D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

Chapter 2171: Chapter 2171 Steel Yourself Further

— Kat —

Back to waiting again. Kat was sighing as she made her way back to Steel’s house. The guard captain looked ready to fall over but despite trying to convince him that sleep would help him with the planning she was waved off. Glancing up at the sky, Kat… honestly had no idea what time it was. The dome was pretty good at simulating the day passing with its gradual change in lighting but for night time? It was pretty static. There were slight moments of transition at the beginning and end of the night but she hadn’t been paying attention and now it was mostly just dark with those few ’stars’ in the sky and the big light acting as the moon right at the top of the dome.

Kat shrugged it off and simply listened to everyone inside when she arrived at the house. It seemed that Appoline was brewing more things in the backyard and Hedera was asleep? Or wait… no Kat was pretty sure she could hear the elf making arrows. It wasn’t snoring she was hearing but the regular sound of a knife slicing away at wood. It was Tanisha that was sleeping then. Opening the door, Kat made her way out to the backyard without looking around too much.

There was lights all around the backyard to allow the two of them to see. Hedera was in the back corner with a bunch of wood around her while Appoline stood closer to the house with two cauldrons bubbling away. “Good evening, did you guys eat already?”

Appoline turned to Kat and said, “Yes, we had some of the food you prepared previously. The ones stored in the cupboards upstairs, which consisted of some leftovers and some new stuff I believe. Did you want us to wait for you both? Hedera and I were unsure if you were going to stay overnight or if you would be back for dinner so didn’t wait overly long once she got hungry.”

“Oh… did the guards not mention we came back up? Then again… why would they I suppose. Regardless, no it’s fine. I was mostly asking to see if I needed to make something quickly for everyone… or I guess spend more time on making whatever I want because I don’t see myself doing anything else at this point,” admitted Kat.

Appoline looked Kat over for a few seconds and raised an eyebrow. “Where is Lily?”

“Huh, I’m actually a little surprised that you noticed…” began Kat.

“It’s pretty easy to notice she’s missing Kat,” cut in Appoline.

Kat nodded and raised two hands slightly placatingly. “I’m not disagreeing but I have an easier time with that part. She’s waiting back in the bottom of the facility to guard the core. We sort of found it but couldn’t get it out…” And now I’m wondering if I should be telling you this? Too late now. “… so she volunteered to stay behind for the time being. Either until proper guards can be set up or Steel decides it’s fine for her to move. Or she gets bored I suppose. I’m not going to tell her no that’s for sure.

“Though… honestly, it means a lot that you did notice. I’ll make sure to tell her,” Kat finished with a smile. Appoline just gave Kat a confused look. “What?”

“I’m unsure why you’d want to inform her that I noticed something so simple,” answered Appoline. “Surely that’s the least I can do, as a person, as her teacher. While she is rather small it’s not hard to find her if you’re holding onto he and the fact that you aren’t is rather strange.”

Kat smiled, “Yeah but… I guess we both, or perhaps just I, had this idea that you were completely inattentive and obsessed with only poisons.”

Appoline shrugged, “I do care somewhat for my students even if I also accept that I can’t, and do not wish to, devote much attention to each one of them. I play favourites of course, and Lily had quite a lot of potential… but I’ve honed a great memory centred around picking out details. Missing the fact that your girlfriend, who is essentially glued to your hip, is missing isn’t all that hard.”

Kat let out a wry grin. “I suppose when you put it that way it makes me feel a bit silly for thinking you wouldn’t notice.”

Appoline shrugged, “It’s not an uncommon thought, and truthfully, it’s possible I might not have considered it important enough to mention. There are plenty of things in any given day that I notice and ignore for simply not being interesting enough like the number of cracks in a given wall or the relative humidity of the air. These are things I notice and discard rapidly,”

Kat… wasn’t sure what to think of THAT particular bit of information. “Why… why does your brain automatically catalogue the number of cracks in a wall?”

Appoline let out a long sigh. “It’s a side effect of training myself to spot minute differences in seemingly similar ingredients. Too many supplies, and even members of my family, will cut ingredients so as to make them all look nearly identical. This makes it harder to know how to treat them. A flower that’s missing two petals needs to be treated differently to one with them all intact, even if they’re the same bread and currently have ten petals. Just as an example.”

“And this works on walls?” asked Kat.

Appoline nodded. “I simply practiced until I can notice minute differences at a glance. Though I also had to learn to ignore or discard these somewhat quickly. Nothing’s more embarrassing then asking someone about how far along they are in their pregnancy, trying to be polite and not just guess the answer or be confrontational about it… only to be swiftly yelled at for the question. As apparently I wasn’t just the first other person to notice, I was actually the first person. Period.”

Kat winced, “That happened? Or well yes obviously… but I mean… how?”

Appoline shrugged, “I’ll not name names, but I noticed that they were gaining weight in a fairly specific distribution around their stomach. By this point I’d already trained on far subtler differences, and seen plenty of pregnant and fat people. More than enough to tell the difference, and the fact the dress was made to look almost painted on just made it easier. Though they were NOT happy to learn they were pregnant at the time…”

“Why is that? I thought elves had pretty low fertility so it would be a boon…?” Kat offered slowly.

“Yes, perhaps if she was married it would’ve been,” agreed Appoline.

Kat winced, “Ah, I suddenly see the issue. Do I want to know what happened?”

Appoline shrugged, “I don’t particularly consider it important so I wouldn’t imagine that the information is meaningful to you.”

“Ah… I think she was politely asking if something bad happened to the kid considering it wasn’t exactly wanted…” Furen offered, and after a glance from Appoline, Kat confirmed with a nod.

“Oh, well… they were born healthy and I had to babysit them a time or two. They had good grandparents so even if their mother was… not ideal as a caregiver it didn’t hinder them too much,” offered Appoline.

“Well… that sounds fine enough I suppose?” Kat offered uncertain. Not sure if really could ask any more specific questions as Appoline hadn’t named anyone… and she wasn’t sure how real this person was either. In fact, *I wonder if the Diggers, Fluers and Haleblooms are actually families or if they were just hired and how similar they all look because I haven’t seen too many of them. Well, there was the batch of guards but they were all in armour of course.*

Appoline nodded, “See what I mean. It wasn’t particularly meaningful information now was it?”

Kat sighed, “I suppose not, though speaking of potentially un-meaningful things. What is Tweedle up to? I half expected to see her when we returned once again.”

“Tweedle is off catching up with family and I believe getting ready for an interim bit of work. She didn’t share what but I’m not sure she knows either,” explained Appoline as she paused to turn back to the potion she was working on. Up to this point she hadn’t needed to watch but apparently there was something worth looking at now.

“Ah… of course,” nodded Kat. “Are you two likely to work together soon or is the poison stuff still on hold?”

“If anything it’s more on hold now considering you mentioned the core is still locked up inside,” commented Appoline. “Though I also suspect I may get some more funding for a bigger more permanent alchemical solution… but truth be told you’d likely be better off with a skilled enchanter. The area needed is simply too large for potions of my Rank to really be the most efficient way of going about it. Though I dos suspect I may be the most skilled craftsmen in the city, which makes it harder to find a replacement in this case,” explained Appoline.

“I imagine we’ll see tomorrow morning then?” Kat offered.