Chapter 1719 (2/2)

Neveah was one of the others to look amused and leave Claudette felt oddly flustered before her beautiful, glittering eyes. So Claudette tried to explain herself. “I… well, what do you expect? The planets were just disappearing… and he was growing unusually quickly. Such practices are relatively common in the Nexus! So I think my conclusion was a reasonable one.”

The graceful Neveah took another drink of her white wine and then shrugged. “Well… I cannot deny that it is very easy to… misread some of the actions that Randidly takes. Part of that is due to his stubborn refusal to follow common social norms or explain why he is doing what he is doing… but you would be pretty safe making the assumption that he has your best interests at heart. He is… a surprisingly pure individual.”

“Pure…” Claudette repeated softly. At the bottom of her numb pool of emotions, she carefully began to review her memories of Randidly Ghosthound. Certainly, every moment of their interactions, he seemed to have something else in his field of vision. Some distant goal that he didn’t bother to explain...

Finally, the young teenager Nathan paused in his ceaseless eating to give Claudette a surreptitious sort of glance that she was very familiar with receiving from young men. Then he cleared his throat. “The Ghosthound tries to do so much that he doesn’t have much spare attention. If he offers to do something casually… sometimes you have to ask a second time, to find out if he’s just going to forget about it or whether he will show up at midnight in a few weeks and tell you in a gravelly voice ‘we have to do it now’.”

At the far end of the table, Tykes snorted and raised his head. “Pure… maybe that’s right. But you know what his biggest weakness is though? Thank you’s. That man disappears faster than a Stamina potion between a group of people without Classes when the fighting ends. He’d rather find the next foe than pause and enjoy the victory.”

“He has an aversion to relaxation,” Neveah nodded. “Sometimes I think he does it purposefully, so I worry.”

Sydney leaned forward and jabbed with her fork in the air. “And let me tell you, he’s always had no chill. But before the System came, very few people noticed or cared about all the work he did when no one was watching. He was just… intense.”

A companionable silence fell around the table as each person considered their own individual memories of the Ghosthound. From the corner of her eyes, Claudette looked from Neveah, to Sydney, to Nathan, and finally to the muscular Tykes. For the last several weeks, she had been staying with Neveah, training by day and meeting the many visitors that flowed into Neveah’s small cabin by night. Usually, their stops were brief, but Claudette was gradually finding these dinner chats were her favorite part of the day.

Earlier tonight, before Tykes and Nathan had arrived, Claudette had verbalized her worry that they weren’t training enough and that the dinners were a distraction. She could feel herself improving, but she knew it wasn’t enough in front of the old monsters with which Don Beigon was making deals. Even with extreme time dilation, she would not improve enough to make much a difference before she and Randidly needed to start her image refinement.

Neveah had laughed at her. “You sound like Randidly. And if he was right that concentrating very hard was enough to grow strong… wouldn’t he be the strongest being in the Nexus by now? Listen to your body’s needs. Feed it with more than training.”

Claudette considered wryly pointing out that Randidly almost was one of the most powerful individuals in the Nexus, but held herself back. However, the temperance was for a selfish reason; she genuinely enjoyed the dinners.

She loved the playful banter. She loved how everyone who visited treated her like a person and didn’t react at all when she told them her name. She loved the simplicity of this world, where people still fought for survival against monsters.

Claudette leaned back in her chair to say something, but before she got out the words there was the sound of footsteps and a door open. The serious, dark-haired Drake walked through the threshold. Then he walked over and planted a kiss on the crown of Sydney’s head. He and Sydney lived in the cabin on the next hill over from Neveah and often came over for dinner. The woman reached up and touched Drake’s shoulder fondly. “Still nothing out there trying to murder us?”

Drake didn’t respond, just giving Sydney a frank look that said ‘quite a bit would love to murder you’. But his expression was kind. Then he pulled a letter out of his pocket and offered it to Neveah.

Neveah clapped her hands and laughed. “Excellent! It’s been a while since I’ve heard from my penpal. You are a lucky charm, Claudette.”

Claudette smiled politely, but then couldn’t help but inquire. “You… exchange handwritten letters with someone? Why not utilize the messaging function?”

Drake took a seat at the table and began to quietly eat his portion of the roast pork with cranberry sauce. Neveah clicked her tongue and shook her head at Claudette. “You don’t have much of a sense of romance, do you? There’s just something… wistful and fulfilling about a solid medium of communication. And then if I stop hearing from him… haven’t you ever wanted some memento of previous crushes?”

“I…” At the depths of her pool, the observer quickly sank to the bottom. “I’ve never actually… had any romantic involvements. So…”

“What!” Neveah slapped the table.

Sydney leaned forward, suddenly staring at Claudette with obvious interest. “Truly? You are gorgeous. Are there different beauty standards in the Nexus? Well, we can definitely hook you up with a few eligible bachelors from Expira, if you are interested. How old are you?”

“Err…” Claudette’s eyebrows twitched. These two mean well… but they are also just as quick to pair me off as my father…

“Well, let’s probably head out for this conversation,” Nathan said, interrupting the interrogation. He released an exaggerated sigh. “Unfortunately, there is so much demand for new Classes right now. Only a little over a month before the Calamity arrives…”

“Wait…” Claudette tilted her head to the side, sure she had heard incorrectly. “What did you say?”

“The First Calamity is coming soon,” Claudette explained with a nod. For a brief moment, everyone at the table lost their air of gaiety and looked down at their food with varying amounts of worry.

Claudette’s mouth twitched. “Your planet… Randidly’s planet… hasn’t yet gone through the First Calamity…?”