(TPOR) Chapter 123: Totally Casual (Patreon)

Ronda and Kid were sitting in a small room. Its walls were a dark grey color, as if the designer had been going for a gothic theme before whoever was in charge had chosen to stop them. Despite how massive the aircraft was, the room remained small. Its size was large enough to hold two bunk beds on either sides of it with enough space between them for two large men to stand side by side. This served as the rooms for every Olympian. It was designed so that sleeping was the only real use it would ever hold.

Kid sat on one of the lower beds. He leaned back casually so that he rested his back on the wall and hummed a tune that was nothing short of Mexican to himself. The sound touched the air lightly so that while everyone present heard it, it served as nothing more than a backdrop.

Ronda sat beside Kid but her posture bore more worry than anything else. She had her feet firmly planted on the ground and her elbows rested on her knees. Her fingers were interlocked in front of her and she wore a thoughtful expression.

In front of her, on the other bed, was part of the source of her worry.

“Why did you do that, Jake?” she asked.

It had taken time to get Jake in a quiet place just to ask this question. Now that she had him, she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do. Her uncertainty only ensured that this conversation was going to be more difficult.

“Is that really the question you want to ask?” Jake replied.

Jake was the only other Olympian that wore a juggernaut armor in their team. Unlike Daniel, he wasn’t a very large man without the suit. He was tall and wore more muscles than the average Olympian, but he was nothing especially unique. He stared at Ronda with brown eyes and a half-smirk. It was not that he found anything amusing, it was merely how his face always was. He always looked like someone about to do something questionable.

“Yes,” Ronda said. “It is. You sold the girl an edited map.”

Jake shrugged. “It was my map. You can’t tell me what not to do with my map.”

Ronda sighed. She ran a hand through her hair, pushing whatever stray strand fell in front of her face back.

“How much did you sell it for?” she asked. Beside her Kid continued to hum without a care in the world. Ronda envied his nonchalance.

“Five hundred,” Jake said easily. “Wasn’t expensive.”

“Five hundred,” Ronda mused. “Doesn’t sound like much for the map you gave her. Is that why you left out some labels; concealed the place you knew she wanted to go?”

“Nope. I did that for the sake of recruitment.”

“Recruitment?”

“Yup. She struck me as a good fit for our squad. I was hoping she would come asking for the remaining locations then I can strike a new deal with her. One that involved joining us.”

Ronda opened her mouth with a quick retort. The words died in her throat before they could be given life. She would’ve loved to claim it was control that had caused it but that would’ve been a lie. It was anger.

This was another problem she had with Jake. Despite being a soldier of the VHF, he had none of the virtues that came with being one. He had no discipline or remorse, no empathy or restraint. He was a poor fit for the team, yet Ven had paid no attention to her requests that Jake should be transferred to another team. She was also more than certain she wasn’t the only one that had made such requests.

Certain she had tempered her anger and was sure her next words were going to be one of calculated calm, she said, “You just want to fuck her, don’t you?”

Jake’s half-smirk split into a full grin. Ronda found it repulsive.

“What can I say,” Jake shrugged. “We don’t really have much in the way of women here. There’s you and Jennifer. That’s all.”

“And you’ve already had your fun with Jen. Why don’t you just continue with that?”

“It gets kinda boring. Besides, it’s not like we’re in a relationship or anything. It totally casual.”

Ronda nodded as if she was interested in what he was saying.

“Here’s the problem,” she said. “I didn’t come here to talk about your sex life.”

“I know. You came to ask about the girl with the map. What, you don’t like her?”

“It’s not about—”

“May I ask a question?” Kid interrupted.

“Of course, Cabuella,” Jake said. “This is, after all, your room.”

“Exactly,” Kid said. “And that’s where my question is. Why are you guys doing this in my room?”

“Aren’t the both of you like besties or something,” Jake said, gesturing between Kid and Ronda.

Ronda smacked her forehead with an open hand. Kid chuckled at the action.

“She’s more like an annoying older sister who doesn’t want me to find love,” Kid said. “Which means she’s big enough to deal with whatever this is without me in the background.”

“You have all the space,” Ronda said simply. “It’s not like you have a roommate we’re inconveniencing.”

“True,” Kid agreed. “But you’re both inconveniencing me, so that counts for something.”

Jake watched the both of them bicker for a moment. He kept his silence, unwilling to throw in with them. In fact, he had no reason to be here. Ronda was not his superior, neither was she a stronger mage than he was.

“Wait,” he muttered to himself. “Then why am I even here?”

“Kid, shush,” Ronda said, smacking Kid’s lap and turning back to Jake. “You’re here because you know you did wrong selling the girl the map.”

“Your obsession with this case is strange. You know that, right?”

“It’s less about what you did and more about how you need to stop doing it,” Ronda argued. “Ven’s no longer here and I fear if you continue like this it’s only a matter of time before you do something that might get us all court marshalled.”

“She does have a point, dude,” Kid said from where he remained lying down. “You keep doing whatever you want and you might end up getting in trouble. In case you don’t know, getting on Ash’s bad side is not a good idea right now.”

“And why’s that?” Jake asked. “And how did you even know it was me? I never gave her my real name.”

“C’mon, Jake,” Ronda scoffed. “Tate? Really? You gave her VHF tech which already told us she got it from one of us, and no one on the ship goes by Tate. It was easy to know it would be you since you wouldn’t want Ven to punish you.”

Jake looked down and away. “So much for that,” he muttered.

There was a touch of sadness in his voice. Whatever he was or did, he had spent enough time with Ven. He clearly felt the weight of their captain’s death.

It sufficed to lesson Ronda’s anger, but not extinguish it.

“You know we’re going to have to give her a new map, right?” she said. “And seeing as we’re now aware of it, the cost of the replacement is going to be coming out of your pocket.”

“Or we could just give her a lift to wherever it is she’s trying to go,” Kid said casually.

It sufficed to draw Ronda and Jake’s attention. Both of them stared at him surprised. He returned their looks with one of incredulity.

“There’s no way none of you thought of that,” he said, flabbergasted.

……………………………..

The silence in Heimdall’s home was heavy. It weighed down on him and Ivan like an unshakable mountain. Jason had answered their questions to the best of his ability and had since departed. Unfortunately, his answer had left them with a significant worry. It was one that had left them in silence for the past few minutes.

Ivan had his head buried in his hands while Heimdall stared at nothing. They had a problem, and it wasn’t theirs alone. It was eating away at the silence, drawing closer as if it did not like being ignored. Eventually, Ivan addressed it.

“This is a problem,” he said. The words were vague but Heimdall understood them well enough.

“Yes,” he agreed. “A big one.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to cope?”

Heimdall chuckled. The sound came out awkward. “We did good before. We should be able to do good after.”

Ivan sighed. “I really wish you could sound a bit more confident than that, you know.” He leaned back against the couch he sat on and raised his head to look up at the ceiling. “The guys we have can’t cast runes for shit.”

“The guys we had couldn’t cast any kind of rune and we did good before.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Ivan said. “We never had any monsters really coming for us. The few that did, we dealt with them ourselves.”

“It’s really nothing to worry about, Ivan,” Heimdall said. “We just have to train them better.”

“I take it that by ‘we’ you mean me.”

Heimdall gave Ivan a small smile. “What can I say? You’re good with making soldiers.”

“For some reason that sounds like something a tyrant would say.”

Ivan got up from the couch. He stretched, shaking the mild discomfort borne from sitting too long. Once upon a time he would’ve heard pops and maybe groans from the simple action. Now, there was nothing. A mages body suffered too little for such things. He watched Heimdall and found the man lost in thoughts.

Heimdall claimed they would be fine but Ivan had a feeling they would not be. It wasn’t that they would devolve into insecurity and madness. No. However, they would not be as good as they have been. And no one liked to backslide in life.

From everything they had heard from Jason, it was safe to assume that Festus wasn’t coming back. The mage would most likely choose to continue moulding the perfect rune mage than come back to them.

It was a sad truth, but one they had to accept. Ivan left the house more worried than when he’d arrived.

Outside, he ran a hand down his face in exasperation.

“This is bullshit.”