Side Story: Killi's Day

The math doesn’t work in our favour. Killi thought with a sigh as she leaned back in her chair, two hands trying to rub away her growing headache while the other two kept flipping through papers.

To say the reports she’d received from the watching grey were bad would be an understatement. They painted a picture of a galaxy that had already been conquered, leaving the entirety of the war effort feeling pointless.

Based on the history of hundreds of worlds, it seemed like the third wave would carry the invaders’ elite, leading to the hope that if the world could survive that then they might just give up and leave the planet alone after seeing that they were all more trouble than they were worth to conquer, but as more information came in each day, Killi believed that less and less.

They had gotten lucky for the first wave, putting them in the strongest spot of any known world, leaving an abundance of lives and resources to go to the next, but if they didn’t get the same miracle again then they’d quickly feel the expected strain that should have come with the beginning of the invasion.

Our numbers are good on all fronts right now and with the recent explosion of awakened magic holders we’re in an even better place than we’d been expecting from just getting the summoned. This should be a positive outcome, one full of hope, but…

But those were the numbers of a single world. So what if the invaders had only just gained the benefits of the system? She knew that pre-system worlds had their geniuses and across the untold number of demon-held worlds, there was going to be a boundless amount of them.

Even if they somehow survived in the end, there wasn’t much doubt in her mind that losses would be catastrophic. A near incalculable loss of life with the destruction of infrastructure as they’d be left to not only rebuild the world from there, but have to do it while dealing with whatever demons remained on the planet. Even if the gates disappeared, it would be a never-ending war from then on, a living nightmare for the rest of them to suffer through.

“...I of all people can’t be thinking like this,” She muttered to herself amongst the piles of papers in her office. “I need to stay positive for the rest. Perhaps I should bring a light and dark mage on staff to stabilize my thoughts a bit.”

It was an idle idea that she wasn’t going to indulge herself in though. She was the embodiment of knowledge, letting mages play with her mind just to ease her burden could be disastrous in the long term, especially if it led her to ignoring the reality of the situation. Better to put on a happy face for others and keep seeing the world for what it really was.

After all, there’s nothing else we can do but our best.

So she kept on with her work, chipping away at organizing reports and analyzing information till she found herself being interrupted by a knock on her door.

“Miss Killi,” One of the librarians, Ovale, greeted as she let herself in. “Do you have a minute?”

“Of course, what can I do for you?”

“Ah, I’m just here to remind you about your lesson with Verbum, though there’s a small problem there.”

Is it that time already?

“What’s the problem this time?” She sighed, already having a guess as Ovale gave her a tired smile.

“We can’t find him.”

“Of course that boy is hiding away again,” She muttered before looking at her staff member. “Alright, thanks for making me aware. Give me a minute and I’ll find him.”

It’s a good enough break from my thoughts for the time being at least.

---

When it came to asking where Verbum would be, there were really only two options. The boy was too panicky to run off anywhere new, meaning he’d either be at the library or at home, and since he wasn’t hidden away anywhere on the fifth floor for the privacy that gave him, that could only mean he was home so she made her way over, having no problem getting in.

As one of the most important people on the planet by virtue of the skill he’d been summoned with, he’d been provided with a generous staff and number of guards, but none of them stopped her when she arrived. She was acting as not only a teacher, but also a caretaker of sorts as she tirelessly tried to help him adapt to his new life on the planet, no matter how little success she saw for her efforts.

Still, they all knew what he was like and even if they didn’t know where he was they let her look around to find him, with the answer feeling fairly obvious as she went through the mansion.

Verbum never hid in the same place twice when he’d decide to skip out on a day. It helped narrow things down plenty before she looked at what she knew of him to deduce where his next pick would be.

With all of the regular rooms used up by that point, she instead went to the first one he’d ever tried to escape to, opening a closet within it and finding him sitting inside.

“How did you find me so fast?” He grumbled as he laid against the wall, looking every bit defeated.

“Did you forget what I am? Knowing what you’d do is the easy bit. Now why are you trying to skip out on your lessons today?”

There was always some reason for it, either the boy had gotten a random fright that made him want to hide away or else his paranoia was acting up to keep him from showing all of the potential he held, but she got a different answer from any of those expectations.

“What’s the point?” He asked her listlessly. “We’re all going to die anyway.”

“Everyone dies eventually.”

“I meant soon!”

She could see within him an echo of her own despair for the future. Verbum was smart. He didn’t often show it, but his skills let him see the big picture which only fed into his constant fears. If even she was feeling the burden of the future then he had to be suffocating under it as he looked at their chances of winning, trying to find the same hint of victory that she’d been spending her life searching for.

It was easy to try and make him work through it. She was no teacher, he’d been given to her due to the compatibility of their skills, but especially in times like that, she didn’t know how to give him a faith that she didn’t feel herself, so instead she didn’t even try.

“Come on,” She told him, making up her mind as she reached down to take his hand. “We’re having a break from lessons today. Doing something different.”

“Please no.”

She felt him shrink back into himself as his imagination showed him the worst it could be while she just shook her head.

“We’re taking a break from everything today, no outings either. The divine chef owes me a couple favours, I’m cashing one in so we’ll be having a meal together.”

“Wait, really? This isn’t some trick to drag me off who knows where then?”

He looked at her with suspicion but she could only sigh.

“Verbum, sometimes I’d like to just forget about the world too, you know. Now come on and give your teacher some company instead of just the unending stress you usually throw my way.”

He wasn’t used to hearing Killi sound so tired and got up without another complaint, both of them needing just the one day to forget about the world.