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Garovel laughed. ‘You don’t need to worry about Hector’s ears. I know he doesn’t seem like it, but he’s a total potty mouth.’

‘Is he really?’

‘Oh yeah. Drops f-bombs all the time.’

‘Hector!’ said Chergoa. ‘How very dare you! That is no way for a lord to behave, y’know.’

Hector decided to ignore that avenue of discussion. Something else was bothering him, anyway, and the reapers had yet to address it. In fact, he had a feeling that they didn’t even realize it yet. ‘...Aren’t you guys forgetting to explain something?’ he asked.

‘What do you mean?’ said Garovel.

Rather than answering, Hector waited for Chergoa. And when she didn’t say anything, he instead heard Emiliana snickering faintly.

‘They did forget,’ said Emiliana.

‘Ah--you realized it, too?’ said Hector.

‘Indeed.’

‘Realized what?’ said Chergoa. ‘What are we forgetting?’

Now Hector had to laugh a little, as well. ‘This is pretty fun.’

‘Isn’t it, though? Is Garovel always as smug with you as Chergoa is with me?’

‘Yeah. He’s always bragging about how much he knows.’

‘Ha.’

Both reapers spoke up in unison. ‘Alright, you two.’

‘Out with it,’ continued Garovel.

‘Seriously,’ said Chergoa.

‘Hmm,’ Emiliana hummed, still half-giggling. ‘Should we tell them?’

‘I guess so,’ said Hector. ‘We’d probably... be here forever if we waited for them to figure it out on their own.’

That pulled a bigger laugh out of Emiliana.

‘I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves,’ said Garovel. ‘Are you done?’

‘Couple of real jerks, our servants.’

‘It makes sense, though,’ said Hector. ‘That they wouldn’t think of it, I mean. This is how they always talk.’

‘Oh, that is true,’ said Emiliana.

‘Would you just spit it out already?’ said Garovel. ‘This is getting ridiculous.’