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((TZKS 5th Anniversary -- Page 1 of 24))
It wasn’t long before she answered. ‘Hector?’

‘Hi.’

‘It is a relief to hear from you again,’ she said. ‘Allow me to apologize again for laughing at you before. That was inappropriate.’

‘Oh, uh... don’t worry about it. And, er, I’m sorry for saying that I hoped Gohvis eats you.’

‘I did not think you were being serious when you said that.’

‘I wasn’t.’

‘Good. I am glad I did not misunderstand.’

An awkward silence arrived, which Hector felt like he should’ve seen coming. Why was this girl so difficult to talk to? Was it his own fault?

Probably, Hector figured. He just wished he knew what to do about it.

‘Do you still need me to continue researching worms?’ said Emiliana. ‘Or is that crisis well and truly over now?’

She really didn’t talk like any fourteen-year-olds that Hector had known back when he was that age. Which wasn’t even all that long ago, really, even though it felt like it was. ‘That, uh--that’s over now, yeah. Thanks for your help, by the way.’

‘Oh, was my information actually useful? I was under the impression that it had all been in vain.’

‘Uh... only mostly in vain.’

‘I... see. I think.’

‘The bit about killing worms by destroying ninety percent of their body mass--that was sort of helpful.’ Maybe. He was trying to be generous.

‘Ah. Then, do you have a new subject for me to research?’

He hadn’t even thought about that, but there were definitely a ton of ideas springing to mind. ‘Well, uh. I mean, if you’re offering, then yeah, there are loads of things I’d like to know more about. None of them are immediately pressing, though. In fact, they’re just things I’m generally curious about, I guess. Are you sure you don’t have better things to do with your time?’

‘Um... to be clear, I would appreciate it if you did not have me waste my time researching irrelevant subjects. I want to do whatever I can to help you and everyone else. I do not wish to become your private search engine for trivial questions.’

Hector bobbed his head to the side as he ran. ‘I get that. I wasn’t planning on asking you anything that I could just find out on the internet. But, uh... at the same time, everything’s still kind of... in flux, right now. There’s no way to know what information might prove useful in the future.’

‘...Very well. What would you like me to look into?’

Off the top of his head, Hector already had a list in mind, though he was sure that he was forgetting some things. ‘Ancient gods. Particularly in regard to ones named Malast or Ettol. There was also a woman who lived a long time ago named Stasya Orlov. I’d like to know more about her. And about a race of people called the Hun’Sho. And--’

‘H-hold on, let me write some of these down...’