Chapter 2191: Minding the Matter |
--- Kat ---
Appoline had promised to work on a basic list of the poisons Kat should be worried about and get back to her. The general idea was to outline, how expensive they’d be, how long they last, and ultimately, which ones Greaves could have access to. Kat politely decided not to mention that there was no way that the character Appoline was meant to be playing would have any idea about such an extensive range of poisons available to someone outside of the tournament... but Thyme didn’t seem to be stepping in either so... free information.
After dinner, Kat had checked up on Lily, at least to the best of her ability. Lily was still blocking her out, but not in a very solid way. It was actually interesting to experience. It was sort of like Lily had put up a curtain with a ’please stay out’ sign on it. Sure it was ’just a curtain’ and so Kat could get through it easily without needing to force things, but she didn’t want to break Lily’s trust like that. Plus, she could somewhat feel Lily’s state through the curtain. Not her specific emotions or thoughts, but Kat could tell she was at least ’fine’.
So Kat tried to sleep. After everything with Greaves, as well as the long hours of carefully making use of her demonic energy Kat decided it was probably worth it. She was... somewhat successful. Kat managed to nod off for a little bit... but truthfully it was more of a nap then anything else. She was awake inside of an hour and then spent another hour trying to go back to sleep before settling into meditation instead. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was much easier to settle into.
It was an unknown amount of time later Kat felt a slight disturbance. It wasn’t something that seemed to be worrying her, which was a worry in and of itself until she realised that it was sort of like knocking from Lily’s side of the link. Kat took a moment to wake up and check their connection where she could now physically feel Lily’s attention. *Good morning.* Kat didn’t know it was morning of course, but it seemed the right thing to say.
*Another cute moment I missed out on.*
[Yeah... but it was less embarrassing. Maybe we can set one up with Kamiko and Sue next time we spend time together. It was surprisingly fun.]
*I’d be down for that. It really does sound like a good time. I feel like they’d also both enjoy it... if for different reasons.*
[Hmmm... I wonder if Sue is still trying to go light on the lewds. We could do a bunch of silly things that are almost sexual to bait her into teasing us!]
[Ok yeah I would... but it’s still a fun idea in concept.] Kat nodded along, waiting for Lily to continue, perhaps move onto the topic she’d been avoiding for a while now... but there was just mental silence. Kat made her mental gaze a bit stronger. *So... want to talk about your last little adventure now?*
[So... I might have gone to explore a few bits of the facility that we never got to.]
*Was it interesting at least?*
[You’re not mad?]
*Lily, you’re my girlfriend not my child. While I never want you to get hurt, and I DO need to hold myself back from defending you all of the time... I’m not going to get annoyed at you for doing a bit of exploring in an area that shouldn’t be that dangerous to someone at Rank 2.*
[Ah... well... it might be a touch worse then just that...] Kat let off a mental sigh. [See... um... it may or may not have been a dark, rundown area with a bunch of holes all over the place and weird noises that I still can’t identify.]
*Wait STILL?*
[Err... so I know a light spell, sort of. It captures the light in an area and puts it into a paper lantern I can then keep working with additional mana... but I can’t really cast it well. So I had a tiny, flickering light to fight back the shadows and I never actually saw what was making the noise.]
Kat snickered. [Are you laughing at me!]
*Yes.*
[Kat this is serious.]
*It is also, quite amusing.*
[Why aren’t you annoyed! I was so worried you’d be yelling at me for being an idiot... and you think it’s funny?!]
*Look... I do agree that if I knew in the moment, or had to let you go off to investigate that sort of thing by yourself I’d probably be worrying... but the event is over now and you’re fine. I can tell that much. You never got hurt... so... yeah I kinda of do find it funny.*
[Meany.]