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Andrea yawned as she pushed away the table holding a mountain of cooked flesh. She slid out of her seat and poked Palan who was sleeping in a corner of the room. It had been half a year since the group reached the capital, but Pyre hadn’t been able to make any progress with his contract destruction machine, as he liked to call it. But Andrea didn’t mind too much. Div’Nya was a lot nicer than Eljiam. She could wait a bit longer—but only a bit.
“What is it?” Palan asked as he stirred. He actually hadn’t been sleeping. He was meditating instead, drawing on Raea’s mana. He had noticed Raea’s temper getting worse as time passed on, but taking some of her mana to increase his own strength decreased her wrath. If only by a little. After daily meditation for half a year, he had managed to catch up to Raea’s mana level.
“I’m bored,” Andrea said. If she had to name one downside to Div’Nya, it was boredom. She was never bored in Eljiam. Every waking moment was spent on increasing her chances of survival: grinding poisons, sewing new clothes, drying rations for a future date. In Div’Nya, everything was done for her. The halflings treated her like a princess due to her relationship with Palan—especially the centaurs. The centaurs insisted on creating a statue of her as well. Speaking of which, Palan’s statue was a quarter of the way finished.
“Does that mean you want another toy from Pyre?” Palan asked. Part of the reason why Pyre’s progress was so slow was due to Andrea’s pestering. The half-angel’s inventions kept Andrea entertained for a week before she’d get bored and ask for a new one.
Andrea shook her head. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and bit her lower lip. “I don’t know. I want to do something,” she said and picked at her clothes with her claws. “Something meaningful.”
Palan nodded. He had felt the same the first time he arrived at Div’Nya. During his time traveling with the army, he had experienced restlessness due to complacency. “Then, do you want to hunt?”
Andrea made a face. “No. I want to help you like before. I want to make poisons for you, or help you skin things, or make new clothes, or prepare you snacks for your hunts,” she said. She reaffirmed her decision to break her brother’s contract. Being with that harlot had turned him into a couch potato. He wasn’t the brother she knew.
“But you don’t have to do those things anymore,” Palan said and ruffled her hair. “You said you wanted to do something meaningful, yet those actions are meaningless. I no longer have to hunt for your food. Other people can do the tedious tasks for us. If we want new clothes, we can walk down the street and raid Mathias’ store.” The ex-chieftain had opened up a clothing store after the takeover of the capital. “Isn’t this life better than the one we had before?”
“No,” Andrea said and pouted. “It’s not the same because you changed.” She bit her lower lip and pushed his hand off her head. “How many people have you killed since we arrived at DIv’Nya?”
Palan furrowed his brow. “None?”
“How many times have you gone hunting?”
“Three or four.”
“See? If it was before, you would’ve killed at least a hundred people and gone on dozens of hunts.”
“No one’s stupid enough to get in my way nowadays,” Palan said. “There’s no need to kill them. They don’t even disrespect me, always groveling by my feet. And like I said, hunting isn’t required anymore. We have all the food you can possibly want.”
“It’s not about the end result!” Andrea shouted. “It’s about the process! You’re getting lazy. All you do is sit on the couch all day, meditating or whatever.” She whirled around and stomped out of the room. Why couldn’t he see how different he was being? Sure, people respected him, so he didn’t have to kill anyone. And yes, he didn’t have to hunt for food anymore. But weren’t those the things that made her brother her brother? If you took away hunting and aggressiveness, was he even the same person? Maybe her life was better in Div’Nya, but it wasn’t the same. She missed the days in Eljiam where she and Palan struggled to survive.
“Andrea?”
Andrea turned her head. The snack dispenser was chasing after her, having seen her from one of the side corridors. Andrea crossed her arms and waited.
“Why aren’t you with Palan?” Cleo asked and tilted her head. Upon arriving at the capital, Cleo had gone to the prisons and freed Linda. The halflings didn’t need to use orbs as much now that the war was over. They were also able to use the same abilities as the angels, making orbs nearly meaningless to them. The number of archlings overwhelmed the number of archangels at the angels’ prime. Pyre didn’t care if he lost one or two of his captives, so Cleo freed Linda, Owen, Carmilla, and Gerome. Apparently, the trio had been swept up at the same time she and Linda had.
“Because he doesn’t do anything,” Andrea said and crinkled her nose.
“What?” Cleo asked. “What do you mean? If he didn’t draw on Raea’s mana, she would’ve exploded by now. His role is really important.” She nodded and pulled out an eggfruit, handing it to Andrea. It turned out, planting the fruit in the ground sprouted new trees while incubating the fruit hatched an angel. Of course, the first angel to hatch from a fruit was seized by Pyre and never heard from again. Cleo suspected it died.
Andrea gnawed on the fruit and relaxed. The tension she had acquired while yelling at Palan dispersed as the warmth of the fruit’s juices flooded her body. She sighed after she finished it. Maybe she was being unreasonable to Palan earlier. He had worked hard to give her this life of being pampered. Maybe she should apologize to him.
“Feeling better?” Cleo asked.
Andrea nodded. Somehow, the snack dispenser was able to read her mood, claiming all friends were able to do that.
“So, what’re you going to do now?” Cleo asked. “I’m going to go on a trip with Linda soon. Do you want to come?”
Andrea shook her head. Something about the merchant angel her snack dispenser hung out with disturbed her. Like the angel wanted to sell her to someone. “I’m going to find Pyre,” Andrea said. She was already outside. She could apologize to Palan later. Maybe Pyre had finished his invention.