting with Antonio yesterday, the man had expressed some reservations that a lot of people felt about staying in Kharon for the long term. The two main reasons Antonio gave were that a lot of people were unsure about just coming under the thumb of another group like the Chosen and that the people felt nervous putting their lives in the hands of someone they don’t know. In this case, Randidly Ghosthound.

Even remembering the meeting gave Randidly a headache. Especially with how much difficulty Heiffal and his group have had adjusting to the culture on Earth… does that mean something like a soap scent is exactly what I need to spread a positive image…?

But just as that thought popped into his head, Randidly ruthlessly smashed it He bared his teeth at the air as his emerald eyes flashed. “No. Even if I need to earn the trust of the people… a soap is not how I want to do it.”

Unbidden, suddenly Randidly’s mind was filled with a monochrome commercial starring himself for the soap. It began with just his silhouette, walking away from the camera with enough jaunt to make the sharp lines of his body appear androgynous. At the last moment, Randidly spun around and unleashed his most squinty-eyed and duck-faced look as he peered over his shoulder.

As Randidly delivered his gaze at an angle that highlighted his jaws and cheekbones, a voiceover flowed outward. “Ghosthound. Scent by Kharon.”

Shivering, Randidly cracked his knuckles. No matter if Randidly was doomed to be afflicted with busyness to the end of his life based upon the decisions he had made creating a city, that did not mean he needed to allow something like this to go by without a proper response. Besides, despite the fact that Randidly had spent so much time yesterday training his Spear Mastery, that efforted had only cleared the cloud hanging over Randidly’s head for a short amount of time. As he continued to sit through another slew of meetings yesterday evening, the weird sense of dissatisfaction crept back into Randidly’s mind.

Yet what could Randidly do? These were things that needed to be done. It was just… very different from what Randidly was good at. But to be a good king… Randidly needed to find the time to be good at these things too.

Rubbing his eyes, Randidly pushed those thoughts from his mind. Even if this issue was rather small compared to the issue of preparing Kharon, Randidly knew himself well enough that he would be endlessly distracted if he didn’t address this issue now. With a determined air, he casually dressed and proceeded into the area of Kharon that housed its shops with every bit as much bloodlust and dedication as if he was walking to a battlefield.

Chuckling, Randidly approached a clothing shop. Today, he would accomplish two of his goals. One, he would finally trick someone into not giving him something for free with a disguise. And two, he could then rip off his disguise and get to the bottom of this whole Ghosthound scent debacle, once and for all.