Chapter 845: I Didn’t Think I’d See You Again


    Kat was taking a break after those days of intense practice. Lily was using her as a chair during her reading and Kat could feel increasing amounts of both hope and frustration leaking through the bond in equal measure. This was partially due to Kat’s own management of Lily. Any time the frustration spiked Kat would give Lily a slight kiss, instantly dropping Lily’s frustration to nearly nothing. They did climb somewhat swiftly once Lily recovered from the bliss, but it was really helping.


    The most recent spike in frustration had Lily wind up to m the book into the bed... only for her to pause halfway through the wind-up and carefully close the book before cing it down on the bed. She let out a frustrated whine before turning and burying herself into Kat’s chest and wrapping her arms and legs tightly around Kat. “I’m SO CLOSE. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong!”


    Of course, the words were heavily muffled by Kat’s breasts, but Kat was pretty good at understanding Lily when she was only half paying attention to things as she was reading. So having Lily’s full attention, if a little distorted, was easy to parse out. Kat let out a low hum as she carefully stroked Lily’s hair. “Lily... it’s probably because there isn’t any mana in the atmosphere.”


    Lily’s groaning intensified as she wiggled in Kat’s arms. [How did I miss something so simple!] Kat decided not toment on Lily’s mental chastisement. This one did feel somewhat justified. There was a simple answer of course, that she was too frustrated to think of it, or she’d spent too long trying to work out how to cast properly that she forgot the simple fact that casting on Earth was much harder, if not impossible.


    In the end, Kat just continued to softly run her fingers through Lily’s hair. The urge to pet her properly and scratch behind her ears was strong... but Kat resisted. Lily was working through her annoyance quite quickly and it would probably be best not to interrupt that right now. Kat was content to slowly bring Lily out of her funk when the familiar glow of red lines appeared. A Contract was abound.


    Really? Right now? I almost thought it wasn’t going to show up considering it’s the afternoon for once... but I guess that would be the real surprise. Kat nced down at Lily who couldn’t see anything of course. Hmm... do I want to bother Lily? Maybe I can just ignore it for a bit...


    In the end though, Kat’s decision wouldn’t matter either way. She’d gotten much better at not automatically closing down the link to think private thoughts, especially with Lily around... so the whole thing was broadcast quite clearly. Lily unwound herself from Kat and flopped to the side, “You know I could hear you right?”


    .....


    “Oh... um oops? Does this mean we have to leave now?” asked Kat.


    “Not if you don’t want to. You just can’t use me as an excuse,” said Lily with a grin.


    “Fine... let’s head off. I wonder what we’ll be doing this time,” Kat mumbled.


    Lily transformed and hopped up on Kat’s shoulder, nuzzling into Kat’s cheek. Kat smiled as she stepped onto the tform. Pausing, Kat carefully covered Lily’s ears with her hands before yelling out, “I’m off on a Contract!”


    As soon as the words left her mouth fire exploded around them. It was beautiful no matter how many times the pair saw it. The author however was running out of ways to make it interesting so the scene was over quickly.


    Kat found herself in a ruin. Already she was getting a sense of déjà vu. It was especially apparent in that one area in front of the summoning circle she refused to look at. This ruins looked to be much better maintained then thest ones. There were spiderwebbing cracks through the ceiling but nothing had fallen down yet. Themps on the sides still glowed with light... even if every third was missing or broken. The staircase up to the tform was smooth marble, and it only had one damaged step.


    N?v(el)B\\jnn


    There was a series of four empty pots nearby. Whatever resided in them before was dead now, and the dirt was cracked and dried. It looked like serious effort would be needed for anything to grow there again. With the rest of the room examined Kat let out a sigh. She couldn’t put it off any longer. Well, that wasn’t true. She’d slowed everything down to give her time not to just snap angrily at her summoner.


    But it wasn’t helping as much as she thought it would. In this frozen time. Especially where she couldn’t properly feel Lily against her face or Lily’s mind threw the link with the speed differential. So Kat let her eyes move, seemingly in azy arc toe fact to face with a familiar face, and hispanion. “Xiang.”


    “Kat”


    “I didn’t think I would be seeing you again any time soon,” said Kat, trying not to sound like she wanted to spit on his face. Based on the nearly silent hissinging from Lily on her shoulder as the Memphis’ tail bristled. She probably failed.


    “Neither did I...” admitted Xiang. Words somewhat pained though not as put out as Kat seemed to be. If Kat was trying not to seem like someone had just punched her in the face, Xiang was trying to avoid looking like he’d just been reassigned to the janitorial department at work with reduced pay.


    “Xiang... who is your... friend here...” now you might think that question wasing from Kat. It wasn’t. It was said through the gritted teeth of the fourth upant of the room. She had her golden blonde hair done in a long twin tail style. Her face was only slightly tanned, indicative of time outdoors, but no major dedication to it. She had a very slight dusting of freckles running down her cheeks that looked almost like tear tracks.


    Her outfit was in with only small embellishments, it was white with lines of gold, and a yellow sash that hung from her shoulders. Her gaze was harsh and piercing, though Kat felt remarkable unconcerned with the hostility contained within. The thing that stood out though was her weapon. It was a giant iron club that was wider than her shoulders at the top.


    Xiang nced at the girl before back at Kat and his face went through several emotions beforeing to some begrudgingpromise. “Well, I believe I said her name already but the demon in the circle is Kat... she was summonedst time I found one of these... I believe I mentioned that before... would you like to add anything Kat?”


    *I don’t know do I Lily?*


    [I don’t really know. I mean perhaps? It’s a pretty poor summation of you and your rtionship with him... but at the same time it’s not wrong and the blond twit isn’t exactly endearing me to her. I’m not really seeing a reason to give her any extra information]


    “For now your exnation suffices Xiang. I have nothing to add at this time,” said Kat. “Would you care to introduce the rude individual beside you?”


    Xiang winced as the girl instantly took the words as a challenge. “You got a problem with me? Step out of your fancy circle and try it!”


    Kat just ignored her and looked at Xiang expectantly. Xiang winced again, but deciding to prevent things from escting chose not toment on either of their behaviour. A surprise to Kat. “This is the lovely Yang Ming, a good friend of mine,” the sh of murderous raise at the word ‘friend’ was impossible to miss... unless you’re Xiang apparently. “and she’s not feeling the best at the moment. See... a friend of ours was kidnapped and... well I was trying to figure out what to do and stumbled across...” Xiang waved his hand around the room.


    “Another demon summoning circle,” answered Kat for him.


    “Well... yes exactly,” agreed Xiang. A few beats of silence passed. “So... are you going to help?”


    “You haven’t exactly exined anything Xiang. I can’t really say,” said Kat coldly. Xiang winced at the tone but held Kat’s re. Kat wasn’t trying to antagonise. Not really... but she’d begrudgingly gone along the first time and came out of it decidedly unhappy with the whole ordeal. So while saving someone who had been kidnapped sounded like something she could get behind. She wasn’t just going to agree off the bat. Even if she could guess the pay from this would be simrly overblown likest time.


    Xiang took in a deep breath, ready to exin. He might not be happy to see Kat again... but he did need help and he was hopeful Kat would be strong enough for the job. He didn’t exactly have a lot of people lining up to help him with this.


    Of course Yang had no appreciation for this and blurted out, “Who are you to question us?!” The sound of Xiang’s hand pping against his face almost made hearing the insult worth it.