“I don’t know if you do it on purpose or if it’s just a natural ability of yours, but every time you’re involved, there’s a mess to clear up. Mind explaining what exactly happened? Just during the past eight hours, I’ve received more complaints from the soldiers training in the underground elemental rooms than I have in the past few years. Should I praise you for such a feat, or be mad at you for adding more matters to my already busy schedule?”
Cassidy sighed as she placed two cups of tea on the table while Nova sat quietly in front of her. She had thought nothing could go wrong in Quarath, much less in one of the safest places in the city, what could be considered their holy training grounds.
Alas, just an hour after she left Nova to take care of some urgent matters, she received the first report.
The wind room had lost thirty percent of its mana, and a thick cloud of dust had been kicked up, preventing anyone from seeing and focusing on their training. This could have been chalked up to an accident, one that happened once in a blue moon.
If not for the fact that merely an hour later, a few more complaints made their way to her from another room.
Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence but…
An hour later, more complaints arrived. At that point, she knew it had become a pattern.
And as if to both mock her and prove her right, every hour after that was filled with new reports, coming from soldiers who could easily be categorized as Nemesis’ cream of the crop.
Soldiers who made training their entire life and wholeheartedly fought for Nemesis with no hesitation. It didn’t matter whether they were regular soldiers, captains, or commanders. When they distinguished themselves from the masses, they immediately became pillars of their respective ranks.
Back before the apocalypse began, countries prided themselves on their laws, claiming everyone was equal before them, at least on the surface.
But now, in a society that had undergone multiple transformations that would’ve taken centuries if not more in just the span of a decade, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.
Harsh as it was to say, people held very different and distinct values.
A general was not on the same level as a normal soldier.
In the current times, the former could save the lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, by single-handedly protecting a city, while the latter could save a dozen or perhaps a hundred.
The two numbers were so far apart that it was almost comical to even compare them.
Thus, if the commotion created by Nova had happened in a normal training ground with ordinary soldiers, Cassidy could have swept every complaint under the rug with a few benefits and an apology. But the commotion had occurred in the most expensive training grounds, involving the best soldiers they had.
The total cost of the damage was bound to be astronomical.
“Those soldiers will have to be compensated with free training time in the rooms for the time they lost due to the accident, and there were several dozen of them. Add in the mana missing from the rooms, and it’s safe to say the damage is in the tens of millions of Gold coins.”
With a tired look, Cassidy added, “Do you have nothing to say?”
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“Sorry,” Nova said quietly. He hadn’t thought that his cores advancing would result in such a big commotion and large loss. The idea was so outrageous it had never even crossed his mind. He could also tell that she wasn’t angry at him, only tired, and that made the already present guilt even worse.
All the excitement he had felt about his new breakthrough evaporated in an instant, leaving not a trace behind.
Then he spoke up once more.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Cassidy shook her head. “I’ll share some of the knowledge you brought back with them, and giving them another hour inside should be good enough compensation. Still, it will take at least a few months to return the rooms to their original state.”
She crossed her arms on the table and rested her head on them, muttering, “Don’t worry. I’m just venting. I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”
Nova listened quietly, he didn’t look away from Cassidy even once. Despite not having done it on purpose, this time he knew it was fully his fault. Looking away from her would have been the same as running from accountability for his actions and he didn’t plan on doing that.
For a moment, silence fell over the room, and the two seemed to enjoy it, as neither made any effort to break it.
It was unclear how much time had passed when, at some point, Nova said quietly, “I’ll be back in a month. You can tell anyone who asks.”
“Hmm?” Startled, Cassidy looked up at him and saw a serious expression on his face, one she had rarely seen. Taken aback, she asked, “A month? Where are you going?”
“I need to take care of something, and I believe a month should be enough time to do that.” Nova’s expression eased slightly as he continued. “This time, I wanted to let you know so you won’t worry not knowing why I’m not answering.”
Stunned by the words coming out of Nova’s mouth, Cassidy needed a few seconds to process them. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? Was I too harsh on him? Did I overstep with my venting?
Cassidy couldn’t make heads or tails of what was happening. What she did know, however, was that Nova’s current attitude was out of character.
Amid her confusion, she saw Nova’s lips curl into his usual slight smile, and just as she was about to instinctively reach out and grab him, he stood up, turned around, and left.
For a while, she didn’t know what to do, sitting there and staring blankly at the room’s entrance through which Nova had departed. She felt lost, as though nothing that had just happened made any sense.
Was what she said harsh? Hardly.
Was Nova someone who couldn’t take criticism? No.
Back then when he’d stayed in the academy at Univara, the only reason he’d had a fight with Jack was because he had been blamed without valid reason and felt betrayed. His reaction now was also very different from what it had been at the time.
All of this assured Cassidy that Nova wasn’t angry at her, but it also confused her even more.
Her lips moved gently as she whispered, “I’ll wait here for you to come back.”
/////
When Nova stepped out of Cassidy’s villa, his smile faded. His eyes sharpened as an eerie calm seemed to wrap around him.
He stared at the sky, which had just begun to darken, and thought derisively, ‘What a joke. Not only am I not helping her, I’m even adding to her troubles while she’s keeping the organization I founded running. If I don’t do anything now, I won’t be able to look her in the face anymore.’
Yes. What Nova felt while listening to Cassidy pour out her feelings wasn’t anger, and it certainly wasn’t irritation.
It was an overwhelming sense of guilt and shame for what he’d done that piled atop the already existing feelings and it pushed everything to a tipping point.
Just eight hours ago, he’d been thinking of ways to repay her. Now, eight hours later, he’d created an even bigger mess, one she was willing to clean up without asking anything of him in return and, despite her using what he brought back from the portal as compensation, he couldn’t even bring himself to cheer up.
What were some books compared to one of his close friends bowing and apologizing for his faults? They weren’t even worth mentioning.
He felt so uncomfortable he could barely breathe, as if his entire body were being bound by large, thick chains, chains that weren’t physical, but formed from his own guilt.
‘A month. With the current situation, a month should be enough.’
Nova silently made his way out of Quarath. His surroundings were so suffocating that everyone he passed quickly gave way.
Once he was outside, he jumped—
BOOM!
The ground cracked as he propelled himself upward.
The higher he went, the farther his field of view expanded, and his eyes never stopped moving. They darted rapidly, pausing only briefly on anything that gave off a blue hue, as if committing their locations to memory.
Once he landed back on the ground, he wasted no time and shot toward one of the locations he had just memorized.
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