Chapter 1278 (2/2)

“He… what…?” Suddenly, Randidly was bewildered. From the Grim Chimera’s memories, he had known that Decklan had been there. But the man had seemed to be completely broken by his emotions. Why would he suddenly attack Kiersty of all people?

“From what we can tell, he was practically deranged right before his death,” Tatiana said. “He… just as Alana was leading everyone to fight against the Nemesai, he moved and picked up the item that was created by Straud’s ritual, what they are calling the Lifeblood Accumulation. When he did so… according to evidence provided by Nathan, his Class mutated, resulting in a severe amount of psychic damage. He just lashed out, attacking everything in sight.

“Most of the structural damage at the end was done by Decklan himself, and Alana trying to confine him. The Nemesai hung around, still trying to injure Alana. It was only because Kiersty stepped up and incurred his ire that Hank was finally able to put a bullet into his temple…”

Randidly pressed his lips together. After the Grim Chimera had dealt with Straud, he had kept a little bit of his attention on the stadium, but it was enough that he only felt a small amount of life lost after he had intervened. He hadn’t been closely paying attention to the destruction of property at all, so he had missed this entire portion of the fight. “And after he died… that item…?”

“Came back out of his body. And when it reappeared, the Nemesai made a break to seize it and then escape… but they were prevented from doing so by Ace taking the item.”

Randidly considered that. “Did Ace use it?”

“Thankfully no, but it’s hard to believe that man won’t try to figure out a way to control it. His erraticism is quite well documented.” Tatiana shook her head.

“Better than the Nemesai getting it back,” Randidly sighed and released most of his anger in the long exhale. All he felt was a strange bitterness in his chest. “Anything else?”

“The Ogres are beginning their migration… although I’m slightly concerned that the area we originally envisioned for them won’t be enough. Wolfram has been extremely helpful in that regard due to his extremely meticulous notes, but-”

“Wolfram?” Randidly’s eyebrow quirked up in amusement.

“That’s the Ogre Lord’s name,” Tatiana said primly, ignoring the teasing look in Randidly’s eyes. “BUT, his records also keeps track of the larger population. So we will soon have almost six million ogres settling in the mountain range. Which is a bit more than expected”

“Six million?” That number earned Randidly’s shock. Of course, that was a small number compared to the population of old Earth, but after so many years of culling due to the System, the number seemed enormous. “Do we… do we know what the current population of New Earth is?”

Tatiana nodded in sympathy. “Perhaps only eight million. And almost half of that was only added recently, though the bubble cities that were relatively politically united returning back to the fold of New Earth. Still, there are a lot of migratory groups of some size outside of the established Zones, so it is entirely possible that we are missing the mark on the population estimate.”

“It is foolish to expect such a large group to not participate in world politics, but because of how monolithic the ogres seem to be, introducing such an entity to Earth…” Randidly rubbed his brow and grimaced.

Tatiana just laughed. “We have our work cut out for us. Even if there is no one to fight, there will always be messes to clean up. The System hasn’t changed that.”

Randidly sighed loudly. “I would much prefer the fights.”

“You are going to need to engage more socially with the world if you want things to develop as you wish.” Tatiana used her stack of papers to prod Randidly’s side. “Otherwise, you will be more of a foreign idea that a real person to people. Already-”

Then Tatiana fell silent and twisted her mouth. Randidly’s eyes practically glowed in the darkness as he turned to regard her. “...I suppose that’s a question that I didn’t ask. After the fight at the stadium… what are people saying about me? There is no way that people didn’t realize I could have helped further… and didn’t.”

For all that Tatiana had clearly intended to avoid the subject altogether, she did not flinch now that they were talking about it. She lifted her chin and spoke clearly. “They say that you aren’t even human anymore. That your Level has gotten so high… that you’ve become something like a Champion, or Nemesai, or Village Spirit. You’ve reached the next stage of the System. That even though you could have clearly saved those people… why would you bother? You have bigger fish to fry. You are preparing for the Calamity.

“Most people aren’t attacking you for it, but… people are afraid. They suddenly think that the fact that you haven’t appeared means… you don’t care about the Earth any longer. That in your eyes, weakness means that they don’t deserve protection.”

Even if he had somewhat been expecting such a reaction, it hurt to hear. Randidly could only laugh bitterly. “...honestly, they aren’t that far off the mark. But I don’t refuse to help because they are weak… I refuse to help because they chose this path. I will not defend them from their own choices.”

For several seconds, Tatiana was silent. Then, she shook her head. “I know how hard this is for you. I’m so sorry you have to bear all this pain.”

Then, after bowing, Tatiana left the roof. Randidly was once more alone with only the illusive starlight. And the light slanting so casually over the shadowy roof was more beautiful than he could bear.