Otherlife Nightmares: The Selfless Hero Trilogy (8 page)

“Manor house? Emporium?” Katarina asked as she took a seat at the table.

“Ah! Very good timing, Princess Kitten. Great dress by the way, shame you couldn’t have made it shorter. Or just a straight up skirt? You’ve got great legs, remember? Here’s a present,” rambled Runner.

The joy of giving gifts to his friends had peaked out his excitement. He opened the inventory, and he dropped the large shield on the table with an audible thud. The table creaked and then settled once more.

It landed faceup, the black and red plates only reflecting a fraction of the light that hit it.

“We can change the color scheme if you like, but I’ve been feeling a black and red power trip lately. From armor, clothes, or lingerie, black and red. Two thumbs way up. Did I mention you need to wear black and red lingerie?” He laughed and tapped the shield with two fingers. “I dyed the plates black and red accordingly. Though I couldn’t think up a clever name, so I went with something straightforward. Direct. Simple. It’s called Queensguard. I almost named it Bastion, but I named a tree that. Sorry.”

Katarina touched the large shield and then immediately looked up as a window popped up in front of her. Her black eyes widened slowly as she seemingly read through its stats.

“By the way, your cousin is planning on killing your uncle, Kitten. We also need to save Thana’s brother as well as the king. I have an idea for both problems. It’ll have to wait till we get out of this ridiculous reception though.”

Hannah and Nadine plunked down at the table, each with a plate of food and drink. Hannah began tearing through the meal as soon as she sat down. She eyed the shield for a split second and returned to her food.

Nadine looked curiously at the shield a little longer than Hannah before returning to the rich meal. She did manage to eat with more decorum thankfully.

“Stop. I want to go back to the previous discussion,” Thana prompted.

“Which part? The lingerie? Red and black. Especially Hanners and Rabbit. Goodness, I bet those blue and green eyes would pop. It all seems relatively straightforward to me.”

Hannah lifted a brow at that and the corner of her mouth curled upwards. Nadine looked like she wanted to hide her face in her food as she turned a deep red.

“Runner,” said Katarina. “This is an artifact. A unique one. Where did you get it?”

“I made it. I wasn’t sure of your heraldry, so I left it off for now, sorry.”

Shrugging his shoulders, he addressed Hannah and Nadine.

“My apologies, I’ll be working on more equipment for everyone. Need more time. I’m hoping once we wrap up our business here I can start turning it out one after another.”

All at once the four of them started talking.

“Runner, please, let’s re—”

“Shit, that’s what you were working on?”

“Really? Let’s m-m-make some to sell!”

“Take my sword, remake it. Don’t name it. I’ll name it.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Katarina opened a trade window and hurriedly traded said sword to Runner. Accepting it with raised eyebrows, Runner looked to Nadine and Hannah to continue the conversation.

Abruptly Thana stood up, her chair squealing against the stone floor. Swiveling where she stood, she put her back to them and left their table. She carried her new staff beside her as if it were a coiled snake.

Frowning, Runner trailed her with his eyes before making a quick choice. He tagged her with a group marker and turned his attention back to his table.

“Forgive me, ladies. Eat, drink, but stay together, be safe. I’ll be right back with our chancellor,” said Runner. Standing, he inclined his head to his group. After tagging each of them with a raid symbol to find them later, he chased after Thana.

Tracking the blue circle over her head, he watched it slip from the reception hall and into an adjoining area. Picking his pace up to a light jog to catch up to her, he ignored everything and everyone else.

Leaving the reception hall, he followed the same route she had taken. Passing through a doorway, he found himself in a garden. A quick glance upwards confirmed he was outside. Quirking a brow, he caught sight of the blue circle further inside the garden. Still and unmoving, it had stopped.

Walking towards her, he inspected the scenery, his eyes adjusting to the light of the full moon washing over everything. It was certainly pretty enough, though Runner had to admit he didn’t have an eye for botany. Most especially since Earth didn’t really have much in the way of greenery anymore.

My Earth at least. Who knows what’s there now…

He found Thana sitting on a bench at the edge of the garden furthest from the castle. It overlooked the city sprawling out below. When he’d arrived he hadn’t realized that the castle sat at a higher elevation. Below them, moonlight bathed the city in its calm soothing colors, yet nothing stirred at all. There wasn’t a single player on the streets, and all the Naturals had sought their beds.

Thana didn’t look up from the city line, her staff resting across her knees. Taking a seat beside her, Runner said nothing. They’d played games like this before; she’d speak when she found the words.

Leaning into the bench, he took a deep breath of the cool air and watched the city of Shade’s Rest. It was an enchanting view, if a little chilly, and drew the eye up and down the streets.

“I never realized how different it is to be Awakened,” she breathed, almost as if to herself.

Runner brought his brows down, resting his palms on his knees as he contemplated an answer.

“Yeah, your base code is irreversibly changed. Everyone else will adhere to their original programming. Have their lives scripted by the amount of AI they were given. Guards and the like have very little. You had quite a bit of AI assigned to you since you were a quest goal.”

“They don’t even seem to realize it. My parents flit between uncontrollable fear over my brother to talking about commerce for our small bit of land.”

She shook her head, tears trailing down from the corners of her eyes.

“It’s frightening. I knew this is what my world is—seeing my parents that way though? I… I never imagined. I cannot begin to imagine this from Nadine or Hannah’s point of view. I’m not even sure their parents exist.”

Blowing out a breath, Runner could only nod. It was a dilemma to be sure.

“And then there’s this,” she hissed, holding up the staff. “Do you even realize what this is?”

“A staff? I mean, I made it, so I can vouch that’s the class of weapon.”

Laughing darkly, she pointed it out over the side of the castle walls towards a small standing of trees. Her fingers tightened around the grip. A rod of ice boomed out from the tip and sailed out into the night at extraordinary speed. It glinted in the moonlight, and Runner followed the missile with his eyes.

Slamming into a tree, ice exploded in every direction. View of the tree vanished in the spray. As the icy mist cleared, he could see the tree was no more, even at this distance.

“Good distance, solid impact, great hit. Nice aim, my lady,” Runner said. He was surprised at the amount of power it put out, though quite happy with said result. It would come in handy later. That staff would put him at Thana’s current amount of power. The staff in her hands, though, put her in a whole new playing field.

“You don’t get it. This is not something I should have. I’m a lesser noble at best. I’m a lady-in-waiting to Princess Katarina. It may be just a backstory written for me, yet it’s the truth. Katarina is my closest friend. She’s far smarter than she lets on, you know.”

“I do know. She doesn’t concern herself with things she isn’t interested in though. People underestimate her. Constantly.”

“Yes. Yes, they do. She saw in moments I was ostracized in my own court. Asking for a lady-in-waiting from the king’s court, she asked for me specifically. Suddenly I wasn’t Thana, I was Thana Damalis, lady-in-waiting to Princess Katarina.”

Smiling without showing her teeth, Thana let the staff’s tip drop to the grass.

“Now, I am Thana Damalis, artifact wielder. Given to me casually by a man who seems poised to destroy my beliefs at every turn.”

“It wasn’t my intention, my Lady Death. I only wished to make you stronger so we could overcome anything before us.”

“I know, that’s what makes this ridiculous. You made it in a day. Less than a day. Runner, this is something the king would use personally. It isn’t for a nobody to swing around to blow up bandits.”

“No. It’s for my Lady Death. I made it for her specifically and her alone. She could use it to roast a hot dog over an open fire. I don’t care, it’s hers.”

“Don’t you get it? Any one of those highborn women in there would give themselves up in marriage for this. They’d become your personal harem for items like this. I’m but a toad in comparison to them, in both power and status, let alone beauty.”

Sighing, Runner leaned his head back and looked up to the moon above them. Thana had always been so strong. Perhaps her family and social standing could be her proverbial weak point.

“Thana, I don’t want them,” Runner said firmly. Watching the moon, he smiled to himself. “I’m not exactly a Casanova, you know. Best I can figure I’ve had a very small number of relationships with women. Those I’ve had, typically kind of just happen. I can’t remember being the one who started it. I’m not good with women, or relationships in general. I think,” Runner admitted. He could only guess at some things since his memory was still poor.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with those women you mentioned. Honestly, they make me fairly uncomfortable. That and the fact that they seek that kind of power when you do not is all I need to know.”

Rubbing at his chin with one hand, he gestured hopelessly with the other.

“You, Katarina, Hannah, and Nadine are too pretty for me as it is. I could ignore it and pretend it didn’t matter. Up until I finally admitted to myself that you’re all real, alive, very much living beings. The night I killed Ted it changed. You weren’t just Naturals anymore. You were all women. Very attractive women. Women who make me honestly nervous to be around them.”

Thana said nothing in response. He knew she was hoping he’d continue. A bitter grin crossed his face as he set his hand down on his knee again.

“Before you ask, yes. I really am attracted to you, even though you’re a Natural. As I am to Katarina, Nadine, and Hannah. More the problem that since I can’t seem to settle on any one of you. I fear the consequences of such an admission and what it’ll do to our group.” He grimaced as he said it aloud.

It had been a thought lurking in the back of his head for a few days. He knew he was attracted to them. Knew it and didn’t know how to handle it. He knew Katarina wouldn’t say no to him. Nadine and Hannah he felt were a coin flip, and Thana was ever the unreadable one.

What to do with all that though? They could as easily say no, and if he asked one, would the rest depart?

The thought left his skin feeling cold and prickly.

“You seem to think yourself lesser than your peers back there in the hall. I find you to be their better. Perhaps more for what you’ve endured. Alright, that’s enough of this. I’m getting jittery and feel like I’m going too fast for my own good. Moving on, moving on.”

Leaning forward, he hunched himself over, his elbows resting on his knees.

“Right, then. I can save your brother, of that I’ve no doubt. A matter of discovering the right flag and pulling it. Your parents are a different matter. I could Awaken them, get them moving in the right direction. Though it may be hard for them to adjust quickly if their AI is lower than your own.”

Runner paused and turned his head to Thana, her lack of a response finally unsettling him.

She had moved in close while he talked himself into distraction. She sat inches from him now, the distance between them nonexistent.

His blood boiled like a fire had been lit inside of him. His mind spun from the situation and flailed about miserably, trying to figure out what to do. He truly didn’t know how to respond.

Feeling his stomach drop out from under him, he opened and closed his mouth several times. Her brown eyes bore into his own.

Her lips peeled back into a slow smile, her teeth flashing. Apparently whatever she saw pleased her.

Runner felt his own lips turn up in a smile in return. Her smile already had an infectiousness to it. Then, against all better judgment, he went with the mood. He leaned in and kissed her.

Lips pressed to hers, he felt his mind screech to a halt and then fall into nothing. Her hand came up and pressed the side of his jaw. Luxuriating in the feeling of her lips, Runner’s mind became quiet.

Thus they remained until Runner broke the kiss. Clearing his throat, he stood up a little too swiftly, Thana’s hand trailing down the side of his face as he did so. Scanning the area, he found no one nearby. The distance indicators promised that the rest of his party remained in the reception hall.

There would be no accusations, no misunderstandings, no recriminations. Glancing down, he found Thana watching him from the bench, a tiny smile lurking at the edges of her full lips.

Looking towards the castle, he motioned at it, his hand shaking.