Chapter 70: Chapter 69: A Bit Of Normality Part 4

As Carl sat in the bath, wondering what the hell had gotten into Klaire, his hatred of his aura bubbled to the surface and he got dried and dressed as quickly as he could.

He was so desperate to know if something he considered unforgivable had happened he almost ran through the bathroom door before it had fully slid apart. “Klaire!”

“What’s up?, did something happen?” She asked, half panicked by the urgency that was evident in his voice.

“Please, please tell me that wasn’t because of my aura.” The moment he spoke and she saw the fear in his eyes, she realised what was going through his mind.

“No it wasn’t, sorry I didn’t even think of that…” She hugged him, as she reassured him. “…Carl, trust me, it happened because I wanted it to… I’m so sorry it didn’t occur to me you might be thinking that. I thought you were being passive…”

Carl sank into her with relief. “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to be, it just occurred to me in the bath, I’m sorry for not asking before… I know it will be awkward, but I think we should speak to Lydia and Lillim about it. I couldn’t live with myself if it ever happened for real.”

“I would say “don’t worry about it” but I understand how you feel about it… I don’t like the fact I didn’t even consider that you might not be in the mood for it. I’m so sorry.” Klaire hugged him even tighter. “I agree, we need advice and awkwardness is better than… that…”

They both finished getting ready and left, agreeing to act like nothing was wrong, then left.

When they arrived, everyone was sitting ready with a report, Gillian looked both proud and scared, Kyubi looked exhausted and the kids looked slightly less energetic, Blanc looked depressed, Sophie looked torn between talking to him and letting him stew, Alysse looked please with herself, Kon and blaine looked exhausted and disturbed and Noah looked like he had been gone months rather than a day.

“Looks like the day has been eventful for everybody, first, Lydia and Lillim, can we have a meeting after dinner? It’s important. Anyway, I’ll get dinner prepared for when Mum Leanna gets here.”

Carl got to work on dinner, Klaire giving him space to focus, something everyone had noticed was the slowly resolving separation anxiety they had suffered from in the wake of their first encounter with Margo.

As Klaire sat, she was handed the mission reports they had all been told to write as Lillim’s excuse to buy them time.

“Thanks guys, we want to start getting things like this off the system… Keeping hard copies on Haven will stop any subordinates of Margo from getting anything we consider too sensitive for digital records.”

“Sound strategy, it won’t help much against the committee leaders like that woman, but it is a major boon.” Kon conceded.

“Well, we’ll see how it goes, if things get too wasteful, we may cap the amount of documents kept and use it as a priority list of sorts.”

“Sounds good…” Everyone agreed.

“Now Carl already told you Blanc and Sophie, but since HQ is common knowledge we want a full map of electrical equipment, if they manage to slip in and sabotage anything we could have data stolen, people framed, at each others throats, or lives in danger if they did anything to the infirmary or gate-room. Sophie, any problems?”

“Are you sure I should? We still don’t know if Dracula could control me? I could be the traitor we’re trying to safeguard against.”

“Nonsense, the contract would stop that, but would it help if we assigned you a pet first? No matter how they feel about you, you betray Carl or his faction and they’ll treat you like any enemy.”

“That would be great! Can I have one like Link? It would be able to neutralise any attack I tried to use against it.”

“I actually have a better idea for you! Your choice though!” Carl shouted from the kitchen.

“Well? Dive viper or mystery pet?”

“Okay, I choose mystery pet.”

“Noah! Sophie list C when you have time please!”

“List C? You only gave me A and B though, didn’t you?”

“Yeah! C is both of them!”

Carl’s words made Sophie feel like she was imposing, then Carl came to the kitchen entrance. “Sophie, I’m not doing this out of pity or anything like that. I’m doing it, because yes, there is a chance you could be used against us. A chimera will make it very difficult for you to get flipped and it will have a greater telepathy range which means it will have a better chance of reaching me and Tiamutael simultaneously.”

“When you put it like that, it does sound like the safer option, thank you.”

“Good. Blanc, any problems?”

“Yes and this isn’t just a joke… Caffeine. We need a source of damn caffeine before the withdrawals kill me.”

“I think we all agree on that.”

“Well I guess that brings thi-”

“But tomorrow? Problems?”

“Nah, I like being with Sophie.” Blanc said before smashing his head into the table. “Ignore me, that came out wrong… Caffeine, Gillian, help, please.”

“Nooow, I guess that bri-”

“Apologies in advance for how boring it will be. Take regular breaks, we need this done, but we want your eyes fresh every second you’re working… Now Gillian.”

“First of all, I was unable to seal the deal on my own. I needed to ask for Tiamutael and for that I’m sorry.

For what it’s worth it got the contract coming tomorrow morning first thing. Carl, I’ll need you there to sign for us on this one. I had already stated a quantity of those beans the dwarf gave me, I’m hoping if you come and flex about Tiamutael we should be able to increas the value to supply everyone, but with something Like this, I figure best to have too much and reduce purchase quantities in future.”

“Gillian, on the matter of you involving Tiamutael… That is his purpose, to be a deterrent so he never has to suffer anything more. On that note, if any gates open, you should tell teams to call him first, if the situation seems violent, he’ll call help, if diplomatic, Gil. If anyone hears anyone insult my baby, me.”

“Who wants to go next?”

“I think it’s best we wait until Leanna arrives.” Kon said, causing a bit of concern but getting a nod.

“Err, me too, let’s eat before things get gorey… Alysse, on that note, I asked for a spear not a weapon of mass destruction. I could have killed SATS with that thing.”

“On that note, my baby Arti is a god send. I think I could make one to actually do that if you want Noah.”

“First… Please don’t call Carl a god, he made his feelings quite clear on that…”

“HA! HA! Very funny!” Carl called out from the kitchen.

“Secondly, please don’t make anything too dangerous. We don’t want unwelcome eyes seeing and assuming we’re preparing for war.”

“Fine… I haven’t just been messing about though, I finally got the vehicle prototype working with Sophie’s help!”

“Prototype?” Everyone asked the question in unison, since they had all assumed she was just replicating committee vehicles, such as the ones that were used to transport faculty across the area after their first encounter with Margo.

“Well duh… If we just use the known stuff people would think that we’re unimaginative. Besides, they were janky and relied on mana or solar power to run. The one we made, can run on either, both and can even run on energy generated from its own movement.”

“Okay, pretty cool, what’s the issue?”

“The biggest one is the cell capacity was prone to overcharge, that was causing the rechargeable cells to combust.”

“All I did was add an additional system that can work as a power drain when the cells are full. Really we need Blanc to write a program that will automatically engage and disengage the self charging systems.”

“Well then use tomorrow to brainstorm ideas too, Alysse, can you get the prototype on a trial run? We need surveys finished ASAP, we need food sources immediately. We can’r rely on donations from external sources, it would only take a realm gate outage to leave us stranded.”

As Klaire spoke Blanc did something in a system display and a short while later Leanna emerged from the lower level.

On the surface she seemed fine, but Klaire could sense something that the others couldn’t, the lingering heartache that she felt after her impending resignation was announced. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“Kon didn’t tell you I see… I received my order to announce my resignation, I also had to announce Kon’s and that of any member of staff that wishes to join you. The committee did add that any of them would be eligible for re-employment if diplomacy can be enacted between us, but it seems my relationship with Carl renders me exempt from my current position.”

Klaire ran over and hugged her, they knew that she would have to leave, but what they didn’t know was that Kon would be forced to resign, or that Leanna would be so heartbroken about leaving.

“Sorry Leanna, we didn’t think about how much you enjoyed the job, we only thought about the bits that you didn’t like…”

“Don’t worry Klaire, I really am happier to be here with everybody, but I just worry about what will happen to the hybrids without the faces of the equality movement around. I feel like I’m abandoning them, many hybrid teachers wanted to resign and join with me, but I told them to think about the students left behind.”

“Wait, professor Kon, you need tomorrow off to go say goodbye to everyone.”

“Indeed, I also think I should let my family know we may soon be blacklisted from committee involvement. Your concerns about food supplies were more immediate than you had feared and now that Leanna has returned, we need to tell you about a very dangerous discovery we made on Lunelia.”

“Can you guys wait until I’m not tossing salad!”

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