[SS 2.86] Second Impressions (Part 1/2) (Patreon)

“Sorry, Lina,” Rastille apologized as soon as the four Summoners entered the van that was loaded with supplies in the back. “We should have told you sooner that Gelic couldn’t come. Well, Sperado should have told you. He’s the one in charge this time, after all.”

“Eh, I kind of assumed it was implied,” Sperado defended himself. “But I suppose we should always assume nothing is implied with Lina. So yes, my apologies. But it also probably wouldn’t have been a huge deal. While Demons are considered off-limits, plenty will sneak them in anyways. And some of the big-wigs will definitely be sending in Transfigured Daemons or Devils to serve as their proxies, so what’s the harm? Having the little bug around would have made things more interesting. You never know what silly thing she’s gonna say.”

“It’s fine,” Angelica noted. “I sent her back home to study more.” That was the truth. Right now, she had Angie doing some learning with Transmissive Speed Studying. Except it wasn’t any sort of school subject. Instead, the clone was busy doing research into stocks and companies. Angelica had been slacking a bit on investments, just performing daily upkeep. But now that she had a good chunk from her Zenmoon work, as well as gains from her portfolio already, it was time to branch out more. 

Currently, after this evening's pay of $5,000, that’d push her over the $150,000 threshold. And since the information could be transmitted to her after each chunk of research was done, Angelica could then perform any needed trades on her phone, assuming she had a minute. That’d give her something to do in the lulls of the evening. Angie had also been authorized to make some investments if it was a damn good deal that would hurt if they had to wait. 

Maybe she’d be able to buy her apartment even sooner than expected if this kept up. And it was definitely something she needed to be more conscious of. Yesterday, Ms. Gate had told her there’d be a showing on a day next week, asking her to not be home that day, though Cherub was allowed to stay. Angelica was appreciative of the heads up, since it gave her plenty of time to prepare. And by that, she meant it gave her plenty of time to scheme on all the ways she would make the complex seem like a terrible purchase.

There was still a good amount of time to plan for that. For tonight, though, she’d prepared something else to use as a test of sorts. Angelica fiddled with her clothing a bit. It wasn’t like the servant’s uniform was uncomfortable—perfectly tailored to Merlina’s figure—but honestly wearing real clothing at all was becoming an increasing rarity, so she was struggling a bit to get used to it again, especially when the outfit was fairly restrictive. What she was fiddling with more, though, was actually in her pocket—yay for the pants actually having pockets.

It was a new Deterring Field Rune she’d made, one that was much smaller, roughly the size of a coin, but also a good deal more powerful than the original. It was Lv.18, which was mostly achieved due to a change in the material. Angelica had chiseled off a chunk of the high-quality Runestone she’d gotten from Zenmoon, and the difference was staggering. 

And since it was a much higher level than the original, it also had a good deal more functionality. She had some control over the range and potency, more specifically, the wider the field was, the less potent it would be. So if she brought it in close, just a few feet in diameter, the power was magnified significantly. Right now, she had it on a pretty long range, hidden using Conceal of course. 

It was set to deter anyone who may be attempting to follow her with ill-intent. After learning of the Stalk Enchantment for Muse and her uncomfortable experience with Giotaur, she really wanted to keep any weird creepy potential stalkers as far away from her as she could. Honestly, she also wanted to set it to deter anyone who wanted to bother her, but since she was going to be working a service job this evening, being bothered by people was kind of the whole point, but maybe she’d add that later. Ugh, she was dreading the job significantly more now that it was inevitable, but at least she had companions that’d be with her through it.

Angelica had actually originally planned to draw the new Deterring Field Rune on her body, but decided against it at the last minute, just because she wouldn’t be able to turn it off. Yes, she could drastically reduce the range or shed it away, but that would take a bit of time. With the Runestone, she could chuck it into Second Stomach when it wasn’t needed, and this way, she wouldn’t have her MP drained constantly. Once she unlocked Rune Absorber, though, she’d definitely put up with it being always on until she got the Skill proper.

And she’d also made a Retcon Rune, but that was a significantly weaker one, crafted with the junk-grade Runestone. She knew from having the Rune Mused that it didn’t need to be at any significant level for her needs. It was a mere Lv.3, and the size of a puny pebble. Since she didn’t need it on her regularly, just occasionally during artsy time, she had embedded it into an old eraser leftover from school that had been in a pencil cup on her desk. 

When was the last time she actually erased anything physical? It had been a while, but it fit the symbolicness. Angelica had played with it over the past few days, touching up some of her old Merlina chapters, removing errors, tweaking designs, overall making it a much smoother introductory experience. Also, she found out that she could use it to tweak Evoke and skirt the usual heavy MP cost, though only to an emotion in a similar vein. And she could also actually remove them, which wasn’t included in the original Skill at all, but then couldn’t add new ones afterward without going through the Evoke process again. Maybe when she properly had the Retcon Skill, she’d see about flexing its power a bit more, but there wasn’t a huge need for it at present.

“Alright, we need to figure out the task distribution,” Sperado got to business during the decently long drive, almost two hours. “We’ve been asked to have one person to help with cooking, two to help with food running and general support, and I’ll be floating between things and making sure everything is running smoothly. So, who wants to cook? Lina, how are you in the kitchen?”

“Uhh, you really don’t want me cooking,” she answered genuinely. Honestly, given their more pompous living situation, Angelica probably had more cooking experience now than the other three. Her food just had the issue of being potentially deadly now. Sadly, it wasn’t like with Succor who specialized in it yet, where she could turn poison into something safe. She’d be forced to imbue any activations with stacks of Irritiant, which would be fine if it just made a tingling sensation in the mouth, but she couldn’t control the potency yet. It was possible she could offset the issue with Delayed Release, but it wasn’t something she was willing to test on the masses, especially because she was unsure if the delay would be for the food or the infected person. That could be a potential Angie experiment in the future, though.

“I’ll do it,” Rastille volunteered. 

“Probably for the best.” Sperado shrugged. “Wouldn’t want you scaring the guests. Seriously, half the time he’s introduced to Summoners, people think he’s hired muscle without an ounce of magic in him. I’m sure everyone would prefer getting to see the two lovely ladies. Hopefully, it should be a nice easy evening. I will warn you though, Lina, it will be best to avoid the guests. Most will snub you since they think you’re unimportant staff, and the ones who don’t will talk you to death with their boring takes.”

“Don’t worry, I’m good at avoiding people.” Of that, Angelica was quite confident. The rest of the drive was pretty quiet and uneventful. It was interesting listening to the three Zenmoon Summoners chat about their lives and other random things. And they were doing their best to include Angelica in most of it. Occasionally, there was a bit of hesitance and pivoting, though, when they were clearly on the verge of talking about something more confidential and then remembered their uninducted company. 

But it was still an enjoyable time, largely focused on Sperado’s random topics and gossip. At one point, it veered into the funny idea of Gelic going to human school since she was studying and could pretend to be a kid. While amusing to think about, it’d be horrible in practice. Absolutely no way would Angelica want to suffer through all that again. Plus, there were probably some morality conundrums in there, but those were less important.

Once they arrived, things got busy quickly. Originally, Rastille was going to do all the unloading of the supplies he’d brought. But apparently, the kitchen wanted him on the line as soon as possible. So Angelica volunteered, since she was a big strong girl, even if her physical muscles didn’t indicate as much. If they saw the original build of Merlina who was positively bulging, there’d be no doubt in their minds. And she still got a few looks from the other Abstainers when she carried in the large crates above her head, one in each arm at a time.

After that, there honestly wasn’t much for her to do for a while, having avoided the original big delivery of dishes to the event hall. So she did what any diligent worker would do when they had nothing assigned to them: stared at her phone. Now she definitely wished that she had bought Angie her own device. 

The venue, some big fancy mansion in the middle of the woods that screamed secret society, was similar to the Migrore Museum. Mind-Link didn’t work, so she couldn’t speak to Angie within the premises. Assumedly, Return probably wouldn’t work either. So if she did need to escape suddenly, she’d need to vacate the premises first. Angelica understood that it was likely a safety measure, and most fancy Summoner venues probably had them in place, but it was still annoying, and made her feel a bit trapped and isolated. Thank Vissiem she wasn’t alone, or being stuck in such a place with all these unfamiliar faces could definitely lead to a panic attack.

“Here, can you run these out and then bring back any empty platters?” Vystal came by with a tray of food after a decent lull had passed. “I’m gonna help with the dishes. They’re not being cleaned fast enough, and I can dry them faster with my Rune.”

“Sure,” Angelica accepted and took it, not wanting to be accused of not doing her part. Despite it being work she really didn’t want to do, they were paying her a lot, after all. As she approached the hall, the raucous music and chatter entered her ears. And when she got a view of the venue, flashes of her childhood entered her mind. 

Ugh, this was like so many of the events her mom made her attend when she was younger. There was dancing, decent music, food, and lively company. And she hated it all. Angelica genuinely couldn’t understand why anyone would want to attend such things. She’d had a much better time on the car ride over, just palling around with friends. High society was such a drag, and this was honestly the biggest advocate against why she should join a Sect so far—well, besides the whole potentially getting caught as a Demon thing. 

After spotting the food line, she quickly shuffled her way over, wanting to retreat back to the safety of the service area as quickly as possible. Angelica weaved her way through the crowd like an expert, bobbing the tray in her hand up and down gracefully to prevent any smacks. Such a maze of people was a trivial task for an extreme introvert who was well versed in the art of avoidance. She kept her eyes focused on the goal yet aware of her surroundings, taking special care to avoid her gaze meeting anyone else’s.

She made it to the table without incident and set down the plates of food. Then she was about to start loading up several empty ones to be taken back and washed. But during the mundane task, her eyes wandered around the hall, and actually caught a glimpse of something interesting. Well, it was something she’d normally not want to get involved with whatsoever: a young woman sobbing in the corner all by her lonesome. It was the sort of drama Angelica would want to avoid. Except… she recognized this particular Summoner, and immediately understood the reason behind the tears. 

The world of Summoners was pretty small, as it turned out. Thinking back, the timeline matched up. It had been roughly a month since then, so this was that fateful day for her. And it would seem that things hadn’t worked out well for the woman. I’m sorry… Lixxy, Angelica silently apologized. I wasn’t able to help you then. But maybe I can do something about that now.