Chapter 1526 (2/2)

Plus, although none of this could have happened if he didn’t influence the knot of Nether that bound the Nether King, he wasn’t the Nether King. He couldn’t be held responsible for all the destruction that the Nether King had wrought since their paths had crossed.

But it’s hard to be confident about that. Randidly grimaced. If someone knowingly released a terrorist because it was the right thing to do, they would likely hold some culpability toward what happened afterward…

Again, Randidly distracted himself from those thoughts; his emotions were already difficult enough to control as it was, he didn’t need to dwell on upsetting subjects to pass the time. But this time, the new topic was also rather depressing. It seemed that it would be even more difficult to contact Vualla on the frontlines than it had been in the Xyrt Brigade training facility. She was now in an active warzone. Both sides would be on their guard for spying attempts. Especially now that Randidly had been caught red-handed by the Nether King.

He could send a message, of course. But that was just much less satisfying. And Vualla had been abysmal about replying to messages through the entire time they had known each other.

Further reflection was interrupted by the door opening. Helen paused and looked over at Randidly, the pool of blood next to him, and the sparking training sphere, which apparently now was shorting out due to a mistake Randidly had made during his most recent adjustments.

She closed the door behind her and walked over to crouch down next to him. “You get mugged?”

“Yup,” Randidly responded as cheerily as he could manage. The combination of the heavy sense of guilt toward the attack on the Fifth Cohort and the helpless impotence he felt in regards to contacting Vualla meant that he couldn’t do a very good job of fooling Helen. But his longtime companion simply glanced at him, then shook her head in mock sorrow.

“This means work for me. I guess I’ll go find a mop.” Helen pushed off her knees and stood with a determined expression on her face.

Randidly’s mouth twisted at that. “What, Overseer Helen going soft? From what I hear about you these days, you should be making recruits clean up the mess with their tongues.”

“Normally I would. But it’s somewhat different when the blood is your blood, and the humanity that its presence reveals will take some of the bite out of the ominous persona you’ve been developing.” Helen flicked her wrist twice and procured a literal mop from her interspatial ring. “So it falls to me to be the one to mop everything up.”

“You don’t need to tell them its my blood,” Randidly countered playfully. He knew it was meaningless, but talking with Helen did distract him from some of his darker thoughts. Then he paused and frowned. “Wait, do you keep cleaning supplies in your interspatial ring?”

“I’m more concerned that you don’t.” Then Helen snorted and pointed at the spots on the floor where the blood continued to sizzle and spit. The reinforced tiles were beginning to corrode. “You think I can give a recruit a mop and tell him not to think too deeply about whose blood this is? Have you met anyone else whose blood corrodes metal? Jesus, I bet the dumb fucks would try eating it… as though a stomach of all things could absorb someone’s image...”

That forced a genuine chuckle out of Randidly. “You could just wait until it eats its way through the entire Rally Station. Then the recruits could come in here and fill in the hole. Have we trained our recruits in the use of quick-drying cement yet? Might as well put it on the agenda.”

“We’ll have the drywall hung around these Nether Beasts before they can even sneeze,” Helen shook her head in amusement. Then she glared at Randidly as she pressed her mop against the offending blood. “Of course we can’t do that. The fucking rumors that I hear about you when the recruits don’t think anyone’s listening… This is just the sorta shit that will get them to gossip, caustic blood? Ugh… and if I’m being honest… It’s not just the recruits.”

Helen didn’t elaborate on that and instead moved to rub the mop against the sizzling blood on the ground. But she really didn’t have to explain. Randidly’s expression shifted as he sighed. He levered himself up onto his elbow and watched the cleaning process. Within only a few seconds, smoke was wafting upward from the wiping portion of the mop.

Randidly shook his head. “...what are you even doing?”

“Trying to cheer you up,” Helen said, surprising Randidly. She scratched her cheek. “Tatiana told me that you are surprisingly weak to silly shit. So. Here I am.”

Then she continued to mop. The moment seemed strangely surreal, with Helen continuing to scrub the tool against the ground and ignoring the fact that her implement was slowly disintegrating. She hadn’t even used water, just rubbed the mop directly against the blood. The sizzling grew louder; compared to the tiles, the mop head was made of much less durable materials. She scrubbed harder, only seeming to spread the dangerous blood out across the ground and worsen the problem.

Very soon, Randidly was laughing aloud. He didn’t like that Tatiana and Helen had believed it necessary they prepare to cheer him up. He liked even less that they had been correct. He waved his hand and the Stillborn Phoenix paused in its breathing to suck up his blood. Gradually, the sizzling ceased, leaving the only sound in the room to be Randidly’s chuckles.

“Tatiana’s so much better than the soft stuff,” Helen announced. “Next time you get moody, unless you want a spar, you’ll be on your own. So… take care of yourself.”

“Thanks,” Randidly said very seriously. He could feel Helen’s complex emotions hanging between them. Then he flashed Helen a cheeky smile. “But… didn’t I already take care of the blood problem on my own…? It’s not like this time you-”

Helen pressed her lips together and broke the wooden handle of her broom across Randidly’s back, earning his raucous laughter.