Chapter 1287 (Patreon)

 ToC: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23899958 

Sydney looked methodically down at the collapsed city blocks to the wreckage of the stadium at the end of the chaotic destruction. Smoke was still drifting up from the sundered grounds in some places. Streets folded in on themselves, buildings were leveled, stone and steel scorched and melted. 

The remnants of the Nemesai’s escape held her attention for a long time. She pressed her lips together. Ice and electricity ran up and down her arms but could find no outlet for their potent power. She had been too late to participate in the football game and had been blocked out by the barrier like everyone else on that fateful day. The memory of her sense of powerlessness still filled Sydney with irritation.

Still, she had believed that the barrier couldn’t be invulnerable. Nothing truly was.

So she had set up a formation that would allow her to mix her two elements freely and unleash her most powerful attack. The process took time, but the final result would have been a burst of power which was infused with the image she had been developing. She was only a few moments away from launching the attack when she looked up… and that was exactly the moment when Randidly Ghosthound arrived and had destroyed the barrier.

Of course, she quickly stopped her formation, but the process had left her exhausted. She had moved to assist in the battle against the Nemesai, but the action had proceeded too quickly for her to catch up in her winded state. And it just so happened that the Nemesai had broken out the exact opposite side of the stadium where Sydney had been preparing.

Plus, the soldiers of Zone 1 who were kept out by the barrier had largely clogged up the streets and obscured her Perception. By the time she had noticed the Nemesai leaving the stadium, it was too late. The city was collapsing and the Nemesai had fled.

Sydney was now standing on top of a partially destroyed building at the edge of the devastation. It had already been for days since the attack, and only now was the cleanup beginning in earnest. As she considered the familiar sights, footsteps in the stairwell echoed up to the top floor where she was standing. But Sydney didn’t move. She simply looked out at the wreckage.

Always coming up just a little short…

A security guard pushed open the door to the roof and sighed when he saw Sydney. “Ma’am, I don’t know how many times I have already told you this, but this area is off-limits. I promise that next time, I will have no choice but to arrest you for trespassing.”

Sydney glanced at the man and he shrugged helplessly at her cold expression. “This is for your own good; what if you came up here and hurt yourself?”

Some part of Sydney wanted to demonstrate to this infuriating man that there was actually very little chance of her injuring herself due to her high Stats, but another part knew that it wasn’t worth it. Instead, she offered him a chilly smile. “Don’t worry, this is the last time you will see me.”

And with that, Sydney utilized her Thunder Steps Skill and crossed the sky in a blur. She left a sizzling spot of concrete and a jumping security guard in her wake. Her expression was tense and twisted.

Even if I miss this them this time, I won’t give up. I’ll find out who is responsible for Drake’s pain… and make them pay.

*****

“Madam President!” “Madam President, here please!” “President Greyman!”

The press of reporters jostled against each other as they raised their hands to be selected to ask the first question of the press conference. Theodora Greyman tried to keep her expression sufficiently mournful while also keeping her mourning from seeming too emotional. She pointed to a reporter and the woman straightened her jacket before speaking.

“Madam President, considering the final death toll released by investigators… do you truly believe that your administration did everything in its power to ensure the safety of the people who attended the game?”

Mostly, this press conference was an exercise is what you could not say. In a way, it was a game that the reporters were complicit in: how could you best demonstrate you heard the reporter’s question while not addressing the dangerous topics that the reporter wanted to drag out of you.

You cannot say that you had tried your best, because that means that the Greyman Administration was insufficient to run Zone 1 in the face of such threats. You cannot say that you didn’t try your best because that means that the Greyman Administration had, through laziness or ineptitude, allowed this tragedy to happen.

You could not call it a tragedy, because then people would point out that she, as President, was at fault. You could not refuse to speak about what happened at the stadium. Because it was the greatest loss of life in the history of Earth after the System.

Theodora Greyman was also very aware that she could not blame the obvious scapegoat, the Order Valorem; her administration and the Order Valorem had no choice but to rely on each other right now. As long as both were able to take a share of the blame, neither would be destroyed by shouldering the entirety of this incident. And working with each other was the best chance to try and build their reputations back up to acceptable levels.

President Greyman shook her head sadly. “This was a battle of information that we needed to approach differently; we had no idea that the Nemesai and their allies would be able to create such a barrier that could keep our thousand strong rapid response squads outside of the stadium. In addition, we had no idea the extent of the teleportation ability the Winged Serpent possessed.”

Then she clenched a fist dramatically. For just a moment, she allowed her very real fury to show through. “But I promise you this. We won’t be taken by surprise again.”

“But Madam President-”

“President Greyman!” “If you please, Madam President-” “Excuse me, President Greyman!”

Before the reporter could ask an incisive follow-up question, her voice was drowned by those around her. President Greyman surveyed the scene and pointed to a man that her administration had something of an understanding with. 

And as she expected, when he stood he smiled and offered a rather easy question. “So what are you doing to prevent such a thing from happening again?”

“The preparations have begun immediately; all state-affiliated facilities will be outfitted with specially designed combat drones stored on the premises so that such a barrier can’t cripple us like it did in the past. Rest assured, we have our best scientists designing AI drones that can learn and grow while fighting, halting aggressors before they even recognize the threat. Without the threat of the barrier-”

“Why don’t you just learn to shatter a barrier, like the Ghosthound can?”

The entire room froze. Theodora Greyman felt something… strange in the air. This was a question that shouldn’t be asked, not so bluntly. Something was suddenly wrong with the press conference.

A young woman standing in the back smiled almost shyly up at Theodora Greyman. Her eyes were a light grey and her shoulder-length hair was black. Although she had a press badge on her chest, Theodora Greyman didn’t recognize the name: Hydie Mordath. Rather than a reporter, her frilly black dress was more suited for a witch.

“You…” President Greyman began confidently to speak. She knew how to answer this. She had practiced how to deal with questions about Randidly Ghosthound before calling this press conference. Her mind quickly ran through several excuses for why they couldn’t do what Randidly could do. Yet as she looked at the young woman’s grey eyes…

Her mouth wouldn’t move as she wished. Her tongue flopped helplessly against her teeth.

“If you can’t do so,” Hydie Mordath said softly. She began to spin her pen across her fingers. “Do you really think you should remain in charge of a Zone? If you can’t-”

The woman abruptly stopped speaking as she lost control of her pen and flung it sideways into an older man’s face. He flinched and Hydie froze. Her face flushed red with embarrassment. Which finally broke the weird tongue-tied stasis in which President Greyman found herself. She gave her guards a pointed look and they quickly strode forward and took Hydie Mordath by the elbow to lead her out.

To regain some credibility, President Greyman smiled out at the crowd. “If Randidly Ghosthound would respond to any sort of the reams of correspondence that I have sent him… I would be glad to talk about the method he used to break the barrier. We all would love to learn. But, unfortunately, whatever he is doing with ogres in the North is too important for him to comment on what happened that day. Are there any other questions?”

Once Hydie Mordath was escorted out of the press conference, the whole event proceeded much more smoothly. Although Theodora left feeling dissatisfied with how things turned out, it was rare for her to feel otherwise after speaking to the press. But she did feel she had redeemed herself after that brief moment where she had completely dropped the ball to that strange girl’s question.

Hydie Mordath… could she have been sent by someone to make me look bad…? Theodora chewed on the inside of her cheek as she strode down the long hallways of the capitol building toward her office. Or worse… a spy sent directly by Randidly Ghosthound. I hadn’t thought that he cared enough to interfere… but perhaps-

When Theodora opened the door to her office, she found her aide Douglas looking with a great deal of concern at an object sitting on her desk. He turned around when he heard her entrance and then bowed. “I’ve checked the security cameras; it seems like… a vine carried it in through the ventilation system.”

“...what…?” Suddenly feeling very cold, Theodora Greyman walked slowly around to look down on her desk. Laying there, very conspicuous against the warm finish of her very expensive desk, there was a black envelope.

Theodora looked at Douglas, then back down at the envelope, then up at Douglas again. She raised her brows. “You… do you really expect me to open that myself?”

Douglas hesitated. “President Greyman, after the attack on the stadium, if another death would happen on your watch… it might create enough of a stir for you to be impeached! So I thought it best not to bring an intern or even a guard in here to open it. But I did have one of our most perceptive people scan the envelope and there doesn’t seem to be any danger-”

“You…” Theodora began, but then she mastered herself and waved him silent. She had wanted to call him an idiot because if she opened that envelop and was dosed with some sort of poison, there would be no administration at all. Everything she had built would collapse to a pile of cards with which she had started.

With a sour expression on her face, Theodora sat down at her desk and considered the envelope. None of her danger detection Skills warned her of anything either. Where did it all go wrong…? I was Chairperson of the World Council, the most powerful woman in the world. So why… why can I now not even find someone to open my mail?!?

By the time she actually mustered up the nerve to reach for the black envelope, her hands were shaking with rage. So she took a breath to steady herself and then picked it up. Her eyebrows rose; the thing was actually quite heavy.

With a smooth gesture, she ripped open the top and a piece of metal about the size of a postcard slid out and thumped onto her desk. The surface was glossy and a grey/blue color. When she leaned closer, Theodora was able to read the elegant writing that had been imprinted onto the piece of metal.

Salutations,

You are cordially invited to the birthday celebration of Randidly Ghosthound, on the 28th of April, held in the Grand Amphitheater of Kharon. Please come hungry, as refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

This invitation entitles the holder to bring along five guests. Festivities will begin at 6 P.M.

Sincerely,

The Randidly Ghosthound Birthday Party Planning Committee