Page 614

--1st Anniversary Special (day 1/7, page 4/4)--
“Yes, sir,” said Jamal. By the look of him, he was in his late twenties and quite solidly built. Rather than a sword like Lynnette, however, the man wore a holstered gun on his hip. “I would be happy to lead the way for you.”

It struck Hector as more than a little odd to be called sir by this person. Still, he nodded gratefully. “Th-thank you. Please do.”

The three of them piled into the adjacent SUV and pulled out of the palace’s garage while Hector followed on his motorcycle. Ms. Carthrace asked him if he would not prefer to simply ride with them so that they could discuss various things along the way, but Hector politely refused. There would be plenty of time for discussion after they arrived.

Slashes of pink and orange painted the evening sky as he rode out into the city. It would be a rather long trip to Gray Rock, he knew, which of course meant that Garovel would have plenty of time to keep bothering him. Even so, Hector recalled a particular something that he wanted to ask the reaper about.

‘So, um... I’ve got a question...’

‘Oh, imagine that.’

‘What did you call it? The thing that Harper did?’

‘Pan-rozum.’

‘Yeah. Could you explain that more, maybe?’

‘I could, maybe. If you tell me what made you run away from Lynnette, that is.’

Hector thought about it. ‘...I don’t wanna know that badly.’

‘Oh, come on! I have to tell you about pan-rozum!’

‘Oh well... I guess I’ll just be unprepared in the future. No big deal.’

‘Y’know, you can be a real dick sometimes.’

‘Ah... sorry.’

‘Tch.’ Garovel paused, perhaps gathering his thoughts. ‘Pan-rozum is a hyper state. It is achieved when the reaper and servant merge their souls together via a very high synchronization.’

‘Ah... so it’s not something that you and I can do.’

‘Of course not. It’s not even something that Harper should really be doing, and he has to be at least twenty-five years old as a servant by now.’