Chapter 1311 (1/2)

Tatiana pulled the unwilling Wendy behind her as she marched through the maze of modular walls and doors. Luckily, the Spriggit woman didn’t weigh much and wasn’t truly trying to put all of her effort into resisting her. She just wore a deeply aggrieved expression as she stared at Tatiana. “I swear that all I need is a few more minutes of examination! I am so close to a breakthrough… did you know there as been some organic growth in Kharon’s core as the moss spirits develop more intelligence? It shouldn’t be possible!”

And as she continued to talk, Wendy only built up additional steam. “Living Engraving is actually a misnomer; it would be better to call what Randidly can do ‘self-replicating Engraving’. It can’t truly grow, it can only make itself bigger. Yet there are small, systemic changes that have appeared in the engraving! And if we could figure out the evolution mechanism-”

“Wendy,” Tatiana sighed and stopped pulling Wendy while they were standing on the plush red carpet of the main hallway. “This is Randidly’s party. You can go back and study the engine after the party is over. Don’t you want to celebrate a bit? Let loose?”

“No,” Wendy shook her head so fiercely that Tatiana considered if she had drastically misread Wendy and Randidly’s relationship. “It seems a waste of time, especially when we know that Randidly won’t care much. Better than that… wouldn’t the best sort of birthday gift be for me to figure out the secrets of Kharon’s engines…”

...it’s not that they secretly dislike each other, they are both just workaholics, Tatiana rolled her eyes.

“Nice try,” Tatiana chuckled out loud. She turned away from Wendy and opened one of the side doors into an adjoining room. As she peeked her head into the room, she looked at the three individuals that were lounging on the low couches of the drawing-room. “Are you three ready? Everyone prepared to meet people from Earth?”

Azriel snapped the book she was reading shut and then looked admiringly at her hands. “Of course. It’s quite a delight to just be a normal individual for a while. Being a pseudo-deity is surprisingly exhausting.”

“Of course we are currently acting on faith that the Earth Golem Emperor doesn’t cause another economic collapse while you are gone,” Prince Armgrast said with a scowl. Then he looked uneasily around at the ornate walls and shook his leonine head. “I still cannot believe that our entire world exists inside of Randidly Ghosthound. It seems… unnatural.”

“It’s more accurate to say that the world is Randidly, but I see your point. Perspective changes are difficult for some people to adjust to.” Azriel said as she looked at the prince with a sharp smile. The man raised his chin and stood with a straight spine.

The third individual stood as well, albeit much more slowly; Tatiana took this chance to carefully examine the expression of Alta Bounty. She had a lovely face with high cheekbones, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention at all to the conversation. Instead, her eyes constantly roved the surrounding area. Tatiana had noticed the way that she had been determinedly rubbing at the upholstery of the couch previously.

Randidly had warned Tatiana quietly about Alta Bounty and what she had done in the past. In actual fact, Randidly had just generally asked some of the administration of his inner world about the party and was extremely surprised when she had accepted his invitation to celebrate his birth. Tatiana had, in fact, questioned why he had allowed her to come and Randidly had laughed.

“I’m already inviting the Nemesai, aren’t I? And the party is about demonstrating the consequences of the System. And for that, I think she is an ideal candidate to attend.”

...so now, while Randidly went through his own preparations, Tatiana was effectively babysitting the group from the Alpha Cosmos. As though she didn’t already have enough things that demanded her attention…

Tatiana resisted the urge to raise her fingers and rub at her temples. Already she regretted leaving Wolfram outside to handle any issues that would happen in the park portion of the evening. Better to let the representatives from other Zones eat each other alive than risk spending the rest of the night with a migraine. “Well if everyone’s ready, let’s good. It’s time to open up the venue.”

Luckily, the group nodded in agreement. Azriel and Wendy continued to discuss the scientific implications of the Alpha Cosmos while Prince Armgrast looked dazed and Alta continued to seem distracted by the substance of the surroundings. They walked out of the study and then down the hallway to the entrance to the building.

The venue was laid out as a giant rectangle. The front third of the building was a series of interconnecting dining rooms, billiard rooms, and libraries in a grid shape. Each wall looked extremely solid, but they could be rather simply disassembled and reassembled to extend the various rooms. This portion of the building was designed to be used by many different individuals at once, satisfying their individual needs by changing which rooms they were given access to.

The back one-tenth of the building was for the catering staff and event workers. The kitchens were top of the line and Kharon currently had several chefs on staff. In addition, the sides of the building were designed thick enough that there was a rather cleverly hidden passageway that enabled people who were aware of it to move relatively unseen along the perimeter.

And of course, the remainder of the building was dedicated to the vast, two-story ballroom that would host Randidly’s birthday party. As Tatiana briskly led the Alpha Cosmos-ers forward, she checked every room along the way to make sure everything was in place. The rooms directly out from the door to the ballroom had all been cleared and the modular walls rolled backward; it was a grand passageway prepared for the guests. The side rooms were left open for individuals to freely wander.

Randidly had wanted to close those side rooms off, but Tatiana knew that the people would want to be able to slip off to private locations at a large gathering such as this. Not giving them any obvious opportunity to do that would just mean they would find unusual places to plot and gossip. Far better to leave the rooms open and allow them the illusion that they are undetected that provide an incentive for people to wander around Kharon.