MTLNOVEL Chapter 1714 Time to Wind it all Down
--- Kat ---
With the threat all wrapped up and the decision to leave put in place everyone dispersed for the moment. Lily wanted to meet up with Kat and that's exactly what she did. Kat, Lily and Kamiko spent some time watching over the clones until they'd dispersed into nothing, a thankfully painless process. Once done they found a place to rest. Nobody cared to bother with dinner, and the three simply plonked their tents down in the middle of the street.
The next morning was slow to start, even Kat who was awake early was perfectly willing to laze around in bed with Lily for a bit before getting up. Once the pair heard Kamiko getting up they made their own way out of their tents and set up something for breakfast. With the fighting that had happened they decided to go a bit all out just in case anyone from nearby needed the food.
This triggered a hoard once word got around and suddenly they were working at a vastly accelerated pace. It was kind of fun, but also a bit of a mess. Kat didn't know WHY so many people were coming around for food. It's not like there had been a siege or anything, and she was pretty sure that some people had stopped by to grab things more than once.
Kat herself was working a few stations. They'd decided on a meaty soup once they'd settled on the idea of handing some of it out and everyone had their roles. Kat was doing basically everything for a series of pots. She stirred them when needed, sliced the vegetables, and refilled the stock in the pot to keep it all rolling. Kat mostly used her tail to stir while chopping vegetables.
Kamiko was focused just on chopping things up. Unlike Kat who was doing a little bit of everything Kamiko ensured that all of her slicing was perfect so that every piece was the same size, only varying a bit based on what it was she was cutting at the time. She worked together with Lily who was doing basically everything else.
At the start Lily was stirring a bunch of ladles with her shadow hands, to make use of Kamiko's ridiculous cutting speed. Kat had two pots to herself but Lily was able to manage five while still ladling the soup out without issue. Kamiko even got a break occasionally when everything just needed to cook for a while. Eventually Lily did away with the ladles entirely. There was no reason for her to use shadow hands on real ladles when she was perfectly capable of using shadow ladles for the job.
This kept up until Pebbles emerged from the ground nearby and looked around. Upon seeing all of the people he yelled. "Clear out! I need to fix the roads!"
There was a lot of grumbling but the crowd dispersed and the three workers quickly collapsed into a heap on the ground. Pebbles laughed for a bit before sighing. "Sorry about that,"
"Why are you sorry?" asked Kamiko. "Didn't you just save us from more work?"
"No. You probably weren't paying attention to the rumours but word on the street is that you were making food specifically to pay everyone back for fighting. Implying that YOU were in the wrong. Not sure I disagree with the sentiment, considering you attacked my home… but somebody put the idea in there heads.
"You were probably too busy to notice but just about everyone living around here came multiple times, and invited plenty of friends from other sections of the city JUST to make it harder for you. They weren't here for the food, they were here to force you to keep working. I saw more than one person just dumping the soup. Though I AM going to be talking to them about that. Inconveniencing you is one thing but wasting food is entirely different,"
"Really? I thought I saw a few people multiple times… but…" groaned Kat. "Do you know how it all started?"
"Funnily enough, no. The few people I asked couldn't seem to remember who exactly it was that first told them," announced Pebbles. "Not sure what I'll do about it to be honest. It's a horrible thing to do, but I'm not there parents… plus if you're going to leave it's a favourable narrative for me to keep running. Or perhaps try and fail to supress,"
Pebbles shrugged at the glares he received. The three were tired, mentally mostly. Physically they could go all day but Lily was nearly out of mana and it had just been a lot of keep track of even with the fairly reparative movements. "Look I've got enough on my plate. You saved us, and I am thankful but it would take a horrendous amount of effort for me to ensure that nobody spreads some lies about you lot. It's really not in my best interest nor am I really equipped to stop it. That was more Ronldo's job,"
"What exactly do you DO then?" asked Kat, not as annoyed as she sounded… but not exactly caring about it either.
"Well right now I really do need to fix up this street so… I guess you lot can do whatever but it would help if you were somewhere away from my work area," admitted Pebbles.
"Well alright then," said Kat as she stood up with the other two and swiftly packed everything away in there storage rings then headed off. Kamiko made the decision to go the hospital, and a few awkward questions later that's what they did.
Lily followed Kamiko around as she healed the people she could, Kat helped out with various random tasks and Lily slept for a bit while wrapped around Kamiko's neck. Just in case anyone tried some funny business. Not only could Lily wake up and be ready to defend Kamiko, but Kat could be called over without either of them needing to focus on listening into the surroundings overly much.
After lunch, when they were taking a break in the courtyard Strdl walked up to them. The courtyard itself was simple but really quite nice. There was a fountain in the centre and a light crystal directly above them. The trees were more like carefully curated bushes but it still gave the place a nice atmosphere.
Strdl nodded to them all and sat down in the spare chair at the table. After a few moments of silence Kat said, "Hello Strdl… I take it you're here for a reason?"
"Ah… yeah I've still got a few injuries from yesterday and I was hoping to get some healing but I was intending to catch you while you were working and you're clearly on break so… yeah that sort of got awkward," admitted Strdl.
Kamiko smiled and said, "I've recovered enough demonic energy that it should be fine!" Kamiko rose from her seat and started to examine Strdl. She had a great number of bruises and cuts that needed to be dealt with. Once Kamiko got going, rolling up Strdl's sleaves and whatnot it was clear she'd been through the ringer. Of course Kamiko might be a bit annoyed to realise how Strdl got the wounds.
"So, how is the rest of your team?" asked Kat as she ran her fingers through Lily's fur. "I sort of forgot about them before… but it gives us something to chat about while Kamiko fixes you up,"
"Urgh, I don't know what to tell you. I saw them but they were… not all that happy with me at the time. I think they're being overly critical about it and have basically decided to sulk in the corridors. Apparently they didn't even know about the issues with the crystal and saw no evidence of the attack.
"Heck! According to them they didn't even feel the place shake with the bombs went off… and maybe Pebbles IS that good at construction but I honestly think they're just trying to make things harder for me because they're upset. I… didn't end up sleeping there. Pebbles made an offer for us to use some spare rooms in the mansion that I went back for. I just…"
Strdl let out a long sigh. "I think the truth is that those guys were scared of you all and fell in line when they noticed that I had your favour… but they were still chosen by my captain for a reason and not one I really like so… yeah not sure how things are going to go down once we get back to town.
"Not only do we need to actually… you know DO that but with you leaving soon it'll be my word against there's… and it's not looking great. I can only hope my reputation as someone honest and loyal that apparently every fucking person already knows will help me here but I just… yeah I don't really know,"
Stay tuned to empire
Kat winced at the news but didn't really know what to say. She'd already accepted having to leave the town as it was because they needed to leave these issues behind… but she knew Strdl somewhat personally at this point and hearing that… was not a good thing.