Georgia was flushed. She definitely seemed worse for wear. I brought up more of her info panels.

So receiving messages this quickly depletes her internal storage of energy. And the way that manifests is through depletion of various nutrients in her body? Should I order her some food?

I quickly brought up a panel to create a new chain of events.

Let’s see how this works. I need to get Georgia food.

The causality module, though I was essentially it, still retained a lot of its previous autopilot-nature. When I needed an end result, it would show me possible routes to that option I could take with different energy costs. I didn’t fully understand the value of having different routes just yet, I was sure there was some value, but for now, I always picked the cheapest option.

Oh, good. Nadia’s a caring boss. For 0.01MU she’ll order Georgia some food. That means this isn’t a route that is impossible for her. Let’s get that moving. The nudge will come in the form of a little feeling in the back of her head.

Nadia grabbed Georgia’s and gently stroked the hairs out of her face. “Georgia, are you okay? Do you need something to eat? Having multiple messages from our Goddess can’t be that easy right?”

“B-Boss? I didn’t think you’d be so kind. I thought you’d be over the moon trying to follow Velqa’s will.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally ecstatic! But I can’t just leave you like this.” She gripped Georgia’s hand harder. Her expression turned grim; even I recoiled at that sight of that obsessive darkness. “I can’t have my only connection to Lady Velqa dying on me after all. Can’t have her dying because she couldn’t handle simply receiving a few messages from Lady Velqa. What would Lady Velqa think?”

“B-Boss, you’re scaring me,” Georgia replied, trying to pull herself away.

I’m so sorry, Georgia! I’ve never played as a zealot so I didn’t know!

Nadia’s expression turned back to a smile and she patted Georgia’s head. Nadia spoke into a bracelet on her wrist and looked back to Georgia.

 “Don’t worry, the chef is whipping up your favorite snack, so hold on just a bit.”

 “G-Got it, Boss,” Georgia replied, breathing a heavy sigh, as she rested on the couch.

Nadia walked over to one of the walls of the room, and glanced across a wall of cabinets.

“12th Floor, Herbenon City huh… Do we have contacts there- Ahh! Yes! We do!”

Nadia pulled out a gem from a cabinet with the city name in it and spoke into it.

“Velqa’s Landing.”

A voice came from the other side, “Velqa’s Wave."

“I need information on one, Alfred Hitch. We got word that he is in the city.”

“Very well, madam. I will report back to you post haste.”

Nadia terminated the transmission and slotted the gem into one of the ten slots in her bracelet, next to the other blue gem she already had in it. As that was done, she walked over to the little statue of Velqa she had at the other side of the room.

“Lady Velqa, I have accepted this holy mission. Worry not, I will bring an end to Alfred Hitch.”

Thanks, Nadia. I’m really counting on you here.

Incidentally, Nadia was right in front of my face on the screen. I had access to all religious statues and items with religious significance. In other words, if an item had religious or spiritual energy attached to it, I could use it as a node to look at the world from. It was much cheaper to do this than to borrow someone’s sight, most likely because it respected the sanctity of the denizen more.

Nadia bowed before the statue and spoke into the blue gem in her bracelet.

“Enforcers,” she began, “we have a mission.”

Nadia! No way! You’re doing it without me nudging you?

“The target is an Alfred Hitch on Floor 12 in Herbenon City . Last known location was some abandoned wooden dojo. The job came from upstairs. Understand? I’m heading out now. I’m taking this kid out.”

I love you, Nadia! Oh my God! The best! Thank you for being smart enough to call in the cavalry! No wonder you’re the boss. Just for that, I’m giving you a good omen.

As Nadia ended her message out, a black bird landed on the window sill behind her desk and cawed at her. Her mouth dropped open and she stared at the bird for a few seconds before turning to Georgia.

“Georgia! Did you see that?! A bird! A black bird! The symbol of our Lady! She landed on the window sill after I did something!”

“Ugh. Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Georgia whined, hiding her face behind a pillow.

Trip_LLL

Hey readers! Been a bit. I have chapters scheduled for the next few days. I can't make any promises about the overarching schedule because right now, life is a bit too hectic. I can tell you though that the story has been outlined, I just need to find the time to write it. So thanks for sticking around. Strezza still has quite a lot of challenges that she needs to overcome and many lessons to learn.