novelzi Chapter 289 – Scramble in Arika
Chapter 289 – Scramble in Arika
Moods ebbed and flowed; it was simply the natural day-to-day tedium of emotion. Even Kassandora, stable as she was, would sometimes start to grumble and need a minute to calm herself down in order to get back to work. One thing that absolutely never changed was that the last thing she wanted to come across when she was building a new world was disturbance.
And disturbance was exactly what came, Helenna opened the door and sauntered in. As if to rub it in, Malam’s white hair peeked out from behind the doorway. The Goddess of Hatred followed Of Love, wearing that stupid smile which didn’t slow Kassandora’s already sullen mood down, it simply pushed it into a skydive. Kassandora looked past her feet on the table, she had been drunkenly humming to herself, her shirt was unbuttoned, her crimson hair was a mess, a dozen different telephones were scattered about her, those could go off at any moment to report that a plan had been finished, and she had a glass in her hands: whiskey, lemon, honey & warm water.
Helenna stopped and looked around the room. Her eyebrow rose for a second, her hair changed to a pale yellow, probably surprise or some other stupid emotion like that, and she looked back at the Goddess of War. Kassandora knew exactly what it looked like, the office was a warzone of organisation. She wasn’t leading a war in here, she was leading multiple. She wasn’t a slob like Fer, who would simply not organize, but when the time called for it, the rules of cleanliness could be bent to make way for the march of efficiency. Helenna crossed her arms. Kassandora practically dared the woman to say something with her eyes: go on Helenna, criticize the mess why don’t you? Helenna did not criticize the mess, Helenna criticized Kassandora. “Great,” Helenna said flatly. “Another alcoholic.”
“Shut up Helenna.” Malam said quickly and the Goddess of Love recoiled in surprise, but Kassandora did not care. Was it that flat ‘Great’? Maybe the ‘Another’? It certainly wasn’t the accusation of being an alcoholic, Kassandora didn’t particularly care what Helenna thought of her on a personal level as long as the woman didn’t mind working with her. But that wasn’t disappointed, wasn’t annoying, it was… It was as if Helenna expected nothing more. The was obvious, Helenna knew Malam well enough to know that the woman would drink a brewery dry in a day. But did Helenna actually compare the two? Kassandora sipped on whiskey as a treat. She did not down bottles to deal with her terrible demesne.
Whatever it was, it set off a spark in Kassandora. And that spark burned through foundations to collapse a dam. Kassandora did not bother shouting, she simply explained to this little Goddess of Love exactly how annoying and out of her depth she actually was. “Helenna, I am managing the creation of the Imperial Navy.”
Kassandora continued as she sipped on her whiskey. She did not even bother trying to re-button her blouse. “I’m re-arming our fleet.”
Kassandora sipped her whiskey and tasted the sweet honey within it. The addition of slightly warm water had been a suggestion by one of the soldiers from before. If there was one thing soldiers were experts in, it was mixing drinks. “I’m building the Uriamel Wall.”
Kassandora tipped her head back and finished her glass as she continued. “I’m finalizing fucking Alice.”
Malam’s lips burst into a smile at what Kassandora just said, but the Goddess of War did not let of Hatred have a chance to show off her talent at making utterly idiotic comments. “I’m making sure our planes can get to the UNN.”
Kassandora put her glass down on the table, eyes glaring at the two who had come here. Why even bother? “Those useless idiots ran out of batteries.”
Kassandora reached down beside her chair and grabbed another whiskey bottle. She knew she was being rude at this point, but she had just been relaxing while at work. The only time her mind actually went quiet and stopped asking pointless, meandering questions was when the monotony of completing some objective overtook it. “So guess who fixed it for them?”
Who did Helenna even think she was? Coming in here in a dress like that and having the gall to call her an alcoholic? Did she think she was going to seduce Kassandora’s soldiers? Of War was far more beautiful than the cow that was Of Love. “Just an hour ago, I got the papers.” Kassandora continued.
And now what? Did they come to share a drink? To talk? Why would they even want to talk with her? She was the most miserable little Goddess to be around. She couldn’t joke around, she could only manipulate and exchange information. “So now, with the threat from the East, I have to think about order-keeping in the West!”
Kassandora started pouring herself another drink. Frankly, she was seething. She had not wanted to go, but likewise she hated that she didn’t go. She knew she wouldn’t enjoy it, she knew that was exactly why Arascus had not pushed her to go, she knew if she was there, she would be even angrier than she was right now. “Father and Elassa are having a fucking ball right now.”
And yet, there was something that just annoyed her. Why didn’t she go? She didn’t like it here, she didn’t like it there. She just wanted to get away from it all and get back to work. “And I’m stuck here.”
But the work was done now, so there was nothing to pull her back into that tunnel-visioned focus that discarded the rest of the world. Helenna had forced her out of those tunnels though, and with nothing else to do, the only hole Kassandora knew how to sink into was buried at the bottom of a bottle. “So don’t tell me whether I can or can’t have a fucking drink, alright?”
Malam sat down next to Kassandora. She had never respected personal space, but Kassandora wasn’t like one of her prickly sisters, she didn’t pull away. “Pour me one too.”
Kassandora had to do a double take at the Goddess of Hatred. “Why?”
“Do people like us need a reason to drink?”