Leveling Up by Seducing Milfs-Chapter 262. Its Own History

She stared at him for one more second. After that, she opened her folio and started to write on it.

Rick looked at her. "Are you... writing this down right now?"

"I’m writing down the specifications for the ward framework before I forget them, and it seems like the suppression pattern I used on the breach was new, and I need to write it down."

"You just got through a wave of corruption, and now you’re doing paperwork."

"The paperwork is time-sensitive."

Rick looked up at the sky for a moment, tried to think of something to say, but couldn’t, so he looked back down.

Sebastian came up to him and stood quietly next to him. "Look at her left hand," he said to Rick only.

Rick took a look. Zephyra’s left hand, the one not holding the stylus, was flat against the cover of her folio. It was barely shaking.

The body is shaking because it has been running on adrenaline for a long time, and the adrenaline is starting to wear off. The person who owns the body has decided that admitting this would mean stopping, which is not on the schedule right now.

’Oh shit... something’s clearly wrong with her right now.’

Rick didn’t say a word. He stood next to her while she wrote, close enough to help if she needed it but not so close that he was in her way.

He watched the aftermath of the battle as his partners dealt with the corruption beasts that were still there.

Zephyra said "thank you" after a minute without looking up from her folio.

The two words have a flat tone. The same register as everything else—she always said that it at least made Rick happy, but less happy knowing he didn’t get any notification of her affinity. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

But Zephyra never said things she didn’t mean. Rick had checked that fact about her enough times to trust it.

"Yeah," he said. "Of course!"

...

The corruption was cleared, thanks to Rick and his partners as well.

The node was also closed. The district’s buildings were damaged, but no civilians were hurt, which was the most important thing.

The evacuation went quickly enough to make that happen. Rick’s partners came together to deal with the aftermath with the same level of organization as people who had cleaned up after worse things.

Fredrich got there eight minutes after the fight was over. He was rightfully horrified and asked pointed, specific questions about the node, where it had been planted, and how long it had been there.

He also offered the council resources for cleanup without being asked. He acted just like a Grand Magister should have.

Rick saw him and didn’t think anything was wrong with it. He observed the situation and filed it away.

Heinz was sitting on a piece of rubble near the wall, holding a multi-tool that was slightly bent. He was looking at the lead pipe he had wedged into the crack with an expression that showed he understood everything that had happened.

He told the whole story of what he had done, in the order that it happened, without leaving anything out. The account was true, consistent with itself, and really helpful in explaining how the secondary surge had happened.

Nobody raised their voice at him. He clearly already knew.

"What the hell is this guy thinking...?" Rick wondered to himself. "Please don’t tell me I have to deal with another issue related to a wife and a husband..."

"Nah... he’s just dumb as fuck," Sebastian responded in his mind.

Zephyra didn’t say anything while she listened to the explanation. She was quiet for a moment after it was over.

"Heinz," she said. "When you see purple light coming through a crack in a wall... don’t put anything that can conduct electricity in the crack."

"Ahhh..." Heinz said, "I get it now."

"Good, I’m glad you understand that."

He was quiet for a second while he looked at the multi-tool. "I was trying to be helpful."

"I know, but next time, try to find someone reliable like Rick."

Heinz gave this some thought. "Is that quicker than looking for a guard?"

"Yes."

He nodded, put the multi-tool in his pocket, stood up, and went to help the building staff move debris. This was something he did after things he had caused, and he did it without being asked and without making it about himself.

Rick saw him leave. ’Yeah... get the fuck away from her.’

"Phewww... would you look at that?" Sebastian remarked. "She asked him to find you, and she didn’t suggest a high guard or a Mage Council official—just you."

"Rick Rolland, the reliable gooner."

Rick put that in the same folder as everything else and didn’t say anything about it, especially his insult. If he had, it would have become something that needed to be looked at, and he wasn’t ready to do that yet.

...

Natasha picked up the storage crystal from the debris near the ward chamber. The encryption shell from before the coalition had remained intact even during the surge, indicating the high quality of the person who built it.

The node was sealed, which cut off the crystal’s access to the thing that turned it on. Zephyra constructed a new analysis framework in a space she had preserved near the chamber.

This time, there were three layers of isolation.

Liora sat nearby, getting her energy back, which took a while because she had used it up so quickly.

And it took two hours to decrypt.

A list came out of the crystal. The list contained names, dates, and locations, but it lacked any context or explanation.

The dates lasted for eleven months. All of the places on the list were in Valdris.

Rick recited the names aloud. At first, most of them didn’t mean anything to him, but three did.

The first was a senior member of the Mage Council who had voted for all three motions to oversee infrastructure. The second was a temple administrator in the faith network who was in charge of the communication channels where Liora found the fake nodes.

The third name was one that Rick had never heard of before. He read it twice to be sure, then turned to Zephyra.

She had stopped moving.

It was not the calm, professional stillness she usually possessed. It was a kind of stillness that comes when someone has read something and needs a moment to think about how to hold it.

Rick asked, "You know that name...?"

Three seconds went by, and then she took a deep breath to prepare for an answer.

"Theoretical historian," Zephyra said. "Pre-coalition magical theory."

"About forty years ago, he wrote important papers on how to restore pre-coalition infrastructure. He is an academic, not politically active, and not very well known outside of certain academic circles.

"But?"

"He died thirty-two years ago."

The room got quiet.

Rick asked, "If that’s the case, why is his name on an eleven-month-old archive list with active dates next to it...?"

"That’s a great question."

She stared at the list for a long time, and Rick allowed her to do so because her prolonged gaze was part of her process: she was working through a complex set of implications that she needed to navigate at her own pace.

"Someone has been using his identity," she finally said.

She spoke slowly and carefully, as if explaining something that would greatly affect the structure, but her voice was still flat. "And the one who’s using it has been using it for thirty-two years."

"This duration is sufficient for the identity to develop its own history, establish an institutional presence, create a paper trail, and have coworkers who remember corresponding with him."

"Publications were attributed to him after his death, and nobody questioned them because there was no reason to."

Rick said, "The person who made the pre-coalition oath-bond to Fredrich..."

"Yes... that would be in line with all the evidence we have."