Page 440

~~Holiday Special (Day 4/7, Page 4/6)~~
Hector didn’t join her at the table, choosing instead to stand in the doorway with his arms folded.

“The Vanguard in Korgum wouldn’t even have a proper meeting with us, but we honestly couldn’t blame them. We were only there for a few days, but in that time, our plane was shot down, and we were attacked by Abolish patrols four separate times. I’m sure the Queen and I would have both died there if not for Roman.” She shook her head. “And afterwards, he was suddenly much stronger. Almost like a different person.”

Hector and Garovel exchanged glances. “Roman achieved emergence?”

“Yes. He ended up explaining that at length, too. Do you need me to relay what he said?”

“No, that’s okay... I, uh... I’ve had my own experiences with it.”

Her brow rose at that, but rather than inquiring further, she chose to continue her story. “The Vanguard there wouldn’t help us, because they were clearly dealing with a lot already, but they did point us in the direction of another division, which was in Callum. So we went there next. And without a plane, that trip took a while.

“The group we found was more accommodating than the ones in Korgum, but Her Highness was rather quick to become displeased. Something about her negotiations with them left her quite unhappy. They were kind enough to give us a tour of their facility, which was when I encountered the gauntlet. They were conducting experiments on it, and when the Queen mentioned having fought an aberration before, the person in charge of the study was rather eager to tell us more. Apparently, they were trying to discover the exact mechanism by which its power is made to grow. They thought that artifacts like this might provide insight into emergence in servants.”

‘Ah,’ said Garovel. ‘Even more dangerous than I expected.’

“Did they make any progress on that?” Hector asked.

“No, I don’t believe so. They were very frustrated.”

‘Ha. Good.’