Hello Again

Chp 119

Two days after I'd handled the deals and class resets, I was outside Andrea's room in the hallway. I had her permission, but it took me a few moments to go inside. I'd made it in a hurry when I separated the girls a few days earlier. It was probably fine, but I'd asked to look at it and make some adjustments.

Andrea had responded tepidly, as she did with anything not about training. Her one-track mind didn't have room in it for things like personal comfort. I was overthinking it a bit too, but she'd pricked my pride a bit when she'd said it was "ridiculous" in terms of size and amenities.

It was silly, but I didn't want my capabilities judged by something I'd slapped together in under a minute. I would show the young lady precisely what was ridiculous in my domain. I also needed to kill some time, and this was a thing to do that didn't require much focus.

I widened the room and bought exterior tiles along the face of the mountain outside. Then, shifting things around, I pushed the interior back and cut a gap. Into that, I placed a straight sheet of glass in a pitch-sealed channel for a vast window that ran the length of both chambers. I completed that with a glass door that now led outside to a terrace that overlooked the valley.

The wall and window were set back enough that they wouldn't catch the light and give away the room's location to anyone below. It would also provide shade and help keep the interior from turning into an easy bake oven. Inside the newly expanded bedroom, the closet became a walk-in, and the bathroom got a tub Andrea could lie in.

If what I'd made looked suspiciously like a modern apartment from my world, nobody would know enough to judge me but Mina. More important, though, was that Andrea wouldn't likely give a rat's ass about ninety percent of what I'd done.

That left me with a creative itch. I wanted Andrea to like her place and feel it suited her needs. Of course, real comfort would have to come later when she was more willing to talk to me or interested in changing aspects of it herself. Still, to get the ball rolling, I added an empty chamber next to it on the interior side and connected it to the entry hallway.

A personal training area wasn't something I'd promised Andrea, but I felt like she'd appreciate it. I played with the aesthetic for a bit, ensuring it was well-lit and other detail work before calling it quits.

A call I'd been expecting finally came in, and I steeled myself. Rather than take it in Andrea's room, I transferred to my palace of shadows. Henry was seated on the couch working on some embroidery, but he was easy to keep out of frame. We had plans to talk, but he'd insisted on waiting until everything with the girls was sorted out before we did.

"We've reached our decisions," Hetcha said flatly. The Lepusan woman had elected to be a fighter focused on hand-to-hand combat. Her powerful legs were brutal enough in close quarters that things like swords and daggers wouldn't help much. So her backup weapon was a bow.

I expanded the frame of the video call and took in the farm's dining room which was cast in deep shadows as the girls sat around the table. They all looked reflective, which made me curious but didn't increase my anxiety. We'd made our deals, and while I had preferences about what they did next, I accepted that the decision was theirs.

"I've decided to explore the desert regions… basically anywhere in the opposite direction of Stromholt. I never want to see that fucking wretched hive of scum and villainy again," Mina pouted. She was probably trying to seem menacing, but it was like a hamster making a mean face. Sure, it could bite, but it still looked cute.

"Ha, fun use of the quote," I said appreciatively.

"What quote?" Mina asked.

"You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than this? Star wars..." I paused, wondering if Mina was messing with me. When I decided she wasn't, I suddenly felt that she was more fundamentally alien to me than the monsters I lived with. We were franchise crossed—born of worlds alike in technology. Hers gifted with full-dive VR. Mine, admittedly a bit behind, with the benefit of the awesomeness of laser swords.

"Okay... you'll explore the desert," I acknowledged. Part of me ached a little, but I got over it quickly. It was probably weird that we had much of anything in common in the first place.

Beyond my deeply inconsequential disappointment, Mina's choice of direction benefited me. I had no map data in that direction. I hadn't intended to suggest anyone go that way despite that. Desert travel was hard, but it worked for me since she wanted to explore it for her own reasons.

"I take it you two are going right back into the jaws of the beast," I said to Mira and Hetcha.

"We don't have much choice if we're going to free my people," Hetcha said flatly.

"Though there's still the issue of the collars, we can't ask someone to die every time we need to take one off," Mira added.

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused about who exactly had died and when. Unless I'd miscounted, all persons who'd entered the valley were accounted for. Unless they weren't talking about Hetcha's collar, then all bets were off.

"I'm not sure how your minion did it, though. Everyone else who tried perished before they could open it," Mira explained. She misunderstood the depth of my confusion going by that answer. Still, the missing bit slid into place after a moment.

"Oh, well, the person was already dead when they took it off Hetcha. One of my skeletons, Chris, did it," I explained. I didn't bother mentioning they'd seen him skinny dipping in the lake since then.

"Oh! That makes sense!" Mina said brightly. The other girls looked at her with something like resigned acceptance laced with envy at her ability to still be cheerful.

"But it doesn't solve the problem since they can't leave the dungeon," Hetcha said, though she glanced a bit mistrustful at me. As if worried some unspoken rule wouldn't apply to me, or I'd figure out a way to break it. I would have been flattered if I wasn't profoundly aware that I wasn't up to any such task. I'd caught a few breaks, but they weren't really exploits. They were, to my knowledge, existing features of the system.

"That's technically correct unless you want to make another deal. I gave Elim a monster as a guardian. It might be possible to assign a skeleton to work with you two," I offered.

"That… I think it might draw unwanted attention," Mira said, looking as if she thought I'd lost my mind.

"Oh, you'd be surprised. What did you think of Dawn, Grisa, and Roksolana?" I asked, feeling a little mischievous.

"I thought they were really nice!" Mina offered. This got her another round of looks. I quickly texted Dawn.

"What do they have to do with skeletons?" Andrea asked.

"Well…" I trailed off for dramatic effect. I teleported Dawn in and shifted my position so she entered the video call's frame.

"You've met Dawn already, but I think you haven't really gotten to know her yet," I said, unable to stop a grin. Dawn obligingly bowed, then deactivated her illusion of life as she rose up. A chorus of shrieks rang out as she stood before them as little more than bones with golden glowing jewels for eyes.