Chapter 1598 (2/2)

Tsk, sorta seems like I owe Raymund a favor from keeping me from slaughtering all those Drill Sergeants… Randidly thought inwardly. Who knows who I would have had on my ass in the aftermath… and I might have no choice but to go to the Commandant for support. Urgh.

Neshamah pursed her lips, the first shift away from her easy and free expression of their interactions to this point. Her eyes flashed with a harsh light. “I’m honestly disappointed. Even from just looking at the density of Nether around you… you have so much potential. Had, so much potential. More potential than most people I’ve encountered… but ultimately, if you hitch yourself to the Engraving Guild’s precious “Lattice” your growth will be stopped short. A Runic Nether Core is all you will ever be. You must have brought them quite a lot to even get this far.”

By the end of her statement, Neshamah’s voice became cold and condescending; all of the previous playful interest in her eyes was gone. Randidly was slightly bewildered by the change. Did the Rex’s have a bad relationship with the Engraving Guild? And what was the Lattice that she referred to…?

As Randidly opened his mouth to respond, the young man and his fluttering black wings scrambled back into the room. He was panting, likely because he seemed to have dashed the entire way to his destination. “Ah, Mr. Ghosthound, Nathaz says-”

The young man froze again at the sight of Neshamah. This time his left wing fluttered too quickly to follow “R-R-R-R-R-R-R-”

“He’s just down this way?” Randidly asked, unwilling to allow the young man’s slow-motion heart attack to proceed any further. After a strangled gulp, the young man nodded. Randidly straightened from the desk and turned to look at Neshamah.

Although her eyes showed only distaste, Randidly winked at her. “Goodbye, Miss Neshamah. Perhaps in another two weeks, I’ll prove you wrong once again.” Then he turned and walked away down the hallway.

Eventually, he reached an intersection with several signs, one of which directed him toward the offices of Nathaz Eloise. As he proceeded deeper through the corridors, he encountered intersection after intersection, leading down into a maze of dank offices and strange workers. Several times Randidly’s determined walk meant that he passed by a half dozen different beings that were drifting back and forth through the hallways. Most seemed hollow-eyed and exhausted, barely even bothering to acknowledge Randidly.

With a bemused expression on his face, Randidly finally arrived at the door that he had been looking for. After knocking, he let himself into the room.

Randidly’s first impression of the room was of an angsty teenager's room due to the sense of clutter and dim lighting, but it wasn’t exactly accurate to call the place dirty. Maps covered the wall on his left, strange graphs on the right, with two large terminals sat directly opposite him. The reason that the room appeared ‘messy’ was that there were wooden spikes sticking out from every surface. The bristled out from the floor and wall, making space that was otherwise empty appear rather full.

Nathaz Eloise raised his scaled head. A serpent’s tongue flicked out, tasting the air. “So it’s true. You’ve finally arrived, Mr. Ghosthound. Ah… the joy of finally meeting the progenitor of so many rare phenomena within the System...Come in, let me have a look at you…”

While Randidly stepped forward, the obsidian serpent began to shift. Truly, Nathaz Eloise was entirely a serpent; his massive body stretched after his triangular head for about ten meters, although it was difficult to accurately gauge the size, wound and wrapped as it was around the dozens of wooden spikes sticking out from the walls. The snake shifted some of its bulk and freed up its body so it could raise its head to about Randidly’s height. As the two looked at each other in the eyes, Nathaz opened his mouth slightly.

Honestly… this guy is a bit… The shadow-y opening of the snake’s still mouth was somewhat off-putting.

Randidly was about to open his mouth and speak when the snake released a soft hiss. “Mr. Ghosthound… I am truly sorry for how things turned out. The mark that I had left on you so I could study some of the other System deviations around your person… has now been used by those who wish to do you harm. Please… you have my deepest apologies.”

Randidly tilted his head to the side. His physical and emotional senses examine the serpent in front of him. His heartbeat remained even. The expression on the snake’s face, as much as Randidly could understand it, was genuine. Still, it struck Randidly as strange that this topic came up so quickly after he had arrived, without him even bringing it up. “...as long as you understand. After I condensed my Fatepiece, I took some actions that drew quite a bit of negative attention my way. So at the time, your actions really weren’t even that important...”

It’s just since then that I’ve developed such a nose for trouble. Randidly thought, even as he tried to gauge the honesty of the snake in front of him. Then he started to wonder where everything had gone wrong.

Even if it was just the disappearance of Ileot Swacc, Randidly’s proximity to the event meant that he was no longer the nobody he had been before. Combined with the fact that Randidly and his images had a concrete effect on the outcome of the battle against the false Nether King…

“Even so. I abused my authority to satisfy my own curiosity and it has caused you grief.” Nathaz’s tongue snaked out again. “As such… I owe you. Ah… I might not look it, but I am actually quite sensitive to such obligations. It has been difficult for me to stop thinking about what I owe. So I have a gift prepared for our first meeting.”

That had Randidly’s attention. “A gift...?”

Nathaz nodded. “I can give you the location of your next Fatepiece. In addition… I have found its name: The Hierarchy of Burden.”