Novel Full Chapter 1651 Leaving is Hard
— Kat —
It was around lunchtime now and they were bringing the whole group to the town. Kat’s presence in the meeting had been completely pointless. She wasn’t called on to answer anything at all, even the few questions Kat thought she might have been able to answer were either talked around or someone else answered for her. Kat didn’t know what to think about that but eventually Kat just decided to zone out completely. If they didn’t need her to be involved in the conversation then she’d simply enjoy letting her mind flow around while staring at the ceiling.
It did mean that once the conversation was over Kat didn’t know any of the details… but honestly Kat found it hard to care about them. Perhaps it was the fact she was slightly soured after being forced to sit around in a meeting as an ornament for multiple hours, or the fact that Kat was getting a little homesick. Perhaps it was the fact they needed to find one more piece of that drake or just how LONG this whole thing was starting to take. Maybe Kat was just feeling unwell today in general. Could be anything.
Regardless, when it came down to it, she simply accepted the end of the meeting and headed back to pick everyone up. Lily was still asleep so Kat simply pulled her girlfriend into her arms and set off at the start of the collum as they headed towards the city.
That was one thing Kat did know. Corela was getting some semi-permanent space outside of the forest eventually, but for now there were a bunch of empty houses. Kat hadn’t been paying too much attention to the ‘why’ they were empty but she did remember Corela asking if they were free because the owner’s had dad and Mry assured Corela that wasn’t the case. Which… Kat just assumed she must have missed something important because that was sort of a weird question to just straight out ask someone wasn’t it?
Regardless, they were nearly at the village and not everyone was handling it well, and by not everyone Kat mostly meant Brook and Pip. Brook was still sick and while Kat had offered to carry him again Malt and the twins had offered to give her a break… when Kat insisted that it was really no trouble and he essentially weighed nothing to her, they explained it was an excuse to do some more exercise. Kat wasn’t sure anyway needed more exercise after the trek through the woods but sure, easily managed.
Pip on the other hand… mostly just spent the time glued to Kamiko’s side and refusing to let her go. Neither of the two were actually saying anything simply spending time holding each other. Kat couldn’t say she was all that surprised something like this was happening, though Kat did find it a bit odd that Pip wasn’t more concerned at leaving behind the others when they left the main facility.
[Perhaps, but remember that her main friends all left with her, and so did Brella.]
*Oh good morning Lily. Did you enjoy your sleep?*
[Yeah I guess so. I just didn’t really want to get up and potentially involve myself with everyone while you weren’t around. I… don’t really know how to say goodbye to these people either. I mean… we’re not friends but I feel sort of responsible for them? I dunno it’s weird.]
*I guess for me it’s… different because I’m used to it from the orphanage. I’ve seen people come and go quite a lot. I’ve had to say goodbye to a lot of kids that I was closer to then any of these guys… though I do feel a bit bad about Pip and Kamiko. That’s why I’m not sure what to do about them. It feels a bit like my relationship with Sylvie. Even if I get it’s not the same and I knew Sylvie for a lot longer then Kamiko has known Pip… I dunno it’s just something I was thinking about before you woke up.*
[I’m not sure there IS anything we can do. They seem to have just… clicked I guess. I’m quite sure that Pip sees Kamiko as a role model and I wouldn’t be surprised if she wants to be ‘cool and powerful’ like Kamiko when she grows up. I can even imagine her learning ice magic just to be closer to Kamiko.]
*Right. Is there anything we should be doing you think?*
[Isn’t this more your area of expertise? I didn’t exactly have a lot of… bridges when I was younger and my friend thoroughly burned them all before I ran away.]
*Hey. That’s the wrong way to look at it. You didn’t run away you escape a super shitty situation.*
[Eh, it’s still definitely running. Granted I don’t regret it and staying was definitely the wrong choice… but I very much distanced myself from my old life. I barely think about my old acquaintances and the only reason I think of them is when I’m feeling a bit down. I had a pretty clean break all told. Even if it was rough on me at the start.]
Um… do you want to talk about it?
[Not really? Why are you asking?]
*It sort of felt like the appropriate response to that sort of thing I guess?*
[Nah. I’ve gotten over it for a most part. It’s just an old pain at this point. Honestly while I do admit this whole saving the world thing has taken and it sort of spiralled into an anti-climax after the drake had been dealt with for the most part… it’s been good in other ways. I’m a lot more comfortable in combat now. Even if the monsters weren’t exactly deadly I’ve stopped freezing up in combat.]
[Now I just react. I don’t always pick the most efficient option, and honestly a lot of my mana usage is massively wasteful… but it’s a big step up from being afraid to fight. Though I do wonder how I’d do against more human targets… then again I’m not sure I WANT to be good at fighting people. So… eh it balances out I suppose.]
*Well as long as you’re happy I guess it’s fine. I dunno, I suppose I’ve just had a bit of an off day. Part of it might just be that we’re leaving so many people behind after I decided to be responsible for them. I mean, we did know we were going to leave them and in truth we didn’t even spend that long with them all compared to Kamiko… which I guess is part of why I was mostly worried about those two specifically. I’m sure I’ll be fine in a day or two when I get out of whatever funk I’m in but…*
[You’re still worried about her.]
*Yeah. I guess I see Sylvie in Pip even though they’re pretty different, and then I feel bad that I’m not spending more time with Sylvie herself… but she seems happy in the messages we’ve been trading back and forth. Done quite a few things with her friends and stuff.*
Kat and Lily discussed things back and forth for a while but they didn’t really have any solutions when they stopped. Kat actually had to glance backwards to realise that everyone else had taken the chance to rest up right before the end. Kat was a bit confused as to why so she walked over to Hunter and just asked, “What’s up?”
“We’re not planning to stick around once they get past the gates,” stated Hunter. “This is a chance for you to say goodbye to anyone if you so wish,”
*Oh.*
“Um… thanks I guess?” said Kat. *
Well this is super awkward. I don’t know that I’m really all that close with anyone to say a proper goodbye… guess we can see Church at least? See how she is?*
Lily didn’t have any better ideas so Kat moved off to the side where Kamiko and Pip were… and then past them. Church was hanging around with the twins, one of which had Brook on their back at the moment. “Hey all, Shen, Chen, Church. How are you all feeling? Church especially. You recovered?” asked Kat.
The twins gave matching nods to Kat while Church sniffled a bit and said, “Eh I’m alright. Not really fully recovered but I think we have the chance to rest up for a while now? Corela wasn’t super clear. Like, we’re staying here for a bit while other things get hashed out? I dunno it was sort of hard to pay attention, I’d only just woken up when she explained things to everyone.”
“We’re hanging out at the village while we get permission to move into someone else’s land. Apparently she’s a little crazy but she has great defences and will probably enjoy the challenge of keeping annoyances away from us until we’re ready to move on. We just need her permission and she’ll likely grant it, or so Corela told us,” explained one of the twins.
“Well I hope you get better Church,” said Kat with a slight bow not really sure what else to say as she glanced over at Kamiko and Pip who still hadn’t really said anything.