The Best Parting Gift

It's been about a week since we've decided to assist Yue in dealing with her family and since then a few things have happened. For starters, the public damage report for what happened at the Tower has been released, and to the surprise of most, pretty much no one with the exception of the Demigods had any sign of injuries. Even the people who were supposed to have been trapped in my artificial walls and surrounded by the shit Wanjing threw at them, somehow they came out unscathed. Hell, even the Demigods who supposedly took the most damage only had a few bruises and scratches. But the report doesn't mention anything that had happened in the underground sections, however, according to Yue, the higher-ups are trying to find out about a large snake-like monster. How rude, I'm a Dragon, not a snake, although I won't correct them, I don't need anyone else breathing down my neck.

Of the better things to happen this past week was that Wanjing finally stopped growing in her Taotie form. Her maximum size while on all fours is around five metres high and four metres in length. While not as impressive compared to either Lia or me, she is still quite intimidating. She certainly gave Boshi a scare when she opened the door to be greeted by her, Boshi fainted on the spot. Gyosu was dismissive about Wanjing's appearance and Hakase... well, I couldn't tell if she was just good at keeping calm or didn't care, her expression hardly ever changes. At least watching Boshi freak out over Wanjing being a Taotie was fun.

But the best thing to happen this week was that I can now successfully write the script for the automaton crystals and I now have one thousand Burning Metal Dragons. At its core, writing the script for an automaton crystal is the same as programming back on Earth, only this is a million times simpler. I tried to learn back on Earth but I gave up pretty quickly, but this was so much simpler, although Boshi was surprised at how quickly I picked it up and Hakase... was just Hakase, no real visible changes in her attitude or expression.

And today is the day we have chosen to return to Shenzhou and thanks to Yue we managed to avoid making any mistakes for our return. Over the time we've spent here in Zhongyang, she's been putting her information network to work and found that there has been an increase in patrols and lookouts in the sky. Seems like the impact of my explosives back in Shiping really annoyed a few people, I still regret nothing and would do it again given that chance, but also being a little more discreet about whose fault it is.

Originally I had wanted to fly back in on Lia's back, but the increase in lookouts and patrols put a stop to that idea. To make it even more annoying, I can't use my Dragon form to speed up our return since it stands out too much so we are stuck with walking all the way back to Shenzhou.

Currently, Yue is dealing with the procedures at the inn while the rest of us are heading towards the Manor of Erudition to say our goodbyes.

We only give the door a few knocks before letting ourselves in and heading to the lounge. To our surprise, despite it being early in the morning, Hakase is awake... or not, she's just sleeping with her eyes open.

"So you're all leaving now? I'm going to miss having infinite resources to play with," Boshi says with a light chuckle.

"Maybe we should have just left without saying anything," I say.

"Wait, wait, I was just joking!"

"I know. So anyone going to wake her up?" I ask, pointing to the sleeping Hakase.

"You know, she stayed up later than usual to make something for your departure, so we thought it was a good idea to just let her rest until you lot arrived," Gyosu says while turning the page of a book.

"Let's wait until Yue arrives then," Aurelia says as we all begin to make ourselves comfortable.,

We spend the next hour just making small talk until Yue finally arrives and apologises for being late. Supposedly she saw an operative from Shenzhou so she took the long way to get here since she wasn't wearing her Scarlet Feather disguise. Now, this normally may have been believable if not for her continued excuse of running into a fortune teller saying that the current path would lead to bad luck and then claiming to have come across a black cat so she felt the need to take another path again. After her many excuses, it was clear that she was lying, especially when I could clearly smell the scent of freshly baked bread on her.

And with all the noise that was being made, Hakase has woken up, "when did you... all get here... *yawn*... I'm tired..."

"They've been here a while Hakase. Anyways, putting Yue's lame excuses to the side, didn't you have something you wanted to give them, Hakase?" Boshi asks.

"That's right..." Hakase says as she gets up from her chair and walks over to me, handing me a small pouch, "here... I spent... some time... making these..."

Opening the small pouch she gave me, I find it to be filled with numerous small metal balls. I pick one out and try to get a closer look, but before I can do anything, Hakase only says to be careful with it.

"Take good... care of... it... I learned... from... Serabane... how to make... small balls... go boom..."

It takes a good minute to fully process what she said along with the rest of the people in the room before they all back away from us as they realise what it is that I'm holding.

"Why the hell did you make a bunch of bombs!? What kind of parting gift is that!?" Boshi yells.

Hakase just tilts her head to the side in confusion as she says, "the best kind..."

"So how powerful are these?" I ask.

"I... don't know... but... better than... shit..."

"Why are you two acting like this is a normal gift!? I'm I the only one who thinks this whole conversation is weird!?" Boshi yells out again.

"Now, now, just think about it, Boshi, this is pretty standard for Hakase, isn't it? And I recall Miss Aurelia saying that Miss Cordelia was fond of explosions and I believe Hakase was around for that conversation," Gyosu says as he takes a sip of tea.

"While I do think the gift itself is very unusual, it's definitely very fitting for Cordelia, although I'm not sure how I feel about letting her hold on to it," Aurelia says, causing me to immediately eat and store away Hakase's gift in my stomach so she doesn't try to take it.

"Maybe I should learn how to make explosives to give to Cory," Lia mumbles.

"Why am I the only normal person here!? Argh!" Boshi yells while actually flipping the nearby table as she can't hold it in any longer.

After the others spend some time calming Boshi down while Hakase and I are engaging in a discussion about explosives, the time finally comes for us to leave. After saying our goodbyes, we finally leave for the outer wall and begin the return trip to Shenzhou.