Feeling extremely exhausted, Derek pulled up the worn cotton covers and tucked Tim into bed. His son squirmed uncomfortably to loosen the wrapping of blankets. “Dad, I’m not tired. My Vitality is so high I don’t even need to sleep anymore-”

“Well I need to sleep, buddy,” Derek said with a small smile. He believed he could hide it well enough that his son hadn’t noticed, but he was currently nursing a pounding headache from completely exhausting his Mana pool several times during the fight at the stadium. In the aftermath, he was all too happy to be sent home after being interviewed by a representative of the Zone 1 military.

But Tim would hear none of it, not after watching the teenage girl he had a crush on have her stomach blown to pieces in a spray of gore. It was all Derek could do to endure while Tim had insisted following the Priestess of Arbor girl to the hospital and staying there until sundown.

Only after darkness had fallen had Derek been able to gently pull Tim away and take the hour train ride home. And at this point, all he wanted was to sweet oblivion of sleep to wash away all his stress and pain.

For whatever reason, it reminded Derek of the day where he realized Tim’s mother had died. He was so numb that he couldn’t even tremble of shiver. The muscles of his body slowly slid toward apathy even while he was walking around.

Unfortunately, that apathy didn’t affect his mind in the least. Which left him with several haunting thoughts that made Derek expect that even after he lied down to rest, sleep would be a long time coming. Abruptly, he was forced to face the fact that his son wasn’t safe here; Derek could no longer protect him on his own. Both in the wider world and in his schools. And because of that, Derek felt…

Useless.

As Derek was closing the door to his son’s room, Tim spoke up again from underneath his blankets. “Dad… how strong is Randidly Ghosthound?”

Derek’s head pounded. The question was almost too much to bear. Derek had never thought he was a jealous man, but to hear the yearning in Tim’s voice as he asked that question… “Strong, son. Really strong. The strongest in the world.”

“Stronger than you?”

In the dark, Derek winced. “Yea, stronger than me.”

“Then why didn’t he save those people? Why did he let Kiersty get hurt?”

In fact, that was a question that Derek had wondered himself. From what he understood, Randidly Ghosthound had created Arbor, which was the creature from which Kiersty derived her Class and power. Yet after the Ghosthound had stopped Straud… he had simply left. “Even if you are the most powerful person in the world… you can’t do everything.”

“But couldn’t he have done this?” Tim’s voice was somewhat resentful. “Shouldn’t they be friends?”

Wanting to collapse on the spot, Derek could only shake his head. His body creaked like a house scheduled for demolition. “It’s… it’s kinda like the reason I send you to school, buddy, even if I already know the stuff you are learning. It’s not enough for just one of us to do it… you should learn too.”

“But she almost died,” Tim whispered.

So many people die every day. So many that we don’t know about. If something had gone wrong, if Randidly Ghosthound had taken only a little more time too… we would have died just like that. Every bright light of your eyes snuffed out immediately. And I-

Useless-

“It isn’t easy being the strongest, Tim.” Derek sighed and rubbed his jaw as he tried to calm his whirling thoughts. He definitely needed to shave, but there was no way in hell he was getting up early enough before work tomorrow to do it. He would need every second of sleep he could grasp. “Having power… changes you. Makes you colder. Never forget that everything has a cost, nothing in life comes freely. Even power. Especially power.”

With those words, Derek left Tim’s room and stomped slowly through the house to return to his own. Every step was a struggle against the inevitable collapse of his muscles. His brain spasmed painfully with each jarring step. But just as Derek crossed through the hallway and put his hand on his doorknob, there was a soft knock against the front door of the Moss household.

Derek grimaced. Because of the higher Perception that everyone possessed, a single knock was usually enough to capture the attention of the people within the house. But this person ended up knocking three times.

If this is another fucking reporter… With a dark expression, Derek turned his slow gait toward the front of his house. But his glower quickly vanished as he pulled open the door and found a lovely young woman with her dark brown hair cut to frame her face. Her expression was determined and forceful. She hit him in the face like a figurative bucket of water.

God,you are pretty, Derek thought in a daze.

“Does Tim Moss live here?” The woman asked. Her voice was low and her expression didn’t waver as she calmly returned Derek’s gaze as his expression shifted from furious to confused to guarded. It was clear that she was on a mission.

“...who are you?” Derek asked warily. Despite the woman’s serious expression, Derek was somewhat alarmed by the fact that she was looking for his son. If anything, his antagonism returned more strongly than the sleep fury of a semi-roused bear with which he opened the door..

Somehow, the woman seemed reassured by Derek’s expression. And then she did something that completely caught Derek by surprise. She bowed to him at the waist, her dark hair swinging quickly forward to cover her face. “I am… I am so sorry. Your son shouldn’t have to endure all of this.”

“What…? Please…” Derek trailed off, somewhat unsure of what he wanted to ask her to do. Stand up straight? His heart was pounding strangely.

Luckily, she quickly straightened. Her hair settled perfectly around her face once more. “I’m Gertrude Collins. I am… I used to be one of your son’s teachers. And because I let the principal intimidate me, your son-”

“Oh! Miss Collins.” In a split second, the situation with Lucy Rowel came flooding back to Derek’s mind. Although the principal had named two teachers that had spoken up for Lucy, there had been one teacher who had apparently seen everything and but been suppressed from speaking in Tim’s defense. This must be her. Yet still, Derek was confused by the situation. And he suddenly felt very bad about his sudden attraction to the younger woman. “But what are you doing here at this time of night…?”

“I’ve decided to leave Zone 1; I want to become accepted into Kharon. It seems like that is the only place that is willing to teach children what is necessary to live in our world… and as a teacher, nothing is more important than me than preparing our children for the world we live in.” Despite the low light of Derek’s porch, he abruptly realized how blue Gertrude Collins’ eyes were. “But before I left, I wanted to tell you about your son. I wanted to come here and stand up for him, because I didn’t in the past.

“Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered five years ago, but Tim the most magical green thumb that I’ve ever seen in anyone. Over the course of the two years that I arranged for him to be on garden duty, the school’s produce output has been transformed. Our vegetables were always large and tasty, but your son has the ability to guide their growth in a way that even the System has difficulty explaining. Our peppers are tart and fresh. The tomatoes are juicy and rich. The carrots are slowly developing red stripes and they are the best thing I’ve ever had.

“He is really talented. Truly blessed. I expect he has a rare Skill related to plant cultivation that he is too shy to share with a teacher. And… and I’m the reason that he began to be bullied.” Gertrude’s mouth twitched. “I… I was the first person to notice Tim’s talent and gave him some free time after lunch to work in the garden. Lucy started to complain that she wanted to have free time as well, but I told her that free time was something she needed to earn. She threw a tantrum, but I’m used to that sort of behavior. But I didn’t realize that she was cruel enough to start bullying Tim in revenge.”

“That’s…” Derek blinked. It had already been such a long day, so he was feeling a little lightheaded as Gertrude Collins began explaining the circumstances of his son. Tim liked to garden…? “I can’t believe… you know, Tim’s mother, before she passed, loved to garden. And Tim asked to plant some flowers for her, but I never thought-”

Gertrude’s eyebrow quirked upward. She took a step backward onto the porch and gestured sideways to the neat line of flowers on the front lawn. “Did you think that flowers like this were normal?”

“Well…” Derek hesitated then stepped out onto the porch next to Gertrude Collins. The air was extremely cool on his skin. Now that he looked forward, he supposed the fact that the roses grew to a height of a meter and bloomed with buds the size of softballs was a little strange. “...the System affected the growth of a lot of plants.”

Gertrude laughed and Derek’s lips quirked upward naturally. It seemed his earlier exhaustion disappeared as he said in a low voice, “Hell, who cares? My son the genius gardener huh. And thank you so much for coming to tell me. If you hadn’t… I…”

But suddenly, Gertrude’s expression turned bitter. “It’s the least I could do, considering I caused this…”

Derek reached out and touched Gertrude’s arm. Her skin was very warm. “No, this isn’t your fault. You were just trying to give Tim the opportunity to grow-”

“I failed as a teacher.” For a second, Gertrude’s blue eyes were clouded. But then she rolled her shoulders and her eyes cleared. “So before I left, I needed to rectify it. Your son is so talented; don’t let a corrupt school ruin that. Don’t let them waste his time like they’ve made me waste mine.”

“Thank you, again.” Derek’s expression softened as he felt Gertrude’s words hit the complex emotions that had been clouding his mind and leave a deep crack in them. Without thinking about the movement, he stepped forward and hugged Gertrude Collins, one arm around her shoulders and the other around her waist. She stood up on her tiptoes and squeezed rather firmly back, both people pulled together by their care for Tim.

After the hug had stretched for a few seconds, Derek abruptly thought that perhaps he should have chosen a more… chaste hug. Miss Collin’s body was pressed very tightly against him. And it seemed that she had a similar thought at the same time because the two hastily disentangled themselves from each other.

Gertrude Collins wouldn’t look at Derek at all, just staring at the ground with a flushed face. Her dark hair once more swung downward and screened her eyes. “I… well I guess I’ve… said what I wanted to, so… It’s been… so nice talking with you… so…”

“Yea, we… should do it again…” Derek managed to force out, slightly shocked by what his mouth was saying. And Gertrude Collins responded by nodding.

*****

After Tatiana had left, Randidly continued looking up at the sky for a long time. Then he flexed his fingers and began writing a letter to Vualla.

Hey, Vualla. It’s been only a week since we’ve spoken, but I miss your presence next to me. I can still feel you, obviously, but… It’s different when you aren’t here.

I let a lot of people die so that the people of my planet would realize the flaws in the way they have been trying to cope with the System. Fourteen thousand people. It was the largest single loss of life that occurred since my world first became a part of the Nexus. I could have prevented it.

I can’t stop thinking about that. I could have prevented it.

The worst part is… I can feel my Nether changing because of it. Growing more powerful. Because I am putting so much emphasis on this decision… the Nether is responding. I am being rewarded even further for letting people die.

Good luck with your Xyrt Brigade training. If it’s you, I have no doubt that you will crush everything in your Path.

Randidly Ghosthound.

Then Randidly released a long breath. But even if it made him slightly uncomfortable, the foes he planned on facing were too powerful to let such a benefit simply lay fallow. So Randidly turned his focus inward and began to examine his changing Nether core.