-------------- Flora's POV ------------
In the luxurious penthouse bedroom, the situation had become a bit peculiar.
Until a few hours ago, the atmosphere was subtle, even a bit somber. It had stayed that way for two days, ever since we were involved in a near-fatal situation.
But now, in this room smelling of chicken broth and herbs...
[This is not a sandwich. The Rat Kid wants a refund.]
[I already told you there isn't a damn sandwich for you. Now eat the soup.]
All the tension and worry had been replaced by an absurd fight.
[THE RAT KID WANTS A SANDWICH.]
[[[[EAT IT!]]]]
Looking at the brat—wrapped in what appears to be a nest of living plants on the king-size bed—and the poor girls who obviously have bad taste in men, I can't help but sigh inwardly.
[If only he were mute…] I mutter with some resignation, causing Yumi to let out a bitter laugh beside me.
Honestly, how do you even raise something like that?
He is the living example of "what he builds with his hands, he destroys with his mouth."
It shouldn't even be possible for someone to be so magnetic and obnoxious at the same time. He is a walking oxymoron.
It's definitely self-sabotage. That must be it.
And to make matters worse, my precious daughter, my angel, asked me to "watch over him."
I don't even want to start imagining it.
Aren't girls supposed to look for boyfriends who resemble their fathers?
Daughter, your late father is weeping from heaven.
[Gahaha, looks like things are going well here.]
Wiston enters the room with his usual momentum, breaking my internal lamentations.
[Shut up, Gramps.]
Carla curses him without looking, continuing to argue with Astrad along with the others, forcing him to take the soup.
[My granddaughter doesn't love me anymore, adolescence is so cruel~~~] he says with feigned drama, but his eyes look at the group with genuine warmth, almost fatherly.
I can only sigh, half-resigned, but also relieved.
After all, we can see life returning to their faces in real-time.
[By the way, is there more and more overgrowth?] I nod at Wiston's question.
As he says, Astrad's bed is no longer a piece of furniture. It is an ecosystem. Strange, pulsating green weeds have not only devoured the mattress but are climbing up the headboard wall. The tendrils have woven themselves into the Egyptian silk sheets, glowing with a faint emerald and reddish pulse. They writhe slowly over Astrad, not oppressively, but as if they were incubating him.
It all started the morning after the siege. The goblins not only changed shape but started using strange abilities to heal him. Although we were suspicious at first, we ended up letting them do it at the insistence of Carla and the others.
Luckily, it was a great call, but it doesn't change the fact that there are only questions surrounding him.
[Was it that hard?] asked Ana, wiping sweat from her forehead, exhausted, just like her friends. After forcing Astrad to eat while being careful not to hurt him. They only managed to get him to eat half.
[The Rat Kid believes the Rat Kid is being treated unfairly.]
Of course, the brat complains.
[Nice, this is good material for Louise] said Margareth satisfied, turning off her phone camera.
[Bitch, cut that out.]
[Bleee.]
[Can you send that to me?] I ask, since I promised my daughter updates too.
[AND WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT THAT FOR?]
[Sure~~~.]
[Thanks] turns out she is a good girl, right?
[DO NOT IGNORE THE RAT KID.]
The kid keeps throwing a tantrum, and somehow, that melts away all the tension in my shoulders.
[By the way, Rat Leader, we might be in trouble] said Margareth, cutting the moment short.
[You think? No way] the kid doesn't miss the opportunity to be sarcastic.
But Margareth doesn't back down; she rolls her eyes as if annoyed.
[I'm serious. Look] she said, and pulled a black tablet from her jacket. When I saw it, I felt the temperature in the room drop several degrees. It was the same unnatural cold, the same feeling of emptiness I had felt in the warehouse right before Anibal became... something else.
[The symbol of Andras? Are you a cultist now?] Astrad asks, narrowing his eyes.
[It was hidden in a secret wall inside the weapons vault.]
[Hm?]
[Also… I think we were attacked by number 066.]
Although no one understands what they are talking about, Astrad's expression changed in real-time. It was enough to tense the atmosphere.
[Rat Leader, we were attacked by Andras] concluded Margareth as she passed the tablet to Astrad again. From what I could see, it was our fight in the warehouse.
Yumi and I turned to look at Wiston for an explanation.
Even without knowing what an Andras is, what was a strange tablet doing in the weapons vault?
Unfortunately, Wiston seems to know as much as we do.
[I also found a hard drive, but it's encrypted. I need certain equipment and time to access it.]
Margareth continued, glancing at us sideways as if fearing we would object, but Wiston shook his head.
We couldn't agree with him more. In the first place, if not for the intervention of these kids, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.
Government secret or whatever. I quit; I just want to see my little girl.
While I'm thinking this, Astrad's gaze wanders between the video and the tablet, his expression becoming increasingly unpleasant.
[Did I lose four monkeys?] he finally said, possibly referring to our fellow police officers.
As he says, two of our comrades died protecting the warehouse and another two died protecting the generator.
One of them even sacrificed himself in a last impulse; although he couldn't prevent the generator from being damaged, he stopped Anibal's bodyguards from destroying the emergency batteries too.
[And all to look after those parasites] Astrad continued as he looked up. He didn't look at all of us, only at Wiston. In his eyes, a sharp reproach.
Due to the sudden declaration, the air seemed to freeze for a second.
But to everyone's surprise, the always explosive police chief…
[I have no excuses] he said, bowing his head.
[Chief.]
[Grandpa.]
Yumi and Carla quickly tried to say something but were silenced by Wiston's hand.
[Regardless of the circumstances, every action was taken under my jurisdiction. At every step, the possibility to do something was in my hands. And until the end, the weight of the consequences is mine. As a leader, the blood of my men is on my hands, and the risk I exposed them to is entirely my failure.]
[[[[…]]]]
The silence became heavy. There is no background music, no heroic justifications. Just an old cop accepting that his orders cost lives.
[I won't make excuses] he concluded, his voice admitting no reply.
I can only grit my teeth.
I know, Yumi knows. We all know.
We didn't do anything wrong; we just continued fulfilling our role. Our duty.
But in a world where everything is going to hell, doing your duty without thinking isn't exactly the most optimal idea.
Following unreasonable orders from guys who clearly don't know what they're doing, just because they have a title… is not exactly the best survival strategy.
But we took too long to react and, as a result, we lost too much…
Finally, Astrad shrugged with a tired sigh.
Then, with disdain, he threw the tablet out the open penthouse window. The tablet made a perfect parabola through the window, falling more than 20 floors.
[I'm leaving for my house tomorrow. What will you do, Gramps?] he finally asked, his petulant smile back in place.
[… I thought my cute grandson would have a place for me~~~] Wiston was surprised for a second, but quickly played along. His shoulders shook slightly, as if they had been freed from a burden that no one else had dared to throw in his face.
[Kekeke, are you sure? There are no men in suits there. Just bastards who wipe their asses with "human rights."]
[Sounds cozy.]
For the first time, I realized that this kid was even more incomprehensible than I thought.
Rat Kid Network –
RatKid1: Still alive. You're welcome for the worry, bastards.
RatKid3: Oh, look how nice. The Leader resurrected on the third day.
RatKid4: Technically 2 days, right?
RatKid6: Close enough.
RatKid8: RAT LEADER! Is it true you slept with a 4-meter Orc!? Rat 9 says it was crazy!
RatKid9: I DID NOT SAY THAT. Stop projecting your fetishes.
RatKid2: You better have gone through your women first.
RatKid5: Hmph, obviously. At least he can learn with that little brain of his.
RatKid1: The Rat Kid doesn't trip over the same stone twice.
RatKid8: Whipped. Lol.
RatKid3: Lol. RatKid4: Lol. RatKid7: Lol. RatKid9: Lol. RatKid10: Lol.
RatKid1: Go fuck yourselves. Are there demons from hell now?
RatKid4: Everything points to yes.
RatKid3: Our access to information is much greater since 9 returned, but between so many monsters and strange events, we can't reach concrete conclusions.
RatKid5: First of all, they might just be monsters with weird abilities.
RatKid10: Does it matter? In the end, they are problems. That's all there is to say.
RatKid5: I disagree. Depending on whether they are random monsters or a concrete race with its own ideology, the importance of their movements can change drastically.
RatKid8: Rat Leader, keep the tablet safe, I want to study it~~~.
RatKid1: I already threw it away.
RatKid8: WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?
RatKid1: What do you mean "why", you imbecile? It had that aura that said "something bad will happen to whoever has it" or "this summons the ancient mind-sucking demon." Why would I keep that? Much less without a containment method.
RatKid3: I support 1.
RatKid7: Agreed.
RatKid5: Approved.
RatKid9: I'm glad to get that off my back.
RatKid6: I accept the decision.
RatKid10: No opinion.
RatKid2: No opinion.
RatKid4: Much to my regret, I support 1.
RatKid8: Sniff, none of you appreciate history…
RatKid3: I'm more interested in the information on the hard drive.
RatKid8: True. What if it says in there that we need the tablet?
RatKid4: Irrelevant, the risk of having it is unjustifiable. No picking up that junk.
RatKid1: The Rat Kid doesn't even know where it fell anyway.
RatKid8: Ahhh, whatever, I know you guys are right anyway.
RatKid5: I propose forgetting about Andras for now, the information is too scarce. Let's wait for 9 to decrypt the drive.
RatKid3: Seconded. Anyway, there is no visible weakness in the videos or the diary. Apart from getting rid of its host and its puppets.
RatKid7: Seconded.
RatKid1: Seconded.
RatKid9: Seconded.
RatKid6: Seconded.
RatKid10: Seconded.
RatKid2: Seconded.
RatKid4: Seconded.
RatKid8: Seconded.
RatKid1: For now, the important thing is to contact 11.
RatKid2: You want to study the goblins' strange mutation, right?
RatKid1: Can you do it?
RatKid2: I doubt it, I'm a doctor, but those are other subjects. There is also the analysis of that rock.
RatKid10: Can't 15 help? By the way, where is she?
RatKid5: She locked herself away with some research. Basically, we only manage to get her out to eat, bathe, sleep, and talk to Astrad.
RatKid3: Great, another 11.
RatKid6: At least we can control this one if necessary.
RatKid4: But we are in the same boat as with Andras. We have to wait for progress in the research.
RatKid1: 9, 3, find that imbecile 11. Then we'll see. And while you're at it, get the others too.
RatKid3: Copy that. RatKid9: Yes.
RatKid8: By the way, what's up with the goblins?
RatKid1: Sleeping on my lap?
RatKid8: No, I mean, should we question the nature of the species? The diary says shoot to kill, but those girls seem different… Should we reconsider our approach to the species?
RatKid2: No.
RatKid7: Denied.
RatKid4: Too risky.
RatKid10: Denied.
RatKid6: Denied.
RatKid3: 8, I understand your point, but the risk is too high. Rat Leader has a strange 6th sense that rarely fails, we don't. Hesitating before a tentatively hostile species is seeking death.
RatKid1: I support 3.
RatKid4: I follow 3.
RatKid5: I'm with 3.
RatKid2: I support 3.
RatKid7: I support 3.
RatKid6: I support 3.
RatKid10: I support 3.
RatKid9: I support 3.
RatKid8: Fine, fine, I get it already.
RatKid5: Excellent, let's move to another topic. Since we already have a map for the mysteries, let's get into tactical matters. I invoke Protocol 666.
RatKidChat: ........
RatKid7: Hey, last time I asked, the protocols were a game.
RatKid5: A game that, as always, we ended up developing seriously and systematically. Protocol 666, "Regrouping in case of catastrophe," fits perfectly.
RatKid3: If the network gathers, we will be a single target, we will be vulnerable.
RatKid2: I think 5 has a point. Before, we could reach the others in case of an emergency. Can we guarantee that now?
RatKid3: 2, will you abandon your hospital to join us?
RatKid2: Well… RatKid4: Ssss. RatKid10: This could be problematic…
RatKid5: I never said it would be an easy decision, but think about our current reality. I won't go so far as to say we face extinction, but it is obvious that things will change a lot from now on. At any moment a city can be isolated or invaded. Even disappear without a trace. Even if we respond, let alone arriving in time, arriving at all is doubtful.
RatKid3: … Leader, opinion.
RatKid4: Leader.
RatKid5: Leader.
RatKid8: Leader.
RatKid10: Leader.
RatKid9: Leader.
RatKid7: Leader.
RatKid2: Leader.
RatKid6: Leader.
RatKid1: Tsk, annoying. We proceed with 666, but it is not mandatory. Those whose bases are compromised or find it more convenient to join up can do so directly. Those who don't can wait or draw up a plan for a later link-up. Even gathering in smaller groups is fine. The rest must help. Happy?
RatKid7: As expected of Leader.
RatKid4: Finally you're useful for something.
RatKid5: Your brain isn't for decoration after all.
RatKid2: I like it. RatKid8: I'll pack my things, I'm taking my sister… and the cat…
RatKid6: I'll take the opportunity to tour the mountains~~~.
RatKid10: Las Vegas, here I come~~~.
RatKid3: Can't be helped. Time to work.
RatKid9: I have nowhere else to go anyway, guehehe.
RatKid1: Remember to bring a virgin as payment for entry, GYAHAHAHA.