Page 1748 (Patreon)

She seemed to grow impatient with him. “Do you want something or not?”

“Ah--er, sure. W-whatever’s fine. I don’t care. I mean, eh, I could eat just about anything...”

“...Okay.” And she left.

His brown eyes lingered on the empty doorway.

Hmm.

‘She seems... nice,’ said Voreese.

Hector just spared the reaper a look and elected not to comment on that. Instead, he returned to his work, trying to free Roman. He supposed he didn’t have to be gentle. He could just destroy the brain, and the end result would be the same. It might be faster, too.

Though, it would probably also get brain matter all over the table. And possibly the rest of the room, depending on how violent he tried to get with it.

He decided to try to avoid that type of mess. He didn’t think it would be good to spill cerebral juices or whatever in the same place where he wanted to go to sleep.

It was slow going but still not quite as slow as it had been before, and within a few minutes, he managed to free enough of Roman’s neck-stump for Voreese to begin the regeneration.

He worked on trying to free the man’s face and cranium while Roman’s torso began to form.

Voreese seemed to grow anxious while she waited. ‘So how do you like it here, by the way? Warrenhold’s pretty great, right? I bet you’re glad you listened to me now, eh?’

“Yeah, I am,” he said with small laugh.

‘Heh.’

An iron spike cracked off another black chunk, revealing Roman’s mouth. Well, at least he’d be able to breathe now.

‘Hector, listen, um...’

He spared another glance as he worked. “What?”

‘I know I kinda said this, already... or at least implied it, I’m pretty sure, but, uh... it’s just, ah, I really do mean it, you know?’

Hector didn’t follow. “Mean what?”

‘Oh, c’mon, you know what I’m saying, don’t you?’

He just cocked an eyebrow at her.

‘Wow, are you really gonna make me repeat myself? It’s not very gentlemanly to embarrass a lady like this, you know.’

Now he was just confused. “...Voreese, what the hell are you talking about?”

‘Ugh! I’m saying I’m grateful, okay! There! Ya happy, ya little punk?!’

“Oh...” That was all she was trying to say? Aw, shit. He could feel himself starting to blush. “Uh... it’s, ah... I mean, you guys’ve helped me a bunch, too, so it’s not really, like, I, er--”

‘Hector, what the fuck? Quit that. I can’t deal with it. You’re gonna give me diabetes.’

“Ah--what?”

‘Just shut up and listen, okay? What you did--going back for Roman like that... when, frankly, you probably shouldn’t have... It’s just. Look, that’s a really big deal, okay?’

He didn’t know what to say. Roman’s torso was almost done, so he started giving the man some armor.